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Destiny Alpha Gameplay Leaks [Update: Luke from Bungie comments, read post 1557]

broony

Member
i don't think a low bitrate or incomplete assets are the cause for seemingly regurgitated gameplay mechanics that we've seen across the 5 previous games released by Bungie.
Yeah bungie keep making games with aim down sights, recharging grenades, loot systems, behind the scenes matchmaking, open world areas, dynamicly generated enemy encounters, world events, 6 player raids and space magic.
 
Yeah bungie keep making games with aim down sights, recharging grenades, loot systems, behind the scenes matchmaking, open world areas, dynamicly generated enemy encounters, world events, 6 player raids and space magic.
This is the first I've heard of dynamic encounters. Is there any more info on this, or a link?
 

broony

Member
This is the first I've heard of dynamic encounters. Is there any more info on this, or a link?
Public events have been talked about a lot, but also I think it was in a weekly update that talked about being in the right place in the city when a certain dignotrary is visiting who gives out a certain quest which is only available in a time window.

They have talked a few times of missions / bosses that will only appear once a week, once a month or so on. The director is always throwing up new and different stuff. They have also hinted at world events happening and the whole game changing at certain times.
 
the fact the game is open world and features more than 4 players?

Open world for the sake of open world? Or is it open world with a ton of content, ala Fallout/TES? I have a feeling it's the former since almost all open world games are the former. Bungie is known for their level design, but I don't have much hope for level design in an open world, well most of an open world. They'll likely spend a lot of time on certain areas and less on others and I have a feeling, the vast majority of the game's world is gonna be about roaming from one area to another.

Also, it's only more than 4 players in certain settings, which is actually a good thing since nobody likes people taking their kills and having more than 4 people will mean this will happen very often. It's also much easier to cooperate with less people since a giant group will be totally disorganized. But this means the game will be a cross between Phantasy Star Online, Borderlands, and Halo. It's a good combination but it's not terribly exciting, but a solid experience beats a mindblowing idea that doesn't pan through, though the hype that's built around this game is bound to make the game feel like it's underdelivering for some people.
 

broony

Member
Open world for the sake of open world? Or is it open world with a ton of content, ala Fallout/TES? I have a feeling it's the former since almost all open world games are the former. Bungie is known for their level design, but I don't have much hope for level design in an open world, well most of an open world. They'll likely spend a lot of time on certain areas and less on others and I have a feeling, the vast majority of the game's world is gonna be about roaming from one area to another.

Also, it's only more than 4 players in certain settings, which is actually a good thing since nobody likes people taking their kills and having more than 4 people will mean this will happen very often. It's also much easier to cooperate with less people since a giant group will be totally disorganized. But this means the game will be a cross between Phantasy Star Online, Borderlands, and Halo. It's a good combination but it's not terribly exciting, but a solid experience beats a mindblowing idea that doesn't pan through, though the hype that's built around this game is bound to make the game feel like it's underdelivering for some people.

You are talking some crazy.

There is a campaign. A structured story driven campaign. Supported by structured short missions called strikes as well as structured huge missions for 6 players called raids. Then there is the free roaming patrol mode where missions are available out in the world. It's the free roaming, picking up little missions that was shown in the leaks.

After that I don't get what you are saying about complaining its only 4 players in certain settings but then saying that is probably better to just have 4 players.

its three players in a fire team anyway
 

LukeSmith

Member
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.
 
You are talking some crazy.

There is a campaign. A structured story driven campaign. Supported by structured short missions called strikes as well as structured huge missions for 6 players called raids. Then there is the free roaming patrol mode where missions are available out in the world. It's the free roaming, picking up little missions that was shown in the leaks.

After that I don't get what you are saying about complaining its only 4 players in certain settings but then saying that is probably better to just have 4 players.

its three players in a fire team anyway

Whoops, I worded it kind of weird. I know it's 3 players but I'm replying to someone who's comparing it to Borderlands which only has 4 players. I'm saying no more than 4 players (since 1-4 players is a good amount for co-op) tends to be what you see for co-op games. Anymore than that and the game can feel a bit too hectic and unorganized.

I didn't know about 6 player raids though, I thought it was only 3. 6 players would probably work since they're splitting you up into 2 fireteams and it's not too much people.

Is freeroaming going to be the "MMO-esque" thing we hear about with tons of players? Or is it just gonna be certain areas, because from what I got from the videos explaining it there's only gonna be certain areas with tons of players, like a hub to meet people for missions. I'd prefer the latter since having thousands of players running around the game world might feel weird and overpopulated.

Edit: ^^ Thanks Luke! And good luck with the game and having a smooth launch!
 
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.

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, Luke! That all sounds great.
 
Yeah bungie keep making games with aim down sights, recharging grenades, loot systems, behind the scenes matchmaking, open world areas, 6 player raids

All of these things are nothing special. It's the equivalent of saying a game is unique because there is a crouch button. Nothing new, just boring looking, uninspired, gameplay.
 
