The Issue of the 10%-20% Power Differentiation

[MasterChief096]

I feel this poll needs to be made and the concerns of the community made known.

The vote is simple. Is a veteran having a potential 20% power advantage over a new player simply not fair? Does it not have a place in a PlanetSide game?

Or is the reverse true. Is this necessary for the next installment as it will appeal to a wider audience?

How will this effect gameplay years down the road in PlanetSide 2?

The community's voice must be heard, and I will be honest with my own opinion.

I do not want even the slightest % difference between veterans and new players. The sound of, "your Reaver might be more maneuverable, durable, and powerful as a result of specializing your outfit in it and your character in it" just sounds like a terrible idea to me.

If I'm using a Gauss rifle with a 20% advantage in damage against a new player, that means that I need to do only 4/5 the damage to him that he needs to do to me. Essentially I'm fighting new players with 100 health but its like I'm fighting them at 80 health versus my 100, constantly.

I know that having power advancement for your characters appeals to gamers from the MMORPG realm, but why should we have to appeal to them? MMORPGs don't try to appeal to FPS gamers. I believe that we should not sacrifice the fairness of PlanetSide's "new player vs. old player" combat system for one that gives old players an advantage, even if it is only a 1% advantage.

If you are going to modify your weapons, take your Gauss rifle for example, then you are going to need to sacrifice in one area for a gain in the next. NEVER should you be able to upgrade your ROF, damage, or accuracy without sacrificing a little bit in another category.

The game would remain fair to me if I could choose to upgrade my Guass rifle's ROF at the expense of damage, or accuracy at the expense of ROF, or damage at the expense of either accuracy or ROF, but never would I want to just upgrade one of these categories without having to lose something in one of the other two. Its just not right to me.

The same goes for vehicles. Lets bring up a big point here. SOE wants to reward outfits that specialize in certain playstyles. This makes complete sense. The way they want to do this is by having an outfit progression similar to character progression that allows you to modify your vehicles/weapons/abilities as your outfit and characters progress. Higby mentioned your Reaver being more "durable, maneuverable, and powerful" as a result of your outfit specializing in Reaver combat. When you COUPLE this with your character progressing down the Reaver path, you get one unfair advantage between a Reaver outfit and a guy just flying his Reaver...

"Well isn't that the point?" you might ask. "An outfit that specializes in Reavers should have an advantage over random reaver pilots should they not?"

Of course, but why does it have to be in the form of power? Why can't an outfits advantage be the EXPERIENCE (non-game experience) that they get from flying Reavers all the time, working together with coordination, and developing tactics. A full time Reaver outfit is going to be better than 10 random pilots because the Reaver outfit's players are constantly in Reavers, so they are going to be better than those 10 random pilots. The outfit is going to have developed its on tactics for fighting, and gained its own personal experience from the months and eventually years of being a reaver oriented outfit.

In this MMOFPS, it is enough reward to outfits and individuals who specialize in something and spend a lot of time in certain playstyles to simply become BETTER in terms of their own SKILL within that playstyle over new players or someone who is just trying it out or whatever.

My point is that outfits and players will develop SKILL and become good at their specializations through time and patience, and learning their role and developing tactics. If I am a new player, I want to get raped by a veteran because he is better than be as a result of playing PlanetSide 2 for five years, not because we are equally matched or perhaps I'm actually better but his gun has a 5% bonus to ROF, accuracy, and damage.

POWER advancement is unnecessary and is simply a way of appeasing MMORPG players. I play MMORPGs as well as single player RPGs. I have a lot of fun in those games. I thoroughly enjoy them, but I feel that when I step into the world of PlanetSide, there is no room for MMORPG elements in the form of power advancement.

Naturally PlanetSide is an MMOFPS, so its going to need MMO game mechanics, systems, and features. This does not mean that it needs MMORPG game mechanics, systems and features.

The main thing that needs to be discussed is how can we have extreme specialization and rewards for dedicated outfits/players that aren't in the form of power? Well, like I said, let the upgrades that are unlockable etc sacrifice either armor, ROF, accuracy, speed, damage, etc. Never just have a pure upgrade to any one category of stats in PlanetSide 2 without a drawback to one of the vehicle's/weapon's/ability's other stats.

This still allows for massive customization and specialization. Your Reaver outfit can become known as either being the fastest hitting group of flyers or the slow, lumbering, but hard hitting gunship group based on specialization. Just don't allow it to become known as the "Fastest hitting, powerful punching, heavily armored, extremely maneuverable" reaver outfit.

Thoughts, discussion? I am open to any opinions that power advancement is necessary and try to look at it through the point of view of other people and either try to argue points or see why it might be a good thing.