Ten-Sidhe
545
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Posted - 2014.09.09 01:05:00 -
[1] - Quote
There was at one time 3 tiers, militia hav, hav, marauder. They removed the marader and black ops hav during beta.
Enforcer hav had a different role from normal hav, but marader was just more module slots and hit points, they also had a damage bonus. Just a better hav, no different role. Memory is a little fuzzy, but I think it was still closed beta when the removal happened. Black ops hav never had role since they were meant for modules not released yet.
Infantry suits don't need a flattening. EvE ship classes had different roles and playstyles, and were in tiers. Tiercide left the roles but removed the tiers. All the tiers of dust suits have the same role.
Unless we get 3-5 of each suit with different bonus/stats/slot layouts there is no need to remove the only choice. 4 different advance suits for each type would be better then 4 tiers of the same suit, but would also be alot more work for the devs. It would be almost as easy for then devs to add 4 types on top of the tiers for 16 options, as to change the 4 from tier to type.
The choice of how much to spend on a fit is one of choices at the core of the game. Some want the best suit no matter the cost and lose isk dying in proto to up kdr, some don't care about kdr and run cheap gear to build up isk, and many shades between. I personally ran an advance suit with standard light weapon and complex mods, despite having proto weapons and suits unlocked day 1 from being beta tester. Having 30+ million sp and few hundred million isk wasn't a reason to waste isk using more gear then needed in pub matches. |
Ten-Sidhe
545
|
Posted - 2014.09.11 00:42:00 -
[2] - Quote
Assault suit compared the medium suit is good comparison, medium and assault are basically the same role with assault doing it better, as opposed to logi with a different role.
The marauder to hav was very similar to comparing a proto assault to an advanced medium. Same role but more hp/shield/slots and and a damage bonus. Assault suit is similar layout as medium, but with skill bonus, so it would be very similar to comparing an assault of one tier higher to a medium frame. Especially if the suits still had shield/armour stat increase at each tier like they used too. As I said the BO and Enforcers had different roles. There were also force recon dropships in closed beta that were pretty much just better stats slots. These higher tier style tech II were replaced by tech II with different roles. The initial intent of devs as I understand was separate roles, with the first try just not succeeding in having a different role, like how logi lav were meant to be a support unit but became super lav until nerfed to be more reasonable and fill intended role better. For example, the marauder in the background on dust site mentioned a siege module like an eve dreadnought, and the dropship was to have a cloak. I remembered the roles, what I was fuzzy on was if they were removed in closed or early open beta.
Tiericide flattens the tiers so they are all useful at the same time. Tiers can also refer to differences in heights, so referring to removal of tiers as a flattening is not a misuse. Good when they have separate roles like eve ships, when the only difference is tier it would be bad. The number of in game items is the same if flattened or not. If the current suit tiers were flattened, they would be pretty much identical reducing variety, if they had different roles it would add endgame variety. Adding more roles would be good by itself. If we good the old type-i and type-ii suits from beta back, a tiericide to not make the type-ii clearly better would be good for variety. Removing militia/standard/adv/proto would not help variety, some people have different idea of endgame and don't want to run proto.
I know why they did tiericide in eve. Each ship had a role and tier, the tier prevented some roles having proper place. Here in the case of suits, we have tier but no roles. If std/adv/pro caldari assault suits had different roles, for example, then an EvE style tiericide could help. But since they are all the same role, there is nothing to bring out in end game by flattening the tires.
It would be interesting if the different roles were added at the adv level, so proto gear would be less flexable even if it was better in the role it did. Making a tree of single standard choice > many adv choices with different varient roles > single proto. This would make going to proto a sub optimal choice for some roles, but needed for others.
For example, standard caldari assault as is...caldari adv with swarm bonus, one with rail bonus, one with shield bonus, one with more grenades, ect...proto with all bonus to rail rifle, making it more powerful at that role but inflexible. |