New Battle Contracts

Dust 514 is innovative in many ways; its connection to a PC MMO, the level of depth in character building, and its overall ambition. In many ways however, it is far from being original or compelling. One of such areas that Dust 514 is lacking is the battle contracts, or "game modes" it offers. Right now all we have are neutral point capture modes, and team deathmatches. This blog entry will highlight possible battle contracts that I believe should be added to make Dust a more compelling gameplay experience.

Hardcore Gamers leaving Dust?

 Many have recently predicted the demise of Dust 514. We dont agree, but there are several obvious core issues that have yet to be addressed for a game that has [shockingly] had a retail launch. The problem is that many natives are growing restless. Player numbers are dropping and the CCP strategy of 2,5 and 10 year roadmaps that works well on PC, is failing horribly with console players. More concerning is the fact that the patience of many in the hardcore playerbase seems to have reached its limit. These players are CCP supporters but now are wondering whether the game is still a place for them, as a nasty crop of questionable-at-best casual mechanics has crept into the game. With no word from CCP, they have no clue whether shameful elements like the cartoony LAV issues [aptly named Mariokart 514] are issues they intend on fixing or working as intended.

Its certainly not doomsday as we havent even seen a major marketing push, but CCP needs to address these issues before they spiral out of control. A recent poll showed bugs, technical issues and poor FPS mechanics as players chief complaint. Many recent changes have also tuned weapons with the unskilled player in mind rather than the skilled one. This breaks the game and fails at the core because if the average skilled player can get 30 kills with a Flaylock, the skilled player can triple that. This is the reason noob tubes in any form is a bad idea. Right now the forums are a wasteland of negative threads and shitposting that would turn away any new player curious about the Dust 514 experience. Now is the time to communicate and resolve this, as it may be too late in the coming months.

Destiny will push Dust

 We watched the Destiny gameplay reveal last night and wow, what a truly beautiful game. Bungie nailed its look, feel, even the little things like how the weapon was placed in first-person [so that it felt like you were truly holding it] or the great environments and even the birds. A game with this much detail isn't often massive, but what Destiny may lack in size it easily makes up for in visuals. Amazing how a game with so little lore already makes you almost feel its backstory. For all its lore, Dust does so little to capitalize on it or make the user care.

CCP has to be careful here. Bungie is effectively the rookie playing the same position as them who just took one back to the house.

FPS 101: Reward Player Aim & Skill

Dust is a game that defies and rejects many of the cheaper, dated and bad mechanics of FPS past [hopefully murder taxis will join the list of past mechanics very soon] At the same time its core FPS mechanics could use some upgrading. While we anticipate this and framerate being resolved, A very worthy recent thread on the forums by C Saunders tinyurl.com/kyg5bsf  recently remarked on the way contact grenades are hurting gameplay. The thread had overwhelming support [29 likes as of press time] so why are people so up in arms regarding them? In our opinion its because Dust has set a hard line against easy, cheap kill mechanics. When these elements exist they stick out like a sore thumb.

Dust finally getting a functional tutorial?

This CPM post on the Dust forums http://tinyurl.com/khm6t9p is evidence that CCP may be finally focusing on a detailed and deep New Player Experience that matches that of the Dust 514 experience. We've gone on the record countless times [like here, here and even here] explaining the need for a functional NPE [the current one is embarrassingly shallow and asks too much learning by osmosis] that not only shows off the depth, lore and originality of this game, but also insures that players know how to be successful.

Its folly to expect players to turn off their consoles, leave the boundaries of the game and go to Youtube, a Users Manual or Wiki website to learn how to play Dust 514. In this day and age players simply won't do it and its unreasonable. We love Dust University and Bojos School but no developer should ever leave it up to the playerbase to train new players. Only social players or those open to learning benefit from this, you cripple anti-social and autonomous players when you do this. We wont beat a dead horse too much but to launch without a proper tutorial cripples the ability for this game to grow, and this decision was inexcusable. Titles should include a seamless experience where everything involved in learning how to prosper should be available to the new player.

GNN Acquires Secret STB & IMPs Transcripts

Is there a coordinated attack coming on Cronos? Is Kane Spero the mastermind? Was EON strong armed by Negative Feedback? What is STBs role? You be the judge.

Quickgloves: We fight to the last man

'A true SVER Blood breeds greatness. They are infused within our ranks with a sense of self-worth. We are the brethren of brotherhood. We are the LOYAL. We are the PROUD. We are the final few that choose to stand against the mighty. We are the few that will not yield. We will not back down.

WE WILL NOT SURRENDER.'

-Emergency Transmission from STB Leader Quickgloves from an undisclosed location on SVER Prime.

What if the Templar Event....

Had a bit more structure.

Imagine for a moment the Templars and their allies spawning on one side of a large map [with an urban environment in the center] and those hunting them spawned on the other. The job of the Templars and their allies? To escape via one of three extraction points on the map where a Bolas lands after the extract point is hacked and a signal sent to summon it.

The job of the hunters would be to eliminate the Templars. The kicker? The Templars each have but a single life [after dead they can only spectate] and when all are eliminated or evacuated the match ends. If 60% of the Templar escape, the extraction team is victorious, If not? The Hunters win.

With structure like this, it could add more variety to the experience and wouldnt simply be Ambush or Skirmish with Templars thrown in. Its a solid game, but Dust 514 suffers from a bit of 'sameness' and 'blandness' of experience and spicing things up could excite the playerbase.