Steel Legions Tank Components:
All tank components have four characteristics
- Level: the level of the piece that determines major attributes
- Oil: Increases effectiveness of tank parts (+20% damage for weapon, +20% defense for armor, etc)
- Prototype: Adds bonuses to tank parts
- Alloy: Adds bonus and visual flair with colors to the tank.
Flaws and Feature Requests
Here’s the very real and major flaw in the game. When I interviewed Mark at Splitscreen he quite clearly state that only time-savers would be available with gold. However, the only way to get the big increases for your tank, the prototypes and alloys, is through gold. Gold drops less frequently than any other item in the game from what I can tell and to put enough gold together to even afford one update would be days, perhaps weeks of playing. Because of the major difference in power these can offer over time it’s a big balance issue. A player of the same level who spends real money will have a far more powerful tank than one who does not. There is no trading of construction parts or tanks presently and there is no trading of construction parts for gold which would really help balance the game in my opinion. Even if it were 500cp per gold it would make the game much better balanced, especially when one could spend $7.50 and get 1000 gold within an hour. To get 1000 gold through grinding would probably require at least 1000 hours of game play (not PvP missions). If you played for 4 hours a day, every day, that would be 250 days or almost a year. An hour vs. a year.... quite a big difference.
You can increase the level of your weapon with construction parts (the free in-game currency that Marauders drop most frequently). Since oil is also hard to come by that would be the other thing you spend all that gold on. It doesn’t drop nearly as infrequently as gold but not nearly as fast as construction parts. You also can’t buy oil, medic kits, repair kits or ammo for construction parts. Hopefully that will be implemented in the future as well because it would also help balance the game.
Steel Legions also has some matchmaking problems in regards to PvP power for teams. This, along with the fact that the majority of the time your missions will be PvE which result is lower XP are both due to the limited amount of players because the game is still in beta. I include this only as a note because I know exactly why it’s a problem, it’s almost always a problem in beta, there’s just not enough players for proper matchmaking and that’s not a problem of the developer, just a fact of life. So don’t hold it against them.
Even with all that, the game is cool and fun and is a great idea with great quality in the graphics, sound and overall development. But gameplay is skewed towards those who will spend cash on it. Without a faster way to gain gold without having to spend real money, this will always be the case with this game and games like it. There are still a lot of gameplay elements that are being balanced while the game is in open beta and over time hopefully they’ll find a balance that makes it fun to play without requiring a hefty investment of cash. I personally like the trading construction parts for gold idea, even if the rate is up to 500cp per 1 gold. That still requires a good amount of time investment and then doesn’t force you to spend real money. Of course, they would have to find a balance that still generates revenue for them. Perhaps if, when you went to trade parts for gold you viewed some advertisements, that would then give them some revenue generation and not force players to spend money.
I might suggest they look into some form of in-game advertising to help supplement the income, perhaps during the loading screens or in the launcher. That might offset some costs and I for one would be fine with it so long as it didn’t interrupt actual gameplay. I even have some contacts I could pass along to them if they were interested. In-game ads, when done properly, should generate revenue for the company and not interrupt the game or gameplay. If they’re limited to specific places and we know that the reason they are there is to help support the company that makes and supports the game and it’s offering us a valuable service (in my example, in-game parts for gold coins to upgrade and purchase necessary items) then we should be able to accept those ads. It’s almost like a free-to-play, ad-supported vs. a premium subscription model that many games and online services offer.
Having met with Splitscreen at their offices in Hamburg I have faith that they are doing their best to make the game fun for everyone and are dedicated to making it an even playing experience whether or not you spend real cash. Keep on steaming along Splitscreen!
