dangers of stat whoring

[Coreldan]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

the phoenix's DPS is very poor

Now this I can relate to lol.

Then again, the Gauss to me seemed to be the best MA rifle, sometimes by quite a margin.

[raidyr]

I like the idea that undesirable Battlefield players (whether bad at the game, statwhores, just rude, or otherwise) are apparently described as "CoD players" 6 months after the release of BF3.

Is it really that hard to admit that your community was garbage from the get go?

[Marinealver]

Well I can already tell you the future of this and that is the light asault/ aircav/jetpack bailure. That is the remake of the old tower camping agile/ heavy assault/ mossiquito bailure. The MO was to bail over a tower from a mossie. Capture it and run with your heavy assault killing everyone who dares try to take it back farming up the kills.

Now with light assault jtepack that can get into aircraft this will be worse. Add to the fact that the light assault class can resupply itself (what is wrong with you people!?!) You can see that as the next killwhoring farming strategy to pad stats.

[Mezorin]

I'm sure this has been talked to death, and I'd personally buy any NC Markov AA MAX or skyguard operator a beer if I ever met them in RL, but I gotta call a ***** a *****: the Sparrow MAX was crap at doing its intended role compared to the other AA MAXes. Personally, I think the Burster MAX was the most fair AA MAX as it didn't rely on computer aiming, but player aimed flak shells. It was dangerous, but if you got shot down by one its cause the MAX had his cross hairs on your plane the whole time. It was also more close range than the other two, so it did its job the best (ie keeping reavers away from tower doors and your tanks), but also was fair for high altitude dog fighters that would only get pegged by a burster if 1- they loitered too long, or 2- the burster was crazy good. Apparently Higby agrees with this sentiment, as all three empires get the burster cannon as their heavy MAX AA.

Ironically, stat whores have an unintended benefit to the game: in the eternal quest to Play to Win (or at least get the most points), they will unapologetically gravitate towards the most overpowered guns/factions/vehicles they can get their hands on that will give them an edge. Always remember: stat whores and broken tactics are a developer problem, not a "player problem". There's nothing morally or philosophically wrong with Playing to Win (see David Sirlin's Article on it, its a brilliant read), but it will expose a crappily balanced game when one tactic or unit gets out of hand.

[Mezorin]

Originally Posted by Marinealver

Well I can already tell you the future of this and that is the light asault/ aircav/jetpack bailure. That is the remake of the old tower camping agile/ heavy assault/ mossiquito bailure. The MO was to bail over a tower from a mossie. Capture it and run with your heavy assault killing everyone who dares try to take it back farming up the kills.

Now with light assault jtepack that can get into aircraft this will be worse. Add to the fact that the light assault class can resupply itself (what is wrong with you people!?!) You can see that as the next killwhoring farming strategy to pad stats.

Remember, what made these guys so OP in the first game was they could carry a minigun, heal tool, repair tool, boomer, hack tool and decimator on their back at the same time. Higby has made it very clear this is not happening in part 2. Light assault gets a carbine/shotgun, a hand gun, a jet pack, some nades and ammo and that's it.

Plus light assault will have to contend with *NOT* having a reliable AV weapon, so an AA/AI MAX could just chill on the tower roof, blast the plane out of the sky, then smack around the pilot who won't have access to decimators. Light Assault also cannot self heal, cannot pack anything bigger than an SMG, and cannot hack.

Or the light assault guy could just cut out the middle man, and jump pack onto the tower roof top without a plane. Why run an expensive plane when you could spawn at the nearest Galaxy and just run on over? Worst case its really far away just grab an ATV on the cheap and use that as your disposable ride. Likewise, the zerg aren't limited to running up the stairs, they can go outside, jump jet onto the rooftop, then pincher flank from behind. If a single light assault player can camp on the stair well and rack up endless kills, he deserves it because that tower defense is stupid.

Can light assaults get on top of things and be pretty powerful if played well? Sure. Can reavers bail? Sure, if they ditch flares and spend a load of money on a plane, so let them have that. Because infiltrators can one shot snipe/shotgun people while invisible(you've seen Predator, right?), MAX suits are MAX suits, HA guys get a machine gun and a rocket launcher (and the crazy shields to toe to toe any other infantry unit), Engineers get turrets and all kinds of explosive goodies (imagine the bailure's surprise when he lands into a claymore fun house covered by a MANA turret), and medics get AOE rezes/heals that would make the TF2 medic jealous.

Who knows, maybe if this game works out the "optimal strategy" for mass killing will be running a well balanced unit with a mixture of infantry/vehicle/air assets that just simply out plays the other team. Wouldn't that be nice for a change?

[raidyr]

Originally Posted by Mezorin

There's nothing morally or philosophically wrong with Playing to Win (see David Sirlin's Article on it, its a brilliant read), but it will expose a crappily balanced game when one tactic or unit gets out of hand.

Good article, but absolutely dripping with unspoken condemnation for anyone who doesn't follow his philosophy to the letter. I'm sure he is good at video games and game theory, but seems like a terrible person to play games with.

[Mezorin]

Originally Posted by raidyr

Good article, but absolutely dripping with unspoken condemnation for anyone who doesn't follow his philosophy to the letter. I'm sure he is good at video games and game theory, but seems like a terrible person to play games with.

I should have added the disclaimer: "quite a bit of the time, Sirlin is full of crap, and doesn't play anything other than Street Fighter, but the basis of the theory is sound". My bad .