Official Destiny Thread

[cmdrdredd]

A real review embargo is where you make someone sign an NDA that lifts on a certain date. Hardware manufacturers do it all the time.

For this game call it what you want but what they did makes sense. How do you review a cooperative game when you only have 20 people online who you may never actually see?

 

[cmdrdredd]

I do not like the Blink ability. It's extremely hard to jump on top of structures when you need to. I suppose it's supposed to have a different usage. It's pretty cool though.

 

[blurredvision]

Up to level 12 now, still enjoying the game. It really shines when you have people to play with, it's unfortunate Bungie left out all forms of communication. The shooting mechanics are just too good and fun, they make up for some of the shortcomings of the game design. Enemy AI is fun to play against as well, hiding and flanking when they can. It's for this reason I try to back myself up in a corner or wall with cover so they can't get around me, otherwise you end up surrounded.

I finally played some crucible (i.e. multiplayer) over the weekend, the only reason is because of the easy bounties for XP. It is somewhat smart of Bungie to tie single and multiplayer in together, as it gets people to play. I had the bounty to complete 5 control matches and another to win 3 crucible matches. I played the 5 control matches with randoms and won all 5 (didn't get a medal for one because I joined it in-progress, they were only about 10% along...lame). People just don't understand the point of control. My last match had some guy in there with 40 kills, the other team annihilated us in pure kill count but we still won because we were capping flags. Using specials in MP is fun, too. I ran up to a flag in one match and 3 enemies were sitting inside working on securing it. I throw out my Warlock nova bomb and killed all 3 with no effort. It just so happened it was one of each class and I got the Triple Play achievement for killing one of each class without dying.

Just those two bounties were 10k XP combined and were worth almost an entire level. I was level 11 about halfway through, turning in those two bounties took me about a third of the way into level 12.

 

[smackababy]

Hit 20 really quickly (was sick all weekend and just kind of autopiloted through the story). Grinding flashpoints solo, or with randoms, is pretty annoying. Mostly, because they suck.

Also, the lack of real voice chat in this game is pretty stupid. There is no reason that PVP doesn't have team voice chat, or even proximity voice chat.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Hit 20 really quickly (was sick all weekend and just kind of autopiloted through the story). Grinding flashpoints solo, or with randoms, is pretty annoying. Mostly, because they suck.

Also, the lack of real voice chat in this game is pretty stupid. There is no reason that PVP doesn't have team voice chat, or even proximity voice chat.

Believe me you will have to grind them a lot. Not only for vanguard rank and marks or faction ranking but because while doing all the patrol missions you will come across materials to either turn in for ranking or to upgrade armor and weapons later. I just got my first legendary amor piece (body) for warlock and it requires 16 helium coils from the moon for each upgrade tier and there are 5 tiers. In addition it requires 6 ascendent shards per tier. I have 7 shards and I am level 24 with 33hours played. So imagine that all 4 pieces need the same number of items, that's 120 ascendent shards and 320 helium coils I need to collect to fully upgrade the armor. The weapons may require different materials. That is not even including the patrol missions, bounties, and strike playlists required to get vanguard rank 3+ and enough marks to actually buy them. This is all assuming I don't see any legendary armor from engram's or strike rewards before then.

 

[smackababy]

I don't mind the grind, and it will get better as they introduce more flashpoints. My main problem is voice chat with randoms. Either they don't have mics (which I find hard to believe) or there is no voice chat in matchmaking unless you go in as a team. That is just beyond stupid. And, PVP has no voice chat, which is moronic. Come on Bungie... Halo 2 onward had voice chat (proximity chat, at that!). I know you guys understand how to do this.

Apparently, when you hit level 3 Cryptarch you get a legendary IIRC. I am really close to that, so I should know for sure tonight. And, it looks like legendaries and exotics drop fairly often on 24+ strikes (at least, from the streams I was watching).

And, it is impossible to hit 30 outside of raids.


Also, the Bungie companion app is great for checking when vendor's refresh without going to the Tower and experiencing the silly load times.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I don't mind the grind, and it will get better as they introduce more flashpoints. My main problem is voice chat with randoms. Either they don't have mics (which I find hard to believe) or there is no voice chat in matchmaking unless you go in as a team. That is just beyond stupid. And, PVP has no voice chat, which is moronic. Come on Bungie... Halo 2 onward had voice chat (proximity chat, at that!). I know you guys understand how to do this.

