Cute and "Dirty" system that is the "Bomb" (F2P/nonF2P doesn't matter)
Kouji_San
Sr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
Sr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
I kinda like how Dirty Bomb does this... This post is for peeps who do not know the Dirty Bomb F2P/Skin/Drop/DLC system and perhaps having some of that in NS2 public, which I find one of the better F2P systems out there right now... Not saying NS2 should go F2P or maybe it should, I dunno... However the ideas of their F2P really gives that game variety/retention and in general is fun to play...
With these credits you can buy ingame stuff like Loadout Cards, Mercenaries, Trinkets, Cases which have a random chance to drop rare Loadout Cards. Dirty Bomb has Loadout Cards, these slightly alter your Mercenaries' weapons and gives small buffs based on the type of loadout card. For each Mercenary there are 9 types available (tier 2). They have a few types:
Default (0 enhancement), Lead (1 enhancement), Iron (2 enhancement), Bronze (3 enhancement), (Silver, Gold, Cobalt), all of which have slight different skins changes and the last three are just "show off"skins based on Bronze. You can trade up your lower tier cards, while having to pay a small amount of ingame earned credits and putting up more cards to upgrade them for one. Or change a card of similar tier, which would also cost ingame earned credits and multiple cards of same tier to change it. That entire self contained economy for individual players is pretty cool and will keep skinhorders playing as well. It enriches the game with variety, while having almost zero impact on the gameplay. Heck if it is too much of a bother for the purist out there. The abilities (or skins even) could be disabled in tournament mode as usual...
Translating that whole thing to NS2 could be in the shape of badges, which give a very small enhancement to a specific role (Badges tied to weapons/EXO/alien class). You could perhaps get a tiny increase in your welder capabilities or Gorge healing range. Or a card which gives you three extra babbers, or for marines faster movement and lower armor value. You know stuff like that and since everyone can get the low tiers ones quick enough at random from drops. They would balance out in terms of, your badge has a slot that is for healing, someone else has it for damage. Everyone could adapt it to their playstyle. You're good at dodging, so you need less armor to balance out that tiny increase in damage output...
Offsetting and comprising things, very tiny difference that make the game all the more rich in content, but still within the rules of the techtree and gameplay. For pubplay games, this enriched stuff will only add to the game and make it more fun with more variety. Instead of what we now have, a very polished and set in stone rules about how the game should be played, with very limited abilities, everyone is the same. If you want more pubbers (who could potentially flow through towards comp, if that is what they want), this game definitely need more variety and randomness, while also making those annoying hidden game mechanics more obvious...
With these badges your skin could also could be slightly different (not idea if that's feasible right now with Spark eating up memory like a dipshit)
And you can of course buy those badges as DLC as well, a Badge pack for a Gorge for instance.
This is kinda one of the better FPS systems I've seen in a while, not having a great deal of influence over the gameplay itself other than very slight alterations/enhancements to how you want to play, instead of being forced in the usual boring game rules fora class. More support skills, more mobility at the cost of durability (or vica versa). You know stuff like that anti pay to win, while actually adding to the game... Also this would keep players playing more as well to get those credits for their favorite skin/enhancement
- Leveling system, Hive already is in place for this
- By playing you earn ingame credits, based on how well you did (Hive could be used for this)
- A maximum of three missions to earn extra credits, for NS2 they could consist of combat damage/support/rounds played on a specific game mode/mod, to avoid missions having influence over how people play or at least beneficial to how they play. The game mod one could have people try out a mod for that extra credit reward, spreading community love around the place. Also these mission can be abandoned at any given time, so they aren't exactly mandatory. It only forces you to wait another >time index here< for a new mission in that mission slot. There could even specific commander missions. In Dirty Bomb these are on a time based interval and are selected at random, probably salted by (based on) how you play and what Mercs you have or play a lot.
What this would do is, perhaps entice players who always Shotgun or Fade to try a support role instead based on the mission they have. Keeping the game interesting, I guess... Maybe have them try out mods like Last Stand, Faded, Classic, SWS, Siege and so on... - I'm thinking of this, because the current DLC system for NS2 is a really really stale and obsolete system "buy your skins here", there is no community or gameplay involved whatsoever. Dirty Bomb does this in a way that has little to no impact on how people play and more importantly does that very popular thing of adding variety and non mandatory enticements.
