When I look at other games approaches... (Destiny)

by Durandal, Thursday, December 17, 2015, 15:46 (3359 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

Battlefield/Titanfall/COD made snipers and shotguns primaries, but put big limits on them. I don't think any of those systems got the balance right either, but I felt that Battlefield came the closest.

Bungie's model requires the secondary weapons to be dominant in their areas of expertise. The problem has been that the range of shotguns combined with the player speed due to jump/run/slide combos made them dominant in most map encounters, especially in objective based modes.

Bungie has dramatically limited the range of shotguns, and reduced blink which is the worst jump offender, but there is nothing they can really do about snipers, so they will always seem cheap. The best they could do is limit the aim assist at medium to short range, but the zoom on most scopes already makes those ranges difficult to be effective in anyway.

In theory, if fusion rifles weren't so hard to use they would push snipers back to long range, but a mid range one hit kill weapon caused major issues, if anyone remembers the glory days of Plan C and Pocket Infinity.

Battlefield tries to differentiate shotguns by limiting the long range and the number of pellets, so slower firing guns tend to be easier to hit with and get a single kill, while fast firing or full auto ones tend to require two to three hits to kill, even at close range. Likewise the faster firing snipers do less damage, so you need two to three body shots for a kill.

COD is similar, but has faster firing snipers with no sniper glint, and of course the auto aim no scope glitch so you can headshot with ease. What saves COD is the maps tend to be cluttered and people move very fast, so it is difficult to lock down areas.

Titanfall fell more into the classic ranges, with the weapons clearly at an advantage in their range bands, and little options for players other then choosing a different weapon or scope. Easy to balance but utterly generic.

I think the best bungie could do is add more flinch to snipers when they are ADS, and perhaps have bullets slow someone rushing with a shotgun. The charge time on fusion rifles was their balance, but the non-hitscan nature has been added difficulty since the 2nd patch or so.