Lonegnr
Ikomari-Onu Enforcement
Caldari State
6
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Posted - 2013.12.15 03:47:00 -
[2] - Quote
Ecshon Autorez wrote:[quote=Lonegnr]
Not meant to be a "oh this stuff sucks now, lemme respec and go into something else." button
Meant to be a "oh I tried this out and I don't like it" or "oops wrong skill, I forgot I was saving for something else."
Except that's exactly what it'll be intended to be if it ever gets implemented; Easy $$$ at risk otherwise.
Oh you tried this and you didn't like it? Good thing lvl 1 training sp costs are so long, who cares.
Oh, wrong skill? Maybe you'll pay attention next time. lol. |
Lonegnr
Ikomari-Onu Enforcement
Caldari State
6
|
Posted - 2013.12.15 03:48:00 -
[3] - Quote
Lonegnr wrote:Ecshon Autorez wrote:[quote=Lonegnr]
Not meant to be a "oh this stuff sucks now, lemme respec and go into something else." button
Meant to be a "oh I tried this out and I don't like it" or "oops wrong skill, I forgot I was saving for something else." Except that's exactly what it'll be intended to be if it ever gets implemented; Easy $$$ at risk otherwise. Oh you tried this and you didn't like it? Good thing lvl 1 training sp costs are so low, who cares. Oh, wrong skill? Maybe you'll pay attention next time. lol.
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Lonegnr
Ikomari-Onu Enforcement
Caldari State
7
|
Posted - 2013.12.15 15:07:00 -
[4] - Quote
TL;DR at bottom.
Aikuchi Tomaru wrote:
So you can spec into the fitting of the month all the time? How about no?
Sure, why not?
Aikuchi Tomaru wrote:
And i end up asking this in every respec thread and nobody ever gives me an answer: why?
It's being a bit of a pragmatist. It's a viable source of revenue for a very niche (read, failing) game, that gives both CCP and players what they want. The people who don't like this idea tend to be the people that don't intend to pay, and like to pretend Free-2-Play actually means Free 2 Play. Unfortunately, it doesn't; if it did we'd simply call it 'free'. Just like every other F2P on the map: you pay more, you get more. Feel free to answer my previous question with something that doesn't boil down to "because it's unfair to the people playing for free."
Aikuchi Tomaru wrote:
You get unlimited sp. You can spec everything...... why do you still think there should be a respec? Just save your sp and use the sp events to get what you want. Period. I mean it isn't really that hard to spec something new and you might find out that you want that old skill anyways.
Yea, you get unlimited sp, with an unlimited amount of time spent playing the game. Are you an Eve player by chance? I'll assume you aren't. CCP used to release quarterly reports with loads of info about the game and in one of the reports they wrote about player retention; it's not as long as you may think. I don't remember the exact number, but it was in the ballpark of 6-7 months.
Why am I bringing that up? Because Dust essentially plays out like Eve in its pvp aspect, except there isn't a sandbox and the game is all PvP. Logic dictates overall population will be lower for Dust because it caters to an even more specific taste (solely-pvp based). Not only that, but unlike Eve Online you can't easily avoid being stomped on; Eve Online gives you several alternatives to PvP while you train skills, where as Dust is the same repetitive PvP over and over again; I'd argue retention will also be lower.
To quote from a great post on these forums, "The RPG EffectGäó, or - Why it sucks to be the new guy,"
Brokerib wrote:Partial Effectiveness
To run a full Advanced setup with no frills will come in at around 4Mil SP, assuming you know how to fit, what skills to choose, and what weapons you want to be proficient in. This works out to about 2 months play (less with boosters) where you are capping out SP every week. Advanced level skills and modules should allow a reasonable player to be partially efficient when compared to proto skilled/equipped players....
Full Effectiveness
To run a basic Proto setup with appropriate supporting skills, modules and fittings, you need 10-12Mil SP, depending on the suit and weapons chosen. With passive SP gain, daily bonus and weekly capping, this will take 5 to 7 months.
Where does that leave us? Do we still have unlimited skills as you said we do? No, we don't. All players leave once they've grown bored or sick of the game. Considering Dust 514 is essentially still in early beta; bad performance, unfinished content, unfinished gameplay mechanics, etc, etc, etc..... again feel free to lower potential retention. This leaves the average player a small pool of SP to work with, and given Brokerib's #s, limited options.
What was I ranting on about again? Oh right, respecs.
You need to find ways to keep your players. Increase retention. Increase player satisfaction. Obviously you can do this by improving the game (a real release would be great!) but given their current development pace I'm just gonna go ahead and throw that option out the window. So what can they do? Well, they can offer respecs. Let people jump into the flavor of the month, or whatever spec they want:
1) They'll have to pay for it,
2) The average player won't even have that much SP to shift around,
3) Hilariously enough many will be happy to pay.
Is this a suitable measure for the game?
In CCP's eyes, lucky for you, probably not. Skill wise I get the feeling they intend it should play out just like Eve; you have to invest several months before you become effective at something like PvP. Except that in Eve players can at least occupy themselves with PvE content while they wait and/or choose the pvp they jump into. That isn't the case in Dust. Even if they want to maintain the same play models, Dust is a F2P where as Eve Online is not, and because of that they will have to adapt if they want a more successful game.
I'll also note that even Eve Online has something similar to a respec only insanely better; The Character Bazaar. Got Isk? PLEX? Cash? Well come on down! and BUY a new character for your account, fully trained in whatever skills you like from another player (market availability may vary).
Would this help at all?
Yea, it would, there's plenty of people willing to throw some cash at the Eve Universe (refer to Eve's PLEX market for verification of this). It gives people a potential reason to stay by expanding their options, and CCP sees more revenue (which is always a good motivator for further/quicker improvement).
Does it brake the game?
No; the people doing this would mostly be those who have less SP to begin with. You may see more flavor of the month characters running around, but this is easily countered by better balancing of each content update. Anyone with loads of SP doing it is likely to have been competitive without the respec anyway.
But it'll give players unfair advantages!
No, it doesn't, and even if it did, no one has ever contended the Eve universe was a fair one. Most if not all interactions between players on Eve Online revolve around leveraging your advantages. Would seem only fitting to maintain that here.
TL; DR: It gives players a reason to keep playing and helps CCP fund further development. |