Garrett Blacknova
Codex Troopers
3361
   |
Posted - 2013.07.22 13:01:00 -
[2] - Quote
Cosgar wrote:Garrett Blacknova wrote:Balancing a game around the higher levels provides at least an approximation of balance at lower levels as well.
Balancing the game around the middle can result in either or both ends of the scale being unbalanced.
Balancing the game around the lowest tiers will usually result in increasing imbalances as you advance further up the skill tree.
Pretty sure balancing around the top level is the least stupid option. Quite the opposite. If you balance towards the highest skilled players, new players would just get mauled repeatedly. Remember how relevant fighting games were before Street Fighter IV? The Marvel vs Capcom series balanced accordingly to the pros, cutting off newer players from having a chance and literally killed arcades before consoles even had a chance to. You should skill for newer players while giving the pros a fighting chance.
No matter what you do, you either have a purely luck-based game, or skilled players have an advantage.
Skill should ALWAYS be an advantage in FPS games. ALWAYS. A-L-W-A-Y-S. Do I need to say this in more ways or do you understand where I'm coming from with this?
With a skilled player against an unskilled player, the skilled player should be expected to win more often than not, regardless of equipment. With two equally skilled high-level players, the one who has the better equipment for the situation should have an advantage. For example, if you have a great Shotgunnner against a great AR user, the Shotgunner should win if they're in a CQC-friendly environment, and the AR guy should win in open spaces. If you give the Shotgun to a total noob, and put him up against that same great AR player, the great AR guy will probably win more often than not even in the CQC encounter, because he'll be able to force conditions where he can use his range advantage in spite of the surroundings.
If the gear is balanced at the top level, scaling it back is easy, and at each tier, the gear will remain at least relatively well balanced. Balance variations from scaling down are almost always less severe than when you scale the same principles up from the lower levels.
If you start at the top and scale back, the tweaks needed at the lowest level should be less severe than if you start from the middle and work up.
Looking at Advanced gear, if that was used as the tier for initial game balance, the imbalances at Militia level are likely to be less severe than the imbalances at Prototype level, even though Militia gear is two steps down and Prototype is only a single tier above the balance point.
If the game was balanced around Standard gear, the potential imbalance at Prototype level is FAR worse than the potential imbalance at Militia level would be when balancing the game for Prototype gear.
The trouble is that DUST can't provide meaningful progression without giving the high-SP character better equipment, and that in turn means that experienced players get a gear advantage on top of the skill they've gained from playing the game. Highly-skilled players have skill AND equipment advantages, and at the moment, there isn't much being done to help new players ease into the game without being stomped by players running full proto. |
Garrett Blacknova
Codex Troopers
3362
|
Posted - 2013.07.22 13:42:00 -
[3] - Quote
The problem is that the sense of progression in the game NEEDS to be there for it to be true to what DUST is meant to be.
What we need is more matchmaking options. The academy is a good start, but we need a more flexible system. The devs have done a good job in reducing the previously huge gaps between higher- and lower-tier gear, and the same has been done with reduced benefits from passive skills, but it would be stupid to balance everything out to a basic level.
The argument SHOULDN'T be that starting gear should be able to compete with max-level upgraded equipment in equally-skilled hands. That would be stupid. What needs to be done is to allow players with lower SP count to fight against other similarly-leveled players.
They could divide the game into several matchmaking layers. When you first start off, there's the 2 million SP or 10,000 WP limit where you can only fight Academy battles. After that, you get to compete "properly" - but as your SP count rises, you get locked out of the lower-tier matchmaking options. You can choose to fight at your level within the lowest SP-based matchmaking tier, or you can step it up a little and try to compete against people with potentially more SP than you have. As you skill up higher, you have less options, but because lower-level players CAN throw themselves in the deep end, and because higher-level players wanting to learn a new playstyle will have to compete on your level, there will still be gear imbalances which let the high-tier players bring their shiny toys and show them off against weaker opponents. |