John Demonsbane
Unorganized Ninja Infantry Tactics
League of Infamy
2660
   |
Posted - 2014.04.17 14:39:00 -
[1] - Quote
I used to be in the anti-protostomp crowd, and I still donGÇÖt run proto in pubs on principle (and to a lesser extent as a financial necessity. I lose a lot of ISK in FW). While I do think itGÇÖs bad for the NPE, itGÇÖs not as bad as the NPE itselfGǪ the academy is a joke, there are no tutorials worth mentioning, no PvE(!), and the best GÇ£manualGÇ¥ out there is player-made, not produced by CCP. New players are simply left to blunder around and be farmed until/unless they have an epiphany and either join a good corp or hit the forums to learn. Even then we all know those people we help out and they bail on the game anyway because of the relentless beating they take.
Now, IGÇÖm not excusing the protobears, because I still think itGÇÖs bad form, but I had an epiphany a few months ago. ItGÇÖs not them. With no protoGÇÖs in pubs, the payouts are terrible, so they are a necessary evil to an extent. ItGÇÖs the complete lack of matchmaking thatGÇÖs the problem. Think about it, what do we keep hearing over and over again? GÇ£ItGÇÖs a couple of us and 13 randoms against 2 stacked squads!GÇ¥
Nobody complains about GÇ£Me and ERA against Nyain SanGÇ¥. Those battles are great! Close fought, you donGÇÖt have 5 unopposed tanks itching to spawncamp, objectives get hacked, tactics are a thing, the noobs get to see (and hopefully learn) how the game should actually work.
The problem is, since Scotty has roughly the same intellectual capacity as Gary Busey leaving a bar at 4am, it never happens. The squads are inexplicably put on the same teamGǪ Every. Single. Time.
TL;DR: If you fix matchmaking, or should I say, actually have matchmaking, protostomping is a much smaller issue. (Still a little lame, but bearable)
"The line between disorder and order lies in logistics" -Sun Tzu
Forum Warrior lv.2
Amarr victor!
|
John Demonsbane
Unorganized Ninja Infantry Tactics
League of Infamy
2660
|
Posted - 2014.04.17 14:40:00 -
[2] - Quote
Oh, and Checkmate: LetGÇÖs be serious, there is absolutely an advantage to using proto gear. It may not be as big a deal as SP gap, but itGÇÖs still measurably superior. Weapons are a bad example because they scale differently. DonGÇÖt compare your ADV suits to your proto suits because I guarantee you have proto mods on those suits. Make a STD suit with STD mods and compare them to a top-to-bottom proto suit and the difference will be more obvious.
"The line between disorder and order lies in logistics" -Sun Tzu
Forum Warrior lv.2
Amarr victor!
|
John Demonsbane
Unorganized Ninja Infantry Tactics
League of Infamy
2666
|
Posted - 2014.04.17 21:19:00 -
[3] - Quote
A'Real Fury wrote:Luk Manag wrote:Trying to build this game for your average lone wolf 0SP militia player is shortsighted. If you stick around, the vast majority of your time will played as a high SP veteran. The NPE and low SP are minor hurdles that can be resolved in only a few months of effort. You can think of this period like an initiation, and it should take longer to reach PRO level suits and equipment. Some people liked Dark Souls because the game is hard. Dust should be hard. We wouldn't want them to stay because they thought it was going to be easy, and in the long run the community will be stronger from the initiation difficulty. Thats all well and good but only works if "enough" new players stick around to grow the player base. However, as far as I can tell player numbers have been static for a longtime.
Yeah, that type of argument is a fallacy. I've not played Dark Souls, but I'm guessing that there is more to it than being dumped into PvP agajnst ruthless ganker a-holes like True Adamance  an hour after hitting the start button.
People like games like that not because they are "hard" but because they are "a challenge."
A challenge = hard work against a fairly designed but difficult set of opponents that scale with your experience. This is rewarding. People enjoy this. It draws them into the game.
A challenge =/= no gameplay options outside of relentless curbstomps/baserapes at the hands of selfish tryhard a-holes with vastly superior equipment and resources. People do not enjoy this and ragequit the game in disgust.
"The line between disorder and order lies in logistics" -Sun Tzu
Forum Warrior lv.2
Amarr victor!
|