Ulysses Knapse
duna corp
610
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Posted - 2013.11.23 11:51:00 -
[1] - Quote
There seems to be a particularly insidious thing going on at CCP. They try to make and balance dropsuits, weapons, modules, equipment and vehicles without taking their roles into consideration. It's never a good idea to create or change something without a designated role for it. There are a few outcomes to these attempts:
1. You get lucky and it miraculously manages to fit into a role anyway.
2. You don't give it a proper role, but don't buff it, making it somewhat useless.
3. You don't give it a proper role, but buff it too much, making it overly useful.
4. You don't give it a proper role, but buff it just enough, making it generic, boring and mediocre.
#1 will almost never happen, though it's more likely to happen when you are creating something truly unique. A single case of #2 won't cause the game as a whole to be unbalanced, but it does waste the time and effort that the developers put into it, and if too many cases of #2 occur, the game balance will suffer. #3 can cause the game as a whole to be unbalanced, so this can be a worst-case scenario. #4 is in between #2 and #3. It can cause some game imbalance, and cause pain to its users, but not to the extent that #3 and #2 can. Also, it requires a lot of fine-tuning. If you add or rebalance items to the game, something that was once a #4 can quickly become a case of #2 or #3.
I'm going to list a few things in Dust 514 that have already suffered from this:
-Heavy Machine Guns
-LAVs
-HAVs
-Dropships
-Light/Scout Dropsuits
-Assault Dropsuits
-Logistics Dropsuits
-Heavy/Sentinel Dropsuits
-Commando Dropsuits
-Laser Rifles
-Grenades
-Assault Rifle Variants
The reason I didn't list Basic Medium Dropsuits and the standard Assault Rifle, even though they would normally be considered a #4 at best, is because that's pretty much what they were made for. To be a standard. To be generic. There's no excuse for the other items, though. I'm not going to say what's wrong with the items, either. I'll leave that for another thread. What I will say, however, is that they definitely suffer because CCP couldn't decide what their role was supposed to be, or lacked the conviction to carry that role out.
What are LAVs supposed to do, anyway? They transport and run over people, yes, but that doesn't explain the Logistics or Scout variants, nor does it explain why it has a turret that exposes its user. What about Heavy Machine Guns? What's their role? CQC? ARs, SMGs and Shotguns perform that role just fine, probably better. Dropsuits are affected by this as well. Assault Dropsuits aren't all that better at assault than the other dropsuits, Heavies just have interesting weapon configurations with some extra durability, and Light/Scout Dropsuits are just kind of sad.
What about the AR Variants? Is Tactical supposed to be a long-range variant, or is it supposed to perform it's own role, too? Is Breach just a low RoF variant with slightly better hipfire? What about Burst, is that supposed to be midway between Tactical and Assault or is it supposed to have a role of its own? Can't forget the grenades, either. Are they supposed to be for supression? Disabling? Plain ol' killing? They feel like they were added just because other FPSes have them.
I could go on and on about how CCP neglected roles, but the horse is already dead, so I'll stop... soon.
So, I give this advice to CCP, and this critique to the community. CCP! Stop and think for a moment. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you just trying to add more content? Are you just trying to please the community? Are you just looking to fill factional gaps? If that's really what you're trying to do, I won't try and stop you. But if you actually care about balance and gameplay... If you truly do, then I strongly urge you to only add new items when you've decided their role, and only rebalance weapons when you've figured what exactly what it's supposed to cause. Stop thinking about what the gun should do and start thinking about the gun should cause to happen.
I know it won't be easy, and I know it will reduce the amount of content you'll be able to bring to us for a while, but please, do it anyway. At first, it will probably be more painful for everyone involved, but I'm confident that this approach will eventually make Dust 514 a much better and more enjoyable experience. If not because you genuinely care about the players, which I honestly think you do, then do it because it would be more profitable in the long run.
Humanity is the personification of change.
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