I was just thinking on this, the amount of vendor points we get is 45. Most special mags are 5 for pistols and 10 for long arms, 15 points for most everything else, 5 for binoculars or fuel pouches, 20 for grenades that matter.
As far as I know there’s no way to earn more or trade them, or reduce the cost of certain items. Do you think vendor points as we have them now are balanced compared to what came before? you used to be able to spent (most? all?) of your points on a mk1 or mini medic kit which were way above the power curve compared to whatever else you could get. HEDP used to be free if you vended spare UGLs also.
Yesnt? The stuff people actually use in there, yea it’s probably priced okay for what it is. But also all the vendors have craaaaaazy Item Bloat of just a lot of not even really useful stuff. Why spend points on a rollerbed? Even if med is out, even if middeck maints are out, even if topdeck hull maints is out, you can usually snag one groundside easily enough. Just as an example but there’s a lot of stuff like that.
I take some of the Lesserent items as medic so I get niche stuff, but its always stuff I just am not getting anywhere else (radkits, fixovein); but there is a Lot of Crap (45 one-point dexalin+ injectors, you say?)
Costs between items are not balanced well, and there are a lot of noob traps you can buy that can be easily acquired with an extra literal 10 seconds of effort instead. Many other things with an extra minute or two of effort. It’s pretty dumb; these kinds of items ought to just be free in the vendor.
Overall the idea of a points system to purchase stuff is balanced, and what we have is mostly balanced in this sense, but the actual item costs are a total mess.
I’d bet if we had some kind of dynamic scarcity based point-cost system (that is to say, the price changes depending on how many people are consistently buying the thing round-to-round), easily half the items you can purchase would cost a fraction of what they do currently.
biggest thing why can you buy webbing for 15 points. like you are choosing between a MD or medhud for… webbing. like stuff people don’t use or can get for free with just 10 steps or just go to req for is weirdly overpriced and just noob traps
Most of the stuff you can get through the squad ultilities vendor, REQ or found around shipside. I literally only buy a medhud and B12, because those are the only valuable things you can’t get from REQ. I guess grenades are also worth it, since REQ is usually very strict with handing out HEDP.
All the mags are way too expensive to be worth it, especially like an M4A3 HP mag for 5 points that is used up in less than two seconds.
Depends on what field we are discussing. Against xenos, I think it is, nothing outrageous there, AP is very restricted (as it should be). Between different things you can buy inside? Nah, most of the stuff you can get for free, some you get from req pretty reliably, while others are unique like B12 armor (objectively the best, or second best armor for a PFC).
I don’t think it needs an urgent change, maybe a small rework by looking at what roundstart PFC can get. AP mags cost is fine, non-AP extended shouldn’t be worth the same as AP mags.
Might use something akin to req system, the more of something you buy, the more it costs. First AP mag could cost 10, while every other +5. Similarly with extended, first one 5, every other +5. With AP it would mean that for whole 45 points you can buy the same ammount of mags as now, but it is cheaper to arm every PFC with just one.
Some rework idea would be to give marines infinite “worse” version of many things. For example tactical moncular that sees what 2x scope, so then Req/PFC vendor exclusive binoculars make more sense.
To be fair, what does “balanced” even mean? A lot of costs are silly and were made using a dartboard but does that make them balanced? There’s definitely noob traps and bad choices, and definitely good and best choices as everyone else has pointed out. I don’t think there’s anything insane you can get from loadout points.
IMO I think the question to ask is if the points system unlocks variety to what builds you can do? I’m not sure it does.
tbh just give every PFC or marine the option to get webbing vests / webbing. You literally cant run out of it.
its just bloat that just there for 15 points.
also at least make mags cost 5 points instead of 6.
Minor complaint but please make HEDP 15 points so I can buy 3 packs. Grenades are already extremely hard to get and req always prioritizes the GL spec (who dies 10 minutes in)
This is a better way to think of it, I agree. I think especially newer and more casual players could use options to play differently that don’t require seven bajillion rounds of ““““testing and refinement””””, or provide a more clear role they can serve as that doesn’t require knowing where 12 things are in Almayer maints.