It's the only heroic mission I've played and I'm yet to understand any type of modifier. That mission is so annoying.

Have you tried hitting your Ghost button while in the mission? The modifiers are named and described in the same area where you'd see patrol or strike challenges.

I don't think I have. Previously people told me the modifiers were down on the bottom left where buffs show up...but I never saw anything. I'll check with Ghost next time.

Thanks :)

There's a good amount that can be inferred at this point, particularly pre-Destiny. Halo 2's development, for example, has been documented so extensively that I almost wonder if there's anything left to say, apart from perhaps more information about the cut content.

I wonder if Marty still has those VO recordings... O_o

It's the only heroic mission I've played and I'm yet to understand any type of modifier. That mission is so annoying.

Have you tried hitting your Ghost button while in the mission? The modifiers are named and described in the same area where you'd see patrol or strike challenges. It's the same way you'd check for skull modifiers in a D1 nightfall. And they're not always the same per mission - they rotate periodically. So if you've done The Runner multiple times, there's a solid chance that you've actually done more than one combination of modifiers.

It can be really helpful to know what they are. There's one modifier that slows down health/shield regen to an extreme degree, and the only way to get normal regen is to pick up pools of light left by dead enemies. However, a Path of Hunger Voidwalker stomps all over that idea as long as you can keep getting kills.

http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/stabbim/video/42028242

I wish there was a system where we could only pick up certain types of weapons in the campaign. For instance, an SMG or a grenade launcher would be an option to pick up, but it would be your MIDI Minitool or Wicked Sister if you'd unlocked those options. If the designer wanted to give you something special, they'd give you a particular exotic to pick up. I think this would allow the designers to go deeper into how areas feel in terms of pacing and combat. Right now, combat is largely same-y outside of raid encounters.

Or some system where you couldn't just switch weapons at will. I'm not saying this is the solution, but if every activity was locked loadout, you'd have to think a little more with your weapon selection. You could steamroll one part, but then be at a disadvantage in the next.

I feel like this isn't even possible though because of the double primary thing. You're always going to have something for the proper range on hand.

My Xbox playthrough of D2 was close to this, because I powered through so quickly that I had very few weapons in my loadout. I’d play through several missions stuck with a sidearm and an smg as my primary/secondary combo. Strangely enough, it made the campaign a lot more fun, because I didn’t always have the ideal tools for the job.

I miss games where you entered the battlefield with "these" weapons and if you depleted their ammo you would have to come across a resupply drop or pick up enemy weapons. It's getting pretty boring doing everything with the same scout rifle all the time. (It's time to eliminate "loadouts.") Halo missions had great replayability because of this. It always changed and you would have to adapt new tactics on the fly based on the situation. Destiny missions are identical every time. I would say that the CoO Heroic missions changed things up but they are all always "active", except for sometimes "The Runner" is available. It's the only heroic mission I've played and I'm yet to understand any type of modifier. That mission is so annoying.

Heh - I know exactly where you're coming from. I've begun to use whatever is equipped on my character when I log in each time - I might finish a night playing Crucible, so I pull a MasterWorlks handcannon off a character to play that night, and then the next day I log back in on the character that it had been moved FROM, and DIM has equipped some random gun that had been in my inventory. I've started to just play with these random guns. Sometimes it's a lot of fun, sometimes it's terrible... but it's ALWAYS more interesting than using the same 2 guns all the time. ;)

I wish there was a system where we could only pick up certain types of weapons in the campaign. For instance, an SMG or a grenade launcher would be an option to pick up, but it would be your MIDI Minitool or Wicked Sister if you'd unlocked those options. If the designer wanted to give you something special, they'd give you a particular exotic to pick up. I think this would allow the designers to go deeper into how areas feel in terms of pacing and combat. Right now, combat is largely same-y outside of raid encounters.

Or some system where you couldn't just switch weapons at will. I'm not saying this is the solution, but if every activity was locked loadout, you'd have to think a little more with your weapon selection. You could steamroll one part, but then be at a disadvantage in the next.

I feel like this isn't even possible though because of the double primary thing. You're always going to have something for the proper range on hand.

My Xbox playthrough of D2 was close to this, because I powered through so quickly that I had very few weapons in my loadout. I’d play through several missions stuck with a sidearm and an smg as my primary/secondary combo. Strangely enough, it made the campaign a lot more fun, because I didn’t always have the ideal tools for the job.

I miss games where you entered the battlefield with "these" weapons and if you depleted their ammo you would have to come across a resupply drop or pick up enemy weapons. It's getting pretty boring doing everything with the same scout rifle all the time. (It's time to eliminate "loadouts.") Halo missions had great replayability because of this. It always changed and you would have to adapt new tactics on the fly based on the situation. Destiny missions are identical every time. I would say that the CoO Heroic missions changed things up but they are all always "active", except for sometimes "The Runner" is available. It's the only heroic mission I've played and I'm yet to understand any type of modifier. That mission is so annoying.

