Reimagining "competitive" Destiny (Destiny)

by slycrel , Sunday, August 11, 2019, 21:28 (1949 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

I have a bunch of thoughts, but don't know the current meta.. And I'm not actually that competitive anyhow... so I'll just say a couple things.

1- I think you nailed the design problem. How do you make individual firefights meaningful for skilled players when the game is balanced around matches, not individual firefights? This gets more complicated when you realize that anything too far below or above the 50/50 K:D ratio is either boring (too far above) or un-fun (too far below).

2- Giving more to those who have and making the hill to climb steeper for others as time goes on isn't a new problem. Top tier perks should be cosmetic/bragging rights or quality of life type changes -- not better statistically, just more enjoyable. Thinking in terms of the different corporations and how they have differences they bring to the table here... something expected and balanced, but that make the game more enjoyable. (Side note: My favorite weapon of all time might be from a young adult book series -- Excalibur junior, who would make fun of it's wielder and generally be snarky. I was very disappointed in D1 when the HMG that could talk via lore text never actually did...)

3- There really isn't a game mode (that I know of) that really emphasizes 1 on 1 interaction. Everything is built around teams. Until you see new game modes (like trials) that bring that dynamic more to the table, you're not going to see the individual situational competitive field change. There are a few ways to do this, one is resurrecting trials. Another might be something like inverting the ruleset of doubles -- the farther apart you are, the less of a handicap you have. Still another would be a mode that started with supers and gave you a handicap the less super energy you had -- making light a resource you managed, not the auto-fill battery mechanic we have now. Still another would be to sacrifice your super to slow/stop (for a time) progression of the other team's supers. Lots of options on what could be, but really it's just the aggregate balancing rather than the individual balancing that's causing this. I'm sure this is balanced differently in D3 to come, maybe even shadowkeep.

4- I've always been disappointed that ghost rezzing isn't more widely used in PvP. Might just be public matches that make that fall down, but it seems to bring out much more strategy and difficult choices. It is disappointing that more game types aren't in rotation more often.

Pretty long winded for a short reply, I better be done. =)