"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" *
In an effort to understand my Dust 514 gaming I wrote down my Dust 514 activity over two day's.
This entry is more like me thinking aloud so bear with me (raaaar).
My main is an Amarian (not that that that makes a difference), that I created just over a year ago.
He has 15.5 Million SP. Spread around in area's that do not deserve SP and that I dont' use, but they seemed like a good choice at the time. I will not be spending Aurum to reset them.
Doing matches has gained him a colossal amount of assets (suits/weapons/modules/vehicles) as he has upgraded gear/suits on the fly, been given freebies with the newsletter and gotten salvaged end of match items. He also has the opposite of the obsolete gear, a heck of a lot of gear he is not skilled into yet. The only additional items I had at the start are the Templar armour/weapons from the Eve 10th Anniversary boxset.
From Strongbox's I've also gotten:
'Quafe' Sniper Rifle
'Quafe' Plasma Cannon
'Quafe' Nova Knives
'Kaalakiota' Scout C-I suit
The character info screen lists his lifetime WarPoints at 335263, Kills at 2441, Death's at 4062 giving him a ratio of 0.60
He has no standings with any faction as I only join into Public matches and have avoided FW due to not being in a corp with a lot of people so mainly play solo.
Loyalty rank is level 2 with 4098 points to go to level 3. Rank 2 means 2.0% addition isk per battle.
Although I have a lot of suits and fits the bulk of the matches are played with two suits more often than not.
Assault Fit:
Amarr Assault A/1-Series
- Enhanced LDM x2 in the mids
- CRD-9 Assault Scrambler Rifle
- GN-13 Flaylock Pistol
- M1 Locus Grenade
- Templar drop Uplink
- Enhanced Ferroscale Places x3
- Enhanced Armour Repper
Overall cost for this fit is 42,360 isk
Sniper Fit:
'Kaalakiota' Scout C-I
- Enhanced LDM x3
- NT-511Sniper Rifle
- Nanohive x1
Overall cost for this fit is 17,745 isk
LDM=Light Damage Modifier
I usually login, see the daily login SP reward screen and go collect the warbarge items.
My warbarge has all it's subsystems to level 2. I have recently stopped spending components to claim experimental weapons. (My skills wont' allow me to use most of those rewards).
I'll than scan down the daily mission list, take into account the overall reward for X amount of missions completed and be left with a "to do" list of what I need to accomplish that I consider a "doable" in a gaming session.
e.g. Complete 5 missions to get X reward; Missions = Win 1 Battle, Get 25 Kills, Hack 5 Installations, Win 3 Battle's, Get 13 kills.
Even with the overlap these are a very doable list for me.
Ones I'll avoid are:
Earn XX,XXX SP in a single day, Hack XX Primary Objectives, Get 150 Kills, Destroy XX installations etc.
I will make certain exceptions for strongbox key's and the new Aurum currency reward so I will try to complete those in a greater push than normal.
Of the Public matches I join I've selected Ambush, Domination and Acquisition, excluding Skirmish. (Way too many large corp squads that cream solo/small group players).
On day one I played 8 matches with my main.
TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE
Domination 0 0 0 0 4294 Joined at end, Loss
Domination 9 2 8 7083 141627 Minor Protostomping, Loss
Domination 3 0 5 3290 153102 Protostomping, Loss
Domination 3 1 6 3962 153634 Protostomping, Loss
Acquisition 2 1 4 2561 94845 Win
Domination 4 3 4 4784 155980 Loss
Acquisition 1 2 6 0 136685 Semi afk (phone), Loss
Domination 3 1 8 4990 104939 Stuck between 2 Proto teams,Win
On day two I played another 8 matches with my main.
TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE
Domination 6 3 6 7316 169757 Loss
Domination 14 9 7 11772 251022 Loss
Domination 2 2 4 2790 160796 Loss
Domination 5 4 6 5803 156799 Loss
Domination 1 0 0 0 14023 Joined at end, Loss
Acquisition 6 2 3 5756 229042 Win
Domination 9 5 11 8342 205821 Loss
Domination 4 2 7 7891 220753 Loss
Overall between the two day's I only seem to have had one good game on each day, both were losses as a match overall and both were my second match of the day.