LOLOLOL

Every time someone complains about microtransactions or lootcrates, they mention it's OK so long as it's only cosmetic. From what I could tell, Eververse only supplies shaders, ships, ghosts, landspeeders, etc., so why is it so despised?

The ghost shells breach the divide between "purely cosmetic" and "provide an unfair advantage." The exotic ghost shells work on all worlds and most also provide unique abilities which make acquiring other items easier. They are vastly more powerful, useful, and better looking than their non-exotic counterparts.

Personally, I think there's a second egregious transgression in microtrans land, which is the slot-machine gambling nature of some of the purchase options. This isn't a Bungie problem so much as it is, in my esteem, and entire game industry problem. I'm more willing to accept it in a free to play game than I am in a full price AAA game. Furthermore, with Bungie's exp throttling coming to light, it means grinding for gambling has been made more difficult than it seems, which makes me wonder where else Bungie has their finger on the scales in order to make paying actual money more attractive to players than actually playing the game to earn rewards.

That's helped me to stop playing Destiny 2, because I have no connection to my character anymore. This is not the hero I played through the last several years. This is my alt. A warlock who was created purely so I could say I knew firsthand how bad the warlock jump was. Joke's on me, I suppose, as they now own the only blink.

Either way, instead of Becoming Legend, my Hunter Became Garbage. It was not a fun trip, and I regret my purchase. I've also lost faith in Bungie to fix it. It's clear that there are many passionate people who care about games and gamers at Bungie, but I don't think those people are in charge. The incredible art and sound of Destiny is wasted on mediocre, shallow gameplay with a sub-par plot, uninspired, unfunny writing, and a pvp game that would have been compared unfavorably to Tribes 2.

That Bungie made this game stings all the more. The company of Marathon, Halo, Pathways, Myth, and Oni is now a company of microtransactions wagging the dog, all dressed up as a slot machine timesink rather than a fun romp you want to repeat over and over for the sheer joy of it.

Heh, I was confused for a moment when you mentioned Waypoint. I thought “How did I miss something like that getting posted on Halo Waypoint?”. I felt guilty for a moment (given all the work and time I spent on that site) before I remembered the other “Waypoint” :)

It actually really annoys me that Vice chose that name. It's not a bad name if it existed in a vacuum, but it doesn't. Surely someone on their team must have known that Halo Waypoint existed already?

I think by the time Vice Waypoint came along, 343 had pretty much abandoned the “Halo Waypoint” brand. They still have the URL, but they revamped the Xbox App into the “Halo Channel”, and dropped the name “Waypoint” from their web portal completely, as far as I know (all this was a little after my time with them, so I could have the details wrong). But yeah, the word “Waypoint” is still very much associated with Halo in my mind.

They actually talk about that. They operated under Vice Gaming for a month or two while Austin built what Waypoint be and figured out the name. They did podcasts and explicitly called out Halo Waypoint during their talks about the name of the site, but just decided there wouldn’t be enough confusion for it to really matter. I’m in agreement—Halo Waypoint seemingly died long before this came along.

Heh, I was confused for a moment when you mentioned Waypoint. I thought “How did I miss something like that getting posted on Halo Waypoint?”. I felt guilty for a moment (given all the work and time I spent on that site) before I remembered the other “Waypoint” :)

It actually really annoys me that Vice chose that name. It's not a bad name if it existed in a vacuum, but it doesn't. Surely someone on their team must have known that Halo Waypoint existed already?

I think by the time Vice Waypoint came along, 343 had pretty much abandoned the “Halo Waypoint” brand. They still have the URL, but they revamped the Xbox App into the “Halo Channel”, and dropped the name “Waypoint” from their web portal completely, as far as I know (all this was a little after my time with them, so I could have the details wrong). But yeah, the word “Waypoint” is still very much associated with Halo in my mind.

Hence my curiosity. Does Cody have firsthand knowledge of Bungie inner workings?

First hand would mean I was there. It's all second hand from talking to people who were there.

It's not a joke. It's not like writing a blog post. For instance, when someone tells me that Bungie offered Jason Jones 8 figures to come back, I have to corroborate that. You can imagine that is tough.

Isn't he writing a book about B.U.N.G.L.E.?

I think he has alluded to learning a lot of this information during interviews with employees (and/or ex-employees) for his book project.

This is what I mean.

I love Cody Miller because he is an intriguing character.

Cody, I don't know if you're a clever box of smarts or a hyperbolic windbag...or both, but I dig it. But it also makes it hard to differentiate between the two characters. And I keep reading the jokes(?) about this book...I don't know if it's real or not.

Hence my curiosity. Does Cody have firsthand knowledge of Bungie inner workings?