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Mobius Kaethis
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
1971
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Posted - 2014.10.24 13:57:00 -
[1] - Quote
Yesterday I was getting ready to log off for the night when a player in our public channel asked if anyone could help him understand stacking penalties. Being a rather nice guy (when I'm not being a total ass) I invited him to a squad and started helping him.
What I learned through our conversation is that there is a huge amount of disinformation floating about. This player, who had been around for a while, had no idea how stacking penalties worked or about the recent changes to sniper rifles even though he is primarily a sniper.
Here is where I get to my point. If a player, who seems like a reasonable adult, and has been playing the game for a significant amount of time (he has about 30 mil sp) can remain ignorant of basic mechanics and major changes to the function of his role, than something is lacking. Clearly something needs to be done to make information more visible and mechanics less opaque. Yes, players could come here and wade through the forums. I do, and I love it but many players clearly don't have the time to do so. We need solutions that are built into the game.
Solutions to this problem need to be built into the game in two ways. Game mechanics that alter a player's competetive ability need to have some sort of display on the fitting screen. The core CPU and PG skills are prime examples of this. They affect a players ability to fit items to their suits, a major gameplay mechanic, and your skills are reflected in your suits total PG on the fitting screen. While some of these skills have a visible result like the core CPU and PG skills others have no noticeable change on the fitting screen making it hard for some players to quantify or even understand a skills effects. Weapon proficiency is a great example here (as are all the related skills like rapid reload) since none of those skills show up at all upon fitting which leads to misunderstanding and, as a result, poor fittings.
All modules placed upon a suit also need to have their affect shown on the fitting screen, and I don't just mean their individual effects which you can see by pressing triangle while hovering over a module. No the sum of all the mods and skills a player has should be visible on one summary screen that is part of the fitting menu. Think about damage mods and how unless you really know how they work and are willing to do some math or use protofits you're never going to see how much shield/armor damage your weapon is doing with them on your suit.
Now with more evil.
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Mobius Kaethis
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
1971
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Posted - 2014.10.24 13:57:00 -
[2] - Quote
I have to go to work but I will continue this here.
Now with more evil.
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Breakin Stuff
Goonfeet
Special Planetary Emergency Response Group
3896
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Posted - 2014.10.24 14:00:00 -
[3] - Quote
Most of the playerbase is not aware that the forums exist.
The NPE needs an incredible amount of work.
EVE Online is what you get when engineers attempt to create "fun" without consulting someone who comprehends the word.
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Mobius Kaethis
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
1971
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Posted - 2014.10.24 18:45:00 -
[4] - Quote
Breakin Stuff wrote:Most of the playerbase is not aware that the forums exist.
The NPE needs an incredible amount of work.
I agree but this is a problem that extends beyond new players. Even older players, like the gentleman I mentioned before, have large gaps in their understanding of how the game works. There are changes that need to be made to make the game simply more accessible since console players seem to be less likely to look for outside help than PC players.
Now with more evil.
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Chief-Shotty
WASTELAND JUNK REMOVAL
Top Men.
332
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Posted - 2014.10.24 19:27:00 -
[5] - Quote
There should be some sort of in-game manual that talks about the many factors of dust. It would be a large manual but for those who invest they could quickly identify what is what, with modules, fitting, skills, penalties, etc.
I for one don't like the hand-holding of some tutorials but there should be some place where you can look for information in the game. Perhaps there should be some hand-holding when players are starting out.
Certainly we will need for more information on the panels for weapons and modules (damage profile, range, bonuses from modules) and/or a section in the options menu for quick tips. Even the loading screens could be vastly varied by including these .
I for one think the vets should come together to make an ingame-manual of everything from weapons, E-War, modules, penalties, etc and with a little help from CCP the numbers and how they work.
A client update could implement all that as an game manual or guide of DUST.
8-Time New Eden Mass Driver Champion
Min Commando Combat Rifle and Mass Driver = FUN and Tears
OMG the Tears!! :)
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One Eyed King
Land of the BIind
4983
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Posted - 2014.10.24 19:32:00 -
[6] - Quote
I also think it doesn't help that the forums are primarily geared for English speaking players.
For a game that has a global audience, it makes finding that info on the forums rather difficult.
You can always tell a Millford Minja
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Kevall Longstride
DUST University
Ivy League
1873
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Posted - 2014.10.24 22:29:00 -
[7] - Quote
Breakin Stuff wrote:Most of the playerbase is not aware that the forums exist.
The NPE needs an incredible amount of work.
And the situation is even worse when we now have to consider how much larger the player base is against what most of thought it was. The number of players that regularly post on the forums is less than 1000, roughly 0.3% of the 300K of monthly unique players the game has been getting for the last few months.
Forum participation has been very low for a while now. So much so in fact, that where before I would direct a new member of D-UNI to the private corp forums for all their hints, tips and explanations, I now send them direct to them from The Archive folder I created in Eve on Dennie's account. It takes a while to get through sending nearly 40 emails to each new starter everyday but the resulting higher retention rate that D-UNI alumni have against the games normal retention is worth the effort. Currently about 80% of players joining D-UNI are either still playing in D-UNI or have moved onto other corps each month.
This is my round about way of saying that NPE is much better handled internally in the game itself rather than relying on an external source such as the forums.
Unfortunately, well executed and informative NPE takes a lot of effort in terms of programming and the execution in the game itself, something that I've been learning in my time on the CPM so far. There are a number of things that I've brought to the attention of CCP so far (and more to come). One idea that I'd like CCP to pursue it the notion of social and corp management in either web for or smartphone app.
Now obviously that isn't that far removed the forums but the real difference of course would be the level of integration with the game itself. This would be more interactive and therefore more interesting. Not that coming onto the forums to talk to you fine people isn't interesting but the vast majority of people would rather spend their time shooting you than talking to you.
CPM 1 member
CEO of DUST University
Vist dustcpm.com
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Mobius Kaethis
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
1976
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Posted - 2014.10.25 00:41:00 -
[8] - Quote
Kevall Longstride wrote:One idea that I'd like CCP to pursue it the notion of social and corp management in either web for or smartphone app.
That is a great idea but why should it stop at corp management?
Wouldn't an app that let you interact with players via the in game corp channel be amazing. What a great way to add to the already wonderful social aspect of the game, a core element that keeps many of us coming back to Dust. Eventually it could allow full access to your mercs chat channels which would be amazing. I will admit this would be a crazy little bit of coding though.
Now with more evil.
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Vulpes Dolosus
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
2346
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Posted - 2014.10.25 02:38:00 -
[9] - Quote
Really all of the information needs to be overt in the fitting menus, much like how ProtoFits does.
It needs to show each and every stat (weapon damage per shot, shield regen rate, shield delays, armor repair, scan stats, et al) along with enumerating what is affecting each stat and by how much (hp incased by X-extender/plate, scan profile/range/precision reduced/boosted by X% from X,Y,Z mods, damage per shot increased by X-damage mods, penalty to shield delay increased by X% from Y-mods, et al and includes stacking penalties).
This would help debunk a lot of misconceptions and grey areas in the game and, hopefully, get people to make smarter fits in-game.
Dust is there! I was real!
Dear diary, Rattati senpai noticed me today~
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