Destiny

[Strangelove]

 

Gimme.

[CorgiShinobi]

I'm excited for the update/expansion because it looks like Bungie seriously looked at what the community had issue with. The game became a grind because of all the shortcomings of obtaining your desirable materials along with weapons and armor.

 

Seriously, the Xur upgrade system was such crap. I didn't realize at first that the stats would change to the number Xur was offering, not the numbers of your previous gear. So even if Xur offered the armor piece you wanted to upgrade, it might have been a terrible roll.

[SomTervo]

https://youtu.be/IELM1hXyQJI

 

 

I assume that because no one else has posted any of the the information about House of Wolves, folks round these parts have lost interested in Destiny. Justifiably so, since the game offers nothing but pointless grinding, it seems. For those who still can't get enough of the MP grinding, here's a trailer to hype the newest grinding options.

 

I second this opinion, but...

 

- The Speaker now offers all sorts of currency exchanging. Shards for energy, energy for shards, shards for glimmer, shards for motes, etc. Well needed, really.

 

That's almost a game-changer for me. I bet the exchange rates will be insulting, but the option to just play for one currency and buy most things you'll need will make a huge difference.

 

Like the prospect of just being able to take my inordinate amount of glimmer and buy these weird shard or mote things is so much more appealing than just doing strikes and stuff and hoping the RNG is kind to me. Although as I said, it'll no doubt cost like two million billion glimmer to get one mote of light, rendering a two year grind to buy one anyway.

 

Goddamn destiny.

Edited April 23, 2015 by kenshi_ryden

[TheMightyEthan]

Glimmer cap at 25k.

 

Costs 50k to buy a shard.

 

[SomTervo]

[Hot Heart]

Hehe. I can't remember the exact amount but I remember thinking it was relatively cheap (it was either 50 or 250 glimmer). The exchange rates in general looked rather good.

 

Thing is, it's actually rather easy to get hold of ascendant materials once you reach a certain stage. The daily heroic story missions (which can usually be done in about ten minutes) will give you 1 or 2, depending on which difficulty. Which is where the 'certain stage' thing comes in, since it requires you reach a certain level first.

 

Thing is, I'm actually sitting on something like 120 ascendant shards and around 90 ascendant energy because it's so easy to get hold of the stuff when you're playing the high level content (even 2 levels below max is high enough). You've got the Vault of Glass, which'll give you a fair few; the Nightfall which might give you some; the exp boost for beating the Nightfall, which helps you level up vanguard/factions for packages which can give you materials or gear to dismantle.

 

And the Roc strike playlist is very generous with blue engrams for things like motes and strange coins (as well as levelling up cryptarch rank for another package).

 

It's just that it does require probably at least 1 hour a day along with the Tuesday reset events of the Nightfall to really get anywhere fast.

[TheMightyEthan]

It's just that it does require probably at least 1 hour a day...

Well there's your problem.

[Hot Heart]

YES THAT WAS THE CAVEAT GOSH ETHAN

[FredEffinChopin]

So I'm correct in understanding that the standalone is somewhat deficient, right? A buddy (who also just got his PS4) and I are looking for a console exclusive to fuck around with, and I've been thinking about this game again since it's gotten cheaper. I'm wondering if I'm better off snagging a pack with the new DLC to make it feel like a full game though, or, better yet, not supporting a game at all that (reportedly) releases with lots of hype, sparse content, and with a solid DLC plan for the future.

[Strangelove]

It all depends on how much time you want to waste on a game. The vanilla game is either very short or very long. You want to just fuck with the campaign and then be done with it? It's a rental. Or wait til its 20 bucks or something.

You want to get all the best weapons and armors, do the raids and play PvP with your friend(s)? Buy the whole package.

 

For completionists, its actually a very long game. The problem is that expectations were very high for this one. Especially since stuff like Diablo and Borderlands exists. It falls quite short of those.

Not to mention that youll be doing the same shit over and over, not much different than Diablo really.  Maybe Halo fans arent Diablo fans, so they didnt know how these type of games work. Who knows. Its all repetitive.

 

Honestly, most of the dlc missions are closed off to you if you arent a high enough level, which you wont be by the time the campaign is over. Its end game content. Same with the raids.

And in case you havent looked into it, both expansions add new areas to the 4 pre existing planets you can play in, new story missions(story is used very loosely here)new weapons, new armors, new multiplayer maps, a new raid , some type of horde mode, and a new game hub.

[FredEffinChopin]

Thanks, it was a very helpful post, especially the last paragraph. I'll consult with my buddy and we'll figure it out. I might just snag the vanilla either way, actually, and leave it at that. 

[Hot Heart]

So I'm correct in understanding that the standalone is somewhat deficient, right? A buddy (who also just got his PS4) and I are looking for a console exclusive to fuck around with, and I've been thinking about this game again since it's gotten cheaper. I'm wondering if I'm better off snagging a pack with the new DLC to make it feel like a full game though, or, better yet, not supporting a game at all that (reportedly) releases with lots of hype, sparse content, and with a solid DLC plan for the future.

 

As Strangelove said, it really depends.

 

If you're a fan of Halo and really dig Bungie's finely-honed shooter mechanics, it's enjoyable enough but to get the most out of it really requires a long-term commitment. That you've got a friend to play with regularly bodes well, but you'd be best with a third person for the endgame stuff.

 

As a straight-up campaign shooter it's passable. The "fun" really comes in when you start taking on the tougher challenges and begin to experiment and optimise character/team builds. I enjoy trying out different setups, weapon combos, etc. to perfect a playstyle, and it can be fun to take a high/max-level character and just wreck low-level enemies, but you will be doing a lot of the same stuff over and over. Having both pieces of DLC will alleviate that somewhat, I imagine, but it won't eliminate it.

