Will there be any form of end game?

[Gradius]

There are variations in damage that I've seen and since this is only a fraction of the game, it's safe to assume that there will be some sort gear treadmill as you get into later areas, given that the mobs get increasingly stronger, it would make sense that weapons get stronger.

Also, the beta loot tables are not what they are in the real game, so what we have no idea what the loot will actually look like when it goes live.

That's the thing though, they really don't. The enemies in the game get harder, yes. But weapons don't get more powerful. In the 2nd Beta weekend they did not put the map borders up and you could travel all over the main map area. Mobs in the far areas were only harder because they had shields. Reaching EGO 600 or so before the wipe, the weapons were almost identical.

This is part of their design philosophy, it was mentioned in one of their developer diary videos. Can't remember which one. They don't want weapons to be too different in stats so that they stay balanced across the board for both PvE and PvP.

[Daholic]

So heres my question because i never viewed the dev diaries, iif Defiance is going to take on the mmo/rps format, there must be some form of end game??..following a story line is all fine and dandy, but other than accumulating massive amount of ego, if me ans 3 others decide to do hard content in the later levels, shouldnt i be awarded a weapon worthy of my accomplishment if i were to clear. Is this game not about progression at all??? Will there be any strat for dungeons??? Or should we lower or expectation and except this game for what it is...

[Phaius]

if me ans 3 others decide to do hard content in the later levels, shouldnt i be awarded a weapon worthy of my accomplishment if i were to clear. Is this game not about progression at all??? Will there be any strat for dungeons??? Or should we lower or expectation and except this game for what it is...

You mean "Shouldn't I be awarded a god-like weapon that will allow me to run about one-shotting everything and showing everyone how awesome I am?". That's generally the vibe I get when this discussion comes up, "endgamers" and those who worry heavily about progression really want to be seen as gods on the battlefield, and think that a god level weapon is their rightful reward.

[Gradius]

So heres my question because i never viewed the dev diaries, iif Defiance is going to take on the mmo/rps format, there must be some form of end game??..following a story line is all fine and dandy, but other than accumulating massive amount of ego, if me ans 3 others decide to do hard content in the later levels, shouldnt i be awarded a weapon worthy of my accomplishment if i were to clear. Is this game not about progression at all??? Will there be any strat for dungeons??? Or should we lower or expectation and except this game for what it is...

I've made a few posts about this in the past, but I try to think of it like this. Defiance is a shooter first and an RPG second. In shooters you unlock new weapons as you progress through the game. They are not necessarily "better" than the other weapons, they just hold different stats, class bonuses, and other things. The "upgrades" on the higher ego weapons aren't major upgrades for a reason. Since shooters are dominantly PvP type games, keeping weapon stats/bonuses neutral across the board is the key to balance.

Try approaching this game as a shooter first with some really cool RPG elements added, rather than the other way around, and you're more likely to enjoy the game.