Concerns & Constructive thoughts - The big BIG post.

[Rafe_J]

Read the entire original post and wanted to share my thoughts, minor criticisms, and added suggestions:

1.) Liked the OP's idea about emergency events being rarer to create a greater sense of urgency/need to stop and help. I'd like to further add by saying that I always felt as if the emergency events should reward you with some type of fame currency / notoriety - even the faction points that we earn for contracts - which you can save up and cash in for specific things that you want. Not just weapons and shields but also faction oriented outfits or vehicles with faction decals/special color iterations. It just seems to me that if you save enough lives, word is going to get around about you as an individual who should be held up as a paragon.


2.) Liked the OP's idea about leaderboards, even though I’m not personally a big leaderboard guy myself. My personal reticence stems from not being able to dedicate as much time to climbing the boards as others might and I doubt that I’m in this boat alone. Given that the devs are receiving massive amounts of data with regards to everything we do in the game, I feel that a tiered leaderboard system would be more inclusive. Specifically, a set of leaderboards based on scores and accomplishments but also accounting for the total play time of the individuals that week or month or even just within that game mode. This would be presented as the "Novice" or "Casual" player leaderboards (players who only play leaderboard-tracked events say...5 hours or less a week) and then another tier for "Intermediate" (more than 5 hours/less than 15) and "Expert" and "Hardcore" (for those who play leaderboard-tracked events almost exclusively, while in game, during the tracked time period). Separated in this way, I feel that it'd be less likely to alienate the casual (weekend) competitors while showing everyone more precisely how they stack up against others who have put in the same amount of time as they have.


3.) I did find the OP's perk overhaul idea to be a bit too complicated (especially for someone who might be new to the game and just wants to get in and play). I am, however, in agreement that the perks (in their current incarnation) are a bit limited. It would be nice to see the overall EGO rating correlating more with the perk bonuses and even the weapon/vehicle skill bonuses for that matter. This correlation might be in the form of raising all of the percentage bonuses beyond the base percentage increase in the perk. Example: "Sucker Punch" gives a 15% damage bonus at level 3 when you hit an enemy from behind. Once you hit EGO rank 1000 AND have maxed out the perk, you gain an additional 5% to the benefit.

Just an example and of course these EGO ranking rewarded bonuses would have to be tailored to each perk specifically given that a 5% boost to the 3 point maxed HP Regen perk would be overboard (given the fact that it's a 3% boost base at rank 3). In this way, the game would further reward the players for maxing out specific skills and better incentivize achieving higher and higher EGO ranks (as EGO tier or "Peak" bonuses).

**Now my own ideas**
1.) EGO Grid expansion: Ability Specializations -

* I know that we're going to see an expansion of the EGO grid in the future but it hasn't been made clear what form that expansion will take. Personally, I'd like to see character specializations, tied to the specific EGO abilities. Example: a Decoy specialization that turns your holo projection into an eventual doppelganger of the character that fights (competently i.e. taking cover, throwing grenades, going for head shots, flanking intelligently) along side its player until it gets killed or the timer expires.

2.) Expansion of the Salvage Matrix and the addition of E.E.P. -

* More uses for the "gulinite" currency is foremost in my mind when I think about how the Salvage Matrix could be improved upon. Well, gulinite and the introduction of what I’ll term EGO Empower Points (E.E.P.).
E.E.P would be earned by cashing in the maxed out exp bars on individual weapons and items for, well, points. Thematically, this would be the EGO system channeling its learned experience with the equipment into directly empowering (in the form of actual power flowing from the EGO system, through the character; doesn’t need to be visually represented but it helps envisioning while I’m explaining) the items at the Ark Hunter's disposal. This would further make the Ark Hunter stand out from a normal, non-EGO enhanced NPC being.

In the future, I’d like to see the Salvage Matrix utilized to essentially level up your favorite pieces of equipment. At its base, it would be used to take a mod that you've earned to the next rarity level, in exchange for increasingly higher amounts of gulinite and, at the purple and orange tiers, additional E.E.P. Beyond mods, E.E.P. could be cashed in to add an additional bonus (eventually bonuses) to your favorite gun (after it's been "prestiged" a number of times and limited/capped by its rarity color). Eventually, you'd be able to name your gun (ala Torc's favorite rocket launcher, Betty (?) ) and really have it be a signature piece of your character. Again, the limit to these enhancements would be connected to the item's rarity level. Once you've got an orange weapon that you've capped out though, then what?

EGO Empowerment Quests! These quests would be designed to challenge you and your, thus far/capped out, empowered weapon/shield/grenade mod/utility item (more on 'Utility Items' in a bit) in some way, with the reward being upping the enhancement cap on that piece of equipment.

Optimally, E.E.P. wouldn't be limited to just weapon bonuses and mod enhancements either. You could also exchange them for passive abilities related to your shields i.e. % damage reflection on shield break or AOE shield regen boosts for co-op partners in the vicinity upon a full recharge. Either that or shields should have unlock able mod slots and mods which can be enhanced via E.E.P.