Day two has slightly better overall results per match.
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My Alt is a Caldari, I started this character to see what a complete noob experience was from scratch.
There had been changes to the starting suits given and I immediately zeroed in on the Minmatar fit that was given being the best for my playstyle.
This evolved form starter suit to a standard and I'm about halfway into the skills for the advanced suit's loadout. These suits being prefitted with weapons and modules is great.
Her Lifetime SP is 2.3 Million, WP = 106982, kills=523, Death's=1235 Raio = 0.42
Even with the bad ratio like that (not that my main is any good) I find I have more fun and less frustration in matches. I think I've said this before but killing a proto player with all their finery with a little cheap weapon is just hilarious in my book. Not to mention the attention that that proto and his/her friends give me after that that does end in some funny situations.
This alt has no special items whatsoever, it's all militia and standard fair. SP all being pointed towards the Advanced Min medium suit. So thinking that she is specialised wouldn't be unfair.
Like my main there is a lot of gear and suits I wont' touch again and lots I will never skill into.
I treat the gamplay of this alt the same as the main.
Public matches I join I've selected Ambush, Domination and Acquisition, excluding Skirmish. work out a "to do" list from the daily missions etc.
There may be less options to choose from when in game (the main drawback is the lack of skills for an effective sniper fit), but I treat this alt the same as when on the main.
On day one I played 3 matches with my alt (3 was the magic number to complete the todo list).
TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE
Domination 2 7 4 6249 151873 Loss
Domination 0 4 6 4082 139367 Loss, late join,protostomped
Domination 2 2 9 3214 95129 Win
On day two I played 4 matches with my main.
TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE Domination 4 4 12 7965 175590 Loss(in more ways than one)
Domination 0 0 1 0 43800 Wini (joined at end)
Domination 2 1 11 6899 121040 Loss(protostomped)
Domination 2 5 5 3425 126461 Win
In retrospect I think I should stop playing the Alt, those numbers are depressing.
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For my main the matchmaker system feels like it will lump me in with a lot of what I think are 20Mill plus players or at the very least are players that are specifically skilled into their chosen suit's/weapon's. And those suits and weapons are indeed prototype's. There is a lot of protostomping, it's unavoidable. pretty much all matches are "it" to a degree. I've also encountered at least two matches that had my side pushed back "redlined", which really is a supreme protostomping.
If it wasnt' for the rewards on the daily missions I think I'd have drifted away from the game, maybe not totally abandoning it but only going back every "now and again".
I also think I'm among the lower % of the community and as such my gripes are going to be among the most unchanged aspects of the game.
My match annoyances are:
Jumping/running fast scout explosive planters. (Even with the changes to explosive throwing)
Shotgun backstabbers.
Overall game annoyances:
Protostomers that make it look like there was no matchmaking system at all.
Super protosomping redline barrel f**kover matches that make me turn the console off.
Given the random number of SP that each player has and the wide spread of skills that it could be used on it is very hard to have a matchmaking system based on it, the meta level on gear seems to be the better choice but in saying that my Alt can wear a suit with a high meta number with 2 mill skill points and still face a 15 mill sp character in the same meta suit and that is so not a match.
It makes things an unequal battlefield to rejoice in the upward struggle as you try to claw up the SP ladder to use the good gear effectively, enduring the 10,000 feet stomping on the way better be worth the it....
Of all the things listed in the 1.1.2 hotfix patch notes the only thing that conceres me is the
"Orbital Strike War Point cost has been reduced by 20% for all strikes", because as if they weren't bad enough to endure there will be more of them spammed about.
This game has so much promise and with a small dedicated team that is working with the community to make it better and deliver on the potential it should be reaching a spot better than expected. I have said in a post before that I fear when CCP starts to retake more interest as I think they will override decisions for a worse result.
So all in all despite the lack luster numbers from my matches I really enjoy it. The game has me going back for more. A feelings that go deeper than the numbers the game generates.
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