Destiny Alpha Thread: Impressions from the wild [Code Begging=ban]

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I feel like I'm missing a few things:

- how do you join a clan? I see in your screenshots that you guys are in the DestinyGAF clan but I haven't seen where I would join one myself

- saw a screenshot from David Jaffe where he was dancing. Tried pressing every button and can't find a gesture menu or whatever

- how do I see my stats on demand? I feel like every once in a while I will be shown my stats but I don't know how to get back to that screen

- when the game first loaded it asked if I wanted to make a Bungie account. I said no at the time but now I'm curious to see what info is on the site... However I can't figure out how to create an account now

- you guys are all level 8 and have rad weapons and crap. So far I've spent the vast majority of my time taking missions in what feels like the same 2 or 3 places. Having to just kill a certain number of dudes that keep spawning in the same spots or navigating to a certain room for a scan, and slowly level up that way. Is that what you guys have been doing as well? It feels like I'm missing something. I did wander deeper into one of the zones and found where some higher level dudes spawned but I only recently made it to level 6 so I wasn't ready to fight them... But thinking about spending even more time in the same zones I've already spent so much time in... Like I said, feels like I'm missing something

Really enjoying it as I'm playing it, though. Really compelling. When I walk away and think about what I spent my time doing, though, I kind of scratch my head (that's probably the MMO side of it)
 
Okay, here's a quick write up on my feelings on multiplayer. Some background. I love Halo and I've most likely put over 10,000 hours into Halo multiplayer over the years. 6,000 played games in Halo 2, something like 10,000 across all my accounts in Halo 3, roughly 3,000 games in reach. Needless to say, Halo is my jam.

So I've put about 12 hours into Destiny multiplayer so far. I'm starting to warm up to it, although I do have some problems. Starting off, people that wanted a multi-platform Halo are going to be disappointed. This is most definitely not Halo multiplayer, not at all.
It feels more like Call of Duty than anything else. Slightly longer kill times, ammo pickups, and vehicles make it feel different enough that I feel that it stands out and has its own voice, but overall the shooting and movement feels very Call of Duty. Now I don't have a problem with Call of Duty's gunplay, but I do have a problem with the rich get richer killstreak system. That brings me to my first issue. Supers.

Supers are only fun or interesting to the player who has them. You can't tell if a player has a super ready (with the exception of the Hunter's) and they're so quick you just can't avoid them. So you could be completely out playing your opponent, but end up dead because you didn't know he had a freaking gravity hammer in his back pocket. When you get killed by them it feels cheap and unfun. If they took longer to activate or there was a visual/audio indications that his super was up (like the Hunter), I'd be a little more forgiving, but as of now they're just cheap kills.

Second issue is a big one. The FoV. Oh my god it's so bad. It's so easy to lose track of your target in close quarters combat that CQC becomes a complete clusterfuck. Please Bungie I beg of you raise it to like 75 or 80.

Third Issue, Vehicles. Vehicles are ridiculously powerful. They kill you so ludicrously fast that your only option is to run away. Trying to shoot the driver out doesn't always work, most of the time it registers your shots as hitting vehicles not the driver, which does very little damage to the driver. I don't know how they could fix this. Maybe reduce vehicle health or have shots that hit the vehicles damage the driver a lot more. Also fuck turrets and the campers who stay in them all game.

Lastly, This is a big one. Server response time. I know this is an Alpha and there is a lot of time to improve this but, the response time on the servers is really bad. There are times where I engage a enemy, exchange bullets, take cover, and about a second after the engagement is over, the enemy or I drops dead. Now this may be cause by a low polling rate on the servers or some other factor. But this needs to be fixed. Because, as of now, shooting can sometimes feel unresponsive

With those complaints out of the way. My general feeling on multiplayer is positive. It's awesome to bring your own weapons into multiplayer and trying out new combinations to see what works (although it does feel a little unbalanced for the people who have more guns than you). It has the gunplay of Call of Duty, but with long enough kill times so you can try out shoot or out maneuver your opponent. When everything comes together, it works and it's great fun. It's not going to replace Halo for me, but I can see myself playing this a lot when it comes out.
 
Few more sky pics. Amazing thing is, I could sit back and take 100 pics of the same exact area at different points and all of them will look different. The sky is constantly changing. Constantly flowing and evolving. It is glorious to witness.

iNSvs56RzNLFm.jpg

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So some of my questions are answered in this article

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-30-how-destiny-turns-into-diablo-when-you-hit-the-level-cap

  • 6 total subclasses at launch, two per class
  • need to play the sp a little bit to learn mechanics before Pvp is opened up. But once unlocked its unlocked for all characters in the account
  • three characters per account
  • no item trading in game but the vault can be used to trade items between characters. I didn't know about that.
  • no level cap officially confirmed with bungie, but no gear requirements shown beyond 20 so far
  • bungie says getting to the level cap "a quick process". The focus is post level cap gear and events
  • "there will be something new to do every single day"
 
Dax01 said:
I've been hanging around in Rocketyard for the better part of an hour. When are all the high-level, huge fights supposed to happen?
Click to expand...

