So i've been playing this game for about 9 months now. I love this game's core idea, but it has it's flaws. And have been doing some thinking recently. I've come up with a few ideas either to level the playing field and make the game more balanced.

1. Possible fix to Proto-Stomping.

So from playing if you have around 10-12 million SP you can have your proto suit, weapon of choice, and core skills relatively high. So if CCP sets a CAP to players under 12 million SP then can grind all the time without a CAP. So say if you grinded your heart out you can have 12 million SP in a month. But once you hit your 12 million SP you get put onto the now weekly cap. The 1st cap can be changed if needed to obviously.

The match-making for this would be for players under 5 million would be the 1st section. Then 9 million and below would be the second section. And from 9-12 million would be the last section. They play on each section depending on their SP, and all 3 sections are open until you hit 12 million SP. So if you think your good enough to play the 12 million and under section with 3 million SP go right ahead.

2. Balancing issues

Even though this game is "released" it's still a beta. Things are still relatively not working as intended. Since this game is relatively un-balanced it would be nice to have respecs in the game to test things until the game is in a later state when there isn't many core balancing issues. Since scout and heavy are the two suits most talked about getting buffed. Players who are still scout and heavy to the heart can stay and wait things out, or you can switch to something else until your desired suit gets fixed. Since the core nerf that forums want is AR's right now. CCP could, instead of waiting for 1.6 deploy hot fixes to balance weapons that could either have a public beta server to test issues like this or have players to be able to respec test a hot fixes to AR's.

3. Message to CCP

I realize you can't fix and balance this entire game in a week. But things that you guys need to realize is what the players want. So say to you guys you think the game is perfect the way it is. But everyone on the forums are complaining. Then change your road map to fixing the issues NOW. Not worrying about adding all the suits or weapons. This can help retain your player base.

I will continue to play this game until it gets better. I love the concept and get wait for it to get to the finished product

Any feedback is much appreciated

TL;DR: Have a unlimited cap until 12 million SP. Have respecs to help test the game. CCP change your roadmap to fix current issues, not future things.

CCP, add content or die.

CCP has been trying (very unsuccessfully) to ballence this game for well over a year now. They obviously have no talent for this. Just add content then return to your feeble attempts at ballencing this game.

We need content. Can't even stand to play this game any more for how little content has been added since I started playing.

The cap system is designed to make money through the use of boosters. Simply removing the cap will shut this revenue without bringing a new one, and although it could be a good move from the financial point of view if the game as a whole suddenly became incredibly better or more popular, which is unlikely to happen with this particular change alone.

For CCP (and for us by extension) it would be better if there was a way to push the Veteran Players from Pubs to somewhere else, letting the newbies have more room to breathe (and buy boosters while at that). That would be PC, but PC failed to engage most of the community. Luckily enough they seem to have realized that a long while ago and are already working to turn FW in just that, a place where older players naturally tend to gather, leaving pubs to newer players.

That's what this last event was about, in my opinion, by the way. Gathering data to finish tuning the revamped FW system they are about to implement. They already stated that they want to go with Friendly Fire, Full Team Deploy and better rewards for FW, while at the same time having basically no matchmaking whatsoever (it already doesn't balance the players in each side based in estimated power level). All these features shall encourage the protostomping guys to play more FW than pubs: problem solved. We will still have the eventual pub stomp but they shall be less frequent and newbros will still be able to try their hand at FW (and die horrible deaths repeatedly) - this game should be sandboxish after all.

See personally i would rather have this game balanced first then add things in. Because a game with everything in it with 99% not working is a lot harder to fix rather than fixing 99% of a lot less content

See personally i would rather have this game balanced first then add things in. Because a game with everything in it with 99% not working is a lot harder to fix rather than fixing 99% of a game only ~30% done

Fist, 99% of the content in this game is not nonfunctional. Second, as I've said, CCP has been trying to "ballence" this game for mor than a year with no success. Getting tired of waiting. Need new content to breath life back into this game. Ballence isn't ever going to happen aparently, and even if it did there would still be a grip of people who would claim the opposit. Hell I thought many aspects of chromo was had a great ballence to it. Yet here we are.

We need content, NOW.

What is balanced about this game? Because off the top of my head i can think of almost nothing.

Yes Legend but idk about at launch

First it its spelt balance. Second balancing is make every role/object in this game to a level where its not abused and compete with the other roles. And because of people like you who have the attention span of 5 seconds need new content every 30 seconds. CCP doesnt know who to please. People like me or people like you. So there "attempts" at balancing are just hot fixes. Not actual balancing. They play it like one and done.

