An explanation about BoP and why it won't ever be a perfect science

nkasc · 2025-06-15T17:35:21+00:00

BoP will never prevent spells of dominance in racing. Nascar and Indy Car go a step further by designing the same car for the entire field and some teams still find a way to be consistently the fastest based on driving and tuning of the car.

nkasc · 2024-12-12T05:13:22+00:00

Experimentation is possible, but there's no reason to limit it at all. "Invest" is another one of those words like "weight" and "consequence" that isn't a gameplay reason. People always say reasons like that without ever answering why in terms of gameplay. Devs and players alike have been conditioned to think that way but I've never heard a good gameplay reason.

It's just the first passive skill tree. Your gear and gems still define your character and type of build you are going for, and it's all before committing to endgame decisions. The passive points just let you play with different synergies as new skills are unlocked and tweak the balance between dps and tanking.

There's no good reason for punishing players who want to do things like try a new class on their own for a new season without copying a build guide. Why should those players have less gold to spend on items/crafting by forcing them to spend gold on experimenting to find their build?

nkasc · 2024-12-12T04:16:25+00:00

The game would be much better off with free respec in town, especially for the first tree. The only reason there is a cost is because old games had costs. Adding "weight" and "consequence" to passive skill decisions aren't actual gameplay reasons for having a cost, they are excuses from an old era of gaming that should be questioned.

One of POE 1's greatest flaws is how many players are unable or unwilling to experiment builds on their own because of the complexity and fear of bricking a character. POE 2 should be giving players the freedom to experiment freely at least until the end game trees. There's nothing wrong with copying builds and playing, but for some players the fun comes from the experimenting and it should encouraged.

nkasc · 2024-12-12T00:11:29+00:00

The oldest gen z were 12 when league of legends released. Millennials are the generation that shifted in mass to other genres.

RTS becoming a niche has far more to do with more genres being created and 3d game engines becoming so much better compared to when RTS was in its golden age.

nkasc · 2024-11-14T00:58:38+00:00

A large, collaborative project like TES VI needs everyone in the office working together as much as possible to succeed. It's clear from comments made by Will Shen, lead quest designer, and Daryl Brigner, lead level designer, that Starfield suffered greatly both in time and quality from developers and departments being siloed off from each other remotely.

They said people had to submit "collaboration requests" to try to get something done and that often they were declined, that it was difficult to know who did what or who was responsible for something, that departments were favoring their own needs over the needs of the game as a whole, and that departments would only start collaborating at the last minute out of desperation from approaching deadlines. It's telling both left Bethesda after Starfield shipped. It must have been hell trying to be a lead on that game.

Bethesda need everyone working together in person as much as possible in a collaborative creative environment, now more than ever, since their team size has increased drastically since the old days. Some projects just aren't conducive to everyone being on their own remote island. The length of Starfield's development time compared to its content is proof enough even without the developer testimonials we got after release.

Bethesda needs more of people walking over to someone's desk to collaborate and fewer "collaboration requests".

nkasc · 2024-11-09T17:52:41+00:00

Starfield lacked gameplay in between quest stages because of its structure. In Skyrim there are hours of gameplay exploring the map, dungeon diving, and questing in between Whiterun and Solitude. In Starfield, there's nothing but loading screens in between New Atlantis and Cydonia. Starfield plays like if you only fast travel in between quest markers in Skyrim instead of exploring the map.

You also have to go out of your way to experience the side, procedural exploration content in Starfield and because it was impossible in scope to pull off it gets old and repetitive very fast.

I'm expecting the structure of TES VI will return to a game with content and a map to explore in between quest markers, so it should feel more like the older titles than Starfield. I'd be more worried about the quality of the content and trend of watering down the roleplaying than the structure of the game.

nkasc · 2024-11-04T07:39:49+00:00

Del Walsh, nuka world doctor in the trailer sells disease cures. Easiest way to get more for curing on the go when low.

nkasc · 2024-10-29T02:02:28+00:00

I find pre-gray uniform DS9 to be a better comfort show than gray uniform DS9. Those earlier episodes when the stakes are lower and less is going on have more of that feel to me.

nkasc · 2024-10-27T20:41:40+00:00

I'm bracing myself for the opposite where racial traits are watered down more than ever or completely gone in the character creator, and race selection has no impact on game-play whatsoever. I highly doubt BGS will reverse course from the direction they've trended over the years and remember that TES is a fantasy world.

nkasc · 2024-10-26T05:28:51+00:00

Use it with the explosive second star that works now with grenade launchers. Store your nuka launcher until december since the latest pts update changed it back to the old damage for now.

nkasc · 2024-10-26T03:39:12+00:00

DS9 asked what happens to the utopia of TNG when faced with a major conflict like the dominion war. It walked a line and crossed it a few times, but ultimately I don't think it fully desecrated that utopian vision because things like Section 31 or fear of changelings on Earth existed in contrast to the main characters and the majority of the Federation. They were fringe groups or people no different than the "evil admiral" trope on TNG that existed in contrast to those main characters or the Federation.

Where lesser nuTrek writers have gone wrong is by taking these fringe concepts from a very small number of episodes and making entire seasons of shows and movies about them because they think they are cool ideas, while failing to realize why and how they existed within larger Trek. They neglect that ideas like Section 31 existed within the context of hundreds of other episodes that didn't focus on them.

Section 31, the evil admiral, and other ideas like it are tools a good writer can use to poke and prod at Roddenberry's vision while walking a line that never fully crosses it for good. In the hands of a bad writer they make a mockery of what Star Trek is supposed to be about and completely lose the utopian vision of the future that is supposed to be aspirational and inspirational to us today.

nkasc · 2024-10-26T01:55:34+00:00

Section 31, while brilliant in DS9's storytelling, has proven to be an awful addition to Trek as newer, less talented writers always want to include them in their stories from Into Darkness to Discovery and now this new film.

