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Oh cool, it's the gardens!

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I can't wait to explore this place:

How do you know that's not just a skybox/background/inaccessible area?

The black garden! So fucking cool!

One of the concept art images released a while ago:

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Take your phone and headphones to the bathroom and enjoy the vidoc the way it was meant to... upon a porcelain tranquility throne.

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It seems like the ability to carry 3 weapons will be much more restricted than something like Vanquish or Gears of War, where you had three weapons slots to put whatever weapon you want in. Judging from this, only certain weapons can go in certain slots, limiting combinations.

Easier to balance maybe, but certainly more boring than the more traditional system, and somewhat at odds with the idea of players building their characters with freedom.

I am okay with since you will be able to have more than 3 weapons in your inventory. I think it would be incredibly restrictive if you could only ever carry 3 weapons.

It seems like the ability to carry 3 weapons will be much more restricted than something like Vanquish or Gears of War, where you had three weapons slots to put whatever weapon you want in. Judging from this, only certain weapons can go in certain slots, limiting combinations.

Easier to balance maybe, but certainly more boring than the more traditional system, and somewhat at odds with the idea of players building their characters with freedom.

It sounds like I'm forced to carry one light, one medium, and one heavy weapon. If so, that kinda sucks. I don't like those kind of systems. If I want to carry a sniper rifle and rocket launcher, I should be able to!

Although it sounds like you won't be picking up weapons from the battlefield, so maybe we'll adjust to this new system easily.

It seems like the ability to carry 3 weapons will be much more restricted than something like Vanquish or Gears of War, where you had three weapons slots to put whatever weapon you want in. Judging from this, only certain weapons can go in certain slots, limiting combinations.

I was almost certain it was going to be something like:

- 1 Heavy
- 1 Medium
- 1 Light

or

- 2 Main
- 1 Sidearm

But it's going to be:

- 1 Heavy
- 1 Rifle
- 1 Specialized

At first I shared the sentiment about it being overly-restrictive, but then I came to realize that this system probably won't be *that* restrictive.

Maybe there will be assault rifles that count as 'heavies', and light snipers that count as 'rifles'? And with a ton of weapons out there, I'm sure there'll be enough options to keep everyone* happy.

*Okay...most people.

Hey look everyone! Cody's worried this game that is not like Vanquish or Gears of War at all will suck because it doesn't have a weapon system like Vanquish or Gears of War!

Next week: why it'll suck because it uses a resource system that isn't like StarCraft II.

Alright, let's break this down.

Good game design is all about meaningful choices. With that in mind, when you start thinking about how to design your weapon system you have to consider what choices you want the player to have to make, and how the kind of world they're playing in will affect, and be affected by those choices.

An unrestricted, x-slot, n-weapon system gives the player (n^x-n)/x total combinations. For a game with 10 different weapons and 2 slots that means 45 different combinations. For a game with 10 different weapons and 3 slots, that means 330 different combinations. At this point, the number of choices is so large as to present real problems for most players in terms of how they should approach the decision of what to carry, and issues like choice paralysis creep in. Worse, players might feel tempted to seek outside help to validate or assist with their decision. This decision is made all the more difficult in that the situations of gameplay will almost certainly dictate choices in certain moments. Of those 330 combinations, there are bound to be some pretty poor ones: walking around with 3 types of close-range weapon isn't likely to work out that well. For any game designer worth their salt, this is a failure in how the system has been designed.

Applying this specifically to Destiny, the number of weapons available is intended to be very large indeed, but with one big caveat: weapons will exist within a much smaller set of weapon categories, and so really the variations mostly exist within those categories. A combination of three different types of pulse rifle isn't really offering the player much variation in play style, and so that choice isn't really meaningful. This is a problem the Call of Duty games suffer from, where there are only subtle distinctions between most weapons of a given type, making it difficult for the newer or less experienced player to make a meaningful choice about whether to carry rifle X or rifle Y. This in mind, the real choice comes from allowing a player to choose one weapon from one category, one weapon from another category, and another from another category. Mathematically speaking, where there are a, b, and c weapons in each category, the number of possible choices is then simply a × b × c. If we assume there are 5 distinct types of primary weapon, 5 types of special weapon and 5 types of heavy weapon, that still gives you a pretty large 125 possible combinations, but with the added benefit that the player has some certainty that their choice is reasonably effective across a range of gameplay situations.

