Supremacy reveals some major problems with PvP design (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Friday, October 07, 2016, 15:22 (3061 days ago) @ Schedonnardus

At least, the PvP design of Destiny.

Because of the frenetic motion of the supremacy game mode, spawns are completely borked. It seems to me that, rather than doing a real-time evaluation of where the best spawns are, the game is only periodically evaluating and assigning spawn locations. This has never been apparent until now. The result is that you frequently spawn where your team *was* 10-15 seconds ago, but since that's now where the enemy team is, you're kind of screwed. While this mechanic is technically "fair" (it applies regardless of which team is spawning), the fact of the matter is that it skews greatly towards a winning team by spawning the losing team in places where the winners already surround them.

The maps in Destiny do a horrible job of utilizing vertical space for long range shooters. A hallmark of games like CoD and Counterstrike is having rooms that are "sniper perches." There's only one way into the room, and it has a window through which you can see a large majority of the open space on a given map. The room is also almost always elevated which provides a more clear shot. In a game mode like supremacy, this provides an advantage - the sniper can pick off enemies as they run to collect orbs and can protect his teammates doing the same. In Destiny, these perches don't exist. At all. So snipers and scout riflers are stuck on the ground where stray bullets can give them flinch, they're subject to surprise attacks from around corners, their teammates are constantly bumping them, and they can't get a clear shot through the crowd of their own players.

Speaking of poor map design for long range weapons users: Destiny's spawns are always fluid. There is not a single game mode where the spawns are fixed. That means a sniper, who by definition *should* have to be ADS most of the time, is often caught from behind by a respawning enemy, which negates the value of being able to lock down a corridor. This is far more frequent in supremacy.

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If all of the map design favors frenetic movement and shotguns, why even use snipers? Well, it also favors quickscoping, because a OHK at any range is better than a OHK at close range only. So players like RealKraftyy and TrueVanguard who are terrific quick scope snipers excelled at this game. Now, with the sniper nerfs, the weapon type has been neutered. It's practically useless. So sniping is out.

What's a scout rifler to do? Scouts are still decent, especially team shooting with the high impact ones. This is important: Supremacy is, like all Destiny games, going to be won and lost on the backs of teamwork rather than individual play. Shoot the same targets all the time, and your team will win, shoot different targets, and you will lose. I still have trouble with this. My instincts, from years and years of hardcore CoD play, are to shoot the guy no one else sees. And I'm a kick ass CoD player. But in Destiny, you want to shoot the same guy as your friend, always. Scout rifles are great for helping allies who are downfield. Just aim over his shoulder from your elevated posi-crap. Well, do your best.

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Another tip here is to play the game that IS and not the game you wish it were. Like snipers but not shotguns? Tough luck dude. The meta favors shotguns, the maps favor shotguns, and this game mode favors shotguns. Play with anything that isn't a shotgun and you're gonna have a rough time. This is poor design and balance on the part of Bungie, but it's the fact we have to grapple with, and if you want to win, you're going to need to get with their program, I'm sorry to say.