Bein Glorious
GoonWaffe
GoonSwarm
   |
Posted - 2006.11.04 20:52:00 -
[1]
Requiring players to train for a few weeks (or even months) just to lead a decent sized gang is philosophically unsound, as far as game design is concerned. The benefits of leadership skill training would no longer be an incentive, but a chore. One of the biggest selling points of EVE Online has always been that, unlike other MMOs, you don't have to kill imps for fifty hours or whatever just to be useful, but these leadership requirements in this change are counterproductive for attracting new players, and possibly also keeping the old ones.
Now, I'm not against all of the changes, and in fact, I think a lot of them are genuinely enticing and stay true to the game's essence: you can spend a short amount of time to become proficient, or you can invest months to specialize and become an expert. I would wager a fleet with identical numbers, ship composition, intelligence, and skill, would with the new system of squadrons, wings, fleet commanders and special features from Kali would beat a simple gang from the present Red Moon Rising gang system. The cap on gang size, however, is a fundamental flaw and will need distinct adjustment.
Everyone agrees that the biggest problem with fleet combat in EVE right now is that when you get in a 100 versus 100 pilot fleet fight, you're so lagged you can't even shoot or change your ammo, or worse yet, the node crashes, and that's bad for everyone. By all means, limiting leadership bonuses by dividing fleets into squadrons is a good idea, and the new enhancements may even make fleets more effective than they are now, and thatĘs not just with concern to server stability. Despite that, even with ideal lag-free combat, people will be frustrated by the drudgery of these new requirements. (even if every change frustrates someone, no matter what it is)
There is one critical mistake in the new leadership system: emphasis on skillpoints over skill. What I propose is that all the fleet related skills and mechanic changes slated for Kali stay the same, but simple gangs like in Red Moon Rising can be of any size. But despite that, gangs would not receive leadership skill "buffs", show the health statuses of gang members, maybe even not give the option of using some of the bells and whistles coming out with the new gangs in kali like "need rep" or "enemy spotted" and so on. A gang would just be just an absolutely spartan, CPU unintensive, loose collection of pilots where the only benefits are a chat channel for coordination and the ability to warp to one another. This would bring into the fold the need of a gang leader with actual talent, and fits better with the game's credo. Then, if that player wanted to get more out of gang leadership, he or she could devote his training to leadership skills to reap their benefits. If a pilot has less skillpoints than his enemy, then yes, by all means raw talent should more than make up for the skillpoint disparity, and this change loses sight of this core principle.
|