George Moros
Area 514
164
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Posted - 2013.11.14 20:41:00 -
[1] - Quote
As the title says.
And here's why:
One of the key elements that makes DUST different from other shooters is the concept of permanent loss of gear each time a merc gets killed. This is also one of the most important reasons why I play DUST rather than some other shooter.
In DUST, it's not just about how many kills / deaths you scored in a match, it's about how much ISK you lost (and how much ISK loss you inflicted). I would even go as far as to say that in DUST, ISK lost/inflicted is actually more important statistic than KDR. All other things being equal, killing a dude in proto gear is much more difficult than killing him in militia fit. There should be an account of this after the battle.
The benefit of ISK lost / inflicted being displayed after the battle would also be in less frustration from noobs getting proto-stomped in pub matches. If a new player gets massacred in a pub match, and performs a, say, 1-8 KDR, I think his frustration would be much alleviated if the next info would say that he lost 80k ISK, but inflicted 150k ISK damage (because he managed to kill one proto bear).
How it should work:
Calculating the total cost of someone's fit isn't difficult if he's using only ISK-purchasable gear. In other cases my suggestions are:
AUR gear - since AUR gear usually just gives you access to the ISK gear equivalents with the same stats but with lower skill requirements, the AUR price can be substituted with the according ISK price.
Gear acquired through events, gifts and similar - if the gear has the same stats as some specific ISK gear, use that price, if not - CCP should assign one using their judgments and pricing policies.
BPO gear - same as above. Also, as I understand, CCP plans to remove BPOs from the game in the future.
Officer gear - frankly, I have no idea.  Maybe a fixed one million ISK per unit until we have a EVE-like, player driven market.
Furthermore, when we finally get a player driven market, all the prices could be calculated based on average market prices, just like current EVE kill mails are calculated.
One other thing that requires resolution is, when someone is killed (or vehicle is destroyed), who gets the "ISK inflicted" amount credited to him?
The only "fair" option would be to assign the "ISK inflicted" amount proportionally to the amount of damage each party inflicted in the kill. However, I think this would be too complicated to implement efficiently (CCP devs will know the answer to this one).
The WP reward mechanics could be used (kills and assists), but if 3 guys are involved in killing one guy, then according to WP reward mechanics, the killer gets full ISK amount credited to him, and "assistants" get one-half each? This could be done, but it wouldn't be accurate from the accounting perspective.
Perhaps, one way would be to split the "ISK inflicted" amount on N+1 equal parts (N = number of players involved in the kill), so that each "assistant" gets one part, and the "killer" gets two parts.
And finally, exactly what information should be displayed regarding ISK lost / inflicted?
Do we get to see only the total amount we lost / inflicted, or do we also see how the other players did?
Is the statistic recorded cumulatively on your character sheet, just like KDR?
Please discuss if interested. |