Apparently, when you hit level 3 Cryptarch you get a legendary IIRC. I am really close to that, so I should know for sure tonight. And, it looks like legendaries and exotics drop fairly often on 24+ strikes (at least, from the streams I was watching).

And, it is impossible to hit 30 outside of raids.


Also, the Bungie companion app is great for checking when vendor's refresh without going to the Tower and experiencing the silly load times.

I've already hit level 3 cryptarch. I got some blue engrams, none of which decoded into legendaries. I've also done several level 24 strikes and the best I've gotten was some level 20 blue gear. In my experience the game is incredibly stingy with the legendary drops. My best primary weapon is still the blue "stranger's gun" everyone gets for beating the game. That is actually the only blue primary weapon I've even seen so far. I get good blue special and heavy weapon engrams all the time though.

I learned about a good farming spot on venus a couple of days ago, but it seems that the rest of the players learned about it at about the same time because there's always a couple of people there killing stuff when I check it out now. I think I'm going to double down on earning vanguard and motes of light this week to see if I can just buy a decent weapon by next weekend.

 

[smackababy]

Maybe it is a higher Cryptarch level then. Also, do bounties. At least one exotic is from bounties. And, it comes down to luck really. I've gotten quite a few blue weapons and armor in level 20 strikes. They all end up as crap though. The Stranger's Gun is still my best primary weapon as well.

 

[mnewsham]

I got my first legendary item today, I am a level 24 warlock so of course I get a piece of titan armor... It is sitting in storage until I can create and level a titan character up to 20.


Saw someone ELSE get an exotic(gold/yellow) drop, but personally haven't gotten one.

 

[mnewsham]

The Stranger's Gun is still my best primary weapon as well.

Same here, I have a scout rifle that is just slightly better, although I am about 60% saved up for one of the legendary rifles (150 vanguard marks) and will probably be buying that once I can.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I was gonna save for the vanguard weapon but someone told me to hold out because maybe Xur will be selling an exotic weapon i want and maybe I will get enough coins by then. Also i may get a lucky drop at some point and regret spending marks. Plus that armor is more important for light points in order to be able to do tougher things.

I have a blue of every weapon type(not all are level 20) and currently use an auto rifle lvl20 with 242atk 95% rate of fire and 100% stability. I am going to switch to a scout rifle if I ever get a lv20 one. I had the max vanguard marks for the week and am about 1/4 of the way through rank 2. I need to wait for them to reset so I can get more. I went ahead and spent 65 marks on the body armor and it has 326def and increases the ammo I can carry with both auto and sniper rifles.

 

[smackababy]

** Wall of text alert, and it might contain spoilers. **




So, I've been thinking about it, and I have some what I consider legitimate complaints about Destiny. I haven't read any reviews (mostly because it is basically an MMO, and those can't really be reviewed in the couple hours most of those "journalists" spend with the game).

My biggest complaint is the loading times. They are too long. They are unrealistically long for static content. I get we are getting put into an instance and we need the other players information, as well as enemy information, however it shouldn't take that long. The maps aren't changing and the spawns aren't either, so they should be the same 100% of the time with simple updates for additional players and which mobs are dead. Something like that Tower should not take that long. I can load entire zones in WoW, along with player information and mob, npcs, etc quicker. There is no reason I can't do that with this game, unless their servers are just slow (possible, as it is release weekend and I'm sure they are getting hammered ATM). The next thing is voice communication, or lackthereof. I've yet to be in a matchmaking party with anyone that has a mic and I know for a fact PVP voice communication is limited to only with those who entered in your fire team. That is just beyond stupid. I can understand limiting it from proximity in the open world (for resource purposes, but even then that is a stretch), but limiting it in matchmaking and PVP is outright dumb. I hope they patch that in. Some minor complaints I have are story mode is quite short and feels largely unresolved (although, I can give the resolution a pass, due to this being an MMO and the raids will continue to story, I'd imagine). I get it exists mostly to get you familiar with the enemies, bosses, mechanics, gear progression and such to get you to 20 to start the real grind, but I thought it could have been better. These were the same guys that gave us Halo: CE, btw. The Stranger felt incredibly out of place, same as the Queen. They had no real explanation, nor any background and continuation. They might have a bigger place down the road, but I don't know any of that yet. My next complaint, and that will be remedied eventually, is lack of content. I've done the Nexus and the Mars Strike like 20 times each already. I want something different... The final complaint I have is with the menus. They feel like they are made for a mouse and keyboard, but controlling my selecting bubble is a chore with the controller.