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.

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!

I hope the game will be enjoyable for people who don't care about fighting non-human opponents (is there an Easy mode?) and just want to roleplay and enjoy the story, because that's how I intend to experience the game.
 

Lingitiz

Member
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.

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 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.
 
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.

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.
Thank you for this. I understand the need to tease the game and keep people wanting more, but it's hard to get excited for a game when after hearing about it for so long I still don't fully know what it is. Looking forward to trying out the beta
 
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 clearing up some things, I look forward to more information this upcoming week.
 
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.

Cheers, Luke. I was saying that earlier. If you've been ear to the train tracks this year, and following every tiny detail, the Destiny is the best thing coming. If you haven't (and the majority of GAF fits this as everytime the What We Know So Far video is linked more come around to the Light Side), then it's "OMG Borderlands!" and I'm not sure that's their fault. I know secrecy is important with reveals, but this would be a good case to go back and see what went wrong in messaging as GAF should be championing this game, yet so so many are past it, even annoyed by it.
 

RSB

Banned
Thanks Luke! I already knew all that, but your post will be helpful to all those that haven't been following the news on this game.

I wonder why Bungie doesn't make a new ViDoc explaining all that. I think it would be a great way to show people what Destiny is about, and clearing some of the confusion surrounding the game. Oh well, the beta is almost here, so it's OK I guess.

Edit: Wow, I'm finally a member. Cool, it only took me a little over five years. Yay!
 
I'll be beta-ring the shizz out of this, It's my most wanted game this year. Also kudos for the designer dropping in and sharing info as people seem to be experts on the game already considering they havent played it and have only seen leaked footage.
 
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.
 

broony

Member
All of these things are nothing special. It's the equivalent of saying a game is unique because there is a crouch button. Nothing new, just boring looking, uninspired, gameplay.
The guy was saying that Bungie was regurgitating their gameplay mechanics from the halo series. I was pointing out that none of these things were present in halo. Keep up old chap.
 

KeRaSh

Member
Now I have been following Destiny news ever since it was announced pretty closely, but I feel like what Luke mentioned was already known. It's a shame people complain about not knowing what Destiny is about when the info is already out there.
Hopefully they can get those points across to the general public in one segment that combines all the info snippets in one video / stage presentation.
 

Nokterian

Member
Now I have been following Destiny news ever since it was announced pretty closely, but I feel like what Luke mentioned was already known. It's a shame people complain about not knowing what Destiny is about when the info is already out there.
Hopefully they can get those points across to the general public in one segment that combines all the info snippets in one video / stage presentation.

The problem lies at the PR and Marketing. What kind of game is this? Who are they aiming for? Every single thing i ever saw from it i still don't know. At least know a bit when one of those devs posted here. It is bad and they need to do proper PR and Marketing and by showing better video's what this really is and show more clarficiation even on there website and to the press. Because there last video for PS4 was hella confusing.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
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.

Thank you for this, I feel there is some clearer idea of some of the basis of the structure here, but as you said there is a lot of confusion. You need to show people this and your recent vids have done nothing on this front.

I'm hoping that it's not being left solely on the beta to try and provide that info to people, as then you're only really preaching to the choir of people who pre ordered.

Now I have been following Destiny news ever since it was announced pretty closely, but I feel like what Luke mentioned was already known. It's a shame people complain about not knowing what Destiny is about when the info is already out there.
Hopefully they can get those points across to the general public in one segment that combines all the info snippets in one video / stage presentation.

I think the fact that such confusion is so rampant means that even if this has been mentioned before it's not been loud enough or conveyed clearly enough and certainly not shown off. There is a definite communication problem and the evidence is plain in this thread, and that's on a forum like this, how are the mass market supposed to buy into Destiny apart from just seeing "from the creators of Halo"?
 

Lasty95

Member
Now I have been following Destiny news ever since it was announced pretty closely, but I feel like what Luke mentioned was already known. It's a shame people complain about not knowing what Destiny is about when the info is already out there.
Hopefully they can get those points across to the general public in one segment that combines all the info snippets in one video / stage presentation.

Exactly.

There's literally 0 new info in that post, but for whatever reason Bungie have failed to effectively communicate this across so far to all but those willing to trawl the interwebs for details (hi!).

Where were all the vidocs Bungie? Surely they're the perfect medium to convey all this fairly complex info? The strike gameplay was a mistake because it was taken in isolation and does nothing to sell the bigger picture of Destiny and I suppose looks like pretty standard fps fare.

I'm hoping E3 will be the end of it and finally get everyone firmly onboard.
 

Leb

Member
Hmmm... for all their insistence that this isn't an MMO, everything Luke just listed sounds like something straight from the pages of a Blizzard design bible, with a few dashes of Guild Wars and The Secret World for good measure.

Which isn't to say that it's a bad thing, or anything, but what's with the bizarrely mixed messaging?
 

