It's pretty common actually (Destiny)

by electricpirate , Saturday, August 15, 2015, 17:46 (3625 days ago) @ CyberKN

I don't believe a word of this. The Suros Regime sounded like it was firing Ping-Pong balls, but was still considered one of the most devastating weapons pre-nerf.

I agree that hard math isn't the end-all of balancing, but "I can overpower a gun just by adjusting the audio" is the most absurd thing I've ever heard.

This is actually a pretty common thing. THere's an anecdote from the development of one of the MP wolfenstien's (enemy territory?) where an investor called out a gun for being way underpowered, and the designer went into their sound editor, beefed the bass, brought it back, and the investor suddenly thought it was OP. It went on to be the most popular weapon in the game.

Similarly, there was a similar dynamic in Halo Reach. In the Beta, the pistol was widely seen as a massive beast, and Bungie responded by slightly reducing it's ROF. When the final game rolled around people treated it like a massive nerf.

Here's the thing though, due to a change they didn't talk about the gun was actually made *better*. Basically, from the Reach Beta to the final they dropped weapon kick in favor of just having Bloom. Essentially they maxed stability. This made the weapon feel worse, even though it was basically stronger.