4 weeks with Destiny review and miscellaneous thoughts (Destiny)

by scarab , Tuesday, October 07, 2014, 11:28 (3942 days ago) @ RC

Wider, weirder monster closets

Those blind caves could have cracks in their ceilings that enemies drop from to explain(ish) how non teleporters got there. Like those Flood vents in the rooms in AoTCR and TB.

Aside: perhaps the 'shroud of darkness' in monster closets would only offer damage reduction, rather than full immunity. If you're playing aggressively they can almost get stuck in there and it's annoying not to be able to do anything to them.

Yeh.

Matchmake directly into high-level strikes of your choice
When selecting a particular Strike from the Director, I wish we had the option to matchmake into high-level versions directly. The low-level ones aren't particularly challenging when 20+ with legendaries and exotics, and going into the Vanguard playlists is a bit pot-luck. It'd be nice to have the challenge we want, on the level we want. If it rewarded less than the Vanguard playlists since you'll know exactly what's coming, that'd be totally fine.

And let us select modifiers

Show how we got our cool stuff

If you can't remember then it wasn't such an amzing story. I remember all my jammy acquisitions ;-)

Mixed up beginning and ends of missions

Made it very easy to know exactly where to go to and how to get there with just a glimpse of a chest location. I'm generally not good at remembering direction but I'm usually good in Destiny.

At the start of missions, we need to be thrown into fights sometimes (e.g. Silent Cartographer). We need more missions where we're just left on the world to do whatever we want (dropping back to a 'patrol'-like state), or have to clear up enemies and collect some object that was protected by the boss. A little more gradual come-down from the highs of the boss fights sometimes, rather than the vertical cliff it is currently.

Yes, and some quiet time would be nice.

Moar stats
The PGCR kept on b.net doesn't even replicate the content of the one in game (which aren't even extensive). I hope it's just a work-in-progress thing and the data is there somewhere.

Aside: 'Sparrow Splatters' stat needs to be a thing

And death by warsat should be a medal.

A sure way to get the exact Legendary we want
With the exact scopes, upgrades and options from the pool of ones that are already available in the randomised drops. The Legendaries available from the store are nice, but so many of them aren't really exactly what I want. They don't fit how I play or could ever conceive of playing. Armour pieces from the stores don't match the weapon type properly, that sort of thing.

I don't want to reach a point where the only way I can progress in optimisation is to completely rely on RNGesus to drop Legendaries with just the right upgrade options. Even if the road is made long and difficult, a definite way to get there would be nice.

Yep

Switching sub-class options should take away some charge
If you're willing to go back-and-forth into your character screen, you can kinda cheese it to minimise cooldown and maximise power. For example, you can armour your Bladedancer to completely shirk Strength, then pick 'Fast Twitch' which gives you a 5 second cooldown on Blink Strike. Then as soon as it's charged, switch to the option that gives you extra-backstab damage or camo after hits. It's weird to even entertain that the idea that the optimal/easiest way to play is to break the flow of combat so much.

???

Put more weights on RNGesus
Stuff like bias against picking strikes/maps we've played recently in MM. Or, if we got Shards from a Raid chest recently, prioritise armour in the next one. Or, if we already have 3 million Queen's Guard Helmets, a higher chance at the Sniper or the ship in Queens' Wrath missions. Right now it seems totally random and that's just absurd: with so many players, someone, somewhere, is going to have a string of obscenely bad luck on all these dice rolls. Individual player experience needs to be actively managed a little more.

Yes

More/deeper interaction with all those characters in the tower

Mass Effect conversation wheel for the win

Bosses shouldn't be immune on their introduction

yep

Titans' Shoulder Charge screen effect not being blinding in dark places

First time I encountered it I thought it was some form of long distance, Psion, mental attack. I thought they were trying to disorient me.