I deleted my fucking blue Solstice armor and did something fun instead.

I was wrong. This quest fucking sucks.

I deleted my fucking blue Solstice armor and did something fun instead.

I was wrong. This quest fucking sucks.

I did something I never thought I would, and grinded out the Legendaries, because I really wanted to be able to use the damaged helmet ornament for my Titan...
Only to find out that the damaged skin was only for the Year 1 armor. Womp womp.

On the bright side, my Titan got a 750 armor set (up from 500), which has exponentially increased the value of my powerful weapon engrams, which in turn means more reasonable loot for my other two classes, to get them ready for cross-saves. An overall win.

Funny side note, the 100 EAZ boss grind was the most enjoyable part for me, because it felt like a competitive mode:
Try to kill 8-12 bosses in a run before the other players could get to them (Hallowfire/Melting point/Ikelos to two-shot the bosses), then hop into a new instance the moment time ran out, and race the new guys.

I wonder who was the genius at Bungie that gave us a challenge that actively discourages teamwork, fighting the final bosses, and decided that garbage-containing boxes would entice players to stay.
The fact that they have a fully-playtested and easily-implemented change to this challenge makes me feel like they knew how stupid this part was, but wanted to get away with wasting as much of people's time as they could, until people started exploiting and cheesing it.

I wonder who was the genius at Bungie that gave us a challenge that actively discourages teamwork, fighting the final bosses, and decided that garbage-containing boxes would entice players to stay.

But they included an objective to open half as many garbage crates as you get from the required boss kills, so that's something.

-Disciple

I wonder who was the genius at Bungie that gave us a challenge that actively discourages teamwork, fighting the final bosses, and decided that garbage-containing boxes would entice players to stay.

But they included an objective to open half as many garbage crates as you get from the required boss kills, so that's something.

-Disciple

It also helps those who get dropped into final boss fight (as I'm sure I caused that a lot, ope!).

I just wasn’t having fun. It’s just not structured in a way that is conducive to me enjoying my time with the game. Over the next two weeks, I absolutely could have finished with little effort, and not even that much time.

But it was preventing me from enjoying myself. Every time I did something that wasn’t helping me progress the armor, I had that little nagging thought I should be doing armor stuff. It was better to just delete it and write it off.

The EAZ stuff was a large contributor, though. It took a fun little diversion and made it thoroughly unfun. In fact, it made every activity that had an armor requirement unfun. Instead of just enjoying the strikes, I had to fight two blueberries for kills so I could get the correct orbs. Making the requirements different depending on class was a really boneheaded move.

I just wasn’t having fun. It’s just not structured in a way that is conducive to me enjoying my time with the game. Over the next two weeks, I absolutely could have finished with little effort, and not even that much time.

But it was preventing me from enjoying myself. Every time I did something that wasn’t helping me progress the armor, I had that little nagging thought I should be doing armor stuff. It was better to just delete it and write it off.

The EAZ stuff was a large contributor, though. It took a fun little diversion and made it thoroughly unfun. In fact, it made every activity that had an armor requirement unfun. Instead of just enjoying the strikes, I had to fight two blueberries for kills so I could get the correct orbs. Making the requirements different depending on class was a really boneheaded move.

It's especially funny, because the EAZ was really neat the first day. It gave us all reused enemies under the new context of an open courtyard battle (and let Xbox players fight the PS4-exclusive Brood Mother wizard), gave us some parkour-friendly encounters in a race against the clock, complete with a timed hunt for rewards at the end (rewarding efficient miniboss kills with even more rewards!), and nobody had to worry about missing out on those rewards, since one player opening a chest gave the drops to everyone...

And then Bungie turned it into a chore, gave people incentive to be selfish jerks, and made us hate the EAZ.

I’m really disappointed in the requirements to upgrade the armor to Legendary. I like the EAZ activity a lot, but even beyond the 100 (or 50 post update) mini-bosses I just don’t want to do 25 patrols on Titan. It’s not that these objectives are too hard, most of them are just boring to do. And if I’m not having fun, I’m just gonna wait till Oct. 1. (Unless we Raiding cause I’ll always come back to Destiny for a Raid night!)

So now I’m finally hopping into No Man’s Sky. It’s a pretty interesting and deep game. And man I wish I could breed it with Destiny cause that’d be one awesome game.

I deleted my fucking blue Solstice armor and did something fun instead.

I was wrong. This quest fucking sucks.

