Support NeoGAF

[Amir0x]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Dude! You made the game sound amazing! Promote it this way some more please!

 

[DesertFox]

That Vimeo video is pretty dull, but maybe it's actually more fun to play than it is to watch? I mean some games are like that. And he was playing alone (when this is supposed to be a co-op game) and he wasn't really doing anything special.

In any case, the beta will be out soon so I guess we'll see for ourselves.

For me, this is true for every game. If I want to watch something, I put on a movie. Games are kinda meant to be interacted with by definition. Some games are especially boring to watch, but are addicting to play. (WoW)

 

[Duxxy3]

If bungie wants to get my attention, show me the campaign. Show me competitive multiplayer.

What we've seen so far is barren and slow.

 

[Nestled_Grizzly]

I already knew about that stuff and it still got me more excited. Now that I think about it, I'm glad they haven't told us everything. It seems like a game that needs to be experienced fresh.

 

[VanWinkle]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Thanks for this. Feels great to have a better feel for how the game is structured because I was pretty confused.

 

[Kouichi]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Oh man, that sounds so addicting. Thanks for the write-up, Luke! It's a shame that you can't stop people from judging a huge game like Destiny based off a 10 minute video of alpha footage.

I can't wait to waste hours on the beta let alone the full game.

 

[disastermouse]

Dude! You made the game sound amazing! Promote it this way some more please!

This! When a 40 minute fan video more explicitly garners excitement than your own demo videos, it's a sign that you need to market this game better!

 

[Orthogonal]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

Thanks for the update and I'm sorry you felt you had to come into this thread to defend the game. Clearly we weren't meant to see this early footage. That being said, I'm glad you were able to clear things up and give us a hint where the game is going and like you said, Bungie/Activision could explain it a bit better. Here's to hoping we get that info soon.

 

[udiie]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure

thanks Luke, was worried personally about the lack of distinction from Borderlands, but I like the concepts you guys are running with here. hope the game turns out great

 

[MMaRsu]

Luke saying what Bungie should have been saying from the get go. Thx Luke.

 

[Crimson_Gold]

I was already excited for this, but Luke's information has sent my hype into overdrive

 

[Authority]

Snip.

I have got two questions.

How sandbox is Destiny? And is it Bungie's vision to make it the most sandbox online FPS or to find a balance between between themepark and sandbox?

I see Destiny and I dream big because my-train-of-thought can't stop on how big Destiny can become with the right approach.

 

[Codeblew]

Okay, thanks to Luke, I am hyped again.

 

[a secret-boss]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Ok this sounds interesting. I'm back on the train

 

[blankempathy]

Weird how this game sounds like a mmo lite. Not to knock it. Its just my observation from what i've read.

 

[MMaRsu]

I want to know about invisible borders in the worlds.

 

[hwalker84]

Thanks for posting this, I feel like I understand the structure of this game a lot better.

That said, while this is a really difficult thing to demonstrate, you guys need to find a better way to explain all of this in video format. Showing what you just posted in a video would go a long way towards easing some confusion.

Exactly because right now I'm hanging on the name Bungie. Everything shown has looked incredibly boring.

 

[Charcoal]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Thanks for stepping in and clearing some stuff up but I have to ask, why has it taken so long for info like this to come out?

 

[nomis]

why has it taken so long for info like this to come out?

Bungie gonna Bungie

 

[teraMEL0S]

Game looks very fun. Tomorrow is going to be very exciting to watch. Can't wait for the beta!

 

[HTupolev]

Thanks for stepping in and clearing some stuff up but I have to ask, why has it taken so long for info like this to come out?

It hasn't, sort of. A lot of what Luke describes has been more or less known about for a while.

How well it's been presented is another matter.

 

[Maybesew]

Can we get a few more people quoting Luke's entire post?

Excited for the beta.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Dude! You made the game sound amazing! Promote it this way some more please!

The game has always sounded amazing. They just haven't been showing it.

 

[OhHeyBrian]

I'm hype.

 

[Stinkles]

Luke delivers like House in a maternity ward.

 

[TimeEffect]

Thanks, Luke!

