I now have proof that Destiny's population is too low to maintain sizeable pools for skill-based matchmaking.

I'm okay at crucible, but very rarely am I at the top of the my team's leaderboard when matching in solo, and haven't been able to get anywhere near the lighthouse in over a year. I made a semi-sarcastic post last week asking how many games I had to lose in a row before I stopped getting matched up against routine lighthouse vets.

But now I'm getting matched into games against teams of popular streamers who I know visit the lighthouse multiple times every week.

I hate playing Iron Banner. I hate playing Trials of Osiris. I hate how focused Destiny has become on competitive play, to the point where people who enjoy PvE might get content updates every 6 months, if we're lucky.

I now have proof that Destiny's population is too low to maintain sizeable pools for skill-based matchmaking.

I'm okay at crucible, but very rarely am I at the top of the my team's leaderboard when matching in solo, and haven't been able to get anywhere near the lighthouse in over a year. I made a semi-sarcastic post last week asking how many games I had to lose in a row before I stopped getting matched up against routine lighthouse vets.

But now I'm getting matched into games against teams of popular streamers who I know visit the lighthouse multiple times every week.

I hate playing Iron Banner. I hate playing Trials of Osiris. I hate how focused Destiny has become on competitive play, to the point where people who enjoy PvE might get content updates every 6 months, if we're lucky.

Curious, can you elaborate on this more? What exactly makes it more competitive in your eyes?

I don't find Destiny to be *nearly* as competitive as I found Halo to be. Back when Destiny was in public alpha\beta, I leaned more towards how Snipe and Schooly felt about it.

To me Destiny isn't truly competitive because of the variables in class, abilities in those classes, and weapons.

Let's say that objectively speaking, I'm a better sniper than you. But you have a sniper with increased aim assist and extra rounds vs insert_generic_less_gud_sniper . Is that still competitive to you?

It isn't to me...

Sure, turning off the radar can make for some hairy games, but the playing field isn't level because of it. Making it more stressful doesn't automatically make it more competitive.

The only way to get a competitive experience in Destiny (in my opinion) is to essentially remove that variety. No supers. Everyone plays as the same class with the same nodes, same melee abilites, same nades (or none, only way to be fair) Same primary, special and heavy.

As you can see, that makes Destiny NOT Destiny. Whether or not this is a "good" thing is a matter of preference. In Halo, boiling everything down to DMR starts, one or two weapons on a map made for fair games, if not boring after awhile.

Eh.

I see it from two sides. 10 years ago "competitive" was Same character, same guns, same map, over and over and friggin over.

Today "competitive" is personalized characters, load outs played to your individual strengths and preference.

I still struggle to think of Destiny as it is now, as competitive though.

The PvP is deeply fucking flawed. The 10 tick is stupid. The whole networking model is stupid. There's a lot of stupid involved in the game modes, weapon balance, map design, and class ability balance. But it also has a lot of depth. The character control and movement combined with the, frankly, odd weapon balance choices, mean that this is a game about positioning and map control more than it is about actual gunskill.

Regardless, it's more compelling to me than the "dance monkey dance" element of raiding over and over and over and over for the exact same fights every time. At least PvP is different enemies with different skills and tactics while the raids are insufferably the same every single time. Now, listen, I LOVE the raids. They're great fun! But they aren't sustained fun. They get boring. They become chores. They become why I quit WoW.

And then there's PvP, which is very, very, varied.

So yeah, I would absolutely PvE as a preferential activity. 100%. Except the content sucks. It's all samey as fuck. Go here, shoot that, wait for this door to open, and so forth. The groundwork is all there but the dots just haven't been connected yet.

So I PvP, which is at least kind of interesting. Until I can afford to buy Titanfall 2, I'm kind of stuck.

You have to be ultra-competitive and abuse every trick in the meta, because if not the SBMM is going to make you lose a lot.

Just for fun, I counted the kills in one of my games last night.

• 45 primary kills, of which 8 were non-Pulse Rifle (4 of which were TLW, 3 Palindrome and 1 Scout Rifle)
  
• 48 Shotgun kills!
  
• 11 Melee - More melee kills than non-pulse primary kills!
  
• 8 Fusion Rifle kills
  
• 6 Grenade kills (all of which were skip or voidwall grenades)
  
• 2 Sniper kills - Bear in mind this was on FRONTIER. Snipers paradise! Nope. Shotgun err day.
  
• 2 Sidearm kills

Now, the point of that isn't to whine about shotguns (I hear enough of that from my super l337 sniper friends already). Just that the message is clear - Play the meta or have a bad time,.

Which is fine in compettive play, really. That's sort of the point of competitive play. If that's what you want, awesome. But can I get a Casuals playlist please? Just one rotating through Rift, Control and Clash would be fine.

