Dust 514

[Krazy]

Got around to downloading this to see how it differed since I last played in the closed Beta. Moving around and aiming is still god damned terrible. I keep seeing comparisons with this to MAG. MAG blows the shit out of this game.

[Cantih]

To be fair though, a chunk of the M.A.G. community has moved to DUST, what with what with Zipper being dead. (Hell, the three Type-1 dropsuit BPOs are themed to the M.A.G. factions, and are known as "tribute" suits. And one of the higher ranked player corps carries the SVER name.) Once the game has had more updates and is out of beta, the comparison should be more apt.

As for the controls, did you go to the options screen and try out different sensitivity settings? (Also, keep in mind there's a setting bug at the moment, changes may not save, check them each time you start up the game.) Don't be afraid to switch to a different control method if you have the equipment.

Anyways, the rest of the guide info.

----------

There is an active tutorial for the process of fitting, so I'll skip that, because you should use it.

There are four general types of slots
High Slots - Top left: Shield Extenders, Shield Rechargers, Scan Precision Enhancers, Weapon Damage Upgrades
Low Slots - Top right: Shield Regulators, Armor Plates, Armor Repairers, Stamina Boosters, Sprint Boosters, CPU Boosters, PG Boosters, Scan Range Enhancers, Scan Profile Dampeners, and Hacking Boosters
Weapons - Bottom left: weapons and grenades, there's a separate entry on them later on.
Equipment - Bottom right: Drop Uplinks, Nanohives, Nanite Injectors, Repair Tools, Remote Explosives (BOOM!), and more to come.

Besides the limited number of slots (up to four per section), there's two more factors that limit what you can stick on your suit, CPU and Powergrid. (Well, there's also skills, but that's not really related to fitting.) Each equipable item in the game has a CPU and PG value. The total of all your equipped pieces can't exceed the values of your suit. Higher tier suits have more slots, PG, and CPU. There are modules that increase these values, but it costs a slot you might use for something else. There are also skills that directly increase your CPU and PG, and others that decrease the amount of those stats that specific classes of modules use up (e.g. reduces the amount of PG that armor modules use).

Normal items you buy with ISK or AUR are destructible. If you die in a match, you lose one copy of everything equipped to your deployed clone's fit (including the suit). The exception are BPOs. However with open beta, they've raised the price of the militia BPO's way up ($2.40 a module, $4.90 for equipment and grenade, and $5.90 for weapons). Sucks if you didn't get them at the old price during the week between the last reset and open beta (it was just under fifty cents for a FULL set of modules, now it's $123.60, or $90 if you skip the vehicle module BPOs). It used to be a very simple choice to get them, but with the new prices you'll have to decide how dedicated you are to the game before dropping the cash.

If you do drop money, you should get one merc pack first, it is a decent value. The Dragonfly Scout BPO is notable becuse it is a Type-1 BPO, not a Militia BPO, meaning you can completely skip getting a Valor Scout BPO (and in fact, it gives you enough AUR to get the Raven and Sever BPO suits). Don't bother getting the militia BPO suits that you have the yellow starter fit BPOs for (Assault guaranteed, and one other, depending on your archetype choice.) An especially don't bother with the militia suit BPOs if you plan to get the Type-1 BPOs, Type-1 is strictly better, you will never use the militia once you have them, making it wasted money (Unless you really, really want the color variations). The Type-1 suit BPOs are now $9.90 each (they were $6.40), the militia suit BPOs are still $3.20 each.

And while we're at it. The only other major AUR item in the game is the UVT (Universal Voice Transmitter). All it does it let you use voice chat in corp and custom channels (which includes cross DUST/EVE voice). Voice chat in teams and squads is free (and you can invite people to a squad at any time). The 30 day UVT only costs fifty cents, less than even my yearly cellphone bill.

-----

Now to learn about suits (and the market interface).

From the Neocom menu, head to Market > Marketplace > Dropsuits > Scout
Highlight Scout Type-I and press Triangle, then R2 when the info loads, this brings you to the stats screen.

Now PG, CPU, Shield, and Armor are all self explanatory.

As for shield behavior, after a delay (improvable by modules) they start regenerating HP/second (also improvable by modules) according to the suit's value.
Scout suits have the shortest delay and largest regen, while Heavy suits have the longest and smallest (Logistics taking second, Assault taking third). The Type-2 Assault and Heavy suits have improved shield performance however (Assault behaving like Logistic, and Heavy like Assault). No suit yet has a base Armor Repair Rate, you can only get that through modules, so ignore that.

