6 replies to this topic

[Hadraziel]

I have a major concern about the future of the game and its capacity to keep its playerbase.

The way the game works at the moment pushes players to invest large amounts of time (in the form of Hawken Points) or money in a single mech, to get it unlocked and geared.

The items, xp and ameliorations unlocked for one mech are non-transferable, forcing players to stick with one mech most of the time. Using a different mech means starting from zero, without any loadout, and play with a handicap against most other players.

This bring a major concern about balancing:
If one of the mech is slightly better than the others, a big portion of the playerbase will invest its points into a loadout for this particular mech.
What would happen then if the devs decided to balance this class by nerfing its stats, weapons or ability_
A large portion of the playerbase would be upset, unable to swich class without suffering from the non-transferability of the loadouts.

In this situation, balancing the game will be very difficult, and the game would lose a portion of its playerbase with every nerf as some of the players will prefer to leave rather than start from scratch.

[seeyouinhell2mf]

I could not agree more, the earning seem to be nominal at best and with the mechs costing a few thousand Hawken points a piece it will be time consuming as all get out to get out of the starter mech.

[SGWyvern]

Also agreed, it'd be worse than what occassionally happens when Riot Games nerfs or changes a Champion in League of Legends. At least with LoL you have personal progression that would go unaffected, which is something Hawken does not have with their model.

If the grind were less than what it is now it wouldn't be as big a deal but I think you bring up a great point for the long-term health of the game if it remains unchanged.

[Saunders]

Thx for the feedback!

You'll be happy to know that we agree on all your points; you'll see some big changes between now and open beta (and beyond) which should make you happy ;D

[Lagnard]

The game needs more hats. j/k

In all seriousness Riot is a different genre and has a progression system that even though I dislike I accept. Riot has done very well for themselves with their business model.

However there is another model you can look at that is a FPS, TF2. No progression system to speak of. All they have are different weapons that are quirky or fulfill a specific niche. The only thing that makes you different from the guy next to you (other than skill level of coarse) is your weapon load out and your bling.

Both franchises are extremely successful, though I would think that most people would prefer a system like TF2. Where you can jump in for a quick game or two and never be at a real disadvantage because of a meaningless progression system that makes people with more time to invest inherently more powerful for no good reason. People with more time should only get to be more skillful than you in my opinion.

[{SF}kenny]

All parts should transfer between chassis and class. That is all.
(I guess if you had to pay a small fee to transfer parts with HP or MP, then fine)

[defekt]

Saunders, on October 30 2012 - 07:20 PM, said:

Thx for the feedback!
You'll be happy to know that we agree on all your points; you'll see some big changes between now and open beta (and beyond) which should make you happy ;D

Huzzah!  (Again.)