One quick addendum. For those folks who like this idea please help me keep the topic active/on the front page by posting here even if it's only a "+1".

Thanks
Cross

Chromosome EDIT:
The goal of this thread is to address proper Risk vs Reward scaling of support action awards.
Properly this requires their progression arc parallel that of the "slayer" classes, rather than exceed or fall short. It also requires that the earnings potential be higher with use of higher quality gear as it is throughout the rest of D514 (rather than returns diminishing as better gear is used which is the current trend). This thread is NOT intended as "nerf X" or "buff Y" thread, it's intent is to address scaling as a proper game balance requires a baseline parity among all the classes on the macro level (Progression, Rewards, et al) while maintaining diversity/supremacy within the micro (specialization within a given battlefield role should still provide proper tactical advantage).


Note2: Tactical value is not interchangeable with earnings value. Highly effective tactical actions should properly be supported with improved earnings potential. The War Point system should not reward ineffective/non-tactical play over effective tactical play. Anything short of this creates confusion and frustration among many players especially those new to the game.

Quoted from within the thread in hopes that it clears some things up (tl;dr version, this thread has nothing to do with leaderboard stats or personal gain).

Thanks for such admirably patient posting. A reply to this thread is long overdue, but here goes.

First off, I think the concept behind having higher WP rewards from using more expensive gear (and thus putting more ISK at at risk) is great and in line with our philosophy. We have looked into ways of making the WP rewards for support roles scale with the level of equipment you are using, but unfortunately it has turned out not to doable without some further development effort on the WP rewards system itself. That said, it's something we definitely interested in doing. Having high level weaponry makes you better at earning WP, as your killing potential is improved. Having high level equipment make you better at earning WP would only make sense.

Some historical musings about repair rewards specifically:

In Chromosome, the repair rewards were changed from the old cyclical system. We replaced that with two new rewards:

Guardian - 35 WP - You're actively repairing a player who kills a target
Triage - 25 WP - You repair someone who has taken damage within the last 60 seconds

The primary reason for switching from the old cyclical rewards to the above was exploitation -- with the old system, we saw players coming up with all sorts of cunning schemes for racking up record amounts of WP in record times. The new rewards are more difficult to exploit, as obtaining them requires interaction between the teams (and by interaction, I mean shooting the other team in the faceplate). As you would have to coordinate with players on both teams to exploit this (something that shouldn't be easy in e.g. instant battles), they should be more robust against exploitation. With the new rewards we also added a (tweakable) cooldown to how often you could earn rewards to have a fall back in case someone found a clever new way to game the system.

The new rewards are compatible with scaling based on the quality of equipment used and it's just a question of investing us finding some development time to make the WP reward system support it.

In the meantime, we'd love to hear your feedback on how the repair rewards are performing to make adjustments if necessary. Do you feel that the reward levels reasonable? Do you feel that reward experience you get consistent (i.e. do you get rewards when you expect to get them)?