Next is movement speed. Again, Scout is the fastest, Heavy is the slowest (this time Assault takes second and Logistics takes third.) This also holds for the stamina stats. Sprint duration doesn't really mean anything, it costs 10 stamina to sprint for 1 second, so it's just the Stamina stat divided by 10. The recovery rate is just that. There are mods that boost maximum stamina and the recovery rate, and a mod to boost your sprint speed. Armor plates reduce all of your movement speed, and there is no way to increas your walking speed. Generally the Type-2 suits have a minor speed boost compared to Type-1, though the Scout Type-2 is fractionally slower.
Of note however is the Logistics Type-2, which performs like an assault at the standard tier, but at prototype tier is even faster and second only to the scout suit in speed, and it has a MASSIVE stamina recovery rate boost. (Also, unless they pulled it, at one point in the beta, Logistics suits received a 10% bonus to hacking speed, though it's not in the info anywhere. Combined with the slot flexibility, a Proto Type-2 Logi is a strong contender for being a point capture suit, if you don't mind losing a little of the scouts top speed.)

Lastly is Scanning. These stats deal with what you see in your top left hud minimap. The lower your scan profile, the closer you can get before you show up on someones map. This is countered by scan precision, the lower your precision, the sooner stuff shows up on your map. (Basically lower is better, and equal numbers are equally opposed.) Scouts have the best numbers, followed by Logistics and Assault, Heavy has the worst. The base scan radius is 15 meters, only scouts have a boost, with a radius of 25 meters. All of the stats can be modified with modules.
If you want your commander to have eyes and ears, and narc out the opposition, there's nothing better than loading up a scout suit with range and precision boosters. Alternately, loading a scout with dampeners, damage mods, and a shotgun is the closest to a sneaky assassin you can get at the moment. Note that this only deals with the minimap. Actual vision is unaffected (so keep an eye out), and a sniper's scope will bring up a chevron marker regardless of distance.

As for slots (you can see these by pressing R2 again, a third R2 shows you the skill requirements), Logistics have the best slot layout, and the most equipment slots, but at the cost of a sidearm and a bit of speed. (The T2 sacrifices an equipment slot for it's speed.) Heavy suits have the worst slot layout, and no equipment slots, but are the only suit to get heavy weapons, and have a MASSIVE armor HP. (The T2 swaps some armor for shield, and a speed boost.) Scouts are third best but still good, are very fast, and have the best scan stats (and the only suit with a range boost), but have very little HP. (The T2 swaps some shield for armor, and the sidearm slot for an extra equipment slot.) Assaults are the all-rounders, with the second best slot layout. (The T2 also swaps some armor for shield.)
All suits see a boost in PG, CPU, and Slots as you rise in tier. Other stats however stay constant (aside from the T2 Logi, as previously noted.)

-----

Now we get to the stuff you stick on your suit.

Modules

Almost everything in the game comes in three tiers: Standard, Advanced, Prototype (or, Basic, Enhanced, Complex)
This also generally aligns with how much skill you need to use them, level one, three, and five respectively. Aurum equipment slightly breaks the pattern, but not by much. Also, as salvage, you can occasionally get what are called "Officer Modules". These are generally the best equipment in the game, and are pretty rare. I advise you not to waste them if you get any.

Militia Items tend to be equal in effect to Basic items, and cost less ISK, but need more CPU and PG to fit. Enhanced items are a bit better, cost more CPU/PG, and are a little more expensive. Complex items are the best there is, very good, but riotously steep in PG/CPU/ISK cost.

At the moment, all the high and low slot modules are passive effects. Only Weapons and equipment are actively controlled by you.

Many (but no all) modules are limited by what's called a stacking penalty. Any identically behaving module after the first does not provide it's full bonus, with stronger diminishing returns for each additional module. Generally 2 is the optimum, 3 is sometimes advised in very specific situations, 4 is almost always pointless.

Weapon - High Slot. Simply adds more damage, but only for the matching weapon category. I do not know if the blue bottles boost nova knife damage.
Shield - High and Low Slot. Extenders increase your maximum shield, rechargers increase the regen you get per tick. Low slot Regulators reduce the delay before the regen kicks in.
Armor - Low Slot. Plates increase your armor at the cost of some movement speed (quite a lot for the complex mod). Repairers give you armor regen, but it's generally not enough to brute your way through damage from even a single enemy.
Stamina - Low Slot. The green one increases your maximum stamina and recharge rate, the red one increases your sprint speed.
Sensor - Low and High Slot. The high slot one strengthens your scan precision. The low slot ones dampen your profile, or increase your scan radius.
Fitting - Low Slot. The CPU just boosts your maximum CPU at the cost of a slot. The PG module costs a bit of CPU for it's effect.
Hacking - Low Slot. Simply speed up your hacking.