KeRaSh

Member
I think the fact that such confusion is so rampant means that even if this has been mentioned before it's not been loud enough or conveyed clearly enough and certainly not shown off. There is a definite communication problem and the evidence is plain in this thread, and that's on a forum like this, how are the mass market supposed to buy into Destiny apart from just seeing "from the creators of Halo"?

I don't think they are concerned about explaining everything just yet. The game is still a few month away from release and they probably want to keep their ammo for that pre release window (starting with E3 and the Beta in July) so everyone is aware of it when it actually comes out. We eager Gaffers are a special breed of gamers who know about games months or even years before Average Joe finds out they exist. I think people are confused because they are not used to not knowing every little detail about something so close to release.
I too wish we knew more about Destiny because it's my most anticipated game of the year but that's the reason why I read up on it. :)
 
Hmmm... for all their insistence that this isn't an MMO, everything Luke just listed sounds like something straight from the pages of a Blizzard design bible, with a few dashes of Guild Wars and The Secret World for good measure.

Which isn't to say that it's a bad thing, or anything, but what's with the bizarrely mixed messaging?
It seems like the activities are taken from the MMO structure, but it's not truly an MMO because you are only with a huge amount of people in specific areas (public events, marketplaces, etc)

Also, regarding the information "already being out there": you should not have to go through every article and forum posting on Destiny to find bits and pieces of info. This is the first post-Halo game by Bungie being published by Activision, who expect to make it a brand as big as COD. The game releases in 3 months and people are still confused. All updates, "everything you need to know" videos, and hands-on impressions have still left people saying "ok that's cool, but we still don't really know that much about it". It's nice to actually have the information plainly written out and altogether so we can have a better idea of what to actually expect
 

Lasty95

Member
Hmmm... for all their insistence that this isn't an MMO, everything Luke just listed sounds like something straight from the pages of a Blizzard design bible, with a few dashes of Guild Wars and The Secret World for good measure.

Which isn't to say that it's a bad thing, or anything, but what's with the bizarrely mixed messaging?

I think it's basically that Bungie is attempting something new here. It's not got an obvious hook like Portal or something which can be easily shown off, It's structural and that's more difficult to convey.

Even so, they've done a poor job of it.
 

rgnine

Member
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.

So that's where the Relic Iron is. Thanks for clearing everything up for everyone Luke!
 
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.

It's basically structured like your typical mmo on a smaller scale. I can see why so many still don't understand this kind of game because it's designed to be slower paced, exploration, repetitive grinding, and carrot on a stick. I'm not saying those as a bad thing because I love these types of game.
 

vpance

Member
Sounds like the game was designed to fit a lot of modes and be a jack of all trades, which kind of explains why the encounters look so boring to go through.
 

Eoin

Member
I like the structure of this game, but they really need to show off some good gameplay. So far the weapons have looked uninspired, the enemies boring to fight and there's just a general meh to all the combat. I just hope that going the loot root hasn't made the sandbox so bloated that all the weapons just feel the same and don't have a true reason to exist other than "epic loot". I still have faith but they need to start showing what makes the moment to moment fun.

The Crosshair needs to be more visible too, I won't be using ADS, but would still like to be able to see where I'm aiming.
 

todd360

Member
I'm so hyped to see destiny tomorrow. I still have faith that this is going to be an amazing game. I even have a poster of the box art in my room.
 
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.

Thank you for this Luke, much appreciated . This thread definitely needed this clarification.
 

Zok310

Banned
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.

Good Guy Luke
 

todd360

Member
You guys need to start giving us more info. I feel like we get close to no information on the weekly updates thanks anyways Lukems.

Where's my steak boi?

Yeah I don't know why they even bother with the weekly updates sometimes. They refuse to tell us anything until tomorrow so the past few weekly updates have been so boring.
 

DesertFox

Member
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.
Hmmm, sounds like there be MMO style professions like mining and crafting. Very interesting. Professions were a nice distraction in WoW. I could see myself jumping online to delve into professions and not even fire a single shot in a play session.
 
Watched the "Alpha" footage and I am still hype for the game but I'm hoping for a lot more action and life in the environment.

Edit: I had to force myself to watch it all.
 

Alebelly

Member
I was hoping for some innovative cover system and more violent gun action. I really need the gun to feel alive for me to continue to be interested in first person shooters. Gameplay looks standard bog WASD. Looks nice, looks boring. At least there isn't a subscription.

AI looks standard dumb
 

Crosseyes

Banned
Yeah the recap by Luke was very good, again though no new info. All of that was already known but a lot of people have no clue about any of that.

A Vidoc would seem to be an awesome way to be able to explain all these and get the message across about how grand the scale is more clearly. I'm sure a live trailer detailing menus and options wouldn't be nearly as interesting but a Vidoc could talk over and discuss just how everything all comes together.

And yes this is a plea for more content leading up to the beta. No regret.
 

Ghazi

Member
I just noticed The All Games Beta channel on Dailymotion has been closed, along with the rehosted footage. Any other places?
 
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