Funny, I'm going for it in order to be prepared for your raid.

So now I’m finally hopping into No Man’s Sky. It’s a pretty interesting and deep game. And man I wish I could breed it with Destiny cause that’d be one awesome game.

Halo + Deus Ex + Vanquish = most awesome game in the history of the hniverse

Nah, I don’t need Destiny to turn into a bad cover shooter.

(:

25 Titan patrol mission was by far the worst part with the Warlock, even counting how bad traversing the EAZ is with their jumps...

I’m looking forward to playing No Man’s Sky again. I only played a bit when they did the last big update, but PSVR support will definitely get me to fire it back up again.

Funny, I'm going for it in order to be prepared for your raid.

In what way?

I just wasn’t having fun. It’s just not structured in a way that is conducive to me enjoying my time with the game. Over the next two weeks, I absolutely could have finished with little effort, and not even that much time.

But it was preventing me from enjoying myself. Every time I did something that wasn’t helping me progress the armor, I had that little nagging thought I should be doing armor stuff. It was better to just delete it and write it off.

The EAZ stuff was a large contributor, though. It took a fun little diversion and made it thoroughly unfun. In fact, it made every activity that had an armor requirement unfun. Instead of just enjoying the strikes, I had to fight two blueberries for kills so I could get the correct orbs. Making the requirements different depending on class was a really boneheaded move.

It's especially funny, because the EAZ was really neat the first day. It gave us all reused enemies under the new context of an open courtyard battle (and let Xbox players fight the PS4-exclusive Brood Mother wizard), gave us some parkour-friendly encounters in a race against the clock, complete with a timed hunt for rewards at the end (rewarding efficient miniboss kills with even more rewards!), and nobody had to worry about missing out on those rewards, since one player opening a chest gave the drops to everyone...

And then Bungie turned it into a chore, gave people incentive to be selfish jerks, and made us hate the EAZ.

You write that as though you believe it was done sequentially - Bungie built a cool space, then Bungie turned that cool space into a chore. It wasn't sequential - we just didn't see the chore at first. (Or, we didn't realize - and THEY didn't realize - that the pretty straightforward "kill minibosses" task would incentivize stupidity when we first saw the playspace.)

That is: all of the ingredients for dislike were there in minute 1 - we just hadn't realized it yet.

Wanna play some Competitive with me?

And then Bungie turned it into a chore, gave people incentive to be selfish jerks, and made us hate the EAZ.

You write that as though you believe it was done sequentially - Bungie built a cool space, then Bungie turned that cool space into a chore. It wasn't sequential - we just didn't see the chore at first. (Or, we didn't realize - and THEY didn't realize - that the pretty straightforward "kill minibosses" task would incentivize stupidity when we first saw the playspace.)

That is: all of the ingredients for dislike were there in minute 1 - we just hadn't realized it yet.

Right. The downfall came with the Blue armor requirements, which most of us didn't have Day 1.

Wanna play some Competitive with me?

Yee. I haven't been on Xbox, since I gave up my Xbox armor grind when they announced that Cross-saves would be this month, but now that I'm done with that, I'm up for anything. Should be on later tonight. Also, I don't know if you messaged me, as I haven't had a phone the past week; I think Texas ruined it, as it does everything else in it.

Yee. I haven't been on Xbox, since I gave up my Xbox armor grind when they announced that Cross-saves would be this month, but now that I'm done with that, I'm up for anything. Should be on later tonight. Also, I don't know if you messaged me, as I haven't had a phone the past week; I think Texas ruined it, as it does everything else in it.

:(

I'm pretty sure that the 'water resistance' you were counting on was just that - not 'water invulnerability', just 'if you get splashed, you'll be fine'.

Which sucks. :(

We're hosting a barbecue this evening, if I'm on it'll be really late. Sometimes timezones suck.

And then Bungie turned it into a chore, gave people incentive to be selfish jerks, and made us hate the EAZ.

You write that as though you believe it was done sequentially - Bungie built a cool space, then Bungie turned that cool space into a chore. It wasn't sequential - we just didn't see the chore at first. (Or, we didn't realize - and THEY didn't realize - that the pretty straightforward "kill minibosses" task would incentivize stupidity when we first saw the playspace.)

That is: all of the ingredients for dislike were there in minute 1 - we just hadn't realized it yet.

Right. The downfall came with the Blue armor requirements, which most of us didn't have Day 1.

Wanna play some Competitive with me?