---

Weapons

There are currently thirteen weapons in the game (though most have performance sidegrade versions in addition to stronger and more expensive higher tier versions), categorized across four slot types (and one in equipment).

Sidearm Weapon - (Nova Knife, Scrambler Pistol, SMG)
Light Weapon - (Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Laser Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Mass Driver, Swarm Launcher)
Heavy Weapon - (Heavy Machine Gun, Forge Gun)
Grenades - (AP, AV, Flux)
Equipment - (Remote Explosives)

Assault and Scout suits have a light weapon and sidearm slots, with some equipment. Logistics suits only get a light weapon slot, but get more equipment slots. Only Heavy suits can use heavy weapons, and have a sidearm slot, but get no equipment slots. Everybody gets grenades. Weapon slots can hold weapons of their type or lower. So, heavy can use all three, light can downgrade to sidearm.

Knife, Pistol, SMG, Shotgun, Assault, Sniper are all self explanatory. The mass driver is a grenade launcher, the swarm launcher is a lock-on missile launcher, the laser rifle is a target painter that does effective damage, the forge gun is a man portable anti-vehicle railgun, and the HMG turns you into Vulcan Raven.

I haven't used all of them, and not really an expert in any of them (Mr. FPS I am not) but here's the rundown. (Stats are for the Basic variants, higher tiers may have different percentages.)

Nova Knife - It's a knife, has a charge up time, does decent damage, and has it's own mods and skills to boost it's damage very high. No variants yet. It used to be part of your R3 melee, but they changed it into an actual sidearm. So I have no idea exactly how it interacts with certain skills anymore.

Scrambler Pistol - Decent damage, but a limited clip. You can kill non-heavies if you can land all your shots, but they need to be to the head. Ok range. Variants include Assault (slight RoF, Range, and ammo boost), Breach (+50% damage, but -66% RoF, acurracy boosted), and Burst (double clip, 3 shots per triger pull, but lower accuracy, technically the better DoT).

SMG - Short range, low damage, massive RoF, and can be as effective as an assault rifle if you're good with it. Variants are Assault (slight RoF, Range, and ammo boost), and Breach (+33% damage, -50% RoF, and a slight clip size reduction).

Shotgun - Short range, but if you get close enough to make out with your target you can one-shot them. Often used for sneaking behind snipers. Variants are Specialist (lower CPU/PG, at the cost of max ammo), and Breach (+20% damage, -25% RoF, a massively reduced clip and ammo count, and doubled reload time, but better accuracy).

Assault Rifle - Bread and butter, good range, good damage. Variants are Breach (+33% damage, nearly -50% RoF, nearly halved clip), Burst (slight boost to RoF and accuracy, -10% Damage but I don't know the bullet count per trigger pull), and Tactical (single shot fire only, but +50% damage with a slight RoF boost, clip reduced by more than half, but has an increased zoom).

Laser Rifle - Constant damage stream if you can keep it on target, ok damage, tick rate for damage unknown. It's optimum distance is actually a fair distance, it's not for close work. Creates a very visible line pointing from you, snipers love it. Overheats to limit fire time, it basically behaves like the HMG, maybe weaker than the HMG and Assault rifle. No variants yet.

Sniper Rifle - Zoom is fixed and not extreme, so headshots aren't everywhere. Generally need damage mods and skills to one-shot targets. Variants are Tactical (-16% damage, +50% RoF, and has a higher zoom), and Charge (+40% damage, but there is a charge up time and you release to fire, so lower effective RoF), there are no advanced or prototype Charge rifles.

Mass Driver - Tricky to be accurate with, it's a lob, but a prety decent weapon, splash damage is about half a direct hit. Also good for area denial. Limited clip. Variants are Assault (-40% damage, +25% RoF, +50% blast radius, and increased clip and ammo), and Breach (+40% damage, -25% RoF, -25% blast radius, and splash damage is only a quarter of a direct hit).

Swarm Launcher - The target lock only works on vehicles and installations. You can dumbfire it to hit people or fire fast, but it's very difficult. Effective against dropships and LAVs. Tiny clip. Variants are Assault (Locks on two targets at once), and Specialist (lower CPU/PG, at the cost of a longer lock time).

Heavy Machine Gun - Low damage with a high rate of fire, effective if you can keep it on your target. It does have an overheat to limit spray time, also accuracy increases with fire time. Variants are Assault (-25% damage, but longer range), and Burst (-25% damage, +50% RoF, and higher heat buildup per trigger pull since you can't sustain fire, don't know shot count per burst).

Forge Gun - Very high damage, meant to be used on vehicles and installations, but if you're really good you can hit people (and one-shot them) with it. Slow RoF however. If you can hit the fast buggers, you can knock a dropship out of the sky. Shot has to charge up, you can hold it, but move slower when you do so. Limited clip. Variants are Assault (tiny damage boost, -30% charge time, but you can't hold the charge), and Breach (+75% damage!, +50% charge time, and you can't move while it's charged/charging, only aim, also -50% blast radius).