Other than those complaints, I really like the gun play (which is expected considering I am a Halo fan and it looked just like Halo in the pre release footage) and improvements over Halo. I enjoy the system for gear (light rating and limiting content based on such is a good idea, I hate doing T6 public games in Diablo and having two people who would have a hard time in T1 in the group...) and the randomness of getting items via the encrypted parts. The PVP is a bit lacking in balance ATM, but that can be fixed and it is otherwise enjoyable. I actually like the way content is handled as far as levels go.

I am definitely satisfied with my purchase and think this will be a game I put a lot of hours into.

 

[blurredvision]

I learned about a good farming spot on venus a couple of days ago, but it seems that the rest of the players learned about it at about the same time because there's always a couple of people there killing stuff when I check it out now.

Which platform are you on, PS4 or X1?

 

[SlitheryDee]

Which platform are you on, PS4 or X1?

X1

 

[cmdrdredd]

Anyone heard about Nexus farming? Basically on the Into the Nexus strike there's a spot before the boss that is underground and has you fighting 10 or so vex on a ledge with a drop off. Basically you kill the vex with your super or whatever, grab anything that drops and jump off the ledge. When your fireteam dies it will respawn you at the beginning of this ledge area again and you repeat the process infinitely. If you get into a groove you can have 3 people chain their supers in a row. One guy used it and kills everything, next guy grabs the orbs of light and should be full then. Get into a rotation and it's a pretty fast way to constantly kill stuff.

It's a bit cheap though and generally boring but it sometimes rewards you well. Last night I did it for about an hour and ended up with 5 or 6 blue engrams and a ton of greens. If nothing else you will have lots of weapon and armor upgrade materials and money.

 

[smackababy]

I have inadvertently tried that quite a few times, but that was mostly due to idiot randoms not able to dodge giant, slow moving, orbs coming at them at Nexus and then me trying to be a nice guy and ressing them.

 

[cmdrdredd]

If anyone wants to do some farming lemme know. Venus has the strike spot we can try to exploit or we can dominate the area where the fallen fight the vex and hog the chests, i know all the spawn areas for it. There's a spot on Mars that isn't too bad in the scablands that has lots of chests and higher level fodder to try for engrams.

 

[smackababy]

You're on PS4 correct? If not, I'm down. Otherwise, I'm not (obviously). =(

 

[mnewsham]

3 legendary engrams today. 1 legendary item that was titan and not Warlock, and 4 strange coins. What a bunch of crap


Brings me to about 8 total legendary engrams without a single one I can use.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You're on PS4 correct? If not, I'm down. Otherwise, I'm not (obviously). =(

Yeah PS4 sorry forgot to mention.

 

[cmdrdredd]

3 legendary engrams today. 1 legendary item that was titan and not Warlock, and 4 strange coins. What a bunch of crap


Brings me to about 8 total legendary engrams without a single one I can use.

Coins are awesome for when Xur returns and has exotic stuff for sale.

 

[smackababy]

Coins are awesome for when Xur returns and has exotic stuff for sale.

Pretty much this. I would much rather get coins than get legendary I am going to replace in a week.

 

[mnewsham]

Pretty much this. I would much rather get coins than get legendary I am going to replace in a week.

You think you'll be getting that many exotics? I'm almost lvl 25 and don't have even a single legendary.

 

[blurredvision]

X1

I mentioned this earlier but figured it would help you if I point it out again. On the X1, when you're done with the game, leave the app in the background running and do something else (Netflix, TV, etc). When you come back to the game, it will say it has disconnected you from the servers. After you reconnect and enter the game, it will not populate anybody into the world with you, so you can farm all by your lonesome.

Now I'm not sure if this is guaranteed every time but I've had this happen to me 3 times already and if I want to start playing with people running around, I have to fully exit Destiny using the start button and exit, then come back in. Otherwise, I can go anywhere in the game world and I'll never see another soul.

It's definitely a bug but might as well take advantage.

 

[Rage187]

Got a purple shotgun today. Kicks too high to be usable. Have to level it to get some stability. Saw a purple auto rifle drop today, 242/300 damage which matches the shotgun but I would rather have the rifle.