melmer

Destiny

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I'm also kind of annoyed at how shit the chat system is. There's no quick way to send an invite, and no easy way to send a reply. You have to go through the playstation OS which is slow as fuck when you're trying to invite someone, or quickly sending a reply of "done in 5 mins."

same on Xbone. Pretty sure nobody else from here is on that system but if someone is and wants to be friends, my name is the same as here!

In happy news they said they're going to add some way of chatting in-game. Today I managed to find two dudes in Hubtown willing to tackle the Weekly at Level 26 so I was able to get that sweet Exotic Hunter mask! Balling. Eventually you can still see your radar even when ADS

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I'm off work today, so if anyone wants to do Queen's Wrath stuff, hit me up. I'll be gritting my teeth and getting 20 scout rifle headshots in the meantime.

 

don't do this to yourself (╯°□°)╯

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Not live yet, but this is upcoming in the next patch -

 
Cryptarch Changes 
 
Cayde-6 took the Cryptarch aside and showed him a sack of doorknobs. He decoded that mystery pretty quickly.
  • Legendary Engrams will always produce Legendary or better quality items, including Materials or Exotics
  • Rare Engrams will always produce Rare or better quality items
  • Rare engrams will have an increased chance to produce Legendary quality items
Activity Changes
  • Daily Heroics, Weekly Heroics, and Vanguard: Tiger Playlist activities will include Rare and Legendary Engrams in addition to their existing rewards
Item Changes
  • Ascendant materials have been promoted to Legendary to closer associate them with the gear they are used to upgrade
  • Legendary Engram items that exist in your inventory will be demoted to Rare quality when the patch goes live, so decode them while you can. But let’s be honest--even if you don’t, we all know they were blues already...

 

So basically, even with the discovery of a new loot cave-like-thing I'll probably just run the Tiger Strike Playlist if I feel the need to "farm" because it'll get me those Vanguard points plus a higher chance of getting upgrade materials.

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Got my first exotic from Xur, who is hanging out down the stairs from the Dead Orbit dude. He also has exotic helmet engrams for motes of light, which I tried but got hunter helmet.

 

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Got my first exotic from Xur, who is hanging out down the stairs from the Dead Orbit dude. He also has exotic helmet engrams for motes of light, which I tried but got hunter helmet.

 

I also got a Hunter helmet from the engram I bought, but after doing the weekly strike on hard for 6 strange coins, I'm only one coin away from getting that crazy auto rifle he's selling!

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I had just enough for the rifle so went with that and took my chances with the exotic engram, also ended up with a hunter helmet. It's rigged I tells ya!

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I'm bummed none of the thumbs seem to have tried Destiny. It's fun, but absolutely flawed in some really strange and fundamental ways that I can't quite wrap my head around. Some of the reviews I've seen have touched on it, but none dive deep enough. I guess I'll wait and hope Super Bunnyhop does a video on it.

 

So many questions:

Why was there such a massive push for mmo-like multiplayer, mmo-like zones, spawns, events, dungeons, a city hub, all of this! and absolutely no systems promoting player interaction? And not only is there no interaction, but it's actively a pain in the ass to do things like basic communication and party-forming.

 

Who designs a loot system that gives you rare drops only to pull the rug out? This is such painfully obvious bad design.

 

How did you write such a compelling world and setting, and so utterly shit the bed with the story? Are these awful deviantart versions of mass effect characters really the best you can do?

 

Why are loot and stats so shallow and homogenized? Any piece of purple gear is interchangeable. This is a loot game! Failing such a core aspect so fundamentally would be shocking if I hadn't seen diablo 3 make this exact mistake at launch.

 

I could go on for another 20 bulletpoints, but overwhelmingly I get the feeling that the astronomical budget and development time is nothing but a detriment to these big games. Everything feels like it was scrapped and redesigned a thousand times until all coherency was lost, and what was left to polish/release is some weird shell filled with the various pieces that survived. (why is half my inventory for consumables when there are essentially 2 (poorly designed) ones in the game? What was the original design of the city? in its current state it could easily have been a small menu. Why is my ship nothing but a loading screen graphic?) 

 

all that said, I do want to reiterate that the game is still enjoyable. I've had fun soloing weekly heroics, the weekly nightfall was fantastic (with lots of LAST GUARDIAN STANDING clutch saves), and I hear the raid is fantastic - almost a different game in terms of mechanics/complexity. Yet, speaking as someone who avoids all press and hype, the underlying promise of this game is almost hilariously squandered. Hopefully it gets the diablo treatment, and evolves into a really great game.

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Let me add an additional head-scratcher to your list:

 

Why doesn't the game explain its systems to the player in any way whatsoever? I'm collecting items with odd names and no real understanding of why I'm doing it or what I should do afterward. I shouldn't have to visit an external website to understand the concept of Glimmer, your PRIMARY IN-GAME CURRENCY! There's nothing wrong with burying your lore so that it doesn't obfuscate the player's experience, but there should be in-game codices for all of this stuff.

 

Outstandingly beautiful game though, even on last-gen consoles. And the guns feel great--they're weighty and satisfying to shoot. I'm guessing that a lot of troubles with the game have mostly to do with trying to corral a stable of developers at such an immense scale; how could you possibly ever get everyone on the same page?

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Destiny

Looks amazing

Sounds amazing

Controls amazing

Would not bang

 

lets not lie to ourselves mington

 

 

 

edit; oh ya Architecture I'm on PS3 as ghink. We can be friend if you like! (•ω•)▄︻̷̿┻̿═━一

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Why are loot and stats so shallow and homogenized? Any piece of purple gear is interchangeable. This is a loot game! Failing such a core aspect so fundamentally would be shocking if I hadn't seen diablo 3 make this exact mistake at launch.