Grenades - They come in three main varieties, Flux, AP, and AV. Flux only damages shields, but the "damage" can wipe even vehicle shields. AV only trigger if they land by a vehicle, but also home in a bit. Sleek variants have a longer throw range, wider blast radius, but lower damage. You can kill yourself with your own grenades so try not to be near them.

Remote Explosives - Two varieties, one triggered by you, another that blows automatically when a vehicle comes in range. Favored use is to set one at your capture points, when the hacking notification comes in, bewm, no more capper.

---

Equipment

There are four pieces of equipment in the game at the moment. Each of them gives you WP when they're used.

Drop Uplinks - Mobile spawn points, drop one behind enemy lines, it's fun! Higher tiers increase the number of spawns, reduce the spawn delay penalty, and increase the number you can have deployed at the same time. Placement is an artform, though they aren't as noticeable as nanohives.

Nanohives - These will refill you and your team's ammo and grenades until it is depleted of point stock. Higher tiers have more stock, faster cycling, larger radius, and can have more deployed at once. Some variants even repair armor slowly, or even only repair armor.

Repair Tools - This is just like TF2's medigun, but it also repairs installations and vehicles. Higher tiers increase the range, and the highest lets you cover two teammates at once. There are also infantry (Triage)/installation (Inert)/vehicle (Axis) favoring variants, receiving a bonus to their favored type, and a penalty to others. The Flux variant just increases range. They all only repair armor however, not shields.

Nanite Injectors - If you can stick a teammate in time, it brings them back into the fight. Higher tiers revive a character with a larger percentage of repaired armor. This is also handy as a revived player means you didn't spend any of your team's clone count, AND means that you don't lose a copy of that expensive fit you're using. (However the death is still recorded to KDR, NO ESCAPING YOUR SHAME!) If you don't know what equipment to fit, or don't have much PG/CPU left, an injector is a good choice and people with high cost fits will love you for having it.

-----

Lastly we have vehicles.

There are three main types in the game
LAV - Jeeps - Fast, paper thin, and you can blow them up (and yourself) by driving into things too fast. Mounts one small turret. The advanced models have a built in repair tool.

HAV - Tanks - Slow-ish, thy can move in open terrain. Very tough, especially with the right modules, and near invincible with good gunners. Infantry CAN take them out with the right weapons however. Alternately you can glass cannon spec them to do tremendous damage. Mounts one large and two small turrets. The advanced models offer a damage bonus to a specific turret (much like EVE ship bonuses).

Dropships - Basically hovering helicopters. Ok speed, hard to maneuver, but the freedom of movement is handy. Not very hardy though. Mounts two small turrets. The advanced models have a built in CRU/Drop Uplink.

The vehicle weapons are in three categories
Blasters - High rate of fire, overheats to limit spray. You can walk fire, so good on people, but can be used on harder targets.
Railguns - Single shot. Charge up time, release to fire, then there's a cooldown. Best on immobile or very slow targets, but you can get infantry with the blast radius of the shot if you're good.
Missiles - Missiles have a decent damage radius on impact. They take a moment to reload, but that's it.

They come in small and large varieties, the large are only used for HAV main cannons, the smalls fit on LAVs, dropships, and the tank support turret. They also have infinite ammo. (Installation turrets also come in these types, though they tend to be more powerful.) The other main balance is the turret turn (tracking) speed. Blasters turn fast, missiles and railguns turn slow. (Railgun installations are VERY slow)

I can't stress how expensive these are. Even busted militia tier vehicles are a hundred thousand ISK, normal ones are 200k to one million, and that doesn't include fitted modules. Generally you get 100-200k ISK from a match, so losing even a single militia vehicle will be a wash, or even cost you a bit.

Unlike everything else, vehicles are in only two tiers at the moment, basically mirroring EVE's T1/T2. In each category, one of the vehicles favors Armor/PG, the other favors Shield/CPU. Most of the vehicle modules are much the same as infantry ones, though there are a few that are unique to vehicles such as passive and activated damage reducers, and a wide variety of weapon modifiers, affecting things other than damage. There are NO Aurum vehicles or vehicle modules (besides the militia BPO modules). You can't money your way into a vehicle advantage.
---


A note on maps.

Currently the game has pre-designed maps, but parts of the maps are modular (especially structures), so don't always expect everything to be identical each time you hit a familiar map. Yes, procedural maps were part of the game pitch, they aren't ready yet. My guess is you'll see the system when either non-temperate planets or lowsec/sov fighting gets introduced. They have made strides in the lighting and weather effects, so there's a wide variety of conditions to fight in. Day, night, fucking lensflare sunset, dust storm, fog, etc.

