DUST Search - What is the purpose of the SP Cap?

AION ETERNITY wrote:

There is no purpose. It's the most ******** feature in Dust 514 currently and it is CCP's way of saying they're incapable of realizing the stupidity of their own actions. If two players started playing Dust 514 a month apart the one who started earlier will ALWAYS have more SP if they both reach the cap every week UNLESS the newer player buys boosters and the earlier player doesn't. So really it's just CCP money-grabbing by creating a demand for something(the boosters) which negatively impacts the game itself. Without the cap the player who started later could, potentially, get more SP than the player who started earlier. It's all based on how much you play. I've talked to a few people who have stated that they would have played Dust 514 far more if the cap was gone and I agree with these sentiments. The gameplay of Dust 514 isn't exciting enough to play by itself, it's the shallow rpg mechanics that gives it the extra push. With the cap CCP is hampering even this from being used to get players to play once the caps been reached. I mean this game doesn't even reward a player for doing good save a measly 1000 more SP or 100,000 more ISK, both of which are pretty much pointless in the long run, and now with the SP cap they're punishing players who like playing the game. If Dust 514 is going to die, the cap won't necessarily be what kills it but it will make sure that what does has an easier time in do so.


Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 6 post(s)
Fearless Speech Villore Sec Ops Gallente Federation 2	Posted - 2013.06.18 18:50:00 - [1] - Quote Thing about the cap is that is preserves a distance between vets and newbs rather than protecting against it. This is because having the entire skill tree maxed out or just having one build maxed out gives you the same advantage in a firefight versus a new player. Removing cap would do much more to allow new players to feel like they control closing that gap. As it is, a new player simply cannot close the gap in fewer than three or four months no matter how good they are or how much they play. For many, this gives a sense of all those games being more or less pointless and not having control over your own destiny. By this i mean: Vet has say full proto caldari assault with proto AR and all that jaz. Faces a 1mil SP noob... same out come if he happens to have access to every single proto and tank and everything else. At anyone one time, only your proficiency in one build actually gives you the advantage. So removing cap will make it possible for new players to get that one good build quicker. The advantage to vets is they get to have several builds to choose from, but still, they can only use one at a time. And, in many ways, your first 3-4mil SP are much more potent than say SP 10mil-13mil because you can only get the core upgrades once. For those people who really want to grind and grind... well they get to have access to everything and then sit there thinking "well, what do I do now?" Those people will exist in every RPG but they really don't affect balance. Again, even if someone had absolutely every skill maxed... they're still only going to have the benefits of one fully skilled build at a time, so any other full skill build should be on equal footing. Just curious, anyone know the math on fully specing the dropsuit upgrades seciton? Obviously some are more potent than others (Shields and armor 25% probably being the strongest per point).
Fearless Speech Villore Sec Ops Gallente Federation 2	Posted - 2013.06.18 19:12:00 - [2] - Quote Zatara Rought wrote: Read the post above yours, it doesn't take that much sp to get an endgame ready fit. It's not that much different than when I played ragnarok online. I played for months to get my Lord Knight transcended to level 90 (never even completely maxxed him and got kicked around in pvp until I put in the time, if 6 mill sp is all you need to be nearly the same as a top level killer, with half his sp, then whats gives? You posted while I was typing, so its not like I ignored your post. I do agree match making would help, but there is a slight disconnect between comparing a conventional fantasy MMO to a FPS MMO. (I know I mentioned that there are gridners in all rpgs, so I may sound hypocritical, but stick with me). I played FFXI, it took most players over a year to cap out, but as with every other fantasy rpg: there is content explicitly for that leveling process that puts you in group with other people very close to your level. WoW, Guild wars, the final fantasies, etc all do this, you level up with people with in a few levels of yourself, and when you pvp before cap, you pvp with people near your level (or get temp. raised to cap). So you are never really competing against people who have been endgame ready before you even picked up the game