Damage Mechanics (Destiny)

by kapowaz, Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 06:12 (3993 days ago)

Bungie might not want to call it an MMO (in spite of the fact it will feature: discrete level enemies, player levelling, skill trees, item drops and upgrades, a persistent multiplayer world, instanced encounters and player class levels), but reading between the lines it's not too hard to get an idea for how certain aspects of Destiny's gameplay will work.

But there's also a whole lot that we don't know, some of which is quite fundamental to the experience of an FPS game. Bungie's reticience to discuss gameplay mechanics that they haven't formally announced is starting to seem a little unfair: they are after all dangling the carrot of beta access to all who pre-order the game, and so by not discussing how these mechanics will work it can be argued that they are — to a degree — exploiting player interest to drive sales in a game which may not actually appeal quite as much in its true form.

The Halo series under Bungie's tenure was renowned for its innovative weapon gameplay. Prior to Halo, it was customary for FPS games to provide players with a progression of weapons which once discovered superceded previously collected guns: you start with a pistol, but once you get the shotgun you have no need to use the pistol unless you run out of shotgun ammo, and the same once you find a machinegun and so on. Rather with Halo, the first weapon you pick up was the legendary magnum pistol, which remained incredibly useful throughout the game. Almost every weapon excelled in certain situations, whilst remaining weaker in others.

This asymmetric balance meant that in any given situation you could always scavenge a weapon and still expect to be able to do okay, rather than being outgunned to the degree that you couldn't progress. The overall effect was one where a skillful player could make good use of a given weapon to dispatch enemies quickly, but less skilled players could still progress, albeit perhaps not so cleanly.

One way in which FPS games prevent weapons from being too powerful is to introduce an element of randomness in exactly where any given fired shot might end up. This is frequently referred to as the ‘cone of fire’, since the loci between the tip of the gun barrel and all possible impact locations approximately describes a cone. The diameter of the cone is frequently variable based on factors such as whether the player is moving, jumping, stationary or ducking (and, if the game supports it, lying prone on the floor).

In addition to the size of the cone, how bullets are distributed across the hit area massively affects the ‘feel’ of a weapon. In some games (notably the original Planetside) bullets are randomly distributed anywhere within the cone of fire. This is actually pretty unrealistic, as in reality (assuming some level of skill with firearms) one would expect more shots to be closer to the centre of the target circle, with something approximating a Normal Distribution. In gameplay terms this means that the probability of a shot missing by a dramatic amount is increasingly unlikely, and that most shots will be within a relatively narrow distance of on target.

The way that these different kinds of cones of fire would appear is illustrated (crudely) below:

Normally distributed cone of fire

Randomly distributed cone of fire

In Planetside, the cone of fire was intentionally designed to be entirely random so as to support the game's player levelling mechanics: if a player invested in levelling up weapon accuracy, the cone became narrower and so his or her shots were more likely to be on target (even if they were still randomly just as likely to be at the very edge of the cone as right in the centre). This gameplay decision was undoubtedly made in an attempt to reduce the impact of player skill on what was essentially a competitive multiplayer game: with a Normal Distribution, the best players would have a very significant impact in battles, whereas a fully random cone ‘levels the playing field’ somewhat, reducing the advantage of being an accurate marksman to within the bounds of the cone of fire for all players.

How does this relate to Destiny? Well, for one thing we still don't know how the damage mechanics will work. We know that the enemies players encounter will be graded by level, which suggests that their healthpool will vary according to this level. This would fit well with a progression system where players are expected to gradually acquire better weapons which (presumably) would do increasing amounts of damage. This would mean that eventually a player would acquire weapons that trivialise early enemies in much the same way that eventually a World of Warcraft player can kill enemies that once took 20-30 seconds to kill in a single weapon hit once they outgear that content.

What we don't know, however, is just how much player skill will factor into the gunplay. Weapon damage is only one attribute that can be dialled up or down, and it is likely Bungie will want to provide other ways of differentiating the weapons players acquire throughout the game. Will accuracy be another? If so, will weapons use a normally distributed cone of fire, or a completely random one? The decision here will have a substantial impact on how gunplay feels in Destiny: one will allow players to take advantage of innate skill, whereas the other perhaps fits more logically within the (relatively) random number generated-aspect of MMO games in general.

It is unfortunate that Bungie feels unwilling to discuss this. With the beta around six months away, it seems unlikely that no decision has been made on this yet, which raises questions as to exactly why Bungie doesn't want to talk about it. Are they worried it will scare away players who enjoyed the more skill-based gunplay in the original Halo games (a legitimate concern, I suspect)? Or are they unsure of the decision they've taken thus far and aren't willing to discuss it in case they change their mind (also legitimate, although I see no reason why transparency wouldn't be a good thing here)?

Let me be clear: I raise this not because I am impatient but because it troubles me that Bungie continues to be evasive when asked about these (amongst other) gameplay mechanics. It raises questions of just how confident they are in their own game design that they would not expose it to outside scrutiny. But that scrutiny is a good thing: it is far better to discuss it now, than wait until the beta drops and only then for players to discover it's not to their taste or as enjoyable as they had hoped. Why not channel the energy and enthusiasm of the fanbase, whilst it's still there?