Hello Ubisoft devs. @Ubi. As you guys are still developing the core loop / design of the game, I think providing pre-imputative guide on how to balance the gear curve to avoid the issue you all had with for honour, as I played swtor, GW2, WoW, BnS, Mordhau ... name it I have most likely played it, as I have over 8 years in game time in various games.

On steam alone I have clocked over 3500 hours in he past 4 years. I have experienced it all, I can tell you what works vs what does not. This is free advise. If you want to thank me for my work a review copy of SnB would be appreciated.


Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Rewards

This is simple to explain. Although gear score matters, you should balance around skill. Best way to explain it is latter. A sword that A uses has X power, it does 99999 damage when it takes 10 damage to kill. Player B has Y which does 5 damage. Although AX has better gear that gear should not matter. Player BY should be able to beat Ax out of skill.

Because it does not matter the weapons stats unless player A is BETTER at combat then player B. Better= SKILL. This allows you to still be creative and to create thousands of over powered combinations without having to balance. As such you can create a infinite scale of rarity and progression and still have a fair system. This will provide millions of permutations that still feel distinct and unique allowing player customization.

This forces players to Constantly play your game. They will chase your new season rewards, the new OP gear, weapons, etc... like a horse dying of thirst although the bottle is dangling right above it’s nose. Because they will know that the better gear will always provide a advantage even more so when skill is mandatory so that you can create your own unique builds.

This is why games like Grim dawn, Titan Quest, Destiny, Borderlands are so popular. They nailed the extrinsic rewards. But failed in the intrinsic rewards because it feels like you have no control. It is also why for honour failed. The gear was so favourited that skill did not even matter. When the game is balanced 60 vs 40 gear it forces people to be competitive because if they are so close to beating X or X, they will farm harder longer, and it will hack their brain circuits to the point they farm gear like rats addicted to cocaine.

As such implement gear system that provides thousands of combinations to provide unique combinations that allow millions of builds. This will encourage people to fork money or time to gain these items. When paired with a skill based system it helps to balance the insanity because it forces the player to play more to get better. As such it means skilled and best with best gear always win. But also provides a low skill floor to allow all players to pick up game easy, but with a high skill ceiling


Rarity

We all know how important hierarchy is to players. We always want to be better then others. Most MMOs use the basic 6 tier scale, what I propose is a 15 tier scale. With 5 times within each tier. These tiers work like slots in warframe. Better gear is not just better in stats, but provides more slots and more freedom.

Infusion-is the rarity within the rarity. That dictates how many free slots a gear has to permute.
1) is grey = trash = negative bonus
2) white = normal- no bonus
3) Green = uncommon- plus 1 open slot
4) Blue = rare- plus 1 open slot, + one X slot
5) Red- epic- plus 2 open slot + one open slot

Rarity: tells the relative rarity of the gear. [A-Z]

The idea of this system is cross matching Infusion with rarity to create an infinite amount of rarities. This allows to have infinite combos on progressions system and still have it balance on skill. Here is my recommendation

Dailies- go up to green + 3
Weeklies- go up to 3 + blue

Monthlies- start at 3- 4, cap out at green
Epics 3-4, cap our at red

Raids / dungeons - 5-8 cap at green
Legendary X- 8-11, Cap at green
PvP- 8-11 cap at green

Heroics [50+ ppl X]- 12-15 cap at red
World bosses- 12-15 cap at red.

Of course you can make more rarities. As you need.

This modular system means you can do what you want and still tease your players with infinite growth. But it won’t matter since it based of skill. This creates a infinite dog cycle of players being addicted to grinding and improving. Allowing you to milk money form players with season passes, dlc, etc. This reinforcement cycle is very strong

Cosmetics

I am making this whole section just to open a can of worms. #1. Under no Sake will you make cosmetics pay to win, or provide stats. You will ruin your game is you attempt to clone Fortnite. All cosmetics have to available from in game which a player can get from playing.

The best system is knowing as X tokens. When you play, and contribute to game, you earn tokens. You can redeem the tokens. And get the items. It is fine to sell these cosmetics for real money. Only however if you make them available to all players. If you don’t not do this you will split you community and the game will die.

I seen thousands of games die because of this. Don’t test fate. It will laugh in your face and spit your blood back at you as your game and company suffocates ...


About the modules

Like in warframe ... these modules alone provide for infinite progression. They follow the same infusion and rarity scale. Here are the types

1) damage / armour / Health etc
; A) Does X effect, B) Provides X modular ability, C) Speed etc

These are tier white and grey skills. These make up 50% of your gears powers

2) Modifiers / Form shifts [aka aoe, a slash, a splash, a beam etc]. These change from the ground up how your skills works. And they stack. The better the gear the more you can stack. As such you can see how you can quickly make a very unique set up.

These are Greens - Blues

3) % damage scale: these are multiplicative stat boosts to X. Or to X module. These are end game modules


[BThanks for reading [/B]

I know this is a lot of information..l I hope it is helpful. Please make sure to use this, don’t ruin a great game