Merc diversity

(tokamak) #1

I think PixelTwitch already raised this point once and I think it deserves a new thread.

Currently we’re testing DB, it’s guns and it’s maps with an incomplete palette of possible mercs. That is to say, we’re mainly dealing with damage dealers, and a few support (and even these guys are decent damage dealers).

This allows for several blind spots to arise. Without more extreme niche mercs it’s not possible to properly account for them. Which, in turn may lead to these mercs being neutered from the start in order to fit into a game structure that wasn’t really designed for them.

I may be putting it a bit dramatically here but we’re seeing the same thing with trick jumping and side-objectives. It’s pretty difficult to tack them on afterwards.

We’ve already seen some exotic mercs like Rhino and Phantom. But I’m not really asking for any odd exotic merc to be included right away.This approach is different from looking at the current game and figuring out which mercs it requires right now.

What I’d like to see is some mercs that are strong archetypes of their role. So when you would be testing an MMORPG or a MOBA then you would always start with one tank, one dpser, one support and one healer. Those four classes would be enough to adequately test the whole environment and making sure all other classes that derived from these main archetypes are accounted for.

DB started out in a same way with it’s original ET archetypes. Soldier, Field Ops, Merdic, Covert Ops and Engineer.

However, these merc archetypes are very limited in scope compared to what DB is able to offer. They’re much closer to each other than the classic RPG set of classes.

What we need is:

-one typical ‘tank’ merc. Not a dpser like Rhino but one that really is able to take a ridiculous beating while having a low damage output himself

  • A focussed buff merc. One that is able to keep a team going by preventing harm (rather than curing it).

  • An indirect merc. Think QW’s flyer drone. Being able to manipulate the combat without being directly involved and being sorely screwed if the fight is taken to him.

And I’m sure I’m missing a couple of important archetypes as well here.

The ones I named above (Tank/Buff/Indirect) are mercs that will be able to fulfil typical roles that may be also covered by mercs released further down the line.

So in short: What we currently need is a typical roles that help keep the gameplay testing open for potential additions later on. The game right now would function perfectly without them but setting a priority to including these roles will allow the game to unfurl better later on. One of these roles integrated into the game right now will allow for multiple mercs fitting that same role to be seamlessly included in further additions.

(Mustang) #2

A lot of the mercs have the feeling of being too samey, I’d be interested to see each merc fulfilling a niche, or because we have so many perhaps each merc can fulfill two niches each, each with varying combination therein.

Not very imaginative, but just as an example a full on support merc that can give out health and ammo, of course this doesn’t work with the whole “each merc has a unique ability” thing, but just to emphasise the idea.

(tokamak) #3

Yeah, it’s a bit like UV unwrapping.


You want to be able to use the whole grid and not just a small part of it. Even if you don’t have anything to fill the intermediate blanks (generalist mercs) it pays to have a few extreme points set out to cover the whole surface.

(Glottis-3D) #4

i had a very long ago thread about mercs being twins, and suggested to delete twin-mercs, but making the one left more deep, alowing that only merc to have more diverse abilities.

fragger and thunder
proxy and black guy.
skyhammer and stoker.

as much as i like all the mercs, i dont like how they play almost identically

(tokamak) #5

I’m fine with some mercs being similar to others. They don’t hurt the game. What hurts is that very important roles that ‘could’ be fulfilled remain unfulfilled. This is a risk at it makes it harder to implement these roles later on which would lock the door to many possible new mercs being fully realised in their purpose.

We need a couple of these walking around through the testing stage to understand how they interact with the maps and other mercs.

For example, a tank merc may be invincible if backed up by a healer or the healer/tank interaction may be useless. We don’t know because we have no tank merc.

If the game further advances and SD has plans for one, or even a handful of tank-like mercs then their abilities would have to be fitted to the status quo rather than the status quo being already accustomed to their availability.

That’s testing phase problem and I believe it may lead to stunted balancing.