A "beta" that is released 6 weeks before the game launches isn't a beta - it's a next gen marketing term for a demo. The reason it's labeled a "beta" is damage control. It can enable consumers to mislead themselves: "Oh I don't like this or the game is lacking this.. but I guess it is just a beta after all." Of course they will make small tweaks here and there but don't expect anything major.
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Destiny Beta Thread: Moon wizards make Pet Sounds with space magic in a bottle
- Thread starter The Librarian
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A "beta" that is released 6 weeks before the game launches isn't a beta - it's a next gen marketing term for a demo. The reason it's labeled a "beta" is damage control. It can enable consumers to mislead themselves: "Oh I don't like this or the game is lacking this.. but I guess it is just a beta after all." Of course they will make small tweaks here and there but don't expect anything major.
ProvenDeadly
Member
I'm getting Halo 3 odst vibes in the main menu right now.
This and and Halo: MCC are going to have great soundtracks.
This and and Halo: MCC are going to have great soundtracks.
The Librarian
Banned
My bet is we'll need a new thread by Sunday. 
My bet is we'll need a new thread by Sunday.
Easily. The PVP event may well even speed up this thread even more...
Kurt Angle
Member
is there full skill max level skill trees available online? ill probably only have time in the real game to only do one character and i wanna pick right between warlock and hunter
Dusktildawn48
Member
Pvp event?
I'm hoping bungie has some weapon types hidden up their sleeves.
Bungie Weekly Update has the deets.
Iron Banner or some such.
Personally not interested... Level advantage in PVP? Sigh.
I don't care for hidden stuff, gimme 'em now or at least tell about them. Finding out stuff like this (what weapon types are in the game) is never cool or fun in my opinion, but rather basic knowledge that should be available from the beginning.
You can see all of the skils in both spec when you start at level one. Press Triangle on your class and in the top left corner of your inventory (where your subclass is) you will see you second subclass as well.
So here's my more complete thoughts on the Beta. For starters, I think it's good but it could be a lot better.
PvE: I'll take my issues with it first. The AI tends to do one of two things, swarm or stand still. Something that Reach's AI did that was awesome was that it tried to get to advantageous positions versus the player. Dregs tend to jump up and down on the player's position, without really attacking the player, or they stand still. The Hive people only have the swarm option. This isn't always bad thing, but when combined with the how prevalent ADS is, it makes it feel so much worse.
I understand that Old Russia is meant to be a sort of hub styled world for players to meet in. As a result enemies need to be constantly updated in the world. The problem is that enemies that aren't in advanceable positions(i.e. the Hive in the Sat building) respawn far too quickly. There was one time where I killed two Fallen guys and their captain, ran up to the bodies to loot them, and by the time I got to them maybe three seconds later, they were already respawning. From a player perspective, it makes the world feel less alive and more like a place to grind levels in.
The Darkness approaching is a two-edged sword. On one hand I like it for parties of players. It gives missions a bit more of a challenge. On the other hand, playing alone and having to restart with all the enemies that had previously been killed is annoying. I understand the point of it, but the lack of checkpoints for players wishing to go alone a bit disappointing, especially from a Bungie game.
Old Russia is the best part of the game so far. The areas having different leveled opponents is really cool. In addition, the enemies that are guarding areas that aren't supposed to be in the beta are really cool. That definitely makes the world feel like there's more secrets in it.
The little beacon missions in Old Russia are surprisingly fun. I had a cool mission where I had to kill a certain amount of Fallen. Right as I start, a dropship comes in from above signalling the public event. I got the beacon mission and the public event completed in one go.
Public events are really, really well done. Honestly, I can't think of a way to do them any better. When watching preview videos, it seemed like public events could be cool but a lot of people would skip out because they were optional. This isn't the case. People join in after they start, and everyone seems eager to help kill bad guys.
The tower is alright. I just wish the radar didn't show everyone, and just showed the vendors and stuff. I've only been to the ones on the main concourse area, because there doesn't seem like much of a reason to go to anyone else.
PvP: Where do I start... Supers don't work in PvP. At all. Everytime a Titan has used their Super I have died. I have survived a Warlock Super twice, only one of which did I end up winning the encounter. I haven't survived a Hunter's super, but I have ended up trading kills multiple times. The worst part about all of these is that they are nearly instant and come out of nowhere. The Hunter's is probably the easiest to prepare for, but the kill times are long enough that it requires 100% effort to just trade kills before dying to the network delayed Golden Gun.
