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Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
3212
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Posted - 2014.05.12 16:39:00 -
[1] - Quote
The most difficult balance in developing a skill system for Legion is finding the balance between making it easy for new players to figure out, while making it complex and flexible enough to keep veteran players interested.
Some of the criticism with CCP Z's plan comes from people thinking that it leans too far toward the new player, and that it will not be as fun for veteran players as a result.
While thinking about this I also thought about the certificate system in EVE, as well as what CCP did when they changed the UI for the skill system in DUST. If you know where to look, you can still open the old skill system in DUST which uses a list interface rather than a node interface. The key that I took from this was knowing where to look.
My proposal is that the skill system that is prominently displayed when you start the game would be CCP Z's Role based Item Progression system, and if you purchase your skills through that progression you will get a skill plan that works for the role you choose. The prerequisites for the skills in that interface would be set by the interface, rather than being the actual prerequisites for the skill.
Then there should be a second skill system interface designed for the veteran player which is much more free form. This second system should be buried a bit so that you have to discover it, or be told about it. This interface would include the same skills as CCP Z's interface (possible more skills), but they would be based on their actual prerequisites, rather than role based prerequisites.
So lets say you want to use the Tactical Assault Rifle: - New Player Interface: You need to skill up through the Assault suit tree, get Assault Rifle, and then you can get the Tactical Assault Rifle skill. - Veteran Player Interface: You simply go to the weapons tree, get the Assault Rifle skill, and then you can get the Tactical Assault Rifle skill.
Key premises:
1) You can't go wrong with the New Player Interface, but you can be more creative with the Veteran Player Interface. On the flip side, the Veteran Player Interface will give you the freedom to make mistakes, while the New Player Interface imposes restrictions that protect you from yourself.
2) The New Player Interface is the default which new players will find easily when they start the game. They will only discover the Veteran Player Interface if they are exploring the UI, or doing research. In either case they are taking actions which indicate that they are ready to discover greater complexity in the game.
Hand/Eye coordination cannot be taught. For everything else there is the Learning Coalition.
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ANON Cerberus
Tiny Toons
630
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Posted - 2014.05.12 17:08:00 -
[2] - Quote
An interesting take on this indeed.
I think most players, the vast majority even would agree with something like this. We are all aware that steps do need to be taken so that newer players can feel they understand things easier, however we are all worried about the potential for dumbing down. I feel that your proposal can cater to both the new players and the veterans that are looking for more depth.
I know saberwing said that he plans to get some more information / do a QnA session with CCP Z and we all are looking forwards to hearing more about progression. |
Tweaksz
Jaded Clones Jaded Coalition
90
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Posted - 2014.05.12 17:10:00 -
[3] - Quote
ANON Cerberus wrote:An interesting take on this indeed.
I think most players, the vast majority even would agree with something like this. We are all aware that steps do need to be taken so that newer players can feel they understand things easier, however we are all worried about the potential for dumbing down. I feel that your proposal can cater to both the new players and the veterans that are looking for more depth.
I know saberwing said that he plans to get some more information / do a QnA session with CCP Z and we all are looking forwards to hearing more about progression. This is good kinda like the green light/ red light system in eve which keeps players from straying into low sec.
Pill Popping Madness!
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George Moros
Balkan Express Squad
395
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Posted - 2014.05.12 18:26:00 -
[4] - Quote
@Fox Gaden:
You proposal does make sense, and may indeed be good. However, skill tree vs. roles is not the only idea CCP Z put on the table. He also mentioned the removal of 1-5 skill levels, removal of all inherent skill bonuses, leaving skills to function only as "unlocks" for better gear, incentive to use only "top level" gear, once it is unlocked etc. All this points to a much more dumbed down, "vanilla Legion", that will perhaps cater to a much wider audience, but will also tread in the domain of other "mainstream" shooter franchises, against which CCP doesn't have the resources or know-how to compete, I'm afraid. Legion should ba a hard-core shooter MMO, just like EVE is a hard-core space-sim MMO. CCP should consider trading millions of shorter-attention-span customers that will jump on the next shooter that comes along because it has shinier graphics, for maybe a couple hundred thousand loyal fans that will stick with Legion for years to come.
Finally, this dumbing down is IMHO not really required to make the game more accessible. A good tutorial can take care of most of the issues. Or (for instance) a system of hovering tooltips in the fitting window, which will list all the relevant modifiers for a certain attribute (skills, modules, etc.) will help not just noobs, but veterans alike. There's tons of things you can do to improve NPE, without abandoning EVE-like complexity. Maybe some of us simply got used to how DUST really is terrible in many of those aspects, and believe that only a complete overhaul is required, but I really don't think so. Remember, we're talking about a game that fails to display even the most fundamental info like weapon ranges, or what the hell "accuracy rating" stands for, among many, many other fails.
Pulvereus ergo queritor.
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Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
3213
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Posted - 2014.05.12 18:49:00 -
[5] - Quote
@ George Moros, I have addressed those concerns in a letter I sent to the CPM members and copied in this post:
Item Progression and the loss of the 5 Level Skill System
Hand/Eye coordination cannot be taught. For everything else there is the Learning Coalition.
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