Destiny: FIN

[Takizawa]

Has anyone landed the purple sniper rifle from the Queens missions yet?

[Graham S]

It's 1am! Where does the time go? I only put this on for a quick go at 10:30, I seem to have lost a few hours. But I am level 21, with a full knight's outfit like I've just visited the shopkeeper in Mr Benn. Some good strikes tonight with Billy Brown.

[Billy Brown]

It's 1am! Where does the time go? I only put this on for a quick go at 10:30, I seem to have lost a few hours. But I am level 21, with a full knight's outfit like I've just visited the shopkeeper in Mr Benn. Some good strikes tonight with Billy Brown.

Yep, that was a lot of fun. My first Strike Playlist action and I enjoyed it a lot. I finished up with my first piece of light-enhanced armour too, so it was a good evening all told.

[Mr Ben]

Holy hell! Just got my 1st primary secondary weapon. And its an exotic. From a Skirmish match where I minced the opposition using my Dead Orbit machine gun <3

Never let it be said you aren't rewarded in the Crucible for playing well.

edit: It can be upgraded so that measly range is better btw

[bobontheway]

I can't seem to sign in to Destiny at all today (on PS4). Anybody else having problems?

[Mr Ben]

Its just started happening now for me. Got booted looking for a crucible match. Bungies forums seem to be down too. Maintenance for the patch perhaps.

[p1nseeker]

Lizard Squad again.

[Guest]

Has anyone landed the purple sniper rifle from the Queens missions yet?

Yeo. I have it and it's a beast.

[gospvg]

Hmm. So after basically loving every minute spent with this, having reached level 20 and completing all of the strikes etc I'm now feeling a bit unsure as to whether I'm really going to be able to stick with this.

I'm still enjoying shooting all those baddies etc but the repetition of the levels is definitely going to start grating (and crucible isn't really appealing).

It actually won't even let me try the queens mission (it says impossible with a little lock) so don't think I will be able to join anyway on that and can't see me being level 24 before the 6th October.

I'm still enjoying the engram drops and stuff but the progress has definitely slowed to what seems like a bit of a crawl now (whereas it felt perfect prior to 20).

Stick with it, it now all depends on the light stats on your armour. The Vanguard strikes are good to collect Vanguard marks or you can go the crucible way to collect marks to purchase items from the vendors. The missions on the left side, I think the daily is usually a low level. The others team up with friends to complete. Once you get a few light armour pieces you will jump up levels.

[Droo]

Is there a resource for the grimoire rank bonus's yet?

I'm curious what rank 2/3 gives for strikes.

Seems rank 1 on most of them is +chance of drop for cloaks etc

Also, for those who care, you can check out all your medal wins on the app. It also gives a description of what they all are.

[GODZOOKI]

Love this game. Put in serious time. Almost Lvl 29, kitted out fully in legendary & exotic, with multiple spares and alternatives. So addictive.

[SpagMasterSwift]

For those that are struggling with the Queen's Story Missions (solo) but want to get a piece of that Ledge Queen armour. There is a very easy mission in the rotation (the one on Earth), just start a mission and quit to Orbit until it comes around. Make sure you take a fire weapon along as the Skanks have elemental shielding and some heavy ammo to take down the big fella that climbs out the wall at the end. Did it yesterday and got a Ledge Queen Helmet.

Did it again and got another helmet so don't think its an easy way to farm all the Queen armour...or I was just unlucky.

[Loki]

The Earth mission has an Arc modifier on it too, so just take an arc fusion rifle. You'll one shot the Shanks even without using the correct damage type. Then you can pretty much 4 shot the boss with 4 clean hits.

I can't help but play this myself, but I have no idea why. I don't intend on doing the raid. The PvP is fun, but hardly worth grinding out gear for, especially when the Iron Banner isn't out. Then there's the Queen's missions, which were the biggest pile of shit going.

[Naysonymous]

A bit piece on Reddit about how the game's content was gutted this year has appeared overnight. I've quoted the entire article because it wouldn't surprise me if the post is deleted. I've listened to a couple of podcasts where game journalists have alluded to the fact they have heard rumours about this but don't want to say anything on the record because it will lead to them being blackballed.

This thread is a collection of posts and my thoughts that show how Destiny's development changed DRASTICALLY within its last year.

It is the reason why the story is lacking, the missions are repetitive, and why there are grimoire cards. A lot of shady stuff went down during the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014.

