ADR1AN
Beyond Divinity Inc
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Posted - 2008.07.26 01:29:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: burek
On a separate point, a game in which things take considerable time to achieve, moving goalposts so drastically as proposed is unacceptable.
Exactly this. 1st rule of any science is to change one variable at a time. Throwing everything into the melting pot in one go will prevent anyone from understanding what the game has become. Sure, it will mix things up a little, but when someone has spent 6-9 months (or ú60-ú90 if you want to look at it that way) specialising in something to then have it radically redesigned takes away any satisfaction that can be gained from the time sink that is Eve. Stability is crucial to make people to want to carry on paying to wait for skills to train so they can master the ships they enjoy flying regularly - once this is gone, there is no point in making any skill plan longer than 2 months.
I play with nano ships, I fully understand their strengths and weaknesses, and I can clearly see that changes are required to modify top end speeds in certain ships. Anyone who has ever played with an overpowered ship knows that they are using one, and that it will get a whack from the nerf bat at some point (examples of this in the past are ECMing Nossing Domi, Damping Rapier, Stabbed Vagas, iStabbed Crows, iStabbed Phoons/Domis). However these were typically unique cases of select ships exploiting unbalanced modules / game features, and the fix was to subtly (depending on viewpoint) make small changes to bring things back in line. However the list of proposed changes here: scrams, mwd's, speed reduction, web changes and whatever else gets put in the mixer will clearly affect virtually every ship in game from Blaster boats to Rapiers, to Interceptors to Battleships as well as having some very strange effects on T1 cruiser combat.
Not only this - but even the announcement of "brainstorming" changes is already impacting the market on TQ devaluing items that people may have spent months saving for. I have no objection to change, but please, please keep it to small tweaks, see how things level out, then make another tweak if needed. What you (CCP) are currently proposing is clumsy and I seriously doubt that the effects will be seen by testing on SiSi alone.
When I read dev blogs like this I don't throw my toys out the cot or threaten to quit, all I do is sell most ships, set a long skill and then forget about the game for a month or so until things level out - I can come back and decide what is going to stay stable for longest and then spec in that. It's a real shame it has to be this way. I'll try and get on SiSi on Monday however I would suggest you record stats of who logs into SiSi so you can actually see what % of the playerbase is testing these changes, because I suspect that the vast majority will not test these changes until they hit TQ - when it will likely be too late.
Quote:
Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer. ~Shunryu Suzuki
When you are through changing, you are through
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