Arkanor
2012-11-25, 02:27 PM
So far I've been playing this game quite a bit, and I'm still somewhat mixed on it. On the one hand we have infantry and vehicle combat that actually feels pretty good (infantry feels way more "locked in" than some of the earlier Battlefields) and you can get in some pretty crazy fights in the air. My problem comes down to the cert system and weapons.
Now, Cost has already been made a point elsewhere, I'm not going to touch on it here. However, with many item costs representing a significant investment of in-game time (or SC, depending) it's downright criminal to just not let us know what the upgrades do.
1. Why they decided to show 'bars' instead of numbers for weapons is frankly, ridiculous. FPS players aren't idiots and using such a silly metric for performance does not really supply any information. Look at the charts online available for Battlefield 3 (http://symthic.com/bf3-weapon-charts#000100000ncnnn00-00) and Call of Duty. (http://www.codblackopsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/black-ops-weapons-damage-chart.jpg) These charts are informative, they supply useful information such as damage, recoil patterns, rate of fire, damage falloff (if applicable), reload time, etc. It's certainly a lot easier to understand than just some simple bars. Planetside isn't the only game that does this, but let's face it. The original Planetside (as I understand) was meant to be somewhat of a thinking man's game, there's no reason players can't understand numbers, given the FPS community's insistence on finding them through experimentation.
Compare, what's actually more useful and gives you any information, this? (http://www.blackopsii.com/bo2/weapons-list/assault-rifles/) or this? (http://binarymessiah.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/blacklight-retribution-client_9.jpg)
Similar for vehicle mods. Oddly enough, some of them do contain a description (soldier 'suit' mods seem to all describe exactly what they do, at least advanced shield and nanoweave). I don't know how much faster the 100 cert "racer combat chassis" is going to make my tank. From what I hear it's only a couple km/h, but I have *no way to know*. This information needs to be made available to players so they can make an informed decision about what they want to purchase with their certs, especially considering how long it takes them to earn a meaningful amount.
Now, the only, ONLY plus I can see to doing it this way is that it would better obscure balance. Maybe players don't know *X* is the best mod but rest assured, it won't take longer than a week for them to figure it out. The internet is a relatively savvy bunch overall (when it comes to finding information at least) and that spreads quickly. Don't obscure the stats, let us know what we're buying into.
Also, while you're at it, I'd love to see Concurrent users on server/continent. It sucks logging in and running around for 45 minutes only to not see anyone because it's just a ghost town and you have no other way of knowing that.
This is really all just low hanging fruit guys, just write in the item descriptions for what your items do, thanks.
Now, Cost has already been made a point elsewhere, I'm not going to touch on it here. However, with many item costs representing a significant investment of in-game time (or SC, depending) it's downright criminal to just not let us know what the upgrades do.
1. Why they decided to show 'bars' instead of numbers for weapons is frankly, ridiculous. FPS players aren't idiots and using such a silly metric for performance does not really supply any information. Look at the charts online available for Battlefield 3 (http://symthic.com/bf3-weapon-charts#000100000ncnnn00-00) and Call of Duty. (http://www.codblackopsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/black-ops-weapons-damage-chart.jpg) These charts are informative, they supply useful information such as damage, recoil patterns, rate of fire, damage falloff (if applicable), reload time, etc. It's certainly a lot easier to understand than just some simple bars. Planetside isn't the only game that does this, but let's face it. The original Planetside (as I understand) was meant to be somewhat of a thinking man's game, there's no reason players can't understand numbers, given the FPS community's insistence on finding them through experimentation.
Compare, what's actually more useful and gives you any information, this? (http://www.blackopsii.com/bo2/weapons-list/assault-rifles/) or this? (http://binarymessiah.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/blacklight-retribution-client_9.jpg)
Similar for vehicle mods. Oddly enough, some of them do contain a description (soldier 'suit' mods seem to all describe exactly what they do, at least advanced shield and nanoweave). I don't know how much faster the 100 cert "racer combat chassis" is going to make my tank. From what I hear it's only a couple km/h, but I have *no way to know*. This information needs to be made available to players so they can make an informed decision about what they want to purchase with their certs, especially considering how long it takes them to earn a meaningful amount.
Now, the only, ONLY plus I can see to doing it this way is that it would better obscure balance. Maybe players don't know *X* is the best mod but rest assured, it won't take longer than a week for them to figure it out. The internet is a relatively savvy bunch overall (when it comes to finding information at least) and that spreads quickly. Don't obscure the stats, let us know what we're buying into.
Also, while you're at it, I'd love to see Concurrent users on server/continent. It sucks logging in and running around for 45 minutes only to not see anyone because it's just a ghost town and you have no other way of knowing that.
This is really all just low hanging fruit guys, just write in the item descriptions for what your items do, thanks.