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Solomon Ward, on 10 April 2013 - 02:57 AM, said:
Flow happens.
[...]
It is being very present and focused - interpreting your surroundings instantly,
acting with no delay and maximum precision.
That's really great actually. While things like rigid team roles, mech roles may seem to resist the idea of flow, if someone knows what they thrive on and they can find that sense of "presence", then that is working for them. If someone can use the mech customization to find what they like(which ironically is most limited when a new player is exploring what they like).
That brings up another point: rewarding success. What does that, and should that mean exactly?
I beat the level and now I get a bigger sword and better armour to make the game easier? Elo is an interesting system because even if you reward success by giving you pilot tree skills that essentially make the game easier, you should still be placed against humans that have somewhere near your chance of winning.
Its a slippery slope in any game though, I think two good examples are MegaMan and Pokemon. To me, the hardest fight in Pokemon is the first aswell as Megaman. In Pokemon, you have one pokemon with only one offensive move, if the opponent gets a critical you could die suddenly. Of course in Megaman you have no abilities and you slowly grow them. The other levels don't change, you do, making them less challenging than the beginning.
In Pokemon, if its getting too hard you can grind/train by fighting wild Pokemon to level up. However if the game gets too easy the only mechanic for that is to have the player plow through content until they find something hard.
Megaman, is fun however, aswell as Pokemon, in Megaman, that feeling of growing stronger is invigorating and it feels like you are solving a puzzle, putting off harder levels till you are more powerful. In Pokemon, they make sure its difficult to get too strong without advancing before stronger wild pokemon are presented for training on. So in these respects I would say they still succeed.
What is the point of the pilot tree? In a way mechanics like these are odd because they are rewarding you with something you have proven you DON'T need. How is pilot trees supposed to evolve your experience?
Well the fact that EVERY OTHER PLAYER gets them at a certain point I think is crucial. It's kind of like different CC's in a racing game. Higher league races allow the competitors to have larger engines which require tighter response time. Yes you get benefits but can you use them as well as everyone else who's now getting them too? It's pretty clever.
Edited by Thomas Covenant, 10 April 2013 - 12:14 PM.
