Two questions for Splash Damage.

(Mustkunstn1k) #1

Since recently I’ve noticed that developers of Brink are anwsering a lot of questions I thought of trying to ask a few of my own.

First off… balance. This is kind of a problem in a lot of multiplayer games with progression. The players who have played for a longer time definetly have the upperhand in most games, because they have a wider choice of weapons etc. But usually it isn’t that big of a problem if a game is balanced good. The thing with Brink though is that each level grants a new ability. And abilities are direct upgrades. So lvl 20 definetly has the upperhand when going against a lvl 1. Ofcourse pro’s willl probably still do very good against higher levels, but still. What if a person buys Brink a month after release. Is he forced to play the singleplayer to level up his characters? I realise that matchmaking probably puts similiar levels together, but not dedicated servers. How about giving some simple bonuses for the first three hours of gameplay? Just a random idea, I’m sure there are better solutions in reality.

Second thing is xp. It is clear that Brink uses xp to promote teamplay. People get afforded with xp for their actions that support the team. But how long does the xp really last? On average… how much time would it take to level up one character? I realise that there are 16, but if you get to level all those 16 in 50 hours then it’s really not that much. Are the developers betting on the fact that after you have leveled a few characters it is already in your nature and you don’t need to be rewarded for it? Many gamers like to have some kind of a driving force in their shooters today. It’s what keeps it hooked, unfortunetly.

Thank you.

(Wieke) #2

Regarding Balance, IIRC they decided to front load the classes. So you get the good stuff early instead of last. And the difference in power level between high level and low level is lessened.

Regarding XP. The amount of XP earned during a match determines your place on that match’s scoreboard. So there’s another incentive to gather XP besides the leveling.

(DarkangelUK) #3

I thought it was mentioned that high levels can’t join low level matchups, but the reverse is possible? Also, it was mentioned in an interview that the MP was ready to roll within the 1st 2 months of development, and from then on the focus was on gameplay and balance… they’ve always talked about balance… any reason why you think they wouldn’t be balancing it, or not have thought about any of your concerns mentioned?

(Otto) #4

I see how this would help create a more even playing field through out level gaps… but then it kinda loses the point to getting new stuff…
There are two gene’s of load outs:

Side-Grades
No item, weapon or ability, is necessarily greater then the other

Double-barrel Shotgun
Favors Huge damage, wider spread, close-medium range combat
Fails: No Clip, slow rate of fire, poor long range, poor accuracy
or
Pump-action Shotgun:
favors: average speed, average power, average clip size, close-medium range combat
fails: poor range, poor accuracy

Upgrades
A completely better item, weapon or ability with no draw backs to the alternative.

BB gun
Lowest possible damage, no clip, slowest FR, minimal range, minimal accuracy
vs.
Assault rifle
Above average damage, range, FR, clip size, accuracy

My point
Why have a leveling system to unlock the BB gun, when I started with an Assault rifle? (yes we all love the shenanigans of the BB gun but it’s not practical.) Unless your referring to a side grade system system of weapons and abilities mixed matched level combat wont be very effective unless the “upgrade” weapons are only very marginally better( 9mm pistol vs 10mm pistol) even then that wouldn’t make sense if the game follows a “front load” system.

Weapons is one thing, leveled abilities puts another twist to this concept.
Can any one clarify?

(Jess Alon) #5

There are level brackets. Horse talks about it all the time. And it’s something even I’ve known about since 3 months ago.

It’s 1-5
6-9
10-15
16-19
20

This is because there are accessible abilities within those levels that stay competitive. But once you cross over to the next bracket it’s an unfair advantage. Say an engineer that can only use landmines but the other engineer can use turrets. There must be a lot of cool ones at 20 because 20 is it’s own skill class.

HORSE: Correct those numbers if they are off. But I know they are almost exactly right.

(JeP) #6

I think that you’re mistaking level brackets used for something else, cause if I recall correctly, there’s only 4 different “ranks” of servers :

1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20

… but I’m too lazy to check this on the compendum ^^

(Jess Alon) #7

pretty sure it’s 5 and 20 is it’s own.

