How do you balance rarities and scaling for “Steal A” style games?

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1

Hey developers,

I’m currently working on my own “Steal A” type game and I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to handle scaling for costs and values of the creatures.

Right now my system works like this:

  • Each rarity (Common, Rare, Epic, etc.) has a base cost and base value.
  • Within each rarity, things scale upwards based on their position in the list (for example, the first Common is cheapest/weakest, the second Common is stronger and more expensive, and so on).

I’m not totally sure if this is the best long-term approach, I was wondering:

  • For those of you who have made these types of games before, how did you set up your rarities and scaling?
  • Do you let items overlap in efficiency (e.g., a strong Common being better than a weak Rare), or do you keep each tier strictly separate?
  • Any tips for keeping the progression balanced and fun?

Would love to hear how other devs have solved this!

2

Hello, i more or less get what you’re trying to say, therefore if this isn’t what you’re looking for then I’d apologize for misunderstanding (I’m writing this at 1 am lol).

My opinion about your second question : I usually like to make their rarity separate from each other, for example, the best of common tier should have less value than the worse of the next tier, that’s my opinion.

My opinion about your first question :
I think you mean like a system that tells the price of an item depending on its position with considering the amount of objects in the desired tier ? If thats what you’re looking for then I’ve made something similar.

local function Lerp(Start,End,X)
    return ((End-Start)*X)+Start
end

local List={
  [1]="car1",
  [2]="car2",
  [3]="car3",
  [4]="car4",
  [5]="car5",
  [6]="car6",
  [7]="car7",
  [8]="car8",
  [9]="car9",
  [10]="car10",
  [11]="car11",
  
}


local function Return_Price(Data)
  
  local count=0
  
  for index,value in next, Data.List do
    count+=1
    if count==1 and Data.ExcludeIndexOne then
      print(Data.min)
    else
     print(Lerp(Data.min,Data.max,count/#Data.List)) 
    end
  end
  
end

Return_Price({
  min=1000,
  max=2000,
  List=List,
  ExcludeIndexOne=true
})

--[[ Prices with the current settings : 
1000                                
1181.8181818182                    
 1272.7272727273
1363.6363636364                     
1454.5454545455
1545.4545454545
1636.3636363636
1727.2727272727
1818.1818181818
1909.0909090909
2000.0
    ]]
local NewList ={
[1]="car1",
[2]="car2",
[3]="car3",
[4]="car4",
[5]="car5",
[6]="car6"
}
Return_Price({
  min=1000,
  max=2000,
  List=NewList,
  ExcludeIndexOne=true
})
--[[ prices with less amount of items in the list : 
1000.0
1333.3333333333                  
   1500.0                          
    1666.6666666667
1833.3333333333                  
   2000.0

]]

If this is what you’re looking for then I’m glad i was able to help you out about it, and also, this script requires editing, like getting the length of the table with the proper way and etc .