On difficulty... (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Friday, August 08, 2014, 14:15 (3762 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by Korny, Friday, August 08, 2014, 14:29

I fail to see the difference.

Upping the difficulty in Halo increased the number of enemies, swapped lower ranked enemies for higher ranked ones, and made all enemies tougher and more powerful. Upping the difficulty on the Destiny Strike did the same in all those categories, I believe. What am I missing? It seems like you want a two step difficulty selector (Level, then Difficulty) vs Halo's Difficulty only selector??

Consider skulls. To increase the challenge and promote longer runs, Co-op night ALWAYS required the Thunderstorm skull, which made the game less fun, since enemies all became sponges that you had to expend large sums of ammo on. That was different than the change in the encounter itself that came with raising the difficulty, and that's the true distinction that people want, I think: Pick your difficulty level separately from your skulls. Right now, Destiny is all about stacking skulls rather than tweaking encounters.

I think that's my biggest problem with Destiny, and it occurred to me in the Alpha when Sammy, Paddy, and I tackled it on Legend difficulty. We were each a different class, with different weapons, and Paddy was a level 8... And yet, we got our junk handed to us equally, because all of our differences and special qualities meant diddly shpoop against the endless stream of bullet-chugging Captains that steamrolled us over and over again.

There wasn't even a need for the Camo Gregs, or the Shanks, since the inefficiency of our limited ammo provided the enemy with all that they needed for victory...

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Take Warframe, for example (Oh God, here he goes again with the Warframe): say that you're a level 5 character, with a weapon that specializes in Slash (flesh) damage. You start out in a level 5 map going up against basic enemies: Grunts, armored grunts, Shield troops, and the occasional Heavy gunner or Demolitions troop.

Your gun gives you an edge against most of the enemies, but still holds up well against the general troops, with shots to unarmored flesh still being able to critically wound the more dangerous foes.

Now say you were to take your level 5 character into a level 30 map (which you totally can). You see a basic grunt, and you pop his exposed head with your level 5 rifle. Guess what happens? He dies! Boom. Headshot. Critical damage. You are still able to hold your own against enemies that can now kill you with a handful of shots.

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So where's the challenge? The encounters change. Now, as you continue to fare well against the grunts and shield troops, you see an armored ball rolling towards you, and your shots just bounce off the quickly approaching mass. It knocks you out of cover, exposing you to gunfire. Somehow, you are able to scurry away towards a different bit of cover. You aim at another basic grunt, who ran up close... but there's something different... He's glowing red, with flames around him. Before you can pop a headshot, he erupts into a massive fireball that blasts you across the room. With your shields fried, and your health in the single digits, you take off running. Suddenly you fall flat on your face. You exposed yourself too long, and a new enemy harpooned you, and is dragging you back towards the group as a large enemy that causes life-draining toxic damage to any player who veers to close waits patiently...

While you were clearly not equipped for success, the fact is that you stood a chance against the enemy, regardless of difficulty. The difference was what was thrown at you, and how much punishment it could dish out in a moment of carelessness. And that's without mentioning that you could have three teammates of varying levels, with varying weapons and unique skills helping you, taking advantage of what you can bring to the table while compensating for your weaknesses.

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Games like this are why I've always hated bullet-sponge enemies, and the "more health=difficulty" mentality of developers. Play the first Modern Warfare. Normal difficulty, you're gunning down countless enemies as you casually walk down the narrow street.
Veteran difficulty, and now every bit of cover on that street is precious. Every enemy is a terrifying sight. And yet, they all still go down in one to two shots... But your experience isn't one of twitch combat anymore. Now every single room is a puzzle. Every enemy is a pattern that must be figured out and countered...

I would like a way to make the open world areas, like Old Russia, harder, however.