*** The Official Destiny Thread (now includes 2.0 and TTK) ***

[Fr0dders]

It isn't a conspiracy, it's a marketing tactic and a very realistic one at that. Bungie promised a product within a contracted timeframe and made the game. When it got nearer to the deadline and they only got 80% of it finished they whip a few levels out and label them as the DLC instead, giving them time to finish the rest for further DLC. It's all very simple and is how big companies work.

When people say "ohh but the levels were empty and there was no enemies so it clearly wasn't finished" it's just because they don't understand how games work. The only reason no enemies are spawned is because the pre-requisites haven't been met. You need to click the level from the map to begin the mission in order to spawn the first enemies and then complete various checkpoints to further the mission. You can spawn into the vault of glass through the door, or follow a team in while you're on patrol but you won't get any enemies and you'll be stuck in an empty environment. Doesn't mean the Vault of Glass isn't finished now, does it (not including the various bugs that need tweaking to the pedantic lot out there )?

I agree with most of what you've said but disagree slightly here. For me, i'm utterly convinced that bungie had seriously intended on taking a lot longer to finish the game, and somebody, be it senior management or the publisher, reigned them in and told them they had to get something ready to publish on November 2014 and if they couldn't make that deadline with their current vision of the game, then that vision of the game would have to change.

By all accounts Destiny went through about 4 or 5 different iterations in development, each time getting scrapped and started again. The current vision of the game was put together in less than a year and was quickly hashed together with lots of content that was originally envisioned left out.

I disagree with the idea that they got to 80 % complete, called it a day and released the game, then finished off the last 20 % post release and sold it as DLC.

For my mind, they had lots of lore / story / content / missions etc.. in mind, but released the game with much of it missing. Not because they got to 80 % and called it quits, but because they had got too ambitious and had to get a game released.

 

[Fr0dders]

#3 Making your voice heard? Sorry but community feedback is not the main or even a major source of design input. They have a massive repository of usage data logged that is being data mined to provide feedback to the designers. It's a far more reliable source of feedback than a bunch of forum users, however articulate they may be, they are only a tiny minority of players. Most developers never read forums of games they work on....there lies only pain and suffering.

Disagree there.

Deej regularly makes reference in his weekly updates to the feelings of the players. They know everybody was ****** off at having to re level their exotics and said they'd look at doing it a different way next time round.

If they don't read the destiny reddit, how exactly do they know the community is not happy with the way the exotic upgrades was implemented.

How do they know what all the exploits are in the raid that they kept trying to fix ?

The answer of course is because they do watch and listen. Its not their only metric as you say, but it is an important one. Thats why they said they wanted to make the eris missions in the dark below more like the exotic weapon quests after pretty much all the community agreed that all of the story missions were, get ghost to open door, kill lots of people while he does it.or alternatively ghost opens door for you, you walk in and have to kill lots of people.

then of course there were the jokes about why the stranger didn't have the time to tell us why she didn't have the time to tell us the story behind the vex.

 

[zoomee]

Havn't Bungie already been talking about Destiny 2?
I can see after the next DLC drops, them going through it allllll again with Destiny 2

 

[krisboats]

I agree with most of what you've said but disagree slightly here. For me, i'm utterly convinced that bungie had seriously intended on taking a lot longer to finish the game, and somebody, be it senior management or the publisher, reigned them in and told them they had to get something ready to publish on November 2014 and if they couldn't make that deadline with their current vision of the game, then that vision of the game would have to change.

By all accounts Destiny went through about 4 or 5 different iterations in development, each time getting scrapped and started again. The current vision of the game was put together in less than a year and was quickly hashed together with lots of content that was originally envisioned left out.

I disagree with the idea that they got to 80 % complete, called it a day and released the game, then finished off the last 20 % post release and sold it as DLC.

For my mind, they had lots of lore / story / content / missions etc.. in mind, but released the game with much of it missing. Not because they got to 80 % and called it quits, but because they had got too ambitious and had to get a game released.

That's pretty much what i meant though, the 80% being the (randomly plucked number from thin air) quota for the game+dlc. When it became clear that they weren't going to complete the entire game+dlc combination to meet their contracted deadlines, bits of currently completed game got spliced and turned into dlc, so they could meet their deadlines, at the expense of not producing the level of content they had imagined when they first set out.

My point was i wouldn't be surprised if, by the end of year 2, we see a well rounded and diverse game overall that fits very much in line with the sort of thing we were expecting from the vanilla game disc from watching the video press releases.

For the naysayers, there's a vex area with level 20 enemies in on venus. It's exactly the same as the hive area in the forgotten shores before the DB dlc was released to reveal DLC levels there. The vex enemies surround it's entrance. There is a teleport beam there that can be glitched into, just the mission pre-requisites don't get activated. Now we find out there is a vex DLC to be released. It's just too coincidental.

