Patrol Potential

I've talked before about how I think Patrol mode has the most untapped potential in Destiny. I had this little moment today that reaffirmed how cool Patrol can be, even with things exactly as they are right now.

I was patrolling around the Cosmodrome, working on some bounties (kills Crota's sword knights & generate orbs) while also doing a patrol mission (scan a cave). I entered the Mothyards just as a public event started. Then, the Blades of Crota invaded the world.

It created a really cool little situation where I found myself weighing options and risks. "Do I have time to scan this cave before the public event starts? Do I go straight for the event and risk missing the Blade of Crota bounty? Do I skip the cave and go straight for the blade? Or do I try to do it all?"

I ended up scanning the cave, then killing the blade, then joining the public event in time. Nothing super challenging, but the chaos of the moment added a layer of decision making that is often lacking from Destiny. Had I been a lower rank, it might have even been overwhelming, which to me is a good thing. Patrol mode needs some danger, some drama once in a while. All it took was to have several normal patrol mode events occur at the same time.

The moral of my little story: I think Patrol mode could be greatly improved even without adding anything to it. We just need MORE of what's already there. More public events, more patrol missions, more bounties that lend themselves to patrol mode.

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They already have elements in place that when combined would make an awesome addition to patrol: firefight. With the Eris quest we have enemies in the patrol areas that spawn waves of enemies when you kill that particular bad guy. We also have increasingly difficult waves of enemies in public events. Now they just need to combine those in a never ending firefight mode.

When you enter each patrol area, there could be an enemy hiding in an out of the way corner. If you kill it, you start the event. The first wave is easy, but every wave gets increasingly harder. There could be a timer for each wave. If you clear that wave before the timer runs out, a new wave spawns. If not, then the event ends. The waves go up in level, so eventually there would be waves that were unbeatable, but you could come back with each expansion and take down more waves.

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That needs to be a thing. Like, right now.

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They would need to turn that area to a darkness zone on the fly though.

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They would need to turn that area to a darkness zone on the fly though.

I don't think they do. When you die during a public event you usually respawn a good ways away. I think that would be enough of a penalty for this event as well. The waves have to be cleared before the timer runs out, so getting back to the fight after dying will make it harder to complete. Plus I want these events to last longer than a typical 2 minute public event.

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He just walks in the room trying to get to Mothyards and is annihilated. You'd need to separate the instance. Darkness zone or whatever.

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He just walks in the room trying to get to Mothyards and is annihilated. You'd need to separate the instance. Darkness zone or whatever.

I actually like the idea of having the occasional situation that makes lower level guardians run for the hills. Not too frequently of course, but every now and then it would be cool to have a situation come up that makes players stop and think "can I really handle this?"

Back when I first started leveling up my Titan, I stumbled across a "Defend the WarSat" public event in the mothyards. I was the only guardian nearby, but I joined it anyway. No big deal, right?

Just as the event started, the Blades of Crota invaded the world and ran straight into the zone where the WarSat had crashed. It was right about now that I remembered I was only a level 5. All of a sudden I was in a frantic fight for my life as I danced around the wreckage. I was totally outmatched. I was about to bail, when a level 17 and a level 20 swooped in on their sparrows and saved my ass. It was awesome, and another example of something exciting happening in patrol mode for a change.

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Yep. And I would love it if some level 34 public events would happen from time to time. Right now patrol is so safe that there are only two or three specific places in the entire game that can kill me if I'm actually trying. :(

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He just walks in the room trying to get to Mothyards and is annihilated. You'd need to separate the instance. Darkness zone or whatever.

I actually like the idea of having the occasional situation that makes lower level guardians run for the hills. Not too frequently of course, but every now and then it would be cool to have a situation come up that makes players stop and think "can I really handle this?"

Back when I first started leveling up my Titan, I stumbled across a "Defend the WarSat" public event in the mothyards. I was the only guardian nearby, but I joined it anyway. No big deal, right?

Just as the event started, the Blades of Crota invaded the world and ran straight into the zone where the WarSat had crashed. It was right about now that I remembered I was only a level 5. All of a sudden I was in a frantic fight for my life as I danced around the wreckage. I was totally outmatched. I was about to bail, when a level 17 and a level 20 swooped in on their sparrows and saved my ass. It was awesome, and another example of something exciting happening in patrol mode for a change.

What you just described is one of the coolest experiences in this version of Destiny. It's why I often go for Kill the Target public events even when I'm the only guy around and can't really do it by myself. The excitement of other players joining in is worth risking my gold tier.

