It's awesome (: It's almost as great as it looked four years ago! Great stuff!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCIPDUh7NmMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvZawAaliSASeriously, CCP. You will never stop balancing and rebalancing weapons and dropsuits, and granted, many of them are extremely underpowered and many are overpowered. But that's how it is in EVE too, and DUST needs to catch up with that kind of playerbase to make this game a game worth playing. The above trailers showed extremely basic combat, but in compensation for that, it has incredible ideas implemented. Sensor booster installations! Commander MCCs! Do you realize that the new Black Ops or something is going to have something similar - and even are going to call it the 'Commander mode'? Do you really want your incredible idea to look like a copy of something like BLACK OPS??!! I don't!!!
The current gameplay shows no depth whatsoever. Mercenaries fight over repeated landscapes without interest. We were promised one universe, one shard. The only thing communicated across the two games of EVE and DUST is the fact that we can tell EVE players to nuke about fifty meters of space... after getting something like 1500 war points. There is no depth. Keep the instant battles for new players, but you cannot have exactly the same map on two different planets - it just doesn't happen, and I expect better of the people who invented EVE. I say expected, because I know this is a developing game, and things take time. But you need to sort out your priorities.
The gameplay is fine. People complain about it, it can be terrible, but it works. Now you have to remember why people play this game. Space mercenaries going anywhere, with as much freedom as the capsuleers themselves, roaming the universe. Why is there an MCC? What's the point? Why do we randomly appear cloaked on the battlefield? Oh, gameplay. That's a fair excuse for games these days - but not an CCP game. That's why CCP is so much better than the rest of the gaming world. Each ship in EVE stays true to its size, and each function has a reason and purpose - and beyond that, it makes sense. Let MCC's be player commandable, let them be shielded, give them the achilles heel of low fuel like you said you would all those years ago in 2011 in the blog by CCP Remnant here:
http://dust514.com/news/blog/2011/11/the-future-of-war-dust-514s-mobile-command-center-mcc/. That was a good, and inspired method of gameplay! Why isn't it here?
Instead, I feel a shallow shooter that is loosely themed around the EVE Universe. But it isn't the EVE Universe. And I truly wish it were.
I will continue to play this game, but I have to say it is wearing on me. I am constantly being reminded over the time I've put into this game and the little rewards I've been given. Why play this game when all I can get is shallow entertainment over the glorious depth of EVE. Already I've pulled out of the game substantially, and am rarely hitting the skill cap. And still I play too much some say. I am inclined to agree with them. But it would be okay if I could brag about how deep this game is, how extraodinary its stories are and really tell people about how games can be as interesting and thought provoking as any fast paced and intellectual book or movie. EVE gives me that experience. Let DUST have it too.
When I began playing this game, I saw an amazing dream of mercenaries dropping onto hostile planets from orbit, Starships quietly relaying information to them. I saw their tactics and chess like strategies as they tried to out think their opponents more than they tried to outgun them. MCCs quietly hidden behind mountain ranges with fuel depots supporting it, an array of sensor boosters on the top of the mountain giving the taskforce the information they needed to take the base. All the while the defenders are trying to find where their base is, and more importantly, their MCC. They call in favors and cash to bring in Starships of their own, and the fight truly begins. Maps as big as the world is, limited by only how much is was really worth going. Why would you need a redline when the enemies are the other way? When the loot is the other way... When the wealth to fuel empires is in your hands. You could fly over to another continent, but why? Still, it is a big map, and vehicles are needed. LAVs and speeders deploy them relatively close to call in HAVs, while the aerial vehicles reconnaissance and set up small outposts to supply troops. This fight isn't planned. It isn't scheduled. It comes out of nowhere, and like in EVE, troops of both sides need to gather themselves to fight. The battle of the mind more than the battle of brute strength. There could be plenty of other explorations and industrial operations as is seen fit. But this is an FPS and this is what I see makes it an FPSMMO.
Again, thank you so much for this game, CCP. It has been an honour to play in your closed beta, and I am enjoying seeing it grow every month. But I may decide I will have to come back to it when its ready, which unfortunately, it clearly isn't yet. Till then, you can find me flying in the stars, and fighting on the ground.
I hope you share the same dream for this game as I do.