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Destiny |OT20| HoW Comes, No Raid?

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stb

Member
Hey... we're getting rid of commendations...

Hey... we're introducing yet another currency you'll have to grind for.

Ugh.

It's not really a "currency" the way the other currencies (SC, MOL, glimmer) work, at least.

It's essentially a raid token. There are only a few pieces you can get this way, so you can save your tokens until the helmet with the perk you want is "for sale", and trade your token in. This is essentially best case scenario for "raid" gear.
 

M3Rocket

Member
anyone have any thoughts on this post-update versus Tower Ghost?

Looks like the interface might be a little nicer than TG?

The new interface or DIM is nice and much improved from it's previous version where all the weapons, etc were simply grouped into one gigantic mess. But overall, Tower Ghost is a much friendlier interface:

1. DIM creates "Loadouts" by characters. TG is much better since you can create by character and/or by loadout. Meaning you can arrange a "Void Burn" loadout in TG with say 5 weapons, when you select the loadout, you can then choose to apply that loadout to any of your guardians.

2. TG has drop down menus for filtering items. Makes is very easy. In DIM, you have to type in the filters. If you want to filter for arc weapons with full XP, you can do that easily in TG with a couple of clicks. In DIM, you would have to type this into the filters box: "is:xpcomplete is:arc" Very tiring to change the filters in DIM.

3. A lot more filtering options in TG. For example, you can select only hand cannons that are arc and are incomplete XP. You can't select weapon type other than primary, secondary and heavy in DIM.

4. DestinyDB tooltips in TG is very handy.

5. For stacks of mats, et al you can select how many to transfer in TG. In DIM, the entire stack is transferred.

6. TG works saves loadouts across Firefox, Chrome, Android and IOS. DIM is only Firefox and Chrome at the moment. TG is more useable on a tablet/smart phone with optimized layouts for the smaller screens.

Overall, DIM looks very nice now with the redesign. But utility-wise, I think it still lags behind TG.
 

jett

D-Member
LORD OF WRECKAGE!
6rOYxg2.gif

what the hell is this weapon
 

LTWood12

Member
Hey... we're getting rid of commendations...

Hey... we're introducing yet another currency you'll have to grind for.

Ugh.

Don't think of it as a currency. It's a one to one thing. Just trade it for the level 34 piece of armor (or weapon for weapon cores) he's selling that week. He selling something you already have? Wait until he has something you want.
 

Jinjo

Member
you can run each difficulty once each week for rewards. they also dont appear to be tied to each other so you can probably run the hardest 1st and finish off the lower level ones later and still get gear. you can however run the level 28 version as much as you wwant fro rewards. but it appears to be the same as roc strikes. unless I missed something on the rewards screen

Apparently no PS exclusive exotics, or strikes, but one PS exclusive PvP map that looks good. There seem to be exotics that we don't yet know about... like an exotic sniper that we saw today in the new video. Probably all the new stuff will be datemined on Tuesday after the 1.2 update.

PoE has four difficulty levels

level 28 with MM and ROC strike level repeating reward

Level 32 without MM and an Armor Core as a reward
Level 34 without MM and a Weapon Core and Etheric Light
Level 35 without MM and Armor Core and Weapon Core and Etheric Light

I think all levels also have other rewards. The rewards have weekly lockouts. And The current speculation is that doing the higher levels do not give you the lower level rewards and you can do all of them and get rewards from each.

VERY LATE EDIT: oh also each of levels 32, 34, 35 have different modifiers and possibly different bosses each week so they're not "exactly the same just higher level scaling."

Lvl 28 PoE works like roc strikes. 32, 34, and 35 you can run once a week for the special rewards.

Edit: beaten with a much better explanation :c

Thanks for the great answers guys! So will they nerf the ROC playlist rewards again? (That was absolute bullshit last time) If they're the same as the PoE low-level I wonder what they will do with vanguard strikes. Has it been confirmed those get the level upgrade too?
 

hydruxo

Member
The new interface or DIM is nice and much improved from it's previous version where all the weapons, etc were simply grouped into one gigantic mess. But overall, Tower Ghost is a much friendlier interface:

1. DIM creates "Loadouts" by characters. TG is much better since you can create by character and/or by loadout. Meaning you can arrange a "Void Burn" loadout in TG with say 5 weapons, when you select the loadout, you can then choose to apply that loadout to any of your guardians.

