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[Denak Kalamari]

Since I noticed that there is a lack of threads where people can generally express their opinions on the state of DUST 514, I decided to go ahead and create one for your leisure.

So basically, what do you think of DUST 514 at its current state? Does it have potential to be the game it was promised to be? Is it going to be a huge flop and be the next Incarna disaster? Is it actually Godzilla that goes on a rampage to destroy EVE Online? And moreso, how woulf you improve DUST 514? Share your thoughts here!

My opinion is that it's good. While there are several features that could be improved greatly or they're missing entirely, I believe it has the potential to be the great game it aspires to be. 1.4 patch was a step in the right direction in terms of gameplay, and with my beloved scout suit getting some love in 1.5, I'll eagerly wait for next winter.

What I would like to see more is a greater connection between DUST 514 and EVE Online, in terms of gameplay and story, which would include making DUST markets available to EVE Online too, without breaking the economy preferably. Seeing more PvE content -- manufacturing, rogue drone missions etc.

[Pieter Tuulinen]

I don't really see people talking about it in the industry press anymore. I don't even see many people discussing it within the Eve community.

I think that's a bad thing.

[Havohej]

What I would like to see more is a greater connection between DUST 514 and EVE Online, in terms of gameplay and story, which would include making DUST markets available to EVE Online too, without breaking the economy preferably. Seeing more PvE content -- manufacturing, rogue drone missions etc.

I think this is what it all comes down to right here.  The whole big thing about DUST 514 was that it was going to be A) an FPS that was B) on a console and C) interconnected with and taking place in the very same universe as an online MMO, on the very same server, and that D) (this is the biggest one) the actions of players in the two games would have an effect on the other game respectively.

A, B and C were delivered.  D... not really delivered - at least, not anywhere near to the extent that was promised.  I don't have a PS3 currently, but I've been logging into DUST 514 on a buddy's PS3 on the weekends from time to time.  I like it as a shooter, it's pretty good.  Gameplay is fair, graphically it's excellent, I love the whole thing (though the skill stuff could be laid out a little better imo, and I'd like it if the market had ISK stuff and AUR stuff separated so that those customers could find their stuff easily and I could find my stuff without having to sift through AUR shit).

But it isn't what we were promised, I don't think.  I'm looking forward to that game ever being delivered, but it hasn't been yet.

I wanna hire DUST mercs to go shit up PI installations of people I don't like.  Or just people who aren't me.  I wanna hire them to act as landing parties to attack POCOs and POSes (having the effect of shortening RF timers, perhaps).  I wanna be paid by them to take a Maelstrom with some 1400mm artillery and wtfpwn large areas of a battlefield from orbit (which requires the whole orbital bombardment thing to be expanded and improved from its current sort-of iteratation).

I want a lot

[Alain Colcer]

uhm, if DUST514 survives with a small commited community and CCP starts making gradual improvements and expanding the game....then dust 514 will be fine..

the problem is the whole F2P + micro-transaction model does not support that, it actually goes against it, you cannot have success with an incomplete game under that framework.

[Havohej]

Unfortunately, it's either that or charge up front for the thing (like, you know, normal console games), but with it being unfinished who's going to pay for it?  Probably would've been smarter to wait and complete the bloody thing but I suppose they're irrevocably committed to their chosen path at this point.

I remain optimistic, however.  It's usually not until years after the "Game X is dead/dying" starts that a game actually dies.  There's time to turn it around if they can figure out which side of their bread is buttered.

[Reyd Karris]

what do you think of DUST 514 at its current state?
I'd rather go play Battlefield 3 (Which was free on PSN a couple months ago) or Defiance (also an incomplete game, but much, much more fun than DUST).

Does it have potential to be the game it was promised to be?
No. As much as I'd like it to, there's no chance with the limitations of the PS3. They need it on PS4 to have LARGE battles to actually take advantage of the huge maps they are using. It's... flat out ridiculous.

Is it going to be a huge flop and be the next Incarna disaster?
No. It will probably just slowly die over the next couple years while CCP shores up development resources and shifts their focus away from the Shanghai office without alerting the gaming media in order to avoid worrying investors.

[Gwen Ikiryo]

To be totally frank, although I haven't played it in quite some time, the game seemed pretty... Dull.

Like, essentially, it played like your average flavourless generic matchmaking FPS, with a few pretty adornments. Nothing really tremendous in terms of scale, design, visuals...