while using a new character. Without access to PVE (i know its "coming Soon[TM]") or more robust matchmaking, the current situation is essentially level 1-10's fighting level 80's. More, my point was bout the time element that's built into the skill system. Imagine if WoW said "you can play all you want, but you can only gain 10 levels a week untill exp gain is droped to nearly nothing, BUT, you'll passively gain a level every 10 days." That would NEVER fly. All in all, I really like Dust's skill system. But the SP cap takes progression out of the control of the player, and taking things out of player hands always ends poorly. Removing cap isn't really going to make vets any more powerful than they are now. Its just going to make new players feel like they are able to compete sooner, and will actually make them able to compete sooner. More, it will probably help with new player retention. As to 6mil all you need to compete being bad.... as I pointed out, the advantage of more SP past a certian point (not sure what that magic number is, but for this lets say its 6mil) is build diversity. With enough SP you get to make tactical and quality of life decsions about how you want to play. "We need CQC support, going in my heavy shotty build or my scout shotty or my...." or "Today, I want to fly a drop ship. Tomorrow I want to be an AR hero." Removing cap gives us a more compeditive palyer base with more diversity of builds (as most people spec into a fotm build first, and only then branch out).
Fearless Speech Villore Sec Ops Gallente Federation 3	Posted - 2013.06.19 15:47:00 - [3] - Quote AION ETERNITY wrote: There is no purpose. It's the most ****** feature in Dust 514 currently and it is CCP's way of saying they're incapable of realizing the stupidity of their own actions. If two players started playing Dust 514 a month apart the one who started earlier will ALWAYS have more SP if they both reach the cap every week UNLESS the newer player buys boosters and the earlier player doesn't. So really it's just CCP money-grabbing by creating a demand for something(the boosters) which negatively impacts the game itself. Without the cap the player who started later could, potentially, get more SP than the player who started earlier. It's all based on how much you play. I've talked to a few people who have stated that they would have played Dust 514 far more if the cap was gone and I agree with these sentiments. The gameplay of Dust 514 isn't exciting enough to play by itself, it's the shallow rpg mechanics that gives it the extra push. With the cap CCP is hampering even this from being used to get players to play once the caps been reached. I mean this game doesn't even reward a player for doing good save a measly 1000 more SP or 100,000 more ISK, both of which are pretty much pointless in the long run, and now with the SP cap they're punishing players who like playing the game. If Dust 514 is going to die, the cap won't necessarily be what kills it but it will make sure that what does has an easier time in do so. So... we take boosters out because that's "CCP Money-grabbing." How, exactly, do you want the game to be profitable? Before you say "not my problem," you realize that unless the game is at least breaking even development will completely stop? CCP is probably large enough to allow the game to go negative on returns for quite a while to invest in making it better for hopes of future increase in revenue, but that's still going to require that they sell you something. Or would you like to see McDonald's adds every time you want to look at your fittings or watch short ED drug commercials every time you die? Either they sell us stuff in the game or they flood the game with real world advertising. Personally? 15$/month "subscription" >>>>>>>>>>>> adds to make my *** work. There is no Pay to Win in Dust. The aurum gear all has increased PG/CPU requirements which have big impacts on your fitting options, the boosters just help you get some more sp (but really, not that much. An active booster is what, one tier 5 skill every month? Maybe?). I personally like the boosters. I can give them a little money to show my support for the game, and if I decide to stop playing I just stop buying boosters and never had to shell out $60 up front. And, if I feel the value in buying enough 30 day boosters to equate $60, then I have been playing much longer than most titles stay fun so I feel like I got my money's worth. Even if I never give them a dime, I get access to all the gear, all the maps, all the updates, all the same matches and features. Its not like there is some Proto+1 Aurum gear. "Pay to Win" is usually when paying real money gives you items/gear/skills that are more powerfult han what is otherwise in the game. Like if there was an Aurum AR that had all the same atributes as the GEK-38 only it did 60 HP / Shot instead of the 33ish.