Any luck with the Pike? I haven't seen those mobs spawn again all day. Wish I had taken video of it when it happened, but I figured it was a regular occurrence.
 
I wonder if this is a bug or if it's something that was put into the game on purpose.

But when I equipt a different special weapon, all my special ammo vanishes. This does not happen with primary weapons nor does it happen with heavy weapons. I can go to my inventory swap out another heavy and primary weapon and my ammo is still there, but when I swap my special weapon(sniper -> shotgun) all the ammo goes with it.

When i switch back to the original gun that had the ammo(shotgun -> sniper) the ammo is still missing.
 
Fehyd said:
Any luck with the Pike? I haven't seen those mobs spawn again all day. Wish I had taken video of it when it happened, but I figured it was a regular occurrence.
Click to expand...

I had them spawn in an area (sorry, can't remember the name) and actually was able to drive around in their speeder. Was fun going around killing the enemies with their own equipment.
 
In defense of the non-Hunter classes in PVP:

The Titan is pretty decent at Control, simply because his flashbang has so much utility. Aside from blinding and damaging, it can also be used in conjunction with the ult to take out groups without much of a chance for them to survive. Almost always guaranteed to work. I also think they take less damage, but I can't prove that. Just felt like that during play.

The Warlock is also really good. The grenade is great for screwing up a group trying to take over a control point, and the hover can be useful for both offense or defense. I commonly hover over a door an enemy is about to come through and then get the drop on them. :P The Warlock's ult is probably the worst, since it's effectiveness is more situational due to longer time to charge than the other classes. I have, however, gotten numerous triples and even a couple of quad kills with it.

tl;dr: All the classes seem balanced. Golden Gun is slightly stronger.
 
Nyteshade517 said:
I had them spawn in an area (sorry, can't remember the name) and actually was able to drive around in their speeder. Was fun going around killing the enemies with their own equipment.
Click to expand...

Oh thank god someone else had that happen LOL. I thought I was going crazy telling people that they did pop up on occasion.
 
Obligatory GAF shot
plydnOC.jpg

Front Shot (Exo Class)
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Loadout Overview
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Primary Weapon
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Secondary Weapon (Da' Boom Stick)
AN8Uhy2.jpg

New Hoverbike
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New Ship
aiWHllj.jpg
 
Dax01 said:
Nope.

Is there some sort of trigger for this massive Fallen/Hive battle?
Click to expand...
I've come across it a couple times. I think it happens when you enter the area from the tunnel leaving Forgotten Shores. I picked up a Beacon mission that lead me to a team I had to take out, continuing on after that seems to lead to the battle.

Never seen the Pikes.
 
Fehyd said:
Oh thank god someone else had that happen LOL. I thought I was going crazy telling people that they did pop up on occasion.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I was roaming around and they came up behind me and killed me with their speeder. I respawned and saw a marker pointing to their speeders sitting in a group of 3. I didn't know what I was supposed to do with them so I started shooting thinking they were around me somewhere. I walked up to one and it gave me the prompt to get on. I stayed on it for a while. Drove around and helped some people and they would walk up and they were probably like "how does your speeder have weapons?"...lol
 
I found a beach ball in the Tower and ended up entertaining myself for about 20 minutes just seeing how high I could get the ball to go. Ended up having like 10 people fighting trying to see how high it would go.

Then we found a soccer ball and playing a triangle game kicking it to each other.

Its the little things. Hope they add more stuff like that into the Tower for the retail game.

Really sucks they let you see higher level gear and make you drool about it. Like this future cape.

inQ10NzJyG1dJ.jpg


I also love that weapons / armor are not static objects that just add to your armor or just add more power. Seems weapons have their own upgrades and you can make 10 pairs of the same type of legging armor but end up choosing one over the other just because it gives you Discipline instead of Strength, for example. I have a full suit of Discipline armor now and my grenades load up really fast.
 
Really enjoying this so far. I'm not someone who typically likes to play with other folks online, but it's so easy in this game to see where your friends are, what they're doing, and just jump in knowing they'll likely be glad to see you. It makes you feel pretty heroic to join a game, see a fireteam battling a group in a canyon below, bolt off on your speeder, crest a ridge, leap off and join the fray.

A couple of complaints:

Enemy patterns - these need to be randomized a little bit. They respawn, which is fine, but they seem be going on the same paths every time.

It can be too dark - even with the brightness all the way up, sometimes when you're indoors it gets so dark you can't see doorways. I think it's be great if you had a little personal light you could use, since the flashlight doesn't seem to be triggered by how dark it actually in spaces, only in areas the designers feel it's necessary.

image quality - perhaps I've been spoiled by games like Second Son, AC4 and Killzone, but the image destiny presents doesn't feel quite as solid as I'd hoped, this extends to the framerate, which while good, doesn't feel as butter smooth as it does in Killzone, for instance.
 