By putting the Sniper on the Hunter by practically default, it gives players the notion that they should use the Sniper in PvP. This shouldn't be the case, as the Sniper requires a bit more skill and finesse in PvP that a lot of the players quite frankly do not have. It feels like every game I have at least one guy on my team with a <.50 K/D because they were trying to use the Sniper.
Weapon balancing in PvP needs a lot of work. There isn't much point to using a primary that isn't an Auto Rifle. There isn't much point to using a Special that isn't the Shotgun. Hand Cannons feel incredibly useless.
The spawn animation is weird. I understand that I'm spawning in, that's why I was mashing Square. I don't need to see myself spawn in. It takes away from the Bungie concepts of later Halo games where they want to get you back into the action as soon as you can. This feels like I can get back into the action after the 3 second respawn + the 3 second spawn animation. It doesn't feel nearly as instantaneous.
In short, I don't have a lot of positive things to say about the PvP. It feels like it took the aspects of CoD and Reach that I disliked the most and put them in one multiplayer. I'll play it a little bit in the retail game, but this isn't going to bring people in like Halo or Call of Duty did.
General/Other: The UI is natural. The only area where it feels like I'm navigating a video game is the planet selection screen. Other than that it feels... right. I can't exactly describe it, but it fits the functions very well.
I don't get the materials stuff at all. I have like 7 or 8 Sapphire Wire and 4 or 5 Spinmetal(?) and I have no idea what they are for. I think I have gun parts or something like that too.
Stores actually have stuff that I want. Thank God it's not like Borderlands, where 99% of the time I went to a shop only to sell my unwanted stuff and look at items that were worse than what I had just sold. The engram store is really cool too. It's probably my favorite store on the Tower.
Music is great. It's a real shame Marty won't be there to work on the future titles.
I have yet to do the Strike, I'm waiting until my friends are online to play it. Hopefully it's good.
All in all, I'll be getting the game come September, but I can only see it holding my interest for a couple of months. It just feels like something is off with it. Bungie said they wanted to capture lightning in a bottle again, and while I don't doubt initial sales will seem like they did(the marketing push is and will be strong enough to push up sales), I just don't see this having the same 10 year life span that Halo had. It also sucks that Sony upped the exclusivity bullshit even more, but there's nothing that we can do about that.
PvE: I'll take my issues with it first. The AI tends to do one of two things, swarm or stand still. Something that Reach's AI did that was awesome was that it tried to get to advantageous positions versus the player. Dregs tend to jump up and down on the player's position, without really attacking the player, or they stand still. The Hive people only have the swarm option. This isn't always bad thing, but when combined with the how prevalent ADS is, it makes it feel so much worse.
I understand that Old Russia is meant to be a sort of hub styled world for players to meet in. As a result enemies need to be constantly updated in the world. The problem is that enemies that aren't in advanceable positions(i.e. the Hive in the Sat building) respawn far too quickly. There was one time where I killed two Fallen guys and their captain, ran up to the bodies to loot them, and by the time I got to them maybe three seconds later, they were already respawning. From a player perspective, it makes the world feel less alive and more like a place to grind levels in.
The Darkness approaching is a two-edged sword. On one hand I like it for parties of players. It gives missions a bit more of a challenge. On the other hand, playing alone and having to restart with all the enemies that had previously been killed is annoying. I understand the point of it, but the lack of checkpoints for players wishing to go alone a bit disappointing, especially from a Bungie game.
Old Russia is the best part of the game so far. The areas having different leveled opponents is really cool. In addition, the enemies that are guarding areas that aren't supposed to be in the beta are really cool. That definitely makes the world feel like there's more secrets in it.
The little beacon missions in Old Russia are surprisingly fun. I had a cool mission where I had to kill a certain amount of Fallen. Right as I start, a dropship comes in from above signalling the public event. I got the beacon mission and the public event completed in one go.
Public events are really, really well done. Honestly, I can't think of a way to do them any better. When watching preview videos, it seemed like public events could be cool but a lot of people would skip out because they were optional. This isn't the case. People join in after they start, and everyone seems eager to help kill bad guys.
The tower is alright. I just wish the radar didn't show everyone, and just showed the vendors and stuff. I've only been to the ones on the main concourse area, because there doesn't seem like much of a reason to go to anyone else.
