CCP Rattati had a flurry of activity on both the DUST forums and the Discord channel earlier today. We decided it would be best to compile all of it for you instead of waiting for the end of the week. Remember, everything is considered up in the air to some extent, so give your feedback!

May 16th 2017

DUST 514 Official Forums – Link

Fox Gaiden

I do like the fact that we will have something resembling a capacitor (operating like a mana bar in a fantasy game, for those not familiar with the capacitor in EVE.) Maybe there will be a fitting trade off over the resources it requires to fit, versus how much capacitor it will use to activate?

CCP Rattati

This is something we are heavily looking at, we have a few design pillars that we are working from and the top one of those is

Balance through Quantity, Capacitor and Cooldowns

Universal Equipment [vs Class-Only]

Universal Slots [vs Offensive/Defensive, vs High/Low, vs Assault/Logistics, vs Active/Passive]

At most one Resource, maybe zero Resource [vs PG/CPU]

Earned Equipment [vs bought, vs looted]

What this means is we can allow a lot of versatility, and balance through “availability”. Power can be increased or decreased by the Cap cost/recharge rate instead of pre-battle configurations of PG/CPU.

Can I “use” it vs can I “fit” it

We start the update off with a pretty interesting quote. It looks like the developers are considering some very large deviations from what players may be used to in DUST or EVE. Balance through quantity, capacitor, and cooldowns feels fairly intuitive, where skills/equipment will use Capacitor and possibly be subjected to a cooldown to prevent constant spam. As for universal equipment instead of class based, the only thing I can draw from this is that any equipment can be used by any class. This isn’t really that much of a deviation from what we are used to aside from arguably the Cloak for the Scouts in DUST. Universal slots is also very different, avoiding high and low slots; this may require some creative changes to have fitting make sense in a way that’s possible to balance. This also ties in with his next point regarding only one fitting resource, or possibly no fitting resource. I can only imagine that they may be trying to tie everything to capacitor and making the capacitor the limiting factor for fitting which could be interesting. Finally earned equipment instead of bought or looted heavily implies to me that once you unlock a suit, you effectively earn a BPO of it so the suit itself never needs to be replenished, just the things that are placed into it. This is pretty similar to some of the original concepts that were talked about in the earliest days of Project Legion.

All in all it seems that while they have a direction they’re aiming, a lot of this is still up in the air or subject to change, so give your feedback now. In general they seem to be going for a very open ended fitting system that is devoid of many limitations. I have several reservations about the ability to balance such an open system, so I’d like to see more details on how they plan keep things fair and balanced.

Moorian Flav

Would there be a way for Civilian and even possibly T1 suits use the simplified power core but T2 and T3 suits use PG/CPU? Just a thought.

CCP Rattati

Something we absolutely consider

I’m not sure I’m a big fan of this, at least in a literal implementation. I think switching the rules half way through fitting can almost be more confusing that adopting a more complicated system for all levels and be more consistent. If the idea was refined it may have some merit though, it just needs to make sense.

Draxus Prime

How would an earned equipment system work?

CCP Rattati

Good question

Draxux Prime

Like get X amount of ammo resupplied when you would unlock a better nanohive?

CCP Rattati

Note set in stone, but think battlefield class progression, plus sharing items between classes once they are unlocked. The more classed played, the bigger the inventory. This is in regards to the basic class gear such as repair tools for logis, cloak field for infiltrators, ect.

So the second part of this quote is the interesting part. Rattati has spoken in the past about pre-made dropsuits that can then be modified and swapped out with different equipment. However it seems that the act of unlocking the suit is what unlocks the equipment which may be unique to that class. Because they’re pushing for universal equipment, the idea could be that you could fit a repair tool to a scout, but you would need to play as a support class to unlock the repair tool, and then fit it to your scout. The more classes you unlock and play, the more fitting options open up for all of your available classes. Again I’m seeing a lot of ideas from the concepts of Legion and I’m not sure how I feel about it, we will have to see more.

Pokey Dravon

Will passive modules such as Armor Repairers consume capacitor as they run? Or is capacitor reserved for more active effects such as equipment? (Ie Repair tools)

CCP Rattati

One way to balance is to reduce Cap when you fit Passive Equipment, less to use in battle for your Actives

This goes back to what I was was saying before about the developers possibly moving to a fitting system where the capacitor is the primary limitation on fitting. This is something I’d like to explore more in depth so expect a write up of an expansion on this idea.

May 16th 2017

DUST 514 Veterans Discord Server – #project_nova Channel

CCP Rattati

Guns have a separate progression. So gun specific achievements can unlock skins, ect.

In context, he was basically saying that you need to actually level up the gun by using it, not just having it on a suit while you play matches. Guns and suits will level separately depending on what you’re doing in match. It also seems like the game will have some form of achievements with rewards such as skins. These sort of things are always nice for people who really want to specialized and be rewarded for their dedication to a weapon or play style.

Pokey Dravon

Well I asked it in the thread, but I was inquiring about how developers plan to compensate for losing the balancing tools that a duel resource system offered.

CCP Rattati

We believe that cap and cooldowns should be enough to balance but we will see.

Again they seem to be pushing for cap to be the primary means of fitting balance.

sebastian the huds

Will weapon progression be like skyrim in that the more you use it, the better you get as far as skills and attachment?

CCP Rattati

Not necessarily more power, but more choice.

This goes a bit in line with what he was talking about in regards to equipment being unlocked and shared. Progression seems to be very focused around the idea that the more you play, the more options you have. I’m curious to see if it will be things like more attachments, more attachment points, stat variations, ect.

(In regards to using capacitor as fitting limitation)

Pokey Dravon

Probably one of those things that will just need to be tested. Get it in the hands of grubby players and see how badly they can break it

CCP Rattati

Yes

Well it would be great to get in there and start testing. Star Wars comes out in December, you know.

CCP Rattati

Weapons are not meant to be limited at all, pick any weapon you like.

Ripley Riley

Will certain dropsuits add benefits to specific weapons? E.g. Use a plasma rifle on a Gallente dropsuit and receive faster reload.

Sir Rebral Palsy

HMG on scout? #nolimits

CCP Rattati

Each class will have actual skills that relate to that class’s role. In the form of bonuses, not fitting reductions. Heavy weapons on scouts is still one of the only class limitation still being debated.

Ripley Riley

Will it apply to weapons line-up like “all infantry rifles shoot confetti 20% faster” or is it bound to race?

CCP Rattati

We are not making 4 of each, so racial limitations are not smart. It’s more “support” weapons or “offensive” weapons we are not making 4 races of every object.

Again, a very open ended style of design. I expect you will see very little in bonuses that cite specific weapons or equipment based off of race, as they want any class to use any weapon (except scouts with heavy weapons). The weapon bonuses you may get could be more related to the sort of role you’re playing and weapons may be divided up into support weapons such as mass drivers versus offensive weapons such as plasma rifles.