Musings on basic character development issues

(Bridger) #261

[QUOTE=Weeohhweeohh;274058]I will concede the fact that your willy nilly have and change everything whenever you want system is less restrictive then the one in place now. Saying the one in place now is restrictive depends on how you use it. Persistent character development is something I’m all about. I think it’s the bee’s knees to be honest.

The system has been described as MMO caliber character building (right up my ally). I actually have to invest my time and thought on how to build him that best suits my play style. If I, on a whim, decide to totally change him mid match would destroy the investment into him. He just becomes a load out. Just another tool used to get from point A to point B. He has no personality and there isn’t anything that ties him to me. Just some pixels. Watering down game design by giving everyone everything they want seems to me to be a cop out.

I would rather play a game I’m invested in then a game where I just mindlessly kill stuff. That’s just my opinion. [/quote]

OK, I’ll accept this. We have different values in this case. I can understand the appeal of a persistent character (mmm, that’s good dopamine), I simply don’t value it as much as the skill of dynamically adapting your abilities to your situation. This is why I’d support a character development system that restricts changing perks but does let you sub-out characters. Even if only once per match, it would be enough to help deal with holes in your team’s composition.

(Linsolv) #262

If I’m a hybrid character (for instance, I might have distributed my points relatively evenly between Retribution, DPS, and Holy, for healing) then it would be reasonable to suggest that I might switch between them. If I’m a specialized character (53/8/0 with the 58 in Protection for tanking) then it’s silly to suggest that I would change to another role. This is in World of Warcraft, where the party makeup is absolutely rigid and set in stone.

In Brink, however, you have a much more fluid system, with larger teams (60% larger than 5-man instances, though smaller than raids) and a system which would imply that you almost CAN’T put all your points into only one class (10 points per class possible, 19 or 20 points per character) means that your idea that you can only play one class is silly, especially since unlike my Paladin, you lose comparitively little when you play a role you are not specialized for.

(A protection paladin generates damage through getting hit; if they’re not getting hit they can’t deal damage. They don’t have the equipment for sustained healing, as they won’t have the mana.)

EDIT: Weeohhweeohh, why is that dog wearing a wig?

(tokamak) #263

Again, arenas are a more accurate comparison.

(Herandar) #264

Really wish I could type and edit faster. My last post was ninja’d by 10 others.

(Herandar) #265

IIRC, the quote was written specifically about people posting on forums, blogs and the like.

(Linsolv) #266

To an extent, that nullifies the point. If you’re not TRULY anonymous, then it’s illegitimate. Linsolv is a name that I work actively to protect. It is me, in a certain sense. Could you find me based on it? It’s unlikely. There is no direct connection between Linsolv the poster and me, the college student, or me, the artist, or me, the mathematician. But it’s an online persona whose reputation I take just as seriously as my “real” persona, if not more.

However, when I go on a web site like 4chan, I don’t care if someone thinks I’m a jerk, or a liar, or whatever, because they won’t know it was me anyways. That’s what people mean when they refer to anonymity. Literally, the person is indistinguishable from other people.

(Weeohhweeohh) #267

hahahahha! Found it on the internet. The dog is suppose to represent “The flight of the conchords” band manager. Also, it is very classy looking.

This guy

(Senethro) #268

Not at all, both TF2 and BC2 have ways to change class without dying, TF2 having spawn rooms that are directly analogous with command posts. BC2 class switches can even be done in the field. Its a very easy thing to kill a recon and briefly borrow his kit to lob out a sensor ball.

ETQW was probably the last class based shooter I played with the kind of restriction you’re describing. The effect was that sometimes a second objective would fall extremely quickly if the defenders missed their respawn wavesat the end of the first. Its worth noting that Brink doesn’t have the option for a player to suicide and manually join the next wave, another unfortunate restriction.

(SockDog) #269

This is the problem. The game is (I hope) meant to be primarily a class based objective FPS. Yet it’s very clear you, and I assume others, see it as a RPG primarily, with an FPS grinding engine. It’s a skewed perspective that has the potential to throw off the game especially if the XP system isn’t infallible.

ABILITIES YOU WONT BE ABLE TO USE FOR LIKE THE 1-2 MINUTES IT TAKES TO SNATCH UP AN OBJECTIVE? the.sky.is.falling. I feel so weakened because I can’t throw out ammo to my buddies…booooo hoooo

You really just underline how little you actually know about the game every time you wheel that line out. It will be fun to see if you are the first person to swap to a needed class and stay there for the entire map or if you’ll QQ five minutes later because you expected to be done in 1 minute and obviously your team is crap if that doesn’t happen.

(Nail) #270

dude, you get a gun, headshots count, it’s a shooter, have fun instead of trying to micro manage every aspect into “the ideal situation” I don’t care how much thought you’ve put into your abilities, 5 to the head solves the problem

(Apples) #271

But what if he has the “iron head” ability?

(tokamak) #272

It’s recently been renamed to ‘pigheaded’.

(DarkangelUK) #273

It’s ‘pig headed’, there’s a space :wink:

(tokamak) #274

Can be both ways, even with a dash.

(DarkangelUK) #275

It’s so diverse, I like it!

(Ragoo) #276

But if it was just that, shooting people, why would I even play BRINK and not CoD?

(tokamak) #277

Fair point. I’m not a fan of downplaying the non-shooter components either. It’s not needed for the argument.

However, you’re asking yourself a great question. I mean, the reason you would play Brink can’t be the same as the thing you dislike about it can it? So if you don’t like the fixed set ups within a match, then what is it that you like about Brink?

(Ragoo) #278

With the limited information I have I basically like everything about this game except for the fact that I can’t change abilities/bodytype midgame and what is even worse in my opinion that I have to grind XP.

Other than that the game seems pretty much exactly what I want (this of course is in relation to what all the other FPS games are offering right now).

One thing that is very important and not yet decided is how popular it is gonna be and how big the competitive scene will be as a result.

I will definitely play it and enjoy it, I’m pretty certain about that right now.

edit: Oh and the netcode could still suck and ruin everything. Quake Wars netcode was ****ed up and I could never find a server that didn’t lag for me.

(tokamak) #279

[QUOTE=Ragoo;274205]With the limited information I have I basically like everything about this game except for the fact that I can’t change abilities/bodytype midgame and what is even worse in my opinion that I have to grind XP.
[/QUOTE]

I mean in this sense

But if it was just that, shooting people, why would I even play BRINK and not CoD?

I don’t get it.

(DouglasDanger) #280

You don’t have to grind XP. The game will reward you for doing things you should be doing anyway.