It's not just about crafting, it's about balancing the game, and that's the main purpose of the beta-test.
There are some obvious differences between TLA and 2238, and it's part of the global design.
But beyond that, there is a problem about huge disparities between NCR and the rest of the world.
If we ask anyone, there would be 2 types of answers :
1) Those who thinks that big alliances are too powerful and that non guarded cities are too dangerous. If you go alone in bluesuit, you can expect survive for 2 or 3 minutes, if you go alone with equipment, you die, if you go with a large group of member full equiped, you will start a big battle which will attract bigger teams. Then if you manage to defeat some of them, the largest group will finally win.
2) Guys who are already in alliance or larges groups thinks that the main problem is about getting/crafting equipment. If equipment was more easy to get/craft, it's clear that people would not be so
conservative about it, and would care less about going in others towns with it. Also, groups of raiders and big teams would definitly not attack every single people they meet. Because it's pointless to loot this crappy equipment that is so easy to get everywhere. Unless they are bored and got nothing else to do...
I think both of them are right, and the point is there is not a single solution for that. Again this is about balancing.
1) Big alliances : Why does people likes to play in so big alliances ? Why do they organize big meetings and talk in a different laguage than their own ? Why do they spend so much time in setting rules together, organizing battles, tactics etc.. Everything is more difficult when there is so many people to drive, this is a pain to everybody, but still, a lot of people is doing it, and there are always more and more people who wanna join big groups. Why the fuck ?
Just take a look about "big battles", and how people whine about it on irc sometimes. The
number of mens you can bring in fight is FAR MORE important than any tactics, any character build, any drug you use. And why is that ?? Why the fuck this number is so much important that everybody are talking about it in every single battle we do ? On the Mumble/Teamspeak channels, we always hear "5 people here" "6 people there" "How many are them ?" "No sorry there are 9" "How many mutants you see ?" "Are we
enough to fight them ?" This last sentence is the most relevant about what are big battles today. Again i'm asking WHY THIS NUMBER IS SO IMPORTANT ?
Everbody know the answer, and this is one of the biggest gameplay balancing point that was cut in half a long time ago and never re-adjusted since it. Yeah, we know why this number is so important, it's because we all got the same amount of HP (around 200), the same amount of skills with guns (around 200), rather the same equipment during battles and finally all the same fucking level.
Its very simple =>
The lowest the level cap is, the similar the characters will be for everybody. It's easy to understand, and it's easy to see what was the difference between 2238 before level cap, and after. One of the main answer to level cap and simillar characters was creating big teams and then big alliances, in fact it was so obvious, it was just in front of our eyes and everybody just act as if they forget about it.
Now, lets talk more the way we can make character being really different, and how this can improve the gameplay in battles. I think 2238 got a far more better battle system than TLA, but in somehow, big battles are a little more tacticals and interesting in TLA. Maybe it's because its more static, and everybody can take the time to talk about what we are doing, think about next move, think about what can be done in this situation etc... In 2238 it's all about big rush with the maximum amount of people you can. Of course, we all have a lot of tactics and we does try new ones everyday, we get more and more experience from the field etc..
However one biggest flaws in 2238 which brings so less interest in battle is the
preview. I think if we disable preview,
during town control (when the countdown of 20 minutes is running). It will bring so much more interest for this kind of battle and so much more tactics, more hiding in town, more traps, using mercenaries. We can also think about totally remove it. Ok this is a cool feature, but if we think carefully about it, it's just looks like a cheat. Also it doesn't bring more people in town, it's just the opposite. Everybody stay outside towns everytime, you just have to spam preview, if you see somebody, you spawn, you kill, you exit and you wait again.
And please don't think about something like "you have to wait 20 seconds before next preview", this is just correcting a mistake by another bigger one. It's won't improve the gameplay, it will bring more frustration and doesn't change anything about battle tactics.
2) Crafting equipment and scavenging.
I must admit that i agree with Kinkin, and the balance in that field is much more easier than bringing "real" different character types playable in game. Just think about having different cooldown for gathering, not just one for everything. In order to make people do something between the different cooldown, not just waiting and watching youtube.
