InsidiousN wrote:The biggest problem that you face is that DUST 514 is not FUN.
While I know there are problems with specific game functions (hit detection primarily), all of these problems pale in comparison to the fact that Dust 514 is just not fun. The core of the core game, shooting space people, just isn't fun, killing an enemy doesn't leave me satisfied, it just leaves me with a feeling of "wow, that sure was annoying". Taking points on the map isn't fun, it's just annoying. Wow I sure am glad I just fought that guy for 3 minutes hitting mostly air, just so one of his pals can spawn in and kill me with an invisible militia grenade. CCP this is the real danger you have with Dust 514, no matter how deeply integrated it is into EVE and how much winning and losing battles means to the EVE universe, no one will continue to play this game if one dude shooting another dude is not FUN.
Other than desperately needing to make DUST 514 FUN in terms of shooting a space merc in the face, another important core piece of an FPS that makes it FUN is the use of strategy. When there are tiered objectives within a match not only do you have to out-gun your opponent, but you also have to out-think your opponent, it is very satisfying to out strategize your opponent and use teamwork to accomplish objectives.
With the current POS game mode in DUST 514 all people do is run around in a big circle and chase each other like kids playing with water guns. There is no strategy involved, the points that are held are meaningless and hold absolutely no strategic value. It is FUN when you have to understand what your opponent is thinking and see what they are trying to accomplish and react to match conditions in real-time. None of these elements are present in "Skirmish POS", some did exist in Skirmish 1.0.
If I was a game developer trying to find out what are the issues of my game, I would only find the fine lining of this post has. Everything else about entire post overall is worthless though.
The reason why I am disagreeing with the post for the most part is the fact that the 'fun' part is generally a very very hard goal to hit for any and every game. That majority of the time FUN is an opinion.
Lets look at a few other games.
Imagine a game where all you do in the game is order something, it takes some resources and now you have to wait anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days before it gets done. The object that gets done nearly nothing special other than what every other building does but generate resources, maybe it has different art or assets but nothing more.
Doesn't sound fun right?
This is what we call a time gate game, they're typically common on face book these days an now mobile devices games such as Farmville and Tiny Monsters.
While many of us here may not find that fun there are quire a few people that do and pays tonns of money to skip the time gate portion of the game.
While we're not here to talk about other games and more about first person shooters the reason why the opinion of fun is just an opinion is that not every game tailors to everyone. There are those who would like Counter Strike over ARMA, Ghost Recon 1 over 2. Call of Duty over Halo. Portal over Half Life 2. Mirror's Edge over Battlefield. The list goes on an on on why each game can or cannot be considered fun at all. This is a very ambiguous goal to find, and make whole and its own.
What is far more feasible to find however, is the cause of the misery index in the game. Things that are appalling, frustrating, making every kill a tooth or hair pulling experience. These can, not only be found easily, but fixed easily in an MMO environment, had dust 514 been a single player one shot game, it would have failed horridly with this build.
So goals we need to achieve that may help satisfy your needs
Making the game less about fighting the controls and more about fighting the enemy.
Making the game less about fighting the numbers and more planning against the enemy.
Making the game less about fighting bugs and more about making that awesome kill shot that by all accounts should have NEVER happened.
Making the game less about whining about its short falls and more about talking on how awesome it really is.
This is going to take time, hair pulling testing and adjustment and tuning, it can't be done over night either by a studio that has never made a shooter in its life before. Despite having ex Dice and ex Zipper developers dust 514's is far more ambiguous of a project and you can only do so much tweaking of the core at a time and you have to see the results of everything it has on the multiple layers of things that wraps around the core such as balance, flavor, theme, gear, environment and the sorts.