The endgame to Destiny is its PvP. The most consistent content aside from lore discussion on YouTube created for the game is PvP related; from Aztecross to FrostBolt. So it is no surprise to see the game at its lowest when PvP players have finally been alienated. Arguably the most “hardcore” of the game’s players, PvPers will engage in PVE to take that loot back into PvP. This is the sauce to Destiny and it always has been.
There are numerous perk columns to a weapon. PvE players only really need to care about two, and often it’s for a reload and damage buff of some kind. A PvP player cares about each and every column, from the barrel to a weapon foundry’s unique set feature. This makes the loot game more valuable to the PvP player whether it’s an RNG drop or crafted. And that player will indeed finely tune this crafted gun till their killing efficiency is at its most potent.
This is where time invested now becomes a major variable in addition to skill (which will become important later). But it’s not just the weapons. It’s your armor stats and build.
Mobility, Resilience, Recovery, Discipline, Intellect and Strength. These are the 6 armor stats, measure from 0-100 that all have a significant effect on your playstyle, from unique class ability uptime and grenade recharge times to flinch resistance, damage resistance.
From there once you’ve invested materials into these pieces and fully upgraded you then have the ability to slot a number of gameplay changing mods into each armor piece to further tune your stats as well as do absolutely nutty stuff in any part of the game.
Armor materials aren’t necessarily cheap but it takes time. It also takes time to actually have a piece of armor with a high stat value drop with the values you want. Weeks, months and years are spent acquiring pieces that work for your builds.
Now try to balance all that along with player skill too.
Skill-based matchmaking has become a trend that no one really asks for but it’s creeping into every game. From what I gather the general idea is to avoid matching new players against more skilled or veteran players and get steamrolled in PvP repeatedly.
If that’s working no one is seeing it. What you instead get is this attempt at 50/50 booking that’s never weighted right despite each and every change they’ve made to tune it.
So while the desired goal may sound virtuous the result is obvious. Super sweaty seesawing matches that feel like a stalemate till the end or immediate blowouts with players quitting more than ever.
Worst part about all this is the boneheaded decision to have this implemented in 6v6.
6v6 modes should be the casual quickplay modes. The places where you can mess around with new weapons and builds. They are not. With sbmm in play your most effective build and loadout is necessary to even survive. You think everyone in there isn’t a tryhard? Of course we are.
The game now features connection based non sbmm 6v6 playlist called “relentless” but due to the semantics of it being called relentless alone kinda defeats the purpose. What that playlist actually serves as is exile for those of us absolutely sick of control.
With all of this said, in response to Bungie’s State of the Game post last week. There are more reasonable solutions to crucible issues which could be the following:
Scrap the SBMM initiative for 6s and roll gametypes like control, clash, supremacy, and rift into a single activity node featuring both map and mode voting systems. The concern then would be players constantly voting for control over anything else but some kind of repeat map and mode restrictions and bonus xp for staying in lobbies could help.
Comp, 6v6 quickplay lobbies and some weekly gimmick modes like domination from D1 would be fine. They have so much to leverage already created. The conversation is resources for new PvP content but to me it feels like the way it’s presented to us that’s off.
I haven’t mentioned anything about 3v3 modes since those are generally in a good place comparatively and the best PvP modes in the game. They are not the biggest pain point at the moment.
I will say tho… I’m looking forward to the high TTK and less ability driven Checkmate mode they got planned. I like the pace of the current sandbox but it’s something worth exploring. So that’s something….
There are numerous perk columns to a weapon. PvE players only really need to care about two, and often it’s for a reload and damage buff of some kind. A PvP player cares about each and every column, from the barrel to a weapon foundry’s unique set feature. This makes the loot game more valuable to the PvP player whether it’s an RNG drop or crafted. And that player will indeed finely tune this crafted gun till their killing efficiency is at its most potent.
This is where time invested now becomes a major variable in addition to skill (which will become important later). But it’s not just the weapons. It’s your armor stats and build.
Mobility, Resilience, Recovery, Discipline, Intellect and Strength. These are the 6 armor stats, measure from 0-100 that all have a significant effect on your playstyle, from unique class ability uptime and grenade recharge times to flinch resistance, damage resistance.
From there once you’ve invested materials into these pieces and fully upgraded you then have the ability to slot a number of gameplay changing mods into each armor piece to further tune your stats as well as do absolutely nutty stuff in any part of the game.
Armor materials aren’t necessarily cheap but it takes time. It also takes time to actually have a piece of armor with a high stat value drop with the values you want. Weeks, months and years are spent acquiring pieces that work for your builds.
Now try to balance all that along with player skill too.
Skill-based matchmaking has become a trend that no one really asks for but it’s creeping into every game. From what I gather the general idea is to avoid matching new players against more skilled or veteran players and get steamrolled in PvP repeatedly.
If that’s working no one is seeing it. What you instead get is this attempt at 50/50 booking that’s never weighted right despite each and every change they’ve made to tune it.
So while the desired goal may sound virtuous the result is obvious. Super sweaty seesawing matches that feel like a stalemate till the end or immediate blowouts with players quitting more than ever.
Worst part about all this is the boneheaded decision to have this implemented in 6v6.
6v6 modes should be the casual quickplay modes. The places where you can mess around with new weapons and builds. They are not. With sbmm in play your most effective build and loadout is necessary to even survive. You think everyone in there isn’t a tryhard? Of course we are.
The game now features connection based non sbmm 6v6 playlist called “relentless” but due to the semantics of it being called relentless alone kinda defeats the purpose. What that playlist actually serves as is exile for those of us absolutely sick of control.
With all of this said, in response to Bungie’s State of the Game post last week. There are more reasonable solutions to crucible issues which could be the following:
Scrap the SBMM initiative for 6s and roll gametypes like control, clash, supremacy, and rift into a single activity node featuring both map and mode voting systems. The concern then would be players constantly voting for control over anything else but some kind of repeat map and mode restrictions and bonus xp for staying in lobbies could help.
Comp, 6v6 quickplay lobbies and some weekly gimmick modes like domination from D1 would be fine. They have so much to leverage already created. The conversation is resources for new PvP content but to me it feels like the way it’s presented to us that’s off.
I haven’t mentioned anything about 3v3 modes since those are generally in a good place comparatively and the best PvP modes in the game. They are not the biggest pain point at the moment.
I will say tho… I’m looking forward to the high TTK and less ability driven Checkmate mode they got planned. I like the pace of the current sandbox but it’s something worth exploring. So that’s something….
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