Iron Wolf Saber wrote:Dust 514 was this grand idea to marry MMO, FPS, RPG, and RTS elements together.
While MMO department is a road map that will take another two or more years to fully qualify in, nearly the same time as RTS elements are also thrown in as well which leaves us with the RPG and FPS elements to deal with.
Now we are at a strange cross roads where competitive shooter is on one hand and RPG elements are on the other.
Elements from one wouldn't do well in the ensuing child in this marriage. While some games have done a wonderful job of the marriage in a multiplier verses environment it can be sometimes frustration where skill beats exp points or vice versa.
Dust however has special catering to emphasize the bold, the smart, the skillful or deceitful because that is the environment eve online calls for so hand holding is out of the question as well as various other factors from either side of this marriage.
Bad elements to take from an RPG for the Dust 514 environment would be like
FPS players don't want
Dice Roll to Hit - would be extremely bad case of hand holding and breaks the realism entire skill of the player aspect entirely.
Where as RPG players don't want
Lack of Progression in Gear/Character Power - it sort of kills the entire reason to develop and build the characters up.
However as it stands right now FPS shooters are crying over Proto-gear 'ROFL stomping pubs'. Or how new players 'Don't have a chance.' Or having 'widely varied gear levels =/= competitive shooter.'
Previously many builds ago, I once envied Prototype gear. Not only did I fear it, I wanted one myself. I was invigorated to work my skill sets up to get not only prototype level but making sure I got the best bang for the buck once I got there. I was literally excited over gaining power with every module's access level unlocked to me. I was even more exciting getting better with making cheaper fits with various meta levels to be in budget of the battle. Get better being on the field and earning my keep and not burdening my losses entirely on my limited budget earnings. Even more I was excited for the future of dust 514. Having the entire war play out like a real one would, With logistics (as in making sure I have a body at the front lines to fight with) structure, intel structure, and combined navy/army command structure.
Now a days I see someone in prototype gear and scoff down them as if they were milita scrubs with my milita AR, to be honest I never notice any difference in how fast they die, I haven't been killed by a prototype weapon in weeks, and lately it sees more people are down shifting from the Advanced level gear and back to basic gear. I have no longer the desire to goto prototype level for the simple fact that its no longer a REWARD but inversely its a PUNISHMENT.
While HP suit flattening was a good thing in 'leveling the playing field' as prototype gear from that era could have been made 'invincible' from those not strong enough to break the tank. However weapon flattening (where as weapon curving did not happen) has made this game nearly undesirable progression in gear beyond metalevel 1/0.
We need to put in the fear of high level gear again, maybe not as bad as it was during E3 and Uprising builds,
For those of you arguing against multiple gear levels crimping competition style. You need to look at the Eve Online Open which was a seriously highly unrestricted competition in eve online for 10,000 USD in prizes. Many teams not only signed up but got Eve online Corporate or Allaince SPONSORS to help pay for their ship equipment and despite sponsorship the best gear in the game did not save many of these teams or their ships they've lost during the tournament. I mean how much more competitive can you get when you and your corp becomes an in game franchise or something? Teams in the real world have such sponsors and ownership why cant a virtual one be similar? where wallets are thrown in to help promote and ensure success of a team?
I do not want to see this game resorting to 'Super Master Chief Sargent Chief Master of the Army" ranking system for the only RPG element where achieving max level awarded you the most lamest but most recognized and gold plated gun in the game ever.
I want to choose how I grow, How I develop, how I get better in gear, exp, and skills, that's the RPG elements I need to have in Dust 514 while maintaining player skill over-coming all factors.
While Dust 514 is in its early stages this is one of the things that made dust 514 interesting with what little it did have.
Maybe one day well return back to that point when more gear, such as tech 2 and tech 3 come out. do we get the sense of progression again. but I rather have it sooner than later.