Fiction - Warrior 9.2: Genesis

In the tradition of great works like Templar One, we decided to get back to more of our roots and share with you much of the great fiction by players like Denak Kalamari, Sir Ravenwing, Squagga, Galm Fae, True Adamance and Jacque Cayton. They have seen fit to familiarize themselves with New Edens history. We'll post their great works of fiction here and feature their continuing stories in episodic fashion. Enjoy the fiction, mercs. The continuing story of Warrior 9 by Galm Fae.

Warrior 9, Part 2: Genesis

GOONS & TEST: Where's the Sandbox in Dust 514?

A funny thing happened on the way to EVEs utter and complete non-concern for Dust 514. http://tinyurl.com/kf9hnm2

PC players got a brief taste of the 'Ground War Window' into New Eden and liked the view. Sadly, like many other would-like-to-be fans of the title, they kept looking for reasons to stick around but simply couldnt find any. Dust simply lacks any of the aspects that make EVE great. In one of the most meaningful threads we have seen on the forums, members of two of the largest alliances in EVE addressed many of the issues they have with the Dust 514 experience.

Fiction - Warrior 9.1: Genesis

In the tradition of great works like Templar One, we decided to get back to more of our roots and share with you much of the great fiction by players like Denak Kalamari, Sir Ravenwing, Squagga, Galm Fae, True Adamance and Jacque Cayton. They have seen fit to familiarize themselves with New Edens history. We'll post their great works of fiction here and feature their continuing stories in episodic fashion. Enjoy the fiction, mercs. Introducing: Warrior 9.1 by Galm Fae.

Warrior 9, Part 1: Genesis

Fiction - Drop Point.1

While Dust 514 moves towards a more finished and complete state, we dont want to be the blog team constantly bringing up fixes, missing elements and necessary additions to the game. In the tradition of great works like Templar One, we decided to get back to more of our roots and share with you much of the great fiction by players like Denak Kalamari, Sir Ravenwing, Squagga, Galm Fae, True Adamance and Jacque Cayton. They have seen fit to familiarize themselves with New Edens history. We'll post their great works of fiction here and feature their continuing stories in episodic fashion. Enjoy the fiction, mercs. Introducing: Drop Point by Prylar Vecht.

"I understand that sir, but right now we're pinned hard! Ground Commander Tamir Gelen screamed to the MCC Commander, "We need atleast two railgun placements ASAP!, We're in between a rock and a hard place here and the enemy is closing!" a second later the merc next to him raised his head from the rock quarry they were using as cover for a split second, and it immediately exploded with a sickening pop. Out of reflex, Tamir grabbed the nanite injector from his utility belt before wiping the messy mixture of brain matter and dropsuit armor from his visor. Resuscitating nanites weren't going to be of any use here. The situation was dire, and his squad was pinned down between a sniper from one side and a Rail Tank on the other. The three other squads under his command were too far away to assist and the amount of available clones they had was low. One of the soldiers near him inched closer and whispered knowingly "I think its Gemcutter out there." Tamir's heart sank. "Fuck."

Keeping the Sniper Relevant

Understanding the sniper in Dust 514 first requires unlearning everything you have experienced as a sniper in 99 percent of shooters. It was CCPs intention to turn the shooter upside down by replacing casual mechanics with tactical ones in what was first described as 'the most hardcore shooter ever' by the former EP. Most casual shooters that try to implement objective based gameplay find themselves polluted with what we call the 'toxic sniper' simply put, this is the player who is only concerned with his KDR and seeks out the most low risk, high reward gameplay he can find.

Suit Tuning: The Scout

With all of the exciting new dropsuit changes being introduced into Dust 514, the scout may be the most in need of some worthy additions. Most players were excited after seeing some of the proposed new changes to classes. While most of what we saw was great news, the new scout information seemed focused on the cloak. While we hope the cloak is a wonderful new piece of content [and balanced by not allowing firing or even aiming from a cloaked state, dont do it CCP!] it simply cant be relied on to make scouts a relevant class with a legitimate role to play on the battlefield.

