You're going to want to stop posting (Destiny)

by Earendil, Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 16:36 (3777 days ago) @ iconicbanana

I know we responded elsewhere so this may be moot; just wanted to reiterate that we didn't get to see the raw DPS measurement or how they got it. There was an earlier thread about a reddit analysis of exotic weapons that's worth a look on the subject.

Raw DPS is just part of the equation though. What's the raw DPS of a shotgun at 0 meters? Effectively infinite, because the guy on the other end of the barrel always dies. So what's the TTK of a shotgun at 0 meters? About 0 seconds. Does that make the shotty OP? Of course not. What Bungie can do, and what I don't see the community doing (even in that reddit post, with all it's great use of combinatorics) is to define TTK at different distances in real world scenarios.

For example, Bungie can see:
The TTK of any shotgun, given any distance, in a real world fight. You can imagine that the real world use of a shotgun is not used as effectively (compared to the perfect scenario) than say a scout rifle, because given the optimum combat distance for both weapons, your target will appear to be moving faster and changing direction quicker in the case of the shotgun. There for the real world TTK of a shotgun is not going to align with the firing squad TTK scenario. And the real world TTK of a shotgun is REALLY not going to align with the DPS.

I love stats and predicting things more than the next guy. I've written a number of simulators of favorite dice and card games in my language of choice. But it's important to always recognize when you only have an approximation of reality, and why that approximation exists. I think this is actually where other gaming companies get it so wrong. They look at the base numbers and say "All guns are equal", when in the real world they aren't even close due to factors that are not part of the base damage of a weapon.

I also do not buy that Auto Rifles are zomg worst thing evah! when the AR took a 2.5% reduction in base damage. I bet I could flip that switch on and off all day on 99.99% of the community and they'd never know. The almost 10% increase to the pulse rifle though, that's some good shit right there :)