Cross Atu
Conspiratus Immortalis
775
|
Posted - 2012.11.15 20:02:00 -
[1] - Quote
We've all seen the slogan,
One Universe // One War
and likely seen the videos, DUST 514: Way of the Mercenary DUST 514 - Welcome to New Eden, part 1: DUST is different DUST 514 - Welcome to New Eden, part 2: When the boots hit the battlefield
Various wrote:"Dust 514 is more than a chance to lay down blistering fire, rush over terrain in armored vehicles, and fight across the galaxy alongside your fellow Mercs. Every battle, every action, every decision you make will bring the galaxy together, or tear it apart."
"To try and pull all of these threads together, what Dust is really about for us is trying to create an experience that's about more than just shooting the other guy in the face. Everything that you're deploying with onto the battlefield you own, you bought, you take ownership of, so there's actually a greater sense of loss. It's not just some vanilla tank that's spawning out of nowhere that's getting destroyed, it's yours, you're invested, you've fought hard to take control of a planet and either conquer the infrastructures that's there or invest together with your corp mates and build this. So when somebody comes to try and take it away from you [sic] this matters, there's meaning here. That's really what Dust is all about."
"Another key difference with Dust is when the boots hit the battlefield, when the Mercs are fighting on the surface of the planets. Typically in an FPS game you pick roles [sic] and everyone knows what everybody else has. Within Dust we have a system called fitting which is much more akin to an RPG style system. This really allows the players to take ownership of their character and their roles. They can create different fits to suit different tactics on the battlefield and also to respond to the changing behaviors of others. This adds a further layer of strategy when you're planning your battle and trying to take control of a planet"
Sounds really fun doesn't it? (I know it does to me).
Then we run across this thorny issue of "Casual vs Hardcore" gamers/gaming. CCP has said they want Dust to be open to casual players, but what does casual even mean in the context of Dust? There's no actionable consensus among the beta testers. But it's being weighed as a balance factor when balancing things like Meta progression rewards. See the dropsuit shield/armor totals re-balance for one example, or objections raised to the idea of having specialist bonuses attached to racial dropsuit variants.
So how do we solve such a sweeping and nebulous problem without continuing to water down and homogenize the mechanics and options of a game set up to thrive on options, diversity, and meaningful player choice (both on and off the battlefield)?
Enter Matchmaking. CCP have already stated they're working to improve the matchmaking system, that effort will likely be an ongoing one (at least I hope it will be) to really polish and balance the way matchmaking is done outside of specific Corp contracts. The matchmaking system also offers a solution to the problems raised above. Rather than introducing a socially divisive "hardcore vs casual" element to the community, or watering down the impact and meaning of player progression and choices by diminishing the diversity and effect of gear, both between the four races and between the various meta levels, use matchmaking to provide a more competitive and balance play experience for random matches.
If the overall Skill Points present in the match is roughly proximate for each player then it is player choice and player skill which carries the day and no player is disadvantaged based upon their in game character time (i.e. being new to the game or more casual in play). Obviously such a system will likely require more than one iteration before it really starts to shine, which is all the more reason to begin this process during the beta.
MMO FPS gameplay in a persistent sandbox style universe is vastly appealing, but it loses some of it's luster if player action and player choice becomes throttled by homogeneous tools and progression hard caps (be those on ISK, or the effects of invested skill points).
TL;DR Saying "here's the Sandbox go play" loses it's luster if choices are more akin to color of small trowel rather than weather we even want to use a shovel at all.
Let's solve it another way, don't restrict choice or growth, rather provided balanced matches through matchmaking
0.02 ISK Cross |
Cross Atu
Conspiratus Immortalis
775
|
Posted - 2012.11.18 10:58:00 -
[3] - Quote
Agreed a tiered system in the EVE style would make sense to implement within Dust, After all the planets Dust will be taking place on are already going to be within High Sec, Low Sec, and 0.0
Having mechanics in place allow for continued progression is important to the longevity of Dust so when CCP starts making statements about balancing the skill awards system around maintaining equilibrium between "casual" and "hardcore" it seemed a better solution needed to be found.
Thanks for the response, Cheers, Cross |
Cross Atu
Conspiratus Immortalis
775
|
Posted - 2012.11.18 19:15:00 -
[4] - Quote
I think you're right about a lot of this RF, the feedback thread is in response to CCP updates on these forums talking about reworking the SP awards system to 'balance casual vs hardcore' gaming.
CCP have confirmed that they're working on improved matchmaking, which I'm (obviously) in favor of ;) The thread is just to make sure they're clear on the fact that they can use matchmaking, rather than additional skill capping (as has been employed via codex) to provide a more normalized play experience derived from player progression rather than trying to arbitrarily cap/restrict player progression (beyond the planed rate of game/character development, which accroding to their posts is an independent balance consideration).
Thanks for the response :)
Cheers, Cross |