The man has a point there.

I also regard both Cap-increasing boosters and passive boosters mandatory for any serious players.
That's not quite the 'convenience' or 'catching up' advertised.

I will give you a detailed point-by-point response soon, but I have to ask why you are assuming so much about my motivations? Nowhere did I list how often I buy boosters or how much SP I personally have. It seems like you have more personal investment in this issue than I do ... food for thought until I can respond in full.

Show of hands, who buys the SP boosters and then stops at less sp than the boosterless cap?

Who cares? Not many people are mental enough to waste that amount of time for so little gain. If you get proto gear over three years more power to you.

[quote=Khamelaya]
I will just say that your CAP LOCKED statements certainly came across to me as aggressive, judgmental, and directed at myself. I have a peculiar style though, so it could merely be a miscommunication. Ultimately, right now boosters are buying you more than time. They are buying you more SP. That may not be a second by second advantage, but it is allowing you deeper access to the content if you use it for variety, instead of more power in your niche. Unfortunately, in practice, I have seen every reset people race to fill out their "role" and not since E3 has anyone truly been able to branch out without sacrificing their primary role (and that is mostly due to many skill trees being broken i.e. nonfunctional). So while anecdotes cannot prove my point, they do suggest it is not as simply as you make it out to be. 3) especially is troublesome, because in an FPS where you can switch roles instantly and there are a fixed number of people in a given match, variety IS a major advantage. A player with a prototype assault and tank is going to be selected before the player with just the tank, because they can adapt more easily to changing circumstances.

I know you are going to disprove of another anecdote, but your stretch is actually quite close to the truth. I've been through and won a tourney already, and unfortunately the only reason we rotated players was because we wanted to maximize who got the rewards. Come finals, we had no variation at all. So your extreme isn't that extreme.

So expanding on that, if the player is what is important, and he has easy access to every niche through free passive SP... then you have no reason to invite more players to participate unless they are replacing said player in every role.

Then why have SP at all?

Thats the point of the OP. IF you are paying for something it should be convenience. Eliminitating the grind is a convenience by this will allow players who wish to to pay for SP that they can earn without playing the game and thus taking up space in a game mode where ppl want to play(hence AFK).

People think that spending time in a game is in itself mandatory to provide content, i saw paying is providing content because paying means you are helping to fund future content. Those who wish to grind are free to do so and still earn just as much SP as the ppl who pay for the convenience of not having to play.

In eve its even more extreme you pay and you grow you character over time no matter how much you play. In fact you can just set skills and never login until those skills are completed as long as you maintain the account. I know because as i type this my eve toon is progressing.

Basically take a piece of that model into Dust by giving the option to pay and not have to play and earn the same SP a person earns while playing. Thus they can avoid the grind and not take up room in the game and still earn the same benefits as someone who plays to earn the same effect. IT isnt P2W because you arent getting ahead of anyone.

The only way you get ahead is because you are earning a booster rated soft cap. But again you have to "play" to earn that extra SP. See why its works without breaking the fundamental fear of F2P becoming P2W.

The carrot and the stick makes sense in a game that has nothing else to offer. This game does or do you concede that really after you are done grinding in this game there isnt much else but play a third rate lobby shooter that holds no meaning beyond isolated matches where ppl pretend it really all means something more? (cause you might be on to something there)

Sorry this game isnt rocket science. Maybe the point holds true in EVE but this is DUST it really isnt that complicated if you really feel it is that diffiicult and requires a lot of time to learn this game i suggest you buy Zitro's book (now in a kindle edition)

Locked in syndrome is worse. While it may make for variety in some peoples mind, again this isnt EVE where the shard is only limited for large events. OW fleet comps can reach extremely high numbers. New players can be taught to specialize into a very specific role for use because well hey fleet comps are nearly limitless in size you can take a new player in a hyperspecialized role and make them useful.

This is a instanced lobby shooter with fixed player count. There are so many uses for a DS pilot. Guess what happens ppl wont use dedicated DS pilots when having someone who can be specialized in Assault or Logi can just use a militia DS for the quick transport job and let the thing blow up after its served its purpose. Thats the point these specialty roles are limited value utility currently and for a very long time. This makes them less useful in competitive matches and thus limits their ability to play the game.

But what about when the game get 24 v 24 32v32 256v256.

Not happening for a VERY VERY LONG time if ever why?

Because its not stable enough. We do CB's all the time stuff disconnects like crazy. By jenza's own admission they got Internal errors during the first game of the tourney final. The cloesd beta tourney was 16 v 16, you know why CBs are only 8v8 and not 16 v16 now when they were able to host it months ago. ITs not stable enough.

This game has a long way to go before it is stable enough to host large mathces. Even then player counts arent high enough and CCP said they wanted small FPS oriented groups to be able to compete in PC (hence 16v16); (more proof CCP wants us and is trying to cater to us but keep mucking stuff up)..

Point is when you are trying to play the game competitively and be of utility you aren't going to choose a role that limits your ability to play and thus you will see less variety not more. MMO players that try to go for the hyperspecialzed role wil failcascade into nothingness. Don't believe me ask some of these players who used to run dedicated DS pilot, tank, heavy, lav, lazer, stealth scout etc what they will play. The ones who say they will stick to their role or pick a speciality role other than assualt or logi ask them how many CB's they have played.

You will see a correlation i promise you will.