I have noted this before (Destiny)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Monday, April 30, 2018, 09:23 (2211 days ago) @ MacAddictXIV

Right. There's some really good reasons to not have AI controlled Guardians. But, heck, we've got Frames. Have a dropship ferry in some of them and give them a variety of funny voices and personalities. (Something that is already pretty well established in the lore!)

That would bring back some of the humor that Halo integrated so well.

I suspect one obstacle to having more of this sort of thing is the structure of the game, the open world aspect, and public spaces. Many missions transition through private and public spaces and maybe they just can't figure out how friendly AI would handle these different contexts. If Cayde's with you, does he stop and help you with a public event that just started?

Maybe at some point AI allies weren't considered as necessary because of the presence of drop-in matchmaking with real players. On paper Destiny seems like this really cool, dynamic, unpredictable playground, but what's missing is meaningful context, which I think is the point of your thread.

I can see it in missions. Not public spaces. It's possible that the unit count might start getting maxed in some place spaces such that they have to make a choice between more baddies + encounters or friendlies to help you out. And ultimately, people would much rather fight a hoard of baddies then have sub-par frames helping you out.

Missions on the other hand can be carefully scripted to allow dropped in frames though. I mean, I don't know what the limitations are, but most likely it's that they just don't have time to script in an AI and test all the shit that goes with that. I mean, adding in a friendly AI is a core mechanic that would have to be thoroughly tested.

Yep, it would be a big deal. And missions isn't restrictive enough because of the way Destiny works. Most missions intersect with public spaces. I guess they could make each mission space closed off instances (like Blighted Coven, for example) but I think they make those exceptions rare because it kind of goes against the core design. They've invested a ton of work to drop-in matchmaking to work seamlessly so I bet there is some internal resistance to turning that off.