Hopes and Fears - Des2ny and You. (Destiny)

by kidtsunami , Atlanta, GA, Tuesday, April 04, 2017, 11:54 (2572 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

There are plenty of obvious things I'd like to see in Destiny 2 (better storytelling & character development, better mission design, 60fps, etc etc etc). I could go on an on here, so I've narrowed things down to 2 big ideas that I hope to see in Des2ny.

1) Levels, be gone.

Yeah, not a fan of levels. Extrinsic vs intrinsic...

2) A more seamless world

I think the area of Destiny that holds the most untapped potential is Patrol mode, and the "hub-world" areas in general. For all its faults, the Division does some things with its open world that I'd love to see worked into Destiny. The way story missions and strikes resolve with the player right back in the open world (patrol mode) keeps things feeling seamless and connected. Being able to look at a mission marker on your map, walk over to the start location and seamlessly begin the mission is very cool too (no need to go from patrol out to orbit then back down to the same planet to start a mission).

One of the best things about the Division was how seamless it all was. It felt contrived every time I abseiled right after beating some boss, but it was still 1 million times better than "Going to Orbit"...

Horizon Zero Dawn has been getting lots of attention for its open world, and rightfully so. One element that jumps out as being particularly relevant to Destiny is the way they handle enemy spawning. The map in HZD is filled with machine "zones"; specific areas where you can consistently find specific types of machines roaming. Very similar to the way you will find specific enemy deployment in the various patrol zones in Destiny. Except in HZD, you never see the enemies spawn. There are no "monster closets", you just happen upon them wandering around.

The monster closets and milling about that enemies do in Patrol make it feel much more like a shooting gallery rather than a living world. There's a reason why I feel a rush of excitement when a public event happens or even when pikes come rolling through.

The other great thing that happens in HZD is that the various herds of machines move around a bit, which leads to plenty of unique encounters. On your first trip through an area you might come across a couple Snapjaws and have a cool battle with them. Your second time through, you might be fighting more snapjaws in the same location, only to have a Sawtooth come wandering into the fray and completely change the dynamic of the fight. Adding various factions into the mix makes things even more dynamic. Destiny tries to do this in a few places, but that usually boils down to a few patrol locations where the same group of 4-5 vex keep teleporting into the exact same spot and fighting the exact same group of cabal, over and over and over, forever.

It's pretty fun when "the enemy moves against each other" or whatever it is.

There are so many ways that Destiny's open-world could be brought to life. I'd love to see as much focus on that as possible :)

Yeah, Raids and Patrol are what make Destiny special to me. Raids delivered and Patrol only started coming together with TTK and ROI