Why only 3 abilities?

(Codine) #1

As the topic says. Why can medics only have 3 abilities equipped at a time? This is such a terrible mechanic no matter anyway you look at it. You put points into them but you can only equip 3/5 of them, and the only way you can switch them is when you’re out of game.

Don’t say because its “balance” because that’s just rubbish. This just seems that the 360 controller ran out of buttons so pc players had to pay the price as well.

It’s sad that I’m finding new problems every day that wouldn’t have even been there if they developed this as a pc shooter. I really hope SD will fix this game up for the pc community. I feel that SD is spoiled with the loyal fan base they have.

(amazinglarry) #2

I blame consoles.

Just playing.

Really, I think it’s just a balance between all classes. The way my current guy is built, I have 2 engineer things, 2 soldier, 1 medic and I have ZERO extra things for my Operative. Just how it rolls.

The game wasn’t meant for you to max out a super class. It wants you to be maybe better in one, but balanced in the rest (in case the map needs you)

(Ashog) #3

the even worse thing is that one has only 20 levels for each character to upgrade abilities. However there are much more abilities than 20 available. It means that some class abilities will be absent for a character that is fully ranked up to top. For example if u decide to tweak character abilities to medic/engie combo, you will have to skip some soldier/operative abilities. This forces you to create another character which concentrates on soldier/operative abilities. However you cannot change the characters during the game because you need to disconnect to do that. That means that the flexibility of a class change during the single game suffers a lot. Same for body types.

I don’t know what was the reason for SD to implement it like that - probably some kind of balancing considerations.

(Inofor) #4

I agree in that putting points on more than three active skills is a bit weird since they don’t even add versatility (no use for more than 3 in a match) and overall weaken the character since it could be taking passive skills that he can have enabled. Since there is a limited amount of supplies, I don’t think it would be overpowered either. I think that the thing here is making the need for teamwork between medics: one medic can’t have all the active skills so there is a place for another medic with a different active skillset. At least that’s how I think it is. That, or perhaps the game is encouraging you to put your points in multiple classes. I distribute my points between all four classes and am enjoying myself very much with my versatility. :stroggtapir:

(riptide) #5

My “main” medic/op uses 0/5 abilities and does quite well. I don’t have the pips for anything but healing/reviving I could make use of the laz nade/adren but I think they’re pretty OP so I don’t bother.

I do have a specialized medic with everything but as I said I just don’t have the pips for anything but healing/reviving and the occasional laz nade/adrenaline.

(sereNADE) #6

one idea which i think is quite rad would be to give the operative class an ability to add options to the command posts that allowed for size switching and/or character swapping. the ability could even be named something suitable for the brink context like “call for backup”. idk… just an idea for a clever way to fix a problem without simply resorting to an obvious patchings.

(amazinglarry) #7

Please re-read my first post. That’s the whole idea. They want you to do well with whatever class you feel you excel with, but they don’t want you to focus ONLY on that character. It’s supposed to encourage abilities in other classes that your team MAY need.

Think about it. Lazarus Grenades are cool right? Now your team is ALL specced out in Medic skills. And nobody wants to be an Engineer or Soldier or Operative to complete any objective. They spent their points in Medic and DAMN IT! They’re not gonna let it go to waste!

Well guess what!?

(PillowTalk) #8

I am not understanding what you mean that you can only have 3 abilities at a time…

I’ve seen plenty of medics that have Sprint Boost, Adrenaline, Metabolism, AND the Lazarus Grenade at the same time.

I have yet to see anyone actually use Transfer Supplies, though.

(Inofor) #9

[QUOTE=PillowTalk;318408]
I have yet to see anyone actually use Transfer Supplies, though.[/QUOTE]

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m having hard time finding a player who is out of supplies, it seems that they are not displayed properly to the player with transfer supplies. Correct me if I’m wrong.

(jazevec) #10

Games are about choice. Good games have multiple interesting choices.

Warren Specter is the designer of Deus Ex (1). He also worked in Origin and was involved with games such as Wing Commander, Ultima Underworld, Ultima VI, Thief, System Shock, Shadowcaster.

Assuming balanced abilities - where each ability is roughly as useful as any other - higher number of ability slots would reduce choice. For example if the number of slot was 6 rather than 3, you could possibly select all abilities that are interesting to you and not have to make a hard decision.

