Vespasian Andendare
Subsonic Synthesis
Alpha Wolf Pack
389
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Posted - 2013.09.10 15:07:00 -
[1] - Quote
I've been thinking about Dust over the past few days (prompted by a survey request), and here's why Dust can be a winner overall and carve its own place out amongst the other more mainstream FPS shooters.
Although Dust is a shooter, it's main advantage is what else it brings to the table and the variety that entails. We can play any old shooter if we wanted to kill others with an assault rifle, grenade launcher, smg, sniper rifle, etc. But Dust is the only one we can do all this in New Eden as an Amarr, Caldari, Gallente or Minmatar merc. Dust is about being different. Right now, though, Dust is trying to be more of the same.
I mean, think about it: every militia fit is the same. They all bring the same assault, medic, anti-armor and sniper builds using the same weapons. Where is the variety here? Different slot counts? Is that compelling (especially given the low variety of "unique" (ewar, etc.) modules for high- and lowslots)? Here's a hint: we don't fly Amarr ships over Caldari ones because they have more low slots. It's the differences of what their play styles mean. In Dust, why is there any reason to pick Amarr over Minmatar or Gallente over Caldari to the new player? Different merc quarters? Is that really compelling enough? They all have roughly the same hp, and aside from some minor differences, they are more-or-less the same.
This has to change. Amarr should feel like Amarr. They should have lasers in their starter suits! Caldari should be using their racial weapon, but in the alternative, they ought to be using a Breach variant of the militia AR. Same for Minmatar, although of course they'd be using a Burst variant. Make the races feel unique. The races are what are going for this game. The militia suits should reflect their racial variants and feel different than the other. Players should be able to start the game feeling like a different merc than the next guy. One of their suits should reflect something distinct to that race: the Amarr would have a militia suit with a laser rifle. Gallente would have one with a shotgun. Minmatar would have a mass driver, and Caldari would have one with (not may Caldari weapons, unfortunately) a sniper rifle (if the other roles lost that as a milita variant) or a plasma cannon. In Eve, the races feel unique. In Dust, they don't. That's a problem.
Next, the new player experience must be improved. New players need much more information about Dust. They need more information about how the game works on the whole. They need information about skill trees, skill points (and being wise about where to spend them), racial play styles, racial weapons, tanking styles, etc. Most importantly, they need to know why/how Dust is unique. They need to know that Dust isn't a Call of Duty or Halo. It's different, and it's supposed to be. It's a different player that plays FPS games. They don't necessarily want the learning cliff, but they will play a learning curve--especially if there's a pay off at the end.. If you want higher player numbers, then you have to capture them at the door, and that simply isn't happening now. They come in, play the academy, don't really know what else to do (since there are no in-depth tutorials/explanations), and normally bug out, never having experienced the depth that Dust can offer.
Dust needs more game modes. There are some simple, knuckle-head-proof game modes that would be utterly easy to implement but haven't. Where are the 2v2, 4v4, 6v6, etc. game modes? Some of the most fun I've had in other shooters has been a good friend and I running 2s. It doesn't require new maps (maybe smaller sockets, sure). I can't imagine that it'd require much more coding to accomplish. The large team battles don't appeal to everyone, but if you're trying to capture more mercs, there should be game modes that appeal to everyone.
Lastly, Dust can be given more depth in its game play by creating stronger connections to New Eden. As it is now, the "main" selling part of the game is its connection to New Eden, yet it doesn't feel like we make an impact. The contracts pay out the same regardless of winning or losing, and this has the effect of disincentivizing winning. There's no compelling reason to win. Maybe it's time to look at incentivizing winning matches by creating LP rewards. A win could award LP (which would also incentivize playing once a merc is sp-capped) that could then be used to purchase LP-only items in the store. Maybe it's a lower-skill-requirement weapon on the low end to officer weapons on the high end. Perhaps another way to strengthen the connection to Eve is to let Dust mercs affect Incursion systems in some manner. Have Eve Incursion runners (or Aura) create contracts that would help buff Incursion players on victories. There's other ways the connection could be strengthened, for sure.
Given these changes--primarily making the races unique and addressing various play styles--Dust could be a winner overall, and more importantly, increase its player base. Increasing the player base opens more doors for more enriching play, and in the end, that's what we're all after. |