[spoon]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
How do you define the game as better Spoon? If an equal number of people are upset by the change as made happy by it, sounds like no net improvement to me.

I define it by balance, depth, and enjoyment. Balance is just numbers, depth is availability of significant choices, and enjoyment is subjective. In your example, I would say that there would be an improvement- to balance and depth, at no net cost to enjoyment.

edit: And I am not talking about stuff like the maint reduction here. Those sorts of things could be changed and I doubt anyone would complain too much. And he does change those sorts of things. It may just be a matter of enough people complaining to him about it.

Those are exactly the things I am talking about. If MM does address these issues, it is pretty rare, and usually a more drastic code-based change as opposed to simple data tuning (eg, Engine Destroyers no longer skipping shields, Bases no longer "fleetable"). PPBs certainly aren't on the top of the "needs tuning" list, and I know you love your PPB, but ask yourself this: would you still use them if they did 10 pts less damage? What about 5 points less? If you answered "yes", it could probably use some tuning.

I don't know about Blizzard specifically, but I doubt they put out more patches for their games and are more responsive to the players than Malfador. I don't think anyone is.

Blizzard is probably the best of the Big developement houses as far as game quality and support goes. Still, MM outshines them by far, which is all the more amazing given that MM is just one (possibly cloned) guy. (Or maybe that is the reason. I don't know.)

But stuff like the PPB, where a legitimate case can be made for both sides. It's tough there to make changes without ticking people off. Those that don't think there is anything wrong with it anyway.

I'm still waiting to hear that legitimate case. And what kind of person gets ticked off if PPBs start doing slightly less damage? Does he really have to cater to that type of person? He's the developer. He allowed to step on a few toes.