mint frog, on 12 October 2013 - 08:53 AM, said:
Actually, the reason why the core gamers got so upset is because the changes that PGI claimed were a part of a focus on improving the new player experience were actually detrimental to the game play experience AND not very helpful for new players. Had it been a genuine attempt at a tutorial system, some rudimentary AI in tutorial missions, no one would have complained.
While the whole thing is worth reading and remembering, this part is really important!
Third person was added and the forums were in an uproar as this is a bit of a sacred cow being slaughtered after repeated assurances it was a core pillar. New players find themselves without teammate status or the radar display, both of which are vital to team-play and players without voice communication. It sure doesn't help new players learn to operate independent arm vs torso motion, and on most chassis, the legs aren't even visible (which was the entire point of the exercise, we were told).
At the same time, veteran players find themselves able to exploit the new camera for superior scouting, extra-easy ridgesniping at a time when the long-range high-alpha metagame's going strong, and clueless new players are left with a flashing light above their heads and no idea about turning it off.
We've all see the ridiculous aftershocks of Ghost Heat. That was supposed to curb "pro builds" like the gimmick 6PPC Stalker (that was never, ever a competitive mech and has severe downsides in mobility, heat management, target tracking and engagement profile). It also ended up killing twin AC/20 builds or SRM-favoring loadouts that were direct brawling competition for the long-range high-alpha metagame, and ER Large Laser builds designed to counteract jumpsnipers and ridgesnipers were similarly nerfed hard. Just look at all the problems the AC/2 still has because of ghost heat.
PGI's using a hatchet where they should be using a scalpel. Just because it makes a cut, you shouldn't declare it's "working as intended" as you miss design intent and create enormous problems elsewhere by mauling important organs. You can't tell me Ghost Heat was supposed to prevent the AC/2 from being
chainfired, or that SRM2s had a "boating" problem that needed to be addressed. This is without even getting into firing fewer LRMs to gain more heat, or the canon builds impacted.
Seriously, ghost heat simply made 2PPC1Gauss more attractive in the end while putting a nail in the brawling coffin. The new gauss charge-up makes it harder to use gauss rifles to attack jumpsnipers, which already was made harder when large lasers were slapped with ghost heat.
Remember the forcible 8-man queue split designed to help segregate new/casual players away from experienced groups? Instead of a better matchmaker. We all know how that turned out, as the queue began failing to find a match at least a good third of a the time (PGI even admitted to such crazy failure rates). It was a real killer for the competitive players, but it hurt new players' experience too.
New players ended up being used as chaff to round out teams of superior skill, resulting in matches that sure seemed like 6v8 or 5v8 due to poor balancing: good players could be matched with completely clueless new players, against a well-rounded opposition that easily dispatched the lost newbies before overwhelming the competent players on a team with superior numbers. Not fun for the good players who died before they could learn how to play better, not fun for experienced players who ended up effectively outnumbered, not really the challenge the well-rounded team expected!
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