Also, i really think that people is too much conservative about equipment. Of course, it's a game in a post-apocalyptic universe, everything should be sparse, but again, the equipment people are crafting is not for their own survive. It's big guns and big armors for battles, and most of the time they are not using it for 2 weeks, because it looks so cool to have a big amount of armor in the base, especially when we spend hours to make it. When you are looking at your base inventory, you are in fact thinking about "oh shit this takes days to craft, there is no way we loose it in the desert or in a battle we didn't expect to".
And everybody act like in a stamp collecting madness which the biggest amount of equipment you have, the better you feel, when you look at your base.
I really like crafting, i always do, and i think 2238 has a far more better crafting system than TLA, proffession are cool. But this doesn't change a lot since everybody make different characters, for each type of crafting. This won't probably never change. Ok, what can we change then ?
Maybe Pozzo suggestions should be considered, different XP, maybe not only XP system, but a profession system that need a number of items crafted in this field to get to next level. Not only 3 levels, maybe more than that, depends on time you spend on crafting but again, not a big jack of all trades who can craft everything, just a more balanced one who can be very good for people who really like crafting.
Also i would really like crafting for food or water, but with another typpes of cooldown than crafting items. Maybe the Hardcore system of Fallout New vegas will brings us new ideas about what we really want for food/water system.
Better Scavenged items should really be considered. There also can be encounters restrictions, like now you can encounter San francisco caravan only every hour and it's a cool way to balance it. But the scavenged items should be more interesting, even for low levels characters.
Another suggestion would be, in certain special places, there would be like random equipment to loot on special NPCs. I mean, we can imagine attacking Necropolis or The Enclave and loot some equipment on the corpse. Maybe not on every corpse, and maybe you will spend more ammo than you will get on them, but if you have luck, you will bring back a big fat item that shows up once every week or so.
It would be a good alternative to town control too. People would probably camp it. Battles between teams and NPC respawning between them, getting troubles with both sides, everybody dead because NPC are really tough, bringing back mercenaries there, intense fights and tactics to fight your way throught and finally manage to bring the unique item back to your base after hours of fights. Whoa that sounds very nice
Also it will improve the time we can spend in some place that nobody goes, like Vault 15, Military Base of Ares, Navarro, Sierra, Necropolis, Cathedral etc...
This kind of PvP and PvE interaction would be very very interesting and much more creative than the actual town control. Especially if rewards are worth the fights.
On TLA the Base Control was just about waiting for 12 o'clock and most of the time again, the biggest team finally wins the load. They tried to improved it and they don't have only one fixed time anymore, they now have 2 to 3 hours during which the car can spawn and give it's load to the owner of the base.
The problem about Base control was not just about one fixed time, but also one fixed location to be. Ok there were 3 bases, but only one computer at every base. If there is random equipment on NPC, this won't be one fixed location to be and one fixed load to get and then exit the map with the reward. It would be more interesting to scavenge on corpse looking for items, while anybody can attack you in the back. Big alliances and big teams will probably show up but they always focus too much on killing people, looking for enemies. Maybe a little sneaking scout can make his way throught and can expect getting some loot during intense fights and sometimes it should worth the reward.
In certain places with multiple entrances, they could probably have better battles than town control (which there is also one fixed location to defend, the Mayor and preview that kinda ruins everything). The fact is you cannot know if someone get a unique item from looting a corpse, and you cannot know if a corpse was already looted or not unless you try it so i also think that everybody will spend time in trying to loot the corpses and even if it's a big team it can be very difficult for them to handle looting, big battle, little sneaking snipers, bombers and everything that can happen in this situation.
All right, if you are still reading, then you should probably have your own thinking about everything i mention here, sorry for this huge amount of lines. I spend a lot of time playing and i don't come here very often. I used to beta-test this game for a very long time now and i think i have a good idea about it's potential and capability, but you are right maybe i should separate it in different threads. And maybe it need some extensive discussion before adding it in game. It depends on what you are most interested in.
