I am aware that PA is not invincible.
And it is not just about fighting an PA but also fighting wearing a PA, while you have good chances to lose.
The Problem that Power armor raises is a a reminder of old grinders/hoarders servers.
- That item involves a lot of grinding. You need to gather x number of players to spend x number of time getting one item, then do the same for another, and another, etc... It is time/energy/people consuming.
- It doesn't provide any attack bonus, of course, but make the tank characters even more bullets/actions points sponges. They stay alive much longer.
- In order to remain active in PVP/ZC/TC, you need to be able to maintain a constant and effective supply line. If you always/often win, the supplies aren't much an issue, as you keep your stuff and get free additionnal stuff. If you you always/often lose, you have to constantly gather new item in order to sustain the PVP efforts.
- In servers in which the stuff is harder to obtain, you have a few PVP team, that are almost always the same, that can afford to grind and hoard thousands of hard to get items, and those teams are always the same taking zones. In 2238, for instance, the town were almost always held by TTTLA/VSB/BBS/CS/Rogues/C88/sorryififorgotone. It was pretty rare to have another team take a town, let alone hold it. Sometime, a team managed to join the competition, but considering the other team were stronger/more experienced, those new teams lost a lot and weren't able to sustain there supply line. If the items were easier/faster to get, they wouldn't forfeit so easily. And i am saying that as a TTTLA, a member of a team who had enough no-life members to sustain the supply line.
- One of the most welcomed elements of AOP was to make the items easier to obtain/find/produce, so the supply line is less an issue. People can lose a lot more fight and still come back, because they spent 1 hours to be fully equipped, instead of a full day, and all their team. Plus, the randomization of many things makes you wander/explore more, instead of doing the same thing over and over. For players that aren't in the grinding mindset or just want to have fun, it is very refreshing compared with 2238.
- Power Armor, on the other hand, seems to promote grinding a lot more, since it involves having a full crew doing nothing for hours in order to get to the right encounter where they will find those 5-6 guys with power-amor parts, and do that thing again. It contradict the early non-grinding philosophy, is boring, involve going out of the core for a bunch of time, and not meet other players for PVP/RP/diplomacy/any interaction. Some players might be interested in doing it, but many won't just do it, even once.
- Then, there is the issue of the supply line, related to the win/lose thing. If you win a lot, you don't have to grind a lot. If you lose often, you won't bother bringing an item you spent 4-6 hours getting, and risk lose it agains't enemies that would have beaten you 80% of the time. They would beat you even more if they have it and not you.
- Which brings me to the relief to not have seen much people in PA recently. If thought they wouldn't inflinct more balances issues in other groups that already lose tons of lower stuff already.
In the end, my complains mostly have to do with the grinding issues brought from the ways it is obtained, rather than the item itself. I would rather have it linked with the fame. So people would be even more inclined to join the PVP, knowing that even if they lose a billion time, just by coming back and shooting the enemies, they are getting closer to obtain their own power armor one day.
About the amount of players, they were almost an hundred three days before and were fifty a week later, before the change of port. Althought, it can be argued about what would be the cause of players leaving, since the server lost players everyday since mid-september.
Anyway, i don't want to make definitive statement about the Power Armor, since it fit some purpose and will probably be rebalanced someday, but it can be easily understood what feeling the current way to obtain it could put off a significant amount of players, and why some of them left.
Not mentionning the goal of attracting totally new players and casual and let them do significants things early enough that they would want to stay more.
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Topic: Power Armor (Read 42316 times)