Ivan Avogadro
Subdreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
627
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Posted - 2013.10.02 13:40:00 -
[1] - Quote
The fact of the matter is simple. People here know it, CCP knows it, but it gets poo-pooed all the time. DUST is perfectly good for what it is. DUST is woefully inadequate for what it was promised to be.
As a futuristic shooter it is honestly pretty good. I think DUST514 is miles beyond the likes of HALO multiplayer. Map diversity has gotten much better, balance between weapons and roles is much better than it used to be (Scouts as more viable for example). Balance is ongoing always getting better. Graphics are much better than they used to be.
And the Skill Tree and Dropsuit Fitting mechanics are some of the best I've seen in any game, regardless of genre. The amount of control you have to tweak your own playstyle in hundreds of different ways is straight impressive (even if some builds are gimped, that's a balance issue not a fitting system issue. The system itself rocks.)
But all this just funnels into one game: a lobby shooter. It's an awesome lobby shooter, but that's not why I picked this game up in the first place. I wanted an MMO. I was promised something that would be massive, that would tie into EVE. Something where my actions affect EVE pilots, and where EVE pilots affect me. I really wanted a game where I could log in one day to find out that the face of the war had changed due to a push from EVE in the middle of the night. That would have been SO COOL. But as it is now, nothing EVE does at all affects me in even the tiniest most insignificant ways. Goonswarm could take over the entire galaxy tomorrow, and DUST players wouldn't even notice. WOULDN'T. EVEN. NOTICE.
The most people you ever see at once is 32 people. 16 v 16. That's not massive, realm vs realm or kingdom vs kingdom type combat. Planetside 1 had hundred player battles, and that was release 10 years ago. World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot... Hell, EVE ONLINE! The game this one is modeled after does "MMO" correctly, so we know CCP can do it.
Unless I am in a battle, my avatar can't physically interact with my own corp except on chat rooms. Unless I am in a battle, my avatar can't interact with my own district. And battles are the only way to accomplish anything. I can't infiltrate enemy corp districts to lay subterfuge in off hours. I can't steal important resources. I can't destroy supply lines. I can't smuggle. I can't mine. I can't put my own money on the line to call in hits or favors. I can't even sell my own inventory back to the in game storefront (which is the only thing on this list we might eventually get someday).
To those who say DUST will get there someday, there is a saying in poker: "play the flop". After the flop, you have 5 of the possible 7 cards you are ever going to get. Sure, you might get a flush. But right not you have nothing. And 9 out of 10 times, that hand is going to stay nothing. Skyrim flopped a full house. People still talk about it passionately years after release. GTA V is another full house.
Dust flopped a pair of 10s. Like it or not, DUST is out in full release, and this is what it looks like. The chances that it changes to be twice as good, or 3x, or 10x, are extremely slim. And it certainly won't be soon. The things we WANT from DUST, and the things CCP PROMISED for DUST, are so different than the current iteration that we are almost talking about developing a new game. So 3 to 5 years. But with dwindling interest and lack of confidence, chances are,when the DUST servers are turned off, the game will look a lot like it does now.
So play DUST for what it is, a quick and fun shooter. But the people who see the writing on the wall, and see that the game is unlikely to ever be what CCP promised (even as recently as EVE-fest this year), they are leaving. |