Levels

by Anon0000, Thursday, March 07, 2013, 15:48 (4061 days ago) @ Dagoonite

If Destiny has a level system that is anything like Borderlands', I probably won't bother playing it. FPSs don't feel right if there is such a heavy reliance on enemy stats.

What I mean by this is the concept of high-level vs. low-level. Low-levels can shoot all they want, but if Mr High-level's stats are high enough, he can stand there and laugh at their attempts to scratch him with grenades, machine-guns and sniper-rifles before insta-killing them with his pistol and melee.

In my opinion, if you want to do more damage or increase your defense, it should be done by getting higher-quality equipment and applying upgrades.
Any bonuses like increasing reload speed or reducing recoil that are applied to the character's base skills should come in significant, 15-25% upgrades.
I am also fine with different special abilities, e.g. bonuses to abilities like hacking, medicine, disarming bombs etc.

The best game I can think of that applies the kind of system I am thinking about is Deus Ex: Human Revolution. You start with very basic abilities and stats. Upgrades come in big chunks, for example, one upgrade gives you a whole new ability, or lets you hack the next level of computers (it goes from 1-5), and upgrades to stats like recoil reduction come in big boosts. Each little skill tree has a limited number of steps.
Weapons have a similar upgrade system in Deus Ex. There are "ability" upgrades, e.g. one that gives your shotgun burst fire capacity, and stat upgrades, ones that increase the magazine size or provide damage boosts.

At the end of the day, though, a low-level character will be able to perform the same tasks as the high-level one, but the high-level player's abilities will give him more options and breathing room to complete the task in the manner he chooses. But important thing is that the low-level guy and the high-level guy can pick up the same gun and kill the same guy with the same number of shots.