Reimagining "competitive" Destiny (Destiny)

by Harmanimus , Sunday, August 11, 2019, 15:25 (1949 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

So recently I've also been considering ways to make a Competitive Playlist more. Well, that. You have some very solid considerations going on here. Removing Pinnacle Weapons from Comp is a great suggestion every time, even if it isn't new.

Some of the considerations I've had is fully separating what is available in Comp gear-wise from the main loot pool, which you brought up. But Personally I'd take it a step further from where you suggest to both ensure a level, skill-focused playing field while also having rewards that are worth having. There are two things I think are most important. This may get a little long, but anyway:

Seven of Cups: or how I think you can make an inherently unbalanced loot pool even.
The concept it to take what was done with the Five of Swords and Nightfalls and apply it to competitive. However, instead of a challenge card you are selecting a Competitive Loadout. Whatever Subclass you have equipped stays equipped, but when you enter Comp your gear is replaced with a (probably not locked) loadout of gear.

Within the interface you have a Kinetic, Energy, and Power slot that you select your weapons out of. Whether there would be one of every archetype covered for each weapon class or a more limited selection could go either way. The important part is that every weapon is a curated roll. My initial consideration was one for each weapon class (this leaves a selection of 15 unique weapons to build your loadout with, 5 in each slot without overlap) but that is also under an assumption of rotating weapons in and out (different weapons archetypes for the weapon classes at roughly 1/3 changing on a regular basis), in part to enforce changes to the meta but also to encourage returning to the playlist. I'll get back to that with the rewards section.

This could also be done with every archetype available at all times. Regardless the point is what follows. Everyone has access to identical weapons, so there is no question of whether someone beat you because they had a better roll. Obviously there is the possibility one weapon is better than another, but that would iron out over the season as the comp meta gets identified. Then the next comp season you would likely see some of the most- and least-used weapons rotate out, with the possibility to come back later.

Then one for each of the four core armor pieces, giving you a selection of your Light/Medium/Heavy options. Your class item doesn't get a slot selection. All armor perks are dictated by your weapon selection and this effect is uniform across all players, i.e., if this season has an Enhanced loader perk for your kinetic weapon and you have a Hand Cannon you have a matching perk, if your friend is using a Pulse Rifle they get a matching perk. There are no exotics and there are no chosen mods.

Dealing Damage: a discussion on the current greatest issue facing Crucible
The second important change is a much more sweeping change to PvP balance. Supers are obviously a big area here. But in general a lot of weapons need to have some adjustments, such as Sidearms and SMGs being better capable of countering Shotguns and Fusions, Auto Rifles being made actually viable, and Pulse Rifles being made slightly less forgiving (Pulse rifle Body shots shouldn't out perform an Auto Rifle, just saying) when not being used with precision.

Specifically in the context of a curated gear list, however, you can specifically balance those weapons and their stats and perks against each other. You can shift the level of viability between weapons allowing for more variety. Instead of running into a team rolling snipers with the highest possible Aim Assist values so they can make flashy montages the viability can be controlled. It can also be changed to keep things fresh.

Supers have been discussed at length all over. And there is no specific singular solution, but a lot of more targeted changes I think need to happen with them. I think supers should get even less damage reduction against abilities. The power fantasy for supers, in order to be healthy for the game, should be about the ability to deal out a lot of damage and rewarding thoughtful use. Right now the power fantasy is tanking damage and being more like a nightmare involving Thomas the Tank Engine charging you in a straight line.

I would say ability damage overall could stand an increase. Grenades specifically. They should be scary. Currently they're treated by most players as a minor inconvenience rather than something that can actually zone someone out, scatter a cluster of enemies, or really soften a target to get finished. In the competitive sphere with clearly defined available gear you can be very targeted in their availability without greatly changing the way the game plays. Like making abilities map pickups or something silly like that.

Also, Power ammo should spawn slightly less often but at two locations that should overall be very hard for any one team to control both of. For comp I would also not have players drop Special ammo, but would have it spawn on the map to enforce movement/map control.

Rewarding Engagement
As has been shown, Destiny players love glowing stuff. They like things that show off. Titles help with that. Flashy gear helps with that. However, as was the case with Trials you need to have a degree of access to the gear or most people won't waste their time and you will have a small player pool and thus no reason to invest in comp. The rewards are what you get to take out of comp instead of things you can bring back into it. Each weapon is a curated roll you can earn over the course of the season through play and the armor set for the season is a reward in two phases: initial ornaments and glowing stuff.

The weapons would be earned through use. Progress is gained with assists, kills, and match completions with the gear equipped. Kills earn faster progress than assists. Wins earn faster progress than losses, but not be an extreme. Progress is accelerated when competing against players who are ranked higher than you, as well as when completing matches as a higher overall rank, even if you lose the match. "Casual engagement" would be enough to earn a couple weapons, while people who can no-life it could probably earn everything.

Perhaps even add an ornament to earn on top by earning a certain number of kills with the weapon in comp. But new weapons would show up. Old ones could come back for ones people didn't get to earn before. Leave the Ornaments to limited time access because people like to brag.

Armor would progress entirely through completions. Wins/losses would both progress the armor ornaments evenly, giving you the class item/boots/gloves/chest/helmet progress we tend to see when gear is given in sequence. These ornaments apply to the regular Crucible armor sets and match the gear you play with in Comp. The glowing stuff would progress faster on wins and quitting out/disconnecting from matches would lose you progress. Glows could either be tied to that seasonal ornament or made open for use on any Crucible/Comp gear/ornament.

Then at the end of the season you can run around in your flashy comp gear with your flashy comp weapons (which are probably good rolls but not going to break the meta) to show off. Or for those players who just wanted to earn the Pulse Rifle because it looked really good they can make progress no matter what while enriching the pool of players.