Anyway, let's start off with what the Story was supposed to be like:

STORY: This reddit post from a deleted thread Here [1] explains how Destiny's story was originally during E3 2013. Bungie.net user Diver2441 sums up all of this here:

(Key parts are BOLDED for the lazy)

WHAT THE STORY WAS RE-WRITTEN INTO: Grimoire Cards. I'm currently trying to find the post where I discovered this Check Edit2 for Source, but basically back in February 2014, a man was hired to write all the Grimoire Cards. This was clearly the solution to trying to incorporate as much story as possible with what little story was actually in the game. This also is most likely the reason why there is no Grimoire UI in-game, because it was far too close to release to actually incorporate such a thing.

So recently a Reddit thread came to light detailing what Destiny's narrative looked like in 2013, and it's very different from the ailing excuse for a story we're presented with today: the Traveler bringing the darkness, Crow, different progression through planets and even considerable cut areas. So it becomes apparent that between mid to late 2013 and launch, Bungie gutted the story. Now this is where it gets good, something else happened back in late 2013 before the story was gutted; Joe Staten, Bungie's former lead writer left. Some may think it coincidence, but I think not.

Now the Reddit thread (which has mysteriously disappeared) outlined a story sprawling across a considerably larger solar system, and including a number of characters and factions who never so much as appear in the full game. The prime example of this is Crow, the character/faction who was set out to expose the Traveler and Speaker for in fact bringing the darkness along with the Traveler, and not the Golden Age. A specific reference to Crow can be found in the above video at 1:01, where a mission would have you assist Crow in looting the Archive on venus for details on the Vex Gatelord (which is in fact a mission we end up doing in the main game, but Crow is clearly not a part of it). The Gatelord was said to contain a way to access a pre-Collapse AI construct who had the ability to expose the Traveler, and we can see this in the form of the inaccessible Bunker RAS2.

Even in the PvP, we see a reference to "faction wars" at 1:20 in the video, so it appears that justification and explanation for the different factions in the tower was cut as well.

Destiny's current half assed story starts to make a little more sense when we apply the context that the entire narrative was gutted less than a year before launch, and remade without Bungie's lead writer. Why Joe left, and why Bungie felt the need to completely gut the story of the game and cut huge areas is beyond me, but it's abundantly obvious that there's a lot more going on than meets the eye.

UNUSED LOCATIONS AND FEATURES:

Continuing from Diver2441's post, he mentions:

If we look at an

article

[2]

from 2013 and

[4]

shows that the majority of the first two expansions of DLC is potentially already on the disc! Even in the beta, areas such as the King's Watch and Seripham Vault were accessible through glitches and yet are not available in the full game (Actually, these places aren't even mentioned in the DLC either!) More proof about these areas can be shown through the data dumps at

http://db.destinytracker.com

[5]

I want to note here that this doesn't mean the content is actually finished, but the idea that it could be is annoying and makes sense given the amount of content that had already been cut.

ANOTHER COINCIDENCE:

Along with Bungie's Lead Writer departing for unknown reasons, we can't forget about Marty O'Donnell being fired too. We're all aware that the situation had to do with salary, but when Marty left, there was a clear bitterness between him and Bungie. Bungie had changed, and the lead writer had recognized it too. Was it Activision? Probably. But we're not being told the full story and I don't expect us to find out unfortunately.

WHAT BUNGIE SHOULD DO:

There are a variety of options Bungie can do to fix these problems.

1. GIVE US THE HELD-BACK CONTENT FOR FREE:
   Unfortunately, this isn't very likely given Activision's greed and contracts already settled in to sell this content later. Some could also argue that it's a good thing this content is being held-back so that the game will stay alive for much longer, although I personally disagree given the lack of content available at launch.
2. GIVE US JUST THE STORY MISSIONS FOR FREE
   : This is a bit more reasonable and would solve the overall complaint with Destiny. We know there is a story being held back greatly, and we should not let them sell this to us as DLC.

GIVE US A SCHEDULE AND COMMUNICATE BETTER:

This is my final plea to Bungie. The game is already out; we don't need to be left in the dark anymore. They need to tell us when content is being released and what we can expect so that we can voice our opinions better and prevent them from making more mistakes.

THOUGHTS?

I know this thread is

extremely

long in details, but I think it needs to be seen. The Destiny today is not the Destiny we were promised or the one Bungie had even imagined. Locations, ship customization, a real story, and other deleted content were all things planned/created before last year and are all gone now. Something must be done.

(I will continue to edit this post as more info comes along).

EDIT1

: Source to Diver2441's post:

http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/70651356/0/0

[6]

EDIT2

: More details about the Grimoire cards and the fact that all of this "cutting out content" was very recent.

Posted by Reddit user

/u/mrdabu

[7]

:

...Moreover, basic game elements were removed - in the developer commentary for the gameplay reveal the bungie developer (Mike Zak, environment artist) says that the hunter could have gained his weapons and armor through trade with other players or a kind of gambling (8:12). this is not implemented in the release version. The video was released on july 8, 2013 on youtube. So the decision to cut these features out was made in the last year of a more than 5 year development period which is very uncommon.