With these credits you can buy ingame stuff like Loadout Cards, Mercenaries, Trinkets, Cases which have a random chance to drop rare Loadout Cards. Dirty Bomb has Loadout Cards, these slightly alter your Mercenaries' weapons and gives small buffs based on the type of loadout card. For each Mercenary there are 9 types available (tier 2). They have a few types:
Default (0 enhancement), Lead (1 enhancement), Iron (2 enhancement), Bronze (3 enhancement), (Silver, Gold, Cobalt), all of which have slight different skins changes and the last three are just "show off"skins based on Bronze. You can trade up your lower tier cards, while having to pay a small amount of ingame earned credits and putting up more cards to upgrade them for one. Or change a card of similar tier, which would also cost ingame earned credits and multiple cards of same tier to change it. That entire self contained economy for individual players is pretty cool and will keep skinhorders playing as well. It enriches the game with variety, while having almost zero impact on the gameplay. Heck if it is too much of a bother for the purist out there. The abilities (or skins even) could be disabled in tournament mode as usual...
Translating that whole thing to NS2 could be in the shape of badges, which give a very small enhancement to a specific role (Badges tied to weapons/EXO/alien class). You could perhaps get a tiny increase in your welder capabilities or Gorge healing range. Or a card which gives you three extra babbers, or for marines faster movement and lower armor value. You know stuff like that and since everyone can get the low tiers ones quick enough at random from drops. They would balance out in terms of, your badge has a slot that is for healing, someone else has it for damage. Everyone could adapt it to their playstyle. You're good at dodging, so you need less armor to balance out that tiny increase in damage output...
Offsetting and comprising things, very tiny difference that make the game all the more rich in content, but still within the rules of the techtree and gameplay. For pubplay games, this enriched stuff will only add to the game and make it more fun with more variety. Instead of what we now have, a very polished and set in stone rules about how the game should be played, with very limited abilities, everyone is the same. If you want more pubbers (who could potentially flow through towards comp, if that is what they want), this game definitely need more variety and randomness, while also making those annoying hidden game mechanics more obvious...
With these badges your skin could also could be slightly different (not idea if that's feasible right now with Spark eating up memory like a dipshit)
And you can of course buy those badges as DLC as well, a Badge pack for a Gorge for instance.
This is kinda one of the better FPS systems I've seen in a while, not having a great deal of influence over the gameplay itself other than very slight alterations/enhancements to how you want to play, instead of being forced in the usual boring game rules fora class. More support skills, more mobility at the cost of durability (or vica versa). You know stuff like that anti pay to win, while actually adding to the game... Also this would keep players playing more as well to get those credits for their favorite skin/enhancement
Comments
Well in Dirty Bomb you could always buy the card you want (real money/ingame credits)... So there is no grind, only if you choose to do so, for some odd reason...
Besides there wouldn't be any "optimal loadouts" they would only supplement what you want. Some players like support, some like doing more combat. They all balance out. Heck you could even go naked and still not feel the need for a loadout, if you're a jack of all trades type of player. These merely serve your particular playstyle, based on default classes/weapons and sacrificing in one area, while supplementing in another
You're talking about Pay2Win Loadouts, that is exactly the system that is the complete opposite, no grind and there is of course always the possibility to play on pure servers if there is a need for those
Loadouts don't "balance out". There will always be the optimal loadout. Look, even celerity/adrenaline, carapace/regeneration, aura/phantom is only barely situational. Most of the time, people just go for that one upgrade of the two. Why do you think loadouts will be any different?
And yes, I'm not paying cash or grinding for credits or grinding RNG for that. Skins work fine. Enhancements do not.
They change you from being a jack of all trades to a more role specific one, let's take that healer one for example for George the Gorge
You know stuff like that, role specific, not a straight upgrade. Coming up with badges would need to be carefully chosen... It's how creative we can get, that is the limiting factor here (and that up/down side thing). Hehehe maybe instead of pointing those flamethrowers in my general direction, we could come together and think up a few of these badges. I could slap em in the OP and categorize em.
Let's think outside the NS2 box for a bit, can't hurt right?
But it is still true that these cards alter your stats (as you have shown), even if they give upsides and downsides.
So the question for me is: Are all of the cards available for every player from the start?
The answer this system gives is: No, you have to buy them (ingame money or real money isn't important here).
Maybe "Pay2Win" is the wrong term here. But NS2 should not have a system that gives you more gameplay affecting options if you are either someone who invests more money or played the game more than other players.
The starting conditions should be the same for everyone.
The biggest issue I just realized is that all classes/weapons/EXO/jetty are available from the start. While in Dirty Bomb you have to get into that 3merc free rotation bit or buy em all. so the cards you get are useful for the mercs you have available.
But than again, It should be that you could also play without cards/badges...
A fix for this entire issue would be:
Vanilla Gorge is the one that is the jack of all trades (no idea why I'm using gorge as an example all the time
However, I would characterize it as grind-to-win and pay-to-skip. You have to grind for each merc and for each merc atleast 1 loadout card.
It is an extremely grindy model and it is a complete deal breaker in the case of NS2. Many of us have paid for the full experience of the game.
I'm fine with having cosmetics and achievements etc. - but do not impose the loadout card system or any other game altering mechanic please.