Cleared up a LOT of confusion for me, and what you explained sounds really fascinating! Reading that actually got me excited for the game. I've never really had Destiny completely on my radar before reading that. You should really consider making a video to release for the rest of the internet, because it's rather surprising how confused a lot of people are.

I am very much looking forward to the 6 player mode, and the competitive MP. I just love how incredibly stat-heavy and deep customization is for you Halo games.

I'm pretty much going to be getting Destiny for that sweet split-screen and Resistance-esque co-op.

 

[Sydle]

After reading Luke's explanation I've gone from not giving a shit to highly intrigued.

There's absolutely no reason they couldn't have provided those details earlier.

 

[10k]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Your one post has done more then all the marketing of Destiny since E3 2013 (of lack of marketing). Still hyped!

 

[everyday math]

Thanks for stepping in and clearing some stuff up but I have to ask, why has it taken so long for info like this to come out?

It has been out.
Just not in quite detail I would say.

 

[HTupolev]

I'm pretty much going to be getting Destiny for that sweet split-screen and Resistance-esque co-op.

Split-screen has not been confirmed, and frankly, Bungie has been dodging the question. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't show.

 

[disastermouse]

I was already excited for this, but Luke's information has sent my hype into overdrive

Have you seen the 'What we know about Destiny so far' video? I'd link it, but I'm on my phone.

 

[Arukemos]

After reading Luke's explanation I've gone from not giving a shit to highly intrigued.

There's absolutely no reason they couldn't have provided those details earlier.

Well when it comes to the nature of game development a lot of devs shy away from giving details early because things might change. Even something that sounds vague and broad stroke-like may change as the game moves forward.

I am sure we will all get a clearer picture of what this game really is in the coming weeks.

 

[HTupolev]

Have you seen the 'What we know about Destiny so far' video? I'd link it, but I'm on my phone.

You mean this? It is fantastic.

 

[Charcoal]

It has been out.

Well that sucks because I'm clearly not the only person in here that's never heard it.

 

[nomis]

Can you turn off the shitty Borderlands/MMO hit numbers? This is all I must know.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Never doubted Bungie once on this.

Game sounds awesome

 

[Creaking]

Yeah, this footage is probably some of the worst footage to have leaked, simply because the player doesn't have a very interesting playstyle. He uses ADS religiously, he doesn't explore anything, he almost never jumps (that may be the rampant hopper in me though), and he doesn't employ much skill either. It makes the game seem utterly boring, if this is your only lens.

What you really want is someone who likes to challenge themselves within the game to have fun, doing tricky stuff, or employing awestriking skill. Obviously, this footage wasn't supposed to be released in any form whatsoever, so it's not really on Bungie for displaying the game in such a boring manner. But I think it would help if their officially released footage showed the game in a more fun light. Have a contest in the open beta or something.

 

[disastermouse]

You mean this? It is fantastic.

Yep! So much awesome in that video. I didn't think I'd watch the entire 40 minutes, but I'm glad I did.

 

[Rocketz]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Thanks, this was great to read. I can't wait to play the beta soon!

 

[ComputerBlue]

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

Thanks for posting, Luke! Very excited to play Destiny when it launches, it's looking great so far and I'm expecting it to bring me as much wow factor as Halo CE did.

 

[TimeEffect]

Split-screen has not been confirmed, and frankly, Bungie has been dodging the question. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't show.

...Whoa...

This is unthinkable to me :O

I really feel that Halo on Xbox was successful in large part to this, and I'd assume Destiny would benefit from the same...

I really hope Bungie doesn't drop support for it. I always admired that about them. I bought an Xbox 360 solely for Halo, and a mass reason for that was the split-screen support

 

[Kibbles]

Thanks Luke, nice rundown of the modes. My interest is piqued. I hope at E3 we see more of Multiplayer.

 

[VisceralBowl]

To those of you who were hyped by that video or Luke's write up and still want more:
Bungie's Blog
The weekly updates generally have little bits of new information and screenshots.

 

[taoofjord]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

Thanks for the info!

Can you comment on the AI? Can we expect the enemy's intelligence and the combat scenarios to be as complex, or near to, Halo's? Or is it more streamlined in Destiny?

Also, any comment on the feel of the combat with finding the right amount of damage the player's weapons do to the enemies? Do you feel you've found the right balance in making the enemies die after a "realistic" amount of damage and not feel like bullet sponges to accommodate the diverse weapons?