I now have proof that Destiny's population is too low to maintain sizeable pools for skill-based matchmaking.

I'm okay at crucible, but very rarely am I at the top of the my team's leaderboard when matching in solo, and haven't been able to get anywhere near the lighthouse in over a year. I made a semi-sarcastic post last week asking how many games I had to lose in a row before I stopped getting matched up against routine lighthouse vets.

But now I'm getting matched into games against teams of popular streamers who I know visit the lighthouse multiple times every week.

I hate playing Iron Banner. I hate playing Trials of Osiris. I hate how focused Destiny has become on competitive play, to the point where people who enjoy PvE might get content updates every 6 months, if we're lucky.

Curious, can you elaborate on this more? What exactly makes it more competitive in your eyes?

I don't find Destiny to be *nearly* as competitive as I found Halo to be. Back when Destiny was in public alpha\beta, I leaned more towards how Snipe and Schooly felt about it.

To me Destiny isn't truly competitive because of the variables in class, abilities in those classes, and weapons.

Let's say that objectively speaking, I'm a better sniper than you. But you have a sniper with increased aim assist and extra rounds vs insert_generic_less_gud_sniper . Is that still competitive to you?

It isn't to me...

Sure, turning off the radar can make for some hairy games, but the playing field isn't level because of it. Making it more stressful doesn't automatically make it more competitive.

The only way to get a competitive experience in Destiny (in my opinion) is to essentially remove that variety. No supers. Everyone plays as the same class with the same nodes, same melee abilites, same nades (or none, only way to be fair) Same primary, special and heavy.

As you can see, that makes Destiny NOT Destiny. Whether or not this is a "good" thing is a matter of preference. In Halo, boiling everything down to DMR starts, one or two weapons on a map made for fair games, if not boring after awhile.

Eh.

I see it from two sides. 10 years ago "competitive" was Same character, same guns, same map, over and over and friggin over.

Today "competitive" is personalized characters, load outs played to your individual strengths and preference.

I still struggle to think of Destiny as it is now, as competitive though.

When I say "competitive" I mean "Not co-operative"

Until I can afford to buy Titanfall 2...

Give me a shout when you do. Life is better over here ;)

Until I can afford to buy Titanfall 2...

Give me a shout when you do. Life is better over here ;)

Which reminds me, do you have a Buffalo Wild Wings up there? I picked up a code for their Ion nose art if you want it. :v

Just take a break. A lot of this forum has. People PVP because it's different and the rest of the game feels samey.

Until I can afford to buy Titanfall 2...

Give me a shout when you do. Life is better over here ;)

It'll be on Xbone when I get it. My username there is "The Last Shrike".

As a gen 10 Titanfall 1 guy, I'm super excited for Titanfall 2. I just need to get my next gig first.

I've been dragged up in skill, when I play with lighthouse vets on my team, and I've dragged others who only play IB and stick to PVE otherwise up when I group with them, but that is really the only effect I've seen in Destiny PVP. This is pretty similar to my experience with Halo 2, where you tended to stall out in the rankings around the 40s unless you had a clan.

I had fun yesterday using Telesto for some postmortem kills, along with sidearms (tresspasser dropped for me at a high light level) and a full auto IB shotgun.

As a side note: BAN the Matador and PC+1. I swear those are the only shotguns I see anyone using. Perhaps I saw one Last Ditch and a CT-D in the 8 hours or so I've put into it. You would think that shotgun was standard equipment or something.

the xbox crowd has nearly disappeared it seems. It seems like a third of the people are playing compared to a month ago :(

After the lead up hype and initial excitement of a new expansion, it's still the same grind as Y2. The raid is more fun, but now it's the same grind that King's Fall turned into. Heroic challenge modes each week to get mediocre loot with weapons that are being continually made worse. Just overall burnout, which makes sense because we've been playing the same game entirely too much for 2+ years.

That and most of the Xbox group appears offline to hide from Funk's nephew.

- No text -

- No text -

- No text -

After the lead up hype and initial excitement of a new expansion, it's still the same grind as Y2. The raid is more fun, but now it's the same grind that King's Fall turned into. Heroic challenge modes each week to get mediocre loot with weapons that are being continually made worse. Just overall burnout, which makes sense because we've been playing the same game entirely too much for 2+ years.

It's weird that people think it's crazy to stop playing a game once you're not having fun anymore (they also apparently think it's insane to stop playing without announcing it to everyone). Play the game, get your money's worth of fun from it, then stop playing. Easy. Zero grind required.

That and most of the Xbox group appears offline to hide from Funk's nephew.

I thought he just played with GV now... I got while the gettin' was good.