this makes me happy :) (Destiny)

by electricpirate , Thursday, July 06, 2017, 13:13 (2697 days ago) @ Cody Miller

One thing that's always bothered me in D1, it rarely stresses it's core systems enough outside of MP. Even in it's most difficult non raid challenge, Nigthfalls, you can kind of hang back, or sometimes you can use the skulls to generate amazing, 1 hit KOs. And that's fun, but it's not always super challenging! Because of the lack of challenge, Destinies systems sometimes feel a little underbaked, even though they are deep and rich. Instead the focus has been on these bespoke mechanics for various encounters (Raids, and some of the strikes). So much so that "New Mechanics" has become the calling card of good destiny content.

That approach has always been one of Destiny's biggest strengths, and biggest weaknesses. Bespoke mechanics helped drive the games identity when it seemed so vanilla, but they've made it harder to add more compelling content. Building new mechanics is extremely expensive in a big networked game like this, so relying on generating tons of new mechanics limits the games ability to scale.

A few things here.

1. You don't know what gear players will have because it's RNG. So you can't build encounters and scenarios around exploiting certain weapons like you could in say, Megaman.

I think it's fair to expect players to hang on to a few categories of weapon. "Here's my CQB tool, Here's my Crowd Control Tool, here's a really good dps tool" etc. I think you can easily push things far enough that if you can't find the *perfect* tool, you can find some combination that works, or your personal skill can carry the day.

2. The subclasses really don't have a lot of variation in their abilities. You can change your skills, but at the end of the day you are still doing 99% the same thing. So you can't build systems where players have to master their chosen abilities from a pick of wildly different and exploitable choices.

This is exactly my point, Destinys low core challenge hides the amount of differentiation the classes can have.

This is a part where higher difficulty actually pushes the differences into the sunlight. My favorite mission in D1 is the taken war mission where you go back to skolas boss fights location. Doing that as each of my titan variants while underleveled feels *very* different, and the final battle is very challenging, and my strategy was signifigantly different.

1. Hammer bro: push special agressively, take it slow, use ads to charge the special so I could pop it for massive damage
2. Defender: get in close, punch/shotgun for shields, and agressively use bubble.
3. Striker: Aggressively move and flank as I could use skating + shoulder charge to bend around obstacles, use short to midrange weapons that can spike a lot of damage to control ads (more fusions, less shotguns).

My point being here, when the content doesn't push you, there's no difference in these classes, but when you back is against the wall, you've failed 3 times already, and you have to git gud then, and those small differences in the classes can become pretty important. Then the core systems of Destiny really shine.