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J Lav
Lost-Legion
Orion Empire
52
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Posted - 2013.04.14 23:15:00 -
[1] - Quote
As a designer, I look at a couple of mechanics in this game differently than as a player. I may hate a mechanic, but still recognize its function.
I will say this plainly, the SP system cannot be functioning as intended, and its proof is in the cap. What I'd like to suggest is why the cap is currently necessary, and an alternative solution to that need.
At the moment, players with 1 million SP are poorly matched against a player with 6 million SP. The match-making system struggles to be effective when the SP also may not necessarily reflect the skill of those players. The solution has been to implement caps, to avoid players from farming the game to gain unwarranted access to equipment and skills that give them an edge against less skilled players and players with less SP. (ie referred to as keeping up in the SP race)
There are several ways to combat this issue, and one is to alter where skill points can be invested, by removing individual skills like the sharpshooter skill. I have heard rumour that this may happen.
Another way to address it is by the same mentality that the dropsuits themselves are constructed. There are no definite class restrictions, however the combinations of PG and CPU resources restrict what combinations you can build in the suit. This is one of the most vocally loved aspects of this game. I would suggest that doing the same thing to how players make use of their SP in a character would enhance the SP system and create even more variety in the game.
How would this be done? By creating skill trees that require prerequisites, you've created a rewarding form of character progression. Now if there were certain branches of the skill tree that closed other branches, it would create a character class that would be customized to your liking, and definitively unique to that player. There would be significantly different experiences in playing a character who is decked out on armour, and another character that was lethal, but squishy. The fact being that on a triangular, or octagonal display, you could corner your character toward one point, or be a generalist who hits the middle.
What would this accomplish? There are people I'm sure who would not like this "restriction", but it would encourage people to play more characters, and enhance replayability. It would also have the added enhancement to meaningful spending of Aurum on tools to enhance those dedicated characters.
How would it be different from Present?
At the Moment, the shear quantity of SP that a more experienced player can pump into core skills allows a Generalist player to be better than a specialized player in their own field, by virtue of playing more or AFK farming. So specialization of skills has little to offer anything in the way of variety. Yes players can specialize in a specific dropsuit, like a heavy or a Logi, or gaining access to equipment, but the skills they invest in are predominantly the same. By creating a balancing system that allows you to create a character with skills derived into categories like CPU and PG, players can create very unique combinations, that continue to get better at what they do, without being able to out-tank a tank by virtue of being around longer. This means no need for a Skill Cap. |
Draco Cerberus
Hellstorm Inc
League of Infamy
18
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Posted - 2013.04.15 00:02:00 -
[2] - Quote
So if the player skilled up for lets just say light weapons and an assault dropsuit then they would be unable to skill for a heavy weapon and heavy dropsuit? To me the ability to dual or triple class is what sets this game apart from other RPGs.
If I play Demon Souls, an online RPG, I am limited to the class I start out as. I need to skill towards being better in that class and am stuck in the role I initially chose. Either magician, knight, soldier or wanderer. Each class has their own merrits be it speed, hp, spells or damage.
In Dust, if I play as a Scout at the start of a battle and find that my team is being over run I can switch suits to an Assault or Heavy to help turn the tide, then switch to a logi suit and run around picking guys up who are bleeding out, and possibly make a big enough difference in the attrition rate to prevent the other team from winning.
I would also like to point out that the SP Cap is only a reduction in SP earned. If you do enough battles you can gain more SP than what the cap limits as well as lining your coffers in the mean time. Currently the sp limits as they are are very liberal, with active boosters involved and a good gun/support game a person can easily make 1500sp per match after the cap and this does limit players. They can only gain that much sp per match, there is no match limit and if they play for 7 years, capping every week they might eventually learn all the skills.
Consider the large number of skills offered. Many players take several skills from each category because they need them to balance their suits. PG and CPU do come into play in the skills they choose as well as reload speed and damage done. Scan radius itself takes up 4 different skills for the various modifications that can be done, be it a reduction in scan radius or an amplification in your ability to scan. Without sensor upgrades a person cannot use the basic modules or train the skills. The idea behind this is that prerequisites must be met before a person can consider using the more effective modules. This means that the people who want to be a scout and a heavy and an assault and a logi need to train more and more prerequisites to be good at what they do. For instance, someone who has upgraded their light weapon skills can't just hop on an HMG and be great with it, they still need to train the same heavy weapon skills as they did for light weapons.
If you want to have no SP cap, consider what would happen if everyone except you played exactly 10 matches a night and made an average of 750 wp per match for 3 days. At 750wp a person will average around 5000 sp per match with a booster. 50,000 sp * 3 days = 150,000 sp. Now consider the ones who play more and better than average, 2000 wp or more per match. This would very quickly unbalance growth of those players and CCP is right to have an sp cap. Would you want a top level character from almost day 1 just because you decided to take a 2 week vacation from work and play match after match until your eye's were bleeding to skill up your character into all proto gear? I wouldn't find that very satisfying. I know of other games you can do this in such as COD or Diablo, but this isn't those games. I am glad it's not. |
Matakage
WildCard Ninja Clan
10
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Posted - 2013.04.15 01:26:00 -
[3] - Quote
I just spent like 15 minutes responding to this and it didn't post :( I wish I made a backup.
What I essentially said that the problem with the level cap is the fact that it exists at all. And why does it exist? Well considering there is no such experience cap in games like Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty, one can logically conclude that the problem with Dust 514 is...
The game is rewarding players with SP for doing nothing.
That's right. Could farming SP even exist if there was a system in place that didn't reward SP for players doing things that weren't helpful in battle? That's the definition of farming -- reaping rewards without contributing to battle. That means that the problem isn't the players farming. The problem is the fact that the game lets them farm.
And think about it this way -- an SP cap? Seriously? So your solution to your broken system of acquiring SP is punishing everyone, including players that don't farm? Classy. You have a right to be insulted, legitimate non-farming Dust 514 players. Stop making excuses and defending their SP cap. It's their job to create a system where blatant exploitation of their progression system isn't possible... you know, like every other freaking video game. |
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