Perhaps the story is so lame and such a mystery because of all the changes during the last year.

Then he talks about the grimoire cards which contain the story. in the forum of destiny.bungie.org a guy called general battuta says that the grimoire story was „mostly written and edited in one crazy spiny very close to launch“. (sept 14, 2014) On feb 13, 2014, he posted a thread in which he shared his excitement of being hired as a writer for bungie in seattle. this was 7 months before release.

EDIT3: Reddit user /u/PopeOwned [8] gives a little bit more info about Bungie's Lead Writer, Joe Staten, leaving:http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2hk88o/spoiler_redditor_provides_insight_as_to_why/ckthwqk[9]

EDIT4: Further proof that the story claimed by the reddit poster is TRUE: https://i.imgur.com/Xv02vmU.jpg [10] (Thanks/u/martellus [11] !)

EDIT5: I want to note that the demands listed are just things Bungie COULD do to fix all of this turmoil. I am not saying that we deserve anything from them, although it would be in their favor to at least communicate better with us on Destiny's future.

EDIT6: More potential proof that the story we're playing now is NOT the one there was a year ago: http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/09/10/face-time[1

I'm one of those in the "I really like it, I can see why others don't" camp. I guess completely avoiding the pre game hype train and not playing the beta really worked in my favour.

[Andy_Why]

Anyone available now on XBone for some queens missions, sat on a pile of Queens Orders and no one to play with.

Wish I'd seen this last night! I was looking for someone to do some Queens missions with me. Maybe tonight or tomorrow night?

[RubberJohnny]

This video [4] shows that the majority of the first two expansions of DLC is potentially already on the disc! Even in the beta, areas such as the King's Watch and Seripham Vault were accessible through glitches and yet are not available in the full game (Actually, these places aren't even mentioned in the DLC either!) More proof about these areas can be shown through the data dumps athttp://db.destinytracker.com[5]

I want to note here that this doesn't mean the content is actually finished, but the idea that it could be is annoying and makes sense given the amount of content that had already been cut.

I think that stuff is probably accurate, the game looks like it had a troubled last year or 18 months of development - when they did the big day reveal for the media they didn't actually have anything running except in greyboxes. And features from the 2013 E3 reveal, like players ships swooping down and dropping them off are absent and there are cutscenes that point to the plot being different.

Plus they've been using content that's not in the game - like the now DLC Reef Raid and so on in advertising for ages.

[metallicfrodo]

For those that are struggling with the Queen's Story Missions (solo) but want to get a piece of that Ledge Queen armour. There is a very easy mission in the rotation (the one on Earth), just start a mission and quit to Orbit until it comes around. Make sure you take a fire weapon along as the Skanks have elemental shielding and some heavy ammo to take down the big fella that climbs out the wall at the end. Did it yesterday and got a Ledge Queen Helmet.

Did it again and got another helmet so don't think its an easy way to farm all the Queen armour...or I was just unlucky.

The first two missions I got were that one, and I got the helm and the chest armour I'm sure, so the drop is random and not tied to any specific mission.

[Pob]

I've no doubt that the content was pared back and is being drip-fed as DLC to maximise revenue. They (Activision) will string it out as much as they can without alienating players. I do hope all that content described above does come, but if it's too much of a rip-off I'm happy to wait for it to go into the sales or get bundled together into a larger expansion.

[Loki]

Also, if you're saving Legendary Engrams for after the patch, don't!

Only Engrams that drop after 1.0.2 are subject to this change.

Legendary Engram items that exist in your inventory will be demoted to Rare quality when the patch goes live, so decode them while you can. But let’s be honest--even if you don’t, we all know they were blues already...

[mechamonkey]

Has anyone landed the purple sniper rifle from the Queens missions yet?

Cosmic Guru got one last night during our XBone adventures with Icecold (and also got a purple engram, the ship and a couple of Queens pieces! )

[LiMuBai]

Is there anywhere to see my total kill/death stats for crucible as a whole, rather than each individual game type?

[Cyhwuhx]

A bit piece on Reddit about how the game's content was gutted this year has appeared overnight. I've quoted the entire article because it wouldn't surprise me if the post is deleted. I've listened to a couple of podcasts where game journalists have alluded to the fact they have heard rumours about this but don't want to say anything on the record because it will lead to them being blackballed.

I'm one of those in the "I really like it, I can see why others don't" camp. I guess completely avoiding the pre game hype train and not playing the beta really worked in my favour.

