Shotguns, Fusions, Snipers and Sidearms (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, October 14, 2016, 16:08 (3054 days ago) @ dogcow

An example: I see a Titan with a shotgun out, running around. I dont know what his stats are, what his perks are, even what his subclass is. I cant even be sure his weapon is a good roll among that weapon type. Sure, it could be a Matador, but it could be a shit Matador or a good one.

So much this. I know I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again, but weapon names should MEAN something. A new-ish player thinks, "Oh, sweet! I got a Matador! Everyone's been killing me with this gun, now I can pwn too! (later) Ugh, why is everyone else so much better with this gun than me? oh... it doesn't have all the range perks!"

If Bungie is absolutely in love with random rolls then the perks should be reflected in the gun name, "Matador 64-ASRK" (Accurized Ballistics, Shot Package, Reinforce Barrel, Kneepads). As it stands right now there are a possible 7776 different rolls for a Matador 64, a couple of which are a 'god roll'. Also, each roll can be configured 9 different ways! That's crazy! It completely removes meaning from the weapon name.

I would prefer less randomness, Each weapon would have a handful (4-16?) of different possible rolls and the roll would be appended to the end of the weapon name, so it would be named "Matador 64-G" if you got roll #7. If part of Bungie's design is to have mystery about the opponents loadout then there would still be the question of "which of the 9 possible configurations of roll #7 is that person using?".

Edit: I understand this would destroy the 'carrot on a stick' incentive system Bungie has setup. Even cutting down the # of possible rolls to 64-128 would be hugely helpful, they could change the name to show which roll they got for each column, so "Matador 64-DF" would mean something, the D & F would have meaning too. "Oh, he's got the same possible perks in the 2nd column!"

I've always maintained that destiny's perks are poorly designed. Any perk that straight up makes a stat 'better', is a bad perk. You look at say shotguns, and it's clear that range and impact are the most important stats. So, perks that raise these stats will be sought out, and you can simply do better than without those perks. Hence sought after god rolls. BORING. Didn't they learn anything from Felwinter's Lie?

Perks should not change gun stats at all. They should enable a different type of play. For instance, Icarus, battle runner, etc. These are more interesting type of perks because they do not straight up improve the weapon, but let you play a different way. That is the way that perks should operate.