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Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 3 post(s) |
Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2078
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Posted - 2014.05.11 18:47:00 -
[1] - Quote
Likewise awaiting more information on this - it's a huge part of the player experience and will have a profound effect on the freedom/constraints a player encounters in skilling up and creating a role for themselves.
I'm not as enthusiastic as Kevall, i'm really feeling the CODification/mainstreaming of DUST with CCP Z's proposed changes.
With a responsibly and lovingly crafted NPE/tutorial, we are free to institute almost any type of skill/role system we can imagine. Players will get up to speed quickly if they're presented with the right information in the right context. It is important with Legion to ensure that all aspects of the game are esthetically embedded in New Eden. These are game design decisions and it is a mistake, imo, to allow them to be driven by marketing. Marketing certainly didn't do any favours for DUST 514.
Others may disagree, but for this nine year vet of EVE and two year vet of DUST, CCP Z's proposal is much more closely related to unlocks from generic mass market shooters than the fitting system i know from EVE or DUST. Looking at CCP Z's Logistic tree i'm feeling a lot more constrained.
I'm sure that others will feel this way too: when choice and free agency is removed from players it negatively impacts their gaming experience. If that constraint in agency is tied to a monetization system, then the whole thing comes off as cheezy and cynical.
This project to bring an FPS to New Eden certainly doesn't need and perhaps cannot withstand much more of that.
PSN: RationalSpark
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Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2078
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Posted - 2014.05.11 19:34:00 -
[2] - Quote
Just finished watching Shad's recording of the roundtable where CCP Z speaks about the inaccessibility of the current system to new players, and acknowledges that senior/knowledgeable players will regrettably have to take a hit in the freedom/complexity of what they can do in game.
This is the court of CCP Legion hanging the skill/fitting system for the NPE's crimes. The real victim ends up being the higher-level gameplay. It's a Faustian bargain, imo.
The current skill/fitting system has not been given a chance because there was never a proper NPE/hands-on walkthrough to get players up to speed. CCP's order of operations here is backwards: first you educate, then you modify. Is it worth throwing away a meaningful piece of advanced gameplay for more generic low-investment accessibility?
As a footnote, the idea of a 'wildcard' option for a particular 'Role Tree' sounds arbitrary and gamey, it comes out of the need to try and wedge meaningful choice back into CCP Z's hand-holdy system. Worse yet it's immersion-breaking.
What's the answer? I don't know, but here is a design principle: Create a skill system for the Mercenary Soldiers in-game, not for the players out of game. The new system has generic mainstreaming for the masses written all over it.
PSN: RationalSpark
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Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2078
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Posted - 2014.05.11 19:54:00 -
[3] - Quote
Iron Wolf Saber wrote:Working on it; last I checked he was brushing up details. CPM will like get a bat at it first but I will encourage him to press it forward. System looks powerful and needed for New Eden's newest infantry.
DIsagree. In the long run it's doing that newest infantry a disservice by reducing their agency in crafting their own role.
PSN: RationalSpark
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Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2087
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Posted - 2014.05.12 14:14:00 -
[4] - Quote
Was thinking that there is a viable way to synthesize the two positions we're seeing expressed here: Training Templates.
A new merc, after appropriate quality NPE time, is given a choice from a selection of training templates, which are simple overlays of the raw skilltree that highlights the skills that form CCP Z's 'Role Trees'.
The Training templates could be hard, soft or merely informational:
- Hard Templates would constrain what you could train and in what order, effectively 'greying out' other skills.
- Soft Templates would give a "You are choosing a skill outside or you training template, do you wish to proceed?" warning to the merc but still leave them with full volition.
- Informational templates would do nothing at all but colour-highlight skills in the template.
That's it, really. We could add some quality-of-life features and conditionals, e.g a user-selection for template 'hardness(Hard, Soft, Infomational, None)', and also that new mercs would have to complete one 'Hard Template' before unlocking the ability to set a hardness of their choice.
Iterating further, we could give players the ability to write their own templates and export them, so for example a new recruit could be given the 'Corp Bootcamp' template, etc., or we could download 'Fox Gaden's first 2 million SP' template ;)
PSN: RationalSpark
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Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2087
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Posted - 2014.05.12 14:53:00 -
[5] - Quote
Lady MDK wrote:The skill tree doesn't need changing... Especially what needs changing is how you intrkoduce new players to the concept I.e. actually have a new player experience that teaches the concept.
+1. My position also. Educate peeps before you constrain them.
PSN: RationalSpark
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