In actual fact, the number of potential choices is even higher than this, since within any given type of weapon there will exist who knows how many individual weapon, with their own subtleties and nuances. One thing that was apparent from the ViDoc was that some of the weapons are essentially visually identical except for the paint job featured, or the kind of scope attached. This raises the possibility of players being able to customise their weapons according to taste and playstyle, which not only offers opportunity for meaningful choice (it's a lot easier to decide which scope you prefer when you know it's the only variable being changed), but also gives players a mechanism for expressing their character's individuality, something you specifically expressed that this setup would inhibit.

Seriously guys, nobody mentions this??? Possibly the largest selling point of the game!

I wouldn't go that far, going to be a much bigger rodeo this time around.

Seriously guys, nobody mentions this??? Possibly the largest selling point of the game!

Is it? While I hope multiplayer is good I'm much more excited about a huge coop matchmade world than any competitive multiplayer.

Possibly the largest selling point of the game! Looks insane, complicated, yet familiar.

Uh, if that was the case they'd probably have focused on it a tad more, rather than a light mention.
I do hope it'll be good, but going by everything they've said to that, it's hardly the focus.

Without even a release date, I stand by my assumptions. Obviously those in the know (us ) are expecting a great and innovative moment in gaming history. But for the rest of society, most of todays' games don't sell (or rather won't last) without a longer, addicting or competitive multiplayer aspect.

I guess what I'm getting at is Bungie makes amazing mp games, maybe they haven't said anything for a REASON.

I must play this game. The wait is killing me. Anybody got a cryogenic chamber I can borrow?

I have a small one on top of my fridge...

Bad idea. It malfunctions and you end up 500 years in the future dealing with scientific humans and otters.

Also I saw a weapon with a Future War Cult skin. When was it revealed that FWC, New Monarchy, Dead Orbit etc. were just weapon manufacturers a la Borderlands? Did I miss that? I was hoping they'd be more substantial entities involving some kind of membership or something.

Could they not be a big organisation that makes/labels their soldier's weapons as well as whatever else they do?

Also I saw a weapon with a Future War Cult skin. When was it revealed that FWC, New Monarchy, Dead Orbit etc. were just weapon manufacturers a la Borderlands?

No such thing has been revealed.

Also I saw a weapon with a Future War Cult skin. When was it revealed that FWC, New Monarchy, Dead Orbit etc. were just weapon manufacturers a la Borderlands? Did I miss that? I was hoping they'd be more substantial entities involving some kind of membership or something.

A weapon cropped up with a FWC skin during e3, displayed on some screens while people queued.

That doesn't mean it's a gun manufacturer. It could just be a skin associated with that organisation and perhaps unlocked by joining?

The only thing I saw, obviously, was what looked like a bubble shield in competitive MP.

Truth.

Pre-order cancelled.

Lies.

Also I saw a weapon with a Future War Cult skin. When was it revealed that FWC, New Monarchy, Dead Orbit etc. were just weapon manufacturers a la Borderlands? Did I miss that? I was hoping they'd be more substantial entities involving some kind of membership or something.

Going to reach way, way, waaaaaay out on a limb here; and say you're playing dumb.

Because you know you know better.

That shield could have been anything, from a sphere-o-melee-buffin' to a power drain, and things are being played close enough to the vest that really, the only thing you can safely say at this point is that there is currently a similar visual effect being played with for one of the powers.

But flip all the tables you want.

~M

Some kind of dash attack and a grenade. Also notice he has 3 assault rifles in his slots, maybe just a dev thing, or maybe you can potentially put assault rifles in any slot?

On closer examination, it looks like the Primary slot has an AR, but the Special slot has a Fusion Rifle & the Heavy slot has a Sniper.

HAAKEN? Gun maker possibly?

Exactly what I thought... I still haven't figured out what the character(s) to the right of it are, though... They kinda look like "BS".

I think we've seen this symbol before, I think it says Act?

Actually, I think it says "A-1"; short for "Assault-1", which is also written on the side of the weapon.

I just really like this image.

Agreed 100%... Shots like this make me pray that Bungie will include a Theater mode for the game.

I'm not feeling great about seeing all those infinity symbols.

The many assault rifles:

The real question I have is how much of this (if any) is customizable by the player? Also what is the 114? Maybe just a dev screen thing, maybe distance to objective?

If you look closely, I think these might all be the same rifle. And the different permutations are all player customization.

Different sights, skins, ammo counters, ect. All customized by the player.

The weird thing about this gun is that, despite having "Assault-1" and "A-1" written all over it, it's been named as the "Monitor S-11"...

I don't know when it gets through and therefor wasn't able to fix the typo :-(

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uh, Glorious Grizzled One, you put the wrong video on the front page

I assume this is aimed at me - but the only video I put on the front page yesterday was the RUL one... and it's definitely right.

Once again, you suggest we've done something wrong but you haven't made it very clear what you're talking about.

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