Celus Ivara
DUST University
Ivy League
267
   |
Posted - 2015.01.11 19:58:00 -
[1] - Quote
So as a player who's been running an Uplink Scout as my main since closed Beta, the Bandwidth changes have crippled my role. As such I have given the mechanic and it's results on the dynamic a lot of thought.
One main thing that has to be admitted right from the start is that Bandwidth was introduced to fix the very nasty problem of Equipment-Spam>Swap, and it has effectively eliminated that problem.
Even though BW has crippled my role and led to a number of other issues in the dynamic, I do have to be honest about this upfront: Dust as it is right now, is better than before Bandwidth.
With that said, there are a number of new issues that Bandwidth has caused.
- Deployable Logi's can no longer swap out of their role to deal with a changing battlefield.
- Vets can no longer fix the problem of blueberries who can't/won't/don't-know-how-to deploy uplinks.
- The role of Deployable Support is now hard bound to the Logi suit-class, completely eliminating the 3 other suit-classes.
- Less Uplinks on the battlefield has made it so it very often takes far longer to get back into combat.
I've spent (an honestly unconscionable amount of) time thinking about this issue.
I've come to the point where I see two possible "fixes" to Bandwidth that would soften/eliminate most of these problems.
Note that both of the solutions are based on differing ideas of what the core issue of "Equipment-Spam>Swap" was (specifically, what the missing cost was) and then applying a fix directly to that.
#1:
Core Spam>Swap issue:
"The problem of players deploying a bunch of equipment and then swapping roles is that it enables a player to bring more power to the battle with no additional fitting cost."
Issue explanation:
A Logi with deployables out is good.
A well fit Slayer is good.
A well fit Slayer with deployables out is great! In fact if you are staying in your deployables fit Logi suit after getting your gear in place, or if you are fighting in your well fit Slayer suit without first getting deployables out, you are objectively & mathematically playing sub-par.
Solution:
Make it so if a player switches to a Slayer suit and they have equipment out that they want to keep, make them "carry the burden of it on their back".
Add a module that can be fitted to any suit that increases Bandwidth. Any player in any suit can have a decent amount of equipment out, but they now have to hinder their fit by sacrificing one or more slots and a bunch of CPU/PG to do so.
Now you have:
A Logi with deployables out is good.
A well fit Slayer is good.
A sub-par fit Slayer with deployables out is good.
The community has been suggesting #1 for a while now.
After having thought on this for a long time, I eventually found a second perspective/solution to the situation.
#2:
Core Spam>Swap issue:
"The problem of players deploying a bunch of equipment and then swapping roles is that it enables a player to bring more power to the battle with very little time cost."
When you get to the highend of play, and start considering all the in-game resources needed to win fights, you start to realize that more valuable than clones, MCC health, or ISK, is probably the single most precious resource: Time. Players spend time to achieve goals on the battlefield. Killing, healing, hacking, getting from A to B, plaicng equipment,... You spend time to achieve your goals. When you hurt an enemy the main thing you are costing them is thier time. The value in wounding a HAV/ADS is they have to run away and spend time healing. the point of wounding a player is they have to take cover and spend time healing instead of killing/hacking/advancing. Killing an enemy forces them back to the nearest spawn and they have to burn time spawning in and covering territory. Placing uplinks lessens the time cost for your entire army; consistently denying the enemy army good span points will win any any battle since they can't operate at the same time efficiency as your army.
Time is an incredibly precious resource to both the individual player and to the team as a whole. The core issue with people quickly spamming a ton of equipment in a Logi suit and then instantly swapping to a Slayer fit was that they were manifesting a buch of Logi power with out paying the usual Logi time cost.
Solution:
Make it so there is a hindrance to rapidly spamming equipment then swapping.
Now some members of the community had already been proposing various mechanics that would target this; limits to how fast deployables can be dropped; limits to how close deployables can be placed to a Supply Depot. But the suggestions kept getting shot down by other players due to those mechanics causing massive other problems.
The idea I hit on though was that Bandwidth should no longer limit how much total equipment you can have deployed, but rather how much you can have quickly deployed.
The specific mechanic I'd offer for consideration is: what if every piece of deployed equipment gradually took less BW the longer it was out? (For narrative reasons, let's say the MCC and the deployable tuned into each other over time and eventually the specific piece needed less Bandwidth to exist.)
