It would be nice to live in a world that makes sense, wouldn't it? One where you could easily reduce the issue of weapons balance to points on a spreadsheet, defeating the issue of game design with the raw power of maths. Unfortunately we don't live in that world, as backed up by Fallout: New Vegas' director Josh Sawyer—who recently dispensed a grain of wisdom: Balancing is "mostly vibes based".
This uncomfortable reminder was delivered via a recent YouTube video on the developer's channel (thanks, GamesRadar). Responding to a question he'd received on Tumblr, Sawyer gave a big shrug, stating that he doesn't "really believe in spending a huge amount of time, prior to people playing the game, in 'simulation land'. Because it doesn't really matter."
