The Flaws of a Single Battlefront

[remm]

I write this post in the context of the recent influx of new testers that have shown me a different gameplay experience. This is intended as critique, not criticism.

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I believe that the game development goal of having a single battlefield where the new can fight alongside the experienced is not a feature, but inherently a flaw in the game.

This is related to the idea of progression in a game. Remember the movie The Incredibles, where the evil plan was to give super powers to everyone? This is the current situation in Grid12. Each new tank and new augment makes you only slightly better than you were before. In terms of firepower, two brand new players will be better than one experienced prismed augmented player. What then, becomes the point of progressing in the game if you do not gain any significant advantage that can not be overcome by simply having extra noob cannon fodder alongside you? This is not a matter of game content, or acquirable loot. It's "You've played for two hours, so what can you do now that you couldn't do when you started?", and the answer can only be related to skills gained, and never some significant material advantage, because if any such advantage existed, it would prevent new players from fighting alongside and thus violate the single battlefront rule.

Similarly, any skills gained can never make up for the effect of having extra people fighting alongside you. Because every new player is given the ability to significantly aid a battle, the solution to winning a battle is just to get more people. All the tank positioning and timing with your attacks is insignificant or irrelevant if you just have a couple of extra people with you. It doesn't matter how good they are because autofire will compensate for any incompetence. Once players understand this fact, it results in only one battlefront. Literally, there is no reason to be anywhere else than in the group of tanks plowing through the map. There is no leveling, there are no weaker enemies to fight to introduce a player to the grid environment, just a whole map of enemies to be fought. Once a player understands they are better off being in the group, why would they go anywhere else?

So in conclusion, having the newest players able to contribute in a fight against the strongest enemies erodes any sense of progression in the game and any value for the contribution of the individual. There is little to be proud of, no worthy accomplishments, because anything you do is irrelevant when compared to the combined abilities of even just a few extra players.

[quicklite]

My opinion on this: yep.

I had this sort of feeling when I was playing with 6 people. It didn't really matter what tank I used, how I used it, or how many prisms/victory points I had. We just kinda killed everything, no tactics involved. I racked up 150k Gridshards in a matter of seconds. There needs to be some kind of progression, or at least some kind of advancement in enemies or something. Because right now, as remm said, 1 person with full pulch prisms, hundreds of spent victory points, and hours of experience at the game will do nothing comapared to 3 newbs with none of the above.

[hypevosa]

It's like always being part of a train, it is a little boring. I think we really need unpredictable event like things to occur on a regular (not limited) basis to make things more interesting.

[tarbomb]

I agree that the difficulty level of the game is a little flat right now. Everything's one difficulty, which means the game gets boring after a bit of play; having a few much harder enemies would make the game more interesting. However, I don't agree about the idea that powerups and upgrades should give you a big advantage in power to match.

Instead, make character progression lateral. Unlocking new tanks is rewarding, even though you don't gain much power. Make upgrades work that way: instead of making more experienced players more powerful, give them more options on how to play the game. That allows you to keep the relative equality in the game intact, while rewarding experienced players for their dedication.

[amitp]

remm, I think this is the biggest experiment here. Rob has long wanted to have an MMO where you could jump in and play with friends. This leads to:

1. Can go to any server — consequence is that you don't get attached to worlds, and worlds don't develop separate cultures
2. Leveling can't increase your power much — consequence is that you don't feel the rush of power gains, nor do you move to different areas as you gain power
3. Teleportation — consequence is that it's easy for everyone to be in the same place in one battle, and travel options don't matter, and place doesn't really matter except as an annoyance while you're trying to go somewhere else

I think lateral progression as tarbomb mentions is the most promising for characters, but you can also get the feeling of progression from temporal progression (temporary powerups that you pick up, like bullet hell games often have, or chain attack bonuses, that trigger from a sequence of your actions) and spatial progression (you upgrade everyone in the region, as we have now, or your power within the region, with a per-town reputation factor).

Guild Wars 1 did lateral progression with powers you unlock. You then have to select up to 8 of them to take with you in any mission.

[quicklite]

I think I'm starting to agree with Tarbomb/amitp here, though I still think that something is missing. I mean, unlocking more and more tanks is great and all, but it doesn't make a game. Ofc, I'd be helpful and suggest something else, but the only thing that I can think of requires a new thread entirely, one which I'll probably make later or something.