Balance passes are a funny thing — we are all excited about them yet hate them. Usually it’s one or the other and not both. But here we are; a bunch of people who like DUST too much to be healthy climbing the walls when we hear about any change. Cheer and despair walking hand and hand.
Before I get to my thought, I want to ramble a bit about the unique situation that DUST creates. DUST is the most customizable FPS in history. It was built around the concept of asymmetrical game play. A forum goer (whose name escapes me) posted a very relevant video that really breaks down symmetry (and asymmetry) in games. According to the video, DUST fits into the category of “weak asymmetry.” However, DUST is extremely customizable and all of the elements in the game work in different niches. As such, it feels more like a “strong asymmetrical” game. So I’m just going to go out and say that DUST is unique in that it is the only FPS that utilizes “medium asymmetry;” a concept I just made up and does not actually exist outside of this game.
That makes balancing a nightmare. The vast majority of balancing has been around weapons — ie. how well they kill. However, lately there has been some changes to the less violent applications, most notably of which is the current discussion on Speed vs. HP values. EWAR has been addressed, PG/CPU has been addressed, ISK cost has been addressed, etc. and yet they continue to be addressed.
Which is to say DUST, like the vast majority of other games with continued developer support, has a nerf/buff cycle. However, no one likes the nerf buff cycle, even if we love the fact that DUST is continually updated. We just want everything fun, fair, and, in the case of DUST, and because we love it, different. The thought that struck me is that DUST might do well to focus on balancing the opposite end of the ‘killing’ aspect of the game. If surviving were a bit more balanced then killing would be easier to balance. The large step was taken with the discussed normalization of Speed vs. HP. However, I think the next thing that needs attention is HP in and of itself. We have two types, and they don’t function the same but that is a topic for future meandering.
Sticking to the concept of DUSymmetry, I think we should give CCP some credit. The DUST dev team is smaller than {insert inappropriate tongue-in-cheek joke here} with a budget smaller than {insert VERY inappropriate tongue-hangout-out-the-mouth-screaming-profanities joke here}. Quite honestly, DUST is currently the best it has been in a very long time. Even so, it’s also no where what it could have been, and should have been, had the decision makers now been the ones in charge when there were more company resources and less technological competition *coughps4xbonePCcough*.
Screw it, CCP needs to get on porting this game to PS4 already. Time for DUST 1028….