Yee. I haven't been on Xbox, since I gave up my Xbox armor grind when they announced that Cross-saves would be this month, but now that I'm done with that, I'm up for anything. Should be on later tonight. Also, I don't know if you messaged me, as I haven't had a phone the past week; I think Texas ruined it, as it does everything else in it.

Wait, aren't you married to a Texan?

I too would be down for some competitive if you see me online.

Nah, I don’t need Destiny to turn into a bad cover shooter.

(:

Hey everybody repeat after me!

VANQUISH IS NOT A COVER SHOOTER

- No text -

I might be up pretty late tonight. If you want to do some Comp, absolutely send me a message. Even if I’m not online, I’ll probably be up and I’ll see it.

It’s really odd that a game that isn’t a cover shooter has a cover mechanic and waist high walls literally everywhere. (:

Yes, I’ve seen high level play of Vanquish. It looks neat. I maintain that you can’t tell someone they played a game wrong, especially when that game bakes that wrong gameplay into every play space.

You arguing that Vanquish isn’t a cover shooter is like me telling you there is no grind in Destiny.

Yee. I haven't been on Xbox, since I gave up my Xbox armor grind when they announced that Cross-saves would be this month, but now that I'm done with that, I'm up for anything. Should be on later tonight. Also, I don't know if you messaged me, as I haven't had a phone the past week; I think Texas ruined it, as it does everything else in it.

:(

I'm pretty sure that the 'water resistance' you were counting on was just that - not 'water invulnerability', just 'if you get splashed, you'll be fine'.

I had read articles like this one beforehand, though, which say that it was tested for half an hour underwater, and it worked fine.
And technically my phone worked fine a few days afterward, but started becoming more sluggish as far as apps go, as well as a dead-pixel line that faded away after a few seconds.
Now it just gets stuck in Diagnosis mode. Fortunately, I got the photos and videos of the whole trip out before it started bugging out.

Which sucks. :(

We're hosting a barbecue this evening, if I'm on it'll be really late. Sometimes timezones suck.

As someone who occasionally has an impromptu party happening in the background, disregard your guests! Comp is more exciting when you can barely hear what's going on.

Well, on paper, it seemed fine and looked like it wouldn’t be that bad. After getting 11 mini boss kills in three EAZ runs, and less than 100 orbs in three or four strikes, it stopped being even a little bit appealing.

It’s really odd that a game that isn’t a cover shooter has a cover mechanic and waist high walls literally everywhere. (:

Yes, I’ve seen high level play of Vanquish. It looks neat. I maintain that you can’t tell someone they played a game wrong, especially when that game bakes that wrong gameplay into every play space.

There’s needlers everywhere in Halo 1. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to pick them up :-p

It’s really odd that a game that isn’t a cover shooter has a cover mechanic and waist high walls literally everywhere. (:

Yes, I’ve seen high level play of Vanquish. It looks neat. I maintain that you can’t tell someone they played a game wrong, especially when that game bakes that wrong gameplay into every play space.

There’s needlers everywhere in Halo 1. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to pick them up :-p

Dude. The first time I finished Halo (the second level) on Legendary, it ONLY happened because of Needlers. It was the only weapon I could unload from a distance at an Elite, duck behind cover, and trust that it would kill (or nearly kill) that Elite.

Don't you DARE talk shit about my needlers.

The fact we still don’t have a Needler SMG exotic in Destiny is one of my greatest disappointments in the game.

What platform are you playing it on? I'm going to reinstall it when Beyond comes out next week and I will need people to try the multiplayer improvements out with.

Other than racing games, I think NMS might be the best candidate for VR of any game that wasn't originally built for it.

During the First World War, Winston Churchill said this:

“I think a curse should rest on me because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands and yet I can’t help it, I enjoy every second of it.”

I'm loving this year's Solstice event, and I can't figure out why. At face value, it looks like everything I've ever disliked about Destiny, rolled into a single event; Juggling a ton of overly grindy and repetitive tasks that fill arbitrary progress bars that all build towards gear that doesn't change our play experience in any meaningful way.

When I first looked at the event, I thought "well that Hunter armor looks pretty darn cool... I'll get that and then stop". Very quickly, I found that I agreed with every single complaint that everyone seems to be leveling at this armor upgrade quest. Its way too many patrols, and public events, and EAZ Miniboss kills... totally unnecessary time sink. And yet... I was having fun. A LOT of fun.

