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I'm making a mass map, and everyone knows that if units aren't balanced on a mass map it will flat out suck. This is the first time I've ever had to balance units, so if you've done it before i'd like your advice.

-how much better should upgraded units be--aka the next lvl -1/4 1/3 1/2? better
----I'll take any advice u got

the only thing i can say is consider the speed of their attack, their range and their purpose

(for example a reaver shoots slow so it shud do lots of damage and a ling attacks super fast so it should have low damage)

or

(a ghost has high range but is moderately slow / fast so it shud be a sorta medium where as a ling is extremely fast with like the range of nothing so the ling should be able to withstand damage from the ghost long enough to atleast inflict a wee bit of damge but not instant kill :l )

If you wanna make it more simplistic...
You should go with the two digit scale. Meaning choosing the most balanced unit as the basic 10/10 life and arranging every other unit equivolent to this numeral; and shunting every fast attacking unit more so than others. This balancing scale works well with non-splashing units. Three digits works better with splashing units.

Spawn rate is also important to keep in mind. You can slow down or speed up the time between a unit's spawning.

if your balancing it out fairly then this shouldn't really make a difference unless its balanced so like it takes about 2 zerglings to kill a zealot

I wouldn't change spawn rate.

Change spawn rate=unequal number of units=unequal number of kills.

do you guys not care about unit size/damage types? thats probly the most important detail that people fail to consider

Yeah, if you have 2 players, and one has goliaths while the other has ghosts, and they have the same HP and damage, it's not going to go so well for the player with ghosts...

isnt a goliath faster then a ghost?? it seems like it so itd have less dmg and sure thing you should take in to count what they do but you cant go too far out of proportion because then the ghost ends up rigged against a unit like a zergling so you know pretty freaked there. its best to say they have a commen sense and wouldnt put ghosts up against goliaths unless they have lockdown (which is another thing to take in consideration if they have spells or not)

Click Me

reference list for attack speed and movement speed

ADDITION:
IRT to shocko

thats why you manipulate HP and armor accordingly for ghost to zergling combat

The best way to test balance is still repetitive testing, testing, and more testing. As you make more and more maps, it'll start to come naturally, but its still nearly impossible to do in one shot.

-What does size have to do with it?
-I know about attack types -a firebats spray does damage to more than one unit just like a lurkers attack but good point.

certain units ( the only ons i really know are ghosts ) do less dmg on like big units so im assuming thats what he means

or like hydras doin less dmg on small units

I find, when doing a mass map, that if you wanted, for some reason, to put the same stats of the unit, and have something to do with the same amount of money, it is far from balanced. I find, it's the building time that's the most balanced. Also, lets say for an archon, 2 high templars = 100s, and transforming takes 20s, making it a total of 120s. test it out . most of the time, all you gotta do is test the game, just make sure that noobs arent facing pros or something like that, or else you'll make it even worse. I hope this helped

Oh, and units with spells or abilities (ghosts and stuff like that) wont work with the time thing, unless you want the map to have all abilities (not including stim pack or longer range upgrade).

This is what I'm working with so far, nothing is concrete if you see a problem and would like to suggest a change please do so -if it's a good idea if not . I know I can balance the units, but I need help knowing logicly in the game what beats what (like how firebats beat lings). Should I always have it terrain beats zerg, zerg beats protoss, protoss beats terrian? -10 units create everytime you buy them from a dropship.

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Level 1 units 200 minerals and 400 minerals for SCV

-SCV (high hp low or no attack [I'll worry about it later])
-Zergling ling beats zlot
-Zealot zlot beats firebat
-Firebat firebat beats ling
at anypoint correct me if I do something stupid with the __beats__

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Level 2 units 300 minerals

-Ghost beats hydra?
-Archon beats does good damage to all but doesn't beat anyone unless you get alot so the unit can spray/splash when it gets close?
-Hydrolisk beats
-Marine beats

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Level 3 units sarah and goon 400 minerals hunter and goliath 450 minerals

-Sarah(Ghost) beats
-Dragoon beats
-Goliath beats
-Hunter (Hydra) <-if you have a suggestion on another unit for this spot it would be good because their is also a lvl 2 hydra and it could get confuseing if your playing and the enemies hydras are wooping more than you thought

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Level 4 units

-Valkyrie (600) beats anything flying
-Scout (450) is even with wraith?
-Wraith (400) " "
-Mutalisk (600) beats

[FONT=Impact][COLOR=gray]I you help thank you very much!

Just playtest it. You know it's balanced when you begin to have no preference over which slot to be in or which unit to get.

Golems is the only balanced massing game in my opinion, since you arent stuck w/ 1 unit, you choose from several. That way, when one guy chooses ghosts and the other goliaths, the ghosts player isnt screwed because he can quickly switch to goliaths.

So what I am trying to say is this: don't limit the players to 1 unit, or else the game will never be balanced. Maybe have like a dragoon/firebat combination and a vulture/hydralisk one, etc.

^to the last two posts

-the map is made to where you buy the unit you want at the left and it will then create 10 of thoughs units for you (so you don't just get a single choice in a unit)

-which slot your in will only effect where you start out on the map, and your "base" is a dropship so you can move throughout the map.

-I know the most important thing to get the unit balance as close as possible is testing the map, I just need help decideing what should beat what, and how big of a difference their should be between the levels. The way I see it is that when a lvl 2 unit faces a lvl 1 unit the lvl 2 unit should have 1/3 of it's life left when its done.

ADDITION:
Please still help me with the what beats what---- I just thought of something else to ask. In my may units will not have their special abilities, I know as long as I don't go into the special abilities settings they won't. -How do I get it to where the shadowed/grey special abilitie sign at the bottom right hand of the game doesn't show up? This is not a big deal if it can't be done -it would just look better if that shadowed/gray symbol didn't show up.