This made me laugh. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it. Had to read it three times to get over my disbelief that it actually has to be explained to someone.

Learn your acronyms. It is an MMO as MMO means "Massively Multiplayer Online" Where it's lacking is the RPG part, RPG meaning "Role Playing Game". I'm sure we all know FPS means "First Person Shooter", vehicles being the TPS (Third Person Shooter) exception. So Dust 514 is currently a MMOFPS with RPG elements meaning "Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter with Role Playing Game elements".

I agree, but.. A lot of players have to be rewarded, they need to feel like they're advancing up the ladder and gaining new things, who wants to see passive stats and such increase if there is nothing displaying what's going on? In COD and Battlefield, you have the ability to unlock new weapons and modifications, you're achieving things, in DUST, you unlock a rifle, suit and modules, you're done, nothing fancy :/

Honestly I just want to see a system that has such a large DPS and EHP gap between players, it's unnatural and game breaking in a FPS.

Slot count differences and tiered mods with passive skill bonuses have that effect. If we had single suits in a catagory with helpful yet not game breaking bonuses it wouldn't be as much of an issue, but that breaks the whole intended economic effect of wearing proto all the time, not that it ever actually works out that way.

What effect is that? I'm tired and can't remember/ be bothered to look it up.

The EHP and DPS gap you just mentioned.

Just curious, not disagreeing with your post at all, but how would they monetize if you didn't need SP or aurum gear to unlock awesome gear?

I'd be happy with tiericide if they made drops suits cost the original 375K from the 2011 trailer.... THAT WOULD BE AMAZING!

My suggestion about Dropsuits was why bother with racial ones.

Why not have three corporate dropsuits per race per frame, each representing a corporations within the empire making dropsuits for mercs, they fill as spectrum of roles for light, medium, heavy variants of each frame of dropsuit. Each would have a unique design reflecting the corp and racial group

E,G- Kaalakiota Light Medium Frace (Recon) Ishukone Standard Medium Frame ( Assault), Lai Dai Heavy Assault Frame (Heavy Assault)

I don't want to read what you wrote because its long and im very tired, but based off your title I would say..... No? Tiers are the only way veterans can feel like their time has payed off. Being equal with everyone despite playing five times more is just a horrible feeling. Like..... whats the point? If I want to play equal with every other nooblet coming into the game ill go play COD or BF3.

Old prereqs were lvl's 1,2 and 3 for T1 ships within a class, not 1, 3 and 5, but other than that it's rather spot on. Dusts system, while similar, really isn't compatible with the concept. It would be like having a fast version, a tanky version, and a high damage version of each suit which were at the same level rather than the STD/ADV/PRO suits we have now.

This game is not an MMO by any means. Unless you think CoD and BF3 are MMOs lol. You obviously don't know what your talking about.

But please reply and tell me how this is an MMO. I would LOVE to hear that.

I strongly agree with approach and idea. There's a reason most FPS don't allow you to increase base damage and HP (juggernaut and stopping power, anyone?). And honestly, I don't buy the MMO (or even the RPG) argument. Dust is just as much a lobby shooter as COD/BF/Halo/etc.

That being said, I don't see them actually doing this. However, there still are things to consider for balancing. The three primary issues in my opinion are (in no particular order):

1 - Passive skill bonuses are too large (mostly just for damage and HP related skills)
2 - Modules are too effective/strong
3 - Proto allows for the stacking too many mods

My suggestion for #1 and #2 would be to just reduce the numbers across the board. As an example, I think the base shield/armor skills give a +5% per level, I'd make it 1-2%. Complex shield mods have 66 HP, change it to around half of that.

For #3, instead of reducing the number of overall slots, I'd spread them out. By this I mean keep the overall numbers the same, but introduce a third slot (medium?) and syphon away some highs and lows to fill that new slot. So the basic idea is a proto suit would be something like 2/2/2 (h/m/l) or 3/1/2 or 1/1/4 etc. As for what mods fit into what slot type, that would need to be redone completely. Here's a basic rundown of what I'm thinking:

High - All damage and HP increasing mods
Medium - Non-direct combat mods like stamina, stealth, scan radius, equipment related mods
Low - Shield and armor effectiveness mods like rechargers, repairers, damage type resistance, etc

They should then also introduce a whole bunch of new mods like things that effect how well your equipment works, or mods that for example take up two medium slots but give an extra high slot in return.

People are probably going to **** on me for using this work/phrase/idea, but what this essentially does is makes modules more like perks that help you slightly in certain ways, rather than making you extremely dominant in any particular way. This way, you keep the same number of slots, keep the deep customization, but reduce the stockpiling of single mod types like shields/damage. You're still going to get progression and an advantage over noobs, but it will just be an advantage that you actively need to use with skill rather than just relying on huge passive numbers.

I strongly agree with approach and idea. There's a reason most FPS don't allow you to increase base damage and HP (juggernaut and stopping power, anyone?). And honestly, I don't buy the MMO (or even the RPG) argument. Dust is just as much a lobby shooter as COD/BF/Halo/etc.

That being said, I don't see them actually doing this. However, there still are things to consider for balancing. The three primary issues in my opinion are (in no particular order):

1 - Passive skill bonuses are too large (mostly just for damage and HP related skills)
2 - Modules are too effective/strong
3 - Proto allows for the stacking too many mods

My suggestion for #1 and #2 would be to just reduce the numbers across the board. As an example, I think the base shield/armor skills give a +5% per level, I'd make it 1-2%. Complex shield mods have 66 HP, change it to around half of that.

