On top-tier gun imbalance:

[Shingeki]

Sorry to break it to you guys, but the top-tier guns of iEra (PBP, Shipka, BAR among others) can't be nerfed without a lot of the community being pissed off, and the same stays true at its current state that those who can't afford it would be pissed off, and you guys already are and have been for a while. There's no way to fix the current balance situation without hard resetting the server's weapons, and this is due to our current pricing and the incentivization and necessity of USDing for currency. The fact isn't that the developers can't balance all the weapons to the point where each one has its merits and are relatively and statistically comparable. That's easy. However, the problem lies with the greedy pricing put forth by the developers and "economists" (though I doubt Era has dedicated specialists for these things).

Look at it this way. The gun administrators on the dev team at the time of their conception decided to price guns like the Shipka, PBP, and BAR at astronomically high prices compared to other guns at the time, to the point where they were more than seven times the price of an average, realistically attainable gun. Now, with outrageous prices such as these, it would only be logical to overpower these guns beyond what's expected of the other, 'mid-tier' guns. From this point onward, gun/pricing balance became fundamentally broken to he point where its irreparable without a hard reset. If you bring the guns to be statistically in line with the other mid-tier guns such as the M4, then you've got a bunch of angry BAR owners who demand refunds, and staff have already stated furiously that they will not do gun refunds, and it's understandable why, but that's a completely different story. On the other hand, if you leave the weapons as is, you've got everyone else angry that they're getting stomped by these overpowered guns. You've got one option left, and it's probably the only option besides a hard reset, but I'm sure staff won't even take it into consideration given the current economic circumstances. With the current pricing schemes and scaling balance with little diminishing return, we have a fundamentally flawed balancing scenario that cannot be fixed without a hard reset.

Well done, iEra. I haven't seen a game economy so broken since Graal Kingdoms PC to the point where staff intervention won't mean a thing in the big picture. I'm thoroughly impressed.

And yes, all you elitists out there are telling the people that don't have access to a credit card (their parents' or otherwise) to "get good", but skill is hardly a factor in an uneven playing environment. There's also the "work for the money" argument out there, and while it should only be fair that those who work longer get more out of it, it doesn't take away from the fact that it's a ridiculous amount of grinding that's unhealthy for the community to incentivize, just to get on an even playing field with those who paid. No matter how many times you try to deny it or hate to admit it, iEra is a pay-to-win game at its core, and a broken one at that.

Learn from this in your future pricing decisions, iEra staff.

[TiFFy]

You are correct in that they will not be nerfed, and frankly they shouldn't be.
Regardless of its impact to the economy, a product is a product. A world reliant on in-app purchases is like an old typewriter, you can't erase any mistakes.


The blame, however, isn't to an increasing demand to "sell sell sell" -- that was inevitable. Era started with the bar too high. Low-tier guns started too powerful.
With the tunnel-vision mindset introduced circa 2004-05 during the debut of the SG552, this is the most common approach to gun stats. In Era's common "one-frame" mindset, the only way to go is up. Up in damage or up in speed. At this point, iEra has reached the brim and BAR/PBP stats could soon become "second-tier" if there isn't a good driver at the wheel.
Either way, as Wil Soul put it, "**** players are **** players". Skill still separates players.

And yes -- "get good". You kids have it easy! Gangs are readily available, you have the option to instantly respawn, and you can make money in a NoPK Zone. Hell, your deaths aren't even visible for people to see. Back in my day we couldn't even save progress so we stuffed all our belongings under a tree and prayed they wouldn't get taken.

Related read:
http://eramasa.webs.com/

[helios]

pay to win lel

[Lord Greg]

So is this just a thread pointing out the flaws of top tier guns or is there some other reason for it?

[hwaryun]

So is this just a thread pointing out the flaws of top tier guns or is there some other reason for it?

Exactly how I feel.

[hwaryun]

Blah Blah Blah.

