Topic: Destiny

[shingi_70]

Yep. When I first played the Beta it seemed to me that there wasn't alot of people out in the world when i'm doing mission or Patroling and chalked it up to probably not as many Xbox One players as PS4 users. But playing the full game it seems to be a design decision as I was paroling on the cosmodrome and there were only a few other players around me, but once an Event started we got a big influx of players running around.


It seems that alot of the decisions they made are very MMOish like the multiple currencies but the game is seemingly hurt by the fact that their isn't multiple hub area's like the tower (though i'm expecting each planet to get one as the updates go on).

I've been enjoying the Crucible but none of the levels seem memorable.

[Ceric]

From experience having just the Tower is actually a good thing. 

That's interesting, for me the world is always fairly barren.  I figure in release they put more people in but they didn't.  I haven't seen in influx of people for events.  Considering I've only ran into 1 event  I don't have a large sample set.

[Ceric]

I really didn't get to play a lot this weekend.  I did take my Titan into PvP enough to clear his bounties for those up.  Which was nice because he got 2 levels off it and a nice Blue Chest piece off of it.  Interestingly enough they gave him maps that I hadn't gotten on my PvP Hunter.  Might be a level thing.  Also got an Arc Damage Sniper rifle.  Can't wait to use one of those again.

I'll link it later but, the thoughts that Tim Buckley had today about Destiny at Cad-Comic are a lot in line to my thoughts.  Read those and to expand on that the Multiplayer was obviously balanced for Control and none of the other modes.  The maps just don't feel right in the other modes.  They should have made different variations for them.

I also realize that I miss a crafting system.  I just can't get better pants.  A vendor that would help you fill in those gear gaps be nice.  The loot just doesn't drop enough that I'm feeling loot starved in some slots.  I have yet to naturally get a class item.

[Ceric]

Last night I was going to Finish Venus.  I did it a bit out of order.  I like the Vex because they at least have a different weak point than the other two.  I ended up doing all the missions but the last story one.  It was getting to late.  I'm going to go through that tonight possibly.

I was playing and I saw Dr.Metts on and a few others I knew I thought about joining them but I didn't.  I was a little dismayed that Jonny's character who is only a level above me had almost all greens and 3 blues.  To me 1 Blue and a few greens.  Oh my luck.

I also tried the Dungeon on the Moon.  I got to the very last boss.  Which is in its way a sorta interesting fight but since we couldn't communicate we wiped enough I lost my team.  My Problem, beyond not being able to communicate in any way, in that fight was that it just kept spawning enemies.  So here I had this huge hard boss but, instead of fighting the boss I had to just keep clearing trash.  Bad design.  Should be only X Trash or set wave times, like 25% health, 50% Health, etc.  I would like to do it with a Fireteam of friends that I could talk to.  Be a lot simpler.

[Ceric]

Finished up Venus.  I wished this game had Sidequests.  I like to learn some more about the Awoken.  In the process of finishing up Venus I went over level 15 and opened up my Sub-Class but, thats a misnomer.

I wouldn't call it a Sub-Class as an Alternative class that you have to level from scratch.  You heard that right.  By using my "Sub-Class" I have No Grenade, No Super, No Double Jump, No enhanced Melee, and No Character Stat Upgrade.  I am literally starting from scratch with better gear again.  I don't think that's how I would have handled that. 

I've been leveling that on my Titan.  I like the Magnet Grenade.  I don't know if I like the Purple Bubble Super.  As a Shield it works well that problem with it is that beside people not being able to shoot you.  You can't shoot them.  Making it not as useful.  In all honesty if I could take the grenade from this spec and almost everything else from my other spec it would be Ideal but, a little OP.

Also got a cool ship as a Story Reward.  I'm surprised I haven't seen more of them when I go and do PvP to be honest since everyone should be getting them.  I mean not like there are a lot of alternative ways to get through the game unless you just grind PvP and Patrols.

