Ways to improve Defiance: A non-game bashing thread

[Lemonnormalguy]

Here are the facts. I love Defiance, game and show, but it only manages to keep my attention for around 15 minutes to and hour depending on my mood. While playing through the game I've had many things I liked, and many things in which I felt were lacking, but I will not go into them on this thread. However, I will suggest things that would, in my opinion, improve the game more dramatically.

1.) Do some serious weapon/ability balancing (in PvP at least)
-Shotguns are extremely OP and definitely need some toning down in fire rate and damage (Sawed-Offs are fine)
-While cloaking you should be required to uncloak in order to attack (I'm looking at you cloak shotgunners)
-Increase infector bullet damage and decrease bug damage (this is a personal preference)

2.) More variety of weapons and mods alike
-More inventive weapons like the infector and BMG
-Dedicated melee weapons (charge blade is coming, I know, but maybe sledgehammers or something)
-More mod types instead of: you want weapon damage or melee damage? I could list some ideas, but i'd rather not drag on

3.) Arkfall difficulty
-Increase the health of Matrons dramatically
-Decrease the amount of health arkfall minions have
-Increase the amount of arkfall minions
-Increase the damage that Hellions and Matrons deal
-Decrease the amount of time in the time limit. (I always beat arkfall with +20 minutes to spare some times)

[KeevanSixx]

ok, you've made some interesting points.....i can see where they would affect gameplay in some good and not so good ways. for example, shottys.....good for Pve, not good for PvP...however, in the current game environment, weapon stats are apparently tied together for both. nerfing shottys in PvP affects how they perform in PvE. until the devs figure out a way to separate the weapon values for both PvP and PvE, and sets generic standards for each weapon in PvP, but lets them function normally in PvE, we're stuck with problems across both. Cloaking works somewhat as intended (unless you fire a big weapon, then your cloak breaks and entirely dissappears which makes no sense....it's cloak....you fire.....you hide again for the limited timeframe you are given, having it dissappear after firing a big gun and having to wait for a full recharge defeats the purpose of cloak, but that's just my personal peeve) everytime you fire a weapon, you break cloak (supposed to dissappear again for as long as the perk lasts, but feels broken somehow...when my shotty can completly stop my cloak with one round....something is broken)
Infectors are fine....(i can attest to this as getting pwned in shadowwars repeatedly by bug slingers is kinda frustrating to say the least....infectors work as they are intended)

they've got a lot of weapons, and more on the way, with a near infinite mod combination to attach to your weapons....adding more varied mods in the game right now as it stands would likley break something...and as much as i would love to sling a sledgehammer at the sensoth autolobbers repeatedly and often, great idea, but impractical in the current version. would i like to see different weapon classes? yes. but not right now....maybe in future DLC content, after the kinks have been worked out a bit, but not at the moment.

increasing ark difficulty.....ok....i can understand the need to challenge yourself, but have you given a thought to all the new players? If every arkfall was on legendary hellmode, then low ego players would become a grease stain the moment they stepped off their ride. If i recall correctly, the arkfalls are scaled to the regions they fall in......arkfalls around Mt. Tam are geared for new or low level players....that's why I almost never see fallen comrades crawling across the ground in these starter areas. Whereas, major scrapper arkfalls, are slightly more difficult to take on for some people as the weakpoints on the scrappers are smaller than their hellbug counterparts.....and if information is to be belived, those future Monitor arkfalls may just give you the challenge you seek. Making every arkfall a hellmode kinda defeats the purpose, and some of the fun. some of your suggestions work, others...not so much.

If you feel offended, I apologise in advance. you make some great points.....something to look at for the future if the devs actually read these things...good job!

[micro monsta]

I will suggest things that would, in my opinion, improve the game more dramatically.

1.) Do some serious weapon/ability balancing (in PvP at least)
-Shotguns are extremely OP and definitely need some toning down in fire rate and damage (Sawed-Offs are fine)
-While cloaking you should be required to uncloak in order to attack (I'm looking at you cloak shotgunners)
-Increase infector bullet damage and decrease bug damage (this is a personal preference)

2.) More variety of weapons and mods alike
-Dedicated melee weapons (charge blade is coming, I know, but maybe sledgehammers or something)


3.) Arkfall difficulty
-Increase the health of Matrons dramatically
-Decrease the amount of health arkfall minions have
-Increase the amount of arkfall minions
-Increase the damage that Hellions and Matrons deal
-Decrease the amount of time in the time limit. (I always beat arkfall with +20 minutes to spare some times)

from the top.
shotguns are meant to deal major damage from close range, its a shotgun, however from medium to far range I do agree

you do know when you shoot while cloaked it uncloaks you for a few seconds? but I think you don't mean that, I think you mean one shot and the invisibility finishes? practically destroying the cloak ability, however ill agree if blur only works underwater, overcharge only works on the last bullet in the clip and decoy shines luminous yellow so you can tell its a decoy.
somehow I don't see practically destroying an ego ability as a 'good idea.'

increase infector damage? it homes in on the target, it has an anti sniper range. any gun with auto aim should have auto aim disabled when entering pvp. never mind thinking about increasing the damage. this is an insane idea.

a sledgehammer. did I mention we currently use bullets? melee weapons died when automatic weapons where invented. hence why in wars we don't all go running in with swords and sledgehammers.

onto the arkfalls! could you do me a little favour? play at 2 - 3 am, lets see if you still stick to your ideas.

decrease health and increase numbers. you do know why its the opposite? more bugs - harder on gpu. not everybody has an epic pc and having more enemies running around would majorly increase lag for these people, seeing how there is a new lag post everyday, making it worse isn't the answer.

hellion takes 3 direct hits to kill a player. id call 3 hits quite hard. matron? yea buff it.

decrease the time limit. again, play at 3am, try to do all crystals yourself within 20 minutes.

