DaDutchDude
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
20
   |
Posted - 2012.03.06 19:43:00 -
[1] - Quote
HOLY *censored* BATMAN! Quick, to the Wall of Text response mobile
Skill progression changes
I think there are two mayor sides to this
- For those new to the game / training new characters: excellent news! I think this makes a lot more sense
- For those who have many characters / very deeply trained characters: oh noes, this is going to be FUBAR
Since the majority of the current customers are veterans, it's good to take their worries seriously. For example, I just finished training basically all (combat) subcaps on my main to V, and just respecced Int / Mem to finish training those skills to V. The prospect of possibly having to go back to training Perc / Will skills and figuring out how to best use refunded skill points to get back most of my skills in one go makes my head hurt a bit. Without specifics, it is hard to tell how bad the head ache will be though
That being said, I think in general, the reason for change is clear and good, so as long as player concerns for these changes are addressed, I'm quite happy with them
Ship lines
This idea is really exciting. I'd consider renaming some of your choices though, because the meaning of the names is not very self-evident, at least not to me. As an idea, consider to the following
Combat
- Brawler: close range combat, good DPS + tank, low agility / rang
- Skirmisher: mobility based combat, good DPS + agility, medium range / tan
- Sniper: long range combat, good DPS + range, low agility / tan
- (idea) Tank: Ship class with a local repair specialization, medium DPS and range, low agility. great self repair. These would be the race ship for solo PVE or PVP
Support (I would split these up from the start, because you probably want to have attribute range control a bit better per ship type then just as a group, and also because the group lends itself to extension for new classes
- EWAR: EWAR bonus, low DPS, medium range / tank / agilit
- Logistics: Logistics bonus, low DPS, medium range / tank / agilit
- (idea) Exploration ship class: I would love to see exploration become a lot more prevalent, and adding specific exploration ships would be awesome.
You can flesh out the specifics a bit more by also setting targets for attributes such as lock speed, ECM strength, etc. On top of that, you can make the races a bit more defined by setting different targets for these attributes per race. I can totally see this giving new ways to specialize, new strategies, etc. I'm bubbling with ideas.
The thing where it gets tricky is when you talk about specific skills to specialize. I would really like to see some examples of what you are thinking about. how does that relate for example to current support skills, such as the existing ewar / gunnery / missile / shield tank / armor tank skills? Also, how powerful will they be? If they become a "must have" for some ship classes, you really will have to address that as part of the skill progression changes as well, since it means it might be much better to have less races but more specialization skills instead of cross training. Also, this could easily become either very overpowered or useless
A second major concern is how this relates to T2, and the T1 vs T2 balance. Currently, T2 usually means more specialization then T1. However, if T1 ships get more specialized, they risk making T2 ships almost redundant. That is already the case with some T2 ships, most specifically the HACs and Field Command Ships. T1 DPS ships, especially battlecruisers, already do the job so well and are so much less expensive that the T2 version is a lot less useful to most. This is much more the case when it comes to larger fleet fights, which unfortunately dominate a lot of the PVP. So I would like to see more specific ideas on that as well
A third concern will be the way you implement these changes. I personally think you should start with all frigates and work youe way up size wise from there, instead of doing it by race or as a big bang. I think knowing the capabilities of the smallest entity will help scale the next level properly, and the next level from there on. Personally I'd love to see the gap in tracking / sig / speed to become a bit larger to make classes more distinct and have one class need other classes or the proper support at all times.
Also when you make these changes, initial imbalance will be unavoidable. Because of that, I would suggest setting a lot of time apart in next releases for rebalancing, and also some possibilities for players to get skill points refunded in case changes are radical. Building trust with the community that this isn't a one time deal and their concerns will be taken into account will be very important when making such sweeping changes across something that players have invested years of skill points into
Anyway, those are my thoughts for the moment. All in all, it looks promising but quite tricky to get it right as well, especialy in one go, and therefor slightly panic inducing as well. I hope you pull it off and it becomes a major success.
They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I always have the best intentions for others ... |