J4yne C0bb
DUST University
Ivy League
29
   |
Posted - 2013.06.14 01:39:00 -
[1] - Quote
DUST Fiend wrote:Except you can't plan your choices because they're constantly being fiddled with, nerfed out of relevance, or buffed to the point that they will soon be nerfed out of relevance.
Really the thought of not allowing respecs just feels like people who need to rely on spreadsheets to get the upper hand don't want other players to have the chance to fix uneducated (not really their fault, they shouldn't have to dig through pages and pages of threads and youtube videos to find this stuff out) choices that they've made.
Also, why let people move out of a playstyle they've been playing for months? It's far more entertaining to let them grind for a few more months to get to the point where their new playstyle is even worth fielding in any match that even remotely matters.
If there was actually stuff to do in DUST, then maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't mind this mentality. Unfortunately, it's a lobby shooter, and forcing people to stick to a single playstyle with no hope of changing it other than biting the bullet and grinding for months is absurd.
Testify.
I don't understand the massive boner CCP has for the idea of no respecs, especially in a game with so many choices and career paths, even alternate paths within the same career, like being a rez/rep/repair logi vs. a combat logi.
I'm pretty much a dedicated logi and I do enjoy it (when the frakin injectors are working right), but say one day I get a wild hair up my butt and decide, hey, I think I'd like to be a sniper for a little while? Or maybe I'd like to try out tanks, and see what that's like? This adds infinite replay-ability, and more enjoyment and immersion into the game. And when all that happens, the most important thing happens: I open my wallet.
I'm not necessarily talking about the ability to respec at will, like you can in Borderlands 2. I would be happy with the ability to respect every 3-6 months. Even once a year would be acceptable. Or how about the ability to buy SP back with ISK I've earned, so I can respec partially? The important point is, CCP should pay attention to the fact that I'm still playing BL2 after how long now? 9 months? That's like a bajillion years for a FPS. And I know you can't exactly compare them, but Dust performs nowhere near the level of BL2 at the moment, glitch-wise anyways.
Any career change now would require such a massive SP investment that would be better spent on my chosen career. So at this point, if I get bored of my chosen career, I can either:
1) Grind my butt off for the SP necessary to switch.
2) Go find another game to play.
I'm in my late 30s with a full-time job that requires mandatory overtime. I grind in real life, and I'm sure as *** not going to do it on my free time. When I eventually get bored of Dust (which, inevitably, all players will at some point or another), which of the above two options do you thing I'm gonna choose? |
J4yne C0bb
DUST University
Ivy League
33
|
Posted - 2013.06.14 11:47:00 -
[2] - Quote
Laurent Cazaderon wrote:I'd rather have CCP being forced to revert changes done than to offer an easy way to respec pretty much when you want. As it will kill very important aspects of the game as i said in my first post. There still needs to be some kind of involvement when you decide to skill into something. It shouldnt become a casual thing to do. Yet it shouldnt be a prison either.
Thus why i suggest something that would allow for a periodic respec. i said 1 a year but could be 6 month. Something that lets you try something new but isnt frequent enough to make the character skilling something trivial.
Glad to hear someone on the CPM is in agreement. This is basically what I'm getting at. I actually like the idea that your choices should be thoughtful, but at the same time, I know there will come a time where I will be tired playing with the choice I made -- not because the choice sucks, or I was forced into it, or now I want the latest 'instawin' build or whatever, but because I've wrung all the fun out of it, and now I want to try something new. Infrequent periodic respecs solve that problem. Every 6 months is a reasonable amount of time.
I agree with the HTFU "Adapt or Die" mentality to an extent; it promotes immersion in the world, and lends permanence to your toon and the world it inhabits. Not least of all, it prevents scrubs from hopping into whatever instawin build that exists this week, and screwing up the balance of the game. Forcing permanence on your SP choices is certainly one way to a more meaningful engagement with the game, but If this is the ultimate goal, there are other avenues to facilitate this, like long-period respecs. What better way to keep gamers playing than allowing them to immerse themselves in all aspects of the game? (and no, "militia fits" is not an acceptable counter argument -- I want to play the class/weapon as it should be played) There is a happy medium to be found between the ability to respec at will and the "Adapt or Die" mentality, that facilitates a deeper involvement with the world of Dust. Which leads to paying customers, which is the true goal, despite any of the flowerly **** I just said above.
This is why the HTFU mentality in an FPS is ultimately shortsighted. CCP would do well to heed it's own mantra. "Adapt or Die" will be pretty ironic if Dust dies because of an inability to adapt to it's playerbase. And that will suck for everyone... for about 5 mins until the next shooter come out. |