And since the first three aren't stickied anymore and are hard to find, here's each of the patch notes starting from the Pre-E3 2012 Replication build, if you want to see how it's progressed.

May 13 - Replication - https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=18208
Aug 13 - Precursor - https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=30002
Oct 13 - Codex - https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...posts&m=330010
Dec 13 - Chromosome - https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=47716

[Cantih]

Next update will include
- Graphics upgrades
- Vegetation System
- Match count boost from 32 to 48 (16 to 24 a team)
- Squad size boost from 4 to 6

Possibly
- Flaylock Pistol
- Plasma Launcher
- Scrambler Rifle
- Updates that didn't make it into Chromosome (check the patch notes)


Also, if you haven't created an account yet, if you sign up using this link
https://dust514.com/recruit/qssjbN/
You'll get an exclusive assault rifle, and a free 7-day skill booster.

I don' know if it's an active or passive booster, but if it's active, you might want to wait on using it if you are a grinder.
https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...33&find=unread
They're currently getting feedback on how to make changes to the SP system, and it's looking like a change to a weekly main cap is likely (for people who can't pop on daily to get the potential SP pool). Still up in the air is the post-cap system. Currently you only get 50 active SP for a match once you hit the daily cap. A booster would be far more valuable after, if they actually raise it to 1k a match, or go to an unlimited WP based soft cap system, so you should wait to see what they do.

On the other hand, if the soft cap goes unlimited, there's a small chance the weekly hard cap could be lowered to try to cut the top end of theoretical maximum SP, making the booster more valuable now if you aren't a grinder. And all of this is moot if it's a passive booster, they probably aren't going to change the passive system significantly.

[Kaisha]

- Graphics upgrades

Hope this addresses the blatant pop-ins or shit not appearing until a few seconds after the fact. Can't tell if perhaps my drive is just too fragmented, but is it streaming non-stop for anyone else during gameplay?

[Cantih]

Mine seems pretty quiet, sorry.

[Sol-Blackguy]

Hope this addresses the blatant pop-ins or shit not appearing until a few seconds after the fact. Can't tell if perhaps my drive is just too fragmented, but is it streaming non-stop for anyone else during gameplay?

Sadly the pop-in is a common trait of the Unreal engine. At least it's not as bad as Borderlands.

[Cantih]

An update on the SP situation. (But no big update/patch yet. Probably due for it in February)
https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...125#post503125

in the upcoming days we will be deploying the following system to the server:

- Weekly skill point cap of 190,400 SP (without boosters) from fighting in battles
- Players who have maxed out their cap will receive 1 SP per warpoint up to a limit of 1,000 SP per each battle

The total weekly cap remains the same (27,200 x7) but now you can go after it daily, across the weekend, or in one big day marathon (and get whatever booster best matches you). No rollover yet though. However with the post-cap active SP going from 50 to 1,000 (if you can hit it, WP examples below), you should hold off on using active SP boosters until the change, to make optimal use of it.
Remember, if you haven't created a character yet, if you do it here https://dust514.com/recruit/qssjbN/ you'll get a free 7 day booster (and an assault rifle).

WP sources

Spoiler: show

100 WP: Hacking a capture point (Also 50/25 for 2nd/3rd assisting a hack)
100 WP: Destroying a turret installation
75 WP: Killing a HAV or Dropship (or maybe it's 65, you also get WP for anyone in the vehicle)
60 WP: Reviving a teammate
50 WP: Hacking an installation (25/12 for 2nd/3rd assist), or destroying any non-turret installation
50 WP: Killing a dude
40 WP: LAV (or maybe only the militia LAV is 40, others are 50. And again, you get WP for anyone in the vehicle)
35 WP: Medic tics (if your partner is doing damage or getting kills)
35 WP: Vehicle Kill assist (just for riding)
25 WP: Kill assist
25 WP: Team spawn from your uplink
10 WP: Team supply from your Nanohive per tick

Order bonus: +20% WP
Order Commission bonus: 20% of the base WP the squadmate earned

Also, a variant of Ambush has been added to the instant battle menu. The OMS version will drop unclaimed installations from orbit to shake up the map from time to time.

[Cantih]

https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...091#post507091

As part of CCP’s initiative in providing meaningful engagement to the player community, we are introducing a series of in-game events based on the developing background fiction that is taking place within the New Eden universe. This series of events offer players a chance to participate and act out proceedings that will alter the balance of power between the 4 main rival factions within the EVE universe. So, keep an eye on this thread as we announce more weekly events that will be rolled out in the coming weeks!

