That Wizard Came From the Moon!: Talking 'Bout DESTINY

[pointzeroeight]

Hey, do we have a group or clan or whatever it is in this game on PS4?

[upupdowndown]

I didn't think there was a functionality like that?

[krelbel]

I got through my first 5 rounds of competitive multiplayer last night for the quest, and boy I'd almost forgotten just how much I suck at Halo. I think I got above 0.5 KDR like... once. Same problem I had with Halo: even when I see someone and start shooting before they see me, inevitably I miss enough shots or don't get enough headshots that they're able to just casually turn around and shoot me in the head. I was using the pulse rifle, which I suspect might not be the best weapon for me; I almost never got any kills with it (or the shotgun secondary), 99% of my kills were with the heavy machine gun or the Titan super, but those are scarce.

Any tips? (other than git gud)

[upupdowndown]

Originally Posted by krelbel

I got through my first 5 rounds of competitive multiplayer last night for the quest, and boy I'd almost forgotten just how much I suck at Halo. I think I got above 0.5 KDR like... once. Same problem I had with Halo: even when I see someone and start shooting before they see me, inevitably I miss enough shots or don't get enough headshots that they're able to just casually turn around and shoot me in the head. I was using the pulse rifle, which I suspect might not be the best weapon for me; I almost never got any kills with it (or the shotgun secondary), 99% of my kills were with the heavy machine gun or the Titan super, but those are scarce.

Any tips? (other than git gud)

my understanding is that the PVP is really unbalanced right now - see, they average out everyone's damage to make things fairer, BUT higher level players still have better armor and some really amazing sick abilities.

Galadrome had good luck upthread with just lurking by a doorway and blindsiding people when they walked through.

[krelbel]

Originally Posted by upupdowndown

Galadrome had good luck upthread with just lurking by a doorway and blindsiding people when they walked through.

That sounds boring to me, and I play Disgaea.

[upupdowndown]

Originally Posted by krelbel

That sounds boring to me, and I play Disgaea.

so you're a masochist, not a sadist

[Willm]

Yeah, PVP seems to be very unbalanced until you're close to the level "cap." Like UUDD said, the guns may be equalized, but the higher level people have so many extra skills at their disposal that it leaves a lower level player at a distinct disadvantage. I was torn apart in my one game in the Free For All mode, but I've been doing pretty well in the team-based modes. Titan + Shotgun + Melee seems to be a great strategy! I just wish there were more modes. I know Bungie is going to be adding new things in the future, but so far there's only Control and a few different deathmatch variations.

As for the rest of Destiny...I want to love it? Mechanically and technically, the game is great. The environments look gorgeous, the art direction reminds me of Mass Effect in the best way, and I love how it plays like a cross between Halo and more modern shooters. And hey, I spent the better part of last month addicted to Diablo 3, so I'm in the mood for loot huntin'!

But like many reviews have said, the game just feels empty and kind of soulless. On the surface there are a lot of things to do, but everything feels the same: go to this location and either have Dinklagebot do something, kill something, or kill something while Dinklagebot does something. Thankfully the game plays great, but after a while I wanted some kind of variety. I've only just completed the Moon though and I've heard enemies become more diverse and fun to fight later.

I think Patrol mode is the most disappointing thing to me. During the beta there were a few areas that were guarded by high level enemies, and I thought they held some great secret; maybe a special loot chest or even an entirely new area! But no, it seems the high level enemies are the only thing that is there. Other than a few special chests, there is absolutely no reason to explore or NPCs to interact with.

So yeah, Destiny is really fun to play so far, but I just wish there was more substance and personality to it.

[Daikaiju]

Everything I've read says to me if Bungie's name weren't attached, this game would be tanking...

[Trar]

Originally Posted by Willm

But like many reviews have said, the game just feels empty and kind of soulless. On the surface there are a lot of things to do, but everything feels the same: go to this location and either have Dinklagebot do something, kill something, or kill something while Dinklagebot does something. Thankfully the game plays great, but after a while I wanted some kind of variety. I've only just completed the Moon though and I've heard enemies become more diverse and fun to fight later.

So yeah, Destiny is really fun to play so far, but I just wish there was more substance and personality to it.

Is this really true? I loved the story and feel of Halo (especially it's expanded universe) and I would have REALLY loved it if they could pull it off with this Destiny thing. Hell, I haven't touched Marathon yet (I plan to sooner or later) and I've heard many good things about it story-wise and gameplay-wise, at least for Marathon 2.

