this makes me happy :) (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, July 06, 2017, 12:06 (2698 days ago) @ electricpirate

One thing that's always bothered me in D1, it rarely stresses it's core systems enough outside of MP. Even in it's most difficult non raid challenge, Nigthfalls, you can kind of hang back, or sometimes you can use the skulls to generate amazing, 1 hit KOs. And that's fun, but it's not always super challenging! Because of the lack of challenge, Destinies systems sometimes feel a little underbaked, even though they are deep and rich. Instead the focus has been on these bespoke mechanics for various encounters (Raids, and some of the strikes). So much so that "New Mechanics" has become the calling card of good destiny content.

That approach has always been one of Destiny's biggest strengths, and biggest weaknesses. Bespoke mechanics helped drive the games identity when it seemed so vanilla, but they've made it harder to add more compelling content. Building new mechanics is extremely expensive in a big networked game like this, so relying on generating tons of new mechanics limits the games ability to scale.

A few things here.

1. You don't know what gear players will have because it's RNG. So you can't build encounters and scenarios around exploiting certain weapons like you could in say, Megaman.

2. The subclasses really don't have a lot of variation in their abilities. You can change your skills, but at the end of the day you are still doing 99% the same thing. So you can't build systems where players have to master their chosen abilities from a pick of wildly different and exploitable choices.