PvP: Where do I start... Supers don't work in PvP. At all. Everytime a Titan has used their Super I have died. I have survived a Warlock Super twice, only one of which did I end up winning the encounter. I haven't survived a Hunter's super, but I have ended up trading kills multiple times. The worst part about all of these is that they are nearly instant and come out of nowhere. The Hunter's is probably the easiest to prepare for, but the kill times are long enough that it requires 100% effort to just trade kills before dying to the network delayed Golden Gun.
By putting the Sniper on the Hunter by practically default, it gives players the notion that they should use the Sniper in PvP. This shouldn't be the case, as the Sniper requires a bit more skill and finesse in PvP that a lot of the players quite frankly do not have. It feels like every game I have at least one guy on my team with a <.50 K/D because they were trying to use the Sniper.
Weapon balancing in PvP needs a lot of work. There isn't much point to using a primary that isn't an Auto Rifle. There isn't much point to using a Special that isn't the Shotgun. Hand Cannons feel incredibly useless.
The spawn animation is weird. I understand that I'm spawning in, that's why I was mashing Square. I don't need to see myself spawn in. It takes away from the Bungie concepts of later Halo games where they want to get you back into the action as soon as you can. This feels like I can get back into the action after the 3 second respawn + the 3 second spawn animation. It doesn't feel nearly as instantaneous.
In short, I don't have a lot of positive things to say about the PvP. It feels like it took the aspects of CoD and Reach that I disliked the most and put them in one multiplayer. I'll play it a little bit in the retail game, but this isn't going to bring people in like Halo or Call of Duty did.
General/Other: The UI is natural. The only area where it feels like I'm navigating a video game is the planet selection screen. Other than that it feels... right. I can't exactly describe it, but it fits the functions very well.
I don't get the materials stuff at all. I have like 7 or 8 Sapphire Wire and 4 or 5 Spinmetal(?) and I have no idea what they are for. I think I have gun parts or something like that too.
Stores actually have stuff that I want. Thank God it's not like Borderlands, where 99% of the time I went to a shop only to sell my unwanted stuff and look at items that were worse than what I had just sold. The engram store is really cool too. It's probably my favorite store on the Tower.
Music is great. It's a real shame Marty won't be there to work on the future titles.
I have yet to do the Strike, I'm waiting until my friends are online to play it. Hopefully it's good.
All in all, I'll be getting the game come September, but I can only see it holding my interest for a couple of months. It just feels like something is off with it. Bungie said they wanted to capture lightning in a bottle again, and while I don't doubt initial sales will seem like they did(the marketing push is and will be strong enough to push up sales), I just don't see this having the same 10 year life span that Halo had. It also sucks that Sony upped the exclusivity bullshit even more, but there's nothing that we can do about that.
Idk, I'm looking forward to being blown away by the content that we haven't been shown yet, be that weapon types or areas. I like surprises.
I ran into a pretty hilarious glitch when fighting the Devil Archon on the first day of the Destiny Beta.
It was quite obvious he wanted one thing, and one thing only... A fierce DANCE-OFF! Who will be victorious??
Check out the video I put together:
http://youtu.be/1mh1XZyfvbw
I made this with Share Factory on PS4.
It was quite obvious he wanted one thing, and one thing only... A fierce DANCE-OFF! Who will be victorious??
Check out the video I put together:
http://youtu.be/1mh1XZyfvbw
I made this with Share Factory on PS4.
Indrid Cold
Unconfirmed Member
Do I have to do the story missions before I can select free roam? And why is there no way to view the grimoire in game?
dear god just had the round of my life
Nicely done!
Finally put some good time into the beta today and we had a pretty good time. Only thing is that we constantly kept saying/thinking "oh that will be fixed/different in the final game"... and I hope we're right. Things like the way doors have black smoke as an invisible way, the way the missions are structured/play out, things like that.
Either way I'm having a good time and Titan is more fun than I thought it would... Titan Smash is pretty damn sweet.
Either way I'm having a good time and Titan is more fun than I thought it would... Titan Smash is pretty damn sweet.
Finally, someone who has actually been in a beta before.
Evil Monkey DTT
Banned
Oh god I'm loving this game. It's everything I ever wanted from a mmo and I couldn't be happier!
funkystudent
Member
I think you only need to do 3 story missions before Explore opens up.