 

[mid_gen]

Havn't Bungie already been talking about Destiny 2?
I can see after the next DLC drops, them going through it allllll again with Destiny 2

Destiny 2 = Comet, September 2015 according to the leak. Pretty much as expected, 1 annual release plus two smaller DLC.

 

[krisboats]

Destiny 2 = Comet, September 2015 according to the leak. Pretty much as expected, 1 annual release plus two smaller DLC.

No, destiny 2 is destiny 2. They quite clearly say the plan is to introduce a new destiny game every 2 years, with a comet (big dlc disc) being released every other year in between. So it'll be destiny > comet 1> destiny 2> comet 2 >destiny 3 etc for the next 10 years. So long as they don't go bust, that is.

 

[kmetek]

http://www.game.co.uk/en/destiny-li...=737261&pageNumber=4&sortBy=MOST_POPULAR_DESC

LIMITED 50 QUID

 

[Fr0dders]

Destiny 2 = Comet, September 2015 according to the leak. Pretty much as expected, 1 annual release plus two smaller DLC.

the contract was for 5 games over 10 years. So not an annual release, but bi-annual.

As kris has mentioned, the contract was for smaller DLC in between and one big DLC every other year in between.

Iits obvious that house of wolves is going to be another 2 or 3 story missions, a strike and a raid, the only question now is how much bigger will the next "thing" codenamed comet be. According to eurogamer

"the first Comet release is called Plague of Darkness, includes 12 story missions, four strikes, one new raid, six player versus player maps and one new location. Under the list of locations is Moon, Venus, Mars and Hive Ship."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ly-reveals-major-plague-of-darkness-expansion

 

[ps3ud0]

If Bungie know what they are doing they need to price Comet cheaply and use it as a 'loss leader' to galavanise the player base. Hell if the next expansion pass had it rolled in that wouldnt be that too bad a value at all - I could see myself buying that...

ps3ud0

 

[thor]

give me 20 minutes and I can get my titan to 29, he"ll need to do both the weekly and the nightfall hoping with strong solar weapons it shouldn't be a problem?

Within an hour of you rubbing it in that you had Husk of the Pit and I didn't, I finally got one! Wasn't even trying for it - started up the Sword of Crota mission for today's bounty, then as I was making my way to Banuk it popped up saying the Blades had invaded. Thought I may as well take him out, and up popped the weapon!

Looks like a decent weapon to hand off to my level 12 Titan until he gets to 16 and can start using the Stranger's Rifle.

 

[krisboats]

Iits obvious that house of wolves is going to be another 2 or 3 story missions, a strike and a raid, the only question now is how much bigger will the next "thing" codenamed comet be. According to eurogamer

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ly-reveals-major-plague-of-darkness-expansion

Supposedly, it'll be this...

EP. 1: The Dark Below - Release Date: December 9, 2014

New Missions: 3

New Strikes: 2

New Public Events: 0

New patrols: 0

New Raids: 1

New PvP maps: 3

It is not written here, but thanks to other leaks we know will add new equipment exotic and legendary.

EP. 2: House of Wolves - Release Date: March 10, 2015

To the list of destinations included the ' Atoll (Reef). In fact, it seems that the ' Raid of this DLC will be right there!

New Missions: 3

New Strikes: 1

New Public Events: 0

New patrols: 0

New Raids: 1

New maps PvP: 4

Also here is not written anything about the weapons / armor, but it is almost certain that it will be added other. Now comes the interesting part. As was revealed by an old leak, before the game, in the contract Activision-Bungie was due out of expansion "Comet" or expansion bigger than a normal DLC and provided for in a split time between a chapter of the saga and the other; and here it reappears, and it looks very full of content, almost the same as Destiny to its output:

COMET: Plague of Darkness * * - Release Date: September 2015

First, there appears to be a new destination, " Nave Hive "(Hive Ship) and certainly will be explored given the addition of a new Patrol.

New Missions: 12

New Strikes: 4

New Public Events: 1

New patrols: 1

New Raids: 1

New PvP maps: 6

And not only that, the expansion "Comet" goes beyond the addition of new activities, also including:

(To be confirmed) New Subclasses: 3

New types of weapons: 2 (To be confirmed)

Base Level: 30

The last item could mean that the exit of the level reached by the Comet XP gets up to 30 (and then 40 with the equip) or that the basic level of the missions will be 30, but it seems very possible the rise of the maximum level.

After the release of the expansion Comet we will see two more DLC, probably still in the early stages of development and where the contents are then to be taken even more with the pliers:

EP. 3: Vex (illegible)

New Missions: 3

New Strikes: 2

New Public Events: 0

New patrols: 0

New Raids: 1

New Maps PvP: It is not clear, but most likely we will see some.