I'd like to end by saying i value the time and effort you've put into it, and its nice to see a constructive thread, but lets leave the game mechanics to the developers eh? :P

[Anim]

onto the arkfalls! <moron talk>

It's easier to solo arkfalls because the mob health scales down dramatically so 2-3am is a perfect time. Also having a whole 15-20 mobs on your screen wont tax the system unless Trion have done absolutely no optimization towards object models which isnt the players fault.

Lastly, 3 hits is nothing when they hit so slowly, get a fast recharge shield and who cares how many times they hit you. The worst thing is how easy it is to dodge incoming attacks, arkfalls are mind numbingly easy at best, especially when solo.

Some of us have a good idea of game mechanics, and can see what Trion tried to do but missed the mark by a long way.

[Lemonnormalguy]

ok, you've made some interesting points.....i can see where they would affect gameplay in some good and not so good ways. for example, shottys.....good for Pve, not good for PvP...however, in the current game environment, weapon stats are apparently tied together for both. nerfing shottys in PvP affects how they perform in PvE. until the devs figure out a way to separate the weapon values for both PvP and PvE, and sets generic standards for each weapon in PvP, but lets them function normally in PvE, we're stuck with problems across both. Cloaking works somewhat as intended (unless you fire a big weapon, then your cloak breaks and entirely dissappears which makes no sense....it's cloak....you fire.....you hide again for the limited timeframe you are given, having it dissappear after firing a big gun and having to wait for a full recharge defeats the purpose of cloak, but that's just my personal peeve) everytime you fire a weapon, you break cloak (supposed to dissappear again for as long as the perk lasts, but feels broken somehow...when my shotty can completly stop my cloak with one round....something is broken)
Infectors are fine....(i can attest to this as getting pwned in shadowwars repeatedly by bug slingers is kinda frustrating to say the least....infectors work as they are intended)

they've got a lot of weapons, and more on the way, with a near infinite mod combination to attach to your weapons....adding more varied mods in the game right now as it stands would likley break something...and as much as i would love to sling a sledgehammer at the sensoth autolobbers repeatedly and often, great idea, but impractical in the current version. would i like to see different weapon classes? yes. but not right now....maybe in future DLC content, after the kinks have been worked out a bit, but not at the moment.

increasing ark difficulty.....ok....i can understand the need to challenge yourself, but have you given a thought to all the new players? If every arkfall was on legendary hellmode, then low ego players would become a grease stain the moment they stepped off their ride. If i recall correctly, the arkfalls are scaled to the regions they fall in......arkfalls around Mt. Tam are geared for new or low level players....that's why I almost never see fallen comrades crawling across the ground in these starter areas. Whereas, major scrapper arkfalls, are slightly more difficult to take on for some people as the weakpoints on the scrappers are smaller than their hellbug counterparts.....and if information is to be belived, those future Monitor arkfalls may just give you the challenge you seek. Making every arkfall a hellmode kinda defeats the purpose, and some of the fun. some of your suggestions work, others...not so much.

If you feel offended, I apologise in advance. you make some great points.....something to look at for the future if the devs actually read these things...good job!

New players will learn from their mistakes then if they are not up to par with Arkfalls when they begin. I see Arkfalls as the raids of Defiance. I'm not saying make the Arkfalls so difficult that only Jesus Christ himself can slay the beasts. I'm saying make it hard enough so that we are challenged, and not just shooting the hell out of anything without fear because nothing kills you in Arkfalls unless you are incompetent or A.F.K.

[ironhands]

1) change the usefulness of the shotgun/cloak. make maps with a more open style to push combat to take place at a greater range. no need to nerf anything if that's done

2) this will come as new DLC is released, no point rushing it all out day 1

3) rather see a larger variety of arkfall events, or more strategic events, than simply ramping up the damage.

[Lemonnormalguy]

Uncloaking for several seconds after firing doesn't help if Shotguns kill you instantaneously, and allowing the enemy player to hide once again waiting for a new target. In regards to your melee comment; why is Trion adding charge blades to the game then? I just want variety, and it's a game where you can jump off a mountain and survive without damage, so realism isn't a valid point in this game.

On your point about Arkfalls..there are about 5 or six random enemies just walking around doing nothing and you can't kill them because they have so much health it's impossible to kill them or just not worth the time. If you decrease their health and increase their numbers it would be action going on than just killing to Monarchs and waiting for the hellbug to jump out of the hive. The Hellions do do enough damage to kill you in three shots...IF HE ATTACKED THAT FAST! IF he happens to attack you it would be in so little succession that you would be able to get your shields and health charged the whole way back up and he would be off targeting someone else. The Matron is even easier to dispose of because she requires no prerequisite to bring her out of the ground. Just shoot her until she dies as she does nothing at all to stop you one bit besides a couple skitterlings.

[Malikaidan]

i think destroying an ability because you have not found a way to counter it absolutely pointless, the game as it stands right now is just fine. I have no problems at all in pve and pvp