Vyzion Eyri
The Southern Legion
1065
   |
Posted - 2013.07.25 09:13:00 -
[1] - Quote
Gotta agree with gbghg here, so I'll rebutt some big arguments against his OP.
1.Need for progression: feel like time has paid off
2.No need for SP
I'll address these two together. Because if we do remove tiers as we know them, SP can be used to RETAIN A SENSE OF PROGRESSION. Not only this, but so can ISK. I'll expand on both.
SP: tiercide means there are many, many more variations of a basic item, but no 'improved in all aspects'-type items. What this allows us to do is apply skills TO EACH VARIANT. For example, triage repair tools get bonuses to dropsuit repair rate, whilst axis repair tools get bonuses to vehicle/installation repair rate. A caldari assault dropsuit which has slightly increased movement speed will now have bonuses to movement speed as well. This bonus will mean this suit will eventually become slightly faster than a scout suit with no skills. So SP and progression can still exist.
Furthermore, if we increase the ISK cost of all items, then instead of grinding for SP as we are now, we instead focus on grinding for ISK. Since most items will be unlocked after a little bit of SP, more expensive items should balance out being able to purchase tons of a single item.
3.Money for CCP
Like others have already argued, selling aesthetical or pretty dropsuits can suffice. Boosters will still be purchased, just less often, because SP is still useful but not as important because we've increased the important of ISK, and that balances SP out.
We can have multicoloured repair tool beams, dropsuit camo, vehicle camo, decorations for our merc quarters, etc. etc. Possibilities are endless.
4. There is the ability for current mlt weapons/cheap gear to kill prototype gear
Yea, you can remote explode someone in prototype gear. You can kill them with a MLT AR if they're playing stupidly. But chances are, that won't happen. Chances are, they're willing to lose a couple of suits because the amount of damage they can deal in return far outweighs what militia weaponry can do to stop them. Cost of prototype gear certainly isn't high enough to keep people away. Even when I suggested raising the cost of prototype gear to the price of tanks, people argue that once EVE starts flooding DUST with ISK, it won't matter. Maybe you're right. In that case, tiercide is the only option we have to prevent 24/7 pubstomping of newbcakes. |
Vyzion Eyri
The Southern Legion
1072
|
Posted - 2013.07.26 07:41:00 -
[2] - Quote
Shijima Kuraimaru wrote:
If the tiers are flattened out as you're supposing, then there will be a lot of, "If tier two isn't better than tier one, and tier three isn't better than tier one or two, then there's no point in skilling up."
The original idea in the OP focuses on balancing out the game between vets and newbies. I agree it doesn't address problems such as these, however, I think the advantages of this idea far outweigh the disadvantages, because once we implement this, we can develop it further.
Since all gear is essentially equal once this is implemented, phase two would be making some gear more equal than others. We can do this in two ways:
1) ISK
Make T2 gear cost much more than T1. T2 will be used for extremely specific roles, therefore, ideal when you have a squad where everyone knows what they're doing. The cost will be worth it then because you know you can achieve the purpose of that suit when working with a squad.
T1 suits, less specialised, can be used in generic public matches/contracts. Disposable and cheap, with less glaring weaknesses than T2 gear, but no big strengths either.
2) Keeping SP important
Essentially, the SP sink of UNLOCKING initial gear is gone. Where SP now goes into is passive bonuses, efficacy, fitting costs, and unlocking variants.
Therefore, players can choose to unlock variants or specialise into one variant by upgrading skills for it. One of my most overused examples is giving triage repair tools a skill which increases dropsuit repair rate. That's worth skilling into. A skill which increases the speed of a scout dropsuit, that's worth skilling into. It doesn't allow you to get a better base suit, but it does make you have an edge over someone with the same suit without the skills you've chosen, which I feel is much more elegant than the current system. |