EP. 4: Forge of Gods

 

[thor]

No, destiny 2 is destiny 2. They quite clearly say the plan is to introduce a new destiny game every 2 years, with a comet (big dlc disc) being released every other year in between. So it'll be destiny > comet 1> destiny 2> comet 2 >destiny 3 etc for the next 10 years. So long as they don't go bust, that is.

The details of the contract I read a while back listed Comet as being a standalone off-shoot, releasing alternate years to the main Destiny releases. Obviously I have no idea if that's still the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a full (or close to it) price game.

Going by yesterday's leak though, it seems like Comet will also expand the main Destiny world, so perhaps it can be standalone but also bolt alongside Destiny?

 

[Fr0dders]

they are certainlly planning for a lot of content

not sure if i prefer Rockstars strategy on this and bring in micro transactions for in game currency and let the DLC be free.

No skin off my nose if somebody else wants to buy their exotics, not as if we earn them anyway with this games random drop loot.

 

[Fr0dders]

The details of the contract I read a while back listed Comet as being a standalone off-shoot, releasing alternate years to the main Destiny releases. Obviously I have no idea if that's still the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a full (or close to it) price game.

Going by yesterday's leak though, it seems like Comet will also expand the main Destiny world, so perhaps it can be standalone but also bolt alongside Destiny?

I've no idea how they are going to work it to be honest. It could just be big very expensive DLC, but that could alienate new players to the franchise having to buy the new game, plus CE plus HOW plus the new Comet DLC at full price.

 

[toM123]

I've no idea how they are going to work it to be honest. It could just be big very expensive DLC, but that could alienate new players to the franchise having to buy the new game, plus CE plus HOW plus the new Comet DLC at full price.

Perhaps they'll roll the main game into comet? So new players can buy them combined for full price (£50-£60?) and existing players can just buy the comet part cheaper (i'm guessing £35). The way they've implemented the DLC means that could still be kept separate.

edit: further to this total speculation, if you look at the screen cap a couple of pages back the box art cover for comet is the same as the destiny main game. hmmmmm

 

[WriteThatD0wn]

Within an hour of you rubbing it in that you had Husk of the Pit and I didn't, I finally got one! Wasn't even trying for it - started up the Sword of Crota mission for today's bounty, then as I was making my way to Banuk it popped up saying the Blades had invaded. Thought I may as well take him out, and up popped the weapon!

Looks like a decent weapon to hand off to my level 12 Titan until he gets to 16 and can start using the Stranger's Rifle.

Nice one! You're probably a lot closer to Eris level 3 as well than me, I've neglected that somewhat. My legendary engrams turned into ascendant energy and a shard, karma I guess!

 

[Makhaira]

I'm not sure I want them to focus on expanding the content that much at this point, more a focus on giving greater depth to what they've already released. Make ship upgrades meaningful for example, some form of crafting maybe, player to player trade, etc etc.

No doubt there will be purists who want to keep the pure FPS nature of the game as it is at present, but I really think it would benefit from some expansion of the RPG elements in there...

 

[thor]

Nice one! You're probably a lot closer to Eris level 3 as well than me, I've neglected that somewhat. My legendary engrams turned into ascendant energy and a shard, karma I guess!

Still a fair bit off level 3 - at level 2 441/2000

I'm not sure how the upgrade for this weapon works. Do you need a certain number of Hive kills with it? There's a green bar on the upgrade which is increasing as I use the weapon, but I've no idea what the target is.

Sucks about the engrams! I remember getting a special legendary engram from the Nightfall a couple of weeks ago, hoping it might turn into Icebreaker, but instead I got energy

 

[WriteThatD0wn]

Still a fair bit off level 3 - at level 2 441/2000

I'm not sure how the upgrade for this weapon works. Do you need a certain number of Hive kills with it? There's a green bar on the upgrade which is increasing as I use the weapon, but I've no idea what the target is.

Sucks about the engrams! I remember getting a special legendary engram from the Nightfall a couple of weeks ago, hoping it might turn into Icebreaker, but instead I got energy

yep - every hive kill adds to the embalming orb upgrade, I just went to the 'woken the hive' bit as you can set it to level 9 which means the gun is still useful damage wise leave the knight and you can just keep restarting at that point upon death.

 

[Greboth]

Kill hive for the first upgrade (needs about ~ 400-420 hive kills) which you need an embalming orb from Eris which unlocks at level 3. This turns it into a legendary auto rifle with slightly different stats from the husk of the pit. The last upgrade for the legendary rifle needs a drop from Crota's end hard mode which turns it in to an exotic.