And I dont know.. Bad design decisions? A silly way to force people to download the companion app?
I'm okay with exact details and weapon models being secrets (eg Thunderlord in a hypothetical scenario were it wasn't revealed already) but types (HMG, AR, Pulse Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Fusion Rifle, and so on) i want to know, especially in games like this.
Because if i get an impression, like i do right now, that the game has nothing but basic conventional weapons (with the fusion rifle being an exception), it is going to be really boring in the long run (hell, it is boring already as i haven't found any truly interesting weapons).
(Individual weapons having different stats, models, and possibly effects is utterly irrelevant for me, i'm only interested in whether the games has enough differently functioning weapons or not)
EDIT actually, it won't matter what kind of weapons this game has... i figure i will get bored of every single one of them sooner rather than later. Thought about other shooters and what weapons i (still) like in them. Came up with the Light Saber in Jedi Outcast/Academy and Grenade Launcher in Halo: Reach (basically two weapons out of many, many games many weapons). Everything else is actually rather boring.
Good thing Destiny has a bunch of powers in addition to three weapons, that's enough to mix things up.
You can use their website for it.
Between the alpha and now abut an hour of the beta Activision/Bungie have saved me $60. I just don't see the fun others seem to have having. The shooting is decent enough, but I find it a bit frustrating (like I did with the Halo games) at the amount of enemies and the length it takes to dispatch them. The R1 power, while cool, takes WAY too long for cool down (even with that draining melee attack from the alpha) so it's basically a non-factor after the initial rush out into the battle. The story isn't clicking, the MMO-like central quest givers etc with people jumping around like bunnies and dancing does nothing for me at all anymore. The missions just seem to be following the white square a la CoD with the ghost babbling along paper-thin context.
It doesn't seem to have that extreme loot filled goodness of Diablo or Borderlands that kept me slogging through those games, or the choose-your-own skill trees of those games either.
I'm glad people seem to like it, but this is not for me at all.
It doesn't seem to have that extreme loot filled goodness of Diablo or Borderlands that kept me slogging through those games, or the choose-your-own skill trees of those games either.
I'm glad people seem to like it, but this is not for me at all.
It will offer somewhat more skills later on.
ShinMaruku
Member
I'm torn between warlock and hunter. I just love their range.
Same....3-1 god damn moon. Some explain...
ProvenDeadly
Member
After probably 15 or so hours of gameplay I'll give my thoughts as a huge fan of Halo and thus Bungie.
UI
This is among the best I've ever seen. Coming off of REACH, the UI Is so good and feels so intuitive.
Music Marty O'donnel did it again. This is among the best he's ever done and sitting in the main menu listening to his work is just as good as playing the game.
PVE This is the best portion of the gameplay. Spawning in an open field with the ability to go anywhere is fun. The lack of loadin screens or any slow downs makes this very immersive. Meeting other guardians along the way is also awesome and gives me a Journey feel. My few gripes are as follows; It feels like the same experience every time. The AI always respawn a in the same place, and there never seems to be a challenge. After a while it feels repetitive. Also the side missions and random events lose their appeal quickly.
Story This is probably the worst part or the game. I don't care about any of the characters so far, and the missions given to you are basically this. Go to an area and let your ghost hack something while waves of enemies swarm you. That's the sum of the few missions you get. There's no variety at all.
PVP or Crucible As a Halo fan this is hard for me to judge. All of the fairness or equal starts is long gone. You could see this in their latest game REACH. The spawning system is pretty bad, and the teams are often lopsided. I am either on the losing team getting descimated or on the winning team and absolutely destroying the other team. I also think the maps are not great. There are definitely moments of fun, but it doesn't go past that.
Overall, the BETA has definitely convinced me that Bungie has a winner. It will probably sell like hot cakes, but I don't know if it will have the staying power to keep players here for more than a few months.
UI
This is among the best I've ever seen. Coming off of REACH, the UI Is so good and feels so intuitive.
Music Marty O'donnel did it again. This is among the best he's ever done and sitting in the main menu listening to his work is just as good as playing the game.
PVE This is the best portion of the gameplay. Spawning in an open field with the ability to go anywhere is fun. The lack of loadin screens or any slow downs makes this very immersive. Meeting other guardians along the way is also awesome and gives me a Journey feel. My few gripes are as follows; It feels like the same experience every time. The AI always respawn a in the same place, and there never seems to be a challenge. After a while it feels repetitive. Also the side missions and random events lose their appeal quickly.
