It seems totally reasonable than a combat arena might have some kind of scoring system to me anyway, but assuming that's too out there, why is a text box explaining the nonsensical rules of a fight any more immersive than a score card?

Yeah, you'd still have your particular game-y strategy on your mind the entire time.

Remember the Maw run from Halo? You had a timer you had to beat. 6 or 5 minutes depending on the difficulty. You could functionally accomplish the same thing, with a cascading explosion that progresses down the Maw run, reaching the end in 5 or 6 minutes. See the difference? Wouldn't it be more fun to outrun an explosion than to race a silly timer?

Yeah, I see the difference. Your way forces me into a specific driving speed (I have to be faster, at all times, than the cascading explosion). Bungie's way let me do certain things faster than average, which allowed me to take side trips, and talk to grunts about food nipples.

I like their way better.

Want to encourage assists? Make enemies killed with assists drop more ammo, and decrease ammo drops from non assists. Any way of scoring can be encouraged with a cool, integrated game mechanic instead. Simply take an action that gives you extra points, and reward it through the game mechanics rather than score.

Because super subtle system changes that modify a percentage are the pinnacle of design ;)

You make the changes explicit in the modifiers descriptions.

FULL IMMERSION

It's more immersive than scoring.

I dislike the idea of changing up the familiar play of the game to simulate a scoring system because you very quickly start drastically changing the way Destiny plays and start eliminating what used to be valid gameplay strategies. What if I like Fusion Rifles and rocket launchers and grenades? In your mode with buffed enemy health and enhanced headshot damage they are non-viable. And that's just a simple example. As you start altering more of base Destiny to simulate every complex things that a scoring system can more easily highlight, you likely start encountering more problems that force players into playing a certain way or, for people like me who enjoy the way base Destiny plays and dislike when things feel off, make the game not as fun for some.

But the scoring system initiates the complexity. It's much better for that complexity to manifest itself naturally.

Remember the Maw run from Halo? You had a timer you had to beat. 6 or 5 minutes depending on the difficulty. You could functionally accomplish the same thing, with a cascading explosion that progresses down the Maw run, reaching the end in 5 or 6 minutes. See the difference? Wouldn't it be more fun to outrun an explosion than to race a silly timer?

The same thing applies to score. If you like Fusion Rifles and Rocket launchers, you are already less effective when small arms and headshot bonuses are on. I'm not sure I understand your concern, because your score will suck. It's already non viable currently.

Scoring made limited sense years ago, but in modern games it has no place at all.

Uh huh...

I dislike the idea of changing up the familiar play of the game to simulate a scoring system because you very quickly start drastically changing the way Destiny plays and start eliminating what used to be valid gameplay strategies. What if I like Fusion Rifles and rocket launchers and grenades? In your mode with buffed enemy health and enhanced headshot damage they are non-viable. And that's just a simple example. As you start altering more of base Destiny to simulate every complex things that a scoring system can more easily highlight, you likely start encountering more problems that force players into playing a certain way or, for people like me who enjoy the way base Destiny plays and dislike when things feel off, make the game not as fun for some.

My biggest problem with Skolas was that his battle wasn't Destiny because being under leveled combined with the though numerous enemies and punishing modifiers meant our best strategy wasn't to equip the correct guns and supers. It was to hide under an overhang cowering that a stray shot would kill us and reset an hour worth of progress.

I'll take a scoring system over game/level design that I suspect I would soon find intensely unfun.

However, when we went slower so we could guarantee 45000 points per match and made sure almost nobody was killed without a headshot, he would send the message and we wouldn't make it a priority to finish quickly, we just shot dudes in the head at the same pace, and his boredom was of no real consequence.

I don't know how many waves there were.

Well, thanks, Captain Obvious.

Each time we've begun to lose points, we're at the end of the round; there are usually no (or few) adds left, and the boss is down to just a sliver of health. I'm wondering how, at that stage, to continue to gain points.

Reinforcements are directly tied to boss health, so if you only damage the boss after the last enemy falls, you can maximize your points. Variks should lose his patience at around the fifth wave.

How many waves are there, total? (I thought it was 5.) We've had him lose patience at the END of the 5th wave - at which point there's no real chance for more points. I guess what you're suggesting is to go slower, so that he loses patience at the BEGINNING of the wave?

(I'm pretty sure there's a 5-minute timer from the start of the wave to his losing patience; I guess taking those 5 minutes to finish 4 waves might allow some last-minute point earning. It just hasn't happened that way, so far.)

Well, thanks, Captain Obvious.

Each time we've begun to lose points, we're at the end of the round; there are usually no (or few) adds left, and the boss is down to just a sliver of health. I'm wondering how, at that stage, to continue to gain points.

Reinforcements are directly tied to boss health, so if you only damage the boss after the last enemy falls, you can maximize your points. Variks should lose his patience at around the fifth wave.

Each time we've begun to lose points, we're at the end of the round; there are usually no (or few) adds left, and the boss is down to just a sliver of health. I'm wondering how, at that stage, to continue to gain points.

Want to encourage assists? Make enemies killed with assists drop more ammo, and decrease ammo drops from non assists. Any way of scoring can be encouraged with a cool, integrated game mechanic instead. Simply take an action that gives you extra points, and reward it through the game mechanics rather than score.

Because super subtle system changes that modify a percentage are the pinnacle of design ;)

You make the changes explicit in the modifiers descriptions.

FULL IMMERSION

Want to encourage assists? Make enemies killed with assists drop more ammo, and decrease ammo drops from non assists. Any way of scoring can be encouraged with a cool, integrated game mechanic instead. Simply take an action that gives you extra points, and reward it through the game mechanics rather than score.

Because super subtle system changes that modify a percentage are the pinnacle of design ;)

You make the changes explicit in the modifiers descriptions.

Want to encourage assists? Make enemies killed with assists drop more ammo, and decrease ammo drops from non assists. Any way of scoring can be encouraged with a cool, integrated game mechanic instead. Simply take an action that gives you extra points, and reward it through the game mechanics rather than score.

Because super subtle system changes that modify a percentage are the pinnacle of design ;)