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alten hilt
DUST University
Ivy League
52
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Posted - 2013.10.03 20:34:00 -
[1] - Quote
tl:dr - You launched a game that shouldn't even be in Alpha testing. Now you pay the price as your customers realize they have been deceived and flock to other Major Competitors. You have one chance to redeem yourself by following My Recommendations and START OVER. You may have to go the route of Final Fantasy XIV.
Dear DUST 514 Devs,
Your vision currently exceeds your production capacity. You have over-promised and vastly under-delivered. You are alienating your player base at an alarming rate. As a long-time EVE Pilot, and a Dust 514 Merc since closed beta, I ask you this: What can you offer me that the following list of games cannot do better and in a more timely manner? I've already walked away from Dust 514 numerous times. Each time I come back for a shorter period of time. Eventually I will never return, unless you completely rethink your development approach. Please make good use of the money I have already sent you, because you will not be getting any more till you deliver the amazing game you promised.
Major Competitors to Dust 514
Battlefield 4 - October 29, 2013. Arena based combat with a good balance of infantry and vehicular combat. Ability to select maps that are vehicle heavy or infantry heavy. PVP/PVE
Call of Duty: Ghosts - November 5, 2013. Arena based infantry combat. AR users rejoice. PVP/PVE
Planetside 2 PS4 - December 2013: Already a great game, soon on PS4. Open world combat with a good balance of infantry and vehicular combat. PVP only, but done so well.
Titanfall - Early 2014: A FPS with Mech warriors by the developers of COD:MW2. PVP
Destiny 2014: Open world MMO style shooter. These guys brought us Halo, what more can be said. PVP/PVE
The Division 2014: Open world MMO style 3p shooter. An amazing concept. PVP/PVE
Star Citizen 2015: 1p/3p Space sim where your character can fight on board ships, on space stations, and on planets. PVP/PVE with both spaceship AND ground combat.
My Recommendation: START OVER
You should never have "Launched" the game, at most it should be in alpha. You already messed that up, but you have a chance to redeem yourself.
o Hire a new production manager who knows the FPS industry and knows how to manage a programming team.
o Hire experienced FPS developers/programmers who know the FPS industry and have a proven ability to deliver top-notch content.
o Divert more money from CCP Reykjavik. You will not long be able to fund CCP Shanghai based solely on your efforts
o Stop trying to fix the broken system you have currently (you are only making things worse)
o Split your studio into two teams: Current DUST 514 and Future DUST 514
o The Current DUST team will exclusively work on patches that improve the core FPS mechanics; Lag, controls, rendering, optimization, hit-detection, shooter mechanics, etc. Release these updates to your current DUST 514 player base as they are ready.
o The Future DUST team will START OVER by doing the following.
o Remove all tiers except for militia and standard.
o Introduce all racial skills, dropsuits, modules, equipment, weapons, and vehicle classes.
o Balance the game with all elements introduced but only one tier of technology/complexity
o Merge the optimization efforts of the Current DUST team, with the content of the Future DUST team
o Refund all player SP and release the NEW DUST 514 with all the advantages of core mechanic optimization AND fully featured content.
o Let the players stress test your optimization efforts and content efforts BEFORE you introduce ADV and PRO tiers.
o Now that you have a solid base of FPS core mechanics and well balanced content, you can begin to add additional tiers and features
o Only introduce ONE tier at a time, and introduce that tier ACROSS THE BOARD! Every weapon, every module, every dropsuit, every vehicle gets the next tier AT THE SAME TIME! This way you have a solid, well-tested base to build on, and can focus on balancing only the effectiveness of the newly introduced tier of equipment.
o Welcome to the DUST 514 you always should have been. |
alten hilt
DUST University
Ivy League
53
|
Posted - 2013.10.04 02:00:00 -
[2] - Quote
Please note: I never said anything about scraping code. Only starting over. Perhaps I should have said, "Rethink your design and production strategy" because my post is not about starting with a completely blank slate: It's about addressing the failure of the current design and production strategy.
DUST 514 is a complex and deeply engaging FPS...in principal. Multiple player archtypes each with their own customizable roles, with four factions each with their own interpretation of those archtypes, and player ability to customize their role through various modules, skills, and vehicles. Combine that with integration into the Eve Universe and you have an a one-of-a-kind shooter. But CCP is shooting this vision in the foot, and it all comes down to their development strategy.
While building a limited demo, with partially integrated features is a great way to build a proof of concept, once that proof of concept is proven valid, you need to immediately construct the remaining base structure of the concept. In other words, CCP needed to get the other races, basic dropsuits, and basic vehicles into the game before they started adding module tiers and specialized classes/ vehicles. Then with this foundation CCP could have started developing the more advanced parts of the game. The current strategy of introducing part of the core gameplay one at a time results in a system where every new iteration results in more problems than it solves. So despite CCP's attempt to move forward, they keep getting bogged down in problems they introduced earlier. Just look at the new dev post about vehicles. Look at the content they have introduced, then "temporarily removed" for balance's sake . Look at the number of patches that are nothing more than an attempt to correct balance issues because they only introduced a small part of a complex feature set. You need to have a good foundation and a good skeletal structure before you can build a project as rich and deep as Dust 514. Right now Dust has half a skeleton, and ccp spends most of it's time trying to prop it up instead of building it up.
I appreciate those who took the time to respectfully voice their opinions. You are a rare breed and I salute you o7.
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alten hilt
DUST University
Ivy League
53
|
Posted - 2013.10.04 02:50:00 -
[3] - Quote
low genius wrote:another dust uni jagoff.
thanks for stopping by with a qq thread. we'll put that one on the stack.
Respectfully, QQ about a QQ thread is worse. |
alten hilt
DUST University
Ivy League
53
|
Posted - 2013.10.04 02:54:00 -
[4] - Quote
Talos Vagheitan wrote:Dust is arguably the most ambitious shooter ever attempted. It is also a continually improving work in progress. There are things in this game that could use improvement, and there will be roadbumps along the way. You can choose to be apart of it's evolution, choose not to be, or in your case, come to the forums and post a rambling QQ thread bashing the developers.
Whatever you choose, the rest of us will not only be playing, but helping to steer this game in the direction in needs to go.
So how is pointing out, and then recommending solutions for, a problem with the core development strategy any different than a post about how HAV shields are broken, or how Flaylock pistols were broken, or any other aspect of the game?
There is nothing sacred about how the game is being developed. If that development philosophy is the core problem to all the other problems, then the best thing to do is address the root of the issue, not waste time hacking at the branches. |
alten hilt
DUST University
Ivy League
53
|
Posted - 2013.10.04 02:55:00 -
[5] - Quote
low genius wrote:
i'm sorry, are dust uni guys making cogent and rational statements now?
something is weird.
Please take your disrespect elsewhere. |
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