The only thing that really makes the idea interesting is it's networking with the Eve world - With the massive economy, the intrigue, the crazy player governed conflicts, etc - And right now, that's so curtailed that they might as well not be linked at all. And from what I've heard, there are no signs of that changing any time soon.

It breaks my heart, since there are a couple DUST based roleplayers I really enjoy interacting with, but I don't see it lasting in the long term.

[Aria Jenneth]

I'm making no predictions.

The game will establish its niche, stabilize, improve, and grow, or it will not. As to which is more likely, there is too little data. CCP has a long history of creating wounded marvels and marvelous wounds; I expect transcendence only in error, and will be patient even then.

Whatever happens, life goes on. I will take what I want from the game for as long as I wish to, and spend my time in it as I choose.

That will be a longer time if CCP manages to stabilize its community. In fairness, a fair few of that community's members definitely vote with their pocketbooks ... for further development. I feel strangely cheered whenever I am killed with a "Dren" item, and the highly-commonplace nature of Blood Raider Sagas suggests that CCP is getting more income from this house of cards than many might suspect.

Incidentally, never buy AURUM straight when you can get the same funds plus a sizeable toybox at the same price.

[Vikarion]

I'd really like to play it, as I've considered playing Planetside, but I refuse to buy and set up a PS3 solely for the pleasure of one game.

[Aria Jenneth]

To be totally frank, although I haven't played it in quite some time, the game seemed pretty... Dull.

Like, essentially, it played like your average flavourless generic matchmaking FPS, with a few pretty adornments. Nothing really tremendous in terms of scale, design, visuals...

... customization. Oh, wait. 

DUST, if played like Battlefield, doesn't have much to offer. What it does have is a lot of ambitious possibilities, none of which are off the table yet.

Meantime, its fitting options allow me to zip around the battlefield as the infantry equivalent of a very quiet interceptor, bait overconfident ambulatory tanks into explosive traps, and shank snipers and hackers in the spine-- and have it all mean something at the end of the day (for both me and my unfortunate victims).

In other words, it lets me extensively customize and upgrade my build to suit my play style, much like fittings in Eve, and then use those fittings to do unpleasant things to people.

It's exactly the sort of thrill I kept wanting Eve to provide, without having to go out hunting for hours at a time without a kill.

[Lyn Farel]

How is it compared to planetside 2 and its RTS-like scale at a tactical level ?

[Aria Jenneth]

How is it compared to planetside 2 and its RTS-like scale at a tactical level ?

From what I gather, much smaller.

For now.

The maps we're playing on have been getting larger over time.

[Silas Vitalia]

Played it, hated it, haven't looked back.

Considering the amount of time, money, and resources and time spent and the disappointing end result.... an unfortunate set of decisions for the parent company to have made.

[Havohej]

I couldn't tell you the names of the maps, but I've had a little bit of fun finding sniping spots that cover other sniping spots that cover a decent field of view around an objective.  I've got no mic or keyboard for the PS3 I'm playing on every other weekend or so, so I haven't gotten anything near serious about it, but it's fun to get a couple of kills, then go to the secondary spot and wait for someone to go hunting for me and pop them, too.

[Esna Pitoojee]

As an EVE player, here's my issue with DUST 514 at the moment:

It's irrelevant.

Let me explain: Every activity in EVE so far fits in somewhere as a need to follow a want. Want a ship built? You need a miner somewhere. Want a T2 ship? Now you need an explorer and an industrialist. Want a faction mods? Someone needs to run missions somewhere. Want to control huge swaths of space? You need coordinators and planners.

DUST has no need. The "trial run" with Molden Heath suffers from a lack of controlling anything needed by the rest of EVE that is not found in most other regions in the cluster. The FW interaction is crippled by being overridden by a greater "need": The need for the faction warfare LP farmers to make their (highly-in-demand) money, and in DUST there's even less of a benefit to playing for the FW side loosing at any given point than there is in EVE.


CCP promised us a Need. If we were wanted to take over a district on a planet, they said, we would Need to involve DUSTies. We've yet to see that Need materialize, though. I understand why CCP wanted to integrate DUST a bit at a time - I really do - but several months on we've yet to see an iota of movement towards that Need, and if there's one thing EVE's history tells us it's that things that aren't Needed get left behind.