I could see why my "level" should affect that, whether that is derived from earned XP or light earned from gear, but why should a purple scout rifle in my hand perform worse or better based on the quality of the rocket launcher on my back?

The wording is just bad. I don't think that's how it works. Your scout rifle will do the damage it does based on your attack, and your level if the enemy is above it. Light level doesn't affect your power, it is representative of it. Or so I'd hope.

You are right though, in that defense and weapon damage are too different of stats to be lumped together. Defense doesn't matter if you never get hit, so you could have very little, yet have kickass weapons and clean up from a distance. But then you'd have two light levels for defense and attack, which would be even more confusing.

I thought the Alpha did it just fine, by telling you if your overall defense was up to par, and each individual weapon you had equipped.

How much more quickly does the average of 45 and 34 tell you how your gear is doing than the two numbers 45 and 34 do?

Much quicker when you're looking at the eight or so pieces of weapons and gear Destiny actually has and not my simplified example. :)

I can see why armor defensive stats should aggregate (NOT average!) but why should my two non-equipped weapons affect how well the weapon I'm holding performs?

I could see why my "level" should affect that, whether that is derived from earned XP or light earned from gear, but why should a purple scout rifle in my hand perform worse or better based on the quality of the rocket launcher on my back?

That's aggressively dumb, if that's the way it works. If not.. okay, but if this is Bungie abandoning the "the thing that's different about our game is how you level above the soft cap" then they explained the idea better than they explained the abandonment of it.

I can talk about it... Nothing I saw or played was embargoed. I was thinking of doing a post over at HBO as well, but I could certainly talk about it here if the DBO crowd is interested.

Here is fine. HBO hasn't been the same since it merged with Tumblr.

Huh, I never even look at levels above people's names. Only in the menu so I can see what level/gear they have.

I'm probably making a bigger deal out of it than it really is, but I am having flashbacks of the first time I went into Trials underleveled. The PVE part of it is more confusing to me.

According to BWU, light level is visible on your nameplate as well.

But not above someone's head in a game. It seems to me like light level is the indicator of power, while level is just an experience level. I would like to know power level of an enemy rather than experience. This is doubly confusing for me in regard to PvE. According to how I understand this, I could possibly be destroyed by an enemy at the same "level" as me, or crush them, all depending on my gear. There's no way for me to quickly know how I will fate against them by just looking at their level.

Huh, I never even look at levels above people's names. Only in the menu so I can see what level/gear they have.

According to BWU, light level is visible on your nameplate as well.

But not above someone's head in a game. It seems to me like light level is the indicator of power, while level is just an experience level. I would like to know power level of an enemy rather than experience. This is doubly confusing for me in regard to PvE. According to how I understand this, I could possibly be destroyed by an enemy at the same "level" as me, or crush them, all depending on my gear. There's no way for me to quickly know how I will fare against them by just looking at their level.

So if I went in to trials and inspected another player, I'd say "well my light level is higher but his rank is higher so I have no idea what is going to happen". I doubt it will play out like that, though.

Also, realistically, it'll be a week and everyone will be at level 40 anyway, so that part won't be relevant.

which characters did you interact with?

I only played multiplayer... I watched a campaign demonstration. Tim Longo (the creative director) played a chunk of the 2nd mission for us.

The multiplayer mode I played is called Warzone. It is a 24 player PvPvE mode. Each team spawns on opposite sides of a huge playspace that contains several bases or capture points. You will spawn directly in front of a base that is controlled by AI enemies (forerunner or covenant). You must clear out the enemies to take control of the base for your team. Once your home base is established, you gain access to requisition terminals. As the match progresses, you earn requisition points that can be spent at these terminals. You earn points by scoring kills, assists, capturing control points, etc. You can customize your loadout from a selection of default weapons, buy heavy or special weapons (shotguns, snipers, rockets, swords, etc), or buy vehicles.

Between the 2 opposing home bases are several secondary bases. These bases act as capture points which can be taken and held. If your team is able to capture and hold all secondary bases, the enemy team's generator in their home base becomes exposed and vulnerable to attack. Destroying the enemy team's reactor is 1 possible way to achieve victory. You can also win by reaching the target point score (the build I played had a winning score of 1000 points).

While this push to control capture points is happening, there are still enemy AI forces moving through the area. Killing them will earn requisition points. From time to time, enemy Boss characters will appear in the area. Killing them awards a large chunk of requisition points.

So there is A LOT going on. The battlefield feels a bit more chaotic than Halo multiplayer usually does, but not so much that it loses focus. The cool thing is you always have options. The hardcore PvP players will go out of their way to target the enemy team. Campaign or co-op fans can focus their attention of taking out the AI targets and bosses to earn points for their team. Vehicle lovers will have a blast saving up requisition points and buying warthogs, banshees and more from the vehicle bays.

