Thought it might be interesting to put this up for players who didn't listen/read the transcript from the Subspace Radio interview with captgecko.
Just a few quotes from gecko concerning balance in general and pvp balance:
"And part of it is if we want people to be excited about something, if we want people to really want that spinal lance or that antimatter spread or that photon torpedo point defence system you kinda on purpose make it a little overpowered. Just a little bit. Just to make it exciting. Because if we made those powers perfectly balanced, why the hell would I want that?
Yeah, it?s supposed to- you know, when I play a game what I remember is that really hard bad guy or that really cool power I got that was awesome. I don?t remember those ones that were perfectly balanced.
Sometimes it hurts PvP a little, and I recognize that, but there?s always counters, we?re always developing counters for these things.
If things were always balanced and neutral, it would be pretty boring."
That was a bit of insight for me yesterday into cryptics approach to balance, what do you think about it?
I do also however think it is important to remember:
"So there are, there will always be balance problems, it will never be perfect."
For funsies:
"I got all these bugs all over the house and eventually I?m gonna get them fixed. "
Im guessing he's talking about the Jem'Hadar Attack ship.
Comments
I disagree.
Just as examples:
And you know what'S not cool: Introducing new unbalanced abilities that are unfun in play. I prefer a Disruptor Javelin (even if it were better than loading my Dual Beam Bank with BO 3) over a Scramble Sensors / Jam Sensors power that's just unfun to encounter.
And even if it power is a must:
And it's even ignoring that sometimes having two ways to achieve the same thing that can be used together is also powerful on its own. Like being able to boost your speed every 60 seconds vs being able to boost your speed every 30 seconds.
R.I.P
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
to much spreadsheet too little XP
20 clicks is interesting as a a target, i m not sure what to make of this bit of info
"There are always counters" is the biggest joke of them all, it discredits everything he said in response to the question, he also dodged the QnA bit, which cannot be excused really
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Always counters. Yeah right.
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Joined October 2009. READ BEFORE POSTING
If he was forced to play 20 straight games of nothing but being tractored by the 36 danube runabouts being spammed by those two carriers and the akira's escorting them he'd see how fun it was to try and find a target and apply his so called "counter" in the heat of battle after the ams wears off that he could've cleared if he didn't use science team to clear that scramble right before he just got hit with a shut down for 20 seconds straight by viral matrix and subnucleonic beam wears off so he can evasive away to escape the 6 gravity wells just procced between the two carriers currently targeting him both of whom are running two tac teams, two emergency power to shields, and two transfer shield strengths but each of whom simply HAPPEN to be science captains by sheer coincidence of course.
Let no other Captain discourage you from what you believe you can achieve in PvP. Debuffs and Disables be damned! Charge up your Backstep and Forge your build out of Lock Boxes, Consoles, and Flash Sales feeding off of only your pure will to chain, spam, and hax your way forward. You will not be forgotten to history.
Cryptic doesn't actually play their own game. I don't know if it was Gecko or someone else but one of the devs pretty much admitted that when they patch ships, they just throw stats out at complete random because no one has enough game experience to know any better.
vids and guides and stuff
[9:52] [Zone #11] Neal@trapper1532: im a omega force shadow oprative and a maoc elite camander and here i am taking water samples
I also completely agree with this. Honestly the biggest disappointment with the last roster of ships is that the BOff slots are just totally stale and derivative and blah.
vids and guides and stuff
[9:52] [Zone #11] Neal@trapper1532: im a omega force shadow oprative and a maoc elite camander and here i am taking water samples
They should try to compare it to other team sports. How about if soccer rules were changed to allow players to to carry and use a tranquilizer gun? What reason would there be to not carry one? And how fun would the game be if everyone carried one? Two minutes into the match, everyone would be laying immobilized and drewling on the field.
For the game to be fun, there HAS TO be balance! Every power too strong, or too weak, is directly harmful to the gameplay.
Another thing Cryptic does not seem to realize, is that PvP is their best tool to gauge the abilities. Balanced PvP lends balance to PvE, where it otherways can't be measured. Balanced PvE leads to more fun gameplay, and a better feeling of quality. It makes PvE tastier and more appealing. These are the benefits of balancing PvP. No if Cryptic would only see this...
It occured to me.. Just see how many broken abilities there are in ground play, where much less PvP balance feedback reaches them! Look at the kits, where 90% of the abilities are useless. I can't remember last time I ran with another Tac kit than Fireteam, no room for variation=boring.
(The only quick way to make pvp more doable again, would be to have APO, PH and AtoD grant full immunity to movement debuffs for 45sec, with a 1 minute CD and GCD. (3/4 uptime).)
Any fleet with strong teamplay skills want to make a challenge to the devs right here and now?
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
I do hope they get a little more oversight from PWE. Shockingly having people not throw up there hands and delete the game goes a long way to ensuring future profits as well.
Balanced PvP is NOT boring... further proof that the devs also never play this game.
wow..........i really hated this dev. i really did. now its just past hate. i never thought i could rage this badly..............i need to troll him now. but...how........do....i...do...it?(yeah going to act like kirk for that moment) yeah so this dumb dev of a moron wants to hurt pvp to make sales of consoles.......gg. i thought devs tryed to help games grow. not kill them. and i swear if i get a ban or temp ban then this is just awesome censoring. what ever dev...........wish u and the ep left. not gozer. you know why? gozer make say the fourm goers are a bunch of babies but least he cared about the game.
this group sees the light.
carry on team.
OP *is* the new balance whether you know so or not! Gozer says so.
Arawn - SOB
OP *is* the new balance whether you know so or not! Gozer says so.
OP *is* the new balance, whether you know it or not! Gecko says so.
Season 7 - Exodus, available online. U buy nao!
http://seekingalpha.com/article/738221-monetizing-perfect-world-s-latest-update
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
In a single player game, yes right, it is the awesome boss battles you remember but in a multiplayer game, its the closely thought win by the skin of your teeth you remember most and that needs some form of ballance.
Develop all the counters you like, if you don't bother to actually make sure they work, you are wasting your time (and P***ing off your players).
No it wouldn't. How about making it ballanced then letting your playerbase try it and tell you how much fun they find it?
As worrying as this statement is, the more I see of Cryptic's development work, the more I believe it, particularly the "just throw stats out at complete random because no one has enough game experience to know any better" part of it.
I'm seriously doubting there is any hope for improvement here guys. We need to live with what we've got or go elsewhere...
Here before PWE (and hopefully) here long after PWE is gone.
What this game needs is PvP, NOT PWE.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
As for AMS, I have it on all my ships because of the defensive applications such as fighters from those bloody new Akira Retrofits that everyone suddenly has.
if u think the oddy was the worse thing then u have problems kid