Story This is probably the worst part or the game. I don't care about any of the characters so far, and the missions given to you are basically this. Go to an area and let your ghost hack something while waves of enemies swarm you. That's the sum of the few missions you get. There's no variety at all.
PVP or Crucible As a Halo fan this is hard for me to judge. All of the fairness or equal starts is long gone. You could see this in their latest game REACH. The spawning system is pretty bad, and the teams are often lopsided. I am either on the losing team getting descimated or on the winning team and absolutely destroying the other team. I also think the maps are not great. There are definitely moments of fun, but it doesn't go past that.
Overall, the BETA has definitely convinced me that Bungie has a winner. It will probably sell like hot cakes, but I don't know if it will have the staying power to keep players here for more than a few months.
Trickster
Member
Isn't that just one of the caves that you have to go into in one of the explorer missions? There's usually a captain and vandal fallen in there.
everyday math
Banned
Yep.
The Librarian
Banned
Um, I found this on my own. I don't recognize it from any of the missions I've gotten (if you're talking about beacon quests).
Great discovery. I was just seeing if I could get on the cliff by hopping off the plane's wings.
trance-ecj
Member
So I've been watching some streams for a bit, and I have a question for those who have played the game.
I'm having a hard time seeing the exact moment your enemy goes down in pvp. A lot of times, it looks like someone shoots, and then half a second later, you can finally see the body go down and the text pop up that you killed someone. Like someone will pump a shotgun at close range, reload, and sometime durring the reload, you get the kill notification.
It might be a laggy stream I'm watching, but its happening a lot with what I'm seeing.
My question is, I guess...is there an annoying delay with feedback after dealing the fatal blow? Am I going to be shooting someone, kill him, not realize I killed someone, and then throw a grenade at the dude and then think to myself 'crap! I wouldn't have thrown that if I knew I had already killed him'
I'm having a hard time seeing the exact moment your enemy goes down in pvp. A lot of times, it looks like someone shoots, and then half a second later, you can finally see the body go down and the text pop up that you killed someone. Like someone will pump a shotgun at close range, reload, and sometime durring the reload, you get the kill notification.
It might be a laggy stream I'm watching, but its happening a lot with what I'm seeing.
My question is, I guess...is there an annoying delay with feedback after dealing the fatal blow? Am I going to be shooting someone, kill him, not realize I killed someone, and then throw a grenade at the dude and then think to myself 'crap! I wouldn't have thrown that if I knew I had already killed him'
The other 2 beta maps are part of the pvp event tomorrow. It is in the weekly update.
ProvenDeadly
Member
It's a bit of lag and the game itself. There's an odd delay that you get used to eventually.
Be ready.
Looks awesome. On a side note, are there any other strike missions in the BETA besides Devil's Lair? Doing that with two others on Legendary was the most fun I had in the Alpha. A challenging, tactical and highly rewarding rush.
Not always. I played one game that was kinda laggy where a guy died 1/2 second after I hit him with the shotgun, but for the most part it feels smooth.
I did the same thing and i haven't even found a beacon quest for that place.
I think i've actually found a bunch of quest places before the quests themselves.
Also finding alternate routes is really interesting, you can get to most places via two routes at least (though some require you to do a story mission first, i think), and some alt routes can't be really accessed due to them being in high level areas.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
This has happened to me a lot actually, but I think it's because for some reason my connection itself is lagging out. I've been shooting and stabbing and suddenly the kill scores will pop up and I'll have no idea how anyone went down. I don't think the game is the problem, because in the Alpha, I never felt like there was a delay. The stream you were watching was probably lagging in stream and in game because of connection.
Ah OK thanks. Nonetheless, fuck the moon map. Wish the game was better at rotation between maps
mr teaspoon
Member
Question: how do I get my clan tag to show up in-game? I'm in both the DestinyGAF and DestinyGAF Central groups, have Central set as my PlayStation clan and I still don't see that info anywhere in the actual game.
Finster
Member
I spent the better part of an hour trying to get into there. It's basically just skybox.
It seems to take a while my tag only showed up tonight. And it was wonky instead of NA East at some point fi was Australia. I think it's an issue between the game and Bungie webpage.
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