From the Update | I Feel the NEED... (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, February 01, 2018, 23:12 (2469 days ago) @ Ragashingo

I felt a sudden need to re-post this. Not only because it felt right relevant (and is AWESOME), but because I'm actually hyped about these proposed changes!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! :D

I hope this ships.

One thing that I definitely feel when returning to Destiny from other games is how little "momentum" plays into the gameplay itself, when it's such a noticeable (and great) part of modern game design, especially when it comes to improving on the skill gap.

Destiny 1 sort of had this with Warlock gliding and Titan skating (not to say anything about those shotgun-sliding jerks, too), and even Blink had a risk-reward system, but movement in Destiny 2 feels really stiff, even though they got rid of Sprint cooldown. I'm not asking them to implement wall-running or bullet jumping, but I'd like to see a focus on smoother transitions between movement that take momentum into account.

Hopefully in making everything faster, the momentum issues don't become more noticeable.

I’ve always felt like movement speed and time to kill were out of whack with each other. The TTK isn’t as quick as some other shooters, but it’s still pretty darn short. And the movement speed is so painfully slow in relation that reacting/dodging is rarely possible. So the idea of quickening all forms of movement sounds great to me.

The idea of increasing super recharge rates sounds great for PvE but terrible for PvP. Supers were the absolute bane of D1 crucible, and they’re only tolerable in D2 because they’re a relatively minor part of the overall PvP game. Ultimately, I care a lot more about the PvE game than PvP, but it’s a shame that the two sides of the game play at such odds with each other. Ideally, supers would be tougher to use effectively or be more open to counters (like the Core abilities in Titanfall).

I think the faster speed will help a bit (and is nicely held in check by the three hit melee kill in D2) but completely disagree on Supers.

I do get the appeal of supers in PvP. I just think it’s tough to create supers in a game like Destiny that fulfil the PvE Power fantasy without totally disrupting the flow of PvP. Supers in the crucible are basically “win” bottons. It’s almost impossible to screw them up. When a player pops their super, the onus isn’t on them to execute skillfully, it’s on the other team to be coordinated AF to take down the incoming super.

I mentioned Titanfall 2 because I think they hit the nail on the head with their approach to “Supers”. The Titan Core moves are powerful, but they have more specific and strategic uses, can be more easily avoided or countered, and they have inherent risks involved because of how they lock the Titan into specific animations or movements that are predictable. Because the supers take more skill to use effectively, it feels WAY more satisfying when you pull off something cool. Meanwhile in Destiny, if I pop a super and kill fewer than 3 opponents with it, it’s bevause I seriously messed up. There’s nothing rewarding about a successful super because they’re basically automatic kills.

What would be great would be if the class abilities worked in such a way that they were particularly effective at countering supers.