*IMO* Bungie really misplayed the RPG elements of Destiny (Destiny)

by iconicbanana, C2-H5-OH + NAD, Portland, OR, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, 16:10 (3356 days ago) @ JComboBox
edited by iconicbanana, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, 16:15

Join Josh Mosqueira as he discusses the dramatic shifts in gameplay, core philosophy, itemization, and rewards in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

https://youtu.be/vWYEWRrFgUY

I found this talk to be very compelling and I think it bears bringing up within the context of Destiny's own loot system. In my opinion, the two best loot based games that are out there right now are Diablo 3 with Loot 2.0 (drop rate+ variety) and Borderlands (RNG Loot Weapons + variety). The replay-ability (hyphenate?) of Diablo 3 allows for me to defeat the same bosses and play the same areas over and over again, but I never get bored since I'm always building towards something that's fun (becoming overpowered and customizing builds with interesting items).

I love Destiny, but I feel like what's missing is variety of the items and the rate at which they drop. The only really unique feeling items are exotics and the effects and mechanisms of those are so known and controlled. The legendaries just feel like it's a stepping stone to level and that's about it. It's not particularly meaningful to grab a piece of gear over another since the perks are so mundane outside of the Raid armor perks (which are really only supposed to help with HM Raid). Plus, binding the gear to your light level means that I'm grinding away to get basically the same set of perks on armor, but a different look and light level.

I'm guessing that the real challenge that defines Destiny's systems is trying to let what makes a PvE loot based system fun, but balance PvP. Thus, all Diablo 3 based arguments needs a huge grain of salt since they basically abandoned PvP because it is crazy hard to balance!

I know this is a bit rant-esque (?) but thought I'd throw these thoughts down anyway.

I feel what you're talking. I really wish Bungie hadn't taken the Borderlands approach to the damage mechanics of the game. Borderlands did things much, much better with creep scaling too. I remember being really bummed the first time I saw little numbers popping up on the first dreg I shot. It worked in the Borderlands universe because of how ludicrous the gunplay of that game already was. It doesn't fit the Destiny universe, to me. Diablo is just a step further and Destiny doesn't have the mechanics to support all the nuances of combat that D3 does.

I think Cody is right on the money with the suggestion that attack/defense ratings should be dropped. Halo played well because it made difficulty based on AI strength, not hit point inflation. Destiny gets caught between Halo and Borderlands and it doesn't really pull either off as well as the originals do.

Destiny PvP plays significantly more like Halo PvP than their respective PvE counterparts. I find PvP to be terrifically unique and enjoyable because it executes gunplay balance and scaling far better than PvE. I've never really found PvE to be up to snuff with Halo or Borderlands; it's fun but it's not ideal. They're definitely caught between balancing the two and they haven't found an ideal solution yet.