I like the scout rifle since it feels like a DMR and it is damn good but it seems better to use auto rifles in PvP so far. (Both of them do 106 damage). Snipers on the moon kicking my ass. I'm a terrible sniper. Too bad the turrets have a shield or else I could at least get a few kills



Also, help me GAF. I'm terrible in PvP. How can I get better? (I'm warlock if that matters; haven't tried the other classes. Should I?
 
This is my surprise game starting this generation of consoles. Until Bungie announced this Alpha, this game wasn't even on my radar too much. Now that I've played, it's feels like that moment when Mass Effect clicked for me and I really appreciate those games. Can't wait for July Beta, hopefully they open up a good portion of the game areas/modes.
 
kenta said:
I feel like I'm missing a few things:

- how do you join a clan? I see in your screenshots that you guys are in the DestinyGAF clan but I haven't seen where I would join one myself

- saw a screenshot from David Jaffe where he was dancing. Tried pressing every button and can't find a gesture menu or whatever

- how do I see my stats on demand? I feel like every once in a while I will be shown my stats but I don't know how to get back to that screen

- when the game first loaded it asked if I wanted to make a Bungie account. I said no at the time but now I'm curious to see what info is on the site... However I can't figure out how to create an account now

- you guys are all level 8 and have rad weapons and crap. So far I've spent the vast majority of my time taking missions in what feels like the same 2 or 3 places. Having to just kill a certain number of dudes that keep spawning in the same spots or navigating to a certain room for a scan, and slowly level up that way. Is that what you guys have been doing as well? It feels like I'm missing something. I did wander deeper into one of the zones and found where some higher level dudes spawned but I only recently made it to level 6 so I wasn't ready to fight them... But thinking about spending even more time in the same zones I've already spent so much time in... Like I said, feels like I'm missing something

Really enjoying it as I'm playing it, though. Really compelling. When I walk away and think about what I spent my time doing, though, I kind of scratch my head (that's probably the MMO side of it)
Click to expand...

-You join clans through Bungie's website. alpha.bungie.net
-Emotes are done using the Dpad. Up, Down, Left, and Right.
-Not sure what stats you're referring to. Your kills, deaths, etc.. would be through the website. Your gear and it's stats would be through pressing Options.
-I don't actually know how to set that up. Hopefully they'll present that option again in the Beta and full game at least.
- I got my gear through a combination of Exploring and doing the open world missions as well as doing the Strike. You don't need to do the mission to get gear drops but it's nice as the missions tend to send you to newer areas. As you explore, also keep an eye out for chests that are placed throughout the world as those are a source of cash and gear as well.

Right now, there's a limited amount of things to do since it's Alpha. They really just want feedback on the various systems and gameplay as well as stressing their servers, so they didn't give us too much content. Some people find it engaging enough just to play with what they've given us and others don't. That's fine. Just keep in mind that if you find yourself tired of what little there is now, that it's only a portion of what will be in the full game, so don't be discouraged. And don't feel the need to force yourself to keep playing if it's not fun. Getting burnt out on the Alpha would not be a good thing.
 
The MP is not fair in the least. Is there seriously no weapon pickups? You have to unlock weapons in SP? How are people killing me with Snipers and rockets? lol god I'm really disliking this game, enough to cancel my pre-order.
 
Kibbles said:
Is there seriously no weapon pickups? You have to unlock weapons in SP? How are people killing me with Snipers and rockets? lol god I'm really disliking this game, enough to cancel my pre-order.
Click to expand...

There are gear drops in SP, gear rewards in MP and gear vendors at the Tower.

NoTacos said:
Holy shit. Was that a random pickup on the field of battle or from the merchant in the tower?
Click to expand...

Mine was a crypto-thing drop from a mob that decrypted into it.
 
veloxStrix said:
In defense of the non-Hunter classes in PVP:

The Titan is pretty decent at Control, simply because his flashbang has so much utility. Aside from blinding and damaging, it can also be used in conjunction with the ult to take out groups without much of a chance for them to survive. Almost always guaranteed to work. I also think they take less damage, but I can't prove that. Just felt like that during play.

The Warlock is also really good. The grenade is great for screwing up a group trying to take over a control point, and the hover can be useful for both offense or defense. I commonly hover over a door an enemy is about to come through and then get the drop on them. :P The Warlock's ult is probably the worst, since it's effectiveness is more situational due to longer time to charge than the other classes. I have, however, gotten numerous triples and even a couple of quad kills with it.

tl;dr: All the classes seem balanced. Golden Gun is slightly stronger.
Click to expand...

I think the Hunter >>> all at these low levels, but Warlock gets a teleport jump upgrade so the classes probably start having more identity later. Who know how class balance breaks down at later levels.

Double jump and throwing knife are just so good at the lvl 8 cap though.
 
NoTacos said:
Holy shit. Was that a random pickup on the field of battle or from the merchant in the tower?
Click to expand...

I got it last night either from the gunsmith or from a decrypted engram (?) from the Cryptoarch (?). I don't remember getting it as a drop or mission reward.

I have no idea if I spelled those 2 things correctly. I think I did but not sure.
 
So yeah, that Level 6 mission is just super boring to me. Enemies take forever to die and it's not exactly challenging to fight them, just hide, shoot, hide.
 
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