Bethesda does this with Fallout 4 and Starfield ALOT. I mean, it's weird how bad the damage works in both those games. It's gotta be one of the worst versions of this tbh.
The Division does it too but weirder because it's not that certain guns are weaker but they all have certain "designs" and do damage differently. Problem is that rate of fire isn't balanced out damage wise so especially in Div 2 MMR high damage is severly lacking compared to sustained fire. But you build around that with broken effects to get around it (like the now nerfed chainkiller/determined).
at least with fallout 4, outside of legendary effects, the levels for guns are just the receivers which increase damage/change caliber. you can upgrade the 10mm pistol you start with and keep it all the way through the game.
for some reason bethesda fucked this in starfield and whilst you can upgrade the damage you can't go to the next rarity. the game also just doesn't tell you rarities exist. not being able to upgrade through rarities also discourages getting the weapon modding perks until late game where you'll actually keep all the weapons you get. it also fucks up unique and legendary gear as you can't upgrade those to higher tiers either
To be completely fair to BGS, they did make it so you could upgrade rarities in Starfield with the Free Lanes update. It doesn't fix the problem of the damage design but it does try to put it more in line with Fallout 4's receiver levels that you brought up.
That being said, it's still bad. The problem is not that you can't make guns "viable" for lack of a better term. Just that the entire system is imbalanced and bullet calibers, rate of fire, what the game calls DPS, are all just there for window dressing. But that is more to the issue of no one at bethesda knowing how guns work at all (and not understanding how to balance damage through leveling).
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u/BlackTestament7 7d ago
Any game with a weapon rarity system honestly.
Bethesda does this with Fallout 4 and Starfield ALOT. I mean, it's weird how bad the damage works in both those games. It's gotta be one of the worst versions of this tbh.
The Division does it too but weirder because it's not that certain guns are weaker but they all have certain "designs" and do damage differently. Problem is that rate of fire isn't balanced out damage wise so especially in Div 2 MMR high damage is severly lacking compared to sustained fire. But you build around that with broken effects to get around it (like the now nerfed chainkiller/determined).