Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
2510
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Posted - 2014.02.18 16:58:00 -
[1] - Quote
Soraya Xel wrote:I doubt we'll even have a 1.9 to be honest, Spartacus. They have a lot of work to do for 2.0 to be ready for Fanfest.
I expect that they will need to make some minor balance changes after 1.8, considering how many sweeping changes they are making in 1.8. So we could well have a patch 1.9 that contains mostly just balance and bug fixes.
Fox Gaden: DUST Wall of Fame, 2014
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Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
2601
|
Posted - 2014.02.24 17:59:00 -
[2] - Quote
We are at a strange time in the history of DUST 514. It is simultaneously the most promising and the most frustrating that the game has ever been.
Many base mechanics have been improved:
- Hit detection is mostly working.
- KBM/DS3 are mostly balanced. (KBM users curse Aim Bot while DS3 users curse instant strafing. They are complaining equally.)
- Vehicles have a new paradigm involving waves of opportunity.
- Basic mechanics have been greatly improved, allowing the FPS to run more smoothly. You donGÇÖt get stuck to walls, and the lag is far less than it used to be.
However the tuning is off which makes it very frustrating:
- TTK is way too short. You donGÇÖt have a chance to react before you die. This is very Frustrating! This also reduces us to two fit styles, either brick tank with as much armour as possible to survive long enough to react, or stealth fit to make sure you are the one who shoots first. Which makes fitting, one of the draws of this game, a whole lot less interesting.
- Vehicle/Anti Vehicle (V/AV) is out of balance. While Forge guns are in an ok place, all the AV available to Medium and Light frame suits are under powered. This makes ordinary infantry feel helpless when there are many tanks on the field. Currently the only really effective counter to Tanks available to Medium Frame infantry is the Jehad Jeep which involves sacrificing your own clone in the process.
However, TTK and V/AV balance are just a matter of adjusting stats. While balance is difficult to achieve, trial and error alone would eventually get them somewhere close. 1.8 promises improvements to TTK, and some minor adjustments to V/AV balance. While I expect with so many changes in 1.8 that there will be some new problems, I am expecting that overall the game will be less frustrating and more enjoyable.
Racial Parity:
1.8 also brings the completion of the base suit sets, to finally achieve full racial parity in dropsuits. I think that having suit parity is important due to how much the suit effects the play style and how many points you need to fully invest in a suit. (This is why I support a Dropsuit Command Respec on this occasion.) I would expect CCP to continue to work on weapon parity, and introduce more weapons as they go, but the skill point investment to use a weapon is much less, and having some weapon diversity is a good thing, so I donGÇÖt think any respec will be needed when the last of the Heavy Weapons are introduced. (In a tight urban map you will want to use an HMG rather than the Laser Cannon anyway, unless you are a complete Amarr purist.)
When Amarr and Minmitar vehicles and turrets (Laser & Projectile) are introduced I can see their being an argument for a respec on the Vehicle & Turret trees again. I think that should be the last respect. Hopefully after that, CCP will introduce full racial sets when they introduce a new class of something. Granted they may add specialty items to just a single race in an existing class, such as the Plasma Cannon. I donGÇÖt have a problem with that, and donGÇÖt think such would be grounds for a respec, as long as the class of item already has at least one for each race.
MMO vs FPS:
When we suggest that CCP needs to start focussing more on the MMO aspects of DUST we are not saying that they should stop working on bug fixes and balance effecting the FPS aspect of the game. We are saying that once the FPS aspect gets to acceptable levels, that the developers who were taken off of working on MMO content to help fix the FPS problems DUST had in 1.0, should be put back on developing MMO content such as PVE, open market, and social interfaces. There will always be some developers dedicated exclusively to the FPS aspect of the game and while I think it will be a long time before DUST is as refined as COD or BF, I expect we will soon be getting close enough not to scare off FPS vets.
The draw of DUST over other FPS games is its complexity. You still get the player skill based FPS combat, but with the complexity of an MMO where character development (Skill point allocation) and equipment effect the outcome of a fight as well. It also has the connection to EVE and all the politics and intrigue that brings. Granted, dust is still fairly simple, and the link to EVE is still very tenuous, but these are things that will build over time with each iteration. The MMO supporters are simply saying, lets start working on those aspects. Get the clunky 1.0 versions of open market an PVE into the game, and iterate on existing aspects such as PC (with PC 2.0) to get things moving and to give players more to do.
NPE:
I will say though that there will always need to be a fairly uncomplicated first step in DUST. The pre-made Starter fits are an example of what I am talking about. An FPS vet will wont to be able to jump right in and start shooting stuff right away. Have the complexity build on the progression from that point. The new player experience will have to be worked on so that people can jump in and get a feel for the game without having to spend 5 hours reading first. The complexity of the game is something they should be able to discover as they start thinking about how to progress. It would help greatly if they were not dumped into the deep end to sink or swim after just two or three academy matches.
Fox Gaden: DUST Wall of Fame, 2014
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