Some Thoughts on the Crucible (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, September 22, 2014, 14:44 (3524 days ago)
edited by Ragashingo, Monday, September 22, 2014, 14:53

Just a few mild complaints about the Crucible.

1. Arc Blade is overpowered.

This is not something I say lightly. I'm a big fan of the Crucible's "balance through superior firepower" but no other Super can clear an entire area like Arc Blade can. Worse, the only real counter is putting a rocket into the Bladedancer's face. I've watched a Bladedancer clear entire half of Rusted Lands. Shotgunning them doesn't work. Shooting them with normal guns doesn't work. Only a very aware team of people can stop an Arc Blader that they fully see coming! Heck, I've even tried to run directly away with my fastest character and they chased me down starting at the heavy weapon ammo at B on Bastion all the way towards C across the trench jump around the corner towards the C turret!

For remedies, maybe restrict the auto melee attacks to a (large) forward arc? Their ability to zip back and forth even when throughly flanked in multiple directions is pretty crazy to watch. Perhaps also reduce the amount of time they can use Arc Blade. I'm fine with them clearing out a control point, but chasing me down half way across a map is too much.

2. Lower the damage resistance of Guardians using Supers.

Supers should be, appropriately, super. But its going a bit too far. Bladedancers in particular seem twice as touch as normal. Fist of Havoc-ing Titans are also too tough. It's pretty disheartening to pull off a clutch Golden Gun shot on a Titan mid super... only for you to die and him to have a bit of health left. I'm not looking for much reduction. Even a mere 10% would do. Deej once said a shotgun is a way to stop a Titan from supering you... No, no it's not.

3. Stop joining me into losing games with no time left.

Again, as with the other features, I like join in progress. I hate it with the passion of a thousand Gunslingers times a thousand Sunsingers when I get joined into a control game where the enemy has all three zones, are up by several thousand points, with ony a couple of minutes remaining. This is not fun! Surely some logical cutoff point can be found. Some possibly weighted combination of time remaining and score spread, and number of people needed to fill out the outnumbered team. If you're joining in 4 people the game they're about to be merged into is probably going to be crap for them...

Ultimately, I'd rather wait another minute for a full game than to have a terrible experience sooner.

3b. Stop starting games with less than full teams.

When the searching for Guardians thing spins around for a bit then my ship jumps to the next planet but is only joined by two or three other ships it makes me cranky. Yes, there are good reasons that I don't get a full team from time to time, but do we really have to start the game immediately? I saw for fifteen seconds that I was going to be on a gimped team as the map loaded so surely Destiny did. Can we not pause the start of the game a few seconds until another player or two is found? Join in progress helps this a bit... unless it's joining in players to a crapy experience because my team of three can't spawn without getting sniped or rocketed.

4. Maybe keep looking at spawn rules?

That one time where I spawned and was instantly shoulder charged by a Titan or had a Warlock Nova Bomb my face... Yeah, that's kinda crappy. In general Destiny's spawn system seems to work pretty well but dang when it doesn't it really doesn't. Maybe the system is as good as it can be without resorting to throwing its hands up and just not spawning me, but those few instant spawn kills were still weird.

5. Can someone talk to us about the report system?

I'd really love a Weekly Update interview with whoever is knowledgable / worked on the in-game reporting system. Does it actually matter if I report someone? Is it a thing that ties into Destiny's servers, or the platform specific avoid features? Does reporting bad connection or inactivity or unfriendly help me avoid those people? What about marking someone with one of the good reporting options? Do people get grouped with other trouble makers eventually? It's just kinda strange to have such a nice, easy to use system but never have it mentioned ever... Are we just supposed to trust that it works intuitively and leave it at that?

6. Could someone explain to me how to use Blink?

On my Bladedancer it seems confusing, disorenting, and doesn't seem to move me very far or give me much height. When fighting against it people teleport past me or way above my head and I wonder what in the world I'm doing wrong? Should I be double tapping jump like a Warlock's Glide? Should I look straight up when Blinking to gain height? How do you use Blink? Maybe you can help me see where I'm going wrong...