Is this necessary for the next installment as it will appeal to a wider audience?
If anyone believes that making
some player's NUMBERS more powerful than other player's NUMBERS in a point and shoot combat game is going to appeal to MMORPG gamers than their
freakin' nuts, because "combat balance" in MMORPG PvP is like the holy grail of game development.
What's more likely is what
Ender said, "
it would completely discourage new players from entering the game", while also alienating those who do try it out, for the simple fact that
MasterChief096 shared with us, "
A veteran should be better because he's a veteran, he has play time experience, he's developed skill and tactics with his weapons, vehicles, and outfit. He knows the game better and thus has a personal advantage over a new player".
Adding player power in the form of bigger numbers will end up making Planetside 2 appeal to even fewer people than Planetside did, because folks just aren't going to pay a monthly subscription fee to allow others to mop the floor with them - especially MMORPG players.
I am absolutely all for character customization, community building gameplay (customizable shared "housing", economic PvP, and other things that are just there for the fun of it), and guild level specialization, but I think it makes sense to follow the Planetside approach of having those customizations effect things the player can
do, rather than increase the player's damage dealing numbers.
Really, when you consider the logic that
MasterChief096 imparted upon us, if anyone should be getting a boost in their numbers it should be the
new players, not the vets! That's what they do in golf (to my understanding), because all those old golfers by rights should be way better than the new guy any way, so why not give the new guy a "handicap"?
When it comes to "realism" aspects, like the handling of the PhysX enabled vehicles, I don't see a problem adjusting those numbers, but again it feels illogical that the more experienced "veteran players" should even *
need* to get bonuses to handling. I mean, wouldn't they have already been flying with some degree of success, despite the piss poor handling numbers they had when they started out? If not, are those people really going to get much better even with a "handicap"? So again, it seems more sensible to give the new players a "handicap" until they get used to the mechanics than it does to make something that vets learned how to master even easier for them to... continue to already master...
That said, adding bonuses to vehicle numbers like booster burn time, turn radius, and other things that pilots actually have available to them as modifications on real life aircraft would make sense for a game like Planetside, because knowing
WHEN to use those modifications would
always trump simply having speced for them in your cert tree.
This issue is going to be the biggest balancing act of the game, so there's definitely a lot to talk about here. I've enjoyed reading people's post!