 

And if you do decide to buy the game, I'd probably skip The Dark Below and go for House of Wolves at this point. Sure, you're missing out on some great weapons from the Raid (and the free one they give you), but other than that there's a couple of okay extra Strikes and some Story missions that don't really do much. The Crota's End raid itself can be enjoyable at first but now no one really plays it "properly" and I am absolutely fucking sick of doing the last bit on hard difficulty. Especially because it's hard to find a decent six-man team without so many little things that can completely fuck up your run anyway, plus it doesn't help that there's only one thing I'd even want from completion and then that's dictated by RNGesus.

 

With the new update on Tuesday, all the weapon and gear changes will mean you'll be able to catch up to Dark Below levels without the expansion and you'll have a more replayable Prison of Elders activity rather than Crota's End. Also, I'm more fond of the Fallen aesthetic than the Hive one.

 

I, uh... hope that helps.

[Strangelove]

I never really thought about it, but The Dark Below really isnt essential. The raid is super tedious compared to the first one, theres only 4 new exotics which mostly suck, the supposed best gun in the game(Necrochasm) is terrible, the 2 new strikes are super long and boring, and the story missions are few and very samey.

I also tend to not play the new multiplayer maps. I didnt think too much of them.

 

Yeah if youre interested, get vanilla at 20 or 30 bucks, then if you still want to play more, get House Of Wolves.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

 

Start at 1:18.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Saturnine Tenshi

[Hot Heart]

I also tend to not play the new multiplayer maps. I didnt think too much of them.

 

Plus, those are going free to everyone when HoW hits anyway. I really like Cauldron, mainly because I do well on that one.

 

theres only 4 new exotics which mostly suck, the supposed best gun in the game(Necrochasm) is terrible, the 2 new strikes are super long and boring, and the story missions are few and very samey.

 

Oh, dang. I totally forgot that Ruin Wings and Obsidian Mind are TDB!

 

IF YOU ARE A TITAN OR WARLOCK YOU WANT THE DARK BELOW. (Are the only other two those crappy dance boots and that useless spider helmet?)

[Strangelove]

Oh yeah. Obsidian Mind is a must have for warlocks. I havent taken it off since I got it. You combine that with Bad Juju and youre destroying everything left and right.

 

And I was only counting exotic weapons. I forgot there were TDB exotic armors.

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, I'm not sure I use a single TDB exotic weapon besides 4th Horseman (and even that's more as a joke or when you absolutely positively want to fuck someone up with arc damage... like the new Fallen bounties)

[CorgiShinobi]

Yeah, the real breadwinners of TDB expansion are Obsidian Mind and recently 4th Horseman, though keep in mind 4th Horseman only has situation-base use. The Fallen bounties are most definitely a new use, but it also wrecks in PvP. The only downside to the latter is that recent balancing makes Special Ammo more scarce.

 

Radiant Dance Machines only have one use: Add them with MIDA Multi-tool and you're the fast Scout Rifle user in Crucible.

 

So yeah, you really can pass on The Dark Below. Bungie has definitely learned from their mistakes with that expansion and even when House of Wolves is out, you'll still have access to some of the new content that is being added. If Prison of Elders and all the add-ons live up to their potential, House of Wolves looks like a definite expansion to look into if you end up enjoying your experience in Destiny.

[CorgiShinobi]

Playing Destiny's Salvage PvP to get House of Wolves weapons early is not worth the pain of getting screwed over by bad teammates and random-ass glitches. MY FURY FLOWS FREELY!

[Strangelove]

Salvage sucks butt. Lucky for me I got a HoW scout rifle in my second match.

If nothing else, it's good for getting passage coins too. Whatever those are for.

[Hot Heart]

Passage coins are for the Trials of Osiris, the 3v3 mode where you buy passage (I think the coins are exp buffs or something though?) and play until you get 9 wins or 3 losses. I've seen people getting all sorts of weapons from Salvage; some look nice while others are literally raid weapons recoloured (ugh).

 

The update's not out until 6pm over here. Not a problem in general, but it'll clash with my Witcher 3 installing/updating maybe. Hrmph. I shall have a busy evening.

[TheMightyEthan]

I need to go back to Destiny.

[Hot Heart]

No one ever leaves. Not really.

[SomTervo]

Imo a Diablo/Destiny comparison is totally moot.

 

From what I can tell things haven't changed, and my comparison would be something like:

 

Diablo:

- Very fun, well balanced gameplay (start to finish)

- Loot drops frequent, always feel like you're progressing, very satisfying (start to finish)

 

Destiny:

- Very fun, well balanced gameplay (start to finish)

- Loot drops hyper-rare, almost never feel like you're progressing (without 2 hour a day, 365 day a year commitment), not satisfying in the least (after the first 10 hours)

 

The gameplay in both is equally great. Destiny probably even beats Diablo out in pure gameplay. But the time expectation is just insulting. Chopin, I'd recommend not getting it unless it's really cheap.

Edited May 19, 2015 by kenshi_ryden

[Strangelove]

Its a timesink, thats for sure.

I think the problem with loot in Destiny is that each good weapon(legendary/exotic) is precious. You can level it up and youll probably keep it for months on end, or forever. Its useable for that long. Compared to something like Diablo 3 or Borderlands, where most loot doesnt keep its usefullness. You cycle through weapons really fast. Theyre meant to be thrown away and replaced. Kind of keeps the game fresh.

Diablo is more stat heavy while Destiny is more perk heavy with it's loot.

 

At least thats what Ive noticed.