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I meant the reward package, I guess. My understanding is that to get that you have to get Gold Tier on your first public event of the day.

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Nope, you don't HAVE to get gold on the first one you encounter.

It just triggers once you DO reach gold-tier on an event. It doesn't matter if that happens on the fifth one you attempt.

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I had a fun experience like this over the weekend. I was doing patrols on Mars when I stumbled on a Eliminate the Target. My first thought as a level 17 Warlock was, Nope not even going to try it. I collect my next bounty and out of the corner of my eye I see a level 23 fighting the Scion. Ok, I'll help. I run over and empty all my rockets on it. The Scion continues on it path shrugging off most of my weapons. Finally, I see the Scion's head explode when he was about 2 steps from finishing his route. It felt great, I got a little reward and helped someone else.

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He just walks in the room trying to get to Mothyards and is annihilated. You'd need to separate the instance. Darkness zone or whatever.

This.

Already in patrol areas at or near spawn on Earth, where you've got the lowest level new players, there's:

Minions of Crota
Eye/Hand/Heart of Crota
Megabattles (the enemy is moving against each other)
Urzok
Kill the Target
Defend the Warsat

The route from Steppes through Mothyard to Skywatch is one of the first a new Guardian learns, but repeating it in patrol mode can run you into any or even all of the above. Minions happens several times an hour, other public events usually once or twice in an hour, and the X of Crota "events" are available all the time if you disturb the target enemy. Think about it, as low level guardian on a patrol that guy in lunar complex just looks like a thrall cowering in a corner.

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Problem solved.

Just have a selectable difficulty level for all activities: including patrol.

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He just walks in the room trying to get to Mothyards and is annihilated. You'd need to separate the instance. Darkness zone or whatever.

This.

Already in patrol areas at or near spawn on Earth, where you've got the lowest level new players, there's:

Minions of Crota
Eye/Hand/Heart of Crota
Megabattles (the enemy is moving against each other)
Urzok
Kill the Target
Defend the Warsat

The route from Steppes through Mothyard to Skywatch is one of the first a new Guardian learns, but repeating it in patrol mode can run you into any or even all of the above. Minions happens several times an hour, other public events usually once or twice in an hour, and the X of Crota "events" are available all the time if you disturb the target enemy. Think about it, as low level guardian on a patrol that guy in lunar complex just looks like a thrall cowering in a corner.

I don't see this as much of a problem. They'll learn the first time not to take on what they can't beat... and soon enough they will be in a position to beat that which they previously could not take on. Maybe I'd agree with you more if there were actual consequences to dying, but triggering or wandering into an event just shows you not to do that and places you a few hundred meters away. Personally, I think it's a great trade to introduce new players to a temporality dangerous world that they can over come in exchange for a world that continues to challenge everyone over the long term.

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He just walks in the room trying to get to Mothyards and is annihilated. You'd need to separate the instance. Darkness zone or whatever.

This.

Already in patrol areas at or near spawn on Earth, where you've got the lowest level new players, there's:

Minions of Crota
Eye/Hand/Heart of Crota
Megabattles (the enemy is moving against each other)
Urzok
Kill the Target
Defend the Warsat

The route from Steppes through Mothyard to Skywatch is one of the first a new Guardian learns, but repeating it in patrol mode can run you into any or even all of the above. Minions happens several times an hour, other public events usually once or twice in an hour, and the X of Crota "events" are available all the time if you disturb the target enemy. Think about it, as low level guardian on a patrol that guy in lunar complex just looks like a thrall cowering in a corner.

None of this is a problem, IMO. First of all, it can all be avoided. 2nd, you're a level 4 for like an hour, compared to the weeks or months that you're stuck replaying the same content at or near max level.

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They already have elements in place that when combined would make an awesome addition to patrol: firefight. With the Eris quest we have enemies in the patrol areas that spawn waves of enemies when you kill that particular bad guy. We also have increasingly difficult waves of enemies in public events. Now they just need to combine those in a never ending firefight mode.

When you enter each patrol area, there could be an enemy hiding in an out of the way corner. If you kill it, you start the event. The first wave is easy, but every wave gets increasingly harder. There could be a timer for each wave. If you clear that wave before the timer runs out, a new wave spawns. If not, then the event ends. The waves go up in level, so eventually there would be waves that were unbeatable, but you could come back with each expansion and take down more waves.

These kinds of ideas are missing from Destiny at the moment; I agree.