Why the Weapons Lab & Trainers are Critical

Its past time CCP added the weapons lab and virtual trainers into New Eden for Dust mercenaries. Recently thousands of players purchased the skills necessary to utilize the weapons added by update 1.7 without ever testing out either the rail or combat rifle. Because Dust 514 requires such a large commitment to specialize into a skillset, the weapons lab that was mentioned long ago is essential. This isnt your normal fps experience where you can create loadouts on a whim and be an engineer, assault or sniper. In Dust you have to spend large amounts of time grinding for sp to obtain the points necessary to purchase the new skills that allow you to specialize. We dont have the option to try out the prototype combat rifle in a test setting and see if it fits our playstyle, and lets be honest, we should. Imagine adding all the necessary skills for the caldari rail rifle only to discover it doesnt fit your CQC playstyle.

Buff & Nerf: The Vicious Cycle

One of the core problems with Dust 514 is the constant flux and drastic change of weapons and equipment. Players are baffled and frustrated by it and its hurting the experience. Why? Because players are creatures of habit and even moreso seek consistency. Its important to understand how difficult it is to balance a game where the classes have real variety, and we respect that. At the same time, the simple fact is that its a generally bad idea to frustrate a small playerbase. The recon suit is a prime example of the push and pull we're talking about. Its initial iteration gave us a suit that was so fast it played havoc on the already subpar hit detection and so it had to be slowed down a bit. Next, came the loss of some slots and CPU & PG. Today its a dropsuit that is almost too easy to kill as a result of the unreal range, dispersion and newly added aim assistance on the most popular weapon in the game: The Assault Rifle. For it to have a basic level of survivability its speed and stealth need a slight boost, as its supposed to counter low health with both of these traits.

Critical: Fitting Penalties

While customization is easily one of the best aspects of Dust 514, there are too many instances where classes are not operating as intended and its hurting gameplay. We have zero issue with a Heavy Sniper, Heavy or Scout Shotgunner as the pros and cons balance out with both. But when suits are comparable in speed to the scout, have close to the protection of the Heavy or exceed the assault in attacking power without any real sacrifice, something is amiss. Bad math has allowed many of these issues to crop up and smart players are doing what they always do: Taking advantage of loopholes in gameplay. This week we saw one of the best suggestions we've ever seen aimed at curbing some of the balance issues that plague Dust gameplay: Fitting Penalties.

EVEVegas info a good first step

We may be on the cusp of some good things in Dust 514. As long as it doesnt take 6 months to implement them. Dusts core mechanics still need upgrading, but it badly needs some real new content. EVEVegas revealed some interesting new developments.

Sandbox 514: Making Dust Matter

Recently a group of hardcore players from the Dust forums decided to do an open letter to the new executive producer CCP Rouge. It inspired the writers at our blog to do the same. While it may take some time for him to change the course of this title, we felt we would do our part to point him in the right direction.The player developed sites that have spawned as a result of this game have been nothing short of amazing. Have you taken a look at Dustboard, DustWiki, Duststats, The Dust Wiki, DustAlerts, DustReports and the newest [and quite possibly most impressive] Dustcharts? Did you know this community had a fundraiser for one of its luminaries [Quickgloves - thoughts with you and your family] dealing with a real life issue? The initiative, drive, dedication and creativity these sites and this community has shown is amazing. They deserve a developer worthy of their support. Where before have you seen so much backing from a community for a game that from a critical standpoint, tanked?

Where Dust 514 Went Wrong [part 3]

 In the final part of our look back at the mistakes Dust made, we look at the decisions made regarding Open World, Strategy, Social Aspects, Variety and Core FPS mechanics. The bevy of features and stellar gameplay using all of these aspects in a casual game [GTA Online] means the time for CCPs excuses has run out. The company had the market cornered on Persistent Shooters with customization and economy less than two years ago, but Rockstar recently used the same format and did a considerably better job. Know this, they wont be the last developer to do so. CCPs ideas for deep gameplay are in the open now.