[Octopus Prime]

Bungies proved time and again that they can make you enjoy the story of an FPS so... I guess they just didn't feel the need to try this time.

[Mightyblue]

After some playtime with this, it gives me the same vibe as FFXIV 1.0; an unfinished but technically excellent work that is absolutely hollow of anything beyond the most pro forma of content.

[Zodar]

Originally Posted by Mightyblue

After some playtime with this, it gives me the same vibe as FFXIV 1.0; an unfinished but technically excellent work that is absolutely hollow of anything beyond the most pro forma of content.

Yeah, this game desperately needs its Realm Reborn -- the sooner the better.

[upupdowndown]

Here's an interesting take on Destiny that compares its use of lore to Dark Souls. No, really!

[Galadrome]

The main game is thoroughly uninteresting, I've found. I dunno, nothing about the game really draws me in. The combat is solid, the game design seems generally solid and I like the feel of shooting and punchin' dudes. The multiplayer is a blast, but having to grind to become equal to other foes really turns me off.

I have very mixed feelings towards this game.

[O..O~]

Originally Posted by Octopus Prime

Bungies proved time and again that they can make you enjoy the story of an FPS so... I guess they just didn't feel the need to try this time.

Bungie and "good story" never belong in the same sentence.They are great at creating cool universes that have potential to contain great stories. They are just not the ones who should be the storytellers.

[Belmont]

Originally Posted by Galadrome

The main game is thoroughly uninteresting, I've found. I dunno, nothing about the game really draws me in. The combat is solid, the game design seems generally solid and I like the feel of shooting and punchin' dudes. The multiplayer is a blast, but having to grind to become equal to other foes really turns me off.

I have very mixed feelings towards this game.

AAA game design in a bubble. Thoroughly conservative design ambitions, yet technically proficient in every regard. This is what happens when game budgets swell to absurd levels. You get something without a soul. A Ghost of what could have been.

[upupdowndown]

I do like the way that voice chat works in the game: ie, it normally doesn't. You only get voice chat with people on your Fireteam. no voice chat in the Crucible, no voice chat in Strikes when you're placed with random people. I don't have to hear fifteen year olds calling me lame! It's great!

Last night pointzeroeight tagged along with me for my first mission to Mars. Damn, it looks great.

[chady]

Pretty much what everyone else has said, it's pretty, it plays like a dream, but the story may as well be nonexistent. Which may be the point? I'm not sure. Maybe this is a container that they fill up with events and stuff MMO style, but they just haven't filled it yet. I'm skeptical.

It certainly feels like Bungie had trouble writing an overall plot that fits this game's open-ended design. They can't blow up the planet/halo ring during the story plot, because there's supposed to be more story plot coming. Then again, the missions themselves don't tell compelling mini-stories either.

Anyway, I did my first strike mission last night and I loved it. It was some damn good shootin', even though that spider tank had way too much HP.

The co-op really does help things a lot. They should offer a matchmaking option for the story missions, as I have no friends that are playing this thing on PS3.

[krelbel]

Originally Posted by upupdowndown

I do like the way that voice chat works in the game: ie, it normally doesn't. You only get voice chat with people on your Fireteam. no voice chat in the Crucible, no voice chat in Strikes when you're placed with random people. I don't have to hear fifteen year olds calling me lame! It's great!

You don't have to hear fifteen year olds calling you lame in any other game with voice chat. I would gladly pay the price of a little added inconvenience of needing to mute jerks every once and a while in exchange for the huge benefit of being able to communicate with my team. For those less willing to put up with jerks for a few seconds every once and a while, just make it an option.

One extremely useful tactic that a fireteam with a Defender Titan can execute is jumping right on top of a boss, tossing up the invincibility shield with both of them inside it, then unloading a torrent of hurt right into the boss's face with impunity. If the fireteam's coordinated, the whole team can jump into the shield with you, and the damage you can easily rack up with this technique far exceeds any other class's special (40k easily, as opposed to the 600ish you'll get from a max level Void Bomb). Of course, with no way of communicating with the team, there's no way to execute this.

Another thing many people don't know is that enemy shield types are extremely resistant to all but their matching damage type. My solar sniper rifle destroys a Wizard's red shield in one hit, but takes 4-5 hits to clear a Captain's shield, and at higher levels this resistance gets even higher. Many people don't know this, so it would be nice to have some way to let your team know that a group of Wizards are coming up, better grab your Solar weapons if you've got 'em, that sort of thing.