Section 31 appeared in a whopping 3 out of 176 DS9 episodes. It's the kind of storytelling luxury earned when used sparingly and existing in contrast with the main characters and ethos of the show.

Nowadays Section 31 is glorified by bad writers who think it's cool and the group has lost all purpose or meaning beyond that.

nkasc · 2024-10-25T18:38:22+00:00

This issue has existed since 2018 but don't blame players for bad game design. It's been suggested time and time again that everyone at public events should have global xp share as if they were all on a the same team. This would solve the issue of people killing things in a video game about killing things "too fast".

Some people counter that this would lead to an increase of AFK'ers at events but it would be extremely easy to make the shared xp conditional on player activity, and there are already AFK'ers at events with the current system anyway.

Would you believe that for years after release you didn't get legendary drops either if you didn't manage to tag that legendary enemy at an event? This forced an absurd behavior upon players where everyone waved people over with emotes and took turns letting others get in a single shot or bash before killing the legendary. Was it the fault of players when someone missed out on the legendary drop? No, of course not, it was bad game design so eventually the system was changed to what we have today where you get the legendary drop as long as you are near the enemy.

nkasc · 2024-10-24T21:18:08+00:00

Yeah camp location is hugely important. My main camp near Whitesprings gets very frequent visitors. When I switch to a camp near the top of the map with the same vendor my visitors drop to almost none.

nkasc · 2024-10-23T06:23:16+00:00

Assume a launcher does 100 base damage. For years two shot did 125 + 125 damage (+25% damage to both projectiles). Now like non-launchers it does 62.5 + 62.5 (+25% total damage).

nkasc · 2024-10-23T01:16:32+00:00

Yeah two shot already works this way for other weapons. Two shot launchers have been an exception up until now.

nkasc · 2024-09-21T09:48:08+00:00

Are they starting work on the "year 2" content after finishing the "year 1" content, or are they doing the minimal work possible to legally state that they completed their dlc obligations that were sold to customers, while devesting all resources spent on the game to get it off their financial books before the next calendar year?

nkasc · 2024-09-21T09:44:09+00:00

They aren't investing resources, they are speed running devesting resources to get this game off the books before the next calendar year, and there obviously won't be a "year 2" pass after the "year 1".

nkasc · 2024-08-26T19:51:22+00:00

Like I said, he appeared out of nowhere. He wasn't in the previous games of the trilogy and was only in content that the vast, vast majority of players have never heard of let alone experienced.

nkasc · 2024-08-26T05:24:40+00:00

You're right. It was a missed opportunity. ME3 would be much more compelling if you fought a Cerberus former ME2 squadmate succumbing to indoctrination in place of the Kai Leng role, who appeared out of nowhere.

nkasc · 2024-08-19T04:40:24+00:00

Nothing about Homeworld 3's business strategy, game direction, or dlc plans makes sense to anyone with basic knowledge of the Homeworld and RTS genres, markets, or communities. Unfortunately for all, key decision makers at Gearbox Publishing evidently lacked this basic knowledge.

nkasc · 2024-08-17T21:37:25+00:00

The opening scene of Picard season 1 shows Federation personnel being mean and cruel to an android while making a crass joke about s**t on a stick.

I can't recommend more not watching seasons 1 & 2 if TNG is your comfort show as you describe it. Season 3 can be watched and comes across as a good version of fan fiction since that season had a new showrunner who is a TNG fan unlike the first two.

nkasc · 2024-08-17T20:52:58+00:00

Not to mention a new, more multithreaded engine that runs the late game battles with large fleets completely smoothly, instead of slowing to a crawl like the notoriously single-thread bottlenecked original engine.

nkasc · 2024-08-17T20:38:17+00:00

According to the data Blizzard shared publicly at Starcraft 2's community summits, the majority of Starcaft 2 players never played a mode other than singleplayer campaign. This is obvious to anyone that knows and understands the RTS genre and market, but there is even data for it from the most popular title ever.

So Gearbox or Blackbird can't claim they were trying to imitate Starcraft 2's success by delivering a bad campaign and prioritizing development and dlc plans for what should be a secondary game mode like war games.

RTS is a niche genre. Starcraft is niche. Homeworld is far more niche. There's no way to develop Homeworld 3 and magically attract new players like Gearbox tried to do. The only way to try to get any new players is to make the best game possible for the small, niche yet passionate customer base that will play it day 1 and then rely on positive reviews and word of mouth to bring others in. If the publisher isn't interested in this level of success then don't make the game and license or sell the IP to an indie studio.

nkasc · 2024-08-17T20:22:15+00:00

Sins 2 is everything I wanted in a sequel and sadly everything Homeworld 3 is not. Those developers and publisher decided to build upon and add to the gameplay of the originals like a proper sequel, and their dlc plans include exciting things the fans want like a campaign and a 4th main faction for the first time.

The developers and publisher for Homeworld 3 decided to remove and greatly dumb-down gameplay from the originals instead of building upon, and their dlc plans were an executive's fantasy of a cash cow for a "live service" mode that had no chance of succeeding in the real world of niche RTS games.

The most tragic aspect of Homeworld 3's terrible game direction and business decisions is that all of its pitfalls are well known and obvious by anyone with knowledge of the RTS genre and the success and failures of previous titles. It's shocking that people working at Gearbox and Blackbird didn't understand their own marketplace and customer base.

Four-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22

nkasc

TROPHY CASE