 

Is it, though? I got the sense that the loot was purely a gating mechanism and the core loop is all about shooting guys in the face.

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I agree. Destiny isn't a loot game, it's a first person shooter with loot.

I don't keep playing because I want more and better shit, I keep playing because the basic mechanics of aiming, shooting, seeing feedback is great. The progression in terms of loot and abilities is the icing on the cake. The progression makes me more inclined to say just one more strike/heroic/crucible. The shooting is why I turn it on in the first place.

Also, is any piece of purple gear interchangeable? They all benefit one style of play slightly more than another. Enough for me to care which one I have at least.

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Is it, though? I got the sense that the loot was purely a gating mechanism and the core loop is all about shooting guys in the face.

 

every loot game has a gameplay loop, the hope is that you enjoy it enough that the loot means something. Do we have different definitions of loot game? Loot is an important part of Destiny and plays a massive role in the progression/reward structure. Pressing start opens a RPG paperdoll screen. If it's not a loot game it's certainly trying to be, and maybe just doing a poor enough job that you aren't at all invested.

 

 

The progression makes me more inclined to say just one more strike/heroic/crucible.

 

this sounds a whole lot like carrot on a stick, the lifeblood of a loot game. :]

 

re: interchangeable: maybe 'enough for you to care' is where it breaks down. If the sum total of my input is deciding whether I want -2s from my grenade cooldown or -2s from my melee cooldown I am supremely uninterested, think the loot system is limp, and yeah, would describe items as interchangeable.

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Vault of Glass is amazing, by the way! I finally tried it last night (after a couple weeks thinking it was lv.28, oops). Puzzles, complex multi-stage boss battles, new mechanics and enemies, combat broken up by stealth/exploration/platforming sections, jumping puzzles (which are much better then in most games thanks to mr. jetpack), an enormous unique zone. It seriously feels like a different game. 

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every loot game has a gameplay loop, the hope is that you enjoy it enough that the loot means something. Do we have different definitions of loot game? Loot is an important part of Destiny and plays a massive role in the progression/reward structure. Pressing start opens a RPG paperdoll screen. If it's not a loot game it's certainly trying to be, and maybe just doing a poor enough job that you aren't at all invested.

 We apparently do: I consider a loot game one in which the core gameplay loop involves sorting through randomly generated items to determine which best fits what you're trying to achieve. I don't consider, say, Guild Wars 2 a loot game, despite the presence of loot, because the only real consideration is 'is the number bigger' and, at endgame, 'where's the stat distribution I want'. You need ectoplasm to craft the gear you want, and you only get that from loot drops, but you're essentially cashing in tokens at that point.

 

Destiny appears to be similar, from an outsider's perspective: light is a function of the item level, so the loot becomes a currency to unlock the next area. (If light isn't a straight function of the item level, and it's possible to get more or less light from equippable gear in the same place, then I'd consider it a loot game.)

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My friend and I did a couple moon missions this afternoon. I'm up to level 6 and still enjoying my time with the game. I think it's a solid 7 or 7.5 out of 10, and I have to wonder if reviewers who were rushing to get through the game found it less enjoyable because they didn't get to play it at a more leisurely pace.

 

The story is still impenetrable and one of the biggest failings of the game from my vantage point. It'd be interesting to learn about Joe Staten's exit from the company, and how much that did or did not impact the story in Destiny.

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Yeah, I was listening to the latest Daft Souls podcast where Matt Lees was saying that Destiny is the kind of game that he feels he could enjoy for a handful of hours a week, doing three or four daily bounties and playing a couple of multiplayer games each day. I wonder if there's something to be said for for playing games at a different pace when its being reviewed - I think I would have disliked the game as much as several reviewers if I had to compress my playtime into five days. But as a game that I play regularly but not ravenously, Destiny is great.

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I've wondered about that quagmire regarding reviews for years and unfortunately, I'm not sure there's a good way around it. Fans demand reviews day-and-date with the release of a game to help them make an informed decision and yet, it seems like requiring information upfront limits a reviewer's ability to properly critique a game. I really wish there was a resource for more in-depth games criticism that wasn't just a 1,000 word jumble of impressions wherein everything was described as "visceral."

 

I think Clint Hocking's writeup of Bioshock is the closest thing I've seen to real games criticism, which is incredibly disappointing when you consider the history of gaming and the number of people involved in the industry at every conceivable level. I've toyed around with writing about games as a hobby for years and have never really managed to strike the right balance--oft-times, my writing just feels derivative and overly influenced by other peoples' takes on the game in question.

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Word of warning for those saving up for various things:

 

Glimmer caps at 25000, Vanguard & Crucible marks at 200. Any earned in missions/matches beyond that evaporates into the ether, and the wasted marks STILL COUNTS TOWARDS YOUR WEEKLY LIMITS.

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Has Bungie stated why the resource limits exist?  They seem really out of place in a game like this, barring any potential technical issues that I may not be aware of.

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Has Bungie stated why the resource limits exist?  They seem really out of place in a game like this, barring any potential technical issues that I may not be aware of.

 

Well for memory reasons it probably makes sense for there to be some limit. Thing with these limits is they're so tiny.

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Yeah, I don't really know why it couldn't just as easily be 99,999 glimmer and 999 marks.

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ack! i just got back from dinner and psn down

those aliens aren't just going to shoot themselves, sony/bungie

 

edit: oh wait nevermind looks like I'm in.

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I'm on my way to getting my first orange item. The idea of multi-leveled quests bounties to get an exotic weapon is cool. I like the challenge. 

 

I went for the hand cannon because it's the primary weapon I use about 50% of the time. 

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