Great video that breaks down the way the recoil direction stat actually works in D2, and how a counterbalance mod will interact with your gun’s recoil pattern:

Personal opinion here, but holy crap does stuff like this seem utterly unnecessary to me. Super frustrating to have such an unintuitive and hidden system that has such a heavy influence on how our weapons perform. Also, I’d love to know why anyone at Bungie is so married to RNG mechanics when it comes to aiming and firing weapons. The more time I spend playing this game, especially the crucible, the more I feel like I’m fighting against the weapons themselves, rather than the enemy players. It’s quite telling that the mark of a great gun in D2 is the moment when you pull the trigger and the bullet(s) actually go where you had aimed your reticule, and your weapon remains reasonably lined up for another shot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Bungie really sucks at the RPG part of this game. 1. Why does recoil work like that to begin with? 2. What the hell would you hide that from your players? 3. Given that it's hidden from players, why would you give players Mods that then modify that behavior with no way to decipher what it's actually doing?

Also, seeing his vault gives me nightmares. This recoil crap is exactly why my vault is empty--when nothing makes any sense, none of it matters at all, so why bother?

It's a real shame, too, because the game feels so damn good. There's just enough horseshit like this, though, to always make me question if I got outplayed, or if that other player just has a better Trust than I do.

Man that ship is hideous.

It's a real shame, too, because the game feels so damn good. There's just enough horseshit like this, though, to always make me question if I got outplayed, or if that other player just has a better Trust than I do.

Is it really though? I never thought about the numbers. Try the different barrels. Which feels better? Use that one. Key word is feels. Feel better with counterbalance? Use it. Don't? Don't.

You never have to deal with 'horseshit' if you just go by experience.

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Also, I’d love to know why anyone at Bungie is so married to RNG mechanics when it comes to aiming and firing weapons.

At this point it's been so many years and games with similar effects. The Halo 3 BR spread, the Reach bloom, all the stuff in Destiny. It's obviously deeply engrained into their culture of design. I'd love to hear the philosophy too.

Because, even if it feels better, Destiny is a game designed in such a way that it might be objectively worse, such that you'll lose gunfights because of it.

For whatever it's worth, I mostly never feel much of a difference anyway.

Also, I’d love to know why anyone at Bungie is so married to RNG mechanics when it comes to aiming and firing weapons.

At this point it's been so many years and games with similar effects. The Halo 3 BR spread, the Reach bloom, all the stuff in Destiny. It's obviously deeply engrained into their culture of design. I'd love to hear the philosophy too.

Yeah, and they seem to be leaning into it more and more heavily over time. With each new game, the gunplay feels noticeably looser and sloppier.

Because, even if it feels better, Destiny is a game designed in such a way that it might be objectively worse, such that you'll lose gunfights because of it.

For whatever it's worth, I mostly never feel much of a difference anyway.

If you start losing gunfights when changing weapon perks… then how could you not feel it?

Because, even if it feels better, Destiny is a game designed in such a way that it might be objectively worse, such that you'll lose gunfights because of it.

For whatever it's worth, I mostly never feel much of a difference anyway.

If you start losing gunfights when changing weapon perks… then how could you not feel it?

It’s yet another variable that throws doubt into everything. Did I simply get outplayed? Are they using a better weapon? Are they using a better roll of the same weapon? Was lag causing some funny business? Are they using the same gun with the same roll, but with a better Mod than I’m using? Did my gun’s RNG recoil pattern screw me over?

The more RNG-based variables get thrown into the mix, the more difficult it can be to know if how your build is truly performing.

This. It's all ambiguous bullcrap. There would be a big difference if they made this stuff clear, but, even then, the randomness is built in at a base level. It just feels like it doesn't matter.

I liked the Reach Bloom mechanic for the DMR. It felt fine. I think Destiny mostly feels fine, too, but there is no way to beat the RNG by pacing your shots like you could with the Reach DMR. The game is just built to be inherently random.

I totally understand and buy the excuse that they want to level the playing field a bit, but I don't think this is the right way to do it. Predictability on such a fundamental level seems deeply misguided to me.