Kevall Longstride
DUST University
Ivy League
829
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Posted - 2014.01.16 08:23:00 -
[1] - Quote
Hans and myself have spoken a few times about Tanks 514 a couple of times now and while his analysis above is pretty much solid I still have real problems with the tanks from the viewpoint of a new player.
To a new player who wants to just do infantry,Tanks are basically the God mode of Dust right now. Hans's thoughts make perfect sense to these of us who have played the game long enough but the fact of the matter is that coupled with a blink and your dead TTK, tanks are killing interest in the game for new players, long before they have the chance to appreciate any form of nuanced argument for them.
While CCP will have better stats than me, I recently did some number crouching of my own and while I'm quite pleased with roughly 35% of monthly leavers from the UNI still playing the game a month later in different corps, that leaves the other 65% of monthly leavers, doing so because I've kicked them for inactivity.
The average time they spent trying the game before becoming inactive is less than a day. Why?
Now obviously I have no mechanic for asking all these players what's turning them off about the game but the few I've caught before leaving and the ones that stick around (just) all tell me that unless they have tanks on their side to counter them, the arrival of an opposition tank in a pub match is basically the harbinger of defeat. They feel that from that point on, they're on the losing side.
And this is a real problem as far as I'm concerned. We very badly need new players in this game right now. So do CCP if they want to make money from them. And anything that's making these players leave before the game can draw them in like it has with the veterans, must be at least minimised. And if doing so 'bends' the concept of a sandbox but brings the benefit of higher new player retention then I'm all for it.
The simplest way to do this is one that I think would have broad support. The elimination of tanks in ambush pub matches. Or at the very least a tank free version of the ambush mode available to players to choose.
The maps must be the smaller ones, so the action is never too far away. I really do think that having such an option for new players to be able to select will go a long way to help player retention as they get more confident to try the other game modes.
Beside Tanks in ambush mode are only really there for one thing anyway. Free from the obligations of objectives, they're able to pursue a high KDR with (currently) little or no threat to themselves in close combat.
And while were at it, drop KDR as a stat. It proves nothing but your ability to Protostomp. I think many players would prefer an ISK per kill stat as a measure of how good you are.
Mercenary Clone of Dennie Fleetfoot
CEO of DUST University
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