(PillowTalk) #11

I didn’t take the perk myself, so I don’t know if it shows anything at all.

It doesn’t show supplies any other time, even though it’d be nice to know why that medic isn’t reviving me. If he has no supplies, that’s ok, but what if he’s just a jackass?

(Lu-Tze) #12

I find transfer supplies rather useless since as a medic i frequently run out of supplies…
maybe if it wouldn’t cost supplies but had a cooldown i would use it, but the way it is now i lost a level to get rid of it.

(Codine) #13

I use transfer supplies all the time. It really helps out engis or soldiers on defence. It only takes a single grenade or mine to change the whole game, whereas people are very vulnerable getting rezed in this and most likely get killed before they even get back on their feet. They Nerfed medic combat rez a lot. It’s not a bad change but its certainly very detrimental to changing the tide of the match.

It helps a lot, but only if you’re in communication with your squad. That’s not something you’ll find a lot in pubs.

(riptide) #14

[QUOTE=PillowTalk;318424]I didn’t take the perk myself, so I don’t know if it shows anything at all.

It doesn’t show supplies any other time, even though it’d be nice to know why that medic isn’t reviving me. If he has no supplies, that’s ok, but what if he’s just a jackass?[/QUOTE]

The icon changes if they have the supplies to revive you. I’m not sure if they have to select it as an objective though.

As for transfer supplies I used it a couple times but only so I could get ammo lol. I simply do not have the extra supplies to give somebody.

(farnsworth) #15

[QUOTE=riptide;319022]The icon changes if they have the supplies to revive you. I’m not sure if they have to select it as an objective though.
[/QUOTE]

Really? Never noticed this myself. What does it look like if they don’t have the supplies to revive?

(Glyph) #16

I agree and disagree with the OP. Blaming the consoles is shortsighted at best as most of the classes only have 3 skill and some of them even feel forced. That being said I wish that there was more skill customization and even universal abilities (namely Transer Supplies) that were active instead of just passive. Keep in mind that Shadowrun had a way around the console’s button limitations so SD could have done something similar if they wanted. It was SD’s choice to limit you to 3 active skills, not the consoles’ fault.

By level 20 you have enough points to max a single class and every universal skill if needed. You even have enough to purchase most upgraded buffs and command posts or specialize in a second class if done properly. What’s worse is that more often than not there is no reason to change classes for very long so you will be fine just specializing in a single class. The entire skills system just feels lacking.

It would have been better to force choices between abilities. So when you reach rank 2 you can only pick 2 of the 4 skills. Or when you get to Rank 3 and 4 you only get 1. Rank 5 should be limited to a single choice across all categories or require maximum investment in a class to be unlocked. Costs could have increased at higher ranks as well so you can have multiple low ranking skills or only a few higher rank ones. Instead we are left with a system that feels generic at best. The RPG element lacks any real balance. In the end, only the Medic will differ from another Medic as they are the only class with more active skills than can be assigned.

(blargo) #17

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(Scip) #18

[QUOTE=brutt01d;318367]the even worse thing is that one has only 20 levels for each character to upgrade abilities. However there are much more abilities than 20 available. It means that some class abilities will be absent for a character that is fully ranked up to top. For example if u decide to tweak character abilities to medic/engie combo, you will have to skip some soldier/operative abilities. This forces you to create another character which concentrates on soldier/operative abilities. However you cannot change the characters during the game because you need to disconnect to do that. That means that the flexibility of a class change during the single game suffers a lot. Same for body types.

I don’t know what was the reason for SD to implement it like that - probably some kind of balancing considerations.[/QUOTE]

i see you played QuakeWars according to your sig.

and this game had basically the same or very similar issue (if you wanna call it an issue).

lets say you started the match as an Strogg Constructor, and after you gained some XP you rank up in this specific class and are rewarded with Flying Repair Drone, Plasma Launcher, Faster Construct/Disarm, and self-arming mines.

but when you switch your class to Technician then you re a lvl 0 Technician while everybody else who started as Technician or Medic are already on lvl 3 or 4

however, i never saw anyone complaining about this game mechanic although it s pretty similar to what we have in Brink right now :confused: