Vyzion Eyri
The Southern Legion
The Umbra Combine
2146
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Posted - 2013.11.29 11:41:00 -
[1] - Quote
Now
Remove all militia and basic gear. Rename advanced gear "Militia" and rename prototype gear "Standard". Adjust costs so that advanced gear has militia gear costs. Leave prototype gear costs how they are. Apply this to all items. This has kind of already happened to vehicles. (e.g. Soma -> Madrugar, and nothing else)
Watch how the gameplay pans out. Advanced gear is only slightly weaker than prototype but now the cost discrepency is incredible. Soon everyone turns to advanced gear; matchmaking is unneeded and New Eden remains a 'sandbox' in that we aren't divided arbitrarily.
Prototype gear remains to give the most competitive players an edge in PC/FW, but the difference is much less than the mlt -> pro gap we have now.
This seems like a big change but all CCP have to do is switch some numbers and delete lots of items.
Now, we are presented with a problem: what do people do once they've unlocked everything, since there's so little progression?
Soon
Implementation of numerous variants based on the new, two-tier model, to solve the problem of progression raised previously. Variants are similar to the specialisations we have now (Scout, Logistics, Sentinel, Assault, Commando). The Pilot suit -which I am eagerly awaiting- is one. How about a Light-Frame with a cloaking bonus? A medium frame with an armour repair bonus. A logistics suit with no weapon slot and five equipment slots. A light-frame with two weapon slots, similar to the Black Eagle? A commando suit with a light weapon and two sidearms?A sentinel suit with ~=4 high slots, ~=4 low slots (depending on race) but only has a sidearm? The possibilities are endless, I could fill a whole post simply with different variants. CCP could too, except to bring them all in now is exceptionally difficult because balancing gear against so many tiers is bloody tough.
The initial change mentioned above sets the stage for these variants to be implemented because balancing gear is so much easier when you don't have to take into account all the tiers (and tears) we have now. Just look at the complaints about how the progression from basic->advanced->complex shield extenders are all wrong. Look at how people pointed out that it was only the prototype CalLogi that was the problem. The ridiculously low fitting costs of flaylocks across all tiers. The massive thread Arkena wrote on balancing armour because they weren't balanced against shields. The common factor in all these problems are tiers! If there wasn't so much to take into account CCP could've easily spotted these issues.
Anyways, I digress. Back to progression. The SP system is balanced for newbies to vets because older players can only expand sideways (just like in real life!) in that the specialisations (like the ones mentioned above) will be balanced against the base suit. Every specialisation has weaknesses but also strengths, unlike the current tier progression where the next suit up is better in every way. Newbies have suits that are good overall whereas veterans have suits that HIGHLIGHT their chosen role on the battlefield. The commando with two sidearms and a light weapon should be faster than the current commando, but also have less HP. This means you're specialising in that niche role between Assault and Heavy, where you operate within that SPECIALISED close-medium range between most light weapons and the HMG/shotgun.
SoonGäó
Now that we have addressed what I personally believe is the core problem with the progression system at the moment...
I want to see a fully-fledged contract board. Because gear is balanced as per above, players should be able to select their own matches and have an enjoyable but challenging experience in any game.
I want to boot up the contract board instead of the battle finder, and I want to select that contract for Freedom Expansion because they're offering 50 EXO-5 Mass Drivers and 2,000,000 ISK. But then I want to raise open up the Neocom conveniently embedded in a wrist-forearm display in the middle of the battle and see that on the other side, Kaalakiota is offering 20,000,000 ISK to every mercenary fighting against Freedom because the information we're hacking into is more important than Freedom even knew. I want to suddenly see mass amounts of enemies pouring in to fight for Kaalakiota, and I want the game to make me struggle to make the choice: "Do I join them?"
I want to lounge in my merc quarters, flicking through contracts, find an easy 200,000 ISK for simply being there as a presence, and as I'm flying my dropships in lazy circles, I want to see the sky get torn open as an orbital strike devastates the defensive installations, and clouds part only to reveal dozens of dropships much like my own pour from the heavens unleashing a withering barrage of fire on my craft, forcing me to jump and quickly realise that the dropship negated any profit I could've made, but just as I am about to blow my own face off with my scrambler pistol and get out of there the defending corporation jacks up the reward to 200,000,000 ISK, two-hundred million, and I take the pistol out of my mouth and turn around to bitterly defend against a small army apparently by myself, and in the end after thousands of deaths it turns out I do actually protect the objective and after the reward only make a 200,000 ISK profit and heartily laugh my way home.
"When nothing is going your way, go out of your way to do nothing."
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