Maken Tosch
DUST University
Ivy League
4340
   |
Posted - 2013.10.01 20:46:00 -
[1] - Quote
Jake Bloodworth wrote:The level of incompetence that CCP is beginning to show on Dust is downright depressing. I can't say that I give even one care about re-balancing of tanks because I, as a proto forge user with prof 5, see plenty of tanks that are nigh impossible to kill(Armor tanks of course).
The fact is that Dust is sitting in development hell. CCP continues to "enhance" the game with small changes while they ask us to wait for big things. CCP wastes manpower and development time on things like a squad finder when this job has been filled just fine by player corporations and chat channels. Corporation roles, while appreciated by a VERY TINY amount of the population(Read: corporation leadership), adds nothing of real value to the game as a whole. In fact, because of CCP's absolute deafness to the playerbase, problems with the roles have already been pointed out. Problems that could have been avoided had CCP showed even a passing amount of respect for the people they were designing the tools for.
Dust needs content. Recent Eve balancing attempts have been, arguably, a rousing success because balance is being reached in relation to the rest of the content Eve has. Rocks, scissors, and paper all exist in Eve online so balance is a (nearly) achievable goal. That is simply not the case in Dust 514. Instead of committing to FINISHING their game and vision. We have hamfisted developers blindly flailing at game mechanics and "balance".
Consider the content we have been given in relation to what has been left unfinished. Heavy suits have only a single race and no matching racial weapon. What has CCP done about this. They have made Assault Dropships, Flaylock Pistols, Scramble rifles, and scanners(I actually love those). Development on Dust 514 lacks focus. It's like loosing an ADHD child into a room full of Legos and expecting them to build the Notre Dame Cathedral. CCP is here... then they are there... then they are nowhere.
I love Dust 514. I bought a PS3 for Dust. It saddens me to see CCP show such a stunning level incompetence. Reminds me of an indie developer trying to deliver on an overhyped product.
I'm having a lot of trouble trying to disagree here. I can't seem to disagree. I have lost the ability to disagree with this statement. |
Maken Tosch
DUST University
Ivy League
4355
|
Posted - 2013.10.02 04:10:00 -
[2] - Quote
Dear CCP in Shanghai,
I have been a highly supportive player of Dust 514 since the Replication build of 2012. I saw great potential in this game back then and I still see great potential in this game even now. I have been so supportive of this product that I even specialized in the one profession and in the one suit that everyone and their grandma has been laughing at (nova knifing and scout suits). I have purposefully specced into a setup that many found to be completely useless even back during the Codex build in closed beta. I did it thinking, hoping, and even believing that one day the scout suit and the nova knives will get the love they deserved.
At one point I was ecstatic when I heard that there is a likelihood of a cloaking equipment to come shortly after Fanfest 2013. When the Dust 514 keynote finally came and the battle between the CPM and CCP was showcased, I suddenly received word that there was no cloaking equipment coming in Uprising 1.0. I was bummed out and then I thought "well, maybe CCP will have it in by next update". It has been 4 updates since then and I still don't see any word about it. What happened?
Between then and now, I was having to deal with the fact that the scout suit has not been designed to its full potential. The PG and CPU is kind of lacking even after training up Dropsuit Engineering and Dropsuit Electronics to level 5. Even after training up other skills like Sidearm Operations (bonus reduction to CPU usage of sidearms) and handheld weapon upgrades, etc. my fitting is still too tight to be of any effective use outside of ninja knifing. Then came Uprising 1.4 and we wound up with scouts becoming too easy to kill because speed tanking is now practically useless. On top of that, there has been no way of sprinting with the knives charged which was promised to us a long time ago already by CCP Cmdr Wang in the Feedback Updates.
But what really broke the camel's back for me at this point is when I found out during the past 7 days alone that the changes to the scout suits and to the nova knives have been delayed that they can't put it into 1.5 either.
Now, I don't know what kind of management you guys in the Shanghai office got going over there, but whatever it is you are doing right now you need to stop at this very moment, re-evaluate what the hell you are doing, and start doing the PRIMARY things you promised us long ago.
Take a hard look at the Reykjavik office in Iceland. What do you see? You see a series of teams addressing the primary concerns of the Eve Online players and carefully putting out updates and expansions that are exactly to the demands set by the players in Eve. On top of that, the Reykjavik office works very closely with the CSM in an effort to make sure that the right things are put into the updates in an orderly fashion. Back at Fanfest 2013 they talked about letting Eve players build stargates as part of the 10-year road map. But now, it seems that the core framework for that might come sooner than expected which is a huge deal for Eve players.
Now take a hard look at your Shanghai office. How much of what you promised has been accomplished? Not much, right? You pushed back many of the primary features so far back that now many of us have having much bigger doubts about what's going on over there. There doesn't appear to be any effort on your part to better coordinate with the CPM either. There have been instances when some dev blogs were not posted on the days that you promised. You have yet to address many of the pressing issues that have plagued us since closed beta such as balanced vehicles and costs, skill books that don't provide any bonuses (whether directly or indirectly), lack of meaningful impact in faction warfare along with no FW rewards, almost no structured coordination between Eve and Dust players in a way that can enable Eve players to more easily get involved with faction battles on the ground, etc. To top it all off, you have not provided enough content to keep up entertained. There are too few maps, too few structure variations, too few game modes, Skirmish 1.0 has not returned yet, all racial suits and vehicles have not come yet, etc.
Now, I admit that I still have hope here, but that hope that starting to fade away the longer you keep delaying and the more you keep putting in things that NO ONE asked for. Don't get me wrong. Squad Finder is a nice feature to have, but it's not among the high-priority things we asked you to address.
So please, do us all a favor and coordinate with the CPM (who represent us), start putting out features that we feel are extremely important, start following the example set by the Reykjavik office, and start meeting the deadlines that you originally promised.
We're not asking you. We're telling you to get your **** in order.
Sincerely,
Maken Tosch |