Xeuras Laevaetein
Fraternity of St. Venefice
Amarr Empire
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Posted - 2014.05.01 11:26:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'd like to start out by saying I really do love the EVE universe, and would love to see it succeed. I started playing during Apocrypha, and somewhere along the line got a tad disillusioned with the state of the game and unsubbed, coming back for some FW and then dropping off again. Now, before moving on, I really want to stress that my intent here is to generate something approaching meaningful discussion. I know HTFU is the name of the game around these parts, but I've gotten accustomed to the type of Dev/Player interaction Riot consistently demonstrates with League of Legends, and if nothing else, I would vastly appreciate either a Dev or the more knowledgeable members of the community shedding some insight on what at first blush seems to be a less than ideal state of game balance.
From a DUST perspective, I am very, very new. I'm sitting at 800k SP and relying on the Fox Gaden guides for strategy and the like. That said, it is a very real possibility that I am simply at point in the game where the things I am going to describe are simply business as usual, and that my concerns have no valid grounding. However, based on my experience with other games in the genre, as a new comer to dust my impression is somewhat negative, and frankly a lot of this has to do with Vehicles (to be very specific, tanks), and how they influence/warp gameplay at my level of play.
I'll be frank, as of the writing of this post, I have personally not piloted any of the vehicles, so there may be an element of bias here. So far I consider my experiences with the other vehicles to have been positive. Being caught offguard by an LAV or dropship often proves deadly, but they never dominate the field of play, as they can be forced off the field or destroyed even at my level of play. Tanks on the other hand have proven to be an entirely different beast, with about...8 out of every 10 matches I play seemingly revolving around who can bring the most of them to the table and thus dominate the field.
I've had many intensely frustrating experiences thus far revolving around tanks where I didn't feel like I had any meaningful options for counterplay available to me. I've only been playing a few days and I've already had numerous instances where I can't make any damage "stick" for lack of a better term (granted, this is with militia swarm+basic AV nades). From my perspective, tanks seem to possess the following attributes:
- High Durability (appropriate for the role though IMO)
- (Seemingly) Fast local rep/regen
- Mobility that seems to be about on par with an LAV (low duration on bursts of speed? afterburners? I dunno)
Unfortunately, the combination of the above factors has resulted in 1 of the following 3 scenarios playing out in pretty much all of my games where they are fielded:
1. Me and my fellow militia shitfits get steamrolled mercilessly. If solo to go hero with AV nades (or flux) +swarm launcher to at least try and wear it down a little. More often than not I do negligible damage, but if I get lucky, I drop it somewhere into armor before it kills me with 80j cannon. But then it reps up about as soon as I'm dead, meaning attrition is not an option.
2. Again, me and my fellow militia shitfits get steamrolled mercilessly. This time we maybe get a full squad of fellows to swap to AV fits (usually appears to be the lot of us in militia gear). We get off enough swarm volleys to drop it far enough into armor where it no longer wants to play. Unfortunately, the turret swings around fast enough, and the tank itself is fast enough such that it isn't at all committed to the fight, and can just run out of lock range for the swarm launcher quite quickly, while still pinning us down/killing people with the 80j. It can then simply drive in and out soloing the impromptu AV squad. That's before factoring in the rest of their team. And again, attrition proves to not be an option.
3. We also have a tank. Who's tank dies first? Surviving tank is going to mow down the supporting infantry with the 80j shortly thereafter.
Now then, that's a lot of words, and honestly, reading this over, I may very well just be QQing, but this is where I ask for feedback:
1. Any Devs/Senior Players care to weigh in on Tanks warping the metagame/gameplay? Is that something that other people's observations, or statistics based on match data would support? Perhaps limited to a singular game mode (Ambush)?
2. Should tank's be adjusted such that their tankiness comes from buffer at the expense of local rep ability to make attrition an option? Should attrition be an option at all with regards to dealing with vehicles?
3. Is their mobility a problem? Did I exaggerate in saying they appear to be on-par with LAVs in terms of speed?
4. If Tanks are balanced at the endgame, and only present a problem at the lower SP levels of play, is that something where adjustment is warranted? Or could it be speaking to a broader issue with matchmaking?
Anyways, if anyone actually takes the time to read this, I really do thank you, and hope it doesn't all just come off as QQ. I remember EVE balance changes being glacial in pace back in the day (at least in comparison to league), but I really do hope something that moves the game in a positive direction comes of this. |