This week’s event will involve EVE capsuleers fighting to gain control of DUST mercenary clones. Read on to find out more info about this event.

If you're playing (or if you aren't, c'man) there's going to be an event soon-ish, dunno exactly when. There might be rewards.

If you want to follow the fiction, just
0. http://community.eveonline.com/news/...roopers-emerge
1. http://community.eveonline.com/news/...-caldari-state
2. http://community.eveonline.com/news/...und-combatants
3. https://forums.eveonline.com/default...posts&t=199453

[Cantih]

CAST514 did an hour long interview with CCP Praetorian (Creative Director, the one responsible for getting cool shit into the game) and CCP Nullarbor (programmer responsible for making DUST & EVE work together).



Topics include
Orbital Bombardments, shots from larger ships, frequency and triggers for use, alternate calldown methods, and how each will fit into different game modes. Visibility of EVE from DUST, especially regarding orbital artillery, and general getting ships and planets working together. Especially getting reasons for EVE (and DUST) players to give a damn about planets, ownership and the rewards thereof (of which are many potentialities). Also a bit on War Barges and their place in EVE.

Improvements to the DUST Faction Warfare, mapping and fronts for better knowing what's going on, expanding from it just being wagered corp battles to something better, opening the FW game to non-corp players, and possibly faction LP and faction gear to go with it. (Also, SP for playing, like in Instant Battles. Currently individuals get no rewards for doing FW/corp battles.)

Player to player market/trading for DUST and between EVE and DUST. Perhaps a simple asset movement capability to start with. Also a bit on the corp armory, and the DUST side of corporation roles and management (improvements on the system made for console usability will probably be a test bed for the EVE side of things).

Spawn point fixes soonish, fully customizable controls eventually. More dropsuits very soon, racial versions as well as whole new categories for player roles (not just four basic suit archetypes), and possibly changes to the suit skill system. The current paradigm is VERY limited compared to how they plan it to be, because the game had to just get up and running.

Possibility of a training mode (not particularly soon, it has to be set up properly), rogue drones/PvE is in active development (internally playable) but probably not ready until later this year at the soonest. Sandbox battle game modes [like so] (especially as larger matches and lower sec status areas open up, 48 players is considered the minimum for this stuff), and improvements to the commander system. (Again, they needed to just get the game up and running.) And some talk on the terrain system and how they optimize and iterate on graphics.

A bit of discussion on the SP/Cap system, and grinding. The CREST/API system and DUST (integration is better than with EVE, because it's built in from the ground up).

[Ziero]

It's nice Dust is finally in Open Beta and the whole NDA thing is gone, hopefully the playerbase will increase enough to really make this experiment a success. As far as I'm concerned, outside of some simple balancing issues, the core gameplay and mechanics work just fine (again, outside of some simple fixes) so I'm hoping they start adding some of this great content they've been promising for years now. They say conquests are coming in the next big update I'm I'm *really* hoping that means new game mode types and battles moreso then anything.

It's clear their variable map system seems to be working since every time they add or change maps, it's often parts of maps we've previously played on but couldn't access. So that gives me hope of being able to play larger matches on massive maps that sprawl on farther then we've seen in any other game. Ambush and Skirmish should be nothing more then noob fodder game modes and maps while people who actually care about this game will have larger worlds to play in.

As many people have already suggested, this game has many similarities to MAG and as a massive MAG fan I completely agree. This game could easily do everything MAG did and even do those things MAG tried to do but failed.

And I can't wait for the SP fix. Last method sucked because after a single day of play you'd cap SP and not be able to make any more progress for a week. Currently if you miss a day that's a good 47kish SP you'll never be able to see again. If they really want to make it fair for both "Hardcore Grinders" and "Casual Players" (which is honestly something I couldn't care less about and I'm a pretty casual player) they need to make it so that there's no penalty for not playing like they currently have now, but only a limit on how much total you can make over time. The idea from the podcast of a universal cap that grows over time is a good one, but just the idea that you can in any way try to force players to remain on a "level" playing field is silly because Hardcore players will always have better gear, better skill and more experience and understanding of the game as a whole then casuals.

[Cantih]

First of all, the new weekly cap has been implemented. It's not rolling at the moment, and the weekly reset is the Wednesday downtime (so you have six days left to get 190k of active SP, [or 285k with a booster, hey, you can get one of those if you create a character here])

At this point, the next major patch seems unlikely until late this month at the soonest, the Shanghai staff is out at the moment due to the Chinese New Year.