Yes, in any multiplayer game, premade groups are going to be far more effective than PUGs, but that's no reason to deliberately cripple PUGs even more than they already are.

[Wheels]

Originally Posted by chady

It certainly feels like Bungie had trouble writing an overall plot that fits this game's open-ended design. They can't blow up the planet/halo ring during the story plot, because there's supposed to be more story plot coming. Then again, the missions themselves don't tell compelling mini-stories either.

The co-op really does help things a lot. They should offer a matchmaking option for the story missions, as I have no friends that are playing this thing on PS3.

Yeah the story really does give me that feeling, though I've have minded because the game has been an absolute blast to play, and the story hasn't yet shot down my crazy dream that the Traveler is one of Marathon's crazy AI's somehow.

I thought there was some sort of matchmaking for story missions? I thought I remembered that from the alpha or beta (or maybe that was non-story missions).

[krelbel]

So as usual, the madmen obsessed with optimal gearing efficiency have come up with a method to drastically cut down the amount of time it takes to gear up in the endgame, down from the ~1.5 weeks per legendary it takes doing it the normal way (grinding high level strikes and crucible, even longer if you don't enjoy crucible) to a couple hours. This takes advantage of a couple quirks of the Destiny loot system:

1) Enemy level has little to no correlation with drop rates. That lv9 thrall has just as much of a chance of dropping a blue engram as that lv22 hallowed knight.

2) Loot drops don't disappear on death, only ammo drops do, but:

3) In darkness zones, your current ammo total is saved at each checkpoint, and restored to that total if you die.

And with those three quirks in mind: we've woken the hive



For those who can't watch the video:

1) Go to The Dark Beyond story mission on the moon (lv6, set it to lv9 Hard)
2) Get to the door past the dead guardian (takes about 5 minutes), make sure you have plenty of ammo for the guns you want to level because it preserves the total there
3) Cutscene, darkness zone activated, Dinklagebot yells "we've woken the hive!" (get used to this), you're swarmed by ~50 thralls and hallowed acolytes and 2 hallowed knights
4) Don't bother moving around, kill as many thralls and acolytes as you can (I get around 30-40 kills per 30 second life cycle), let the stuff that sneaks behind you kill you. Kill a couple Hallowed Acolytes every once and a while for some glimmer (this is why you set it to lv9 hard, the hallowed acolytes don't show up on lv6).
5) Respawn, it puts you right in front of the door again, with all the loot intact, and ~10 seconds later the swarm appears again.

All in all, you're looking at a full cycle time of about 1 minute, and about 30-40 kills per cycle. Your mileage will of course vary; I got about 10 blue engrams and 60 greens in about 45 minutes trying this out last night. Other people have reported multiple legendary engrams per hour. Since you're literally just standing still holding the trigger (auto rifles work best, but I leveled a couple other weapons I had lying around while I was at it) I just turned the volume down and watched some TV while I was at it. The best part is, since rewards all scale to your current level, this is just as efficient for leveling/gearing at lv6 as it is at lv20. When you're done:

6) Kill the two hallowed knights in the area (this activates a new checkpoint, make sure not to kill them before you're finished farming, though this is almost impossible to do without trying)
7) Pick up the field full of loot in front of you. If you've been at it for more than ~20 minutes, there will certainly be more loot than you can fit in your entire inventory, so disassemble as needed (there are no more enemies to interfere with this process)
8) Return to orbit, turn in your bucket of goodies at the Cryptarch, may fortune favor you
9) (best part!) When you feel like trying again, make sure to select "Restart" instead of "Resume" on The Dark Beyond. Surprisingly, this doesn't start you back at the very beginning of the mission; it drops you right in front of the ambush door again. Cuts about 5 minutes off of the approach time (step 2 above).

I was relatively unlucky with my attempt at this last night, but it still got me from gear lv21 to 22 a dozen times faster than it would have taken running strike missions. (And remember, it's an MMO; no need to exclaim "that sounds boring, just play the game!" I'm just mentioning it in case somebody wants a mindless way to gear up while watching some TV, in between the more fun strikes/raids with buddies, like you'll find in any MMO)

[TheSL]

I've liked what I've played so far, but this game is really rough to make any progress in with two babies since it doesn't pause at all and isn't as idle friendly as something like FFXIV.

