Jebus McKing
Sinister Souls
426
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Posted - 2014.05.04 12:50:00 -
[1] - Quote
EVE:Legion and the future of DUST514
- About me -
I am mainly a PC gamer. I am also a huge fan of FPSs and 80% of the games I play on a regular basis are FPSs.
I was an EVE Online player, I really liked the universe, but I never really got into the game. I am also one of those guys who bought a PS3 in late 2009 after they heard about the announcement of DUST514. I've never regretted buying a PS3 because it is a great console with lots of really good exclusives. (My first PS3 love being MAG.)
I've been waiting ~3 long years to finally be able to play DUST514 (during its closed beta) and I didn't really like it back then. But the game got better, I've made good friends here and today it is basically the only game I still play on a daily basis.
I have to say my PC is now ~5 years old as well and I will go where DUST514 goes, wether it is PS4 or PC, because it is the only game left I really care for. But at the same time everything I will say is biased by the fact that I am hoping to be able to play Legion on my current rig and that I prefer playing FPSs with M/KB.
tl;dr PC gamer who bought a PS3 after announcement of DUST514; will follow DUST514 on whatever platform
- What has happened at fanfest -
In short, from my perspective, what has happened at fanfest was the best for the product, but not for its current community.
When you announced DUST514 you made clear that you wanted to attract a different kind of people than with EVE Online on PC. And you achieved exactly that. You have a community of console players, a small one, but one that is loyal and that spent money and time on your game.
What has happened at fanfest is now considered by many of them as a slap in the face.
- You made people excited for the future of DUST514 in the weeks/months before fanfest.
- Launched event after event and made people buy booster after booster.
- You told them to watch the keynote, for it would be about the next evolution of DUST514.
- People got excited and expected all the stuff they kept asking for for months and months to be announced at fanfest.
- Instead you showed them NOTHING that has anything to do with the game they love and are currently playing.
- On top of that you showed them a different game that would be released on a platform most of them probably don't want to migrate to.
- And to make things even worse - and I think you have not realised this even now - after you got a huge backlash, you go out and tell them that what they've seen was an early prototype and that you don't even know if or when it is going to become reality.
To summerize this: You left people with one dead game and another game that won't be here any time soon.
- Future of DUST514 till Legion release -
This is the most important question for me at the moment:
What is going to happen to DUST514 till Legion is released? You said that only a part of the team would continue 'delivering fixes and balancing'. Is that it?
Lets be honest here. Legion is probably not going to be released any time soon. I expect a closed beta not any sooner than 12-18 months from now.
So, what it looks like at the moment is that we are going to be stuck with what is basically Uprising 1.8 (+some fixes) for at least a year. And noone wants that.
To make things worse, why would anyone who was only playing DUST514 because he believed in the greater vision of it, but does not want to make the switch from the console to the PC platform, continue playing DUST514?
I will continue playing because I like the game and I will play it on whatever platform it is going to be released on. But I am afraid of months of dropping playernumbers and stagnating gameplay.
What about:
- Playermarket
- Corp battles
- racial vehicle parity
- racial heavy weapon parity
Is this still going to happen? You should've had answers for all this prior to fanfest!
- Concerns about Legion (history repeats?) -
Lets face it. There are a lot of really good FPSs on the PS3. DUST514s core FPS gameplay has never been what I would consider 'good'. This is already a wall of text so I won't go into detail here.
What I am concerned about now is that we will see the same crappy mechanics just on another platform.
Legion will crash and burn if you don't get it right from the start this time. Aiming has to be perfect, hit-detection has to work properly, climbing up a hill and getting stuck on a 30cm edge will not be tolerated. You've had more than enough time to get things right and if you fail again I'm not sure people will tolerate that again just because they still believe in the greater vision.
- What I want for Legion -
I have to admit, and people probably won't like me for it, but as someone who prefers playing FPSs with M/KB I am really looking forward to Legion.
And there are a few things I'd like you, CCP, to do:
- Listen to your playerbase. Not to the EVE Online players, not to people from other PC FPS communities, but to us! WE are the ones who tried to help you shape this game. Cater to us!
- Make sure that WE, the loyal DUST514 playerbase, are the first ones to be able to play Legion and give you feedback. Again, not the EVE players or anyone else. And let us be the first ones not by a few days or a week. Give us access to the closed beta months before you accept feedback from anyone else. I think you owe us that much.
- Finally, and this is just a personal preference, try and release Legion for Steam OS/Linux as well.
That is all.
Thank you, CCP, for this awesome vision called 'DUST514'.
Thank you, DUST514 community, for making me stick to this game despite its obvious shortcomings.
@JebusMcKing
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