EIR:R Secrets Revealed - 1: Prestige Point System
Prestige points replace both CPs and RBs. The reason behind this change was that CPs and RBs were promoting strong overpowered companies. This in turn rewarded 'grinders' and penalized casual players.
I don't see a major change from the existing system in this regard. CPs get maxed and then get wasted. RBs get diminishing returned up to a point that the numerical advantage isn't that major, but companies can become maybe 10% huger than your average player over time.
The new system I assume doctrines can be maxed out, so no more PPs will be used there. I similarly assume that company expansion has a dimishing return principle as well, which means that it can still grow similarly to our current diminishing RB system, UNLESS there is a hard cap.
This means that PPs after doctrines are maxed will go towards company expansion and attrition-perks. If a player decides not to go for attrition-perks then they can build a big company even faster than a 'balanced' player because all PP will go there.
The diminishing PP system still seems to reward grinders, just like our current dimishing RB system. And frankly, with ALL persistency games, such as RPGs, grinders WILL be rewarded the more they play because of the nature of such games, unless you hard cap it at the end. E.g. max hero level 100, any other grinding for 'epic' loot give a minscule 5% bonus in some stat. /// max company doctrine size 200 CPs, 'Company Expansion' 150%, then all remainder go into attrition-perks. And that does not seem customisation-geared at all.
If the doctrine/expansion system is so huge that it takes a long time to max every thing out, then once again grinders are rewarded since they get more PP to work towards maxing it out.
PPs will be gained in a similar way as we now generate CPs and RBs. However, while CP gain was limited to a certain number a day, PP gain will not be. Instead, PP will have diminishing returns over the course of a week.
The biggest change is that PP spending will be what we call a 'point soak' or a point of attrition.
The attrition-perks will have to be mighty damn good though. If they are not very strong, then most players will just opt to max doctrines and company sizes (up to whenever it is diminished returned to pointlessly) before spending it on attrition-perks. Seemingly no major change from now, except that you can't spend CPs, but can spend RBs, whereas you can spend all PP if you so choose so.
And since good players will lose their special units less frequently, they of course benefit more. Weaker players will lose their special units more often, making their companies weaker as well. And if special perks are super good, then once again good players will benefit more than weaker players.
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In summary, I don't see any major difference in the stated aim of the PP system to fix overpowered companies. With the current information given, it looks like it's going to be more of the same. Attrition-perks will likely seem to be something that excess PPs can be spent on once a company is maxed out, which is a nice touch but does not work towards the stated major aim.
In any game, and in real life, the 'grinders' and the 'really good' are always going to have stronger/better/more powerful companies than the 'casual', more so in a persistency game. The only thing you can do is reduce the statistical advantage to less than 10%, which the current system already does.
And frankly, people will tend to stay on longer in a game that they do well in as opposed to one that they suck in. Unless it's really a lot of fun even if you lose. So you will always have a super strong 'hardcore' that new players will always encounter, and only the strongest of the new will be able to stay on.
EiR either needs to have a massive influx of players such that there are ALWAYS going to be all skill levels available for everyone to enjoy in, which seems a remote possibility since gamers are required to have CoH first, else it needs to make losing really really fun as well. Which tends to be really hard in games in which winning is a goal. Especially in a game where vet units / ventrilo screamers are present.
If the current system results in overpowered companies in anyway, then it's more of the doctrine abilities that are available, or of certain units, that makes it so, rather than any major CP/RB/PP system revamp.
Sorry I can't propose a better system, cause I can't think of any. But it'll still be fun :p
