Friendly Fire in Destiny, or "sry i nova bombed ur face lol" (Destiny)

by ncsuDuncan , Sunday, January 26, 2014, 23:23 (3740 days ago)

This is a topic I plan to discuss during Tuesday's dboTV, but I'd like to start the conversation now; maybe I'll pull some quotes from this thread. :)

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From Murphy's Laws of Combat Ops:

Friendly fire -- isn't.

The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.

Every Halo veteran knows the truth of those words. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer - but not if Claude has the rocket launcher. Yet despite being a seasoned victim of ill-timed sniper shots, poorly placed grenades, and overeager (under-steering) Warthog chauffeurs, I prefer Halo with friendly fire on. Consistent weapon/damage feedback is important to me in the physics-driven sandbox of Halo, and disabling friendly fire creates an "unrealistic" experience where the rules don't apply to everyone equally. It feels like a glitch in the simulation, just like that Keanu Reeves movie where he flagrantly breaks the laws of physics. (Point Break)

Of course, Destiny is not Halo! There are plenty of completely legitimate reasons for Not-Halo™ games to leave friendly fire disabled by default; Call of Duty's short kill times and Battlefield's enormous player count immediately come to mind. The shared world of Destiny would become a frustrating, paranoid place if random griefers were allowed to intrude on your adventure and fire at will. Games like DayZ have a unique take on the concept of player/character investment, but they're certainly not for everyone. Thankfully, in a recent BWU DeeJ confirmed that combat between Guardians will only be enabled during specific, player-chosen activites:

reydar117 We can kill others guys in the open world area?

If by “other guys” you mean “vile invaders who have taken up residence in the worlds that are rightfully ours,” the answer is “Yes!” If your question is aimed at battling other Guardians, you’ll need to enter a completely separate activity to test your competitive mettle. You’ll make a lot of choices in Destiny, including when you want your allies to turn their guns on you. We can’t have Guardians attacking each other in the wild. The wild is a dangerous enough place already, without you turning your guns on one another.

Makes sense. But what about friendly fire in Destiny's competitive multiplayer? Team sizes and kill times are obviously important issues, but how could space magic affect the situation? Or proximity grenades? We won't get betrayed for the Coagulation sniper if we're all bringing our own guns to the party, but there's still competition for special ammo, right?

What games have friendly fire mechanics that make sense? What games don't?

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, DBO. Just promise to keep the discussion civil - we're all on the same team here.