ANNOUNCEMENT Game Balancing Pt.3

Bruce G

Senior Community Manager
dj_wylie said:
Bruce can i just say, even killing only scouts, the combat rank grind is not 'quick', it still takes a very long time and is far far more difficult than the other elite ranks. I understand why this has changed, but the consequence is that the elite ranks are now even more unbalanced than they were before.
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Granted. Although the ranks aren't dependent on each other, so I don't consider it a "balance" issue. I understand that trade especially seems far to quick and easy - that's not to say Combat should be made faster. It's "Elite" after all. Happy to receive feedback on this, as with everything else.
 

Epaphus

Epaphus
Bruce Garrido said:
Anti-Xeno Combat
Thargoid combat bonds will provide 4x as many credits as before.

The experience gained from Thargoids which contributes to Combat rank has been re-scaled. This means that Thargoid scouts will provide less than before, however each interceptor will offer more than the last, all the way up to Hydras. The exact amount earned will vary according to the number of pilots who contribute to the kill as well as their various combat ranks.
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Nice, hopefully I can start paying off the millions in re-buys from previous Anti-Xeno Combat 😂

Will be interesting to see how the new combat ranks go, I always thought it was silly a scout was worth the same experience as a Cyclops. (y)
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Bruce Garrido said:
Granted. Although the ranks aren't dependent on each other, so I don't consider it a "balance" issue. I understand that trade especially seems far to quick and easy - that's not to say Combat should be made faster. It's "Elite" after all. Happy to receive feedback on this, as with everything else.
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I must say I was quite surprised to see the reduction in combat rank contribution for scouts. For sure, going scout hunting had become the new meta for combat ranking but was that actually a bad thing? As dj_wylie pointed out, working through the higher combat ranks is still a hell of a grind. What was the reason for the change, what was the perceived problem?
 

CMDR HollowPointPC

CMDR HollowPointPC
Northpin said:
Nah, only the first 10-20 kills...
Then it gets routine and you start to race to see how many minutes it takes to kill a targ...
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For cyclops, sure, but takes a fairly long time to get good enough to say that about Dusas and Hydras. I've only just started my AX journey and am currently killing Cyclops' in a few minutes, with 60 - 80% hull remaining in a Shieldless Chief. I'll move on up to the next rank when I feel I'm not making mistakes.
 

CMDR HollowPointPC

CMDR HollowPointPC
Bruce Garrido said:
Granted. Although the ranks aren't dependent on each other, so I don't consider it a "balance" issue. I understand that trade especially seems far to quick and easy - that's not to say Combat should be made faster. It's "Elite" after all. Happy to receive feedback on this, as with everything else.
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I think you said it right there, trade rank should be considerably harder than it is and Explorer rank feels like a huge grind. Hopefully it'll be more interesting in Odyssey, but surface scanning planet after planet has no 'fun' factor for me.
 

Huntaer

Huntaer
CMDR HollowPointPC said:
I think you said it right there, trade rank should be considerably harder than it is and Explorer rank feels like a huge grind. Hopefully it'll be more interesting in Odyssey, but surface scanning planet after planet has no 'fun' factor for me.
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Isn't there a new rank coming on Odyssey? So you can get quadruple elite?
 

szymciu07

S
dj_wylie said:
Bruce can i just say, even killing only scouts, the combat rank grind is not 'quick', it still takes a very long time and is far far more difficult than the other elite ranks. I understand why this has changed, but the consequence is that the elite ranks are now even more unbalanced than they were before.
Click to expand...

Combat rank is the only one actually reflecting the Elite in it's name. You can get elite explorer and elite trader in a matter of a few days of playtime. My vote would be on increasing the amounts needed to achieve Elite in both of those, leaving Combat as it is.
 

Bruce G

Senior Community Manager
Alec Turner said:
I must say I was quite surprised to see the reduction in combat rank contribution for scouts. For sure, going scout hunting had become the meta for combat ranking but was that actually a bad thing? As dj_wylie pointed out, working through the higher combat ranks is still a hell of a grind. What was the reason for the change, what was the perceived problem?
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We don't consider scouts to be difficult enough to warrant the Elite ranking/experience. Hopefully the additional experience that will be gained from the interceptors will somewhat make up for this, but require more skill on the players' part.

In a line, the problem was there was no scaling in difficult/reward which we've added. If the length of the grind for getting Combat Elite is an issue, we can discuss that but as a wider issue.
 

dj_wylie

dj_wylie
Bruce Garrido said:
Granted. Although the ranks aren't dependent on each other, so I don't consider it a "balance" issue. I understand that trade especially seems far to quick and easy - that's not to say Combat should be made faster. It's "Elite" after all. Happy to receive feedback on this, as with everything else.
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Fair enough, heres my personal feelings on these as feedback:

Trade - With mining, this is far too easy. I guess with the recent mining changes its a bit more difficult. But still feels cheating slightly to be able to 'mine' your way to trade elite in a few play sessions.

Exploration - slightly on the easy side. Could do with being made a touch more difficult. And def something to consider if exploration payout gets buffed as it will become easier again.

Combat - Difficult. The grind is indeed very long. Even before todays scout nerf i was thinking it should be shortened somehow. Happy for it to be more difficult than Trade and Exploration, but at the moment it just seems miles harder.

CQC - Almost impossible. The grind to achieve this is the mother of all video game grinds. I think it puts a lot of people off as unless your willing to invest a year of your life or more just playing CQC, you will not progress far along the ranks. It does need a reduction. (also consider buffing credit payouts and also adding arx for CQC as additional incentives)

:)
 
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Bruce G

Senior Community Manager
szymciu07 said:
Combat rank is the only one actually reflecting the Elite in it's name. You can get elite explorer and elite trader in a matter of a few days of playtime. My vote would be on increasing the amounts needed to achieve Elite in both of those, leaving Combat as it is.
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I could certainly see the other two needing increases. I don't think mining should contribute nearly as much to the trade rank as it currently does, if at all.
 
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