Geovexen
Endless Hatred
Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive
37
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Posted - 2014.04.13 19:12:00 -
[1] - Quote
Having played EVE for many years and Dust since beta, i have followed the growth of this game fairly adamantly. I can see where the updates and features-added have catered to the vision that CCP has for the game, as well as having the twists that the community has demanded. where it falls short is in it's releases. i know i'm beating a dead horse with this, but more often than not, updates break the game more than how they proposed they would fix it. I believe this is a conundrum that the devs face that is not solely under their control.
It is apparent that many of the features that have been added were intended to be in the original game, but were not due to bugs, implementation, balance, etc. So you guys sought to add content as you went all the while balancing. this presents a problem all in itself, which i am sure you guys are well versed in. I think that once you have implemented everything that you intended (i.e. all the vehicles, weapons, suits, mechanics), the game will be a solid whole product. but i think you waste time with these periodic releases. between releases, so much energy and time is spent with balancing the previous release while also adding the new content and balancing it. It's like paying a loan by paying a small portion of the principal and a lot of the interest. the principal is the final game and the interest is the problems with the current build.
Now, since you guys have made it clear you intend to make releases periodically, and that that is how you are going to do business, here are some suggestions to smooth things out. although, personally, i think you should just spend a year developing the game into a final product.
1. Create a beta client. Like EVE has Singularity, create a downloadable client that only connects to the test server. use players on there to test the mechanics and flow, so that you have obvious bugs/balancing fixed before launch. you could reward players with Aurum on Tranquility for their time.
2. Implement Role bonuses to suits and add suit variety to races. The fact that a commando can use a cloak module is ridiculous. make the PG/CPU of cloaking devices much higher and give scout suits a role bonus that decreases the PG/CPU usage of them, just like covert ops frigates in EVE. that doesn't mean i can't use a cloak on my logi. It means i'm just gonna have a pistol and a cloak device. This type of limitation can be used to prevent OP builds from dominating the game.
3. As this build showed, you guys are shifting Dust to something more race dominated, much like EVE. If you intend to segregate players and play types by their suit races, you should offer more diversity in suits to meet different playstyles. A good example of this in the past was the amarr logi. you gained a sidearm in exchange for an equipment slot, but could still play logi. (the downfall being the SP required to spec into another suit). if you allowed players to spec into a suit specialty, minmatar scout for example, then gave a variety of suits, the game would be more balanced. look at EVE for a good example of this. if i train Cruisers in EVE, i'm not limited to "Cruiser J-1". i have a variety of cruisers that each have their own ship bonuses(like the second point i made). leveling up my Cruiser skill just made whatever ship i had better. if i wanted something more specific (which was never simply 'better' than my ship but rather served an alternate purpose), i could train a sub-category.(i.e. HACs, HICs, and Logis). now imagine Min Scout having 5 suit choices. Each one unique and different. one could focus on being a ninja hacker, sacrificing combat capabilities for increased hack speed, sprint speed, and cloak duration. another could increase sniping stats. another could cater to shotgunning and counter-heavy playstyles. all of these suits under one skill. no standard, advanced, or proto, just one suit that got slightly better at it's specificity with skill level. a player who then specs into Minmatar Scout now has a variety of roles they can perform without spending unnecessary SP.
Thank you for your time, Caltinor
P.S. a good design of the mircrotransaction module, which utilizes a pay-for currency, allows players to earn said currency ingame without paying, albeit at a much slower rate. Supercell's Clash of Clans' tree clearing mechanic is a good example of this.
I just saved you 150k on that suit. you're welcome -Friendly neighborhood Logibro
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Geovexen
Endless Hatred
Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive
37
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Posted - 2014.04.14 00:36:00 -
[2] - Quote
General John Ripper wrote:Wouldn't a beta client also cut our ever decreasing population size in half? or what if everyone decides to join and dust dies and the new beta client becomes the new dust  And now we realize that we have entered the twilight zone.
Singularity isn't always online. they basically hold events. If you were interested in helping with the game development you see when the server is online and join for the duration that it runs. the server doesn't stay up. no one would leave Tranquility for Singularity, it just wouldn't happen. the incentive then for players to help beta test is for the chance at some free AUR, or they may just genuinely want to see the game progress.
-Waiting until logis aren't broken.
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