Taleden
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Posted - 2004.03.10 17:00:00 -
[1]
Disclaimer: This is long, because it is thorough.
Okay, this whole "level 4 agents are anti-solo!" idea is starting to bug me.. it just doesn't make any sense. Let's consider some possible courses of action that would appease the "soloists":
1) Never introduce level 4 agents, keep the agent system exactly as it is now, where every mission can be done alone. Needless to say, this is a dumb idea.
2) Make level 4 agents give missions that are soloable, but make those missions also less rewarding than they would be if they were not soloable, since they will (of course) be easier than missions which are not soloable. This kinda makes sense, except that then level 4 agents are really no different from level 3 agents.. why not just allow level 3 agents to give slightly harder missions, with slightly higher rewards?
3) Make level 4 agents give missions that are soloable, and make those missions more rewarding than level 3 missions. This doesn't seem fair - basically you're asking for a free pay raise for doing just as much work as you did before. If the mission isn't any harder, why should the pay be higher?
I know people will post saying "level 3 agents aren't hard enough, we want more challenge, but we want the challenge to still be soloable". Fine, I can understand that. But at *some* point, mission difficulty *has* to reach a level where it is no longer possible to run them alone; whether that's with level 4 agents, level 5 agents, level 20 agents, doesn't matter. If we never get to that point, it will be like option 1 - shortchange the whole game and stop the introduction of new things, to appease one group of players.
So, assuming that we *do* reach that point, does it not stand to reason that the rewards for these harder missions should be greater than the rewards for previous easier missions? "Non-soloable" implies "harder", which ought to imply "more profitable".. that's just a basic lemma of game design.
Given all this, I fail to see how introducing level 4 agents with non-soloable missions which pay more than level 3 agents is "anti-solo". That's like saying the Olympics are "anti-little-league".. we *have* little-leagues for people to play at that skill level, but why should we stop people who are able to perform better from doing so? Similarly, running missions alone is fine, nobody is saying you shouldn't run missions alone - so why do you want to prevent people who want to run missions together from doing so?
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