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Count von Tilly -> A New Perspective on Balance (3/27/2011 18:23:00)
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As we probably all know too well, balance is generally considered a big issue in this game, whether or not it is between the 3 classes or varium/nonvarium. I believe that the stem of this problem is not from the actual imbalance, but from the high density of the players that have varium at the top levels, and that the pressure to balance the classes can be alleviated by increasing the nonvarium player population.
As a nonvarium lvl 29 TM and a lvl 30 merc, I find that among the nonvarium population, balance has already been achieved. Whenever I fight another nonvarium player around the same level, the fight is generally close, with strategy dictating more of the outcome than anything else. Nonvarium players have too few stats to abuse OP builds the way varium users can with enhancements.
However, less than 50% of my fights are like this, for they are usually filled with level 32 varium players against whom i have less than 1% chance of winning against (I've only killed two in my entire history of playing). It is due to this power gap that most f2p players quit once they reach lvl 27-29. Since most of the f2p players quit by then, the varium players are forced to face other varium players more often, making the imbalances of the game more apparent to those vaium players, esp when enhancements allow varium users to abuse those builds you all know about.
If there were more f2p players at the higher levels, the varium elites would face each other less often, and the frustration of their losses against other varium OP builds will be buffered by the satisfaction of their more frequent wins against nonvarium players. As for the nonvarium players, they would not have to fight in as many hopeless lvl32 varium fights since there would be more f2p players to fight against. It would be win-win for both. The ideal ratio between elite fights and nonvarium fights ought to be 1:10, not 1:1
As to how this can be achieved, I'm not an expert there. I would say more marketing perhaps? Or better incentives for lvl 27-31 nonvariums to continue playing? This game has great potential, but it is not showing much of it right now. Those who pay for varium should be paying to have an advantage over other players, not to simply be on equal grounds.
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