[Octopus Prime]

I'm nearing level 20 and there are still a bunch of important gameplay mechanics I don't understand;

No idea what Spinmetal and Spiritblooms and all that are supposed to do. I found this one guy in the Tower that is willing to trade for them, but he wants a hell of a lot more than I have and I don't know what he's trading them FOR, so whatever.

Still don't quite know what fills up the little green bars to unlock new skills and modifications for weapons. I presume it's experience points and having an adjacent skill active. Does that mean I can't gain any skills for Blade Dancer while I'm using Gunslinger?

[krelbel]

Originally Posted by Octopus Prime

I'm nearing level 20 and there are still a bunch of important gameplay mechanics I don't understand;

No idea what Spinmetal and Spiritblooms and all that are supposed to do. I found this one guy in the Tower that is willing to trade for them, but he wants a hell of a lot more than I have and I don't know what he's trading them FOR, so whatever.

Still don't quite know what fills up the little green bars to unlock new skills and modifications for weapons. I presume it's experience points and having an adjacent skill active. Does that mean I can't gain any skills for Blade Dancer while I'm using Gunslinger?

I haven't learned too much about the Spinmetal/Spiritblooms stuff, because what little research I've done has indicated that it's a pretty inefficient way of gearing up, only worth focusing on if you're willing to do Patrol farming runs, which are way less efficient and way more tedious (requiring way more attention) than the farming method I described above.

The green bars are simply experience points. You don't need an adjacent skill active to start leveling new skills (for example, I haven't activated any of the last 4 or 5 skills I've unlocked on my Titan Defender, but I keep unlocking new ones). However, you can't gain any skills for Blade Dancer while you're using Gunslinger; you have to have the subclass active for experience to be allocated to it. That said, a popular way of leveling an alt subclass is to complete a bunch of bounties on your main subclass, then switch to the alt subclass to turn them in; the turn-in exp goes to the subclass you currently have equipped.

[Violentvixen]

Originally Posted by TheSL

I've liked what I've played so far, but this game is really rough to make any progress in with two babies since it doesn't pause at all and isn't as idle friendly as something like FFXIV.

Is there any "I'm idle" status or something that you can do? I'd never really realized how often I pause until I couldn't. I play while food is cooking so I need to get up and stir something, the dog needs to go out/more water, little things like that.

It's my first MMORPG other than the beta of Elder Scrolls Online and the genre takes a lot more out of me than I realized.

[Juno]

Reviewer has existential crisis while reviewing Destiny.

[Octopus Prime]

Originally Posted by Violentvixen

Is there any "I'm idle" status or something that you can do? I'd never really realized how often I pause until I couldn't. I play while food is cooking so I need to get up and stir something, the dog needs to go out/more water, little things like that.

It's my first MMORPG other than the beta of Elder Scrolls Online and the genre takes a lot more out of me than I realized.

Respawning is pretty generous as long as you aren't in a Dark Zone; and if you ARE in a Dark Zone, enemies don't respawn either.

Otherwise... just try to be back within five or ten minutes, since if the controller goes untouched long enough you get booted back to the world map.

[Tanto]

Originally Posted by Juno500

Reviewer has existential crisis while reviewing Destiny.

For some reason, I've read a ton about Destiny despite having basically no interest in ever playing it. It's such a microcosm of the whole AAA video game industry as it currently exists that it fascinates me despite myself.

[CaptBlasto]

I have been watching some streams of the new Vault of Glass Raid, and the endgame content looks pretty cool! It makes me want to buy a console, haha. Hopefully Bungie will port it to the PC.

[StriderDL]

Originally Posted by chady

Pretty much what everyone else has said, it's pretty, it plays like a dream, but the story may as well be nonexistent. Which may be the point? I'm not sure. Maybe this is a container that they fill up with events and stuff MMO style, but they just haven't filled it yet. I'm skeptical.

It certainly feels like Bungie had trouble writing an overall plot that fits this game's open-ended design. They can't blow up the planet/halo ring during the story plot, because there's supposed to be more story plot coming. Then again, the missions themselves don't tell compelling mini-stories either.

Anyway, I did my first strike mission last night and I loved it. It was some damn good shootin', even though that spider tank had way too much HP.

The co-op really does help things a lot. They should offer a matchmaking option for the story missions, as I have no friends that are playing this thing on PS3.

I could be your friend!