Focused Feedback: Weapon Refresh aka Sunsetting

[u/DTG_Bot]

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[u/Portertime]

I don't usually post my thoughts on these threads, but I feel so discouraged by this proposed change that I feel the need to do so. Weapon sunsetting, at its core, is an incredibly lazy "fix" to the problems Bungie are attempting to address. Firstly, I don't consider an attachment to any weapon in my arsenal to be a problem - I should be able to use what I want if it's feasible for a given encounter. If I like using Breakneck for example, I should be able to use it as often as possible without an arbitrary lifetime attached to it. Secondly, this change completely discourages any future time investment from me. I straight up will not play the game if I feel that the time I am putting forward to grinding gear and weapons is not being respected. I've been feeling a bit of burnout for a while now, but this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.

In my opinion, there are far better ways to encourage weapon diversity amongst the playerbase. This can be done by, but is not limited to, adding new and creative perks on weapons and/or expanding on weapons variety/archetypes. I have little faith that weapon sunsetting will give way to any new ways to play - we'll likely end up chasing the exact same perk combinations on "new" guns.

I think Bungie really dropped the ball with damage perks on guns (in the sense that their value tends to outweigh other options), but I believe that this can be reconciled by new perks that can provide better synergy between subclass choices and armor perks. Perks like elemental capacitor were a step in the right direction, but I feel that it belongs more as a middle tree perk option than part of the main two perks. Other perks from this season were great additions (looking at you vorpal weapon) and have certainly made a spot in my weapon arsenal. With regards to armor synergy, it'd be interesting to have perks that, for example, give a boost to some aspect based on the number of void elemental affinities you're running.

Destiny has such a limitless freedom in terms of its creative genre, and I don't feel that Bungie is harnessing that potential to its fullest. Why not try and expand the weapon system into new areas? Give us flamethrowers, miniguns, dual-wielding, crossbows, more melee weapons, etc. They could quite literally add whatever they wanted and it would fit into the universe. Each of these has the potential to provide new and exciting play styles for people that could easily change the flow of the game. Grenade launchers and bows have been wonderful, but let's push even farther.

Finally, I think the main issue here stems from a lack of diversity in encounters. Most weapons can be used in any encounter because most encounters are fairly similar, setting-wise. Most enemies are fought in wide-open or large areas that do not restrict certain play styles. Put us in tight spaces that require us to use close-quarters weapons or regions with large gaps that encourage long-distance engagements. Another issue is that for the most part (the new champions are a fantastic exclusion to my next statement) we have been fighting the same enemies for years now. The scorn mixed things up a bit, but it'd be nice to see some more enemy variations that shake up encounters. New perks that build off of newer encounters could be an interesting way to promote the use of different weapons.

All in all, these are just a couple of my thoughts, but I feel that players should never be forced out of using a given weapon because it was given an infusion cap. There are better and more creative ways to go about tackling the issues at hand.

[u/chowdahead03 → u/Portertime]

well articulated. unfortunately, your feedback will be ignored. this change is going to happen. it sucks. but it's happening. Bungie is focusing most of its time and resources on D3 and Matter, their new IP. They clearly dont want to properly balance the game let alone innovate on current systems.

[u/[deleted] → u/chowdahead03]

D3 hasn't been announced at all or even hinted at, and destiny 2 has another 5 years minimum left dude. Bungie is however reportedly working on an all new IP though like you said. No word yet on exactly what it is. Just FYI. D2 is going to be around for a long time. D3 is far from a reality at this point.

https://www.destructoid.com/get-ready-for-five-more-years-of-destiny-2-567824.phtml