I like Power Sets because...

Buckaroobill2222 · 10-07-2009 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

That's actually something interesting that comes up a lot here in City of Heroes - powers are not balanced against each other, they are balanced in regards to the powerset they appear in, but the different powersets are then balanced against each other as monolithic packs. This means that having one power have an identical type of effect as another, but with a much greater potency (Revive vs. Resurgence, for instance) is completely workable, so long as the sets they appear in make up for this difference.

This isn't really a good thing in a completely free-form power selection system, because it is, technically, possible to grab only the useful powers off the list, meaning that either all powers have to be equally proficient, or they have to be locked together somehow, defeating the purpose. Anything less, and you have a small selection of "right" ways to build and a large selection of "wrong" ones, which REALLY defeats the purpose.

Oh for sure, I totally agree. Good example that I like to use in COH is a Fire/Therm corruptor and Fire/therm Blaster. I challenged a good friend of mine, both same level, me with a Corr, him with a blaster.

He mopped the floor with me... every round...

we had the same basic attacks, but... hey... Blasters beat corruptors most of the time (at least in my experience)

I guess what I meant to say was that archetypes are balanced in what they can and cant do. I think I am making sense with that.

In CO, I think that it much more important to pick a theme, and play within that theme. One thing that can turn people off is that there is no real guidance (official that is) on how to build A tanker, or a blaster, or a scrapper...So people tend to pick powers based on what they think will fit, and sadly, they end up picking similar powers so the play style is nearly identical, and they get the "meh" feeling.

I have played COH for about 3 years, and I love it. It has had the time to get the balancing, the content, etc that one would expect. I expect CO to eventually get the same. I do not compare it to COH, because really, there is no comparison. They are both good games. One simply has more time under the hood than the other.

I can enjoy both games I think, and when DCUO comes out, I may play that one as well. Same with STO and SW:TOR.

Anywho, got off the tangent there. COH is comfortable because it guides you into a Niche. You that playing blueside, if you want a tank, you make a tanker, if you want DPS, make a scrapper, etc..

CO does not give people that, and to some, it simply gets to time consuming to make and remake characters that can be everything. Sadly, that lessens their play experience.

as far as the supposed content gap, I have not seen it. level 32 and still have missions to do that are within my range.

ChaosExMachina · 10-09-2009 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat

What system would you use to prevent someone from figuring out 'the best' options and those options spreading through the game like wildfire since they'd be the most efficient way to earn rewards?

Increasing the points that those options cost, and increasing the points at extreme levels of any option.

Even more than that, though, I'd not use a grinding system to start with. If somebody finishes whatever tasks they can fast, that's just skill. I don't believe that there has to be an artifical limit to how fast players can do things because excelling by skill is one of the basic reasons a game exists. A timesink system is a way MMOs keep interest if they don't have mechanically interesting ways of challenging players like non-MMOs have to.

If you have a system where mobs are the primary form of progress, PVE balance is a bigger deal, but I am sure such a game is possible to balance through points too. It would just be harder.

A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!