*My biggest complaint about the longevity of any RPG is what do you do with the wasted exp that you SHOULD be earning after you've capped your character (or, in Defiance, weapon exp) out. Granted, in this MMORPG setting, the EGO rating 5000 players will be few and far between for a while (even though they've already started to emerge). E.E.P would enhance Defiance's accessibility by giving casual players goals that are more realistically achievable for their time investment while still rewarding the hardcore players with personalized and leveled items they can truly showcase. There are, of course, other considerations like "Will these highly enhanced items be trade-able?" and "How will that affect the -eventual- game economy?” To this, I say that the items should be trade able to a point; once you enhance the item enough to be able to name the it, the item should be bound to your character...possibly able to be passed on to another character attached to your profile (like an inheritance).

3.) Utility Items -

* In my opinion, either the "Grenade" equipment slot should be changed to the "Utility Item" equipment slot OR a "Utility Item" equipment slot should be added (though I’m not sure how that would work with console controls). To clarify, you would still be able to use grenades in the Utility Item slot. Utility Items would come in the form of:

- Deployable turrets

- Planted/tossed out beacons that generate AOE effects (like boosts to various cool downs, health / shield regen, or weapon damage increases / damage reductions)

- Deployable assistance drones (the pets that everyone wants) in the form of a small hovering robot that creates ammo for you and your teammates OR collects loot for you and auto salvages low rarities OR .... Any other utility type function you can think of. Use your imagination!

*These Utility Items are made even better, in my mind, when you toss them at your spawned vehicle to have them latch on and work while you drive!

- Auto turret/launcher on top of the car while you weave through fields of enemies

- A mobile ammo station for you and your team or a mobile AOE buff zone

- A set of deployable glider wings via your Utility Bot!!

Ok...maybe I got overly excited with that last one but there you go.

All told, I really enjoy this game and I’ve relished this opportunity to contribute to this particular discussion on how to improve things going forward.

One last thing: they should get rid of the EGO ranking requirement on items or make it mean that the 1000 ego rank required item is in some way better than the 150 ego rank required item…

Thank you, Anim, for creating the topic. Hope that it doesn’t get lost too quickly in the episode 2 thread barrage.
If it matters, I’m playing on the 360 with my GT being: RafeJ
P.S. Apologies if anything I’ve put forward has come from other people in similar discussions. These are all things that I’ve personally been thinking of and any similarities between my ideas and other those belonging to others can be attributed to “Great minds think alike…”

[hellrex]

make this the first season DLC patch notes and i think we have a WINNER...... u can keep your new character for another date lmao

[Tryskell]

Another note, the game seriously lacks of background content.

For instance it wouldn't be very hard to :

• add a "arkfall device" on your car making some bip bip, then you press a button and it scans the sky to see where the collision will come, as seen in episode 1. As +, it could get variants (cheap to expensive) which calculates faster / more accurately the position.
• add some sort of villages, such as "Defiance" (they haven't to be as good looking, but still... Where do ****ing people live and are ?). Make some factions, like raiders && townmen, and fight either for one or the other (both would have benefit doing it).
• some REAL PvP content : aka CONTESTED OPEN PVP ZONES. Ubber loot shouldn't be dropped by HELLBUGS, but found in relics of old times ! People would have to carry some "treasure chests" out of the contested zone to claim it ! Killing someone wearing such loot would make it drop at ground ! Bring your friends and go loot godammit ruins !
• some PvP contest about RESSOURCES, either alien or from earth (I saw sulfur pools in SF, could it be of any use ? It could be energy based, such as solar panels / wind stuff, gulanite mines, etc) in order to craft your godamn weapons, if you can't found them directly crafted on mutants (bunkers) or Votan arks (see previous point).
• drop the whole instanced PvP system which is a terrible mess and the lair of shotgun cloackers noobs.
• drop shadow war or at least INTEGRATE the concept in the UNIVERSE. Put a GOAL (not I win/You lose).

As being an amateur Java dev, I would say the current gameplay is @Deprecated :P. The time spent to make a basic console game could be used to make THE FIRST GOOD MMOFPS OF DA KNOWN UNIVERSE.

People tries to compare to WoW. But who WoW was comparing with, back in his time ? They build their own game. Don't try to copy others MMOs, but pickup some ideas of existing games, add yours, and glue them together to make a good game. That's how things work.

Currently gameplay is really cheap. I saw some interviews about Trion ppl speaking about Defiance, I doubt they would say the same if they were expecting current game at current state.

Both I and topic creator could be entirely wrong... Perhaps Trion got all ready, and they gave us cheap stuff because they were in a hurry to be launched while episode 1 is launched too... But still, I'm pretty sceptic.

PS : where are all weather effects from interview videos ?
PS : and do something with those stupid open world shards. There are way too much, I see none on the map. It's open world for a reason, not 30 players map. We can't even know on which instance we are.

