Malkai Inos
Opus Arcana
Covert Intervention
970
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Posted - 2013.08.02 23:10:00 -
[1] - Quote
D legendary hero wrote:the idea is that if for example everything but the AR was buffed, AR noobs couldnt complain tat they were nerfed because they are still just as effective, but now there are other guns that are just as effective in their areas of expertise. I kinda like your OP as it shows nicely that nerfing is in fact not the only solution for balance. With that said i can't agree with this statement without a caveat.
If "they are still just as effective" refers to the psychological effect that nerfs and buffs have on players and the fact that buffs are generally better received because no one has to deal with his toy being weaker by the numers alone i can agree to this.
If it means that buffs have no indirect effects on weapons that are not touched then i disagree. Balance is always relative. If we buff "everything" other than ARs then the AR is relatively less powerfull, whether it is perceived as such or not. Reducing the overall TTK by buffing almost all guns available (and a buff to a gun almost always leads to a lower TTK or it's a useless buff) might not change the way one particular unchanged weapon behaves but it changes the environment in which this weapon operates and thus the very metrics by which we determine a guns effectiveness.
If, for the sake of the argument, my AR on average nets a kill after 10 seconds and all other weapons require 20 seconds on average, ignoring other factors like varying overall behavior of weapons, than we might conclude that the AR is OP as it kills about twice as fast as the competition.
If we now adjust all the other weapons to kill in 10 seconds on average then the AR might not have been changed but it is no longer "twice as fast" as other weapons. Its relative power has dimished in half. This might not be immediately apparent to the user but the change in power will eventually change the experience.
If we were to "overbuff" all other guns by making them kill within just 5 seconds on average that's where the problems become obvious. Now the AR is "half as fast" as other weapons. Without a single attribute being changed on the AR it now feels much less effective than the rest.
Besides the initial difference in perception from knowing that the AR was "not nerfed" the long term effect is just the same. Balance has changed and the only gun that has not been buffed is less effective in relative terms. In this extreme case it has become "UP" now.
Also, buffing almost all guns in contrast to nerfing just one has far greater consequences to the overall meta, including unforseeable ones.
- Suddenly average TTK has gone down. The value of different tanking paradigms has changed as less TTK dimishes the value of passive tanks (armor reps, shield rechargers) relative to buffer tanks (plates, extenders) since there's less time for them to work and increase EHP.
- Certain classes that are balanced to just barely survive a certain amount of shots from a particular weapon will no longer do so. dmg buffed Snipers would oneshot more classes than before which has a much greater effect on general tactics than what a slight buff might initially suggest for example.
- Lowered TTK by itself will change the way the game feels. For everyone. This might disenfranchise players who felt that one weapon killed too fast, not every other weapon too slow.
Case in point and TL;DR: Both nerfing and buffing are viable balancing options depending on the situation. Neither is free from downsides and the best approach is to choose the one that directly affects the least amount of assets to limit the amount and severity of unintended consequences. |