Four days ago, Aero Yassavi made this post in the General Discussions section of the DUST 514 forums. In the post, he revives and idea that he got from Avallo Kantor, which introduces the idea of tiercide, just as EVE Online used to have. People on the forums are going insane about this idea, and many are even supporting the idea of tiercide in DUST 514. CCP Rattati even said, “Mind Blown. I am going to spreadsheet some stuff.” Obviously, he is very interested in the idea, and has expressed the fact. Is this something that would be implemented into a future iteration of everybody’s favorite, buggy, New Eden first person shooter? My personal knee-jerk reaction is to scream yes, and line up to buy my powercores. I think the idea is seriously being considered by the development team at CCP Shanghai, so it does have the potential to be implemented.
Now, if you are like me, and just hearing about this, here’s how it works; Tiercide would standardize slot layout on all suits, excluding Officer level, and require a powercore. This powercore would have three tiers: Standard, Advanced, and Prototype. For example, a Gallente Assault suit could be bought off the market with three high slots, five low slots, a primary slot, a sidearm slot, one equipment slot, and one grenade slot. Observant mercenaries will note that this is the current slot layout for the Gallente Assault suit. With tiercide, you could buy the suit, or any suit obviously, off the market with, I assume, its current prototype slot layout. I could be wrong however.
When the suit is bought, I will continue to use the Gallente Assault suit as my example, it has just the slots. No PG or CPU. This is where the power cores come in. The power cores are installed into the suit, and grant them X amount of PG/CPU based on the level of the core. Obviously a standard core is going to have the least amount of PG/CPU, and a prototype core is going to have the most amount of PG/CPU. Once the core is installed, it is business as usual. You still fit what your amount of PG/CPU will allow you to fit. If you exceed that, then you cannot run it.
“What is so good about this idea, Bait? Why do so many people like it?” I am thrilled that you asked, curious mercenary! The biggest pro to this idea is that it significantly reduces the memory that is occupied for the unique number of dropsuits in the game. Yassavi says, “Currently we have 180 unique base suits; five roles, four races, three tiers, three variants, Aurum, ISK, and LP. Compounded together is 180.” With the introduction of the power cores, he says that, “Now you have five roles, four races, and nothing else. Compounded is 20 unique suits. You just shaved off 160 suits from the memory cap. Even more if you do this to basic suits as well.” Let me restate something, “You just shaved off 160 suits from the memory cap.” When is the last time you have “shaved off” 160 of anything in one sitting, besides dollars? Taking five suits from the memory cap is cool, as is ten, or fifteen, or even twenty. But 160? That is mind boggling. Freeing up memory would allow CCP to potentially put new assets in the game later on down the road.
I asked the community what they thought some pros and cons were in this forum post, and a similar one in General Discussions. Here is what the community thought. Mercenary Vesta Opalus, formerly of T.H.I.R.D R.O.C.K, said, “better STD/ADV fittings on dropsuits with more variation (more slots = more fun, slot layout is pretty much why I run proto 24/7 these days)”. Vesta also cited freed memory as something they saw as a pro. Breakin Stuff, of Goonfeet, also said the freed up memory would be a good thing. Many, many people have cited the potential for freed memory as the biggest pro to tiercide.
“But, Bait! Nothing is perfect! There have to be some cons to this seemingly brilliant idea!” Yes, mercenary. That is completely true! There are cons, even if nobody can think of any. However, Delta Iddon, of Electronic Sports League, has thought of a couple of cons, which is more than the community as a whole has thought of. He says, “A large amount of the pub-stomp player base will leave.” Now, before you blow your kazoos and have a party, because who needs pub-stompers, remember that these are players too. They actively play the game and spend AUR, which in turn helps CCP gain money, and data to improve the game. Losing pub-stompers, people who use exclusively prototype gear all the time in public contracts, does affect the game. It may seem like a good thing, from the perspective of players who get the scat stomped out of them, but it is not. DUST needs all the people playing it that it can.
Iddon also said that another con would be, “possible issues with refunding scripts on all the old items. CCP makes script to convert all redundant assets to isk and aurum, has to apply to a huge amount of characters (all character sever made mind you). This might fail. When it fails, bad things happen. It happened with the respecs and shit. No amount of testing guarantees a perfect script, so that’s a major short term concern.”
Ripley Riley, of Incorruptibles, made the argument that the power cores do not have an explanation in the lore of New Eden. Riley says, ” Without any writers or real “creative” forces on Dust 514 this sudden change in lore won’t have a New Eden explaination.” Ripley goes on to ask, “Why didn’t the companies not use this “power core” tech until just now?” This is a very good question, indeed. It is unfortunate that something like this is even an issue, but that is the nature of the beast. Hopefully, if this idea of tiercide mechanics are implemented, somebody at CCP Shanghai can think of a semi-believable reason as to why the races of New Eden are using power cores in their dropsuits.
Special thanks to everybody who was named in this article, and those who were not named, for giving you pros and cons on tiercide mechanics. If you’d like to share your two ISK about tiercide, do so in the comments below! If you want to hear a more in depth talk about tiercide, check out this forum post. If you do not want to read, then you can listen to the most recent episode of the Biomassed Podcast (5/17/15).