2. TG has drop down menus for filtering items. Makes is very easy. In DIM, you have to type in the filters. If you want to filter for arc weapons with full XP, you can do that easily in TG with a couple of clicks. In DIM, you would have to type this into the filters box: "is:xpcomplete is:arc" Very tiring to change the filters in DIM.

3. A lot more filtering options in TG. For example, you can select only hand cannons that are arc and are incomplete XP. You can't select weapon type other than primary, secondary and heavy in DIM.

4. DestinyDB tooltips in TG is very handy.

5. For stacks of mats, et al you can select how many to transfer in TG. In DIM, the entire stack is transferred.

6. TG works saves loadouts across Firefox, Chrome, Android and IOS. DIM is only Firefox and Chrome at the moment. TG is more useable on a tablet/smart phone with optimized layouts for the smaller screens.

Overall, DIM looks very nice now with the redesign. But utility-wise, I think it still lags behind TG.

I find DIM's interface to be much more streamlined than Tower Ghosts for what I use it for (primarily just to transfer gear quickly). I haven't really used Tower Ghost much but I just prefer how DIM is laid out. It's easier for me to find my items on there.
 

Deku Tree

Member
Thanks for the great answers guys! So will they nerf the ROC playlist rewards again? (That was absolute bullshit last time) If they're the same as the PoE low-level I wonder what they will do with vanguard strikes. Has it been confirmed those get the level upgrade too?

From datemine's that could change, there will be a Level 28 Dragon Strike playlist... and IDK but yes I expect them to nerf the ROC strike playlist and put the old level 26 rewards into the level 28 playlist just like last time but so far no comment by Bungie about it.
 
It's a better mechanic than that. Armor / weapon cores drop in PoE, and you then trade them in at the vendor the weapon or armor item of your choice. So there's some RNG in when you get them, but not in what you purchase with them. (The vendor has a weekly rotating stock, so if you get a core and had your eye on some awesome weapon he carries...just wait and you'll get it when it turns up; no more praying to RNGesus for it.)

Not to mention you can use 1 armor and 1 weapon core to get a random piece of gear, since they onply offwr a couple pieces a wrek
 

raindoc

Member
The problem is that people are comparing the story of Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST, Halo: Reach, and in some cases the extended universe, to Destiny.

When what they should be doing is comparing Destiny to Halo 1 by itself. The comparison is much much closer.

Even then Halo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Destiny.
When I'm drunk and in a good mood.

Halo dropped me as a super-soldier on a human spaceship. Apparently we're at war with aliens and on the run. We stumble across a mysterious alien installation and the other aliens - our enemies find us.
What follows are hours of trying to save our forces and get off the alien installation. Meanwhile we learn more and more about said installation, it's makers and our enemies.
Then yet another alien life form shows up - the Flood - and it turns out that the installation was built to fight those scary critters. etc. etc.

My point is: Halo's story moved into a direction. Destiny's story isn't going anywhere.
The main game showed us a universe in bullet points, without exploring any of it.
Then came the first DLC and it added exactly nothing to the actual story, only the backstory - and that is also what the Grimoire does, which some here are so fond of.
It's just Backstory. The not-even-in-game prequel. But in Destiny itself, nothing happens. Ever.


What's Rasputin's deal? We haven't learned anything about him in TDB, although we have to save his ass every other week in the daily.
How did Crota's crystal end up on the Moon, when earlier we destroyed it on earth?

And do you even remember "The Darkness"?

I don't need a mind-blowing story, Halo also never did that. But I do need a sense of direction. An evolving experience. Something to learn. Destiny doesn't really provide that.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
The new interface or DIM is nice and much improved from it's previous version where all the weapons, etc were simply grouped into one gigantic mess. But overall, Tower Ghost is a much friendlier interface:

1. DIM creates "Loadouts" by characters. TG is much better since you can create by character and/or by loadout. Meaning you can arrange a "Void Burn" loadout in TG with say 5 weapons, when you select the loadout, you can then choose to apply that loadout to any of your guardians.

