During the months leading up to the launch of Destiny 2, the game’s director, Luke Smith, revealed that the weapons in Destiny 2 would not have random perk rolls as they did in Destiny 1, but instead each specific weapon would always have the same perks. As players got their hands on the game, they discovered this for themselves. Besides mods that can add a little bit of extra to each weapon, such as increasing handling or reload speed, every weapon (like Better Devils or Nameless Midnight) will always have the same roll no matter how many times they drop.
Smith, in the latest issue of EDGE, says that he stands behind the change to make all weapons have fixed rolls, although he admits that there’s more work to be done to make duplicate drops more meaningful.
Now a little over a month into the game, many fans are feeling that fixed weapon rolls are making the game more stale, taking away the grind for the “god roll” of a certain weapon. Some veterans of Destiny 1 remember trying to track down the perfectly rolled Eyasluna, which kept them playing the game even though the game had entered into something of a content drought. Destiny 2 does not have that same method of motivation.
I’m still a pretty big supporter of the change. I believe that, ultimately, the Destiny franchise is heading towards becoming a collection game. I understand that we have shortcomings there right now that we need to address. With respect to making duplicates matter, this is still one of the things we have ideas for. You project, when something comes out, what you think the problems are going to be. Sometimes you’re right, and you’re like, cool, we can just do the work we planned to do. Sometimes you’re not right, or you have something else come up that becomes a higher priority. So for us, what we’re doing right now is looking at the potential work we could do, and we’ll prioritize it. I still believe, and so does the gameplay team, that we’ve done the right thing for the collection game.
There are plenty of opinions on both sides, for and against fixed weapon rolls, but judging by this quote from Smith, it seems that won’t be changing anytime soon in Destiny 2. What is likely to change is Bungie introducing some way to make those duplicate drops matter.
The fact that a solution has not been added to the game, or even detailed at this point, seems a bit odd for fans. That is because four months ago, Smith said fixed weapon rolls beg the question of how to make duplicate drops matter, saying “that’s a question we should be asking and answering as quickly as we can.” Many fans are surprised that question has continued to go unanswered.
Bungie could introduce a way to make duplicate drops more meaningful in the next expansion, titled Curse of Osiris, that is coming in December, or possibly in an update at some point before the first expansion.
Destiny 2 is out now for PS4 and Xbox One, and releases on October 24, 2017 for PC.
Source: EDGE via WCCFtech
