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Cross Atu
Conspiratus Immortalis
775
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Posted - 2013.01.21 05:44:00 -
[1] - Quote
Jason Pearson wrote:Pretty much title, remove the majority of the starter fits including the free LAV except the Frontline starter fit.
Reasons for the majority of starter suits:
They're simply not needed, we have a sniper fit which allows new players to just sit on the red line and camp without wasting a single bit of ISK/Aur or SP to actually use them.
This is just as true of the Frontline starter as any of the others, the assumption that every player (or new player) is/should be an assault/frontline guy is fundamentally flawed. A team composed of only assault players will lose, frequently. The same can be said of a team composed of any other single role (witness what happens when most of a team decides to go sniper).
The one notable exception to this trend is if the other team is primarily composed of the same single role. (Note: a game that monochromatic can't look forward to much longevity)
Quote: I've sniped a few times and honestly see no reason to go waste cash on anything when I have this available.
I've run assault, and feel pretty much the same about the assault gear. Of course I see it's value to dedicated assault players, but since I'm not one myself it's not worth it to me to invest in more. I'd hazard to say (based on the dedicated snipers I've talked to and played against) that they do find value in the better gear and make good use of it as well. The kill feed in matches supports this assessment.
Quote:You then have the free Swarms and Forge Guns yet I see no free tanks or dropships? AV Players say that they're not strong enough to be useful so I'm pretty sure they'd support my arguement, right?
You've missed the point of those fits. It's two fold, first is to give even starting players the at least some chance to fight back in a changing battlefield. While true that the starter fits aren't terribly effective they're still worlds better than being stuck with an assault rifle verses a tank. (Even a militia tank becomes nigh immortal when faced with only small arms fire).
The second and perhaps more important aspect is to give players the chance to learn how to use those weapon types so that they can learn the general basics of using AV before taking the plunge of heavy ISK & SP investment to use the truly effective AV weapons.
Reason for the LAV:
Quote:The vehicle is ridiculous, I can run around and go 20+/0 because I was just running people over. I can use it for free to haul my heavy around and jump out with no issue as I gun people down. Removing this gives a reason not to have free AV but also provides Dropship Pilots/LAV Drivers with a transport use and lowers the possibility of you get ran over by newbs.
Being run over is just like being spawn camped on at a single location. If it happens more than once you failed to adapt.
In the case of a spawn camp, spawn elsewhere (unless you're camped in your redzone, which is something that just needs fixed). In the case of being run down just grab a free (or better) swarm launcher and fire (maybe) twice, let the tracking missiles do the heavy lifting. If you go 20-0 with a free LAV that's the sign of a team that needs more experience, play against someone with a bit of time spent in game and you'll be a smoking husk in short order 
D514 is already going to be pretty unforgiving to new players, making it even harder on noobs by taking away their starter fits is heading 180 degrees in the wrong direction. |
Cross Atu
Conspiratus Immortalis
775
|
Posted - 2013.01.23 22:22:00 -
[2] - Quote
Jason Pearson wrote:@Cross
My one issue though, is they get this all for free.
No matter how bad you do, you will get ISK, you can purchase all these weapons in the Militia Section and utilise them but they should never be free.
There has to be a ground floor or you drive people out of the game, and this becomes even more likely with brand new players who don't have the player skill, character skill, or in game assets to fall back on when they're having trouble.
I agree that it breaks immersion and in a sense is certainly less than ideal but at some level without those low meta free fits as a ground floor Dust itself will flounder as many new players are unable to even deploy due to losses taken when matched against more seasoned players. Everyone who's been through closed beta has had a lot of time to learn without any actual risk of any kind (wipe was in coming after all) this just gives the new players a little bit of that to fall back on as well.
As to which starter fits are present or not, that comes down to personal taste more than to any mechanical issue.
If one wanted to select only a single starter fit to remain in game based on the idea of minimal free gear/reducing free gear being used to destroy payed for gear. Then we'd have to keep only the Logi starter fit as it is the least combat ready. It earns it's keep by supporting and restoring not killing/destroying. But even there if all new players were forced to play a militia logi until they'd earned the SP, ISK, and know how to go toe to toe with the veteran player base it would choke game growth leading to an overall lower player population.
Here's one of the main things I keep in mind when considering the free militia/starter fits, once the game has been live for awhile they'll be much less combat viable. Right now we don't really have Proto gear on the field, much less complete proto fittings. Once we reach the SP level where those quality fits start to be fielded with consistency the pure militia style fittings will hold only one real value... that they're free. Sure they'll still allow people to save up ISK (needed for developing players) and yes there will be some few players who can actually run low grade gear and still compete but we can't balance the game around the top tier of players, balance is found by considering the whole and centering on the average.
Besides even those top players will lose when the come up against someone with equal skill and better gear, which is as it should be.
TL;DR
Player skill is a greater factor than gear, and free fits are needed to let new players train and learn. Without new players being gained and retained the game will struggle.
Cheers,
Cross |
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