The storyline is heating up,
http://community.eveonline.com/news/...-on-malkalen-v
http://community.eveonline.com/news/...e-is-dismissed
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Si...28Chronicle%29
http://community.eveonline.com/news/...aldari-targets

culminating in this
https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...207#post531207

At the time I'm posting, there's a little under four hours left, get in while you can, and if you end up on the Caldari side, sabotage your team! (There aren't any special rewards though, not this time at least.)

EDIT: Oh, and if you want to play and hang with other BGers without going through making a corp, from the MQ hit select to bring up the chat. Scroll down through the tabs on the left until you reach Create/Join, and enter the channel name "bluegartr" (no quotes). It might be empty at times, but you can have multiple channels up, so better to have it there than not.

[takeDat]

EDIT: Oh, and if you want to play and hang with other BGers without going through making a corp, from the MQ hit select to bring up the chat. Scroll down through the tabs on the left until you reach Create/Join, and enter the channel name "bluegartr" (no quotes). It might be empty at times, but you can have multiple channels up, so better to have it there than not.

Idk who is aligned with what but I would be down for a BG corp. Just saying~

[Intervention]

If you are semi interested in piloting a tank, here is a pretty good video. He makes some decent introductory videos as well.

[Cantih]

Lowratehitman is a pretty decent player to watch.

There are also some good videos done by the Imperfects' Regnum for Dust514.org

Spoiler: show

as he's a pretty good player, on one of the best corps at the moment, it's worth paying some attention.

There's also CEO Pyrex's videos. Specifically his
Fitting videos http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...DgWhpaoSDRSoEz
and Map videos http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...Gpn7DwS4Pb67pC
but the normal series videos are alright http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...ODzz6d5ps4hrIO

Now on to the official side of things, here's how the story has gone since last time.
http://community.eveonline.com/news/...apes-unscathed
The Mordu/Merc side of things won!

The next events happened over in Minmatar space. There was some EVE stuff going on involving the tribal council, but the DUST side of things was a short four hour ambush event that ran from 8pm to midnight Wednesday last week, and happened amidst the tribal council caravan. Still no special rewards.
https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...051#post550051
http://community.eveonline.com/news/...-field-sappers

The Caldari stuff from last time has wound down
http://community.eveonline.com/news/...ains-secretive

No word yet on an event this week, the closest lead was this http://community.eveonline.com/news/...-21st-at-20-00 but nothing happened on the DUST side of things.

As for the game itself, the devs are back from the holiday, and we're supposed to have some news and blogs soonish. Possibly even minutes from the DUST portion of the CSM meetings. There is a new $10 pack on the PSN however

Starter Pack
1x Exile rifle - BPO
1x 7-day Active Booster
20x "Neo" Assault Type-I dropsuits - BPC
20x "Neo" Scout Type-I dropsuits - BPC
20x "Neo" Heavy Type-I dropsuits - BPC
- 2000 AUR

Now, not counting bulk bonuses, 2k AUR = $1.
Based on market prices, this pack has 13,200 AUR worth of stuff not counting the Exile AR BPO, which isn't on the market. The closest thing is the Militia AR BPO, which is 11,800 AUR, BUT the Exile is not a militia tier item. It's stats are those of a STANDARD AR (iirc, a slightly larger clip, and lower CPU/PC fitting cost), so it's technically more valuable than the Militia BPO, but I can't really quantify the difference in price. (The suits are also standard tier, but have no skill requirements.)

All said, the pack has at least 25,000 AUR of stuff, which is $12.50 in value. If you don't have an Exile from the beta test event, and are serious enough about the game to keep playing, you should get this pack, ONCE. You only need one Exile, and once you have it, this pack ceases to be a good value (at least until trading is implemented, but since the Exile is no longer beta rare, it probably will be less valuable). And of course, if you want an AR BPO and a 7 day skill booster, you can get some free by creating your character through this link

The Merc Pack on the other hand, despite costing $20, is a GREAT value since you get that much worth of AUR, AND $15 worth of skill boosting, that will last a month. The BPOs (suit & SMG) again are only valuable once, but the rest of the pack is well worth it.

[BaneTheBrawler]

I flew a dropship today. For 30 seconds. The controls are awful. I barely managed to get myself flying level and in the general direction I wanted to go before a tank blew all of my isk out of the sky.

Then I tried a LAV to see if those controls are still awful. They are. I drove a good 100 feet from my spawn before getting blown up the first time, and the second time I somehow did a donut for no apparent reason, which threw off the tank's aim. For a good 3 seconds.

I tried playing infantry after that. I killed a guy with the sniper because he was running through a field straight at me. The only other person i saw was running perpendicular to me behind cover. I hit him once or twice, but he kept going. I tried to throw a grenade at the same tank from earlier, but apparently that takes like 3 seconds to do, so my aim was off and it bounced back towards my feet and killed me. I tried shooting at it and some dropships with my guns, but apparently they're immune to bullets.