[Ceric]

Off to Mars. Interestingly the first mission gives you an upgraded Speeder.  Also introduces the Cabal who must be Ink men contained in suits.  This has been harder.  Mostly be the introduction of better armored enemies and more aggressive weapons.  Plus Ambushes.

I got a Blue Class Ingram last night.  I was really excited because I wanted a new belt.  I want and got it decoded... It turned into a Mote of Light.  I have to get 24 Motes of Light for a new built.  Seriously game.  I know I'm getting it a few levels early but its still worthless to me for a good amount of time.  Though my Cryptarch is Level 2 because Blue Engrams pop them about half a reputation level and I've gotten 2.  My luck holds though because I have yet to see anything that was locked behind the later levels in the store.

I've been thinking more about this game and I actually miss having a Crafting System, places to get pre-defined loot, and Resistances gear.  It sounds odd but there it is.  I have had some slots that I've had a hard time filling which is where the Crafting comes in.  Since the last time I had a Weapon choice as a reward, lvl 8 I think, I have only seen AutoRifles really drop that where green.  I have yet to get a Machine Gun drop.  I would like to get a Scout Rifle again and if there was a predefined reward for a quest I could do that Quest to get one.  Resistance is sort of a weird one.  As it stands there really isn't any armor that rewards you for being prepared like in Monster Hunter. 

When I have more time I'll probably right something longer on the things that are missing for where they took this game.

[Ceric]

I busted the Level 18 Glass Ceiling last night.  Which was interesting.  It says that I'm know eligible for Legendary loot and will be getting Crucible Marks and Vanguard marks.  I argue that I should have been accumulating them forever but whatever.  Also noticed onced I dinged that Loot started dropping better.  Probably not coincident.

I thought about joining Jonny in the game.  We seem to play around the same time at night and he's a couple missions behind me so were close. 

I was poking around the Grimoire.  Which there interesting.  They also show you stats versus the enemy and how many you have to kill to rank up with them.  That particular bit of information be nice to have in game not hidden on a card.  Anything interesting fact is they give you special quirks at times of an enemy.  Like a Cyclops, effective a huge Vex Turret even though that's not its real purpose, if you get about 3 precision shots on it it will go crazy for a little bit and shoot randomly hurting other Vex.  I know from card progress that flashed, something also that should be checkable in game, I have 20 or so more story missions, there is a total of 50 according to the card, was wondering where they could be.  Then I saw there was a card area for Saturn and Jupiter.  I wonder if I follow and do all the Story content if I'll end up raiding level, 26.  It also specifically noted the type of damage enemies.  Which is weird because there is no Resistance in the game yet.

[ShyGuy]

I spent a couple hours playing Destiny last night, and it was mostly good. The controls felt tight and the shooting was polished. Enemies have an interesting non-aggressive AI which was a nice change of pace. The story was generic and really mostly nonsensical stuff that meant nothing. If they stripped out all the MMO stuff I wouldn't care, but the game part of the game was nice.

It was gorgeous too, maybe the best looking console game I've ever played? Draw distance was impressive, so were the sharp textures. The load times were not impressive.

I do wonder how long it would hold my interest, it seems like the lack of variety in enemies and missions would get old and the combat would turn into a real grind for levels.

My favorite mode of combat was to run around knifing everyone, and I saw an unlockable sub class or something called Blade Dancer that peaked my interest.

It's amazing how many bits and pieces of other games I recognized while playing. Obviously lots of Halo influence, some Borderlands, some Call of Duty, a serving of World of Warcaft, a little Elder Scrolls, even a dash Metroid Prime and The Conduit of all things.

[Ceric]

Well I finished the story over the weekend.  I was disappointed that you didn't naturally end at Level 20 by doing the story and the Weapon I got out of it was as sweat Pulse Rifle.

