GameReplays member
Redders6600 was kind enough to generate an
in-depth survey on the Dawn of War 2 General Discussion Board regarding the overall perception of balance in the game today. This survey was comprehensively analysed and was also posted on the
official Relic forums as well as the
RelicNews boards. I asked Redders if he would be kind enough to share the results with me and he was happy to collaborate with me. The following is the result of your opinions and those of the rest of the
Dawn of War 2 community.
Survey participants were asked a myriad of questions: the race that they played most often, what their Trueskill was, the number of games they had played, their perception of their own races balance and the other races, then finally the overall balance of the game.
The survey included input from 265 1v1 players and some 250 players who preferred 3v3, though this article will only feature 1v1 results. For those interested in the results of the 3v3 poll, this data will be posted in the follow-up article in the coming weeks.
Let's take a look at the results:
This table displays much of the bulk data derived from the survey. For the balance perception field and the racial strength fields, all poll participants were asked to rate the balance value on a scale from 0 to 10 with 10 being totally balanced and 0 not at all.
There are several points of interest regarding this table. Firstly, the average Trueskill should be mentioned as the mean TS value was over 24, indicating that this survey's data was collected from generally quite skilled players. Space Marine and Eldar players are the most heavily represented in the survey with 94 and 75 voters respectively. The average win percentage of all players surveyed is a whopping 76.4% leaving readers to wonder if wins were exaggerated or if the poll participants are a very successful bunch in general.
It may be helpful to use a more visual representation of the data in order to digest the complexities of balance perception. The following graph depicts what each race thinks of the game as a whole:
For this phase of the survey, participants were asked to rate the level of balance in
Dawn of War 2 on a 0-10 scale. This graph shows that generally speaking, Tyranid players find the game to be most balanced while Eldar players believe that the game is least balanced. It is worth noting that the averages from each race all fall within one point of deviation from one another, indicating that there is something of a consensus regarding game balance across all races. The average balance rating across all 1v1 players was 6.14.
To get a more specific look at what players think of the game however, we need to investigate what each race thinks of themselves versus the other races. The following two pie charts reflect the "power market share" of the four playable factions. In other words, each race's slice of the overall pie represents their average strength rating on a scale from 1 to 10 compared to the aggregate strength rating of all races combined.
The data has been broken up into two different voter demographics to determine if low level players have a differing perception of the game than high level players. Two conclusions can be drawn from these charts. The first is that players below the Trueskill 30 barrier think very similarly to those above the Trueskill 30 barrier. The second is that while both demographics show a trend toward Tyranid and away from Eldar in terms of faction strength, each slice of the pie is relatively close to representing a symmetrical quadrant. This is a good sign for overall game balance potential for
Dawn of War 2. This raises a question however- If each race is represented in such a balanced manner here, why was the average overall balance perception reported at a mere 6.14?
To get a better idea of the answer to this question, we can breakdown the specific feelings of each race towards every other race.
Each cluster of bars in this chart represents the thoughts of the average opinions of one race about the other factions they compete against.
Amazingly, all of the races agree. Tyranids are the most powerful; Eldar are the least powerful. More interesting (or at least more highly contended) is the perception of Space Marines versus Orks. While Space Marine players naturally think that Orks are stonger, Orks believe that Space Marine players have the edge. What do the remaining factions think of the situation? Both Eldar and Tyranid players agree - Space Marines are stronger than Orks.
This data is not without limitations. The survey has attracted the votes of many players who are active in the forum community and therefore tend to have a higher Trueskill and win percentage than average. Perhaps the results would have been different had there been a more diverse sample of skill ranges. Also, the reasoning behind the strength rating of a given race is ignored. In other words, some faction imbalance can be the result of merely one or two overpowered units and abilities that would be easy to correct in the future while others may be more widespread and inseparable from faction playstyle. This difference is ignored. Furthermore, even if just one single unit is overpowered, people can get the feeling that the game as a whole is imbalanced because this unit will get used in a disproportionately high number of games.
While readers are encouraged to derive their own conclusions from this data, there is plenty of information here that yields promise for the future of
Dawn of War 2 as a competitive eSport. Faction imbalances seem to be isolated and agreed upon by most players, making correction that much easier. Considering that the game remains in its infant stages, the level of balance currently found in the game can be a source of encouragement for new and veteran players alike.
