Balancing in a finished game?

[CMDR Carbo]

If you ever played League of Legends you will know that as long as the game is developed and new things implemented there is always balancing going on.

For a multiplayer game like this, balancing is like breathing. If there is no balancing anymore then the game is most likely dead.

 

[Commander Azriel]

"finished" game? Somebody is high...

 

[salad]

If you ever played League of Legends you will know that as long as the game is developed and new things implemented there is always balancing going on.

For a multiplayer game like this, balancing is like breathing. If there is no balancing anymore then the game is most likely dead.

-1 For League of Legends
+1 For the rest

 

[Goilveig]

I am not a big PC games player, is it normal to have this much balancing in a finished game?

No, it's not normal. Most of them have a whole hell of a lot more balancing than E: D has had so far.

 

[BigBadB]

I hope they will stop balancing and changing soon. I`m still not sure if I want to jump in and start "real" career since after many updates my trusty Cobra fit suddenly stop working. Or, come on FD, and just tells us we are in gamma test stage still.

I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed.

ED is a game in live development. It's going to continue to grow and evolve as the team continue to develop it, hopefully for years to come.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Yep, World of Tanks was constantly having tanks people had bought (sometimes with real money) changed, buffed, nerfed.

Ammo was changed. Armour mechanics. Vision mechanics. Vehicle top speeds. Sometimes, entire tanks were reworked to be totally different.

 

[zaccheus44]

Huge swings completely altering gameplay like ....?

Heat mechanics
Missiles
The python
The bulk trading tax
Seeking luxuries
Shield cells
Course plotting now 1k light years (only positive change imo)

All changes that drastically changed game play

 

[Conestoga]

The game will be "finished" the day the company stops supporting it. Unfortunately, since the game will be taken offline in such a case, that means you will never play a finished product using the original servers. This is standard operating procedure for online games driven by the sales of expansions. Welcome to 2015.

 

[jp josh]

Yep, World of Tanks was constantly having tanks people had bought (sometimes with real money) changed, buffed, nerfed.

Ammo was changed. Armour mechanics. Vision mechanics. Vehicle top speeds. Sometimes, entire tanks were reworked to be totally different.

i quiet after the 6th Nerf to the t54 and a tier four tank could pen it frontally with gold ammo.

 

[FuegoPantalones]

All changes that drastically changed game play

The upcoming 'Wings' update will also "drastically change gameplay". Should it not be implemented because of this? If your argument is that only changes that offer new functionality is all that's legitimate, then I can only assume that Elite is the very first video game you've ever played.

 

[xondk]

I am sure this game should still be classified a BETA.:S

In singleplayer games, there is rarely a need for 'balancing' a game after release, since even if there is a weapon that is significantly more powerful then the others, it is only going to affect one player.

In multiplayer games however, balancing is always an ongoing issue, and there can be many reasons, but the main is probably that the few people testing the game before release, cannot find as many possible ways to use/abuse something that a significantly larger playerbase can do, and usually when such a thing is found it gets abused because people want an advantage, and as such things get balanced. It saddens me because the people complaining about balancing are usually those that took advantage of something that was unbalanced, most likely to the detriment of other players. And they often complain about 'their' fun being ruined, absolutely disregarding the fun, that they ruined for other players by abusing certain things.

And this is a generalization, that goes for practically all multiplayer games, not just elite dangerous.

 

[Hominin]

nothing weird about balancing a released game. the problem is that FD's idea of "balancing" is strictly about taking away anything that is decent about the game. reasonable flight dynamics were destroyed mid beta, ships have been continuously made more expensive (purchase and upkeep) to a point where there is no point buying one. any source of reasonable revenue have been scrapped (0cr for a discovery scan?). audio was completely ruined. ships have been nerfed so much that even if you have the patience to get a new ship, you will be disappointed. and, as you said, the classic cobra is no longer a multi-purpose ship as its power supply can no longer support the modules needed for multiple roles. even the black holes have been nerfed from what i hear! FD is clearly hostile to ED players and ignoring all feedback so time to give up on this trainwreck and hope SC will get it right.

 

[Vasea Azure]

I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed.

ED is a game in live development. It's going to continue to grow and evolve as the team continue to develop it, hopefully for years to come.

Elite is not a traditional MMO, so I hope they will not be introducing any drastic changes every patch to the existing ships/parts. Its hard to get immersed if some force from the heavens suddenly changes your weapons/mods behaviour.

 

[BigBadB]

Elite is not a traditional MMO, so I hope they will not be introducing any drastic changes every patch to the existing ships/parts. Its hard to get immersed if some force from the heavens suddenly changes your weapons/mods behaviour.

I don't think any major MMO introduces drastic changes every patch, but there will be changes at times. Balancing a game as large and complex as ED is a process, not an event, and as new things are added and existing things are expanded and improved, balance changes will be necessary.

You have to decide whether you can view this for what it is - the devs working to improve the game and make it better - and take it in your stride, or whether games with MMO-style live development just aren't for you.

(Although to be honest, you're going to be hard-pushed to find any successful PC game these days that isn't going to be updated with patches and/or expansions, even if it's not in full live development.)