Several people expressed/keep expressing their disappointment with the loadout card system. Indisputably the P2W argument can be thrown out the window, its very easy now to get a specific loadout you want at bronze level, and everything above is all new skins&rep.
What is your last-minute loadout change idea? Consider that the game is not far from release, and no P2W mechanics will be followed thru!
At the moment loadouts are in a limbo-trap, while not distinctive enough to warrant any P2W drama, also not powerful enough to force gamestyle choices on the player. There is no consideration of 'this loadout will help me on defense vs. this loadout will allow me to be more mobile. In almost all cases, loadouts power is determined by:
a) the primary & secondary weapons
b) one/two particularly useful augments, that will always be preferable over alternatives (get up for a medic, AoE buff for explosive mercs, plus some general all-rounders: faster reload, reload while sprinting, springy, etc.)
This polarizes the choices very easily, with one/two loadouts (depending on the weapons) being useful above everything else.
Imo, the augments themselves could all be brought up to the power similar to ‘get-up’ loadout - significant changes to your capabilities in-game.
However, in order for powerful augments to provide distinctive gamestyle choices, augments themselves have to also be limited in availability.
What I’m proposing is utilizing the already presentloadout classes, but forcing more diversification by putting the best loadouts against each other.
The only reason ‘get-up’ might be a reconsidered choice for a medic, is putting it against equally useful loadouts: significantly more medpacks, or significantly faster regen upon medpack hit.
The first focus of such diversification is a merc-specific augment choice. The choice made here could be almost significant enough to make sub-classes out of a particular merc.
In almost all cases this can be simply a matter of : more spam vs. more powerful spam + a new approach to the merc’s gamestyle. Ideas are cheap though, so lets think of some examples:
Sawbonez:
- get-up - the most combat-oriented perk
- more potent packs (at least +50% faster regen) - much more efficient at regrouping
- better cooldown (at least one more medpack, at least 30% better cooldown) - much better at prolonged engagements.
- ET-style medpacks : each picked up medpack gives +20-30hp, regardless of the already on-going regeneration - for that medpack-bunkering feel.
Aura:
- get-up - the most combat-oriented perk
- considerably higher Aura’s AoE radius - ‘bunker Aura’ - station has a radius big enough to allow sheltering the station from direct enemy-fire
- lower AoE radius but faster station setup. - ‘offensive’ aura - station can be plonked down quickly (similar to before the nerf) to allow Aura to remain very mobile with her station, during the battle
Skyhammer:
- +AoE - explosives from airstrikes deal more damage/bigger radius
- better cooldown - airstrikes can be called in much more regularly
- faster drone - airstrike bombs fall down faster, giving people less time to escape (might require slowing down the default airstrike speed)
- more potent in-door grenade: airstrike marker used indoors with a shorterfuse/bigger boom
- gadget ammo-packs: picked up ammo pack gives a weapon bonus to the player: more ammo in the clip, better spread, better RoF, little bit of everything?
Vassili:
- significantly better range on the heartbeat sensor pulse and/or significantly longer detection pulse - ‘spotter vassili’
- faster switch to secondary after firing a sniper-shot ‘close quarters vassili’
- less sway while scoped-in ‘snipey vassili’
- two heartbeat sensors at once?
Rhino:
- more accurate minigun (spread drops slower during sustained fire) - the medium distance rhino
- faster spin-up + longer till overheating - ‘sustained fire rhino’ for holding chokes
- faster movement when firing - ‘mobile rhino’
I can come up with more/different ideas for other mercs, the main point being, that each choice is ‘sooo good’ it no longer becomes obvious which one is the best.
Are you going to pick an Aura with a LARGE hp-station radius, for a very useful bunker in a particular spot on the map, or maybe you’d like to be mobile with your team, re-positioning the station constantly, keeping the opponent on their toes? Would you prefer to fire the sniper shot and instantly finish the enemy with the machine-pistol, or do you rely on as little sway as possible, to reliably score headshots? Or maybe you can utilize the uber-powerful heartbeat sensor, to keep 80% of enemy team in constant detection?
Having to make a single choice like this, the mercs gamestyle is already pushed in one direction. This choice would always be available at ‘lead’ level, allowing people to experiment with the main branches of the merc’s playstyle.
Second choice is the second most powerful perk, relating to the general utility of the player during and inbetween combat.
Things like:
- faster reload
- reload while sprinting
- quick-eye + focus (this two would have to merge together to remain viable in this group)
- unshakeable
- quick slash + chopper - for a melee monster character
or - twice as fast help-up
- ‘unbeatable’ - character requires two knife slashes to gib
- enigma + untrackable
- springy + flying pig
- sneaky + big ears + bomb squad
- quickdraw + faster switch to/from ADS
- armor piercing: conventional weapons do 100% more damage to EV and secondary objectives
Again, the goal is to force the player to make choices by putting viable options against each other. Quick eye, or focus, on their own, can never compete with faster reload. But would you rather reload your weapon faster, or receive less damage from explosives?
Furthermore, choices can be also limited by allowing only a sub-set of such perks available to the particular class. For example, Assault classes can have faster reload, or quick-eye+focus; but not unshakeable, Snipers can have unshakeable but not quick-eye+focus, etc.
The third perk would include all those perks that are nice to have, but don’t really affect gameplay that much, things like:
- pack-rat: ammo pack stations give ammo twice as fast
- cool
- looter
- try hard
- mechanic (yup, its not that useful in comp; where engies do 90% of the job anyways)
- tough (yup, its nice, but won’t make a big difference in the end)
a) picking a merc-specific perk gives a feel of more diversity. Gives you more distinct ways to play a particular merc - it also allows for dividing the skin-types according to the merc sub-classes.
b) by separating the perks according to their power-level you force meaningful this-or-that choices on the player
c) a system where multiple options are viable and worth experimenting with open up the game to:
- crafting specific loadout cards, without pushing towards a stale-meta where a single loadout-type is better & above-all-else
- trading between players ‘i crafted this cool merc, but now want to try sth else’
- separating primary/secondary weapons from the perks
