Stefan Stahl
Seituoda Taskforce Command
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Posted - 2016.02.13 11:03:00 -
[1] - Quote
Hi.
We've gathered a lot of data in Dust 514 and learned a lot about how a New Eden FPS should work. I hope this experience will be used in the next game. However, I don't think we're done quite yet. Here are some of the major topics I would've liked to explore before Dust 514 gets switched off:
- Racial dispersion mechanics
I would expect a Gallente Assault to excel at gaining accuracy when coming out of a full sprint to a full stop, because that's what GalAsses do: Sprint at the target and then pump out massive DPS. On the other hand I'd expect Minmatar suits to maintain the best accuracy while strafing, but not be the best at recovering from a full sprint. There are a bunch of parameters about dispersion that are the same for all suits right now but could be made to define how each suit handles - without having to touch the aiming mechanics.
- Racial movement profiles
Right now racial movement stats are limited to run speed and stamina. I think there's more parameters to explore. A Minmatar suit should have the best lateral movement in relation to it's forward speed. A Gallente suit should have a very fast straight line speed but not be very good at strafing side-by-side. That means we could still look at having the ratios between sprint speed, run speed and strafe speed be a racial property.
Similarly we never looked at suit acceleration. While movement should always feel 'snappy' some form of acceleration could help reinforce the characteristics of the suits. E.g. pressing L3 on an Amarr suit should immediately increase speed by some amount, but full sprint speed is only achieved a few seconds later. However, on a Minmatar suit top speed should be achieved almost instantly.
- Unfinished weapon concepts:
First of, the Swarm Launcher of course. We never figured that one out, did we? Having analysed the SL in detail I can tell you that there's much room for improvement even with the current concept of it. And room for additional concepts.
The HMG is a weapon that completely lost it's vision between the continuous balancing tweaks it received.
The Forgegun also gets a mention here. While the Assault FG works at pure AV it is very limited to this rather small niche and has a tough time being competitive at anything else. This topic is probably mostly about how useful AV weapons should be when no vehicles are nearby. That is completely unexplored territory.
- Map possession
One of the major issues with Dust 514 is that any number of hostiles can be in any place on the map that isn't guarded by the redline. That means you never get to say "We are here, they are there, we are trying to get over there". I believe Domination is a popular gamemode because it offers exactly that knowledge without requiring a Field Commander. Having large maps in an FPS requires mechanics that help map possession. Topics to explore are upgrading the role of unmanned turrets, deployable of capturable sensors, secondary objectives and a specific order to capturable objectives.
- Scanning
This is somewhat related to map possession. In the beta scanning was used to establish map possession of certain areas. On the other hand it took away from direct encounters - which are pretty much the reason we are playing an FPS in the first place. I find it very important to have a clear concept of how scanning should work in a New Eden FPS before setting off to make a new one. If this doesn't improve, the next game will be in the same amount of trouble as Dust 514.
- Eve online integration
The integration with Eve online is as important to a New Eden FPS as the fitting mechanics and damage profiles are. A New Eden FPS has to be able to convincingly communicate that it is happening in the same universe - otherwise it ends up being a worse copy of Battlefield. This is tightly linked to planetary conquest and social play.
- Vehicles
Pretty much all of it. For what reasons should a player decide to deploy a vehicle? How long should he be using it? How much time will he spend actively fighting something? What will he be fighting, what will he be running from? Which modules should be active, which should be passive? How long does it take to regenerate between two fights? How long does it take to go from full health to zero? How expensive should each vehicle be?
I can't overstate how well Rattati has improved the game - both for infantry and vehicles - but it's obvious that during his time we didn't get to fully explore how vehicles should work in a New Eden FPS.
- Tiered play
For lack of a better word. I'm referring to the topic of keeping veteran players and new players separated. For what reasons do veteran players occupy themselves with activities other than killing a bunch of newbies and why are new players interested in engaging with players of their own skill level? Is this possible without having strict rules? What would incentives have to look like?
- Intuitive character progression
When gaming websites reported the end of Dust 514 (yes, some did) I saw some comments that went along the lines of: "Dust 514 still exists? The only thing I remember from trying it back then was that all equipment was consumable unless you bought new stuff with real money." It is very obvious that a large portion of the potential playerbase didn't understand the character progression system one bit before giving up on the game. That is something that hasn't been fixed in 3 years despite the fact that there are a number of concepts to look into.
That's it for now. Do you also have some topics that you would've liked to explore in Dust 514 - even if it's just to gather data for the eventual spiritual successor? |