DUST Search - My take on the critique I've heard outside these forums...

KingBabar wrote:

First off, I have a pretty standard nett, currently wireless. Normally I get the short hand of the stick since I'm placed in Norway and have 5-7 jumps just to get to the UK. When the lag hit the fan in MAG I got totally owned, with the server placed in Los Angeles. It might be that i have a bit of lag but that I simply don't notice it much. This is a crude, aim assisting game after all. And again, compared to MAG, a 0.3 second delay doesn't really mean much in this game, except for the mentioned scout bunnies. In MAG on the other hand, I can get headshotted and die before I even see my enemy coming around the corner.

And when it comes to the "pay to win" isue, I find your reply a little insulting, or perhaps its just you who don't have the smarts. Read my text again please. I said something like "AUR equipment doesn't make a noob good". Far from it. You say that your passive skills will make up for this and that, and it does. I wrote under the assumption that we have skill wise evenly matched players. This goes for both playing skills, and experience (passive skills) progression in the game. So basically you have two identical players in every consiveable way, except that one player spends AUR and can therefore equip an ekstra shield extrender, damage buff or whatever, BECAUSE OF THE LOWER CPU/PG COST OF SAID ITEMS THE PLAYER SPENDING AUR ARE USING.

And another point: If its not "pay to win", then please explain to me why there isn't an ISK equivalent to the Tucker nades? And don't dismiss them as "just nades" they're a definite advantage to all that can afford them. And again, I don't really mind the if not "pay to win", lets call it "pay to get a slight advantage which may result in a win" its still not a level playing field. But as I said in my OP, I don't mind, its a brilliant way to fund a game. But lets at be honest.


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Garrett Blacknova Codex Troopers 1849	Posted - 2012.07.30 11:57:00 - [1] - Quote Mostly well-said, but I do have a couple of criticisms... KingBabar wrote: Framerate and lag issues. I really don't know what people are on about. Stew (the notorious PS2 fanboy from the MAG forums) keep saying how both these qualities and the graphics suck in Dust. I hardly get any framerate or lag issue at all. And are you running on ADSL? Or something better? Not everyone has the luxury of the best internet, or of being based close to the game servers. Some of us have problems with lag because the game's netcode isn't good enough for our connections to be supported properly. That may not necessarily be causing lag for YOU, but that doesn't mean it doesn't affect others. Quote: Its pay to win. Many will claim that its not, but it is. Yes you can buy a proto suit for 44K ISK or whatnot, but who can afford this in the long run? It might be that this ingame economy system isn't fully tuned yet, but I have a hard time seeing people pay for a 100K loadout only by using the ISK they earn as off today. And yes you might claim to be so good that you hardly ever die and that you basically earn enough ISK to keep it up. But what do you do later on when you face a clan of elite killers or whatnot, when you suddenly die 15 times in a hard fought (in lack of a better term) clan battle? And I'm pretty sure that a guy with all top notch AUR equipment will have severly better stats (on the suit, armor, stamina recovery and so on) than somebody using only ISK equipment. (Low CPU/PG cost on the AUR equipment will give you room for more or better equipment) Its not like a total noob can buy his way to success, far from it. But with high quality players an extra +10 damage buff might be exactly whats needed to come out on top. And I'm sorry, but this is INCORRECT. For one, no amount of AUR will compensate for a player's stupidity. No amount of AUR gear will eliminate the value of SPs and their passive bonuses to things. With high SMG skill and the Toxin SMG, I can keep up with someone using the Advanced AUR SMG - because my skills (SP skills, not game skills) make my FREE INFINITE USE SMG more powerful. My level 5 Mechanics skill gives me +25% Armour HP on any Dropsuit I choose to wear. These things AREN'T affected (directly) by Aurum. You can get SP boosters, and use them to make your character gain SPs faster, but you can't just BUY them - and SP boosters only apply to ACTIVE SP, so you hae to be going out and fighting to get the SP bonuses. Also, when you're able to use the top-tier gear, and buying expensive ISK gear, no, you won't make a profit if you're dying more than a few times while using that top-tier gear. BUT you can start the match in lower-level gear (even Militia fittings), and only bring out your good stuff once you know how the battle's going. Or you can bring your expensive gear at the beginning of a battle, and if you lose it, stick to low-grade equipment from there on. And this current model iSN'T the final method that will be used to determine ISK earning - except maybe in HighSec. A lot of battles will be bought and paid for by Corporations - either in DUST or EVE. People will pay what they think you're worth, to get you fighting on their behalf, or by their side. You'll be capturing planets, and getting paid by the people who you're taking that territory for - at a rate agreed to by both parties. Also, some battles will be fought by corporations on their own behalf - and if you can hold the planet, the profits for doing so will potentially be MUCH greater than the cost of capturing it.
Garrett Blacknova Codex Troopers 1849	Posted - 2012.07.30 13:34:00 - [2] - Quote KingBabar wrote: First off, I have a pretty standard nett, currently wireless. Normally I get the short hand of the stick since I'm placed in Norway and have 5-7 jumps just to get to the UK. When the lag hit the fan in MAG I got totally owned, with the server placed in Los Angeles. It might be that i have a bit of lag but that I simply don't notice it much. This is a crude, aim assisting game after all. And again, compared to MAG, a 0.3 second delay doesn't really mean much in this game, except for the mentioned scout bunnies. In MAG on the other hand, I can get headshotted and die before I even see my enemy coming around the corner. And when it comes to the "pay to win" isue, I find your reply a little insulting, or perhaps its just you who don't have the smarts. Read my text again please. I said something like "AUR equipment doesn't make a noob good". Far from it. You say that your passive skills will make up for this and that, and it does. I wrote under the assumption that we have skill wise evenly matched players. This goes for both playing skills, and experience (passive skills) progression in the game. So basically you have two identical players in every consiveable way, except that one player spends AUR and can therefore equip an ekstra shield extrender, damage buff or whatever, BECAUSE OF THE LOWER CPU/PG COST OF SAID ITEMS THE PLAYER SPENDING AUR ARE USING. And another point: If its not "pay to win", then please explain to me why there isn't an ISK equivalent to the Tucker nades? And don't dismiss them as "just nades" they're a definite advantage to all that can afford them. And again, I don't really mind the if not "pay to win", lets call it "pay to get a slight advantage which may result in a win" its still not a level playing field. But as I said in my OP, I don't mind, its a brilliant way to fund a game. But lets at be honest. See, "pay for shortcut" (which most AUR items are) and "pay to win" are very different things. You can get high-tier gear EARLIER with AUR, but you don't have the passive skills to back it up, and don't necessarily have the actual gaming skill to back it up either. The Proto AUR gear is a little different - there ARE cases where I think the advantages it gives are more than it should provide - I'm not going to say otherwise, and have pointed that out myself, and also agreed with other people pointing it out. Given that we're still in beta, though, there's time for those excessive imbalances to be remedied, or at least reduced. And as mentioned in a couple of posts, that's before we take the player marketplace into account, and the fact that it will be possible to buy AUR gear with ISK as well in future.
Garrett Blacknova Codex Troopers 1849	Posted - 2012.07.31 04:55:00 - [3] - Quote Vrain Matari wrote: The second thing is the skill boosters - not availiable through ISK(for now), and pretty much mandatory if you want to be competitive - the arms race is going to be furious when this game goes live. With no skill boosters used yet (although I have one thanks to the Merc Pack), I have to disagree with this. They're a way to shorten the grind, NOT a direct advantage. You can get the same benefits from playing the game more often, or for longer at a time, as you get from a Skill Booster.