The gunplay feels great (not quite as good as Destiny, but close IMO). The new spartan abilities are all nice additions to the game as well. You feel slightly more mobile and powerful than in previous Halos.

For campaign, I saw about 10 minutes of gameplay and a couple cutscenes. I won't spoil the cutscene's... I'll just say they were very cool.
The gameplay I saw featured Chief and the rest of Blue Team fighting a bunch of covenant. It was classic Halo combat, but the environments felt a touch wider, with more vertical layering going on. You can tell the playspaces and encounters have been designed with Co-op in mind. Plenty of opportunities for flanking maneuvers and taking different paths to hit enemies from various angles. The squad orders felt right at home within the Halo sandbox. Its one of those features where you see it in action and say "why hasn't this been in the series all along?". I got some definite Republic Commando vibes from it. Not too much... just the right amount :)

Overall, I came away more excited for the future of Halo than I have been in years!

The more experience you have the better gear you can get. Experience (level) determines what activities you can participate in. Your effectiveness is determined by your gear choices.

That's my understanding...

The info we're still missing is if our level (1-40) still impacts our damage output and armor. As in: if 2 players have the same light level, but one is 33 and the other is 34, is the 33 at a disadvantage?

The best possible explanation I've heard is that our 1-40 level has nothing to do with our armor or damage output... but it DOES determine what gear we are able to equip, and THAT is reflected by our light level.

Right, but with the question specifically about IB and trials, we will know in the future (because we'll have figured it out) and you can still see it at a glance. That was the primary concern brought up by bluerunner

Yes, being able to see it is important. My first concern with all of this was that we would need to take both rank and light levels into account. So if I went in to trials and inspected another player, I'd say "well my light level is higher but his rank is higher so I have no idea what is going to happen". I doubt it will play out like that, though.

The info we're still missing is if our level (1-40) still impacts our damage output and armor. As in: if 2 players have the same light level, but one is 33 and the other is 34, is the 33 at a disadvantage?

The best possible explanation I've heard is that our 1-40 level has nothing to do with our armor or damage output... but it DOES determine what gear we are able to equip, and THAT is reflected by our light level.

Right, but with the question specifically about IB and trials, we will know in the future (because we'll have figured it out) and you can still see it at a glance. That was the primary concern brought up by bluerunner

The best possible explanation I've heard is that our 1-40 level has nothing to do with our armor or damage output... but it DOES determine what gear we are able to equip, and THAT is reflected by our light level.

With the current system, I can quickly tell if someone is more or less powerful by their level. With the new system, we could both have a 40 above our heads, but have very different light levels. How do we know at a quick glance what we're up against?

According to BWU, light level is visible on your nameplate as well.

How much more quickly does the average of 45 and 34 tell you how your gear is doing than the two numbers 45 and 34 do?

Much quicker when you're looking at the eight or so pieces of weapons and gear Destiny actually has and not my simplified example. :)

It seems to me, what I really need to know are my attack and defense numbers. A player with high attack and low defense needs to play differently than a player with high defense and low attack, even if they average out to the same number.

If Light is no longer used either as a gate, or in calculations... then yeah, it's redundant.

They have said activities will have recommended light levels, so again, Light is just a simple reference number now, which sounds nice to me. I'll keep an eye on all my numbers but that Light will give me quick impressions on my teammates and refreshers on my other characters. Above all, Light will indicate level of power and not dictate it, which has been a hamper on my ability to play Destiny how I want to in the past.

Which number in Skyrim is analogous to light? It's been awhile, but I can't think of one. My gear has armor ratings, my weapons have offensive ratings, and my character has a level. Destiny now has all of those, plus light. Where's the light in Skyrim?

Not there. I guess I wasn't very clear, but I was just saying levels will now basically work the same as in those games (and most RPGs). Your character ranks up based on gaining XP from doing stuff. Now, independently, you try to get better gear (that doesn't change your level) at the same time. Light is just a way to track that second ongoing quest.

In Skyrim, Dragonbone armor and Ebony weapons have high statistics. Teleport a character with that kind of gear into Destiny and you'd be able to use his or her Light number to see they have high quality crap without inspecting each piece.

Since I almost exclusively play as Hunter right now, I have no idea what's good armor for a Warlock or Titan. There's also so many guns in the game, I can't know them all off-hand either. Light gives me a simple number to compare.

No, I didn't get a chance to drive a warthog in campaign. I did in Multiplayer, though.