aesthetocyst wrote: Shield hopping requires speed. Changes to the game are all in the direction of reducing speed. Lower offense vs higher health = longer matches. It's a gift basket for snipers. "Things are slowed down for snipers too," you might say. You don't get it. The longer a player is unshielded, the greater the likelihood a coincidental hit will land. If this unshielded player tries 2, slower fights, anyone who queued them up during that first fight will finish attacking before the poor player finishes his second.
GothicKratos wrote: I've really thought for a long time that it wasn't necessarily that the developers were disconnected with the "high end players", but that they didn't desire there to be a significant "high end player" advantage. I truly believe that the developers wish to create a game that is truly casual in spirit. What if these things are their way of trying to focus in on the gameplay style of playing for awhile, dropping a shield, and coming back in a few hours?
GothicKratos wrote: I've really thought for a long time that it wasn't necessarily that the developers were disconnected with the "high end players", but that they didn't desire there to be a significant "high end player" advantage. I truly believe that the developers wish to create a game that is truly casual in spirit. What if these things are their way of trying to focus in on the gameplay style of playing for awhile, dropping a shield, and coming back in a few hours? ?
GothicKratos wrote: I don't know if they're going about everything "the right way", but if that's the goal in mind, is that necessarily a bad thing? The biggest complaint is the game is too much grind, so what if their end game is to remove the required grind?
GothicKratos wrote: I truly believe that the developers wish to create a game that is truly casual in spirit.
aesthetocyst wrote: I started playing in Dec 2013. I left in August 2014. On a slow, snowed-in day in Feb 2015, I logged on. A lot had changed, there were new characters, the X-Force I had laying around since the beginning had been brought up to speed. Catching up the second half od Season XI, I had a great ride in Season XII, despite being 5 months behind the times. Now, I see the game continuing to change, to cater to new players, as they must in their scramble to keep it going. Between time shards being isolated (they don't need to be ... just have players in earlier times in brackets tied to those end times, and treated as being shielded once those times are passed. Let everyone "see" everyone, and feed more targets into qs. There; problems of swarm attacks and broken qs reduced.), cooldowns (you really want to kill shieldhopping? reverse the mechanic. Require 30min to pass before a player can re-shield. Hopping dies, shields become the "breaks" they were intended(?) to be.), and the recent changes neutering offense, and now boosting health .... PVP is returning to the state it was in when before shields were introduced. Shield hopping requires speed. Changes to the game are all in the direction of reducing speed. Lower offense vs higher health = longer matches. It's a gift basket for snipers. "Things are slowed down for snipers too," you might say. You don't get it. The longer a player is unshielded, the greater the likelihood a coincidental hit will land. If this unshielded player tries 2, slower fights, anyone who queued them up during that first fight will finish attacking before the poor player finishes his second. Value of experience in the game at large, of connection to the community beyond the game, is being reduced. So, toss it. Go casual. No more shields, no more spending on heals. I can place top 25, 50 at worst based on roster strength. And PVE verses scaled, health-boosted opponents, with offense-neutered toons? Right.