DUST Search - First time out of the academy...

Poplo Furuya wrote:

One of these days I'm going to compile a comparison of fairly typical AR medium fits at different stages across an SP timeline... maybe with a graph. Everyone loves graphs.

Will likely illustrate a quite massive chasm between starters/intermediates and veterans. Significantly behind in total health, damage output, damage recovery and possibly speed. Oh, and grenades. Grenades also scale incredibly. They don't just get increased radius, they don't just get increased damage, no. They get both. In droves.

Pretty similar story with Extenders. The prototype is 200% better than the basic, 100% better than the enhanced. It's pretty whack. Go Complex or go home.

Basically the statistical disadvantage at the various stages in a mercenary's lifetime is what I'd like to examine. The video in this thread illustrates the issue of inexperience taken to an extreme. Both of these hurdles mixed together make for quite the venomous cocktail.

Matchmaking and improved academy are two things to think about as solutions, I would also advocate looking at all instances where a jump from basic to prototype increases performance exponentially. These warrant examining on a case-by-case basis to try and determine if there is a good reason for them to spike in performance like they do.


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Baal Roo Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 2210	Posted - 2013.08.09 02:46:00 - [1] - Quote Well, it's not like the academy is any help anyway. What the game clearly needs is an actual new player experience with tutorials and scenarios that demonstrate to new players how the game is played. They should be FORCED to play through these scenarios that teach them to create/join squads, how to place uplinks and nanohives, how to call in offmap support like vehicles and precision strikes, how to hack and use objectives and installations, and even a tutorial about playing with a squad and not running lone wolf rambo style into the meat grinder.
Baal Roo Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 2249	Posted - 2013.08.10 04:04:00 - [2] - Quote Poplo Furuya wrote: One of these days I'm going to compile a comparison of fairly typical AR medium fits at different stages across an SP timeline... maybe with a graph. Everyone loves graphs. Will likely illustrate a quite massive chasm between starters/intermediates and veterans. Significantly behind in total health, damage output, damage recovery and possibly speed. Oh, and grenades. Grenades also scale incredibly. They don't just get increased radius, they don't just get increased damage, no. They get both. In droves. Pretty similar story with Extenders. The prototype is 200% better than the basic, 100% better than the enhanced. It's pretty whack. Go Complex or go home. Basically the statistical disadvantage at the various stages in a mercenary's lifetime is what I'd like to examine. The video in this thread illustrates the issue of inexperience taken to an extreme. Both of these hurdles mixed together make for quite the venomous cocktail. Matchmaking and improved academy are two things to think about as solutions, I would also advocate looking at all instances where a jump from basic to prototype increases performance exponentially. These warrant examining on a case-by-case basis to try and determine if there is a good reason for them to spike in performance like they do. It's quite the strange design choice to make higher tier gear scale up more than lower tier stuff, isn't it? Doesn't it seem it would be logical for higher tiers to give diminishing returns on investment? as an example, take a look at shield extenders: STD 22 HP ADV 33 HP PRO 66 HP Wouldn't it make much more sense to do something like: STD 22 ADV 33 PRO 40 With this sort of balance, veterans would be grinding for AN EDGE instead of grinding for a massive advantage. As far as I'm concerned, until guys in serious matches are running with a mix of STD, ADV, and PRO gear to maximize their output, the balance is all wrong. leveling should lead to more OPTIONS and customization, not deliberate advantages where the rule thumb is to pack as much proto gear as possible onto every fit.