I read somewhere that they had to code D2 from the ground up brand new, since D1's code was bloated and stitched together in weird ways that made it difficult to add/adjust things in the game.
This means, they have to go back and re-code all the features that people expect to be there. This is not a valid excuse for what they released. They were also under a contractual deadline that forced their hand to release when they did, rather than polish the game to where it should be. This is not a valid excuse for what they released.
I agree with most of the Original Post's list, in general. I won't go into a point by point agree/disagree down the list, but I'll add my thoughts here.
I don't believe all the changes were due to caving to casuals. It reflects a much more directed series of changes to cave to the PVP crowd (who also hate the results) to balance the entire game around the crucible, and to get people into the crucible or raids, and keep them there (with friends, in clans, who are only doing those activities). This means removing most of the leveling curve, and making light easier to get.
Clearly they've failed to make goals worth pushing toward. The raid and its rewards are almost dumbfounding, but represents several trends:
They wanted everything super easy to balance for the crucible.
* That meant fixed rolls for weapons so they can balance each individual gun without taking into consideration all possible perks. (collateral damage: no grind for perfect rolled weapons that fit your style of play. Since there were some strike-specific weapons that people wanted perfect rolls on, strikes have also become nearly pointless to grind.)
* That meant giving all players 2 primary weapons and moving snipers and shotguns into heavy, with the removal of machine guns, because that's what the big PVPers cried for (everyone must use primaries! stop sniping and one-shotgunning). (collateral damage: PVE feels very underwhelming. You feel weak as you plink away at enemy and boss health.)
* That meant restructuring classes so there are only 2 trees to balance, rather than any mix of perks you wanted. Now they're dumbed down without choices or customization. (they gutted some classes so badly... and shifted almost everything into warlock - hunter feels especially underwhelming)
* That meant reducing movement speed and increased time to kill. (To me, Titan feels super sluggish compared to D1, moreso than just the removal of titan skating. From what I read, (I haven't stepped foot into the crucible in D2, not even for Iron Banner) increased time to kill has changed crucible tactics to be more team based, which removes many encounters where one skilled player could turn the tides single handedly in close matches.)
* That meant removing perks from some weapons that made them fun and versatile in PVE. (like tracking rocket launchers) and made several exotics into yellow legendaries.
I could go on.
On the topic of type-ignoring-infusion:
I felt much more in control of my character's choices in D1, whereas in D2, I feel I have to use the item with the highest light, to ensure I get higher light drops of things I actually want.
This has led to many horrible gaming sessions using entirely undesirable weapons that I hate using in PVE, like Pulse Rifles, snipers, grenade launchers, submachineguns, handcannons, sidearms and shotguns. I don't care how much faster light levels would rise with the old system in place, this system drives the fun out of the game for me. I want to play with a kinetic scout and an elemental autorifle with a sword or rocket launcher (would rather have a machine gun, but not an option anymore), depending on how close I can get to the PVE target.
As to the speed of getting light levels overall...
They seem to jump fast once you hit blue drops. They don't need to jump that fast. (I recall going up 40 points per slot at times) If they smoothed out the progression curve, with purples always being at least 1 light higher than what you have past 265, it might feel more meaningful to gain light levels.
I do not think the game should require you to do "endgame" to get max light. That's ONE thing D2 got right, IMO.
HOWEVER, I think they decided during D1, that light levels were mainly to be used to gate content, not to provide power to players. It's not like leveling up an RPG character where you get stronger and have more health with a higher level. Light Level only seems to matter as a gauge as to when something is out of your league if you go in too early, but has no benefit if you surpass that minimum barrier of entry... so you never feel sufficiently powerful in the game. When it comes right down to it, it feels like the game is binary: Above or Below the recommended minimum light level for the activity. It doesn't matter how far you are above or below... just 2 settings. (in practice, even if there are gradations in the code, it doesn't feel that way during my game play experience)
Also, I think they wanted to allow late-comers to catch up quickly, so they could play with their friends faster. (Nothing to do with Casual vs Hardcore)
In addition,
I'd very much like a fashion system, where you can wear whatever gear you want for stats, and wear an entirely different set of gear just for looks, because I can foresee a time when I'm attempting to min-max my gear, and some gear (with fixed rolls) doesn't get the stats I want, but looks great.
Also, shaders being consumable is a horrrrrrrrrible system. I liked to change my colors depending on the zone I'd be in, or what colors other members of my fireteam were, so it would be easy to tell us apart at a glance. Sometimes I just wanted to have fun. I find myself not using shaders because I never know when I'll find an upgrade and it'll just stick out like a sore thumb without the shader on it. Massively hurts the "fun" factor again. There is NO acceptable explanation for this change.
It's past midnight, so I'll stop here.
English
-
And!!! you gotta pay to put the dame Shader on! dah fuq!?!
-
What is funny to me, is if they truly build D2 from the ground up, why does the vex teleporter "zero recoil" glitch still exist?
-
Bearbeitet von AcidRohnin: 10/20/2017 6:00:53 PMAlso why do our guardians looks worse and not better??
-
The game was pushed back a full year from its original release date. You should get your facts straight.
-
The first two paragraphs were things I said I had read elsewhere as possible mitigating circumstances that would give Bungie at least a reasonable defense against why things are the way they are. If those things I had read were not factually true (which in part, they seem to possibly have scavenged some code, and clearly they can bring over art assets), Bungie has even less of a defense. I don't see why I'd have to "get my facts straight", given the reason for the statements, and that it doesn't really make much difference to the rest of the post. But thanks for the advice. The rest of the post following "but I'll add my thoughts here" was my personal extrapolations and reasoning on why they did what they did, and the ramifications that has had on the game.
-
You said they rushed the game because activision was pressuring then. That’s not true. Destiny 2 was pushed back a full year and still shipped incomplete and broken. Anymore excuses to make for bungie?
-
I said I read that, and listed it as one of 2 somewhat reasonable reasons the game is in such a poor condition. I am in no way trying to defend Bungie. I only play to help get my friend's clan's rank up each week. I personally dislike shooters in general. I'm more of an RPG person. As a hobbyist game developer myself, I take an interest into what makes games good and bad, and I like to look more into motivations and reasons for decisions made. This sort of evaluation is my main focus, and how to make something more fun.
-
You like to talk. That’s obvious. You just don’t like to do research. Lol.
-
Holy wall of text Batman!
-
If you're on Xbox 1 were doing vog weekly tonight!
-
They did use coding from destiny 1. can't remember who posted it but there's a video on youtube talking about vendor levels and something else and explains that these may just be left over code from destiny 1
-
Shit there's a video from before destiny release ( 2013 ) that clearly shows the edz and devrims church... Had to watch it twice just to be sure but Yup, that church was made for the original destiny, and has probably existed for more then 6 years now...
-
Can you link this as I'd like to see it. It's impossible to trudge through all the D2 vids up.
-
Bearbeitet von AyinDygra: 10/20/2017 12:46:21 PMAs I said, I just read that somewhere. It's seems from what you say, that they were able to salvage some code. It would not surprise me if all art assets could be carried over no problem, since they even reskinned a crucible map to bring it into D2. This doesn't help D2's case as to why they're missing so many features (not even content)... the quality of life stuff that makes playing the game more fun. (like custom PVP games are missing... no excuse. Not that I care about PVP, but really, that was a universally loved feature, as far as I can tell.)
-
I agree it doesn't help D2 case. They had the code there and used it but chopped it up just like the rest of the game.
-
Here's the link https://youtu.be/TGVGAhocyr8