What do you think?

Honestly speaking, I hate the class system, as it limits the character create feature the game was supposed to introduce. Why some skills, weapons, armor, chassis or whatever are locked to specific group bothers me.

Rather than having classes, why not let gamers earn in-game money that they could use towards the purchase of armor, skills, weapons, icon changes, avatars or whatever? Leveling up should be rewarded with more, and better options—allowing players to handicap themselves (in exchange for more XP would be a nice treat too).

I’m more in favor of a system like this than what we have now, as it really is a create your own character type of set up.

 

Because the game would be even more broken than it is now.

You people are so intently focusing on this "create a character" thing when all it is is a mislabelling of a "create a loadout" except this time they let you change the chassis as well as what skills and weapons you take in as per other games of this ilk.

You are never going to get some amazing robot creation toolset nor will you be able to deck out an MP character with all your favourite junk because, well, balancing that shit is a nightmare and they haven't even got that right on this closed system.

Also classes allow for people not so good at the killing to make good with helping the team and focuses their play in to something productive. It's a popular system of design for a very good reason.

 

I like the classes, I just don't like chassis restrictions, I do wish there were more classes though in terms of abilities and weapons.

 

I see where the OP is coming from, but that would only lead to min/maxing abilities and traits. Let's say the next game carries over all the traits, abilities and whatnot that WfC has.

Right off the bat, EVERYONE will pick the soldier's 6 bars of health. then you'll have the scouts cloaking, the scientist's jet form due to it's unbeatable speed and again with the soldier's whirlwind attack. Don't forget the perks. I'd go with the health matrix, PoKE 2.0, and Omega Missile.

that's just off the top of my head and you can see how over powered this guy would be. This feature would become less about fun characters and more about which abilities are best for gameplay.

 

I'm not looking for visible cues like noticeable armor difference or what not, but an actual bump in stats. I would like to have the option of giving a scout thicker armor or allowing a tank to cloack itself. Leveling up already rewards gamers with new weapons/abilities, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in different freer system.

You can still be a team player with a system not as restricted as the one we have now. My equipping thicker would allow me to be a better player; my being able to purchase/carry healing weapons would allow me to be more supportive to my team; my being able to dash would help me get to a downed teammate before his/her time expires.

The system, perhaps in its presentation in this game, feels quite limited; I wish it were more than what we're seeing.

 

last post reminds me of most of the problems of now a days trying to jump into MW2 again. seems everyones decked out on that game and it truely aggravates people to put the game down due to the likelyhood of never getting where they need to compete due to their already limited skill set. i would really really really not want anything of this sort to come to WfC. great game so far, needs its tweeks, but hell, look at gears of war. first was great, needed help, 2nd was mind boogling but still they could improve here and there. but now, with three on the way, who knows what bananasness we'll be getting.

just be patient with it all and im sure over time either youll learn to love what you have or simply learn to move on and not be bothered with something that obviously doesnt make you happy. hell, im not much for the multiplayer mode on here, thats why im waiting for a patch or something to allow all my create a tf'ers into escalation. heres hoping.

 

You have broken the game already in this post alone. A cloaked tank? Come on... why would anyone even think about choosing anything else? Overpowered right out of the gate.

Min-maxing ruins every game its a part of making the more interesting stuff completely redundant. A cloaked soldier rocking whirlwind with a healing grenade would be practically unstoppable to the point where if you weren't one you may as well just not play.

Balance is key.

Balance makes it fun. For everyone.

 

Don't care about classes and the restrictions, it forces you to play as a team rather than a one bot army (unless you're on deathmatch in which case you think strategically.. The ability to use the full colour pallet on both bots and cons would be more important to me.

 

I think the classes are necessary to keep everything balanced in the game. I keep thinking of how overpowered powered Slipstream from Escalation would be in multiplayer. A cloaking Jet?

EDIT Did she cloak? Did I combine her with Arcee? I think she cloaked...

 

Your ability to start with a Scrapmaker as a Scientist will let you zip behind enemy lines and destroy the team before they know what hit them.

Your ability to Cloak+Whirlwind as a Soldier will decimate any group of enemies you go up against.

Yeah, fun for you, not for anyone else. Class-based gameplay encourages a balanced game that keeps everyone in check. The developers can edit the classes and fix problems that arise while making sure they keep the same playing style.

