It's not technically lazy programming...well, ok, in a way it is, but it's also not. As someone who works in the industry, I'll try to lay it out as honestly as possible. Also, this is a bit of a technical / industry info post, so it will be very long: if you're interested to know what another coder thinks, read on, otherwise, you can skip this post. So, not working for Bungie, I have to make some assumptions here. My first assumption is that they did what a lot of shops do when first making a program for the Proof of Concept demonstration (hereafter, PoC). In a lot of code factories, the PoC code isn't anything close to the final intended build, either in function or complexity, because it's literally just a functioning set of code that shows the people you are demonstrating it to that you can do exactly what you are saying you can do. A lot of E3 stuff is very similar, where they say the demo will differ from the actual gameplay; that is a more polished up version of a PoC in a lot of cases. So likely, Bungie had a Sandbox environment where they were working on either test frameworks of code to experiment, or they had a PoC build on hand. The intent would have been to go from that build into a more complex, fully fleshed, diverse, and more adherant to best practices User Acceptance Testing (UAT) build that would have been the 95% finished game engine, with a very limited set of locations and options. Things like that would normally include the separation of sandboxes, if intended, and other features that are proposed for the final build. My suspicion is that a) the original PoC build ended up getting used to develop a code base from and b) the code base that was developed did -not- even come close to adhering to industry best practices. I have spoken and gamed with a number of Bungie devs over the course of D1 and into D2, and read many more interviews with former and present staff. One thing that keeps coming up when you talk about how one fix seems to cause another break, or how long the turn around is for updates on specific items in D1: the code base is a horrible pile of hacks, and figuring out where and how to alter any one item or effect can take weeks sometimes. This is usually a combo of poor coding practices (no comments, bad flow design, etc.), and people that originated the code no longer being the people that maintain that code. The overall effect is that I feel like the D1 code base was a snarl of terrible junk, impossible to work with in a timely manner. Maybe the intent to provide more separation of the sandboxes was originally there, but with the end product, the design focus had to be artificially shifted away from that, because it was no longer possible. The big miss was with the D2 development cycle: they had the opportunity to bite the bullet, kill their technical debt, and make a new, clean code base for the product. Instead, large portions of the original code base were essentially copy-pasted over, a fact that can be demonstrated. In D1, there was a bug where if you were standing within about 3m of a vertical Vex portal, your weapons had no recoil. There are videos out there demonstrating this, and I have confirmed it for myself. Now, if you do the same thing in D2, go stand right by a Vex portal, one foot practically in it, you can observe the same phenomenon; no recoil on your weapons while ADS firing. This isn't a feature, it's definitely an unintended side effect of you interacting with a specific object type, so there is no reason it would have existed in D1, and then been coded intentionally into D2...unless that code was copied over and at least used as the model for the new interaction in D2. There are more of these, but this is the most easily visible one I can think of: go try it out. So, whereas incompletely thought out game design, such as the form and function of abilities and items between sandboxes is definitely partially to blame here, terrible coding practices and incomplete knowledge transfer from old to new resources is likely much more to blame. Again, I have never worked for this game designer or seen the code base in person, but from my experience with EA and other producers, this is what makes the most sense to me. Hopefully, this little novel has been informative and answers a few questions for folks.

How are you even struggling with pve? All of it is ridiculously easy except the raids, which even then for some groups is still ridiculously easy. If you have any struggles in pve content from the balances they've made, you are a GARBAGE player and the issue is you are too GARBAGE to play this game.

It seems like Bungie are more concerned with re-balancing the Forum users than re-balancing the weapons in the game.

I hate when people like you blame laziness for things like this. Im no professional when it comes to software development but i do have considerable experience with java. Its not as easy as just changing some values. When a engine is made the options only go as far as what they thought of when they started. It could be that it is laziness but for all you know there would have to be huge changes to the engine differentiate between the 2 modes. Its not impossible but it would like make future updates and chages very messy, and likely lead to tons of problems. Its not as sasy to just fix something as you might think

Blah blah blah. I really don't get how people are still saying PvP is affecting PvE? They literally buffed PvE weapons whilst simultaneously nerfing them in crucible a few days ago. How is no one seeing this? It's willful ignorance just so ya'll can keep on crying over how PvP is supposedly ruining the game. Except, it's just that none of you want to admit that the game you've sunk years of your life into just isn't that good. It's like the ultimate form of buyers remorse and it's hilariously sad to watch. I mean hell, half of the D1 nerfs were for PvE only. Remember when they removed gally from xurs loot pool? Then nerfed it into obscurity? Or how about when they removed elemental primaries, only for them to be brought back a year later as useless exotics? What about nerfing the black hammer into the ground, and then bringing it back as an exotic? None of those affected PvP. They were purely to nerf PvE aspects. People need to learn to think.

It's always been that way. In fact, it was worse in D1. Bungie would haphazardly nerf guns into freaking oblivion, at the whims of the whiny PvP crowd. It was done with absolutely no regard to how PvE players felt. It was almost like they were pretending this wasn't a loot based game. At least now, Bungie acknowledges a concern for it's effect on PvE.

I’m sorry but how exactly did pvp nerds affect PvE?

Because bungie’s archaic engine does not allow separation between the two. Also the thought it was a brilliant idea to have PvP in a RNG loot driven game, and did not give PvP standard weapons (ie Halo). So to summarize they are cheap, dim witted, and thoughtless.

I don't think it's "lazy". They are doing something that no other game does. Taking RNG loot into multiplayer is very unique. I think where they screwed up is creating a "competitive" element to it. Big mistake!!! That set the wrong expectations for players who want their cake and eat it too. The competitive K/D eSport and wannabe crowd want a level playing field, where their perceived skills will give them an advantage. That just happens to destroy the entire point of the game. So, Bungie is stuck in an eternal tug of war by PvE and PvP. Help one side and it hurts the other.

It's not. Changes that happen in PvP are designed to affect PvP the most. Technically they do affect PvE, but it's mostly unnoticeable.