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Dubya Guy
Abandoned Privilege
Top Men.
57
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Posted - 2014.12.03 18:47:00 -
[1] - Quote
OK, so I was playing a quick couple of Minmatar factionals yesterday after work (who wasnGÇÖt?) and I found myself in a squad that lacked a heavy or even an armored assault. Bummer for a reppin' Minmaniac like me, right?  So I toss an invite into one of my favorite channels for Heavies and LogiGÇÖs to find each other (you know the one) and we get a heavy on board.  GÇ£Whoohoo!GÇ¥ I say.
Turns out heGÇÖs got skill. HeGÇÖs really good. An Uber-warrior, Omni-soldier sorta guy. Heck, he didnGÇÖt need to be in my squad. He could have saved the day all by himself. No sarcasm here. He really was good and had obviously skilled into multiple roles.
But something he did kinda caught my attention because, believe it or not, the people I run with usually donGÇÖt do this stuff although I know for a fact they have the skills to do so.
Any time we got near a supply depot, he would run over, switch to a logi suit with tons of links, and start running around the neighborhood and dropping them all around. HeGÇÖd then return to the depot and get a triple set of hives and repeat.  On two occasions, he then swapped out to what appeared to be a dedicated AV suit and took out a couple of LAVs. Then he would come back and swap into his HMG/Bolt Pistol Heavy and start sprinting to the next location.
Impressive solo play. Lots of points from that equipment, and a few good kills. During the two battles, I think there was only one time that he was engaged in a meaningful fire fight where my rep tool and proto skills made a difference.  I did lay a couple of uplinks out at the beginning of each battle and they got me a few points. Instead of waiting for my dropped hives to activate, he just sprinted on to the nearest depot. In short, he didnGÇÖt need me or anyone else for that matter. Good for him.
So was I disappointed? To be honest, yes. I am a specialist, my specialty wasn't needed, and I didn't want to "follow suit" and switch too. Rather than a generalist, he was being a MULTI-specialist. The game as it is designed (pre- 1.10) allows and even encourages, players to be MULTI-specialists. In my opinion, this flattens out the game and removes a level of teamwork. Some folks like that kind of game and strive to be the best at everything...all the time.  I understand that, but I think that there are other games out there that do the Omni-soldier FPS thing better. I love Dust 514 because it seems GÇ£richerGÇ¥ than that and I get the impression CCP GÇ£wantsGÇ¥ to encourage players to have a persona or role that lasts most of the battle and to some extent to rely on collaborative play with others in different roles.
The new Bandwidth changes in 1.10 will eliminate some of the above style of gameplay. A Logi will still be able to drop lots of gear, but they certainly canGÇÖt switch to a Heavy suit afterwards and continue to obtain benefits from it. They could easily start out a battle as a Heavy, Assault, or Scout, and then evolve into a Logi, but the reverse path is downgraded, so bouncing back and forth wonGÇÖt be useful.
The heavy still could switch between HMG/Bolt and dedicated AV modes without worries except that the 1.10 Supply Depot change has him inherit his shield/armor depletion status when switching, discouraging him from doing so in the middle of a firefight. Not sure how much of a disincentive that is, though. 
So, with 1.10 we may see fewer Omni-soldiers in battles. I remain curious to see if there will be a one-directional evolution of roles throughout the course of a battle, with more logi suits at the end than there were at the beginning as the former Omni-soldiers still try to milk a few more points after the battle is mostly over. I wonder if CCP keeps stats on such things. 
Any other ways in which the Omni-soldier or Uber-warrior will be affected by 1.10?
FPS = First Person Support. Kills win battles but it's kinda hard to kill if you're dead and out of ammo.
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Dubya Guy
Abandoned Privilege
Top Men.
60
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Posted - 2014.12.03 20:41:00 -
[2] - Quote
Leadfoot10 wrote:To be honest, I think we'll still see lots of "omni-soldires" in 1.10 battles -- just not so many who use (abuse?) supply depots to spam equipment.
Said a bit differently, your ability to be an omni-soldier lies more in having lots of SP (and the skill to make those suits/roles effective) rather than in using supply depots to spam equipment.
So, I disagree, respectfully, with your premise.
Respect appreciated and reciprocated. I can't help but think that players with a ton of SP and proto-capable in multiple roles, will be at least marginally less inclined to switch roles as often in a battle as they do now. It may make game play less enjoyable for them because they will feel like they do not have as large and diverse of an impact on the whole battlefield as they do now. While understandable, it will be unfortunate if they are less satisfied with Dust and cannot adjust expectations. As highly skilled players in multiple roles, they have much to teach and share with scrubs like me. 
