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Cat Merc
Fatal Absolution
General Tso's Alliance
14913
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Posted - 2015.02.05 19:35:00 -
[1] - Quote
AURLords 1.0
The Warbarge, why people dislike it, and how to improve on it.
Written by the Cat Overlord
With thanks for Pokey for motivating me to do so
The Warbarge, the focus feature of Warlords 1.0.
It was supposed to be what gave the vets a new goal to achieve after getting all of their suits, weapons and other gear maxed out. It was supposed to help fix PC. It was supposed to help new players with features like the ISK generator and SP generator.
Overall it was supposed to have something for everybody, and it was supposed to make DUST 514 more fun for everyone.
Come Warlords 1.0, and people are complaining.
Why?
Explaining this to CCP is the purpose of this thread.
[Aurum] - Is it really the core issue?
A lot of people cry foul about the Warbarge monetization, and I can see their issue with it.
It feels like if someone can just buy what you worked for for months, it cheapens your work, makes your path to your goal feel moot.
And while I can understand this feeling, admittedly I am affected by it too, I can also understand that we canGÇÖt get everything we want.
The devs are people, they need to be paid a salary so they can feed their family and pay the bills and the only way that can be done is if they make a profitable game.
If the only problem is a GÇ£feelingGÇ¥, then it can be looked over, somewhat. (Just note to devs: try to be smart and avoid it in the future. You are dealing with humans, beings that arenGÇÖt always rational.)
The other complaint is that it unlocks an in game bonus, the 5% extra damage, behind either a timer that can last months (from initial reports), or behind a paywall.
The thing is, we have had this already, itGÇÖs called skill points and skill boosters.
We can increase our damage, HP, speed, stamina, a lot of things, and people who buy boosters can do it faster.
So what is the issue then?
[Farmville 514 1.0] - Where is the gameplay?
I feel like the core issue is the lack of a goal you can -ACHIEVE- through gameplay.
The current mechanics are reminiscent of a F2P mobile or Facebook game (e.g Farmville), where you simply wait to get things, or you pay to get it faster.
There is no actual GÇ£gameplayGÇ¥ or GÇ£challengeGÇ¥, itGÇÖs just click and wait for a timer to pass so you can collect your GÇ£rewardGÇ¥.
That reward usually involves a way to collect said reward faster, which in turn allows you to collect the reward even faster, repeat ad infinitum.
The current Warbarge works pretty much like this, we simply wait, collect components once in a while, and then eventually upgrade so we can go through the same process faster. Repeat until you achieved all the upgrades.
Or you can of course pay the (rather steep) paywall and get it now.
How does this compare to the SP system? Well...
Skill points are only partially passively gained, as ~85% (If my memory serves me right) is active SP, requiring you to actually play to get to your goals.
Also, remember the cap? That thing that everyone cried about?
Do you know what that is?
GǪ
If you guess timer, you are correct. See how much people dislike timers in their progression? But even that wasnGÇÖt nearly as bad since in order to collect your rewards, you actually had to dirty your hands and bash some skulls in. The key point here is that players want to be able to actively engage and affect their Warbarge, not just look at passive timers.
I fully understand that the Warbarge will be used in the future for other systems. However I am deeply concerned that the passive timer based Warbarge system will continue to be used in these future features. It is troubling to say the least and I urge the development team to start veering away from this excessively passive system sooner than later.
Cat Merc for C¦¦P¦¦M¦¦9¦¦ CPM Nyan!
Vote 'Keshava' for the new Gallente vehicle name!
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Cat Merc
Fatal Absolution
General Tso's Alliance
14913
|
Posted - 2015.02.05 19:35:00 -
[2] - Quote
[Adding agency] - Shooting the farm
So how about finding ways to fix the problem eh?
You know that new salvage added in Warlords?
What if we could get in salvage, items that we can put into the mobile factory to increase the component production rate, basically mirroring the way SP works with passive and active?
Or you could increase the rate of component drops to a pretty high level (50%-75%), but reduce it from 50 components to say 10 to 20, so it feels like a common reward even if the end result ends up being the same speed.
This would give us a way to accelerate the upgrading through play, giving players agency in the matter, and make it feel like less of a dumb timer locking you away from content, and more of a goal achieved through play, with the timer just being there to make sure that players who canGÇÖt play all the time arenGÇÖt being left out, like with SP.
