Great videos. Clear statements and easy-to-follow situational testing. Thanks for taking your time to make those.
I truly wish you could refrain from taking such an antagonistic stance in your editorial surrounding them, but I know you're passionate about these issues. You catch more flies with honey, they say...
PvPers tend to tell it like it is, and don't sugar coat things. The good side of this is that when we give praise you know that it is deserved. You saw this recently with Gozer. We recognize and praise competent development.
What Gecko and his team have been doing is the exact opposite of competent development. PvPers know this, and they are understandably vocal about it.
Pushing science resists onto the game in a premature and broken state is not competent development, especially when the PvP community was saying before and during tribble testing that the 75% value was far too high (when the resists actually worked that is)
Making one of the three main ship classes irrelevant for months on end up to the present day is not competent development.
30 second immunity for abilities like scramble sensors was shockingly absurd and is not competent development.
Putting usless skills (eg. Countermeasures, Decompilers) at the most expensive end of the skill tree while slotting must-have skills (eg. emitters, hull repair, weapons training) at the least expensive end is not competent development.
Further nerfing of already near-useless abilities (like Tricobalts and other stuns) is not competent development.
Testing abilities like Gravity Well against NPCs and claiming to have found a fix (when two minutes of testing against another player says it is still broken) is not competent development.
Arbitrarily changing powers that we're previously perfectly balanced (eg. RSP) into far less balanced states is not competent development.
Breaking FAW in a new and unique way every time you so much as look at it is not competent development.
Somehow making half the drains in the game (Tyken's, target subs, energy siphon) absolutely useless while the other half (assimilators, leeches) become I-win buttons is not competent development.
Letting everything in Mav's post go unfixed and ignored for so long is not competent development.
Being condescending on podcasts to players who know how to do your job better than you do is not competent development.
Leaving laughable skills like Jam Sensors, Aux2Batt, Aceton, and boarding parties worthless for years at a time while looking for the next nerf is not competent development.
Making two sets of three mostly identical ships but putting sensor analysis on one variant for no good reason whatsoever is not competent development.
Not knowing something as simple as how tactical consoles add to damage (something even the newest PvPer figures out after a few days) is not competent development.
I could go on for pages just by looking at previous patch notes.
The truth is, no, a top PvPer with a spreadsheet wouldn't be able to balance the game overnight. He definitely wouldn't be able to fix anything that is overtly broken. But every single skill that can be fixed by playing with the values he would balance very quickly. Partly because he actually knows how to play the game and understands what makes abilites useful, and partially because he would relentlessly test every change with and against teams of other people that have the same attitude.
When Gecko and crew start actually doing a satisfactory job, PvPers will be the first to point it out. Until then, expect PvPers to tell it like they see it. Between you and me though, I don't think the systems team led by Gecko is capable of doing anything besides consistently wrecking balance. If I'm right, then sugar coating things, hiding our true feelings, and playing nice isn't going to get anything done. It might be that putting the spotlight on the constant litany of gross errors is the only way to get any sort of positive change, because eventually someone higher up in Cryptic or PWE might take notice and fix things.
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R.I.P
R.I.P
PvPers tend to tell it like it is, and don't sugar coat things. The good side of this is that when we give praise you know that it is deserved. You saw this recently with Gozer. We recognize and praise competent development.
What Gecko and his team have been doing is the exact opposite of competent development. PvPers know this, and they are understandably vocal about it.
Pushing science resists onto the game in a premature and broken state is not competent development, especially when the PvP community was saying before and during tribble testing that the 75% value was far too high (when the resists actually worked that is)
Making one of the three main ship classes irrelevant for months on end up to the present day is not competent development.
30 second immunity for abilities like scramble sensors was shockingly absurd and is not competent development.
Putting usless skills (eg. Countermeasures, Decompilers) at the most expensive end of the skill tree while slotting must-have skills (eg. emitters, hull repair, weapons training) at the least expensive end is not competent development.
Further nerfing of already near-useless abilities (like Tricobalts and other stuns) is not competent development.
Testing abilities like Gravity Well against NPCs and claiming to have found a fix (when two minutes of testing against another player says it is still broken) is not competent development.
Arbitrarily changing powers that we're previously perfectly balanced (eg. RSP) into far less balanced states is not competent development.
Breaking FAW in a new and unique way every time you so much as look at it is not competent development.
Somehow making half the drains in the game (Tyken's, target subs, energy siphon) absolutely useless while the other half (assimilators, leeches) become I-win buttons is not competent development.
Letting everything in Mav's post go unfixed and ignored for so long is not competent development.
Being condescending on podcasts to players who know how to do your job better than you do is not competent development.
Leaving laughable skills like Jam Sensors, Aux2Batt, Aceton, and boarding parties worthless for years at a time while looking for the next nerf is not competent development.
Making two sets of three mostly identical ships but putting sensor analysis on one variant for no good reason whatsoever is not competent development.
Not knowing something as simple as how tactical consoles add to damage (something even the newest PvPer figures out after a few days) is not competent development.
I could go on for pages just by looking at previous patch notes.
The truth is, no, a top PvPer with a spreadsheet wouldn't be able to balance the game overnight. He definitely wouldn't be able to fix anything that is overtly broken. But every single skill that can be fixed by playing with the values he would balance very quickly. Partly because he actually knows how to play the game and understands what makes abilites useful, and partially because he would relentlessly test every change with and against teams of other people that have the same attitude.
When Gecko and crew start actually doing a satisfactory job, PvPers will be the first to point it out. Until then, expect PvPers to tell it like they see it. Between you and me though, I don't think the systems team led by Gecko is capable of doing anything besides consistently wrecking balance. If I'm right, then sugar coating things, hiding our true feelings, and playing nice isn't going to get anything done. It might be that putting the spotlight on the constant litany of gross errors is the only way to get any sort of positive change, because eventually someone higher up in Cryptic or PWE might take notice and fix things.