I already spend a lot of time playing Destiny (not "streamer" levels of time, but 2-3 hours per day, most days). Even so, I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to chip away at these objectives casually and get them done before the end of the event. I needed to focus on them, and try to knock them out simultaneously wherever possible. It seems that my desire to complete these objectives as efficiently has I can manage has lead to me playing the game in ways that I don't normally play, which is in turn breathing life into it. Trying to get certain elemental orbs AND solar melee kills AND Gambit match completions all at the same time has forced me out of my comfort zone. I'm using weapons and subclasses that I never use, and its great. The notorious "100 EAZ miniboss" requirement has encouraged me to learn my way around the EAZ in far greater detail than I normally would. I engage with it using the "speedrun" portion of my brain, learning specific routes and jumps that get me from point A to B as quickly as possible. I'm engaging with a dimension of mastery that I probably would have ignored otherwise.

I finished my Hunter set in 3 or 4 days... way faster than I'd expected. I love the way the armor looks, and I realized something else; I felt a tiny little tingle of accomplishment wearing it. Seeing other players wearing full legendary sets also brings out a little moment of recognition. Part of me thinks I shouldn't feel this way, but in a game that so often fails to give players ways to stand out visually to other players (I solo-flawlessed the shattered throne and all I got was this stupid t-shi..., err, triumph), here was something that players can do that makes them look badass and stand out if they're willing to put the time in. And I'm sure that feeling will fade over time, but for now, its pretty cool, I think.

Long story short, I've got my Hunter and Warlock sets fully masterworked, and I should get my Titan's legendary set unlocked tonight or tomorrow (I really want to get all 3 sets masterworked before the end of the event, which means I need to get my Titan up to legendary now-ish so I can do the shattered throne run before reset).

I don't say any of this as an argument against any of the criticisms that anyone is making. I agree with just about all of them. But somehow, despite everything, I'm loving my time completing these stupid requirements, and I'm getting a stronger feeling of accomplishment completing these armor sets than any of the recent raids or exotic quests.

I can totally see that angle. I won’t fault anyone for enjoying the armor grind.

I also had a lot of fun using weapons and subclasses I typically ignore. I’ve been running Orpheus Rigs Hunter and almost nothing else for a year now. The recent nerf (if you can even call it that), and the EAZ making Stompees stand out (along with Xur selling Stompees with Traction) has me gravitating between Stompees and Frostees quite a bit, when I wouldn’t have dreamed of using anything but Orpheus Rigs before. I also pulled out a Prometheus Lens for the first time since Curse of Osiris, and I had a blast with it.

It still just feels like too much of a chore for me.

I understand what the armor quest is attempting to do. It’s pushing players to do a bit of everything. The best nights of Destiny I’ve ever had are the nights with a bunch of people online, with people dipping in and out of different parties and fireteams. The nights when you go from Crucible to a Nightfall to Gambit to Blind Well and an Ascendant Challenge then back to Crucible and then into the patrol spaces then to wherever else. If the armor quest had ended up working that way, it could have been great. But it seems like no one played that way, and instead focused on grinding one step at a time, and it just wasn’t fun.

I’ve fallen back into Destiny really hard over this season. It’s been really great. Chasing this armor was the surest way to turn that around and lead to me abandoning the game until Shadowkeep. I’m having too much fun chasing exotics and Redrix and the Bad Juju catalyst to want that. But something has to give, and giving up on the armor (even though I still want it!) was the obvious choice.

Edit: Your point about it looking cool and feeling rewarding to earn and the recognition of seeing someone in the armor is important. Destiny 2 hasn’t ever really had that. I desperately want to see Age of Triumph style ornaments come back. It added a lot to that era of Destiny.

The only part of your boat here I don’t agree with is that 2-3 hours a day would mean not being able to casually get the armor. (Yes, a 100% masterwork set maybe, but that isn’t event limited)

I usually like to mix things up. I generally play off-meta anyway. The EAZ is illustrative of the quality content slices that the core gameplay in Destiny shines in. In spite of the toxicity of our city (of our city) and the way people have chosen to grind rather than play. I have done two objectives so far (with purples on my Titan, almost complete blues for my hunter, and the start of Blues for my Warlock) as a dedicated run straight through. And that was Solar melee kills on my Titan (middle tree hammer chucking is actually a satisfying loop on its own) and the 10 games of Gambit on my Hunter’s blue set. But I was in a groove working toward Hush.

