Destiny and Multiplicative Design (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Friday, April 07, 2017, 05:48 (2568 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Diablo 2 was not how you described it. Formulas for weapons in the horadric cube were very expensive, and it took forever to get materials. Most of the time it was only good for upgrading gems and potions. Runes were rare. If you wanted to upgrade weapons or do rune words you had to grind a lot.

I played a LOT of Diablo 2. It was grindy, but it was fun, and the time I spent grinding was always rewarded and respected. Most of my grinding was for runes, but I didn't mind, because whatever I got to drop was still adding to my progression.

This is a pretty big thing for me, I've realized. Like if Gjallerhorn costs 100 Whosits, and every raid clear rewards you with between 1 and 100 Whosits, then everyone, eventually, is guaranteed a Gjallerhorn (though for some poor people it will take 100 clears). Contrarily, the present setup of Gjallerhorn being a very low % drop chance means that some people will just never get it, and will never get any closer to getting it. Their time is literally wasted even though they are doing the single best thing they can to try and get one. That bothers me a lot. I firmly believe that any player who makes a concerted effort towards loot should be rewarded with progress towards getting that loot. True RNG loot is counter to that practice.

Anyway, I digress. I found D2's grindy but rewarding loot system to be very enjoyable.

Upgrading guns in a game that has no end like Destiny is a bad idea, because you'll eventually have to grind for materials since they are infinite. Weapon upgrades only belong in games that are finite in duration and in resources, since then it becomes a play style or strategic choice only.

In my opinion having an end is the best thing Des2ny can do.

I was suggesting upgrading guns as opposed to the current model of throwing out your new gun every few levels. The goal would be to get an "endgame" gun at around the same time you max out your character level. I fully agree that the progression needs to be finite, especially if you want to have an e-sports worthy pvp environment. The endgame weapons would all have to be designed to be balanced in pvp, or there would have to be a separate set of pvp weapons for players to use.