Something like this has been suggested before once, I believe (about seven months ago). Here goes.
I think we've all been in situations where we're playing on Hard and up and somebody comes in with a level 0 perk. So, you ask him if he has any higher-leveled perks maybe. Perhaps it's two at best. The rest ensues in catastrophic failure as the whole team ends up dead because of that person.
Now, I'm not saying that all low-level people are bad. I know a few that (get this) actually stand still or come to me if I'm medic when they need healing. But I digress, so we go to the heart of the matter.
I propose a difficulty perk level requirement. You must have a certain level to your perk in order for you to play as it on a certain difficulty. Here's how I think it should be broken down, but feel free to add suggestions.
Beginner: None
Easy (take note of this): Level 1 minimum
Normal: Level 2 minimum
Hard: Level 3 minimum
Suicidal: Level 4 minimum
Hell On Earth: Level 5 minimum
Now for some clarification. First, note that there's a new difficulty level- Easy. I believe that there is far too drastic a jump from beginner difficulty to Normal difficulty. For example, the Siren does zip damage with her scream on Beginner. Zip. On Normal, she can sow chaos and kill the unwary and shut down multiple attempts to use explosives against Fleshpounds (which do extremely low damage on Beginner).
As such, I believe that an intermediate level- Easy- would be appropriate to implement. This can help players who're just starting to get the grips of the game to learn some of the more advanced tactics and strategies by showing a small glimpse of how dangerous those Zeds are. It'll also wean them away from tactics such as ignoring Sirens (usually), making their way to Trader locations before the wave is finished (via a shortened Trader time limit) and making shopping choices before they reach the shop. The reduced amount of money upon spawning and obtained per kill will also serve to teach players that they won't be able to afford a shiny AA12 within the first few waves with other players to support.
Second note of clarification is that you can only play as a perk or perks that you've leveled up high enough to play on that server. If you have a level six Sharpshooter and level 0 everything else, for instance, you can join a Hell on Earth server as that perk, but you can't swap to your level 0 Demolitions for instance.
Unfortunately, one thing this does not handle is the occasional person who farmed their perk progress and end up knowing little to no substantial tactics or skills (namely with the dreaded level 6 Sharpshooter who can't seem to aim for @#$% because he farmed headshots with Fake Players). I can't really imagine a way out of that at the moment (then again, it is 11:30 right now as I'm typing this up), so I guess the kick menu's there for that.
EDIT: A friend just brought this up- a tutorial could also be of use to new players, but again, it's 11:30 right now as I type this up, so I'm kind of brain-dead after this wall of text.
tl;dr- If you actually expect a "tl;dr", you are way too lazy for your own good. I mean, really, this is a video game forum! Video games are stereotyped as the epitomes of laziness! If you're too lazy to read something about a video game, then...Well, mercy on you.
I think we've all been in situations where we're playing on Hard and up and somebody comes in with a level 0 perk. So, you ask him if he has any higher-leveled perks maybe. Perhaps it's two at best. The rest ensues in catastrophic failure as the whole team ends up dead because of that person.
Now, I'm not saying that all low-level people are bad. I know a few that (get this) actually stand still or come to me if I'm medic when they need healing. But I digress, so we go to the heart of the matter.
I propose a difficulty perk level requirement. You must have a certain level to your perk in order for you to play as it on a certain difficulty. Here's how I think it should be broken down, but feel free to add suggestions.
Beginner: None
Easy (take note of this): Level 1 minimum
Normal: Level 2 minimum
Hard: Level 3 minimum
Suicidal: Level 4 minimum
Hell On Earth: Level 5 minimum
Now for some clarification. First, note that there's a new difficulty level- Easy. I believe that there is far too drastic a jump from beginner difficulty to Normal difficulty. For example, the Siren does zip damage with her scream on Beginner. Zip. On Normal, she can sow chaos and kill the unwary and shut down multiple attempts to use explosives against Fleshpounds (which do extremely low damage on Beginner).
As such, I believe that an intermediate level- Easy- would be appropriate to implement. This can help players who're just starting to get the grips of the game to learn some of the more advanced tactics and strategies by showing a small glimpse of how dangerous those Zeds are. It'll also wean them away from tactics such as ignoring Sirens (usually), making their way to Trader locations before the wave is finished (via a shortened Trader time limit) and making shopping choices before they reach the shop. The reduced amount of money upon spawning and obtained per kill will also serve to teach players that they won't be able to afford a shiny AA12 within the first few waves with other players to support.
Second note of clarification is that you can only play as a perk or perks that you've leveled up high enough to play on that server. If you have a level six Sharpshooter and level 0 everything else, for instance, you can join a Hell on Earth server as that perk, but you can't swap to your level 0 Demolitions for instance.
Unfortunately, one thing this does not handle is the occasional person who farmed their perk progress and end up knowing little to no substantial tactics or skills (namely with the dreaded level 6 Sharpshooter who can't seem to aim for @#$% because he farmed headshots with Fake Players). I can't really imagine a way out of that at the moment (then again, it is 11:30 right now as I'm typing this up), so I guess the kick menu's there for that.
EDIT: A friend just brought this up- a tutorial could also be of use to new players, but again, it's 11:30 right now as I type this up, so I'm kind of brain-dead after this wall of text.
tl;dr- If you actually expect a "tl;dr", you are way too lazy for your own good. I mean, really, this is a video game forum! Video games are stereotyped as the epitomes of laziness! If you're too lazy to read something about a video game, then...Well, mercy on you.
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