Why only one exotic? (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, February 20, 2015, 00:09 (3374 days ago)

"Exotics are supposed to feel overpowered, but not actually be overpowered". - Bungie

A thread down below asking for all exotic fantasy loadouts got me thinking - based on Bungie's above design philosophy for exotics, why are they limited to one at a time? If they are not in fact overpowered, what's the reason for not allowing more than one to be equipped?

The limit actually ends up being problematic for the design of future exotics (as evidenced by the fact all the DLC exotic weapons suck) because of one thing: opportunity cost. The moment you equip any exotic, there's a downside - you can't equip Gjallarhorn. That sounds like a joke, but it's very real. "Is this exotic worth using my exotic slot for?"

Many exotic weapons are good weapons on their own, but bad when viewed in terms of the opportunity cost of equipping them. For casual activities, your guns don't matter much, but for Raids, Nightfalls, and Crucible, it matters a ton.

The opportunity cost of exotics I feel is worst in PvE, since Gjallarhorn, Mythoclast, and Icebreaker are dominant in so many activities. While I'd love to use MIDA as my primary for a great deal of the Crota raid, it's not worth giving up that slot for. PvP I think has much more flexibility in that regard due to the lower health of Guardians, making damage output matter considerably less than the gun's perks and feel.

So I wonder, why the limit to one?

What if we could equip as many as we want? What if 'exotic' didn't necessarily mean 'really good', but rather 'this gun does something unique or weird'. This would instantly make a lot of exotics usable by eliminating the opportunity cost. I don't even think it would eliminate legendaries, since many would be desirable because of their perks. Fatebringer, a firefly scout rifle, guns like Black Hammer and raid primaries with elemental damage, etc.

Design Destiny 2 with a wider variety of situations and challenges, such that all the different guns have a place, and I think the system would end up better than it is now.