So.. Is it true there's no weapon progression?

[ExpiredLifetime]

I really enjoy this game.

But there's no carrot for me.

Why would I play it in 3 months?

Yes the game is fun. But being as weak as you were as Ego 1 make's the whole leveling system and gear progression meaningless.

Why should I ever change my starting rifle? Why should I even grab loot? Its the same as the one I wear.

I am not talking gear progression like World of Warcraft where you have to play to get conquest point and grab gear that can easily kill a new high level.

But give a ego 5000 benefits vs a fresh ark hunter wouldn't hurt in PvP etc. Not saying one shot one kill with assault rifle.

But seriously if you feel as weak as a fresh ark hunter as 5000, doesn't it feel like it was worthless grabbing all the new gear, setting ego points etc?

The progression is in your mods. An orange level recoil reduction mod would theoretically have a 0.75% recoil+bloom modifier. That means you can shoot 25% longer before needing to let off of the trigger and allow your cone of fire to reset. The barrel mods are outrageous as well, a green level crit mod for a sniper rifle increases the crit modifier by 10%. Going from 3.5x to 3.85 is a really big jump in damage - now just imagine if the scaling is the same and the orange level is a 25% gain.

[Mog]

Honestly I am tired of gear progression based games. It's been done to death in the MMO industry. Its time to move on and innovate and create better and more fulfilling ways to lead players through a games progression.

There IS character progression in Defiance in several forms. Sure there is no omg my damage has doubled because I now has epics. I for one welcome this and would prefer this be the case in all future MMOs. Face it the days of heavy gear based progression are fading, if some people do not like that well there are plenty of MMOs out there that still offer that type of progression to play. You can't beat on a game for not offering that because if the Devs wanted that they would have put it in the game.

[Mavor]

I didnt read the whole thread but did anyone mention that as you hit certain EGO level thresholds - new gear 'types' start showing up?

[Mirimon]

there is also progression on the character for using that equipment type.. the more levels, the more damage... (not talking about ego).


things that "level up":
EGO rating
Equipment type
the weapon itself.


other than that, yes.. weapons have the same base stats regardless of quality, the differences in quality vary from open mod slots, set bonuses and bonus stats, such as +x2.5 crit and so on an so forth...

[Reza]

You should try to get out of the reward-based behaviour, and get back to the fun based behaviour. Play until there is no new content you enjoy playing. Don't play until you get a couple numbers to the highest they can go.

Word

Though it's hard to break years of conditioning!

[Frostlight]

Honestly I am tired of gear progression based games. It's been done to death in the MMO industry. Its time to move on and innovate and create better and more fulfilling ways to lead players through a games progression.

There IS character progression in Defiance in several forms. Sure there is no omg my damage has doubled because I now has epics. I for one welcome this and would prefer this be the case in all future MMOs. Face it the days of heavy gear based progression are fading, if some people do not like that well there are plenty of MMOs out there that still offer that type of progression to play. You can't beat on a game for not offering that because if the Devs wanted that they would have put it in the game.

I absolutely agree. It's more like TF2 this way - I like being able to play without having to constantly worry about whether or not I'm gear appropriate to achieve a high or even moderate level of efficacy. Additionally, this also means that it takes more skill to be effective, instead of using gear as a crutch.

Of course, I see this as a shooter first and an MMO second. More specifically, I see this as a shooter that has a persistent, massive world, and I'm OK with that.

[Pure Hostility]

Actually, the higher you EGO is you discover more unique weapons.
Like a shotgun with "Frag" shells (Ever played BF3? Explosive slugs, aka easier to handle grenade launcher).
Shawed shotgun firing 2 grenades, each dealing 2k (4k total of damage), I bet you find it on level 100 ego, Up to EGO 585 I've got only 2 of these. I'm pretty sure there is much more unique stuff to be discovered.

Also, I'm way more enjoying this type of improvement than "Here, take this new weapon, it kills your enemies 50 times faster than the one you started with", then you go to the beginning zone and you 1 shot huge tanks or whatever... Yes, immersion to the maximum, 1 hit killing huge armored robots and other stuff with a pistol is reaaaaaaaaaaally fun.... NOT, unless you are really into super boring stuff.


Now about typical progression.
First of all, game requires actually some sort of skill from your end, instead of "select this enemy and press 1,2,3 then 1,2,3 then 1,2,3 then 1,2,3 then 1,2,3 then 6 to use potion".
There are also weapon proficiencies, which slightly boost your ability in using certain weapons, in long run, they increase your weapon handling by huge amount, which I like... I really love this system and wish it was used more in so called "Survival games" (I look at you overrated FarCry3 and Tomb Raider).

In other words, game provides you with slight progression to help you in long run, yet the highest boost when it comes to dealing damage and negating damage done to you, comes from your experience, you are actually capable of receiving 0 damage in most encounters yet delivering HUGE amount of damage to enemies.
You don't find that in many MMOs.

[Adanu]

If you want WOW, go play WOW.

I for one am glad this game is skill based, not progression based.

[AzK]

I'm fine with a progression that is only/mainly cosmetic.

The game is a shooter at the end of the day, and the only things that should matter should be how you shoot and how you use your skills. That's it.

[Vertis]

Progression opens up variety much faster than power. It is good news for balance. End game weapons are definitely stronger than starting ones. But the gap is not as nearly huge as lets say lvl 1 vs lvl 90 in WoW or any other generic MMORPG.