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.

Where Dust 514 Went Wrong [part 2]

Our first piece detailing the missteps made with Dust certainly made the rounds. Evenews24 is kind enough to repost our pieces and some of the comments and feedback on their comments section were relevant, accurate and provided good insight. To many, at the heart of much of the problem was the fact that CCP promised big but delivered tiny. One fan said 'There's a mysterious, inexplicable, and hideous disconnect between the vision that they hyped and the product they've created. To be on the receiving end of that makes me feel a little violated.'  

A Response to 'Where Dust Went Wrong'

Recently we decided to add a voice to this 'Where Dust Went Wrong' series for more balance. We were amazed at much of the dialogue it generated. Some considered it scathing, but most interpreted it as the relevant but honest and necessary piece it was intended as. Dennie Fleetfoot of Dust University has decided to be kind enough to provide his opinion here as well. We decided he was a good selection as he has access to a smorgasbord of opinions from casual players and has been a fixture in the community. 

He agreed with many of our points, but also disagreed with some. Keep reading for his thoughts on Dusts quality, Aiming and Matchmaking and his predictions two years ago.

Where Dust 514 Went Wrong [part 1]

As the numbers of active Dust players continue to fall http://t.co/G0NaZCkD7u many will notice our blog has shifted into what can be done to improve the game. Why? In hopes that the issues preventing player retention and game growth can be resolved. Telling the stories of New Eden is nice, but is useless with the game still badly in need of better gameplay and more variety of experience. We cant in good conscience write about the dominant forces in Planetary Conquest when so many core aspects of the game are still broken or missing. We've seen the effects of this honesty take shape. Our last interview request [which we made over a month ago] with CCP has still gone unanswered. A CCP Dev has even blocked us on Twitter. We're unmoved however, while legions of 'yes men' may line up to tell CCP 'good job' by refusing to ask the hard questions, we have consistently criticized the poorer aspects of this game, which to date has been universally rejected by not only gaming media but also casual, hardcore and EVE players.

Anyone who is telling you 'everything is alright' is lying.There has always been a vocal troll element wishing for Dust to fail for one reason or another, that group has a twin that sings CCPs praises regardless of missteps. There has also been a reasonable group of gamers that want to see the game succeed but are willing to be critics when necessary, we consider ourselves part of the latter and we feel this group is critical to providing balance.

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.