ITT: Cody undercuts his central argument against Destiny

by electricpirate , Monday, August 12, 2013, 12:25 (4122 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by electricpirate, Monday, August 12, 2013, 12:31

That's valuable in it's own right though... especially in a skill driven game like Destiny. See, Equipment, and leveling can act as a dynamic difficulty scale. Players can try, fail, go back to some easier content to improve themselves and their gear and come back and conquer. It's a much more organic system than difficulty sliders, or settings. Demon's/Dark Souls is a game that does this wonderfully.

Nonono! Relying on leveling to set the difficulty level is a failure of the designer to design a proper difficulty curve. It's cheating.

Horse shit. So the difficulty curve for my wife who can barely work 2 sticks should be the same for me who has been playing FPS' since I was 10?

Okay, so we create some difficulty levels, everyone happy? No, not quite, Halo on easy flat out isn't as interesting a game as Halo on Legendary or Heroic. Ideally, everyone plays the same thing, and you have tools to get them there. Hence, a smart leveling system that allows you to keep players engaged as they grow their skills. Dark/Demon souls did this about as well as anyone. The souls games are hard as shit, and the curve is brutal. On the other hand, you can go do optional areas, or fight in the same areas to beef up your character. The game gives you a reward for getting better, so you are never banging your head against a seemingly unbeatable boss (Interestingly, and directly applicable to Destiny, it also gives you a social way to control difficulty by summoning help for bosses)

Also, it's cheating? What a silly thing to say. Scuse me, while I go put in my cheat code for satisfying game design. Man, you better not let those get on Gamefaqs, otherwise everyone's just going to cheat their way to million sellers.

Even in Diablo leveling up is a strategic decision. Since you have a level cap, every choice you make means you can't invest in a bunch of other choices. And even without a level cap, a players limited time acts as kind of a natural cap. There's no functional difference between Diablo's skill trees with a level cap and Dues Ex's augmentations which are limited in a play through.

No, it's ALWAYS BETTER TO BE A HIGHER LEVEL. Now, where you spend your skill and stat points, THAT is the strategic decision. And guess what they removed in Diablo 3? Yup.

The difference is that Deus Ex awards exp as you naturally progress through the game. You can't 'grind' for it by replaying segments over and over.

It's always better to be a higher level in Dues Ex also. But the decisions you make as you go along that tree, and the options you give up give the systems meaning, challenge and complexity. Same thing in Diablo (up to 2)

not going to defend Diablo 3 here, I've never played it because everything I heard about it turned me off, especially the lack of choice in building characters.