Nova Knife
Seituoda Taskforce Command
Caldari State
789
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Posted - 2012.12.14 14:54:00 -
[1] - Quote
Right now we're mostly stuck with instant battles. The reason we were told for this is to 'test the matchmaking'. Despite this, we've also been told since that 'there isn't enough people for the matchmaking to work properly'.
We've seen several changes come under the reason of "Older players will have too great an advantage over brand new players" Changes among this include several weapon nerfs, an overall suit HP nerf removing the additional HP gained from upgrading suit tiers, and so on.
However, I think it's a mistake to balance the game this way. I actually need to give Credit to Telc, as he's one of the few people who's been saying this (Even if he hasn't been particularly articulate about it). We shouldn't need to balance gear based on this, as with certain systems in place you would never need to worry about a brand new character facing anyone in prototype gear unless they were a new alt and knew what they were doing.
Earlier on in the beta, there was the ability to choose from a wide variety of contracts. These were all pretty much the same few maps since we only had a couple at the time, but they had certain options tagged along with them. For example, certain contracts would only allow a mercenary to bring and fit militia tier gear. Any standard weapons, modules, or suits would be marked invalid and the player would be unable to spawn with them. Other matches would allow up to X tier. There were matches that were limited from militia to prototype. A player could bring a lower tier into a restricted match but no higher than the limit stated.
I think we should bring that system back. The current instant battle doesn't work properly anyways. Furthermore, following along what I said earlier... I think the instant matchmaking needs to be expanded. Instant matchmaking for brand new players should default to matches restricted to militia gear. (Maybe have them unable to queue for non-militia matches entirely unless they hit a checkbox somewhere or pass a tutorial) There should be options in the instant battle to search for different restriction levels, as well. But what this does, is that it allows the 'casual player' to set a comfort zone. Let's be honest here. A casual player is probably never going to do any corp stuff or FW stuff unless the instant matchmaking puts them there. While it's important to make sure a casual player has fun... you can't balance the game around them. If gear is balanced to cater to those who won't use it in a coordinated (or skillful) manner in most cases... Then suddenly it becomes overwhelmingly OP when it is used properly by a skilled and coordinated team. (Note, I'm not saying that casual players can't be good.)
Instant matchmaking battles should come with gear restrictions that can be changed by the player as they like. The Mercenary Tab (Browsing contracts) Is likely where most of the serious players will be spending their time. These can also have restrictions as well, but ideally the majority of these would be unrestricted. I could see some limitations based on system security level, but I'm not fond of that.
The reason behind this is simple: There are many weapons, suits, and modules in the game that generally are just not worth it to upgrade. The differences between the tiers are too small to justify the ISK exspense or fitting costs. But if things remain as they are, the tiers cannot be separated for the simple reason stated at the beginning of the post. "Older players will have too great an advantage over newer ones". This will accomplish stopping vets from stomping brand new players in prototype gear, but it won't limit the ability for people to 'pubstomp'. They'll still be able to decimate the noobs, but since they are all forced to use the same tier gear... It's more 'fair' for the casuals. The only difference there is skill. (Character and player) But only when this happens again will we be able to see the higher tiered items being worth it again.
Summary:
What:
-Re-Enable the ability to browse contracts instead of forcing instant battle on us
-Re-Enable the matches that have gear limitations
-In future, force gear limitations on instant matchmaking with players being able to set the level of gear they want to lobby for
-Default brand new players to militia only matches unless they hit some kind of toggle or complete a tutorial or something
Why:
-Allows CCP to add greater variance to the item tiers without creating a rift between people who cannot use the best things and people who can
-Creates a softer barrier between older and new players. An older player can still stomp a brand new player, but they are forced to using the same tier of equipment instead of prototype equipment much better than what the new guy could hope to match.
-Creates a softer barrier between 'casual' and 'serious' players. Casual players can pick their comfort zone, while serious players are free to browse for matches they feel will make an impact to their goals or will pay well.
-Matchmaking right now just plain doesn't work. There's not enough people for it to do it's voodoo properly, CCP has told us this. Until it does, there is no reason to make it the main way of getting into a battle.
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Nova Knife
Seituoda Taskforce Command
Caldari State
789
|
Posted - 2012.12.14 15:15:00 -
[2] - Quote
Captain-Awesome wrote:my issue with the: Quote:
-In future, force gear limitations on instant matchmaking with players being able to set the level of gear they want to lobby for
many times I have ran out of items, in the beginning I couldn't afford to keep up my heavy gear, what solution is there for me to continue playing if I have no money, not allowed to use lesser gear (Free)
The restrictions are only an upper limit. If someone really wants to use standard or militia stuff in a match that is restricted to advanced or prototype, nothing is stopping them, aside from the disadvantage that comes with with using worse gear. (Though, a prototype restricted match pretty much just stops officer stuff) |