Fun Thread - Crota designer looks back on the raid (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, November 05, 2018, 17:43 (2006 days ago) @ cheapLEY

This probably isn’t representative, but the few times I joined random groups that were set on cheesing the bridge, the player trying to cross the gap kept failing, or it took forever for everyone to jump up to the roof... it really was slower than a proper run. In 1 of those cases, I talked the group into trying it legit, and after teaching them how to do it we nailed it first try. Everyone was saying “that’s it? I always heard this encounter was impossible!”.

I didn't play Crota's End until well into the House of Wolves era (I think--I should check with that Triumphs montage on the character screen of D2). So nothing about that raid was every difficult when I played it, which warps my perspective a bit.

That's interesting to hear that. The final Last Wish encounter looks like the best part of that raid.

I need to think more about this, but my problem with that encounter might come down to pacing more than anything else. I certainly don’t enjoy it when I’m in it, but that might be because it comes at a point where I’m just ready for the whole thing to be over.

No, I think your initial impressions are right. It's just not a fun a encounter. As I've said, I think it's too tedious. It's the worst of both design philosophies, honestly. One person gets the relic from the Captain and actually does stuff, while the other two sit with their thumbs up their ass. Sure, the other person directs the relic runner, but that's not really an active role in a way that's fun. There aren't any ads to clear to speak of (Wow, a whole nine Taken Psions and a few snipey dudes--my shooting abilities are really challenged! One grenade takes out the group in the middle, and two headshots with my curated Nation of Beasts for a second group and then I just get to stand there).

After watching the race to World's first for Last Wish, I wrote up a big post that I wanted to discuss with everyone who was okay with spoilers about the encounters of LW, but never got around to finishing it. My big gripe is that LW feels SUPER uncreative, to the point where a lot of the encounters are just mixing and matching of other raid encounters. Actually, the last raid encounter I found to be not guilty of this was the Zamboni.

Yeah, that’s a good point.

I dunno, that whole encounter is exactly just mixing and matching of other raid encounters. We've got calling out of hidden symbols, which has been around since Warpriest in King's Fall. We've got a relic with a cleansing mechanic, which was in the very first raid. Even splitting the team into different groups is just a remix of Atheon teleporting three players to another area. The only really unique thing is the mechanic with Riven's Eyes, which is admittedly pretty neat, but the entire rest of the encounter is lackluster. Actual combat skill and gunplay barely factors into the encounter at all.

I don’t want to spoil anything at all because I know you’re part of Kermit’s Blind team, so I’ll just say this in the most vague and general way possible: the part you are talking about is not the part that Cyber and I are talking about ;)