I would like some Patrol missions to link together and tell a little story, if possible. An evolution of the way exotic bounties try to. But having some mission-specific audio or the occasional scripted event (or even some steps could manifest as a public event). Rewards would be legendary-level upgrade materials, like standalone public events are now. It would also be a prime lore-developing opportunity. I'd like to see the personalities in the tower interact in dialog, and even compete with each other for the fruits of the various stages of such a bounty. All the nuts and bolts are there, I think it's simply a matter of building a sort of RNG-chosen adventure chaining system, if you will. A lot of birds could be hit with very few stones that way.

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I would like some Patrol missions to link together and tell a little story, if possible.

At that point, you are just doing an easy version of a story mission.

Patrol should go back to being called Explore, and there should actually be things to find!

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[snip]

The moral of my little story: I think Patrol mode could be greatly improved even without adding anything to it. We just need MORE of what's already there. More public events, more patrol missions, more bounties that lend themselves to patrol mode.

I both agree and disagree. Part of the interest such combinations of events create is their relative rarity. If anything, Minions of Crota happens too often and too regularly. Rare occurrences like this are supposed to be rare-- that is what makes them interesting. It is, I think, a bit foolish to fall into the idea that just "more" of that would be better. The scenario you described was interesting because it doesn't happen all the time. If it started to happen more often it would become routine, commonplace, and uninteresting.

Patrols could use a refresh, or a bit more variety, but it's supposed to be the least dense activity-- it is that way on purpose.

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[snip]

The moral of my little story: I think Patrol mode could be greatly improved even without adding anything to it. We just need MORE of what's already there. More public events, more patrol missions, more bounties that lend themselves to patrol mode.

I both agree and disagree. Part of the interest such combinations of events create is their relative rarity. If anything, Minions of Crota happens too often and too regularly. Rare occurrences like this are supposed to be rare-- that is what makes them interesting. It is, I think, a bit foolish to fall into the idea that just "more" of that would be better. The scenario you described was interesting because it doesn't happen all the time. If it started to happen more often it would become routine, commonplace, and uninteresting.

Patrols could use a refresh, or a bit more variety, but it's supposed to be the least dense activity-- it is that way on purpose.

I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, but as it stands right now Patrol mode is mostly "nothing" happening. After 565 hours, this situation has happened exactly 1 time. Yes, some things should remain rare in order to make them feel special, but most of what happens is too simple/uneventful to justify its rarity. I think we are so far to one side of the spectrum that simply adding "more" of everything actually would be an improvement.

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[snip]

The moral of my little story: I think Patrol mode could be greatly improved even without adding anything to it. We just need MORE of what's already there. More public events, more patrol missions, more bounties that lend themselves to patrol mode.

I both agree and disagree. Part of the interest such combinations of events create is their relative rarity. If anything, Minions of Crota happens too often and too regularly. Rare occurrences like this are supposed to be rare-- that is what makes them interesting. It is, I think, a bit foolish to fall into the idea that just "more" of that would be better. The scenario you described was interesting because it doesn't happen all the time. If it started to happen more often it would become routine, commonplace, and uninteresting.

Patrols could use a refresh, or a bit more variety, but it's supposed to be the least dense activity-- it is that way on purpose.

I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, but as it stands right now Patrol mode is mostly "nothing" happening. After 565 hours, this situation has happened exactly 1 time. Yes, some things should remain rare in order to make them feel special, but most of what happens is too simple/uneventful to justify its rarity. I think we are so far to one side of the spectrum that simply adding "more" of everything actually would be an improvement.

I agree here. But I think a better solution might be to structure patrol missions so that they can branch and "link" to differing objectives. It would be nice if some of these, when chained long enough (either randomly or according to a specific recipe) one would receive a rarer objective/public event/award. Even something as simple as triggering a megabattle.

It would add a bit of focus to Patrol, with a growing level of investment over time, and a proportionate payout.

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I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, but as it stands right now Patrol mode is mostly "nothing" happening.

I would just like it to be known that I said this exact thing during the Alpha. :-p

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I also think this would be a great place to have a mini version of firefights from Halo. Because one thing that would bring me back over and over again if there is a place where I can fight guys that just keep getting harder and never stop until you either die once, or give up. You could have one of these places on each planet for each type of enemy.

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That's already how I think of Defend the Warsat.

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That's already how I think of Defend the Warsat.

Yeah, this is true, but it's still essentially a timed event.

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I would like to see the little war events occur more frequently, with more interesting behavior, but I already asked for staged public events like that anyway.

It is still lots of fun to take down the walker in the Cosmodrome with a sword.

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