I did the post 20 content some.  I'm going to go straight out say it Heroic = Shitty.  Here is my Heroic story experience.  I spent an 1 hr 47 minutes in game time with the majority of that being on the last boss because Bungie decided do give the Lightswitch modifier that significantly ups Melee damage in a level where there are those stealthed fallen that rush you and even with a 5 level gear difference will 2 shot you.  So Yeah, they one shot you now.  Combine that with a cramped Boss room with a lot of other enemies as well and you can see the annoyance.  I had to just give up.  The next day I try it again thinking I just had bad luck.  This time I get the Cabal story mission with enemies who don't flinch.  If you haven't done Cabal there is an enemy with a riot shield you can't destroy or take away and you flinch them be shooting there gun arms so that you can shoot that body.  If you can't flinch them they will overwhelm you because you do squat damage to the gun hand.  **** that, left it.

I did random strikes and had limited success with that and found that Bungie loves to give me Chests when I literally need any other piece of gear with any light on to advance my level.  Also, to my Horror, I found out that even though you are doing PvP for a given faction you don't actually get Faction rep for that faction for doing it.  Instead you have to buy there cloak for 2,500 Glimmer and wear that and ALL of your rep will than be for this faction.

So all the time I've spent with this game amounts to a colossal FU in Endgame.

I don't know why they even bother with the first 20 levels.  The story was obviously trimmed down from where it was.  Narratives just sort of end with no conclusion or hit at it.  Loot is rare to get anything worth a darn that's even when you get something.  If you have a problem with something there is no real clear path to getting through like you have with an MMO.  Challenges are made epically harder than they should be by not having the barest forms of communications.  The core of this game is solid.  Everything else around it is a stinking mess.

[lolmonade]

I've made it to level 21 at this point with my warlock.  For me, the Strike missions at level 20 have been the most effective way to get blue gear/weapons, although I did get a purple Rocket Launcher in the last crucible game I played.  I see some people at level 25 or above, and I can't fathom how someone has collected that much light yet, given how much you have to grind.
 
I think if you have people to play with, especially that you know, the post level 20 content is good fun (we still need to try playing together sometime).  My group tried the Heroic Moon mission, and got completed stomped in the first room of fighting-off hordes.  The enemies are just horrible bullet sponges in those cases, at least for a lvl 21 & 2 lvl 22s..
 
Ceric, in regards to the story, while I didn't care either way about it, that seems to be the common complaint that it's basically window dressing to the gameplay, which in of itself is very repetative/grindy.  It's also clear that they're planning on having this being a multi-game/DLC-heavy experience.  I agree completely that the story end-point was kind-of garbage, but as someone who will probably be continuing to play this game, I hope bungie/activision actually do something about the very valid criticisms levied at their game, although unlikely, given how much they've made on the game already.

[Ceric]

I wouldn't complain about the story if it was blatantly clear that things were taken out.  I also believe that you should naturally be able to reach max level in any game like this by going through the story.  Its like going through a WoW Expansion just to find out that you completed all the quests and now you have to grind Dungeons/Mobs/PvP to get to the cap. (Not talking Light Levels just getting to 20.  Light Levels is just Gear-Ranking.  Which is fine it just a little stupid to mix it in with you Level.  What happens when Level Cap is Upped?)

Broodwars posted this on Twitter and I have to agree.  Warning unlike NFR this has Language.

I'm going to sit down and right down my thoughts for the next Nintendo Free Radio.  I'm going to try to be pretty Clinic.  There is stuff I really Like which makes the other parts so frustrating.  I'm also going to grade Bungie on what they wanted to do compared to what they did.

I'll end my rant with saying what we should have gotten was Vanilla WoW.  What we got was Burning Crusades without Vanilla Content. 

[ObbyDent]

That is a fantastic video.