2. TG has drop down menus for filtering items. Makes is very easy. In DIM, you have to type in the filters. If you want to filter for arc weapons with full XP, you can do that easily in TG with a couple of clicks. In DIM, you would have to type this into the filters box: "is:xpcomplete is:arc" Very tiring to change the filters in DIM.

3. A lot more filtering options in TG. For example, you can select only hand cannons that are arc and are incomplete XP. You can't select weapon type other than primary, secondary and heavy in DIM.

4. DestinyDB tooltips in TG is very handy.

5. For stacks of mats, et al you can select how many to transfer in TG. In DIM, the entire stack is transferred.

6. TG works saves loadouts across Firefox, Chrome, Android and IOS. DIM is only Firefox and Chrome at the moment. TG is more useable on a tablet/smart phone with optimized layouts for the smaller screens.

Overall, DIM looks very nice now with the redesign. But utility-wise, I think it still lags behind TG.
thank you enormously. exactly what I was hoping to get
 
So if I'm correct there are 5 rotating PoE challenges at 28/32/34 difficulty and Skolas' Revenge is always the 35 lvl challenge. So far we have seen the Cabal and Hive challenges but as far as I can tell only the end boss actually changes. Shame about no new enemy types from what we've seen.
 
Bungie did what Bungie always does. They bite off way more than they can chew. Every game they have ever made involved them having these insane grand ideas that sound absolutely amazing on paper.

Yeah, although for destiny I really do think they started dev quite early on, but the decision was made to completely rework the game in an absurdly short amount of time. (Wasn't there a rumor that the game was practically made in a year?)

the tone of the game definitely evolved and it's understandable if it took them some time to settle into the style they felt would suit the game.

but the narrative they chose to run with is textbook "last minute draft", scrapped together from bits and pieces that had a beginning and end but no way to tie them together.

somebody should have noticed early on that there was an inherent problem with the way the story was being written that was preventing it from materializing.

Well, I think they spent a lot of time establishing those conventions and boundaries - exploring rather than iterating. Like you said, it feels like they had a lot of good ideas that they explored, but no time to piece things together in a meaningful way.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
So if I'm correct there are 5 rotating PoE challenges at 28/32/34 difficulty and Skolas' Revenge is always the 35 lvl challenge. So far we have seen the Cabal and Hive challenges but as far as I can tell only the end boss actually changes. Shame about no new enemy types from what we've seen.
The 28 Prison of Elders is a playlist, similar to Vanguard strikes, with randomized encounters and modifiers each time.

The 32 and 34 challenges are on rotation weekly, with set challenges each week.

The 35 challenge looks to always be the same (ostensibly so that it can be prepared for specifically).
 
Are you kidding? I'll take a weapon/armor core any day of the week compared to farming raid bosses for weeks on end still trying to get my Fatebringer/Black Hammer/Warlock Chest piece.

Token systems are far superior to random drops. I dare you to argue otherwise.


Edit: You realize this is the alternative to RNG. And we all know how we feel about RNG.


You dare me to argue otherwise?

Easy, tiger.
 

Deku Tree

Member
The 28 Prison of Elders is a playlist, similar to Vanguard strikes, with randomized encounters and modifiers each time.

The 32 and 34 challenges are on rotation weekly, with set challenges each week.

The 35 challenge looks to always be the same (ostensibly so that it can be prepared for specifically).

Are you saying the Level 35 bosses are always the same? Or that the level 35 modifiers are always the same? or both? I thought that both possibly changed weekly.
 
mechanical gameplay variation, for me it feels very different to fight a phalanx versus a wizard versus an ogre versus a fallen walker. I liked that all of them were includied in the game at launch to kill, and I care very, very little about the in-universe reasons I'm supposed to be doing so. At this point I am unconvinced Bungie can do anything to get me legitimately invested in those reasons, and they aren't what compel me to play. The narrative in the Halo games was considerably stronger and I felt exactly the same way about it nonetheless. In my opinion it simply isn't their strong suit and isn't why I play their games.

the narrative isn't why i play games either. i didn't care for Halo's story, nor was I invested in its lore. I don't need a reason to play a game with fun missions and enemies to fight.

