Post by quicklite on Sept 29, 2013 17:57:28 GMT -5
So, what is the gray goo problem? Well, it's a problem with cusomization; where upgrades and equipment blends into each other and becomes a stale, unoriginal constant replacement of equipment n for equipment n+1. There's no creativity or originality behind it, it's just an endless grind. All games have this to some degree; for example, this is basically an accurate description of the tiered realm weapons; replace one weapon for a slightly better weapon. However, the slightly better weapon had a cooler decor and (sometimes) a cooler, or at least different aesthetic, meaning that there was at least a certain flare to progression up the equipment ladder. What's more, there was also un-tiered equipment, which usually acted completely differently to conventional weaponry, making your attacks and combat system in general that much cooler. In fact, while a lot of games follow a 'gray goo' type upgrade system, the best of these games always give each upgrade rung their own playstyle and feel, as well as multiple ladders to spice things up. For example, in the fallout games (we'll use Fallout New Vegas for this example), if you choose to specialize in energy weapons, all you are doing is finding better energy weapons, and then improving them via skill points. However, in actual game terms, there is both an aesthetic (weapons get bigger, cooler, and more flashy), gameplay (weapons slowly become more complex, more varied, more fun to use, and even more fucking expensive), and visibly substantial change (you go from inaccurately firing off blasts from your plasma people to tearing down armies with your plasma magnum/gatling lasers/heavy incinerator etc.).
So what does this have to do with grid? Well, modules as they are are falling very quickly, along with augments (although to be fair, augments are already there, and have been there for a while) into this problem. I know that modules are new, and will probably be improved, but as they are, modules have no aesthetic change, no gameplay change, with the only visibly substantial change being that one trigger cooling down slightly faster, or that laser gun of yours firing slightly faster. Sure, if you unlock all 4 slots, and then fill them with seriously high-grade mods, you could get a 40-50% bonus on a few things, but that would take hours upon hours upon hours of grinding, for only the reward of a tank that feels slightly better than other tanks, which isn't even that substantial anyway. But, as I mentioned, mods are in their earliest stages, and therefore are going to change. So I might as well highlight 4 paths they could take, the pros and cons of them.
1) Mods stay as they are, giving minimal bonuses for high effort in order to help keep player equality.
Aesthetic: None
Gameplay: None
Visibly Substantial: Not really, you see your items improving, but you don't really see it on the tank.
True to the Game: Very much so. With mods that don't do much, everyone is kept on a level playing field, encouraging the single battlefront.
This path would stick true to the games morals, but at a pretty large cost of making mods very unappealing, as in order to actually improve yourself significantly with them, you'd have to grind for too long. Imo, there's a better way than this.
2) Mods are substantially buffed, giving them the ability to seriously power a tank.
Aesthetic: Significant. After all, now you are shooting noticeably faster, and doing significantly more damage than earlier, which can look pretty cool.
Gameplay: Other than having fights go faster/easier for you, none.
Visibly Substantial: Incredibly. After all, you can see your progress as you slowly stack on more and better mods, building up your tank.
True to the Game: No. The difference between un-modded and modded tanks here would be too great, alienating un-modded players who try end-game content.
This path would work, though it would go against everything the game is supposed to be. It would ruin the single battlefront (as new players who see harder content would most likely dismiss it as 'modded tank stuff', while veteran players dismiss newbies in end-game content for similar reasons. You can see similar things happen in realm; newbies usually don't wanna enter tombs, and the ones that do usually get dragged on by a vet wanting to stop them from 'ruining' it.) Instead of being unique in its single battlefront, grid would become much like realm in its style of progression, which I think is to be avoided. Thus, this way wouldn't work very well either.
3) Mods are replaced with Borderlands-esque randomly generated items, each doing something slightly different, perhaps even changing your tank.
Aesthetic: Definitely. You could compare with other tanks, and admire tanks with high-grade stuff, while looking at the cool things said stuff does.
Gameplay: If creativity is applied to some items, making them suitably wacky/badass/unique, then yes, this would make a large difference.
