Jaysyn Larrisen
OSG Planetary Operations
Covert Intervention
1436
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Posted - 2015.01.02 15:02:00 -
[1] - Quote
This thread has gotten to the point where folks are just throwing rocks at each other and refusing to see that others simply have a different perspective on what the in-game effects are. This is exacerbated from both sides of the discussion I suspect.
I'm a dedicated support player. I enjoy the tactics, squad leading, GC'ing a team and such more than some of the gunplay itself. I run logi suits of different races and setups the vast majority of the time (85-90% range easy).
Some anecdotal but clearly observed pieces over the last couple weeks.
1) The majority of folks in pubs are solo. To Ripley and Z3dog...i pretty much check the team screen every match and you can see how many folks are in squads and how many aren't in pub matches i've rarely seen more than 50% of the team in squads. Often you see squads of 2-4 people. I do this because when I run solo I drop into a random squad so my WPs are helping someone out at least.
As an aside, I think Ambush used to have more solos but that may have changed with the daily missions (i.e. routine solo player in skirmish more to get hacking missions done or dominations to get high WP per match missions done).
2) As noted by SirManBoy, I am seeing slightly higher WP returns...nothing to judge this from or get objective data, just seems that way. I attribute this to less logi's on the field generally....and there weren't a lot of them to start with.
3) I am strongly against mechanics that attempt to constrain folks to single role play. I'm also against forcing people to shift their game through negative reinforcement methods. My perspective has always been that bandwidth is a much more punishing to player choice in regards to logi's than any other role. I thought there were several other incremental ways to achieve lowering equipment deployment on the field and highlighting logistics play but bandwidth was what they were going to go with from the get go.
Simply put, the bonuses or advantages you get from pretty much any other role revolve around killing (using different capabilities to do so) and the end result is the same. Scout swaps to heavy swaps to assault back to scout...it's about slaying for the most part. When you make a fluid switch to something else as a logi, even for the 90secs, you can incur a dramatic penalty that you simply don't have for switching other roles. Additionally, there needs to be a real balance pass on the actual bandwidth cost per equipment, bandwidth per suit, and the ability to see bandwidth remaining in the combat UI.
4) I rarely switch suits now, the cost to my team is usually too serious. It puts you in very tough positions to try and swap to AV to deal with 3x HAVs mobbing your point and farming your team or pop uplinks, hives, lose reps, etc. Other roles don't have than stark of a choice. The pain point on this pretty manageable personally but when the situation arises it sucks pretty bad.
5) I vastly prefer team play over solo play, however, you shouldn't push this view (or the opposite solo player stance) to the point it simply makes the game not fun for people that enjoy other aspects of the game. Bandwidth certainly highlights that coordinating roles, coms, and such is even more critical. For solo players...or even if you are in a squad but can't speak to the other 10 or 12 folks on your team it can be a bit of a pain.
6) I would be remiss if I didn't point out that something like bandwidth can be managed and worked with even if I think it is a poorly implemented way to constrain player flexibility. That said, the logi class dramatically needs some help and i don't see it coming on the horizon at all. I would like SirManBoy or Cross to chime in on this from the CPM perspective directly to the player community. The general performance, survivability, and cost of the logistics suits in combination to a well intentioned mechanic such as bandwidth is clearly thinning the ranks of support players.
Apologies for the long post, just took a bit to address several points in the thread.
"Endless money forms the sinews of War." - Cicero
Skype: jaysyn.larrisen
Twitter: @JaysynLarrisen
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