but that isn't really the point i'm making. the narrative behind games with extended lore like this influences the way the encounters are designed, whether it's indirect or direct. it's a foundation where additional enemies, levels and missions are built upon, and a strong narrative will drive the creation of those gameplay experiences forward. grounding the gameplay in its fiction strengthens the presentation, and it would have allowed them to expand the factions to include more interesting behaviors, locales and armaments.

i find that element of destiny disconnected, and as such it makes everything in the game beyond "shooting aliens with friends" irrelevant. the encounters are largely cheap and hollow - they could just as easily take place in fairy land and nobody would bat and eye. or am i supposed to believe all the bounties i'm doing are making a difference? perhaps you don't care - and that's fine because it's not why i'm doing the bounties either - but it amounts to nothing but wasted potential where we ultimately aren't getting the most from the game. it'd be nothing but more fun to play if what we were doing impacted the world in some fashion. but it isn't because the narrative - the vision and plan to expand the game in a meaningful and logical way (rather than stretch it out to keep people playing) - is simply non-existent.

they've dug themselves into a pitfall and all the content we get from now on will result from that. they're limited by what they can add with the narrative they've created and i'm not sure they'll be able to dig themselves out unless they wipe the slate clean.
 

Deku Tree

Member
the narrative isn't why i play games either. i didn't care for Halo's story, nor was I invested in its lore. I don't need a reason to play a game with fun missions and enemies to fight.

but that isn't really the point i'm making. the narrative behind games with extended lore like this influences the way the encounters are designed, whether it's indirect or direct. it's a foundation where additional enemies, levels and missions are built upon, and a strong narrative will drive the creation of those gameplay experiences forward. grounding the gameplay in its fiction strengthens the presentation, and it would have allowed them to expand the factions to include more interesting behaviors, locales and armaments.

i find that element of destiny disconnected, and as such it makes everything in the game beyond "shooting aliens with friends" irrelevant. the encounters largely cheap and hollow - they could just as easily take place in fairy land and nobody would bat and eye.

they've dug themselves into a pitfall and all the content we get from now on will result from that. they're limited by what they can add with the narrative they've created and i'm not sure they'll be able to dig themselves out unless they wipe the slate clean.

#Destiny2
 

sploatee

formerly Oynox Slider
I'd be down for that. I am hoping to be home in a couple hours so that should work. I have checkpoints at the NM Gorgon chest and the Gatekeeper if such a need were to arise.

I'll be playing at around 11-12pm BST.

Huh. I never maxed out my Felwinter's Lie. Well, time to change that.


We actually have 4. :)

Just two more and you got a team.

Hurrah! 11pm BST works for me - got a few things to do around the homestead!

2 more...?

---

On Destiny's "story" - I think it's a good setting with a terrible main story. I like the enemy factions and I like the worlds. I also like the idea of the Traveller and the Darkness. But that's about it. None of them really go anywhere or interact with each other in any meaningful way. Maybe it's something to do with it being a quasi-MMO?
 

darthbob

Member
On Destiny's "story" - I think it's a good setting with a terrible main story. I like the enemy factions and I like the worlds. I also like the idea of the Traveller and the Darkness. But that's about it. None of them really go anywhere or interact with each other in any meaningful way. Maybe it's something to do with it being a quasi-MMO?

I don't know about that. WoW, SWToR, and GW2 all had a pretty decent narrative so it's not as though it's impossible for an MMO to have a rich story. However, WoW and SWToR already had preexisting backstory to draw from (unsure about GW2) whereas Destiny is an entirely new IP.

Still, I just can't give Bungie a pass on the lack of any cohesive direction that Destiny's story went due to their involvement with Halo's lore.
 

Deku Tree

Member
They took out the "story" from Destiny because they wanted you to replay the missions over and over and over forever. They designed the missions around long term replayability and so they took out all the stuff that would make the missions less replayable like for instance cut scenes and the beginning and the end that you would not want to watch after the first time.
 

Impala26

Member
They've dug themselves into a pitfall and all the content we get from now on will result from that. they're limited by what they can add with the narrative they've created and i'm not sure they'll be able to dig themselves out unless they wipe the slate clean.