Honestly, when it comes down to it my biggest issue is that, as has been brought up, pushing through the content leads to a lot of selfish behaviors. Bungie is getting better with a lot of these and “as a fireteam” is literally the best thing they have done for Bounty completions. Sadly it isn’t universally applied for steps requiring matchmade activities. Even if they increased the overall requirement if it progressed with the aid of your team instead of in spite of it we would probably see a lot more positivity.

I think out of anything I appreciate that it gives me things to aim at. Goals that may require some mix up. I, personally, would be playing regardless. But it is nice not to flounder around trying to figure out if there is anything specific to decide to do.

I’ve seen a lot of people suggesting going to a points system for quests. Instead of requiring activity completions, require a certain amount of points. Make things within that activity award points, and only actually award the points upon completing the activity. If you abandon (say during the boss phase of EAZ), you get nothing.

- No text -

I convinced Mac to get it and I know of a couple other DBOers that have it. Hopefully we can get a squad together and together, rule the galaxy as father and son!

...

I mean... peacefully explore...

We can use the armor.

- No text -

Don't you DARE talk shit about my needlers.

Oh shit, I think we're about to see Cluade hulk-out! ;)

Don't you DARE talk shit about my needlers.

Oh shit, I think we're about to see Cluade hulk-out! ;)

No one wants to see Claude lose everything but his shorts.

I convinced Mac to get it and I know of a couple other DBOers that have it. Hopefully we can get a squad together and together, rule the galaxy as father and son!

...

I mean... peacefully explore...

I own it on my computer and I played it then for like a month right after they released the very first quality of life patch. You know, to fix the "why are why did I pay for this game" problems. It was pretty good then, but now it's even better and also so much different in so many little ways.

- No text -

Don't you DARE talk shit about my needlers.

Oh shit, I think we're about to see Cluade hulk-out! ;)

No one wants to see Claude lose everything but his shorts.

This is more true than you know.

Don't you DARE talk shit about my needlers.

Oh shit, I think we're about to see Cluade hulk-out! ;)

No one wants to see Claude lose everything but his shorts.

This is more true than you know.

Ouch

r/suicudebywords

I didn't even see the game until after Next came out, so I've heard a little about how things used to be, but I've only ever played the Pretty Dang Good version.

I didn't even see the game until after Next came out, so I've heard a little about how things used to be, but I've only ever played the Pretty Dang Good version.

It was best summed up as "cool, but boring and repetitive"

The only thing that keeps me from jumping on the Xbox bandwagon is that I want to see it using PSVR.

Amazon is doing a Buy One-Get One ½ Off sale on games that are already on sale, and No Man's Sky is among the select list of games.

Article with a number of games here. Either way, it's a great opportunity to pick up the outstanding, content-filled Resident Evil 2 for $38 if you haven't yet!

The only thing that keeps me from jumping on the Xbox bandwagon is that I want to see it using PSVR.

I totally understand. If I could do PSVR I would!

I'm wondering how this game slipped by me before. The series is absolutely fantastic. Outrageous, bombastic, and genuinely hilarious. Adding the games to the in progress "Cody's 100 best graphical adventure games" list. Some really cool shit in here. Playing on DS, so I have no idea if the trilogy for consoles is any good.

I only played about an hour or so, but I came away pretty impressed with No Man's Sky in VR.

It looks surprisingly good still. I suppose the clean art style helps there, as opposed to something like Skyrim VR which ends up just looking really muddy.

The dogfighting is the real highlight for me. It is absolutely incredible in VR. Being able to just look around through the canopy to track the targets . . . it feels like I'm a real fighter pilot. Supremely cool. The interior of the ship is extremely well modeled. It looks amazing. The little details really stand out in VR. It's very cool.

There are a few downsides. The HUD doesn't seem all that great. The little mission pop ups in the lower left get in the way. They are static relative to your view, so they end up clipping through everything and it looks really bad and is pretty distracting.

Using the mining laser is also a little wonky. They decided to use the light bar on the controller, so you have to physically move the controller around to aim at shit, instead of just being able to use your head and have it shoot whatever is centered. It's not a great control scheme, and it might actually be enough to prevent me from really diving in with VR. It's just not a comfortable way to play.

I can see where it will still get that way eventually but the quest lines help immensely with that.

I can see where it will still get that way eventually but the quest lines help immensely with that.

Well, it has drastically changed now. Much more dynamic and far less simple.