Varoth Drac
Dead Man's Game
Preatoriani
2312
   |
Posted - 2016.11.08 15:36:00 -
[1] - Quote
Whilst weight is an interesting idea to include, I don't think it's necessary and probably not worth the complexity.
I agree with Breakin' that there is no reason a heavy suit can't have damage and defence. When compared to other MMOs with tank/heal/dps, remember there is no specific taunt function in an fps. The taunt comes from the danger a high damage weapon causes.
The trade-offs are mobility and the need for support. Those trade-offs were quite well represented in Dust. The long reload and heat build up of the HMG, along with the lack of equipment or stealth/detection on the sentinel meant that they were weak unsupported. The lack of mobility was a major drawback as well.
Balance-wise I felt the HMG was a bit underpowered at the end of DUST, and I saw no reason why it couldn't have had more dps and range. Despite this I think Dust proved that there is no reason a heavy can't be balanced with both power and defence. |
Varoth Drac
Dead Man's Game
Preatoriani
2312
|
Posted - 2016.11.08 16:05:00 -
[2] - Quote
TL/DR: Scouts should be fast and stealthy, heavies should be slow, tough, powerful and need support, mediums should be in between. Fittings should allow hybrids without crossing into other suits. No need to make everyone the same. Heavy weapons should be powerful.
Post (sorry it's long):
As for fittings in general, there's an argument to say there should be only one type of suit that can be fitted they way you like. The reason for the different classes are for asthetics and the ability to visually identify theats and allies. Since the classes exist for this good reason, there is no need for huge variability in how a suit performs based on it's fit as you can always, and should be encouraged to, use an appropriate size suit for the job you want it to do.
I'm not against fitting variation, but I don't feel it's neccessary to be able to fit one class to be the same as a different class. In fact I think it's probably better if that isn't very easy as it tends to encourage people into an optimal middle ground instead of encouraging fitting variety on the extremes. It also annoys people due to the disconnect between what they are seeing and what they experience.
For much of Dust hp modules were overpowered. This resulted in most players using little else. This situation was much better by the end, but that was mainly due to the dominance of assault suits, who had their base hp dramatically increased thus reducing the effectiveness of hp mods, and the strafe nerf to armour plates (which I was against as it was not sufficiently explained in game to players and resulted in peculiar feeling movement. Strafing were later nerfed in general, making the plate nerf obsolete).
The fact that hp modules provided a straight hp increase instead of a percentage increase was a big problem and caused fitting to be counter-intuitive. Fitting an hp mod on a scout suit provided a much greater relative benefit than fitting it to a heavy.
The only reason tanked scouts greatly diminished was that the buffed assaults made a much better suit than a tanked scout. Really that is how it should be. If you want to use a light suit fitted with lots of hp instead of speed and stealth, you should be better off just using the suit designed for that type of combat. Not that there is anything wrong with hybrid builds, which should be somewhere in betweeen. The nerfs to scout stealth were mostly unneccessary. Scouts were only replaced as the best general combat suit once assault hp and module slots were buffed, and armour plates were nerfed. Scouts were then rightly used (in most cases) optimised for speed and stealth. Unfortunately the nerfs to stealth and the buffs to assaults left the fast/stealthy scouts somewhat underpowered by the end.
Fitting a heavy felt kind of stange, as I was always aware that the hp mods were less effective than on mediums, however the role strongly encouraged fitting tank.
Making hp mods provide a percentage bonus would solve both these problems by encouraging fitting tank to heavies, and discouraging it from lights, thus making the fitting process more intuitive and encouraging suit variety.
This visual recognition goes for weapons too. A heavy weapon has to be significantly more powerful than a light weapon to fit the design. By the end of Dust, the HMG was too weak to fit it's design, as it was for much of Dust post release. |