FPS = First Person Support. Kills win battles but it's kinda hard to kill if you're dead and out of ammo.
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Dubya Guy
Abandoned Privilege
Top Men.
63
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Posted - 2014.12.03 20:58:00 -
[3] - Quote
el OPERATOR wrote:Sounds like you should've pulled your repper out of fatty's boo-tay and done your job (Logistics) instead of watching him do it for you.
I appreciate your sense of humor. 
Yes, repping this fellow was definitely not helpful in these battles, but it was a learning experience for me, and the outcomes of the battles were never really in doubt (out of courtesy, I won't mention the opposing faction ). I am sad to say that the links and hives he placed were not helpful either except in that they may have moved the squad a bit closer to a warbage strike. Some might call them "spam" since they were not placed with much care for cover or orientation and were sometimes stacked. I assume you are not implying that it is a Logi's job to spam equipment.
Yes, you are right. In any other situation, I would have abandoned this pseudo-heavy and found a combat-hungry warrior who could benefit from my meager skills. But this behavior from such an obviously skilled player had me fascinated.
FPS = First Person Support. Kills win battles but it's kinda hard to kill if you're dead and out of ammo.
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Dubya Guy
Abandoned Privilege
Top Men.
64
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Posted - 2014.12.03 21:24:00 -
[4] - Quote
el OPERATOR wrote:Those links and hives may have never been used in that match HOWEVER since you and he were obviously not staying to guard that point, had it been taken, your team by virtue of his foresight could have addressed the attack much faster and easier had your team no reinforcment on that location. Same can be said for every minefield.
I have much to learn in my craft and I sincerely appreciate your contribution to my education.
FPS = First Person Support. Kills win battles but it's kinda hard to kill if you're dead and out of ammo.
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Dubya Guy
Abandoned Privilege
Top Men.
68
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Posted - 2014.12.04 12:56:00 -
[5] - Quote
Meee One wrote:Nothing Certain wrote:Yep, the SD spam is the problem. BW doesn't address the problem so much as introduce other problems. They should just remove the ability to switch suits at the SD. How would logistics users refill their deployables?
Rather than completely remove ability to switch at depot, impose a cost to switching. Lose the suit and/or clone. Also, increase number of equipment carried (but not deployed), adjusted by Logi suit proficiency.
This would still allow switching, but make the decision to do so more strategic. And yes, if you were down to a few clones and the other side had a HAV and yours had no AV...you'd have to use tactics other than a swarm launcher to win.
But I'm beating a dead horse.
That option was not selected, and we have Bandwidth and there's no going back. Here's to hoping there are fewer unexpected side effects than some expect
I, myself, will probably start running a speed scout early in the match, then switch to Logi. No side effect to move in that direction, and the scout will probably have more survivability sprinting across the open spaces to get to objectives. Not quite "Omni-soldier", but using the options available to me to the fullest. I'll end each battle in a Logi suit by dropping all my gear in a pile and hoping to get a few misguided spawns and gun-firing celebratory hive points. This thread makes me reconsider being a dedicated Logi specialist. Sigh.
FPS = First Person Support. Kills win battles but it's kinda hard to kill if you're dead and out of ammo.
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Dubya Guy
Abandoned Privilege
Top Men.
68
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Posted - 2014.12.04 16:59:00 -
[6] - Quote
Sorry "godfather" and Goo. I left my [:tongue-in-cheek:] emoticons off. No, I have no intention of changing my play style as a result of Bandwidth, even though many see single-roling as a weaker/shallower form of play.
Many others will have to change their style. Some of whom (unlike the player described in the example) are actually NOT egregious spammers.
My goal was to illustrate that while Bandwidth will address equipment spamming, it will have an unintended impact on role-switching... in a non-uniform fashion. Since deployable equipment (unlike weapons) has a persistent benefit to the player, there will be a new disincentive to switching OUT of equipment-deploying roles, but no (new) disincentive to switching IN to them.
I am curious to see how this affects gameplay for those (unlike myself) who like to switch roles. Heavy->Assault->Scout->Logi or any lateral switches will still be seen as "smart", but the reverse will be "less smart".
Note: I will always be "less smart" regardless of my role selection...I was just born that way. 
FPS = First Person Support. Kills win battles but it's kinda hard to kill if you're dead and out of ammo.
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