‘Destiny 2’ Random Weapon Perks Nixed In Favor Of Easier Tuning
Bungie has many things from Destiny it wants to correct with Destiny 2. How the developer goes about balancing weapons for PVE and PVP play on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC is one of those issues. However, it will come at the cost of losing the random perk rolls for weapons.
Destiny 2 Creative Director Luke Smith spoke with Mashable about the changes to the perk and balance systems from the original title. As existing players know, every weapon and piece of armor comes with multiple nodes that grant different perks based on what the player selected.
Most of these nodes drew from a pool of possible perks to make each weapon semi-unique. For example, one Clever Dragon could come with a Full Auto perk while another could have better aim assist.
While this kept players on the hunt for the “God Roll” version their favorite weapons and armor, it also made balancing in a chore for Bungie.
For Destiny 2, the developers will handcraft every weapon and piece of armor with a set selection of nodes. They will not change from one loot drop to the next.
“There aren’t random rolls on weapons anymore. Better Devils is a Crucible hand cannon [in Destiny 2], and what it has on it is what it has on it. Period,” Smith told Mashable in an interview.
This solves the major problem for Bungie where it could not tune weapons individually in the original game. Bungie had to make changes to an entire class of weapons, and sometimes they were able to go down to the archetype of that weapon class. So, if changes were needed to the Clever Dragon, Bungie would have to alter all weapons in the high rate of fire/low impact Pulse Rifle archetype.
“It’s gonna give us more flexibility to do per-item tuning,” Smith said. “[That’s] something we haven’t had before because of the way we were building the [first] game.”
While the ability to better balance weapons is good news for Destiny 2, it comes at the cost of removing the RPG-like loot from the experience. This was a major part of the original game as players would come together to discuss what weapon or armor rolls they received and try to determine which set of perks were the best for different weapons.
In other words, Bungie is removing a piece of what helped bring the Destiny community together. Unfortunately, Smith doesn’t have an answer for that yet.
“How can my second, third, and tenth Better Devils hand cannon be interesting? That’s a question we should be asking and answering as quickly as we can,” Smith explained.
“We have ideas. While I would like nothing more than to share those ideas with you, we’re up against [a deadline]. I don’t know if they’ll make it for our Sept. 6 [release] date. But we have some ideas that we’re pretty excited about.”
Those interested in Destiny 2 will have the opportunity to test out the changes to the weapon system in the upcoming beta. PlayStation 4 pre-orders will get access first on July 18, followed by the Xbox One on July 19, with a 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT start times for both days. The open beta for consoles will then follow on July 21, and the fun will end at 12 a.m. ET on July 24 (9 p.m. PT, July 23).
A PC beta is planned as well. Exact dates and times have not been nailed down yet, but it is expected to become available this August.
What do you think about the removal of random loot perks from Destiny 2? Sound off in the comments below.
[Featured Image by Bungie]
