The Issue of the 10%-20% Power Differentiation

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by millo

Doesn't Battlefield: Bad Company 2 do something similar with Magnum ammo increasing bullet damage by 25%? It gave an edge but you could still kill people without it (and it was flat 25% straight to damage bonus). Of course the silly thing was that in the end everyone would use it above any other perk, but still it was a big deal just on some kind of weapon/server combination (M95+HC server----->oneshot kill to the chest). Also, if it's a rough figure of every bonus added (RoF, accuracy, magazine size, damage, dropoff, all combined), it would probably mean even less, especially if they set up the skill progression so you can close 80-90% of the gap in a couple weeks (a la EvE).

(see my previous post for activation question) Your comment here is dead-on to the activation question. If it works like BFBC2 there's not too much of an issue since no player can have everything at once - they have to pick and choose what they want to run with at any given moment. That captures specialization and customizing a character.

There's two ways they can do it. They can either give you all of the bonuses you unlock all the time (imagine having all of the BFBC2 gadgets at all times, so 25% damage, 25% armor, faster runspeed, better weapon handling, etc), OR they can do it the BFBC2 way where you have to make a choice about which bonuses you want and ranking up just opens up more possibilities.

The 25% damage one specifically was a good example of a poorly designed benefit. It was highly popular because it was one of the most useful bonuses. It helps you anytime you shoot, while the others tended to help you in a more limited capacity. Balancing the benefits themselves is a different mechanic discussion best saved for beta, but the overall design of how a player unlocks it and uses it is very much relevant at this time.