[Anim]

I've put less work into essays for school. Much, much less. Kudos for caring that much.

Yeah, where was this passion when I was at school? It's all about finding something you really enjoy and care about.

agree with the OP totaly

Thanks, don't forget to add in your own ideas to the thread, it's all about the discussion!

Thanks for posting my thoughts so I don't have too. Bump this post forever

I'm slowly getting through all the replies, if I pace myself I can keep it in the public eye for quite a while, hopefully get more input from the community

[vapitron]

champion, agreed with a great deal of this. i have played all the way through the main story, and yes, even all the side missions (which was somewhat painful), and i've largely enjoyed the game. you're spot on in the need for a more specific reward system. i like to use sniper rifles and i think there were maybe 2 missions (perhaps even 3) in which i was rewarded with a sniper rifle and through all those side missions for mods very rarely acquired sniper rifle mods. it's disappointing when you finally get that rifle with better stats than your current, but then end up equipping the level 1 mods to it anyway because it would take you forever to get better ones for that specific weapon rewarded at complete random (and i have been waiting the whole game to earn a full set of level 2+ mods for my sniper rifle).
like i said, enjoyed the game for the most part. looking now for ways/reasons to extend my play time and i think you've brought up some wonderful ideas. at the very least, food for thought.

[Lt Clayton]

Great post and I hope we see some of the ideas filter into the game.

Expanding on your emergency about convoys you could even go a few steps further. Firstly we would need some kind of town/city where players go. This would be the target for the convoy to reach. These convoys spawn somwhere on the edge of the map and slowly move across the map trying to reach the city. Kind of like a moving arkfall where players have to defend the convoy on its journey. Of course there has to be some risk and reward attached. So each vehicle in the convoy which safely arrives gives players xp, keycodes, loot whatever. On top of that however the more vehicles which reach the town, then more items will become avaliable in the local vendors.

Now if they were to implement the clan stuff that everyone is calling for you could go even further. Have convoys for each clans base and other clans can try and raid the convoy to steal the equipment and loot. Of course if a clan protects their convoy then they get nifty stuff in there own vendor etc.

In the game and show they have mentioned supplies several times so must be of some importance.

[batmansmatman]

Right on bro, it had to be you that layed this mess out. Now hopefully they listen to you Anim and step it up. Good job my friend brilliant!

[Anim]

after reading through the discourse, and others ideas and suggestions, i have to say....this has to be the most compelling and thought provoking thread to date. Cudos!!! in a nutshell, more immersion, less grind, and a sense of accomplishment in game tailored to the greatest possible player base. however, we must first acknowledge that this game is....in essence...still in it's infancy. There is always room for improvement and evolution here. I like a lot of the suggestions that were posed. there is always the possibility that Trion will implement some of these ideas in the future (gods willing), but in the meantime...i would be rather happy if they finally polish this rough gem they have created into a truly stable game....thanks for starting this thread...i'll be watching it repeatedly to see what develops.

Whilst the game is indeed in its infancy it's still on a theoretical time limit, without marked improvements people will most certainly move on, quicker than what you may expect from an MMO. A bit of downtime and some bugs will be soon forgotten by the majority when the issues they face are longevity and re-playability.

Thanks for the comments though, my aim was to make people actually think about the game rather than only deal with the immediate positives and negatives that are thrown around to no end. The thread has had some serious attention now too which is great

great thread Anim! really well thought out, constructive and on point. i would love to see quite a few of your suggestions implemented, and think your concerns are completely valid. well done!

Thanks it took a while to write and consolidate my thoughts but it's good to know it's appreciated. Lets hope we can get some cool new things in to the games development pipeline.

[mcwjimbo]

I found this thread thoroughly enjoyable to read! I passed it on to the rest of the team.

I think its cool that a DEV read this thread :-)

[Old97]

I have read this complete thread, as it deserves to be read by all players. Unfortunately, the twitter generation has a 140 character attention span. I am happy to see that a couple of devs have read the post also. Kudos for you in writing this thoughful brief on the game as it now exists.

While there are many issues to address, there seems to be 2 main caregories of problems. One is how the game attempts to balance the PVE & PVP [solo & MMO] aspects, and fails in both areas as a consequence. A simple solution, IMO, would be to null-out [completely 'nerf'] the EGO and perks for all PVP matches. The data is all server side anyway, so I don't see this as a big programming issue.

I that were done correctly, it would open up the PVE part of the game for a better rewards system, without creating a disasterous imbalance for PVP. As the game exists now, there is no real feeling of any progression or accomplisment as you journey though the world. At EGO 1000 you seem no more powerful than you did at EGO 50. The EGO system of 'leveling' needs a fix pretty badly.

Trion has a really golden opportunity here, as this is a pioneering game concept. I hope they have the dedication to continue to upgrade and change the game over time.

If not, then it will wither away like so many other attempts.

In any event, I appreciate your time in posting this. It was like a refreshing breeze after attempting to read posts apparently written by ee cumings with a 3rd grade education.