WoC. The lack of style in a genre defined by style. (12 year player/vet)

[Model192]

I have observed the psychological affect of "tiers" in two separate cyberpunk games, and it has ruined one and is on its way to ruin another one. One being Neocron, and one being a pen and paper of similar caliber of greatness (CyberSphere). These games have both introduced "tiers", whether meaning to or not. The issue with Neocron, however, is WoC. Though WoC is a problem, it is merely a microcosm of balancing as a whole, and current con/weapon workings, which I will post about in another thread.

WoC has introduced a "tier" system into the game world of Neocron. From Beta 2 and on to NC1 and pre-WoC it was all about ripping the LE out and going nuts with whatever you had. It wasn't a crazy slaughter-fest, it was a world of nervousness but respect. Why? Because LE carried an XP penalty with it. I will cover the XP penalty toward the end, and push to why it is needed and what the goal of this particular malus was for.

First, let's look at Cyberpunk. It's a cut-throat world, man meets machine. This world is ruled by corporations and their minions(clans), serving their purposes of creating the war machine to fund. They fight for money, power, and dominance over manufacturing. The world of Cyberpunk is usually filled with haves, and have nots. In the world of Neocron we are all playing a "have". We have access to all the power and weaponry we could imagine. In a sense we "work" for our organizations. We kill each other on the street for a few cred, we stab people in the back. We lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead. That's Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is defined by style, attitude, and we're all supposed to be badasses at whatever we do and however we choose to do it.

Now, establishing that we are all "haves", we have now created a system within the "haves"; haves and have-nots. This effectively splits the playerbase of Spies and PEs from players who want to play and PVP(dex). If you pull your LE out before it's time to help out in OP fights you're taking a huge risk that could make going WoC even more time consuming. There aren't any worthwhile weapons for these two "races" under WoC. Hell, PE has probably been the worst that I've ever seen in Neocron right now; I know, I WoC'd one. Without his LE in. Unfortunately now it's cap, or not. If you're not capped, the LE stays in. There is no reason to take it out, not at all. Many in this playerbase view their viability in PVP as slim to none, and with good reason, they're not.

In Cyberpunk it's about the style. Any of the weapons that a bad ass decides to pick up he should be just about equally as good with. It's not style when you have to crunch numbers and see what's the best. I should be just as bad ass with an Xbow as with a SWAT Backup gun. After the weapons reach a certain tier they need to level out within reason, and for nothing else other than style in CYBERPUNK. I don't mean they all aim the same/do the same damage/fire rate, all that. But, they should all be equally as viable. Tanks should be equal to PE equal to APU equal to Spy in a rock/paper/scissors/stealth/gun sort of way. I miss taking my shotgun and 4 chevs and causing havoc for the capped players in pepper park. I miss that a lot.

The game built legends before, as cyberpunk games do, now it's just a joke.


This is a GREAT cyberpunk reference for broad ideas of "balance" and gameplay types. http://cs.netsville.com