This BW cost decrease happens for only one equipment piece at a time. To offer some numbers for discussion, let's say every 10 seconds a deployable is out it costs 1 less BW, eventually ending at zero. So, one uplink will take 40 seconds to decrease to no BW cost. Two uplinks will take 80 seconds. |
Celus Ivara
DUST University
Ivy League
267
|
Posted - 2015.01.11 19:59:00 -
[2] - Quote
So, lets run some examples:
(Note: For easy math, I'm treating all these as:
Deployable = 4 BW
Slayer fit equals 12 BW)
Spammer scenario:
Spammer hits a Supply Depot and floods the area with equipment. The fist piece of gear hit the ground basically instantly and
about 12 seconds and 8 pieces of gear later, the last piece of gear is out and the spammer swaps to a Slayer fit. The first piece of gear has ticked down from 4 to 3, all the other gear still cost what it did before, all but the first 3 pieces of equipment pop. Same behavior we have today.
Logi encountering needed role change scenario:
Logi reaches an enemy objective with their squad, places an uplink and a hive, pulls out a Rep-tool and heals the squad as they take the objective. 80 seconds later the 'link and 'hive cost 0 BW. Some time later the team clears the area and takes the objective. Logi reiforces the target by deploying 5 pieaces of equipmet throughtout the area. BW cost for everything now at 20 BW. Squad fights off enemies over the next 140 seconds. Tank rolls up and Logi player is designated AV. Switches to Slayer-AV. Bandwitdth cost of 6 BW easily fits into 12 BW of Slayer; nothing pops. Tank is fended off and runs to heal; player swaps back to Logi fit.
Support Scout scenario:
Uplink Scout runs towards Charlie, 100m out places a 'link. Hacks cannon. Runs towards city, pauses 150m away from Charlie, turns around and drops a 'link. 30 seconds have passed since first drop; first 'link at 1 BW and second at 4 BW. 20 seconds later, reaches city, cloaks, spends 20 seconds parkouring up pipes to reach a safe-ish point, drops 'link. First at 0 BW, second at 1 BW, third at 4 BW.
Out of 'links, Scout fights in city, 10 seconds later is killed (I'm basically narrating me here ;) ).
Looks at map, no enemies at Charlie and allies spawnign into city fight; chooses to enemy's natural cannon at Delta. Spawns in as cloase as possible (which is not close at all) and marathons to Delta. 150m out drops a 'link. 40 sec since last drop; first at 0 BW, second at 0 BW, third at 1 BW, forth at 4 BW.
Proceds to Delta, hacks it, intantly killed by a spray of bullets lust as the hack finishes.
Looks at map, Delta being counter-hacked, Charlie has been hacked by enemy, first uplink destroyed by enemy, city uplink destroyed by enemy, allies spawing off second uplink to retake Charlie. Decide to ignore Delta for now, and rely on teamates to reatake Charlie; maintaining a beachhead at city more important. Spawn at uplink near Delta and turn around and run at city. 100m out place 'link.
20 seconds since last drop; first is dead, second at 0 BW, third is dead, forth at 0 BW, fifth at 4 BW.
Enter city, place 'link inside in some out of the way place, find enemy, fight, die.
Look at map,....
Process of continually repositioning uplinks as they are popped, and atepting to hack/fight continues rest of match.
Heavy with bad team scenario:
Heavy spawns in, calls LAV, waits for blueberries to load in, rushes middle of map. Objectives at ceter are captured and defesive fighting ensues for the next few minutes.
Eventually the Heavy notices thier allies aren't taking any of the other objectives, checks the map and sees no uplinks out.
Realizes this is a losing situation, swaps to an uplink Logi suit and over the next 120 seconds gets 5 uplinks out. Now, the first three 'links are at 0 BW, but the last two are at 4 each; if the player switches back to Heavy now, the first three will remain, but the last two will pop. Player stays in Logi and heals and fights for the next couple minutes. All uplinks now at 0 BW, they switch back to Heavy.
Notice how in the four scenarios above, the only one that can't play the way they did before Bandwitdh is the Spammer. Everyone else is able to invest time, ISK, and cunning to help their team just as they used to be able to do before BW was implimented.
Notes:
#1 has issues with making fitting a bit annoyhing. If player isn't expecting to have to swap between Deployables and other roles, they will have to screw with fits mid-battle.
#2 has issues with it being confusing what equipment is costing what Bandwidth. New Bandwidth GUI would largely elivaite this, but it would still exist to some degree.
If we implement #2 we can't get rid of the "Max deployed" stat as some have suggested, else we'll have no total cap what so ever, and we get to findout how many of an infite pool of deployables is needed to crash a map. |