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.

[millo]

Maybe they could go for a "mixed blessing" design type:

-Increased caliber (more damage, weapon kicks like a mule and is harder to control)
-Extended magazine (more ammo, heavier and harder to aim)
-Ammunition feed overdrive (faster RoF, weapon prone to random jams)
-Longer barrel (increased range, even heavier weapon)
and so on. You could use if you wanted all the mods at once, so you got a high damage, rapid firing, long distance firing weapon, but it would be horrible to fire even in short bursts, would jam randomly, slow you down while using it and so on...

Works with armor mods too (want more absorb? Sure, but you walk like a snail. Need increased protection from shrapnels? Lose some bullet resistance, and so on).

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by millo

Maybe they could go for a "mixed blessing" design type:

-Increased caliber (more damage, weapon kicks like a mule and is harder to control)
-Extended magazine (more ammo, heavier and harder to aim)
-Ammunition feed overdrive (faster RoF, weapon prone to random jams)
-Longer barrel (increased range, even heavier weapon)
and so on. You could use if you wanted all the mods at once, so you got a high damage, rapid firing, long distance firing weapon, but it would be horrible to fire even in short bursts, would jam randomly, slow you down while using it and so on...

Works with armor mods too (want more absorb? Sure, but you walk like a snail. Need increased protection from shrapnels? Lose some bullet resistance, and so on).

I mentioned this before, but I prefer positive only upgrades with choices. So you still have the drawback, but in the sense that you didn't choose it. That is there are limitations for weapons and vehicles on the upgrades with some that can't be used in combination with one another. So you could have say a shotgun or a grenade launcher (launches distance activated grenades) attachment, but not both. This was mentioned by the previous poster.

Complex rules for what is allowed in combination is fine with me honestly especially if the unlockables are complicated like my previous two examples.

Then again for a lot of things I don't want limits. Don't you still have limited certifications. If you want armor you might not have enough for upgraded speed on a vehicle and vice a verse. Or you could choose to get both and sacrifice using those certs for anything else. Basically ultra specialized players would end up most of their certs on one thing.