Ever since Lightfall, it seems you (Bungie) have more and more shifted into a direction of "difficulty" design that isn't fun to play against. In simple terms, the enemies on higher/highest difficulties are full of affixes (modifiers/abilities), endure way too much damage while still being able to dish out a lot more. And on top of that making Players reliant on Orb healing through kills/collectibles, isn't that fun for a shooter based on HP regeneration.
Enemies in PvE are mostly separated into 3-4 categories.
* Minors (such as Dregs, Thralls, Goblins, etc.)
* Majors (Captains, Minotaurs, Knights, etc.)
* Ultras (Cabal Coloss, Fallen Kell, Vex Hydra, etc.)
* Bosses
What PvE enemies currently do in [b]highest difficulty matchmaking content[/b]:
* Deal a lot of damage but also survive a lot of damage (overall)
* React fast, throw more grenades and even retreat in some cases (overall)
* Become empowered by killing a player (overall)
* Show up in great numbers (overall)
* Have a chance to spawn with affixes (such as mines and caltrops) (overall)
* Mob specific abilities (Teleports, Shields, etc.) (majors + ultras)
* Damage specific abilities (I just say Strand and Stasis captains) (overall)
What PvE enemies at [b]highest difficulty matchmaking content[/b] should do:
* Deal a lot of damage but survive a modicum of damage based on enemy tier (overall)
* React fast, throw more grenades, retreat and dodge from attacks (overall)
* Become empowered by killing a player (Majors + Ultras only!)
* Show up in great numbers (overall)
* Have a chance to spawn with affixes (Majors + Ultras only)
* Mob specific abilities (Majors + Ultras only!)
* Damage specific abilities (Ultras only!)
Overall, we need less ability spam BS on the field. We need enemies to take more damage regardless of the rank on the field. And we need to get rid of gatekept HP regeneration to artificially increase difficulty.
Difficulty in Destiny should come from PvE AI acting smart and challenging the player through constant changing behavior in combat. Not by just throwing special ability BS constantly at you or tanking as much damage as an entire Strike boss each.
Remember what made Destiny 1 great to play as challenge, Bungie. Not endless amount of RPG elements in Combat, but the actual focus on [b]GUNPLAY AND AIMING in a SHOOTER[/b]. And shooting a single trash enemy for solid 2-3 mags feels like fighting Valus Ta'auc back in the day in D1 before his first nerf.
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1 RispondiTo me, it seems Bungie's idea of "difficulty" basically boils down to simply anything that increases both the time it takes to complete a challenge and chance for player failure. It's true that increasing difficulty does cause these symptoms, but simply increasing these "symptoms" for the sole purpose of "increasing difficulty" comes across as feeling cheap and unintuitive. I personally believe there is a thing as "good difficulty" and "bad difficulty." The line between them is often subjective, but I do believe the distinction does exist. Unfortunately, it's not a simple task to classify them during the design phase. You can only really tell during the post-experience. If you enjoyed it, feel accomplished, and/or are satisfied with the experience, then it may very well be "good" difficulty. If one feels frustrated by the experience, and feels a sense of relief and reluctance to return after completion, then it's likely "bad" difficulty. I have experienced both of these in Destiny. I feel the trend of Modern Bungie seems to be leaning more towards "bad" difficulty when designing new content, favoring player punishment over player entertainment. I do still have moments of "good" difficulty, even in modern content. It's one of the biggest reasons I still play, but it just pains me how Bungie keeps wanting to push this ideology of "any difficulty = unconditional entertainment = profit" without ever looking into the context of things.