Joseph Ridgeson
WarRavens
League of Infamy
356
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Posted - 2014.01.23 18:57:00 -
[1] - Quote
I think it was better when the Academy was like 20,000 WP and gave a respec afterwards. That was generally enough time to learn how to play the game. Say you get 400 WP per match, it would take you 50 matches to understand the concept of Skill Points. It did slow the game down for new players but when the alternative is people thinking "If I wasted that many SP, I should probably just quit/remake my character", I find it to be better as it is less demoralizing.
The problem is the way training works in DUST rather than EVE. In EVE, you train something in real time. In the end, it may take you about the same amount of time to max a skill but having an SP pool rather Timers means people are more likely to burn it faster. It is exactly like structured settlement versus lump sum settlement. "Oh, I have 500,000 SP. That will surely go a long way. See, I can get right into Caldari Assault with for only 240,000. I still have 260k to spend." Before long, they have a 80,000 dollar car but can't afford gas.
You can't even say "that's on them" because they are brand new. They don't understand that they will only get ~311k SP per week or haven't seen the game rolling at all. In most games (especially consoles!), you don't need to do research before you even do your first match. This game, you really do but how is any new player that is looking through PSN's Free Game list going to know "this game is made by CCP, the people that didn't think the most complicated MMO in history needed any kind of tutorial for the first several years." With something like League of Legends, you can at least open up your browser and Google it before the game starts; it also has recommended items and a real tutorial. For this game, nope. If It hadn't been for the fact that I played EVE for years I would have burned away my SP as well.
I like the idea of a respec after two or three weeks of playing the game. 5 million is a little high as that is about 4 months of playing but the concept is great. DUST has few enough new players coming into the game as it is without making people feel like junk because they bungled away their initial SP. |