Design things I'm surprised weren't addressed in TTK (Destiny)

by Earendil, Tuesday, September 22, 2015, 16:03 (3446 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Which is why a couple of sort of glaring design flaws still stand out as weird to me, and I've compiled them here, so it sounds like I have nothing but complaints (when, in fact, I'm loving this expansion and look forward to playing every night):

Understood :)

- The game holds 12 players on a PvP server, but the list of who is in your game caps at 11 with an extra page dedicated to the single player. Why not just make this 12? Seems simple and obvious.

Yeah, that's weird.

- Grimoire is still not in the game. I can think of no good reason at all that this should be so.

The good reason is that they spent time developing other things. I'm also not about to sit down at my TV and read a bunch. I'd be okay with the option, but not if it sacrifices something I actually would use.

- Legacy art issues (missing textures on ships) still not addressed.

I've not noticed this one. Is it a platform rendering issue?

- Shotguns as one-hit kill machines. Honestly, I think if shotguns did as much damage as a sniper body shot, they'd be completely fine, and you could make their range much longer without breaking them. It would also carve a niche for fusion rifles as more than just "shotguns that need to charge up first." Personal preference here, but the balance of shotties still feels off from the rest of the weapons. Skilled players would still be able to pull off the shotgun + melee combo for nearly instant kills, but you wouldn't feel quite so cheated by someone who could do that.

By "skilled" players do you mean warlocks? As a sunsinger I'd be okay with this, because I'd win every last shotgun duel. I'm actually okay with shotguns being one hit kills, because it encourages me to pick my engagement distance carefully, and it's what prevents me from running around all stupid like. If shotguns didn't one hit kill, there would be a lot less incentive to rush around everywhere. It's like how making snipers less deadly would cause people to run around in the open more often. Both of those weapons are what cause (or should cause) you to pause and think about where you intend on walking.

- No LFG in the game. A designer should never cede power to a third party.

That'd be nice, but I don't know that it's a design flaw.

- Tracked quests and bounties should be displayed while in orbit without the need to scroll through menus (or displayable via a single button press).

- Preference for what to display at the ghost screen (scoreboard, modifiers, tracked quests or bounties) should persist through games.

- During the death screen in PvP, players should be able to see tracked quests and bounties, either by using the same preference as the ghost screen or by using a single button press. It's the most natural time, during a game, to check that sort of thing.

I disagree pretty strongly here, unless it were in a setting that I could turn off. I like how clean, simple, and inviting the load and orbit screens are. I like how there is little on the death screen to distract me. Throwing up a bunch of game data would only remind me that I'm playing a game.

- Load times in menus have been dramatically increased on PS4. I can only assume it's the same on Xbone, and some kind of horrible nightmare on 360 and PS3.

I've noticed no increase in load times on the XB1. Must be all that PS exclusive content you have to deal with ;-)

- I really want to be able to slightly steer my ship during loading screens, a'la Warframe. Maybe let me do some booster jets or fire a gun, too?

That'd be cool, but I think you veered away from naming design flaws :)

- Custom PvP games for private groups. Come *on* already.

That'd be nice.

- Why can't we apply shaders to weapons and ships?

Because how each shader effects each item is intentionally designed by an artist. The combination of color on model is an art, and I'm better the artists don't want their work combined to look like crap. It might be a little controlling, but I can completely respect it and enjoy how awesome almost every guardian walking around looks.

- A huge number of the new cloaks don't take shaders at all, which is very frustrating. Is this the same for Marks and Bonds? That sounds like a law firm.

I suspect this is either an intentional design decision, or that they ran out of time and will apply them in the future. That's what happened to some of the Warlock exotic cloaks.