The bizarre thing (for me personally) about that Destiny content cut, is that the original sounds very similar to the stuff I wrote for The Chronicles of Spellborn MMO years back. To the point that the Traveller and the Oracle (from TCOS) are basically the same thing and factions now suddenly starting to look like carbon copies (the Awoken seem to be the Ousted, Vex are Vhuul, Fallen are Arionites). I realise I'm just trying to make it fit now, but it caught me by surprise.

Must've incorporated more tropes than I realised!

[Loki]

Yeah, go to your characters homepage and click on Crucible where it shows bar graphs of games played.

Will tell you in there. You're currently sat at 1.09.

[K]

I think there's a pretty big jump between observing that early previews showed areas that weren't in the final game, and concluding that these areas are completely finished and were cynically hacked out of the game to sell as DLC. That reddit post seems to be written by someone who's flabberghasted at the very concept of a developer talking about things pre-release that end up not appearing in the game.

There is a lot of stuff wrong with Destiny - weak story, repetitive missions, re-used environments, an endless list of features that didn't end up in the final game - but all of those criticisms applied to the original Halo, as well. Rather than some mad conspiracy that involves sacking Marty O'Donnell under false pretenses because he knew too much, I'd say it's probably more likely that Bungie just ran out of time.

Also, that list of demands halfway through the post makes the guy seem like the classic entitled crybaby capital-G self-identified Gamer twat, with a hidden payload of mental reddit Trutherism as well.

[Mr Do 71]

How fucked am I, if I don't bother playing the Crucible stuff. Because I'm absolutely useless in death matches

[df0]

When I break it down, it offers little value for 60 euro (or the 99 I paid for the vanguard edition). Right now I am playing it just for the sake of it, hoping for better weapons. Besides the paid dlc, I sincerely hope Activision launches worthwhile content for free to create goodwill.

[metallicfrodo]

How fucked am I, if I don't bother playing the Crucible stuff.

I've played 5 games of Crucible and am currently a level 26. I don't think it will screw you over at all.

When I break it down, it offers little value for 60 euro (or the 99 I paid for the vanguard edition). Right now I am playing it just for the sake of it, hoping for better weapons. Besides the paid dlc, I sincerely hope Activision launches worthwhile content for free to create goodwill.

Conversly I've played it now for over 32 hours which is the longest I've played a game in years and years, and have pretty much loved any minute of it, which I think it great value.

But as with every game each person will get different things from it.

[Pob]

I think there's a pretty big jump between observing that early previews showed areas that weren't in the final game, and concluding that these areas are completely finished and were cynically hacked out of the game to sell as DLC. That reddit post seems to be written by someone who's flabberghasted at the very concept of a developer talking about things pre-release that end up not appearing in the game.

There is a lot of stuff wrong with Destiny - weak story, repetitive missions, re-used environments, an endless list of features that didn't end up in the final game - but all of those criticisms applied to the original Halo, as well. Rather than some mad conspiracy that involves sacking Marty O'Donnell under false pretenses because he knew too much, I'd say it's probably more likely that Bungie just ran out of time.

Also, that list of demands halfway through the post makes the guy seem like the classic entitled crybaby capital-G self-identified Gamer twat, with a hidden payload of mental reddit Trutherism as well.

On the other hand, it makes so much sense from a business perspective to hold back as much as possible to sell in small digital instalments that I find it hard to believe that Activision wouldn't insist on it. Release as little content as you can on the disc to avoid a backlash and hook players in, then finish off that stuff we cut and dribble it out over the next 12 months. It's the business model that Bungie sold Activision to get them to invest $10 squillion or whatever it was.

I'm not actually complaining because I've already easily got my money's worth even though it does feel light on content. But I'm also not looking forward to paying another £80 over the life of the game to get to see all the new environments, weapons and vehicles.

[Graham S]

Having now done much of the raid... Lol.

With they'd put some of the interesting mechanics into the basic bosses though.

I suspect they've made the bosses as complicated as they are, and no more complicated, for accessibility reasons. I'm rubbish at games, but I can contribute during boss battles and so can whichever guy I'm matched with (without voice chat too). I wouldn't be surprised if later additions make more demands on the players, as the average level of assumed experience and skill goes up.

I think this may be the reason driving a number of design decisions as they aim for a mass market sweet spot. I feel like they've got it right for me, but I can see how what's right for me would be wrong for skilled veterans of similar games.

[Mystacon]

I really don't get this idea that Destiny is somehow light on content. I hit Level 24 last night, have played over 34 hours, and I haven't even done the first Mars mission yet. That's already over double the amount of time I would spend playing a game of the same price. I imagine by the time I'm done with it you could probably double that play time, and that's without any sort of paid for DLC.