The Vault is just terrible. (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 17:44 (2599 days ago) @ Kermit

Not taking sides here, but an extra-game app with additional functionality was envisioned long before D1 came out. I'll also confess that sometimes my reaction to your posts is similar to Raga's. I get the feeling you're accusing Bungie of acting in bad faith regarding aspects you don't like, yet I know you know enough about game development to know that they are complexities we don't know, and how difficult decisions can be regarding how best to apply limited resources. I suspect that for you it's like retail is for me. You'd expect, after working in retail for a decade, that I'd be more sympathetic when I get bad service. I'm less sympathetic, though. It's a hot button for me.

That is almost exactly how I feel. Some things seem so obvious to me after years of doing it that omitting them is stunning to me (a "north" arrow on the radar to match our map, for example, or the "sort alphabetically" option for the vault I discuss in the OP). On the other side of the coin, when there's truly brilliant or innovative design, I really try to draw attention to it; especially when the design is subtle.

I dunno if you remember the original Marathon, but there were, iirc, two levels where you had to go outside of the ship and oxygen depletion was a big deal. Here we stand, decades later, and going outside on the Almighty had that same feeling to me of taking a giant step into something I wasn't sure I was fully prepared for. It was great.

It was also the first time outside of a raid or set boss fight that Destiny (1 or 2) had hit me with environmental design that influenced my decision making during combat. It's informed design. The player is really close to the sun, that should burn. Let's put some shade for him to recover it, but the placement of shade isn't arbitrary - anyone in a similar situation would have logically had shade placed for their own recovery. Very clever and logical.

Similarly, that final mission, charging through the streets of the city with other guardians showing up for a block or two at a time... what a rush! You felt compelled forwards, not by the mission, but by the other players. You want to keep up, you want to help out, you want to bond in the fire of battle.

Those two experiences are the best story missions (mechanically) that Bungie has put forward so far in the Destiny series. They both reek of the Bungie design found in Marathon and Halo. You used to be able to call out missions as "the sniper level" or "the night level" or the "level with all of the tanks." Most Destiny missions up to this point were "the level where you kill a bunch of Thrall and then fight a giant ogre" which could be like five different levels. Now you have "the sun level" and "the city level" and god I hope that feeling of fighting with other guardians nearby gets more and more use. That's the kind of inspired design that makes people say "Oh, I wish X Y and Z would change to be like that" - because the design gets our creative juices flowing.

I would much rather be theorizing about what lies below the waters of Titan than complaining that the tower crashes about every fifth time I load into it - but, as it feels to me - the breadcrumbs of mystery are too sparse and lacking in nourishment while the looming ghosts of obvious flaws cast too long a shadow to ignore. I hope, as time passes, that those things change for the better in all respects.