Skihids
Bullet Cluster
Legacy Rising
2587
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Posted - 2013.12.19 20:44:00 -
[1] - Quote
We've got a lot of tanks on the field because it's finally possible to play with them without having saved 10M SP first.
It used to be so expensive that it was ISK suicide to run anything but a very well fit HAV, and that meant committing a boatload of SP to vehicles. That naturally limited the number fielded. Those few drivers tended to be very good because they had a lot of SP and a lot of ISK at stake.
There were issues with that however. it was quite difficult to get a start in tanking and you needed a day job or rich uncle to fund your driving. it made HAV ownership a luxury indulged in by a small number of players.
CCP wanted to change that, and had to alter a couple things to make it happen.
First, they reduced the initial SP requirement by making MLT tanks competitive with STD, but for shorter periods of time. That follows the "Waves of opportunity" general philosophy for vehicles. It wouldn't do to allow a STD tank to survive an ambush and kill the MLT tank every time because that wouldn't give the tanking experience to the driver.
Second, they had to reduce the ISK cost. It's not free, but a new driver can actually afford to practice without running infantry for five matches for each tank. That allows for more driving which increases skill retention dramatically over driving one match out of six.
Now that has raised a few issues too.
The old guard tankers are miffed that these upstarts can kill their tanks with cheap tanks. That's akin to the outcry we hear about MLT suits killing PRO suits. Folks are adjusting to that now, but some still rage.
More problematic is the fact that the DUST population is still feeling its way in dealing with these tanks. Infantry was used to extremely powerful AV that significantly reduced the vehicle population even further than the limited number of drivers. That meant most players had very limited interaction with tanks. The large population of drivers is overwhelming their meager ability to deal with the threat.
So what to do about it?
Do we go back to the past by inflating the price of MLT tanks? Do we require large SP investments before they are viable? That's just moving backwards and discarding all progress to date. It's giving up and declaring there is no way infantry can deal with a more accessible tanking role.
I say we need a bit more time for infantry to learn to deal with the new influx of tanks. Based on many posts I see that some have figured out how to pop them with relatively inexpensive methods. Folks need to learn how to deal with the "waves of opportunity" philosophy so they aren't attacking into the tank's strength, but rather exploiting its weakness.
CCP needs to introduce more varied counter play so it's not just infantry DPS against tank DPS. That's flat and boring. Let's have creative ways to deal with them and people can actually have fun with it.
Finally CCP needs to deal with the more general issue of redline abuse. Any rail tank, MLT or STD, can sit back and snipe the entire map. This is not unique to MLT tanks or even tanks in general, redline infantry snipers are also a problem. It's an issue of risk vs. reward.
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