RydogV
Shadow Company HQ
202
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Posted - 2013.07.17 18:29:00 -
[1] - Quote
The reason for what many feel is an excessive use of "murder taxis" as primary weapons in Dust 514 versus other games has less to do with map size or game physics than it does with simple economics. The game incorporates an economic system that encourages budget minded players to find and use the least expensive option possible in combat operations where profit is more important than the battle's outcome.
Right now the free Militia LAV is the cheapest "one-hit kill" weapon in the game. Sure you can outfit an expensive dropsuit that is capable of competing with other players on the battlefield but why would you bother when a free LAV can take out the most expensive loadouts with zero overhead and virtually no skill (actual or game based). Sure other games have vehicles and you can be killed by them. But because there is no economic incentive to use them other then generally intended, you see a lot fewer vehicle deaths. I played my fair share of BF3 and getting ran over by a Hummer or Buggy was extremely rare. That is because players would PREFER to spawn in and shoot people in the face.
So the solution to "balancing" LAV usage in-game will require a combination of things. First, remove the free Militia LAV as an option. It is honestly insulting that they are even in the game post-beta. None of the maps are so large that trucking to an objective on foot is some great chore. And the use of vehicles is a tactical consideration in war planning and there should always be a cost associated with it. I think just as sad as being run over all the time is the tendency for players or teams to use free vehicles to rush objectives and then abandon them without a care because, "hey, they are free". Vehicles that cost will force players to consider whether to recall the vehicle and will change tactics and capability in battle. So no free vehicles...even the proposed "speeder bikes" should not ever be free if/when they are introduced.
In conjunction with assigning cost, the developer needs to enhance the physics model. Assigning more detailed damage outputs to various levels of impact is a no-brainer. A player can jump out of an MCC and drop hundreds of feet...has shields and armor protecting them from bullets, blasters and bombs...but cannot survive a fender tap from an LAV? C'mon CCP, you can do better than that.
Finally, stop offering LAV BPO's in the various Merc Packs. There are better items that players would care more about and it will limit their use as free death machines. Sure there are plenty already out there and now when player trading is introduced they will be a valuable commodity.
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