Letting everyone do what they want with the character creator will lead to broken fights, frustrated players, and a dead multiplayer except for the uber-l33t hardcore players. Like Twin Twist said, everyone can have fun the way it is now, not just those with awesome skills and more abilities unlocked.

 

Im now imagining how broken the Scout class would be if you made it able to take much more damage and still be able to instakill almost everyone from behind.
While were at it, they need War Cry and the EMP Shotgun too.

As for classes vs no classes:
Keep the class system. Maybe introduce one more class, not sure what though.
Sure, they can be frustrating; who hasnt encountered un-buffed leaders that take way more damage than an overshielded soldier before they drop, who hasnt been instakilled by a melee upon spawn, who hasnt had three sentry guns instantly shred them and who hasnt been destroyed by an X-12 before they can even attempt to fight back.
At least we dont have a class with a flamethrower yet.

 

Well, there would have to be a downside to that. I wouldn’t want things to stay as they are with free reign to deck out your character anyway a gamer pleased. Being able to forfeit a strength (speed/tough armor/powerful gun) for an ability (cloak/warcry/dash) or viseversa sounds pretty fair to me.

I pictured everyone start from the same point, 0 and building their character up from there.

That isn’t how I pictured it. I pictured a system in which one trades a skill for an other skill of equal or greater value, and assuming it were possible to take two strengths, one should have to take a big hit in HP or whatever made things fair.

I totally agree.

How does one have a balanced game when a level 25 character with all the bells and whistles at his/her disposal while my level 1 character has the initial set? Abilities that boost abilities make a strong character stronger, no?

 

But that's just it, it is balanced. You can keep playing and get to that point. It's not that he started out with Cloak, Flak Armour, Heal Ray and War Cry.

 

I haven't played the game "officially" yet (meaning I don't own the game.... YET. Though I did play it at my Best Buy), but I think a Class System works just fine. Why? Because when you create a character, it'll be so freaking powerful, that you can plow through with ease. It's not fun when you plow through things. I mean, the reason why the classes exist is so that there aren't any SUPER-MEGA ULTIMATE Transformers.

Besides, leveling up by fighting and earning it is funner than having it from the get-go. Feels more satisfying.

 

I have to disagree. Abilities that boost other abilities is and always will be better than regular abilities. Yes, everyone can get there, but everyone doesn’t start there.

This is not the system of which I speak. I would like to see a system in which gamers can decide how they spend their experience (armor, weapons, abilities, weapons, grenades, speed etc), leveling up should work as it does now, opening up a gamers options.

I have no issues with a tank cloacking. I do however take issues with a tank with its current stats cloacking, a trade off of sorts would be necessary: HP for cloack; locked out whirlwind while cloack is set as an ability or something else that kept things fair.

I agree with those saying balance is necessary. I don’t want a broken game either. What I want is a game with more options. I do not like that only tanks can be soldiers or jets spies. We can play characters in story mode that have abilities not unique to their classes, so why can’t we mix and match in multiplayer. Yeah, I know Matt says that’s what escalation mode’s for, but sometimes I want to play against real people too darn it.

 

I believe that the class system is essential to keep the game balanced. Without, you're going to end up with ridiculously overpowered guys who pretty much ruin the fun for everyone else.

 

YES. As already stated, the classes have a hard enough time being even as it is with the different abilities. Mixing them up would instantly suck all the fun out of the game.

 

They are needed to keep things fair.

If I could give my jet more HP and a cloak then nothing could stop me. Use cloak fly around and get behide a person and emp shotgun then and fly off, and with more HP i can risk a hit or two.

 

Of course not everyone starts there. That's the point of getting better at the game. When I first started playing I sucked but now similar to Twin Twist my Scientist can take entire groups of raiding enemies down. I worked at getting his level up. I'm not even sure what point you're trying to make here.

No it shouldn't because that causes all the problems many people have already mentioned. A tank, by any measure of the word, is a big slow damage dealing monster. You should not be able to give it Cloak, Leg Servos, Dash and a Heal Ray. It makes it a broken unstoppable force. Then everyone would start picking those abilities. How fun would a game be with 10 cloaked tanks?

That though is why we have classes. It would be silly to pick one ability and lose another, based on the customization you want. What purpose would being a tank be then if you lost the health boost?

I addressed this earlier when I mentioned Slipstream. If I gave that flying character, tank health, Cloaking, War Cry and the EMP Shotgun who would stop me if the other team didn't have mark target? Classes keep it from becoming that broken.