Zeylon Rho
Subdreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
2302
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Posted - 2013.09.09 00:13:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'd say this:
Events that involve hitting certain marks should have stat-tracking. I'd extend that past events though, and say stat-tracking in general (with some sort of awards system - like the experience rewards for hitting landmarks in Fallout: New Vegas, or the Bonus points in Borderlands 2 - kills with X weapon, revives, etc.) would be a great addition to Dust - like mini achievements. You could pair this more generically with in-game "Events" to give rewards for hitting a certain number of achievements of various tiers.
I appreciate the thought behind the most recent event in the sense that there's still some sort of impetus to play after capping (since you could get 3000 SP per match, in theory), however the other restrictions on the event were excessively burdensome requiring very specific acts that were detrimental to fun and gameplay to hit a sweet-spot for getting SP. The triple-SP events where passive and active battle experience both seemed to get boosts were a lot more satisfying and easy to enjoy.
Reward-wise, I think unique and possibly BPO rewards would be preferable. To many events give items that players may just never have a use for. I'd pair some prior suggestions from faction warfare to temper concerns on that.
If your concern is giving a lot of people permanent items (economic issues), perhaps satisfying event conditions could both win you some temporary unique items and make permanent more cosmetic BPOs available to purchase (as opposed to giving them away)? That is, a reward shop that gives event participants an option to purchase from a range of optional rewards as opposed to being stuck with a shotgun their heavy or pilot would scarcely find a use for.
So, event participants that had satisfied the Templar Manhunt conditions (assuming we hadn't had huge server issues, etc. and you could find them when playing) could have a credit that allows them one purchase from the Templar Event sub-section of the reward store. They could use Aurum to buy any one item of the Templar BPOs from the event. They'd also get some temporary (ideally unique) items from the event - similar to the State/Federal suits coming off the the Caldari Prime event.
In general, some flexibility with respect to usefulness of items needs to be given in rewards - offering choices to players with a reward store or something like that would be a good solution. The human endurance event's ultimate reward: the unique biotic module is interesting, but it's ultimately a boobie prize for the majority of the player-base that doesn't spend much time melee-ing or needing a basic-level module that combines functions like that.
In a way, it's the worst sort of prize. You can see that it's special, but it's useless for almost everyone but a very specific set. It's like if the Ironman competitions' ultimate prize was a special training bra. It might be great for someone, but to make it the ultimate for everyone was insulting the degree effort and time the event required.
The story aspects of the event are harder. The sad fact of the moment is that aside from flavor text we may or may not read online or when we start up the game, the story is completely absent. No event except the Caldari Prime event made the game different in any noticeable fashion, and even that event did nothing except change backgrounds for Dust players. This may be a product of the nature of the gameplay. Once we're facing rounds of battle with the same mercs we always face on random planets, it's hard to overlay any sort of meaningful narrative.
Does the announcer say anything different on the warbarge? Do the environments look different? Have the objectives changed? Do the battles change? Does anything change? The answers aside from that one time with the environments is: NO - across the board. Any change in behaviors (destroy X installations) is exterior to the game to begin with, and honestly even stat-tracking there wouldn't make the "story" seem more involved. It just makes the event less tedious.
Making story and narrative matter means more than flavor text on blog or news update. It requires integrating things like voice, acting, art, events, and differentiated player actions/rewards while providing feedback. As-is, you can play through an "event" and not even be aware it's happening. You'll grab copies of a suit and weapon you won't use the next week and wonder what that was about. The events aren't impacting gameplay. |