First the game hasn't seen a serious content infusion since I started playing it more than a year ago. In that time we have gotten three new weapons and and seven drop suits, so your 30 second analysis is just grossly incorrect. Second, when I asked you to define balance I meant for you to give us a balanced version of this game that EVERY other person reading this would agree with. Which you cannot do. Infact I challenge you to to even propose one balance fix that everyone would agree with for even one aspect of this game. Third how can one even expect to attempt to balance this game when all of the core content does not even exist yet. In the future more core content will be added which will inevitably throw any attempt at a current balance right out the window.

First the game hasn't seen a serious content infusion since I started playing it more than a year ago. In that time we have gotten three new weapons and and seven drop suits, so your 30 second analysis is just grossly incorrect. Second, when I asked you to define balance I meant for you to give us a balanced version of this game that EVERY other person reading this would agree with. Which you cannot do. Infact I challenge you to to even propose one balance fix that everyone would agree with for even one aspect of this game. Third how can one even expect to attempt to balance this game when all of the core content does not even exist yet. In the future more core content will be added which will inevitably throw any attempt at a current balance right out the window.

Grinding
Letting ppl grind all day long means less booster money for ccp. After around 10-15 mill sp, the boosters loose a lot of appeal because you already have a good foothold in a role, so there isn't any rush to get sp by paying for it.

Matchmaker
From my stand point, the matches would not change at all. The proto squads will still stomp on ppl and matches will still look very unbalanced. The point of blame then gets shifted to players that wont run expensive fits and bad/average players. I happen to be both, bad and almost always in a bpo fits. Although, it could work better for lower sp players because they wont be against vets, but does create a problem that certain ppl cannot squad or play together because they cross sp lines. I'm a fan of meta level restrictions instead of sp restrictions.

Respecs
If a skill is no longer in the game, then we always get our sp back. If they change some skills drastically, then I don't care if they allow reallocation for those skills, but it probably wont happen very often. I have no problem with them selling aur respecs, but it does seem to conflict with their saying, "choices matter" and the eve side would flip. They already don't like that we get active sp.

Obi, you're a pub stomper! Shame on you for talking about curving the problem... yeah, yeah, yeah Scouts aren't really threatening by themselves, still the principle is there! Shaaaaaaaaaame!

I think the balancing can't be done until all the content is in the game. You can balance it on paper, but things get implemented in chunks, making players grumpy in the process. But FPS balance is pretty much impossible, especially in a tactical game like DUST.


CCP will run out of time I think.

But I agree with the AE Shotgun Guy though. I just don't think its worth talking about fixing anything in the game anymore. You don't try to cure Cancer after a certain point. You just try to make the last days comfortable.

Obi, you're a pub stomper! Shame on you for talking about curving the problem... yeah, yeah, yeah Scouts aren't really threatening by themselves, still the principle is there! Shaaaaaaaaaame!

I think the balancing can't be done until all the content is in the game. You can balance it on paper, but things get implemented in chunks, making players grumpy in the process. But FPS balance is pretty much impossible, especially in a tactical game like DUST.


CCP will run out of time I think.

But I agree with the AE Shotgun Guy though. I just don't think its worth talking about fixing anything in the game anymore. You don't try to cure Cancer after a certain point. You just try to make the last days comfortable.

To save time: you can watch this video I made a while back, just like Legend345, I let the video do the talking:
Shooter Balance is Impossible | DUST 514 4/24/2013

Are you dumb? Scouts are the most underpowered thing i the game. I can get picked up by scanners w/o damps. I cant fit a proto weapon with proto links or scans without having like 100 health. They are unless for the role CCP intends.

[quote=Pent'noir]Grinding
quote]
I've always been told if something works stick to it. Dust isn't retaining its playerbase and i don't see doing the same things changing people's minds.

Hey now, we've gone over this. You play in a full Proto squad often. You are just as guilty. Even though you are a Shotgun Scout, you're team as a whole picks on Noobs. You do get props for being a Shotgunner in this broken game.

No i cant give you exact number on how this need to be. No one can. But i can tell you scouts don't have enough pg or cpu to even scout. A SMG is better CQC than HMG right now. The AR dps is too high. The overall health on suits widen the proto stomping even more. The passive scanning skills are miniscal. The plasma cannon is more of a troll. AV needs less dps. Tanks need more pg or better harderns. FG can single handely watch points in skrim, need either more charge up or less spalsh to infantry. I can tell even more things that need to be fixed. I know this game. So don't come off as someone who knows it all ***.

