Beta Closing Statement
- Thread starter Sandro Sammarco
- Start date
So most of the things we did in preparation from the last beta towards the release could be thrown out of the window. Well
My prediction is that changing things constantly keep people playing / engineering things, which is good for gameplay and marketing reasons, and puts a load on us players to constantly monitor all changes and put relevant updates/engineered stuff on the ships.
This is time consuming for the people that want to find the "best builds" for their ships, while others just wait for them to complete the tests and use the "best" combination for their ships - until the next beta or updates to blueprints.
My personal idea would be to hide those changes behind a small storyline in Galnet. Something like "Engineer xy has been on a 1 week seminar "How to remove the flaw of the focus crystals" and found out XYZ for the N weapon". This would bring a new kind of gameplay into the game.
Actually there is a Galnet post about the changes to engineer commodities
Please, pretty please, ugly please, put the idea of booster diminishing results under the rug and never, ever look at it again.
Do you understand what it takes to engineer such ships? I guess not. Do you understand such ships have major drawbacks? I guess not.
If you ever decide to introduce this stupid idea into live game, I expect a full reimbursement of all the materials and commodities it took me to engineer my heavy boosters.
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Do you know who you are talking to? Guess not.
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That being said, did you test the changes in the beta? For almost everybody who actually was there and did testing liked the changes. Which makes it so astonishing for me, that they were not implemented in this patch. But alas, there also were a number of threads of people who never set foot into the beta, who "knew" that the changes were bad...
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Yep, I am exactly on this mindset.
Thanks for the heads up. Some points to consider:
* Linking gimbals to sensors is a great idea, the problem is really only how the mass and power draw of higher rated sensors goes up. It becomes really, really ridiculous when your sensors on (for example) an Anaconda weigh a whopping 160 tons! (Even the 64 tons of D-rated sensors is extreme.)
* Shield booster stacking diminishing returns is also a great idea, but I think this line of change should be followed on its own, without the hardness changes. The current hardness mechanics already feel rather arbitrarily punishing for smaller weapons, and expanding on that pushed the "meta" even more towards the largest ships, to the point where you may very well end up with what I call the "Freelancer Syndrome". In the game Freelancer, players could fly any of a dozens of ships, but the balance was such that eventually, out of all those ships, only 3 remained as actually viable and so utterly superior to all others that you have essentially lose a fight automatically against one of the 3 if you fly something else.
* More generally speaking, don't try too much at the same time, and don't package too many balance changes together in a "everything or nothing" way.
Therefore, I suggest the following, smaller steps for the next update:
* Re-introduce gimbal arc scaling with the sensor quality, but reduce all sensor masses to 25% of their current values (e.g. the aforementioned 160 tons become 40, 64 tons become 16 etc.). Do not yet touch the maximum gimbal arc for now, just make it so you need A-rated sensors for the current arc you see in the live game.
* Re-introduce the shield booster stacking diminishing returns on its own, without the hull hardness changes. Also consider setting the cap a bit higher, for example 100% instead of 80%, as a compromise.
* Consider a new item, a "shield regeneration booster" which instead of increasing the shield capacity, only increases the shield regeneration rate. With this, large ships hit by the diminishing returns have the option to replace some of their current shield boosters with some extra regeneration.
Yes, I did test these changes. And as a PVE-only player, I never liked these (why would I?). Sorry, but I do not want to give up my engineered shields in favor of very vocal PVP minority. At least not wothout proper compensation.
And thanks for the Powerplay changes!
give up on this please, shield defences like are now will be reduced one way or another in the future (100% assured). I'm not fan for this (having some own reasons) but from overall game perspective is request for boosters stacking absolutely legitimate. Personally I hope they will introduce some other things (like C&P) in time when this change will be applied to live game.
@Sandro: thx for this summary and work on improving ED.
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Hi Sandro.
Given that the changes to PAs in live compared to beta (25% nerf vs resistance stacked targets) were largely based on feedback from Beta where stacking resistances instead of maxing shields was the only viable option, could you see this change reversing?
Given that the changes to PAs in live compared to beta (25% nerf vs resistance stacked targets) were largely based on feedback from Beta where stacking resistances instead of maxing shields was the only viable option, could you see this change reversing?
Both those changes are very appealing to make ED combat more interesting and "right", but it is good to take sweet time to chew on this - so you can get it right for first time when making it live.
Thank you Sandro for doing this beta and huge thumbs up. Can be there beta where you explore some minor or major improvements to other gameplay elements - like trading, etc?
Thank you Sandro for doing this beta and huge thumbs up. Can be there beta where you explore some minor or major improvements to other gameplay elements - like trading, etc?
Or they may give PVPers some means to deal with fat shields. Special effects for weapons that increase damage to shields or something similar. Booster stacking is a PVP-exclusive problem, but FD tried to solve it in a way that affects all the players, not only PVPers.
Sandro - is the TORPEDO Piercing fixed?????????????? Otherwise it's not worth to play this game in OPEN (without heavy mods and hundred of hours grind)
Shield Piercing and insta kill the Shield Gen is nonsense Check 00:33 of the 1st video for example
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[video=youtube_share;-ks_yAJ9juk]https://youtu.be/-ks_yAJ9juk[/video]
or this here
[video=youtube_share;x50zpf_iAnY]https://youtu.be/x50zpf_iAnY[/video]
Shield Piercing and insta kill the Shield Gen is nonsense Check 00:33 of the 1st video for example
.......
.................
[video=youtube_share;-ks_yAJ9juk]https://youtu.be/-ks_yAJ9juk[/video]
or this here
[video=youtube_share;x50zpf_iAnY]https://youtu.be/x50zpf_iAnY[/video]
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Awesome changes! Thank you! Any chance those of us who spent countless hours allocating commodities for engineers might get thrown a bone? Say a free skin or something?? Thanks!
Sandro, not going through with the shield booster changes was an incredibly dumb decision, especially in conjunction with actually increasing shield regeneration.
Instead of making godships slightly weaker, you've made them even more rediculous. PvE is a joke at the moment in the big ships.
Instead of making godships slightly weaker, you've made them even more rediculous. PvE is a joke at the moment in the big ships.
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Comander Sandro .... I appreciate the feedback and explanation. I enjoyed the extended experimentation time that the Beta offered over the holiday period when more in-game time was available to me.
If I may offer one criticism of the Beta, it is that you tried to inject too many variables at once. Hence (probably) you don't have enough data for the shield changes.
Better to test the weapons mods first, to see how they improve or diminish game-play quality, then in another beta test defensive equipment and strategies, such as shields, etc.
Personally, I found it very difficult to offer constructive comment on the changes when so much was changing at once.
If I may offer one criticism of the Beta, it is that you tried to inject too many variables at once. Hence (probably) you don't have enough data for the shield changes.
Better to test the weapons mods first, to see how they improve or diminish game-play quality, then in another beta test defensive equipment and strategies, such as shields, etc.
Personally, I found it very difficult to offer constructive comment on the changes when so much was changing at once.