Balance polls

[Primus Avatar]

I admit I have done this before, but a lot of balance concerns are simply "whining" and/or a fear of the unknown. For example, a new player in a capital ship complaining about how three bombers beat him - "My solaris are crap, buff them". Weapons and equipment need to be tested and tested (we are still in the beta, so this and bug finding should be the focus of players). Drawing conclusions and making passionate suggestions about balance issues from single encounters is not very helpful.

Balancing requires a knowledge of all the ships, and how they fit into a "jigsaw". You can't claim to know all the balance just from single choice encounters.

I'd like to draw some examples:

1) Even thou Dab's balance-posts are extremely extensive and detailed, he wont always get he community's support in those ideas/suggestions.

2) Even thou it was someone's bright idea that buffing the OORP NPCs is going to forward the RP level in-game look what came up, one man (or one lobby's) decision shouldn't be enough EVER. If the community wants a certain balance fix they should be allowed to protest (the civil way ofc.) to some of the developer's ideas.

3) polls are a necessary evil, but constructive posts with valid arguments should take priority. just remember some of the admin nominations.... did you see the amount of NO some of the new admins got? Lack of options makes UNSURE people vote YES! Personally I like the new admins, but still....

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wassup

[farmerman]

Polls, in and of themselves, definitely seem to be biased and on the pointless side.

However! When that happens, it seems like there's a lot of discussion in response, which is very much not pointless. So they can be useful in an indirect way, so long as the numbers aren't just blindly followed.

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[Robert.Fitzgerald]

I won't comment on Dab's balancing posts, as those issues don't concern me (I don't have any kusari characters, and the two threads of Dab's I know of don't concern any of my characters).

About NPCs though, balance opinions from the community are useful if they have been researched/tested. However, the majority of the complaints are things like "I undocked from x base, and was killed by y. Can you fix this" or "I was just killed in my x ship by y while missioning. Fix please". Just because something isn't working as it used to, does not mean it is unbalanced or unfair. It may just have a different role now, for example Capital Ship missiles. They have a different role, so a post saying "why don't they track fighters anymore" is not useful. Things like npc numbers and power should be tested extensively, so proposals can be made to the development team. For example, if your advanced train is being killed by titan npcs, then try flying in different ways (dodging, eking 180 degrees to escape). Try using different turrets and firing techniques to kill the npcs. Equip different armour / shields in order to reduce the incoming damage. If, after trying all these options, the NPCs simply are too powerful, then yes, submit some suggestions to the development team.

I personally think that some npcs are too strong, namely titans in the omegas and omicrons. However, my issue with these npcs are not that they are tough - that is fine, i can just kill them - but that they can sometimes bog you down. If you can't run, you have to kill them. Killing extra NPCs can ruin a character's rep board, so I don't like these specific npcs. I run with different loadouts and setups on my various ships, and I have found a good counter to annoying CD equipped npcs (use a big transport which is less likely to be disrupted, and more armour to weather the firepower).

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[Athenian]

I voted no.

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Former member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"
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