(JeP) #8

From pt4, matchmaking in the compendium :

“Every time you get to a new rank – and there’s suddenly anything from five to 10 new abilities – it’s like it’s a whole new game. We were matchmaking you into matches through levels one through to 4 which ensured that you were with like-levelled players. You think you’ve learned everything you need to know about the game (all the cool tricks and the abilities) and then you make it to level five and that’s when you go to rank two, and all of a sudden you’re playing with guys from level five to level ten, and suddenly you see them doing all kinds of things.”

"You start seeing these different body types, and watching acrobatic guys. You start watching engineers putting down turrets (for the first five levels they could only put down mines) and that changes everything. You start seeing operatives hacking those turrets and taking them over. Five levels later and you’ll start to see operatives being able to remote control those turrets. There’s a natural progressions; so every time you go up a level it’s like a whole new game. That, to me, is one of the most exciting things.”

  • Richard Ham

Based on that, there appears to be 4 ranks:

R1: lvl 0/1-4
R2: lvl 5-10
R3: lvl 11-15
R4: lvl 16-20

(CVIChEK) #9

[QUOTE=Otto;270195]I see how this would help create a more even playing field through out level gaps… but then it kinda loses the point to getting new stuff…
There are two gene’s of load outs:

Side-Grades
No item, weapon or ability, is necessarily greater then the other

Double-barrel Shotgun
Favors Huge damage, wider spread, close-medium range combat
Fails: No Clip, slow rate of fire, poor long range, poor accuracy
or
Pump-action Shotgun:
favors: average speed, average power, average clip size, close-medium range combat
fails: poor range, poor accuracy

Upgrades
A completely better item, weapon or ability with no draw backs to the alternative.

BB gun
Lowest possible damage, no clip, slowest FR, minimal range, minimal accuracy
vs.
Assault rifle
Above average damage, range, FR, clip size, accuracy

My point
Why have a leveling system to unlock the BB gun, when I started with an Assault rifle? (yes we all love the shenanigans of the BB gun but it’s not practical.) Unless your referring to a side grade system system of weapons and abilities mixed matched level combat wont be very effective unless the “upgrade” weapons are only very marginally better( 9mm pistol vs 10mm pistol) even then that wouldn’t make sense if the game follows a “front load” system.

Weapons is one thing, leveled abilities puts another twist to this concept.
Can any one clarify?[/QUOTE]
I don’t think any gun is superior to some other in Brink.
Attachments come with a downside as well. Like, a round mag will give you twice the ammo, but the downgrade to it will be a much slower reload or maybe slower draw time.
I also think I saw somewhere that even some abilities have some downsides, but not really sure. Besides, there are many of them, you can’t buy them all and you can bring only 3 (I think) with you in-game, so it balances each other out.
I really think that it’s impossible to find another player who has the same weapon with the same attachments and abilities.

(Jess Alon) #10

All the weapons are pretty balanced in comparison. Every change you make has it’s advantages AND drawbacks hopefully building a balanced system that caters to each players playstyle.

Or that’s the idea.

Don’t overthink it. Get excited about the freedom that’s gonna come from this new game. Don’t start trying to set parameters and limitations before the game is even released.

(H0RSE) #11

[QUOTE=JeP;270209]I think that you’re mistaking level brackets used for something else, cause if I recall correctly, there’s only 4 different “ranks” of servers :

1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20

… but I’m too lazy to check this on the compendum ^^[/QUOTE]

I think it’s:

0-4
5-9
10-14
15-19
20

(Jess Alon) #12

Duh… forgot zero. Thanks horse. But I knew 20 was in a class of it’s own.

(JeP) #13

Five different ranks it is then !

(gee666) #14

cant find the post but i’m sure someone from SD said that while things would be locked at the start, earning XP and rank gives you the choice of what to unlock with no or little restriction, so if you want that mini gun you could get it at rank 1 but the trade off might be not getting that health boost or whatever till the next rank. Also as you cant unlock evrything with one character you will have to be tacticle with your builds.

Might be getting the diffrent perks, weapons etc mixed up but i think that was the general idea

(1234567) #15

I heard that the leveling was pretty quick, so I don’t think experienced people will have much of an advantage (if any).