Game balance discussion.

[Stoopyface]

R* have repeatedly stated that they would be looking for feedback about GTAO. I have seen a lot of posts denouncing various things, but I have not seen many threads that have tried to discuss these issues; I thought it might be a good idea to try and start this discussion. Hopefully now that the technical problems of the launch are dying down they will be looking more to tweak the game-play and balance. My ultimate aim is to send a clear message to R* about what people want changed balance wise. Also I'm sorry if moderators feel this should be placed in the pinned 'wishlist' thread but that looked more like a thread devoted to adding new features rather than changing existing ones.

 

The single most pressing issue that seems to crop up in this forum is that of farmers. I have some thoughts on this. The first problem of farmers seems to be that the ultimate benefit of farmers is to gain money or ranks and thus buy and unlock more than non-farmers are able to. Therefore farmers have a far greater advantage over non-farmers. However I take issue with this being a problem when you consider that GTAO is actually comprised of 3 distinct multiplayer modes:

 

1. Competitive modes (deathmatch, last team standing, racing): these are all played against skill matched people or those of the same level, or at least this option is available. You only go against high level people if you want to. High level people play against high level people and low level people play against low level people so whether you farm or not makes no difference.

 

2. Co-operative modes (missions and survival): these are also played mostly with people of the same level, but there is nothing you lose by being with a higher level person with better stuff than you. Higher level people are also less likely to play low level missions as they do not provide much RP/money and are frankly not as fun as the higher level missions. Again, mostly low levels go with low levels and high with high, but there is no disadvantage to going with someone of a higher level. The one issue here is with

 

3. Free roam: this is the area where I do think there is a difference, however I would argue the difference is not as large as the more vocal have said it is. This is all assuming there is some high level person/people going around killing lower level characters (if there isn't then what has farming actually done to affect you) I will give some key reasons:

 

a) The most important thing to bear in mind is you can always run away from a high level character. The best cars in the game (even souped up) are not much better than relatively cheap cars such as the Banshee (which you can also find around the world). Furthermore, high level characters chasing you in cars can only use the pistols or micro smg, all of which are low level unlocks. The tank, minigun and rocket launcher are slow as all hell; no one chasing you in a tank can catch any car, nor run you over in passive mode because the tank is just too slow and neither can someone catch you on foot with a minigun.

 

b) The equipment available to the highest level people is not that much better than low level unlocks - sniper unlocks at level 21, assault rifle at a relatively low level that I cannot remember, you get the best body armour at a relatively low level too. Planes and helicopters spawn around the world at airfields and the airport (as well as on top of some buildings). Most importantly the fighter jet is the most powerful vehicle in the game and is not available to buy. Any level character must steal it every time they want to use it; a level 1 character in the fighter jet can easily kill attack helicopters or tanks and only another theft of a fighter jet could challenge them, regardless of level.

 

c) Lastly there is always passive mode, high level people have no way to kill you in passive mode that is not available to low level people (such as running you over). You can also hide in a garage or apartment until they leave or change servers.

 

The one fault to this is the cost of medical bills. A farmer can be killed a lot more than a non-farmer without worrying about the cost. To a non-farmer, being killed randomly is more of a setback due to the cost of medical bills.

 

Simply, the advantage farmers have over non-farmers is (I believe) very small and easily countered. The high price items that farmers can have is more status symbol than it is useful or beneficial. The best apartment offers little benefit beyond the cheapest apartment, the $1 million car is only minutely better than the Banshee, which is a tenth of the cost and as fun as a minigun sounds, it is far inferior against other people than simply running someone down in a car.

 

 

 

 

This brings me to my second issue with farmers, I have seen no mention of this so far but I believe it is far more important. R* have already got cash cards. This is contentious but they have made it possible (and even helped) players to farm. So the best way for players to get high end items is to either farm or buy cash cards. The upshot of this might be that when R* wants to make money on the online they will have to address the issue of people that have got the high end stuff and not bought cash cards to do so - if too many people are doing this then what will they do to make GTA online profitable? This issue is more complex than I want to write now but I have typed far too much already. If there's any interest in this thread then I will be happy to talk more about these things. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this.

 

TL;DR farming's main benefit is only to let you get in game status symbols without using cash cards, but farming might cause R* to find other ways of making money from the online and break the in game economy. What do you think?