Self-balancing force

About this model

The diagram models a competitive system where two players engage in farming activities to gain experience ("Experience") and levels ("Level"). Each player has a distinct source ("Player 1 farm" and "Player 2 farm") that represents the initiation point for generating resources, in this case, experience points. These experience points are then subjected to chance-based gates ("Chance to farm xp"), articulated through dice roll mechanics, determining the quantity of experience that successfully contributes to each player's experience pool. Resource connections between nodes utilize formulas indicating fixed and probability-based transfers, evident in the varying percentages that dictate the flow rate from the gates to subsequent pools and converters.

The experience gained by each player is processed through converters, symbolizing the transformation of experience into levels, a transition crucial to game progression. The converters operate automatically, signifying an immediate conversion without manual intervention. However, the system imposes a restriction on the maximum level attainable by both players, capped at level 5, as revealed by the capacity constraints set on the level pools. This mechanism ensures that despite differences in experience acquisition rates or the efficiency of farming strategies between the two players, the competition is normalized at a structural level, leading to an eventual equilibrium where both players reach a maximum level threshold, thus nullifying any transient advantages. This setup elucidates a dynamic interplay between chance, resource management, and progression balancing within a game environment, aiming to foster competitive fairness and strategic depth.

“Self-balancing force” is a diagram in the Machinations Community by Cezar Cocias.

You can open the original diagram in the Machinations app, press Play to watch how resources move through it, and change its values to see how the system responds. Machinations is a visual tool for designing, simulating and balancing game economies and other systems, where resources flow through sources, pools, drains, converters and gates. In a diagram, a source creates resources, a pool stores them, a drain removes them, a converter changes one resource into another and a gate decides where they go next.