Buffing vs Nerfing
DanielD
Join Date: 2010-11-16 Member: 74960Members
Join Date: 2010-11-16 Member: 74960Members
From what I have seen, especially the recent builds, UW is pretty good about this. I have 5 minutes to kill, however, and figure this is worth talking about anyway.
Long story short, buffing is (imo) almost always a better choice than nerfing. Except for things that are there for feel (making the skulk bite require having your jaws on the marine) or fun (the fuel limit making it possible to kill jetpacking marines) I reckon it's always a plus to make stuff stronger.
Why? Because it's satisfying to feel powerful in an FPS. I really like the team-play mechanics and how being in a group is ALWAYS better. But the fact that a single Fade or jetpacking marine can do a lot of damage solo is also something positive. Nerfs in a game like NS2 tend to lead to players being forced to play together, making them feel weak. Encouraging teamplay is good, but options are always nice. I'm not saying I want people to be able to play CoD style and run around the map like an idiot, but just that it's good that lone wolf missions are possible.
Buffing instead of nerfing also tends to raise the skill ceiling, especially if we're talking about buffing DPS over surviveability. It means a talented player, alien or marine, can do MORE to help his team with his skill than he could if marines/aliens in general were weaker.
My two cents.
Long story short, buffing is (imo) almost always a better choice than nerfing. Except for things that are there for feel (making the skulk bite require having your jaws on the marine) or fun (the fuel limit making it possible to kill jetpacking marines) I reckon it's always a plus to make stuff stronger.
Why? Because it's satisfying to feel powerful in an FPS. I really like the team-play mechanics and how being in a group is ALWAYS better. But the fact that a single Fade or jetpacking marine can do a lot of damage solo is also something positive. Nerfs in a game like NS2 tend to lead to players being forced to play together, making them feel weak. Encouraging teamplay is good, but options are always nice. I'm not saying I want people to be able to play CoD style and run around the map like an idiot, but just that it's good that lone wolf missions are possible.
Buffing instead of nerfing also tends to raise the skill ceiling, especially if we're talking about buffing DPS over surviveability. It means a talented player, alien or marine, can do MORE to help his team with his skill than he could if marines/aliens in general were weaker.
My two cents.
Comments
so you can certainly buff everything by taking turns, but when a single weapon or ability stands out as overpowered, it's just way faster and easier to tweak a single thing instead of the entire game.
underpowered abilities or weapons will simply be less used (e.g. xenocide). i think that's better than having one powerful thing everyone can abuse (e.g. jetpacks before the fuel-nerf).
so imo, UWE should nerf and buff as they see fit without artificially tendencies.
Now we have a game with no sentries, and aliens rarely need to cooperate to break a forward marine base the way they had to before. (Not to mention marines are pretty much condemned to always going PG tech first since they have no other means of holding map control)
A nerf to team A is a buff to team B, and vice versa, people just don't see it that way because they struggle to see the bigger picture. Furthermore, in a system where X is increased by 20%, it may be a buff, but its really just a nerf over the system in which X always existed at a 50% increase. A 20% improvement is a nerf over a 30% improvement.
On the grander scale of things, it doesn't matter.
The only nerf to perhaps be weary of is a content nerf. For example, if a lifeform had ability X which was seen as too powerful, a nerf which completely removed it would potentially be worrying.