Avallo Kantor
SHAKING BABIES
FACTION WARFARE ALLIANCE
414
   |
Posted - 2014.11.05 14:27:00 -
[1] - Quote
The crux of the problem with these payouts is that it renders ISK pointless. If you can get upwards of three to twenty million ISK a match, then thereGÇÖs no real way you can run out of it. When this happens ISK is no longer a resource in the game, and really loses its point to exist in the first place.
The problem can best be split up into three main points: the loss of ISK as a conflict driver, the loss of it having a purpose to exist, and the loss of depth in fitting.
On the first point, one of the main reasons ISK is important in DUST and EVE is that it helps to drive conflict. Alliances and corporations down to the solo player all require ISK, and activities that make more ISK are more desired. In EVE this means that particularly dangerous and difficult tasks will have players flock to them for their lucrative payouts. By having high risk, high reward activities, and low risk, low reward activities you can help push conflict, especially if the most lucrative activities are ones that only a select few can profit off of. As a quick example, if level 1 missions in EVE could give a player hundreds of millions ISK each time, why would that player ever feel the need to do level 4?
At a certain point, activities earn enough ISK, especially with a lacking p2p market, that there no longer is a reason to pursue other activities as all your costs are managed. With the current ISK payouts everybody can afford to run proto all the time, so other activities become pointless.
This leads into the second point of making ISK irrelevant. If ISK never becomes a limiting factor in matters then it loses its point as a resource, and could just as well be removed. It would be akin to having an GÇ£AirGÇ¥ resource in Battlefield when you never enter any airless areas. ItGÇÖs never going to run out, and yet itGÇÖs still on the screen as a number. Resources lose their point if they are never a limiting factor, which makes them nothing more than a pointless item to track.
For the last point, if ISK becomes irrelevant due to ultra-high payouts, then there is no more reason to run anything other than proto fits. To some people, this seems like a great idea, but it has issues with the overall design and concept of this game. First, it turns progression into MMO progression, much like Destiny. Why ever use item A thatGÇÖs green, when item B is purple? Without ISK items in this game lose all purpose other than their stats, making lower tier items nothing but leveling fodder. This then makes the SP system as just a gating mechanic to keep noobs out of end game content, no different than being level 5 in world of Warcraft, and waiting to be [max level].
With the current system in DUST, it is generally true that prototype fittings cannot be run constantly as they drain too much ISK except for those who have farmed absurd amounts. Even then those players will run out if they do not take steps to replenish their funds. This means that there is a point, and in fact a benefit to running other levels of suits as it allows a resource to be conserved, and earned. Even the greenest of newbies can go ISK positive if running low level gear, a feat that many prototype running players cannot claim. ISK is a resource that incentives running lower tier gear in order to earn it, meaning that lower tier gear can have a purpose even to players who have long since earned enough SP to run all proto.
|