A request: Could we please stay civil about a discussion like this? There is no need for insults or belittling in discussing something like this.
There are some people who disagree with the changes to Firebase White and Firebase Glacier. This is clear from having read (and re-read) this thread and others on the subject.
Earlier in the thread I made the following post:
The layout changes to Firebase White were made (at my personal request) to address camping, not farming. Farming has never been an issue.
In hindsight (oh wonderful hindsight), this post does not convey all the information that it really should to explain my reasoning for this. I apologize for being unclear, and am writing this post to (hopefully) properly explain the reasoning behind the changes.
1) My first and pretty much only goal here is to create balanced levels that offer a decent challenge to players. My employer's bottom line only directly affects me in the sense that I make quality levels for you. Beyond that, I do not have, get, or want numbers on people who pay actual money for packs versus those who spend credits and all that entails. There are people who look at that stuff, but it is far removed from anything I do. (and to me it should stay that way)
2) Take a look at the levels in the game, both the original levels and the DLC ones that came later. Each of these has strong positions to defend, each of them has areas where you are not safe. On the whole, the levels worked out pretty well for this. People who like to occupy a strong position can find one in basically any level and do their thing, and people who want to run and gun can also do so. Add to that several types of objectives that require people to move or to stay put and you have a pretty interesting thing going.
Taking a look at most of the defendable positions in the levels, you can tell that - while they're defendable - they still require some coordination to mitigate the risk of getting flanked or exposed. The reward is that you have a strong and safe position, the risk is that enemies can flank you.
The specific problem I (and others at the office) saw with Firebase White and to a slightly lesser extent Firebase Glacier is that specific strong, defendable positions offered the reward of being secure at almost no risk. The lower interior space in White proved to have no real alternative route for enemies to be able to flank you, or really any other type of risk that would balance out the reward. Similarly, in Glacier the tight bottleneck entrances to the basement area proved to be such a powerful funnel that no enemies would get through.
The main reason for the changes to both levels is to introduce more of a risk element to those defendable positions. The lower interior in White is still defendable, but requires attention to the new flank enemies can take, and the basement in Glacier is still defendable but requires more coordination.
3) I'm really not on a hunt to address camping throughout the game. Firstly, camping is a valid play style and many people (as evidenced by the many passionate replies in this thread) favour it. Secondly, trying to get camping removed as a valid play style is impossible.
The thing I wanted to refer to was defendable positions that offered the reward without the risk, and calling that camping was a poor choice of words on my part.
4) Farming is not a problem I'm concerned with. The act of repeating the same match/level/setup to gain its rewards multiple times is a product of players figuring out how to best get to the thing they want and then doing that. People can have fun with that or do it for utilitarian reasons, and it doesn't really factor into my work.
I hope this clears up why Firebase White and Glacier underwent changes.
Modifié par Jos Hendriks, 15 octobre 2012 - 12:02 .
Retour en haut
