feel free to flame away. this is just my take on the proposed OE changes in 14.2, and some pretty damn silly things that i am seeing in other threads including some downright wrong assumptions.
First a moment for some definitions (at least as far as what i am talking about here):
1.) Self buffing is NOT overequiping.
2.) Implants are NOT overequiping.
3.) OE is based upon requirements NOT Quality Level.
4.) Getting a big buff from a teammate and using that to equip a better weapon while you have the buff running is NOT overequiping.
5.) Keeping that weapon with the same effectiveness after the buff has worn off IS.
back when the game was launched the mobs were managable. every class could solo with reasonable weapons and nanos. the powergamers came, which is good IMO. you need people up in the higher levels to keep the game moving. granted many if not all of the very high level players within a month of launch were "exploiting" some kind of design flaw in the game, but most of those were eventually plugged.
i really enjoy spending some of my time in game trying to figure out how i am going to get into some better armor or to get on the next gun. it can be fun and it certainly appeals to the min/max-ers out there. once again, these kind of people are needed, as there are a lot of them out there and more players = more money.
but people who say that OE is not effecting them since they don't PvP are wrong. FC has adjusted mob difficulty on several occations to try and curb xp gains that were getting out of control. wonder where all of those reflect shields came from on mobs that wouldn't normally have them? wonder why even mobs have so many hit points and such high AC? wonder why you have to OE to be able to solo in the mid-high level game? OE is the reason. i am not just talking about the casual player here, i am talking about effecting everyone.
and i even think that low level twinks are a good idea, although the money then tend to spend on things has the effect of inflating the low ql economy. twink as what keep some high level players in the game while they wait for more content. good things for FC.
so will OE changes be good for the game? some good things first:
1.) non-twinks will be able to PvP - when someone can get totally schooled by a twink who is wearing better armor and using an equal gun than someone 50% of this level, this is probably not as it was intended.
2.) the mob difficulty can be readjusted to allow players to solo longer, which was part of the original design (beeing able to solo well into your 100's). this includes the changes to sneaking and other fixes mentioned by FC in the 14.0 prelim notes.
3.) team diversity can improve - everyone will want a trader on board, probably a mp too.
4.) once this fix is done, balance can be worked on in terms of adventurers and other professions. since fast/low damage weapons are pretty much junk right now (due to mob AC) the weapon lines could have more options, and maybe we will see people switching weapons depending on the situation. a whole potential for strategy.
5.) people who get frustrated at their inability to solo (fixers, advents, etc.) will may stick around insted of quitting.
6.) debuffs that matter? - deprive lines will be worth something, ability drains (general ones) could knock down your armors effectivness, new aproaches to combat will open up for players.
ok, since nothing is ever all-good, the bad:
1.) people (mostly min/maxers and powergamers) are going to quit. nothing you can do about that.
2.) there is going to be a really long period of adjustment where players are not going really know how to work within the new rules, with the mob changes and all. readjustment is all.
3.) we should get ready for the servers to go down multiple times (speculation here) for emergency patches because the mobs were too easy, too tough, not spawning, eating the scenery, whatever.
4.) mobs are going to use nano's on us that are going to hose us. and are going to take a whole lot of tuning on test before they are unleashed on us on the live servers.
5.) everyone is going to complain.
the real reason i decided to post such a long-winded (apologies) response to all of the million other threads is that there are probably as many people who would be for the OE patch if they better understood what was going to change. and would read the notes and see that some of the changes (if not all of them) actually will make their game more enjoyable. for some it is going to suck, they can equip that really great weapon, but it might be smarter for them to equip one not so nice. nothing is going to stop them from doing that, but the game will hopefully come out better (if not slightly less quiet) in the long run.
flame away...
yotogi
How true. Maybe if he threw in some words in all capital letters and used groupings of "!!!" a few times... perhaps even made a clever rewording of "Funcom", it would get some read time from that crowd.
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