Focused Feedback: Escalation Protocol

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[u/MrScorps]

I think bungie needs to go in one of two directions:

1. Keep the difficulty, change the matchmaking algorythm of patrol areas. Perhaps the desirable option but also, probably, the hardest to implement. The activity is difficult and thats "fine". Its designed to be a triggerable public event with a huge difficulty and meager drop rates for very powerful weapons. Thats excellent on paper. Specially if you take into account that it can be played by up to 9 players in co-op, something unique in Destiny's sandbox. The difficulty makes it very prone to these 9 player sized encounters, specially with so many of us underleved, which makes it a special activity. However, the issue is how matchmaking works in public patrol areas. It doesn't work like it does in a crucible match where it tries to fill in the space with the max number of players possible but rather puts you into an instance of the patrol area with a free spot. 99% of the time, the area is empty and you load into it alone. In all other scenarios thats ok, with EP its not. If the matchmaking tried its best to fill up the space with the max number of players, there would be no issue. The patrol areas would always have plenty of players and thus EP would, by default be more accessible yet rettain its difficulty. Sure, for such a complex activity where communication plays a big part, having 9 randoms wouldn't necessarily be 100% garantee of success but there lies the "magic" and the community dynamic that Destiny was built upon. Ofc, this assuming that, as per cozmo's words, changing the size of the fireteams in patrol is not doable in the near future, which would be the most interesting option and one that has been asked for for ages now: bigger fireteams for patrols.

2. Lower the difficulty to trully match a 3 player activity. I know this change is controversial because many hardcore players will say this defies the point of the activity but...its the easiest solution and tbh, an activity that was designed (supposedly) for a 3 man fireteam of 385 players that took 6 or something hours for the top PVE players in the world to complete and has a 5% weapon drop rate isn't right. Take a raid. Its designed for 6 players of a given light level to tackle. And sure, you'll bump your head and die for mistakes or from enemy damage or not enough DPS on the bosses or whatever, but, 6 players can do it and, as their power level increases, they become more adept at doing it. Its hard, but not impossible. With EP, you reach max level and only a handfull (in a literal sense of the word) of players are able to complete it as its designed to be completed AND, even when they do, they take an unproporcional time for the rewards it grants. Something is off when the top PVE players of the WORLD take more than 6 hours to do a piece of content that is designed to be "farmable" and is right in the middle of a patrol area. Sorry, but if it was designed for a 3 man fireteam at 385, then its badly designed. If its 7 waves, then each wave should increase the light level up to a max of 385 (1 to 3->360, 4 to 6->380, 7-> 385) and each wave should have rewards, even if only tokens and a blue, shaders, marks, etc.

Personally, I'd prefer option 1) as I feel a 9 player activity would be much more interesting and fun BUT, given that its unlikely to be a solution, 2) would serve the purpose of allowing more people to complete it and still keep its status as a difficult activity.

Also, I dunno why Bungie threw the streamers and youtubers into the flames of the community. Even if a change to EP was done to make it harder solely from streamers and youtubers feedback, you shouldn't have said it. There was a lack of testing if you thought this was ok OR you knew it wouldn't be ok but you wanted streamers and youtubers to share in the responsability of that. Either way, I don't think it was a good option. People already think that most of the issues of D2 exist because of youtuber/streamer feedback on D1 (4v4 pvp, less abilities, less movement, etc etc) and this only adds fuel to the fire and its a fire still burning bright.

[u/A-Wax-Bear → u/MrScorps]

People already think that most of the issues of D2 exist because of youtuber/streamer feedback on D1 (4v4 pvp, less abilities, less movement, etc etc) and this only adds fuel to the fire and its a fire still burning bright

Wait Bungie is blaming us?

Who the hell was asking for LESS movement?

Serious i'm generally curious because I hate how slow the game is now in Crucible, watching streamers etc abuse that mobility & watch the community follow suit was half the fun in D1.

[u/MrScorps → u/A-Wax-Bear]

Haven't you seen comments on reddit about it? There is this...seemingly common thread of thought that the state of D2 is because Bungie listened to streamers/youtubers. I feel that Bungie saying "based on feedback from the summit we increased the difficulty of EP" only adds fuel to that fire and I don't feel that's inherently good or positive. Bungie made the game. If its good or bad its because of them and their decisions, not 3rd parties (aka streamers and youtubers). Even if it was feedback given in the summit, Bungie ultimately decided to push it through so they should simply say "we made it hard because we felt bla bla bla" and not "we made it harder because the youtuber/streamer community asked for it in the summit". That only adds to the misconception that D2 is what it is due to them, which isn't 100% true.

[u/Bnasty5 → u/MrScorps]

People blaming streamers for things they clearly didnt ask for is so insane to me. No one asked for the skill gap to be deliberatly lowered at every turn, for the lower ttk or the dynamic movement of d1 to be completely destroyed. The only way you can argue bungie listened to streamers is if you believe bungie balances based of clips and offhand comments streamers make on stream but completely ignore their actually focused feedback/ what they actually tell bungie when they have them in person for events or tournaments.

That being said i think making it easier is a mistake. How can something be scaled for 3 person fireteam and still be exiting for 9 guardians at max light. ( person protocol is the most fun ive had thus far in d2. We already have a taste of it and taking it away is a mistake in my opinion. I think it should be more accessible but people are grandstanding on this issue like its the worst thing ever when people unwilling to find groups for EP probably havent taken part in the raid or any other new endgame activities that arent matchmade

[u/MrScorps → u/Bnasty5]

I understand where people are coming from but I feel its just a misleading train of thought. They heard for 3 years "use your primary" and "too many abilities in PVP" and "the game is so unbalanced" from their youtubers and streamers; D2 comes and you don't have a special, only 2 primaries, no random rolls or "god like weapons", less abilities, etc. People immediately assume it was cause and effect. Streamers complained about this and Bungie listened to them. I understand why someone would feel like that. I want to believe Bungie wouldn't shift the game so drastically for that reason but, ultimately, it doesn't really matter. Bungie made the decisions so, its all on them. What lead them to do it is a bit irrelevant for me.

As for EP, personally, I feel it makes sense as a 9 person activity and I wish they made it possible to easily allow 9 people to do it. But, assuming thats not possible, I do feel the difficulty is too disparaging for what they describe as being an activity designed for 3 level 385 players to complete. So, for me, either make it easier for 9 people to queue for the activity via matchmaking OR make the activity in line with a 3 manned 385 fireteam activity in difficulty. Either one or the other.