Re: Destiny in 2019 (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, December 12, 2019, 15:23 (1812 days ago) @ Ragashingo

How ‘bout you? Do you think Destiny is on a better path now than in was in March? Were any of your wishes from March granted like some of mine were?

The good:

Stuff to do. I think Destiny's end-game is in a great overall state right now. We have the widest range of activities that have ever been available, from Nightfalls and nightmare hunts to raids and dungeons, a healthy spread of crucible modes, gambit, plus whatever spattering of seasonal stuff is on at the moment. We've got more fun and interesting weapons than any one person can use, and the subclasses are (very slowly) developing enough of their own identities to matter beyond simply having different supers.

A lot of these activities have been great lately, too. I really enjoy the 980 Nightfalls, the Dungeon and the latest raid are both lots of fun. Even with all its faults, the crucible is a good time (especially with friends).

Also, while I've ranted at length about my general dislike of Power Levels in Destiny, and how I think the game would vastly improve if they were removed all together, the end-game power grind is in one of the least-frustrating states that it's ever been. Getting powerful drops is easy, and pinnacle drops are now rewarding enough to make reaching those upper levels fairly smooth.

The story... kind of. I already covered this in another post earlier today, but I like that all the various little stories that Bungie has told (or tried to tell) over the past 5 years are starting to pile up and collide and effect each other. The storytelling is still a mess more often than not, and the character development is awful but for a few exceptions, but it feels like stuff is really happening. There's a density to the events that we're a part of now, and I think that's pretty cool.

The Bad:

Armor 2.0. I'm sure this will get mixed reactions at best, but in its current state, I'd argue that armor 2.0 is hurting the game. There are advantages to it, and I think there is the potential for it to be a fantastic system, but as it is currently implemented, Armor 2.0 has basically driven me to stop caring about armor in this game. Between the elemental affinities and the randomness of stat rolls, the chances of me getting a piece of armor that is
a) the piece of armor I want, and
b) has the elemental affinity I want, and
c) has a high enough stat roll to be decent, and
d) has those points allocated to the statistics I'm hoping for...
well the chances of getting a piece of armor that meets all those criteria is pretty darn close to 0%. Add to that the fact that if you care at all about the way your Guardian looks, there are even more mitigating factors. We have lots of ornaments, but not all pieces of armor have access to the same ornament sets. And its really tough to make a guardian look half-decent in this game without wearing a complete set of matching armor, in no small part because of the way different sets handle shaders completely differently (via different textures). So if you're looking to maximize your build efficiency AND customize your armor around a specific set of mods that you want to use, you'll probably be forced to choose between using a complete armor set and settling for whatever rolls you happen to get, or using the absolute best armor drops you get across all the different sets, and looking hideous, and that's if you're lucky enough to get any armor with the rolls you want.

On top of all this, we now have seasonal armor mods which can only be applied to specific pieces of armor from that season, so the few armor sets that I've been ever-so-slowly optimizing over the past couple months must now be set aside, half-finished, so that I can start all over again grinding out this season's armor and working towards a build that is vaguely where I want it to be. Or, I just say "screw this season's mods", in which case I'm basically painting myself out of truly optimizing my set, which was the whole damn point to begin with.

The Artifact. Similar to how armor 2.0 is supposedly about offering build diversity but ultimately just paints us into a corner, the Artifact and its mods are, IMO, a barely-disguised resource sink that claims to promote build customization, but ends up just being something I waste a bunch of glimmer on for a week or two before leaving it alone and forgetting all about it. There's no reason to have the champion mods tied to the artifact. Just make them available as standard mods. Much as I enjoy the new Nightfall Ordeals and Nightmare Hunts, being forced into using the same couple weapon types (due to their champion mod compatibility) works directly against the whole "play how you want to play" idea. When I look at this season's artifact, my first thought it "Great... looks like I'll be using a lot of bows and scout rifles in high-level PvE this season. GOOD THING I SPENT 2 MONTHS CUSTOMIZING MY ARMOR AROUND HAND CANNONS AND GRENADE LAUNCHERS." And since I'm not carrying around extra weapons just to keep those champion mods handy, I'm burning through glimmer by constantly swapping mods on my weapons every time I do a nightfall or nightmare hunt (since I want to use my mod slots for mods that are actually beneficial in other activities when I go play comp or a raid or something). The whole system is just exhausting and a big chore, and I don't find that it adds anything worthwhile or meaningful. Champion mods should just be a mod that can be applied to a piece of armor that provides "anti barrier rounds to all scout rifles" and stuff like that, rather than having to stick them into individual weapons.

I'm sure I'll think of more good and bad stuff later on, but that's a good start :)