These are my primary concerns with the game. Everything else sounds fantastic.

 

[Twilight Gap]

I don't want to be the bad guy here, and I of course appreciate Luke coming in here to clarify some things. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Again, the game has always sounded incredible on paper, and Bungie's been mentioning the "crossroads" and "activities for every mood" thing for nearly a year now. These are ambitious ideas that we'd all love to see come to fruition, the key word being see. They seem to be aware that they've faltered in their methods of getting this information out there, so at the very least we should start to see a stronger effort on their part in this regard.

I'm not denying the possibility that things may be misinterpreted or misunderstood; nevertheless, I don't think his comments invalidate some skepticism and criticisms here. I look forward to seeing what sorts of improvements they may make.

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

Well when it comes to the nature of game development a lot of devs shy away from giving details early because things might change. Even something that sounds vague and broad stroke-like may change as the game moves forward.

I am sure we will all get a clearer picture of what this game really is in the coming weeks.

I got really confused seeing that avatar and that diction.

 

[Jest Chillin]

I don't want to be the bad guy here, and I of course appreciate Luke coming in here to clarify some things. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Again, the game has always sounded incredible on paper, and Bungie's been mentioning the "crossroads" and "activities for every mood" thing for over a year. These are ambitious ideas that we'd all love to see come to fruition, the key word being see. They seem to be aware that they've faltered in their methods of getting this information out there, so at the very least we should start to see a stronger effort on their part in this regard.

I'm not denying the possibility that things may be misinterpreted or misunderstood, but also I don't think his comments completely invalidate all of the criticism within this thread.

The concern you're expressing seems to be whether or not Bungie can deliver, however, what Luke did was attempt to clarify the question of "What is Destiny?" that many have been constantly asking. That is what people are reacting to.

So while your (and others) concerns about Bungie's ability to deliver may not have been addressed, the positive reactions to Luke's post are perfectly valid for those posters.

 

[Ol No Bones]

I really want to see this properly shown. I love bungie. This game is so strange because I want to like it so much then I see it and I'm just baffled at how boring it looks. Please work harder to convey the exploration and epic nature of the game cause I'm not seeing the 30 seconds of fun philosophy.

 

[OdysseusVA]

We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF

What's wrong with NeoGAF? Is it because of the E3 rejection thing?

 

[Spinluck]

There's a lot of confusion here, and we haven't done the best job ever of explaining the game or its structure.

I'm Luke, and I'm one of the lead designers on Destiny.

First, Destiny is structured into Activities.

We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)

These activities come in a bunch of flavors:

• Story missions - soloable activities (you can still play them in groups of up to 3!), often with ties to the main story arc of Destiny (the campaign). These activities appear at various Levels (numerical, relative to the player) and choosing a higher level (relative to you) means you're opting in for some additional challenge.
• Strikes - 3 player activities, with bosses and loot at the end. Their goal is a highly replayable activity that will - at higher levels - lead you into the loot game.
• Explore - cruise around the surface of a planet in Fireteams of up to 3, taking odd jobs and tasks for the City. You can find minerals and resources out in the world that you'll have some use for as you find weapons in Destiny that you want to stick with. This is a lower intensity activity
• Raids - 6 player, cooperative required, communication required gameplay. High challenge. We haven't talked much about this yet and I'm not going start that conversation here on NeoGAF
• Multiplayer This is for the "shoot other players" mood.

Now, the second part is how the world has been built.

We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world.

EDIT: Regardless of what activity you're playing (PVP aside), you'll see players on their own activities, i.e., players beginning a Strike might see a guy collecting Relic Iron on Mars, and a Public Event begins and suddenly everyone is distracted to take down a key Cabal target for a chance at powerful gear and materials to upgrade your best weapons and armor.

A bunch of folks are playing the Alpha now and we're already seeing all kinds of opportunities for places to improve Destiny. I have no doubt that in the Public Beta, we will learn even more from your feedback and experiences.

I'm not going to get into any of the recurring activities or gearing or class stuff today, but I imagine we'll start to try and explain stuff more soon.

GO COLTS! GO DESTINY!