Probably the dissenting opinion here, but I'd actually be okay with this if it meant having a much more fleshed out, realized universe where the things you do are more impactful.

Wishful thinking probably though.
 

RemiLP

Member
the tone of the game definitely evolved and it's understandable if it took them some time to settle into the style they felt would suit the game.

but the narrative they chose to run with is textbook "last minute draft", scrapped together from bits and pieces that had a beginning and end but no way to tie them together.

somebody should have noticed early on that there was an inherent problem with the way the story was being written that was preventing it from materializing.

Didnt the lead writer or some important person in bungie quit when the release was pretty close? Could explain why its such a mess.
 

ocean

Banned
They took out the "story" from Destiny because they wanted you to replay the missions over and over and over forever. They designed the missions around long term replayability and so they took out all the stuff that would make the missions less replayable like for instance cut scenes and the beginning and the end that you would not want to watch after the first time.
Hold circle to skip this cutscene.

Boom.

But yeah it's more than just cutscenes. Set pieces man. Gaming side threads give this game a lot of shit about "Ghost opens door while you fight horde then go fight sponge with infinite ads" and the sad part is...they're right. That's literally every single mission and strike. Every last one.

There's no "protect x". No "capture that". No "escape this before it blows!" No nothing. I mean imagine the possibilities this game's setting, lore, engine and mechanics could offer mission variety. All of this could further be used to drive a more detailed story. Shit let me go after a rogue Guardian and question him or take an enemy prisoner or let me see some damn aftermath from a mission.

Oh you stopped a ritual draining the Traveler's energy? Don't take me to orbit damn it. Take me to a cutscene with Ikora explaining what this changes and why it's important and giving me a sense of purpose to go on to the next mission. That would be an actual campaign. I won't give a shit about that cutscene the next million times I play that mission for bounties or Daily Heroic but it would still have changed the very nature of the game's campaign and would have cut the game's deserves negative reception by a lot.
 

DY_nasty

NeoGAF's official "was this shooting justified" consultant
If you buy Thunderlord from Xur you didn't earn it.
i laughed
Bungie sandbox team or whoever makes these exotics doesn't seem to have a good grasp on the games mechanics. Considering how useless some of them are.

More accuracy for Golden Gun? That's pretty weak.

A scout rifle with a cool concept and poor execution (getting an armor buff/agility buff) Unless the buff is HUGE this doesn't mean shit considering Armor, Recovery, and Agility are such negligable stats.

lmao no

not even a little a bit

armor is the difference between a lot of 1hks in pvp and shrugging it off. recovery is definitely noticeable. agility? i just don't think enough people play in a way to notice - but its definitely a big deal.
 

M3Rocket

Member
I find DIM's interface to be much more streamlined than Tower Ghosts for what I use it for (primarily just to transfer gear quickly). I haven't really used Tower Ghost much but I just prefer how DIM is laid out. It's easier for me to find my items on there.

Yeah--the new DIM 3.0 UI looks very clean, and if you just want to quickly move a couple of weapons on a computer, it works just fine. I just find TG more flexible and convenient since my tablet or phone is always with me in the living room where I'm playing Destiny.

DIM 3.0:
uc


TG 2.4 with DetinyDB Tooltip:
uc


TG 2.4 on Android Smart Phone:
uc
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
the narrative isn't why i play games either.
It's why I play some games... but not this kind

I have to stress here that I'm responding to you specifically about the assertion that they game would have been better off featuring only 2 of the 4 races in service of the narrative and presentation, and not the broad notion that a rich narrative makes for an overall better game. this:
grounding the gameplay in its fiction strengthens the presentation
Of course is something I agree with, but this
"shooting aliens with friends"
Is all I care about with regard to this particular game and I am so far (based on my experiences playing Bungie games) unconvinced that they in particular have the ability to change that for me.

It's easy for me to choose, if forced to, between a better story and half as many enemy types to fight against. I don't even have to think about it. That's what I mean by looking for different things. If you amend this flight of fancy about narrowing the focus of the game to just Fallen and Vex to stipulate that the stronger and more cohesive narrative would result in doubling the number of different enemy types for each race then I'm on board. As I played through the "storyline," one of the few things I did personally throw into the plus column was the number and variety of aliens to kill.
 
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