Visibly Substantial: Of course. You can see what your items do to your tank.
True to the Game: No. Melding wouldn't work on these. Grid's progression would be warped. The market would be re-done for the worse.
This would work, but it would make grid a lot less unique, and a lot more like most RPGs. You'd say goodbye to melding, goodbye to the simple level system, goodbye to the current marketplace, and hello to a whole lot of complications and problems. Although this works very well for all the first 3 factors, it would cause to much of a train-wreck on the fourth to be particularly viable. So this should be avoided.
4) Mods are 'specialized' to rebalance and rig your tank in a certain way, substantially and visibly buffing one thing at the cost of another.
Aesthetic: Very much so. If one thing is set to an extreme, that thing will be noticed. Heck, you could even re-design said thing to look cooler as well.
Gameplay: Incredibly. A clever person with mods could completely re-design a tank to become better at some things, or to pander to their gameplay style.
Visibly Substantial: You can see your tank slowly turning into exactly what you want it to be. How much more visibly substantial can you get?
True to the Game: Yes, imo. Your strength is being balanced with a flaw. While you can improve yourself in parts, you will be punished in another area.
As you can probably tell, this is my favourite. This hits all 4 factors to a very high degree. It would be aesthetic because you could improve one thing to make it badass, and you can design your mods so that something on your tank physically changes as said thing is improved. It affects your gameplay because it would change your tank in a way that would make it different to play; what if you corsair had its front shield massively buffed, but its hull halved? What if the valkyrie's DoT was doubled in damage and its shotty fire increased, but its shields nerfed and insta-shield only made to partially refill? What if the hurricane got a 5th trigger that puts the healgun on overdrive for 10 seconds, while halving the rate of fire of the lightning gun for the same amount of time? What if the fury got a 3rd laser gun on the left and right, though had its hull thirded so that when the shields go down, you are thoroughly fucked? It would be visibly substantial because you can see your tank getting crazier and crazier. And it would be true to the game! You couldn't get flat-out more powerful. As you strengthen one aspect of your tank, another is hit hard, meaning that you need to either play better or bring a less/differently modded buddy to help out. These things could also fit into the leveling/modding system: As one aspect of your tank is improved more and more via better mods, the other is subsequently further weakened. This would turn mods into basically what tank unlocks are; giving you the ability to specialize. While unlocks give you more specialized, cooler tanks, mods would make your tanks cooler and more specialized. It's a perfect fit. And as for the current modules, they would still have a place as well. You could use them to slightly amplify something you've already buffed, or buff something slightly to slightly compensate with the heavy nerf another module has put on it.
So, that's my pitch there. What do you think? Do you think I've overglorified 4, or put the other 3 in too harsh a light? Love to see your feedback.
So what does this have to do with grid? Well, modules as they are are falling very quickly, along with augments (although to be fair, augments are already there, and have been there for a while) into this problem. I know that modules are new, and will probably be improved, but as they are, modules have no aesthetic change, no gameplay change, with the only visibly substantial change being that one trigger cooling down slightly faster, or that laser gun of yours firing slightly faster. Sure, if you unlock all 4 slots, and then fill them with seriously high-grade mods, you could get a 40-50% bonus on a few things, but that would take hours upon hours upon hours of grinding, for only the reward of a tank that feels slightly better than other tanks, which isn't even that substantial anyway. But, as I mentioned, mods are in their earliest stages, and therefore are going to change. So I might as well highlight 4 paths they could take, the pros and cons of them.
1) Mods stay as they are, giving minimal bonuses for high effort in order to help keep player equality.
Aesthetic: None
Gameplay: None
Visibly Substantial: Not really, you see your items improving, but you don't really see it on the tank.
True to the Game: Very much so. With mods that don't do much, everyone is kept on a level playing field, encouraging the single battlefront.
This path would stick true to the games morals, but at a pretty large cost of making mods very unappealing, as in order to actually improve yourself significantly with them, you'd have to grind for too long. Imo, there's a better way than this.
2) Mods are substantially buffed, giving them the ability to seriously power a tank.