2. Balancing issues

Even though this game is "released" it's still a beta. Things are still relatively not working as intended. Since this game is relatively un-balanced it would be nice to have respecs in the game to test things until the game is in a later state when there isn't many core balancing issues. Since scout and heavy are the two suits most talked about getting buffed. Players who are still scout and heavy to the heart can stay and wait things out, or you can switch to something else until your desired suit gets fixed. Since the core nerf that forums want is AR's right now. CCP could, instead of waiting for 1.6 deploy hot fixes to balance weapons that could either have a public beta server to test issues like this or have players to be able to respec test a hot fixes to AR's.

CCP, add content or die.

CCP has been trying (very unsuccessfully) to ballence this game for well over a year now. They obviously have no talent for this. Just add content then return to your feeble attempts at ballencing this game.

We need content. Can't even stand to play this game any more for how little content has been added since I started playing.

AR is fine, it's just that many players went for that because of presence of Officer gear. Scrambler Rifle + SMG is somewhat better than AR + Scrambler pistol.

So i've been playing this game for about 9 months now. I love this game's core idea, but it has it's flaws. And have been doing some thinking recently. I've come up with a few ideas either to level the playing field and make the game more balanced.

1. Possible fix to Proto-Stomping.

So from playing if you have around 10-12 million SP you can have your proto suit, weapon of choice, and core skills relatively high. So if CCP sets a CAP to players under 12 million SP then can grind all the time without a CAP. So say if you grinded your heart out you can have 12 million SP in a month. But once you hit your 12 million SP you get put onto the now weekly cap. The 1st cap can be changed if needed to obviously.

The match-making for this would be for players under 5 million would be the 1st section. Then 9 million and below would be the second section. And from 9-12 million would be the last section. They play on each section depending on their SP, and all 3 sections are open until you hit 12 million SP. So if you think your good enough to play the 12 million and under section with 3 million SP go right ahead.

2. Balancing issues

Even though this game is "released" it's still a beta. Things are still relatively not working as intended. Since this game is relatively un-balanced it would be nice to have respecs in the game to test things until the game is in a later state when there isn't many core balancing issues. Since scout and heavy are the two suits most talked about getting buffed. Players who are still scout and heavy to the heart can stay and wait things out, or you can switch to something else until your desired suit gets fixed. Since the core nerf that forums want is AR's right now. CCP could, instead of waiting for 1.6 deploy hot fixes to balance weapons that could either have a public beta server to test issues like this or have players to be able to respec test a hot fixes to AR's.

3. Message to CCP

I realize you can't fix and balance this entire game in a week. But things that you guys need to realize is what the players want. So say to you guys you think the game is perfect the way it is. But everyone on the forums are complaining. Then change your road map to fixing the issues NOW. Not worrying about adding all the suits or weapons. This can help retain your player base.

I will continue to play this game until it gets better. I love the concept and get wait for it to get to the finished product

Any feedback is much appreciated

TL;DR: Have a unlimited cap until 12 million SP. Have respecs to help test the game. CCP change your roadmap to fix current issues, not future things.

All I am saying is that two things have happend. NUMEROUS failed attempts at balance, and content starvation. What I am saying is add the rest of the core content then go back to trying to balance.

Now let's take a look a some of your examples:

"scouts don't have enough pg or cpu to even scout."

Scouts are supposed to be able to cloak. How can we balance scout when we don't even have cloaks yet?

"A SMG is better CQC than HMG right now."

In my opinion the SMG is a fine weapon. So how would you propose to bug the HMG with out making it imbalanced.

"The AR dps is too high"

I don't at all agree with you.

"The plasma cannon is more of a troll."

There are plenty of people who enjoy using the plasma cannon. It is a niche weapon. In my opinion the weapon needs some work, but do will an attempt at balancing this weapon bring it in line or further unbalance the game. It is a splash weapon after all.

"AV needs less dps. Tanks need more pg or better harderns."

Do you realize how manny iterations and attempts at "balance" v vs. av have gone through now? All of them unsuccessful. What reason do we have to believe that a merciless will occur any time soon.

"FG can single handely watch points in skrim"

So can snipers. Snipers can also kill these FGs and snipers can in turn be hunted down. Is this even a balance issue at all?

"I can tell even more things that need to be fixed."

And who is to say that any one would agree with you at all, let alone how to go about doing it.

Cubs explain? I thought it was a well written thread.

I'm not arguing the points. They are all good points, that have been stated many times over...that's all

Oh i gotcha. I only go on the forums to post ideas like this. So i've never really seen them that's all