Seems like tanks are the only worthwhile thing in this game.

I really want to like this game, but CCP is making that extremely difficult. So disappointed right now.

[Sol-Blackguy]

First and foremost, you're doing it wrong. This is game is horrible unless you have friends to play with. Squad up with some people, practice getting used to the teamwork aspect of the game, plan out what kind of skill build you're going to work for and don't deviate. There are people out there that have been around since beta and are going to chew you up and spit you out too. Nothing to do about it except be patient. Dust is about as unforgiving as EVE. (Even more so in certain aspects)

But I do agree with you on the controls. LAVs feel like driving on ice, the controls are bass acwards compared to every other FPS, and it's pretty easy to get sniped when you inevitably spin out. Dropships have been nerfed into novelty, their only real use right now is a portable Drop uplink, getting to an otherwise impossible to reach sniper nest, or getting blown out of the sky by missiles, forge guns, or a specialized laser rifle. The only consistent option for vehicle combat is tanks, but not without literally investing SP/ISK into a good build. Even after that, they're not an "I win button," but more of an attention whore that may or may not turn the tide of a heated battle depending on how well your squad supports you.

This game has tons of potential, but it's going to take a lot of new content over an extended period of time to really shine.

[Cantih]

Bad experience

Was this an Ambush match, or Skirmish?
Ambush is an evil evil meatgrinder, especially solo.

Yeah, the dropship takes a lot of skill to use right, the thrust method is very unusual, but it does work once you get the hang of it. It is handy though, my corp uses them to good effect for matches. Can't help you with blaster/railguns, but you can fit speed mods to outrun swarm missiles.

A properly fit tank is a bit of trouble, but you do have to laser focus to get one of those, and even then you need to blow money on constant boosters for a couple months to get those. You do need teamwork to take one on though, the crazy fit ones need like two Forge dudes to take down. (Swarms are more useful against LAVs, you need nearly a full squad of swarms to take down a non-militia tank.)
Hopefully if they (like rumors suggest) introduce a way to fit heavy weapons on lighter suits it will get a bit better. The trouble is heavies are so slow, it's hard to get one out to respond to a tank before it's caused a lot of chaos.
And yeah, non AV weapons generally do shit damage to vehicles. But, since the delay on infantry grenades makes them bleh, you may as well fit AV grenades! Once people with AV grenades become more common, you should see tanks be not so favored. Remember, losing a single tank or dropship is enough to put someone in the red for a match, several matches if it was properly fitted. Unless you're grinding ISK all day err' day, you can't throw around very many of them.

LAVs are too fucking squirrely though.

As for sniping, unless you specialize in it, they are NOT OHK weapons. Even a headshot (hard to get because the scope isn't very high zoom) only doubles your damage, so a heavy suit can eat a couple from a plain sniper. If you want oneshots, you need to L5 your Weaponry for Complex Light Damage mods, and use an assault or logi suit to fit two of them (you'll need fitting skills as well.) Then you get Sniper to two for a Charge Sniper Rifle. That's really the only way to get one shots (well, besides the officer rifle), and even then, someone properly fitted and with shield/armor skills can just barely survive it. And heavies, you'll need one or two body shots to take down a heavy, but they're so slow it's not too hard.
And follow sniping is rather tricky in DUST, you're better off learning to predict your targets movement and putting your dot ahead of them and waiting for them to cross it to fire.

And of course, it may be open, and skill gains are permanent, but this is still a real beta. There is content to add, bugs to fix, and improvements still to be made.

[Intervention]

But I do agree with you on the controls. LAVs feel like driving on ice

For sure using LAVs take a while to get used to, oddly for me when I started using tanks it all clicked with me. Thankfully they are free and are fun to run people over with. I'm tempted in going the logistics LAV route on one of my characters, though I've read that repping is odd.

[theshun]

Honestly, keep at it. When it went from closed to open beta, everything got reset, but people knew the skills well enough to make a lean build quickly, plus, we got all AUG back, so passive/active boosters were back in play quickly.

[BaneTheBrawler]

I've been playing (off and on) since closed; I've had multiple EVE accounts for years. So I'm not completely unfamiliar with how things work. Part of my disappointment is because I've been playing since closed. I know it's still in beta, but I've been watching this game for almost a year now. It's improved a lot, but not even close to enough. My biggest fear is that this launches and everyone goes "meh" which is the reaction of everyone I've shown it to. EVE has a relatively small but devoted playerbase. I'm afraid DUST won't even get that.

As for friends... they won't even touch it. All they see is how awful everything is. Plus, ps3 exclusive, so even if they were interested, the only place they could play it is my house. I have no corp in EVE, either, so can't really draw on anyone.