I'm working on a madness map and its just about done, I just have to balance my units.
But everyone has a different opinion, So I want to ask, How can I best balance my units?

the name of the map is Internet Madness
Forces:
Battle.net
Player 1
Player 2
Games
Player 3
Player 4
Virus
Player 5
Player 6
Software
Player 7
Player 8

Terrain: Ice world (Doesn't look that great but we're concentrating on killing, not RPG features)
Base Units: 1. Motherboard(Power Generator), 2. RAM (Pylon), Firewall (Photon Cannon - 250 DMG, 4 stacked)
Units for each force
These units are in the order you would get them in-game, User,Bot,Spy Ect.
Battle.net
-Battle.net User 300 HP 10 DMG 0 ARMOR Marine Normal
-Battle.net Bot 400 HP 30 DMG 1 ARMOR Goliath Normal
-Battle.net Spy 475 HP 60 DMG 2 ARMOR Firebat Normal
-Battle.net Hacker 500 HP 150 DMG 3 ARMOR Ghost Normal
-Battle.net Admin 800 HP 250 DMG 5 ARMOR Wraith Normal
Games
-Diablo 150 HP 25 DMG 0 ARMOR Hydralisk Normal
-Diablo II 350 HP 25 DMG 1 ARMOR Zergling Normal
-Warcraft III 100 HP 500 SHIELDS 94 DMG 2 ARMOR Zealot Normal
-Starcraft 900 HP 175 DMG 3 ARMOR Vulture Normal
-World Of Warcraft 1500 HP 100 DMG 5 ARMOR Mutalisk Normal
Virus
-Pop-Up 275 HP 19 DMG 0 ARMOR Goliath Hero
-Ad-Ware 450 HP 60 DMG 1 ARMOR Tank Normal
-Spy-Ware 300 HP 125 DMG 2 ARMOR Stukov Ghost
-Infostealer 500 HP 30 DMG 3 ARMOR Hero Zergling
-Trojan 1200 HP 200 DMG 5 ARMOR Hyperion Battlecruiser
Software
-AOL 250 HP 0 SHIELDS 30 DMG 0 ARMOR Reaver Normal
-Internet Explorer 250 HP 150 SHIELDS 56 DMG 1 ARMOR Hero Zealot
-Firefox 300 HP 250 SHIELDS 110 DMG 2 ARMOR Normal Dragoon
-Yahoo! 600 HP 300 SHIELDS 80 DMG 3 ARMOR Tassadar
-Google 100 HP 1000 SHIELDS 100/150 DMG 5 ARMOR Artanis Scout
Note: I was looking at what I just showed you here, and was like "WOW, What the fuck was I thinking? This is unbalanced as hell!"

Can you help me get these balanced so I can have a good madness map? I've been dying to make one and my attemp failed at first, I'm willing to do what I can to make it work.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 30 2008, 6:57 am by Lord Malvanis.

Well, I don't play madness maps a lot since they're always usually unbalanced in a way. I've never played a madness map where there wasn't unbalanced crap (though it may be because most of the maps I see are edited by noobs). But one thing I see is that the reavers should do more than 20 damage for Software as they have a long cooldown between shots and they're uber slow. Probably like 35 damage, I'm not sure. The Hydralisk's attack for Games should be lowered a bit, as they would completely own Virus and Software since they do full damage to them. Either that or strengthen the Goliaths and Reavers. Also, you should change the fact that Virus gets all range. Give them one melee level like with the other teams. Also, lower the damage on the marines on Virus, as they shouldn't do 130 damage when Tassadars only do 80 since they attack faster and have more range I believe.

I hate to be a pain in the ass but could give me what exactly to change in a list? It's hard to figure it out when its all in big sentences

-Strengthen damage of scarabs (Software)
-Lower damage of hydralisks (Games)
-Give Virus one melee level
-Lower damage of marines (Virus)

Okay, I made the edits and edited first post, I still need more help

You know people aren't really going to know just by text. You have to find it out by yourself by testing. That's the thing I hate about making madness maps. I suggest you use the "Rock,Paper,Scissor,extra" technique. Someone made a madness with it and in my opinion, it was the best constructed madness map ever made.

Well I did that at first and everyone yelled at me because it was like that

Probably you not gonna achieve perfect balance. This is due to damage types and unit sizes.

So your job is to make sure that the advantages/disadvantages are spread fairly among the players.

Things to weigh in:
- Small ranged units have advantage in mass battle, because more of them can fire at once
- Ranged units have advantage over melee if numbers are great enough. This can be countered by a high hp to damage ratio
- Splash greatly increases the effectiveness against small units and only a little against large units
- If you use flying units make sure the other factions' units of the same level and 1 level below can attack air units
- Air units can stack, so they are getting stronger the larger the army sizes are
- Try to alternate big with small units and explosive with concussion damage each level
- Anything I might have forgotten

Thanks Raider, I'll try that out and see If I get less complaints

Hero bonuses with useful spells.

Oh btw. I would change "infostealer" to "worm" and switch it with trojan. Sounds better.

make each unit's damage/s equal, depending on the level.
People with concussive or explosive damage should probably get a little bit more.
Ranged units should probably have a little less damage than melee.

For once, see how a Low HP Madness game would turn out. Every madness game these days is like:

"Gayling: 500hp, 50dmg"
"Haxax: 1000hp, 95dmg"

When it could be units with low hp and lots of armour.