Aesthetic: Significant. After all, now you are shooting noticeably faster, and doing significantly more damage than earlier, which can look pretty cool.
Gameplay: Other than having fights go faster/easier for you, none.
Visibly Substantial: Incredibly. After all, you can see your progress as you slowly stack on more and better mods, building up your tank.
True to the Game: No. The difference between un-modded and modded tanks here would be too great, alienating un-modded players who try end-game content.
This path would work, though it would go against everything the game is supposed to be. It would ruin the single battlefront (as new players who see harder content would most likely dismiss it as 'modded tank stuff', while veteran players dismiss newbies in end-game content for similar reasons. You can see similar things happen in realm; newbies usually don't wanna enter tombs, and the ones that do usually get dragged on by a vet wanting to stop them from 'ruining' it.) Instead of being unique in its single battlefront, grid would become much like realm in its style of progression, which I think is to be avoided. Thus, this way wouldn't work very well either.
3) Mods are replaced with Borderlands-esque randomly generated items, each doing something slightly different, perhaps even changing your tank.
Aesthetic: Definitely. You could compare with other tanks, and admire tanks with high-grade stuff, while looking at the cool things said stuff does.
Gameplay: If creativity is applied to some items, making them suitably wacky/badass/unique, then yes, this would make a large difference.
Visibly Substantial: Of course. You can see what your items do to your tank.
True to the Game: No. Melding wouldn't work on these. Grid's progression would be warped. The market would be re-done for the worse.
This would work, but it would make grid a lot less unique, and a lot more like most RPGs. You'd say goodbye to melding, goodbye to the simple level system, goodbye to the current marketplace, and hello to a whole lot of complications and problems. Although this works very well for all the first 3 factors, it would cause to much of a train-wreck on the fourth to be particularly viable. So this should be avoided.
4) Mods are 'specialized' to rebalance and rig your tank in a certain way, substantially and visibly buffing one thing at the cost of another.
Aesthetic: Very much so. If one thing is set to an extreme, that thing will be noticed. Heck, you could even re-design said thing to look cooler as well.
Gameplay: Incredibly. A clever person with mods could completely re-design a tank to become better at some things, or to pander to their gameplay style.
Visibly Substantial: You can see your tank slowly turning into exactly what you want it to be. How much more visibly substantial can you get?
True to the Game: Yes, imo. Your strength is being balanced with a flaw. While you can improve yourself in parts, you will be punished in another area.
As you can probably tell, this is my favourite. This hits all 4 factors to a very high degree. It would be aesthetic because you could improve one thing to make it badass, and you can design your mods so that something on your tank physically changes as said thing is improved. It affects your gameplay because it would change your tank in a way that would make it different to play; what if you corsair had its front shield massively buffed, but its hull halved? What if the valkyrie's DoT was doubled in damage and its shotty fire increased, but its shields nerfed and insta-shield only made to partially refill? What if the hurricane got a 5th trigger that puts the healgun on overdrive for 10 seconds, while halving the rate of fire of the lightning gun for the same amount of time? What if the fury got a 3rd laser gun on the left and right, though had its hull thirded so that when the shields go down, you are thoroughly fucked? It would be visibly substantial because you can see your tank getting crazier and crazier. And it would be true to the game! You couldn't get flat-out more powerful. As you strengthen one aspect of your tank, another is hit hard, meaning that you need to either play better or bring a less/differently modded buddy to help out. These things could also fit into the leveling/modding system: As one aspect of your tank is improved more and more via better mods, the other is subsequently further weakened. This would turn mods into basically what tank unlocks are; giving you the ability to specialize. While unlocks give you more specialized, cooler tanks, mods would make your tanks cooler and more specialized. It's a perfect fit. And as for the current modules, they would still have a place as well. You could use them to slightly amplify something you've already buffed, or buff something slightly to slightly compensate with the heavy nerf another module has put on it.
So, that's my pitch there. What do you think? Do you think I've overglorified 4, or put the other 3 in too harsh a light? Love to see your feedback.
