False, as usual, Cody. (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 19:13 (3384 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Korny, Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 19:16

Munky was telling me that as more and more people get Hawkmoon, the more and more likely it is that Bungie will nerf it because it's so dominating in crucible, and everybody would use it.

Because it kills the sandbox. If you were to make weapons a guaranteed drop in any activity, people would gravitate only towards the top-tier weapons, and nothing else. You contradict yourself. On the one hand, you want to be guaranteed a Mythoclast for killing a hard Atheon, but on the other hand you complained that too many people were getting Mythoclasts... Wouldn't one problem cause/be a result of the other?

Only because the Mythoclast was designed with the intent that it be ultra rare. If a lot of people were expected to get it, it would have been designed to better fit in with the rest of the weapons. That's the whole point of my post. Doing the weapons right would mean redesigning them.

So let's look at the reality of how the game is, rather than the idealized version that you claim could exist in this game. How would you have balanced the Mythoclast in a way that would not fundamentally change what it is while making it both more powerful, and balanced in the game? Clearly you know something that no developer knows.

Again, a contradiction. Having the highest-tier weapons be a much easier reward would lead to a much narrower arsenal. Who would use any Hand Cannon besides TLW and Hawkmoon? Who would use any sniper besides Praedyth's Revenge/Ice Breaker? Who would use any shotgun besides 4th Horseman or Swordbreaker? Gjallarhorn, Zombie Apocalypse, or Jolder's Hammer?

Only if Bungie left things the way they are. The point, was that if the weapons were all obtainable in some non random fashion, Bungie would have to redesign them precisely so the situation you state does not arise. Hawkmoon is as dominating as it is because it's rare. There would ideally be no "top tier" weapons. There would be fewer weapons, with each being good for different scenarios, or cater to different playstyles. That's probably impossible, but many games have come very close.

No matter how small the sanbox is, or how much reiteration is intended to balance the sandbox, there will always be top-tier weapons.

Take Call of Duty, for example. No matter what game you play, any small tweak in the annual update results in top-tier weapons. The Models, the FAMAS, the AKS, the SVU... They are the only things that the "pros" use, and if they get nerfed even a bit, the balance of power shifts; not to the rest of the sandbox, but to another weapon that edges out the competition.

Even Warframe, a game where players themselves can customize, tweak, overhaul, and transform every single weapon in the game has "top-tier weapons". Boltor Prime, Dread, Soma, Castanas, Dragon Nikana... "Pro"players claim that you can't succeed without these, and as such, the masses follow, and though the game has a ridiculously expansive sandbox (Rifles, Bows, Snipers, Hand Cannons, dual-wielded shotguns, rocket-pistols, lasers, Power saws, Greatswords, whips, axes, claws, gauntlets, hammers, staffs, daggers, etc...), people feel like they need to have a specific "top-tier" loadout to succeed. And the crazy thing is that all of the weapons not only have very subtly nuanced and carefully balanced stats, they're all designed to appeal to any playstyle imaginable, and people don't take advantage of it. It's all "What do the pros use", and even Halo proved this, with the stupid love of the sandbox-killing BR.

How would you fix the Destiny sandbox so that there are no top-tier weapons?