Post originally by PenceFost at 2005-06-14 12:46:30
Converted from Phorums BB System

I downloaded the full version of Defiance when it was released a few months ago, and having read through it a couple of times, I've found a few things I've loved and a few I've despised. I do agree that Defiance handles quite a few things fairly well, and that it has some very good ideas. For me, however, the army building system is needlessly complicated and frought with artificial mechanics. Some facets of it even seem nonsensical in their arbitrariness.

Case in point: Leaders/commanders. Why does the army builder require a player to tie a specific troop type to a certain type of leader/commander? Is it true that my Arcturian Mechano-Rats can only have a Leader 2 or Commander 1? Or could an officer whose own unit has been wiped out take over a Mechano-Rat platoon whose on leader was killed? And why are there only two levels of quality of Commander but four for Leaders? This seems to me to be arbitrary and artificial.

Second example: Grenades. You can only design one or two grenade frame per army (up to four if you take the Extra Grenades enhancement). But when I was in the infantry, we would take whatever was necessary to accomplish the mission -- frag, flash-bangs, several different kinds of smoke, white phosphorous, thermite, etc., ad nauseum. It once again feels arbitrary to limit a certain army to only a couple limited types of grenades. Also, this is science-fiction, so why are grenades so limited in what they can do? Why can't I have a Plasma grenade that also has a Terror effect?

Third example: The infantry and weapon frame options seem needlessly complicated and, once again, arbitrary. Weapon ranges only occassionally follow any logical chain of progression (unlike the excellent Starmada system, which is very straight-forward) and seem varied only for the sake of variation, rather than increassing in a logical and understandable manner. Table 2.6 in the Carbine section is a classic example; what was the logical chain of thought that leads from Carbine 12 having a 7+/9+/11+ at 20"/30"/40" while Carbine 13 has only a flat 7+ at 30", and no other ranges and to hit values? Weird.

Fourth example: Suppression capability. Why not call it high rate of fire? And why call it that when any weapon that frightens an opponent is capable of suppressing them? An RPG could suppress an enemy unit under combat conditions, by striking enough fear into them that they are sufficiently cowed into staying put. Again, this is an artificial game mechanic that strikes me as being unneccessary, as well as adding unneccessary complexity to the weapon design process.

There are more things that I've found in Defiance that make me reluctant to get too heavily into it. I hope that other people have a better experience with it than I have, and I sincerely hope that Defiance 2 improves on the army builder to make it feel less arbitrary and more solid. As it is, I just don't have a very good feeling about it.