If there is a player market, then that is even better, since players who would choose to become rich from manipulating the market and or any other activity that doesnGÇÖt involve getting your boots on the ground could still upgrade their warbarge by buying those components from other players with the ISK they have earned.
[But thatGÇÖs not enough] - The truth isGǪ
There is no way to make players like the Warbarge, and stop them thinking of it as just another cashgrab, other than fixing the problem described in [Shiny 2D sprites].
The Warbarge truly has no real use, it really doesnGÇÖt, and this needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
The features donGÇÖt even have to be grand.
You know the Experimental Weapons lab?
You know that new salvage added in Warlords that sounds like a bunch of malfunctioning weapon components?
Instead of having the lab just being a timer that gives you an RNG weapon for a component price, we could feed the Warbarge components as well as the malfunctioning gear we get through salvage, and with a bit of crafting magic that may or may not involve nanites we get a beautiful shiny weapon that everybody would love to have.
[Conclusion] - A nice word for tl;dr
There is a lack of player agency in the progression of the Warbarge, and the Warbarge itself lacks any real purpose in game.
One problem is simply a design problem that can be fixed with a bandaid comparatively easily, while the other is a problem that requires a decent amount of work from the dev team, but is already intended to be fixed in future updates.
Here are a few rough ideas that you could work off of:
Add manufacturing speed salvage that increases the component production rate
Change the components in salvage to be almost guaranteed but at a lower amount
Experimental Weapons Lab allows for manufacturing of weapons players actually want (As in, choose, not RNG) using salvage components from the battlefield
Allow us to modify the Warbarge strike with different ammo types and weapons that change how the strike behaves in battle (But isnGÇÖt a straight up upgrade)
Allow us to move from station to station using the Warbarge, time, and maybe fuel that you manufacture and or get through salvage(?). This in the future combined with Warbarge cargo could, as I said before, be one of the building blocks for a functioning regional economy.
You could also make it so that battle contracts are visible as a list from that system, so you could have regional battles.
Salvage drone bay - Recovers some of the gear lost from the last battle, needs to be fed drone fuel to keep running. Drone fuel can be acquired through manufacturing or salvage.
Jump Drive - Allows you to lock on to cynosural fields created by corpmates at a limited distance, allowing you to travel farther, faster, at a higher fuel cost.
Cyno Generator - Creates the cynosural fields required for the Jump Drive. Warbarge drives are tailored to a specific fuel that can only be manufactured using materials from districts, so owning districts improves your corpGÇÖs logistics capabilities.
Almost everything in the PC feedback threads is a good example of many Warbarge ideas
Cat Merc for C¦¦P¦¦M¦¦9¦¦ CPM Nyan!
Vote 'Keshava' for the new Gallente vehicle name!
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Cat Merc
Fatal Absolution
General Tso's Alliance
14913
|
Posted - 2015.02.05 19:36:00 -
[3] - Quote
Reserved
Cat Merc for C¦¦P¦¦M¦¦9¦¦ CPM Nyan!
Vote 'Keshava' for the new Gallente vehicle name!
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Cat Merc
Fatal Absolution
General Tso's Alliance
14914
|
Posted - 2015.02.05 19:44:00 -
[4] - Quote
Oh ****, completely forgot to copy a part of it, and it's like the largest part 
Working on fixing it lel
Cat Merc for C¦¦P¦¦M¦¦9¦¦ CPM Nyan!
Vote 'Keshava' for the new Gallente vehicle name!
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Cat Merc
Fatal Absolution
General Tso's Alliance
14926
|
Posted - 2015.02.05 19:52:00 -
[5] - Quote
ZDub 303 wrote:Warbarge Components as a reward for winning a battle would be a nice incentive for people to actually play to win. One of Dust's biggest issues is that there is little incentive to win a match.
That's a great idea actually.
Set the reward chance at 20% for the losing team and 80% for the winning time.
Sounds right?
Cat Merc for C¦¦P¦¦M¦¦9¦¦ CPM Nyan!
Vote 'Keshava' for the new Gallente vehicle name!
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Cat Merc
Fatal Absolution
General Tso's Alliance
14926
|
Posted - 2015.02.05 19:59:00 -
[6] - Quote
Arkena Wyrnspire wrote:Cat, you're threadnaughting!
I'm so proud. :'-)
Yeah well, that's what happens when Pokey directs my bitter vet ranting on skype into constructive criticism 
Cat Merc for C¦¦P¦¦M¦¦9¦¦ CPM Nyan!
Vote 'Keshava' for the new Gallente vehicle name!
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