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Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2404
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Posted - 2014.12.19 17:27:00 -
[1] - Quote
+1 Hansei. This is prolly the core topic for DUST or any other game set in new EDEN and it's a genuinely tough problem(imo it's even bigger than that - this whole conversation should be a Gamasutra article).
Peeps are already pointing out some of the logistical difficulties that come with trying to separate matches by metatier in DUST. It could turn into a godawful time-consuming can of worms for devs and players alike.
Anti-Metatier Suggestions
What's more powerful than gear? Teamwork!
We need to sex up teamwork for new players(up to 10 million sp). Proposed:
- Squadded new players get double WP/ISK for all actions.
- Squadded new players on voice comms get triple WP for all actions.
- The corps we contract ourselves out to would bonus these behaviors.
What's more powerful than teamwork? Intel!
Give un-ewar skilled individual mercs a small TACNET range/precision buff for being in a squad(please keep reading it's not OP)
Why? Appeal to peeps' risk aversion, social primates love that stuff. Level the playing field between vets and noobs. Lorewise it's easy to motivate: Tacnet is a distributed peer-to-peer network run on dropsuits, more nodes = better network.
- Must calibrate buffs carefully to avoid OPness. Range/Precision buff values must be asymptotic to full core ewar skills.
- Calculate average over squad for precision & range ewar skills, then lift lower-than-average members' effective skills to that average.
- This preserves our hard-won ewar balancing and doesn't over-buff. Gives absolutely no advantage to vets & motivates peeps to train ewar.
- If we wanted to sweeten the pot we could add a 1% per squad member on top of the very gentle 'averaging' buff.
Pro Metatier Suggestions <- really don't support this but Rattati want us to think about it, so...)
Make meta cost non-linear: peeps are already min maxing BFG builds for tiers, let's make them pay.
- Rattati may have already done this, based on his 100, 200, 300 scale.
- For presentation purposes, lets just square the Meta Level(hereafter ML): ML 1 costs 1-¦ = 1 to fit, ML 2 costs 2-¦ = 4 to fit, etc.
- Set your Meta level locks around that squared number: Tier 1 has 25 ML-¦ fitting points, Tier 2 has 49, etc.
- Doesn't have to be square but it does have to be a power. We could cube ML, meaning that Viziam costs you 125 fitting points. The higher the power the more we're penalizing min-max builds.
Use separate meta-tallies for weapons, suit, hislots, loslots, equip, grenades.
- This is really a more restricting substitute for the squaring mechanic posted above.
- This method puts a hard restriction on using higher meta gear in lower tier matches.
Add a variable to the matchmaking criteria: Total Core Skills.
- Matchmake based on (Metalvl + Core skills).
- A mechanic like this would virtually force sp-boosted vets to use STD gear in matches where newbros could use advanced/proto.
- Coupled with either of the mechanics above vets would have no advantage over new players other than game knowledge and personal skill. You can't do better than that.
- It's hard to motivate this lorewise, but maybe we can turn it into a win-win. I imagine a conversation that goes like the one posted below:
PSN: RationalSpark
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Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2404
|
Posted - 2014.12.19 17:27:00 -
[2] - Quote
Funkmaster Whale: 'You've gotta be frakkin' kidding me, this is absurd. You pay me to f'in kill people, that's what i do'.
Mordus Public Contract Recruiter: 'Oh, you will still kill people, and lots of them. Look, Mr. Whale, we've known you for a long time now, and the simple truth of the matter is i could give you a sharpened stick and a loincloth, send you out on an acquisition contract, and you'd come back with the facility delivered to our control and that stick caked in brains and dripping with blood.'
Funkmaster Whale: 'Kittenshit. You make it sound sooooo easy. I need that gear differential to do my job. It's a force multiplier and often the deciding factor in whether we 'acquire' your precious production facility or not. Those mercs may be new to the immortality game but they were all soldiers in their former lives. You cannot pull this crap with me.'
Mordus Public Contract Recruiter: 'I feel for you Mr. Whale , i really do. I couldn't do what you do...honestly, i stand in awe of what you accomplish on the battlefield.....but this is coming from higher up than me. Mordu's been looking at stats and models compiled by our analytics guy.'
Funkmaster Whale: Analytics! WTF are analytics! Are they somthing i can put between my loincloth and a frakkin FORGE GUN? Have you ever seen what a forge gun can do? You have No IDEA where you nutsac goes when some SoB like Dogofwar Matari is swinging a 9K330 in your direction! Analytics! Bah! Who is this analytics sh!t anyway, i wanna have a word with him'.
Mordus Public Contract Recruiter: I believe it's Mr. Rattati in the design group, we picked him up when we 'acquired' one of Duvolle's nullsec darkplants for the GK-13 Burst Assault Plasma Rifle - which is turning into a sweet little money maker, i might add. Anyway, after a....rather messy...change of leadership Rattati stepped up and has been doing a bang-up job in planning & design.
Funkmaster Whale: 'Where is he? I'll show him what a bang-up job really means. He can analyze that for awhile'.
Mordus Public Contract Recruiter: 'Forget that. Look, Mordus offering to sweeten the pot. He wants the proto gear hoarded for higher level contracts - he's willing to subsidize the vets who take these low-level contracts, says the monies earned in these low level contracts will set up the experienced guys with the finances for the proto gear they'll need when they make their bid for their own planetary 'acquisitions'. Triple rates on ISK payout. How's that sound, Mr Whale?'
*** The author would like to offer absolutely no apologies for the wanton and gleeful misrepresentation of parties concerned - especially the implication that Rattati is employed by nullsec criminal orginizations. ***
PSN: RationalSpark
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Vrain Matari
Mikramurka Shock Troop
Minmatar Republic
2409
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Posted - 2014.12.19 20:09:00 -
[3] - Quote
Hansei Kaizen wrote:Lol thats some sweet creative writing there Matari.
With some serious trial and error I am sure they can come up with a decent matchmaking system. I think the really tough thing is to preserve the feeling of continuity within the game world.
Things that are self-explanatory:
Academy - New soldiers have to be trained and get used to be immortal. Thats a no brainer.
Public contracts - You are a mercenary, working for the highest bidder. Private and public corporations and institutions. Clear.
FW contracts - You acquire missions that are organized by the military apperatuses of the empires. Clear as can be.
PC - You fight for your corporation in a war for land and resources with other mercenary corps. This is a ploy by the empires to keep the mercenarys occupied and from overthrowing the empires governments. Crazy plot there, but understandable.
What isnt so clear:
So within all this, wtf does Metalock, or any matchmaking really mean? Why would anyone do this? Why would corporations artificially limit themselves, if they are not limited by their resources (ISK)? New mercs simply cant afford it or dont have the skills, that is clear.
Good question, my bolding.
One factor still unbalancing the game is the PC ISK. Mercs can afford to run pubs at a loss for the sake of stat padding. It's a problem CCP created out of their long-term negligence of PC.
Problem is the ISK now exists and we are distorting Pub match design around it. It's something we'll have to figure out anyway because the same thing will happen on a much larger scale when/if we integrate with the EVE economy.
PSN: RationalSpark
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