[lolmonade]

I've gotten my warlock to level 27 through lots of crucible matches & many, many strikes with a few friends.  This is where i've gotten into a leveling slump.  So the way leveling works after level 20 is light, a new stat that armor starts coming with, grants you a new level after you're wearing armor with enough of it..  There are blue, purple (legendary), and gold (exotic) gear that have progressively larger potential light stats. 

Each of these pieces of armor can be upgraded with glimmer ($), materials you find in the different planets, and "ascendant shards".  Ascendant shards are hard to come by, either having to complete the daily heroic story (story level chosen daily with difficulty modifiers), completing the weekly heroic raid, completing a public event, or (from what i've read) a potential reward for Vault of Glass Raid.  I've also heard if you buy legendary equpiment from the vanguard or crucible vendors and deconstruct them, there's a chance at gettin g ascendant shards.  Lastly, I've read about several people having two alts at level 20+ for the sole purpose of farming these materials (I don't know how anyone has that much time).

The problem with this is that the possibility of getting either this or the ascendant materials to upgrade weapons is completely random, and there are only a certain number of things you can do on a daily or weekly basis to obtain these materials.  Basically, if you don't have a pile of people to organize daily/weeklies/raids, you're gated pretty heavily when it comes to leveling up at a certain point.
 
This game is like a candy apple with dirt covered all over it.  At its core, there's great gameplay, but there's this layer of crap that makes it an exercise in frustration sometimes.

[Ceric]

I talked about it on NFR recently but, after failing for a very long time to breach level 21 one night my Cryptarch leveled and I was shot to level 23.  Now I'm level 24 and the only legendary I've gotten was a class item and it turned into material.  I've done a ton of Crucible it feels like and I still don't have the Rep to buy any of the legendaries.  With going through the whole story and doing a good number of strikes I still don't have the Rep to do use my vanguard stuff.  It makes me wary to try t get rep with other factions.  The only thing I can say is that I'm Rank 1 with the Queen and the Iron Banner.  The Queen was a real grind since I was stuck at 21 so the only way to get rep was to do the bounties daily since it wouldn't let me do the mission.

I'm sorry but this game has a Rewards problem something serious especially since they did the patch that was suppose to make it better.

[lolmonade]

I talked about it on NFR recently but, after failing for a very long time to breach level 21 one night my Cryptarch leveled and I was shot to level 23.  Now I'm level 24 and the only legendary I've gotten was a class item and it turned into material.  I've done a ton of Crucible it feels like and I still don't have the Rep to buy any of the legendaries.  With going through the whole story and doing a good number of strikes I still don't have the Rep to do use my vanguard stuff.  It makes me wary to try t get rep with other factions.  The only thing I can say is that I'm Rank 1 with the Queen and the Iron Banner.  The Queen was a real grind since I was stuck at 21 so the only way to get rep was to do the bounties daily since it wouldn't let me do the mission.

I'm sorry but this game has a Rewards problem something serious especially since they did the patch that was suppose to make it better.

I agree with you, that said, best way to grind rep for vanguard & crucible is to complete bounties.  The bounties for Crucible will be things like "Kill 25 warlocks" or "get 5 postmortem awards", and give 50-100 additional faction rep based on the difficulty.  The ones for vanguard (which you can farm other rep by wearing the right faction piece) are done by completing the vanguard bounties, many of them can be completed during strikes, and others are things like completing a certain number of patrol missions on a planet or defeating a certain boss in a story level on "heroic" modifier.
 
Not saying it isn't a bit of a ridiculous grind, but you could probably get your rep up in a week or so, depending on how often you play.

[Ceric]

The Crucible ones are really ridiculous especially the Iron Banner ones.  The Vanguard ones aren't overly bad.

[lolmonade]

I finally got over the level 27 hump, now a level 28 Warlock.  Best way to farm ascendant materials after all your equipment is purple or higher:

Complete the weekly heroic strike - should net you ascendant materials (I forget how much).
Do the daily heroic story every day - completing level 24 difficulty gives you one ascendant material, completing level 28 gives you 2.

