Some things that need to be improved (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Wednesday, October 22, 2014, 15:18 (3472 days ago) @ scarab

We need context

• How are we helping the city? Really.
  
• We need to see the city - meet the habitants - experience an attack on the city and the toll.
  
• Find something, do something that has visible consequences for the better - if the expansions have new kit maybe something we do makes this possible

The tone is wrong

Bungie needs to explain what is so Dark about the Cabal and Fallen or shut up about the Darkness in relation to them.

Right, some clarification there would be nice. We think we've seen The Darkness in the form of the heart of the Black Garden, but the term is also used to refer to powerful groups and individuals of our four enemies. It might be that The Darkness is more than just a race. Multiple Grimoire cards consider the concept of The Darkness being more of a force of nature kind of thing rather than just a fifth enemy. It might be that The Darkness really is influencing the other races' actions.

Also, the Fallen and Cabal seem to be smart enough to not fight against us and yet they do. The Fallen have, in the past, mounted an all out attack on The City. The Cabal have taken over what was once one of our most important cities and fire on us any time we stop by. If extinction is coming and these two races are actively fighting us they certainly aren't allied with The Light now are they? And when the continued existance of your race is on the line a "you're either with us or against us" mentality seems appropriate...

We slag off the Fallen as being stupid but, it appears that, they can build their own stuff. We keep our ships flying by stealing other people's stuff. We collect skin husks and bone marrow to keep our ships flying. Are they powered by dandruff? We steal hip replacement parts from Vex to ??? make our shit work. Are we going to steal the gold out of pensioners' mouths?

Um, yes actually. One of the Mars patrol missions is to harvest Cabal enamel caps or some such thing. :)

We are violent thugs, parasites who call everybody else dark and steal their scraps to keep us going.

We make no knowledge of our own.

Nah. Too extreme. We had a Golden Age of innovation. Maybe we're sometimes patching ships together using enemy resources, but they were ships we originally built. The Exotic guns we use are often the result of our past research and innovations. And what do you think the Fallen are doing? They attacked and burned London after the collapse. They have literally told us they are claiming all the worlds that used to be ours. Heck, they have piles of what appear to be human bones scattered about their lairs. And they scavenge and steal wherever they go. The Cabal too are picking through Freehold looking for things from our past. Not exactly noble there...

The golden age looks a bit crap

It's not the decay. Overall the art direction is amazing. Well most things look very nice but the stuff we scan looks very commonplace or underwhelming. I've scanned:

• black boxes on the outside of a building that look like electricity meters.
  
• 1970's style computer cabinets
  
• A hot water system (immersion heaters?)

Have we sunk so low that this stuff impresses us?

How can this be improved?

Give us some amazing looking stuff to scan.

Lets see something that has improved since the golden age. Maybe our maths has advanced to the point where our cryptarchs can break stuff easily that had to be brute forced back in the day. So we have learned something for ourselves since the golden age. It had better NOT be something the traveller taught us (are we adults or children?).

The Destiny world is supposed to be a hopeful world - a place we want to visit. At the moment it feels: wrong, sickly, primitive-attituded, dependent intellectually as well as physically on the traveller. This world should have a renaissance - we should be making stuff of our own - making our own science - questioning reliance on the traveller.

We are one small city under siege by four hostile races, two of which we know have overtaken countless worlds. The continents around us are swarming with Fallen. The moon above us is filled with Hive. The two planets closest to us are strongholds for the Cabal and Vex. And oh yeah, the force that was able to crush us when we were much more powerful is on its way back.

Our enemies need to be more respected by Bungie and more worthy of respect by us. They also need to be more nuanced. I was interested when I saw that the Awoken had, what appeared to be, an alliance with the Fallen. But it turns out that the Fallen are like dogs. The Queen killed the pack leader and became the pack leader. We are figuratively fighting animals. Give us people to fight!

I'd certainly love to learn more about each race. Fortunately, each race already seems to have showings of depth that the original Covenant back in Halo 1 did not. Using only Halo 1 knowledge, who were the Elites or Jackals or Grunts or Hunters? I can tell you all about the Fallen or Hive or Cabal or Vex. Not as much as I'd like certainly, but each are more than "tall aliens that wear colored armor."