For #3, instead of reducing the number of overall slots, I'd spread them out. By this I mean keep the overall numbers the same, but introduce a third slot (medium?) and syphon away some highs and lows to fill that new slot. So the basic idea is a proto suit would be something like 2/2/2 (h/m/l) or 3/1/2 or 1/1/4 etc. As for what mods fit into what slot type, that would need to be redone completely. Here's a basic rundown of what I'm thinking:

High - All damage and HP increasing mods
Medium - Non-direct combat mods like stamina, stealth, scan radius, equipment related mods
Low - Shield and armor effectiveness mods like rechargers, repairers, damage type resistance, etc

They should then also introduce a whole bunch of new mods like things that effect how well your equipment works, or mods that for example take up two medium slots but give an extra high slot in return.

People are probably going to **** on me for using this work/phrase/idea, but what this essentially does is makes modules more like perks that help you slightly in certain ways, rather than making you extremely dominant in any particular way. This way, you keep the same number of slots, keep the deep customization, but reduce the stockpiling of single mod types like shields/damage. You're still going to get progression and an advantage over noobs, but it will just be an advantage that you actively need to use with skill rather than just relying on huge passive numbers.

I disagree with the idea that the factors individually are problematic. Rather it's the combination of factors. Being able to add 22 or 66 HP is inconsequential alone, but add that to a passive bonus to base HP and percentage to the mod itself, then add the fact that you can stack that in a proto suit 2-3 more times than in a standard and yes, it becomes a problem. The issue is then exasperated by the length on time needed to get to that level. If it only took a few weeks to get a variety of proto mods, enough to fill a suit, then the performance issues would be a non issue.

I disagree with the idea that the factors individually are problematic. Rather it's the combination of factors. Being able to add 22 or 66 HP is inconsequential alone, but add that to a passive bonus to base HP and percentage to the mod itself, then add the fact that you can stack that in a proto suit 2-3 more times than in a standard and yes, it becomes a problem. The issue is then exasperated by the length on time needed to get to that level. If it only took a few weeks to get a variety of proto mods, enough to fill a suit, then the performance issues would be a non issue.

Personally I'd like to see STD and ADV suits brought up to where there was a 1 slot difference between tiers and a similar balance brought between module tiers. Also perhaps going from 1/3/5 unlock levels for suits, 1/2/4 would be more suitable, the lowered levels reflecting the closer capabilities of the suits, with the basic frames getting one general but not game breaking bonus, and the specialized frames adding a second task specific one, thus giving lvl 5's a purpose without being a mandate to be competitive.

Dust is different from CoD type FPSs. Dust has a player base that's playing the same game together, on dedicated servers, set up and maintained by the game developer, that provides a persistent digital environment to said players. Unlike other CoD like games where any given match is hosted on one of the player's consoles. So, Dust is an MMO.

The SP progression system is a standard RPG element, so is the persistent universe. So Dust has RPG elements.

And finally Dust is a FPS, TPS for vehicles.

So simple even you should understand it.

I agree. But how bout just more suits. Like basic, basic+, advanced, advenced+, proto. 5 levels.

Yes we are developing a new matchmaking system which adapts to your skill level, so as you get better you should be put into more challenging battles.

Having said that we don't think matchmaking has a place for all battles, this is New Eden after all. We are working on plans to expand both faction warfare and planetary conquest to more players, hopefully providing a more "gloves off" battle for those that like that sort of thing.

Just to clarify by skill level I don't mean skill points, I mean actual battle effectiveness. In practical terms this could be due to your gear, your skill points, the design of your fittings or choice of weapons, whether you are playing in a squad, whether you use voice comms, whether you are using your preferred input device, how good your internet connection is, your situational awareness of the battle field, how good you are at aiming etc etc.

The true test of good matchmaking will be if the prediction on how effective you and your team will be against another can adapt to a lot of these difficult to track variables. Right now we are experimenting with a few different ways of doing this and the simulations are looking promising so far.

To the point about scaling rewards, we actually do adjust the reward payout based on the gear used in battle. This doesn't vary that much at the moment because we have quite mixed battles but in theory if the matchmaking can produce higher tier battles then I would expect to see higher tier payouts. This is something we will probably have to review once the new system is in place.

The game is considered by CCP because it's set in the same persistent single shared of a MMORPG . I'm guessing that's why they call it one.

Anyway some devs said that the matchmaking won't be based on gear.
https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1076674#post1076674





https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1075690#post1075690


Also a part of a quote by CCP Etrene said : Improving overall gear balancing so there is no "best" choice and there are tactical choices to make

https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=988205#post988205

That does not make it an MMO. Trust me I'm almost done with college to become a game designer.

I like the idea, been thinking of something similar myself, but not to this detail. +1



Aesthetic items and color schemes, everyone loves that stuff!
You know, different color schemes or skins, stuff you can add to your dropsuit or your in your merc quarters or on vehicles, things that allow you to customize your merc and its stuff.

Bet people would pay a lot for that, and no one would be getting an advantage for it, there'd be no need to waste time trying to "balance" it to existing items and whatnot.



I really like that idea too.
I mean it makes more sense with them being mercenaries and all, have corporations "sponsor" them, thus the Isk gain would depend on how well you did in a match or something, plus it would help add variation.