balance-check

Phase 1: Identify Balance Domain

Determine the balance domain from $ARGUMENTS:

• Combat → weapon/ability DPS, time-to-kill, damage type interactions
• Economy → resource faucets/sinks, acquisition rates, item pricing
• Progression → XP/power curves, dead zones, power spikes
• Loot → rarity distribution, pity timers, inventory pressure
• File path given → load that file directly and infer domain from content

If no argument, use question:

• "Which system should I check for balance?"
• Options: [A] Combat balance / [B] Economy balance / [C] Progression balance / [D] Loot balance

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Phase 2: Gather Context

Run these in parallel using Glob/Grep:

Glob pattern="assets/data/**/*.json" → find all data files
Glob pattern="assets/data/**/*.tres" → find Godot resource data files
Grep pattern="balance" path="design/gdd/" → find relevant GDDs
Glob pattern="design/balance/**/*.md" → find previous balance reports

• Read the GDD for the identified domain from design/gdd/
• Read all relevant data files from assets/data/
• Extract intended design targets, tuning knobs, and expected value ranges from the GDD

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Phase 3: Delegate Expert Analysis

Spawn specialist agents via Task in parallel for the identified domain. Pass the full GDD content and data file content to each agent.

Combat balance → spawn systems-designer

Ask them to:

• Calculate DPS for all weapons/abilities at each power tier
• Check time-to-kill at each tier
• Identify any options that dominate all others (strictly better)
• Check if defensive options can create unkillable states
• Verify damage type/resistance interactions are balanced
• Produce a table of outliers with expected vs actual values

Economy balance → spawn economy-designer

Ask them to:

• Map all resource faucets and sinks with flow rates
• Project resource accumulation over time
• Check for infinite resource loops
• Verify gold sinks scale with gold generation
• Check if any items are never worth purchasing
• Produce a resource flow diagram in table form

Progression balance → spawn systems-designer

Ask them to:

• Plot the XP curve and power curve
• Check for dead zones (no meaningful progression for too long)
• Check for power spikes (sudden jumps in capability)
• Verify content gates align with expected player power
• Check if skip/grind strategies break intended pacing
• Produce a progression curve health assessment

Loot balance → spawn economy-designer

Ask them to:

• Calculate expected time to acquire each rarity tier
• Check pity timer math
• Verify no loot is strictly useless at any stage
• Check inventory pressure vs acquisition rate
• Produce a drop table health assessment

Always also spawn economy-designer for a cross-domain check: pass all agent findings and ask for any cross-domain imbalance (e.g., combat rewards flooding the economy, progression gated by an unbalanced loot table).

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Phase 4: Synthesize Findings

Collect all agent outputs. Identify:

• Outliers: values outside expected ranges, confirmed by agents
• Degenerate strategies: player behaviors that break intended balance
• Conflicts: disagreements between agents on what constitutes an issue

Surface any agent disagreements to the user via question before proceeding.

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Phase 5: Output the Analysis

Present the synthesized report:

## Balance Check: [System Name]

### Data Sources Analyzed
- [List of files read]

### Agent Contributors
- systems-designer: [findings summary]
- economy-designer: [findings summary]

### Health Summary: [HEALTHY / CONCERNS / CRITICAL ISSUES]

### Outliers Detected
| Item/Value | Expected Range | Actual | Severity | Issue |
|-----------|---------------|--------|----------|-------|

### Degenerate Strategies Found
- [Strategy description and why it is problematic]

### Progression Analysis
[Graph description or table showing progression curve health]

### Cross-Domain Impact
[economy-designer findings on how this domain affects others]

### Recommendations
| Priority | Issue | Suggested Fix | Impact | Owner |
|----------|-------|--------------|--------|-------|

Ask: "May I write this balance report to design/balance/balance-check-[system]-[date].md?"

If yes, write the file (create design/balance/ directory if needed).

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Phase 6: Fix & Verify Cycle

After writing the report, use question:

"Would you like to fix any of these balance issues now?"

• Options: [A] Yes — fix the highest-priority issue / [B] Yes — let me pick which one / [C] No — save the report for later

If yes:

• Ask which issue to address first (refer to the Recommendations table by priority row)
• Guide the user to update the relevant data file in assets/data/ or formula in design/balance/
• After each fix, offer to re-run the relevant balance checks to verify no new outliers were introduced
• If the fix changes a tuning knob defined in a GDD or referenced by an ADR, remind:

  "This value is defined in a design document. Run /propagate-design-change [path] on the affected GDD to find downstream impacts before committing."

If no:

• Remind: "Re-run /balance-check after fixes to verify. The report is saved at design/balance/balance-check-[system]-[date].md."

Recommended Next Steps

• /propagate-design-change [gdd-file] — if fixes changed GDD-defined values
• /consistency-check — verify fixed values don't conflict with other GDDs
• /design-review [gdd-file] — if the balance changes require design re-validation
• /architecture-decision — if a balance fix requires a new technical pattern