Card Drunook
DoC Deck of Contractors
79
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Posted - 2012.12.18 20:54:00 -
[1] - Quote
Since it's my day off and I'm waiting for the update to download I figured it's a good time to finally post this.
I've noticed that one of the persistent issues when people discuss things in DUST is that not everyone recognizes that there are a number of entirely different ways to play the game. I don't simply mean using different weapons or suits or builds, I mean fundamentally different styles of how to approach the game. Someone who is focusing on using HAVs is essentially playing a different game from someone who is focusing on using assault rifles for example. I think it might be helpful for people to sit down and try to discuss the various styles of gameplay.
Keep in mind this is about STYLES not builds. This is more about the mindset than the actually methods.
A good way to see what style (or styles) you play as is to ask yourself WHY you are upgrading the skill you're using.
I'll start by trying to describe what I call being an "Infantry" player. This is the game most people are playing. At it's heart Infantry play is about (big surprise) the Infantry on the field. If you spend most of your time trying to kill other people in dropsuits (or trying to help people in dropsuits) this is what you're doing. There are a LOT of variations on this, and the fact we're ALL in dropsuits means everyone does this to some extent. The skills that mark an infantry player are things that help you kill dropsuits and survive fire from them (or in a support player skills that let you help them).
The next clear style are "Tankers." This should be obvious but I'll say it anyways, this is the HAV combat. This is using a HAV to kill the other team. The skills that mark Tankers are obviously vehicle skills designed to make them do more damage or make them more difficult to kill. Anyone who's played DUST for a while can easily spot this style of gameplay, but VERY few people seem to spend most of their time in this style of play.
Next up we've got "Gunship" gameplay. The focus of this gameplay is using a dropship as a weapons platform to kill the enemy with. This is basically the airborne equivalent of a Tanker, the skills that mark it are ones designed to make a dropship tougher to kill and allow it to do more damage. At the moment this style of gameplay is basically gone because of recent changes but I imagine we'll see it again.
And now we come to what I spend most of my time as: "Skirmishers." These are the people who focus on both short engagements and high mobility combat. This is harder to describe because Skirmishing isn't focused on any one skillset but is instead more the mindset of never engaging in extended combat. A Skirmisher will frequently use LAVs as transportation (not as a weapons platform). A good example of a Skirmisher are the people that use a LAV to do quick hit and run raids on people.
A very rare style of play at this point are "Transport Pilots" or "Cabbies" as I like to call them. These are the people who don't engage in combat at all but instead just provide a ride to their teammates. The heart of this style of gameplay is simply the placing of teammates somewhere useful. This can include people who put a CRU on a dropship or people who just drive LAVs around to give people a ride.
Those are the well defined styles of gameplay I've come up with so far. There are definitely more, as well as many sub-types (for example Logi-Bro Infantry) and there are some areas I'm not sure how to classify (like dedicated snipers, who focus on infantry but clearly aren't playing the same type of game as an assault rifle user). So I'd love it if other people can try to add to this.
The reason this is important is that knowing what style of gameplay someone uses can help you understand their comments. To a Tanker the current Swarm Launcher system is too powerful (forcing them to stay at range because otherwise the missle will turn corners to kill them even behind cover). To a Cabbie though swarm launchers are a joke (if you stay mobile a swarm launcher CANNOT hit a dropship unless it lags horribly). To an Infantry focused person the changes to missile turrets fixed a major problem. To a Tanker or Gunship pilot the changes BROKE THE GAME. Understanding how someone plays the game, and more importantly that there are other ways to play the game, will help you see that some of the comments you see on this forum as crazy or misinformed, they are just about a different style of game than the one you play. |