Complete at least one public event daily - nets you an ascendant material daily.  I've found sometimes if you complete more public events you'll get awarded more.

Have excess vanguard or crucible marks and don't want any of the armor they offer?  Buy it and deconstruct it, should net you about 2 ascendant shards.
 
Make alts, get them to level 20+, and complete the above with them.

 
My RL friends and I haven't gotten to a point where we're comfortably ready to try the nightfall strike, so I can't speak to that.

 
That said, anyone here still playing other than myself & Ceric (sorry about yesterday, Ceric, we should team up to knock out some strikes or something)?  My group consists of 4 people so far, and I think we're gonna try & assemble a raid team to try out the Vault of Glass sometime in the next couple of weeks.  I'd rather we get someone from these forums than complete randoms.
 

[Ceric]

I like to do the raid.  I enjoyed raiding in my WoW days but, I'm not a great FPS Player.

How are you doing the Weekly Strike?  I can't get anyone to play with so for me its near impossible because it doesn't seem to do the random group making so its just me alone doing a lvl 24 strike tuned for 3 people.  Not something I can really do.

[lolmonade]

I like to do the raid.  I enjoyed raiding in my WoW days but, I'm not a great FPS Player.

How are you doing the Weekly Strike?  I can't get anyone to play with so for me its near impossible because it doesn't seem to do the random group making so its just me alone doing a lvl 24 strike tuned for 3 people.  Not something I can really do.

I have 3 friends I regularly play with, which helps.  Even if I do it with them once, I wouldn't mind helping you out, but we'd need to find a 3rd.  When do you usually play?  I'm generally on sometime between 8:30 - 11:00 EST, and unless I'm in the middle of one already or gathering materials, I'm generally up for strikes/group play.

[Ceric]

Ironically we are normally on at the same time.
My son goes to bed at 8pm CST so I normally jump on around then if I'm going to play.

[lolmonade]

Ceric, you give up on Destiny?  What level are you?
 
I've finally broken the threshold to lvl 29 on my Warlock, just as the DLC's about to hit.  Ran Vault of Glass once up to Aethon, but my PUG group kept getting wiped, so I had to leave at that point.
 
A lot of changes have taken place to expedite the leveling process from 20+, including material drops coming from the patrol bounties/daily heroic story missions, and the planet materials are just plain more plentiful on each planet.
Biggest problem is still no easy way to group up on strikes/Raid.  Vault of Glass is probably one of the most interesting things i've played through so far, but unless you seek out a group and can devote a minimum of 2 hours to it, it's a challenge to get to experience it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[Ceric]

Not exactly.  Been crunched on time and there really hasn't been anything to entice me to jump back in and play some.  I was really dismayed that there really hasn't been any holiday events.  Those got me back into WoW when I was in a lawl.

Also the lack of finding any community has also gotten me.  So if I get to Glass Vault Level that's great.  I invested a lot of time for something I'll probably not get to do.

That being said I'll definitely be back on to do the new story when the expansion hits.

[Ceric]

No one can say I didn't give this game a fair shake but, I breeze through all the first mission of the expansion than bam I hit the boss, they give me a debuff, and then make it so I can't get away and use my weapons effectively.  Yeah No Thanks.  Are they even trying to make a fun game now?

[NWR_insanolord]

I just started playing this after having it since launch, so if there's anyone still playing it (or, like me, another late-comer) on PS4, I'm here.

[lolmonade]

I just started playing this after having it since launch, so if there's anyone still playing it (or, like me, another late-comer) on PS4, I'm here.

My group ragequit a few months after the 2nd DLC hit (House of Wolves).  I ended up selling my copy as I had dumped an unhealthy amount of hours into the game and no longer found solo playing enjoyable.  that said, I'd be interesting in hearing your impressions, especially as someone who now isn't bothering to play until after a lot of changes from the vanilla release have been implemented.