Des2ny Reveal Anticipation Thread (Destiny)

by Harmanimus , Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 21:47 (2537 days ago) @ yakaman

I think you can deepen and strengthen identities without forcing players into a hole. I mean, earlier builds implied the last node (if I am remembering correctly) on gear and subclasses "locked" it to the current configuration for an added power boost. But a permanent lock is definitely bad. Especially witth the way the game shipped. Imagine not being able to ever complete a sticky grenade bounty because you locked your class that way? Players already tend to find a groove and stick with it, rewards for a lock that is not permanent but perhaps just costly might be as extreme as the design can handle.

In PvP, most players played the same to me. I don't recall changing tactics based on what class a player was; I was absolutely tuned in to recognizing supers popping, though..so maybe the same thing?

I think that is an interesting contrast. I also never really see it as I am playing against a Titan rather than a Hunter. Where I am paying attention is that I am playing against a Striker, or a Nightstalker. The moment to moment engagements aren't different. You shoot them, or whatever, to make them die. But the broader strategies change depending on the specific kit a player is using.

As shotguns or fusion rifles or hand cannons rose and fell, so too would the player base cycle through shotguns, fusion rifles, and hand cannons. The closest thing to a drastic play-style difference was a Titan defender with bubble shield. The players were more the guns they used than anything else.

Considering the way metagaming works, this makes sense. Though there are always outliers. People who prefer to play outside he meta. In the same context, subclass abilities shift around, too.

In PvE, generally, one Warlock mostly plays like another, with some minor differences. Faction choices might be a way to differentiate between play styles within the same class.

This is something that I make a distinction from your assertion. I think players tend to play subclasses the same way because, honestly, people play games pretty consistently to individual tendencies. If I play an FPS, I play it like any other FPS as similar as the mechanics can make it.

Factions could stand to have more unique weapon sets, but I don't think Factions are the way to differentiate subclasses, as that will pigeonhole in a bad way.

I swapped factions at the drop of a hat for equipment I wanted, based on how it looked, mostly. It doesn't seem like I should have been able to do that.

And this is the main point I was trying to make. Instead of swapping a faction to go buy a Rocket Launcher or a Sidearm, you have to be pledged to that faction in order to use that weapon. Even if you can only change factions once a reset, it can force a level of separation. Maybe DO has an amazing Shotgun one week so you pledge and buy it, but until the next reset that character can't use the FWC Hand Cannon you've been running with for the last month. Just as I can't use my Exotic DO Mark on my Totan right now due to being pledged to NM. Class legendaries and exotics can also be used to push that farther, but I have some pretty substantially feelings about those already that is a whole different bag of cats.

But if you make the gear of DO distinct from FWC in the way Suros weapons are distinct from Omolon, and then tie their use to a faction pledge that can be changed, you get a lot of pathways where you have limitations, but not roadblocks.