That took quite a long time to delete.
Anyway, there are players who actually legitimately dig/ trashpick or whatever for their guns. How would you feel if 2 months of your effort goes down the drain? Yes, some of the guns are op. Like the stacked damage on the PBP. However, some people did work for the PBP and it's their effort that entitles them to the gun.

[taka]

Gosh just shut up and dig or trashing or mushrooming it's not that hard ... U don't get anything good for free in game isn't that the deal :-/ so people stop crying if I have time sit there and spend ur time complaining why don't u spend some time on digging ? XD

[Shingeki]

So is this just a thread pointing out the flaws of top tier guns or is there some other reason for it?

I created this in hopes that staff will realize their mistakes and draw away from the standard they've been setting for new weapons and the necessity of iAP to eliminate grind. In addition, it's meant to address those who keep complaining about the holy trinity of OP weapons and explain intelligently why we can't do **** about it.

That took quite a long time to delete.
Anyway, there are players who actually legitimately dig/ trashpick or whatever for their guns. How would you feel if 2 months of your effort goes down the drain? Yes, some of the guns are op. Like the stacked damage on the PBP. However, some people did work for the PBP and it's their effort that entitles them to the gun.

Yes, and that's another reason these guns can't be touched without angry public outcry for those who did work for the weapons. Sure, the ones who work the hardest should be entitled to the best, but there's barely any diminishing return - there's such a huge gap in gun performance and work required to get it between the top-tier weapons. The gap shouldn't exist in the first place; this isn't a hardcore non-casual game and it shouldn't be geared towards that considering the nature of the platform. The gap shouldn't be there in the first place as to avoid problems like these.

Gosh just shut up and dig or trashing or mushrooming it's not that hard ... U don't get anything good for free in game isn't that the deal :-/ so people stop crying if I have time sit there and spend ur time complaining why don't u spend some time on digging ? XD

I don't give a **** that I don't have top-tier weapons. Actually, I have the Shipka and PBP and worked a considerable amount for each, but that's aside the point. The problem doesn't lie with me; I don't play this game anymore, I couldn't give less of a **** about me not having the new OP toys to play with. How about actually reading my thread instead of seeing "PBP, BAR, he must be a lazy **** who doesn't want to work for his weapons". Players shouldn't be required to go through endless, mind-numbing grind on this level to get on an even playing field. Sure, they certainly have to work for their weapons, but the amount required to get these weapons is ridiculous, and that's why iAP is so popular. A genius marketing strategy or not, it's certainly pissing a lot of people off and it's unhealthy for the game.

[{2Fast}*]

I worked for my bar which is 200,000 and did it in the course of one month. I dug 50,000 shells and mushroomed up to 190k (combined with shells) then everything went nerf on the jobs so I slowly dug 10k in 2 days and ever since then, I never dug again. I mine eventually I'm nearly level 10 but I don't try for level 100 or even 50 because if I do, others will try and see the eventual profit then it'll go nerf all over. My suggest is to keep the prices change stats balanced-wise not price-wise. Say each gun should be unique which is much to work on, but in the end all guns should be rather equal if not unsegnificantly different. All guns should't be really strong just cause they're quctioned or overpriced. All weapons in-game should be able to compete against each other, the only skill is hit timer spar which you can land shots evenly and timed correctly so the other person won't be able to fire back with a bar or (Insert OP Weapon Here). Prices should be for rarity not stats, this is what meph had as an idea when he created huge spread on shotguns and non-stacked to bring skill into sparing because the spread on a spar is quiete skill full as the rof isn't high and freeze is. That was an example, and guess what? The damage is 5 damage and cost's 50,000 (might chack again) but it's balanced compare to m4 and sten, just differently used. The M4 and Sten stats should be what people are to be up to fight to not a BAR's stats! Balance all weapons. IRL a pistol can easily kill a person with even one shot landed on the chest of a person who wields a Browning Automatic Rifle... get me? lol

[Shingeki]

Guns aren't balanced around realism, and they never should be.