I would very much like to escalate. (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, August 20, 2018, 09:31 (2364 days ago) @ Vortech

Not only because gaming fun, but because of shirt.

Has anyone just stumbled into a good one? I take it Bungie expected this to be like Public events and just have people team up with strangers by chance, but everything I hear is about complicated methods of finding each other.

Escalation Protocol has become my favorite go-to activity of late, despite the fact that getting a good session up and running is by no means guaranteed.

On one occasion, I made a substantial run with a group of strangers (6 of us in total) who just happened to find ourselves in the same instance together. I've done the first wave or two plenty of times in this manner, but this was the only time I've been part of a random group that managed to make it to wave 7. We got the Boss's health down to about 50% before we ran out of time, and the group instantly broke apart without making a 2nd attempt.

Every other time that I've made a substantial EP run has been done with organized groups, either through DBO or the Xbox LFG tool. Once you get everything up and running, its a blast. Pure chaos and hectic fun, decently challenging at times and hilariously easy at other times. The rewards are great (when they happen to drop), and it feels special without being as intense and demanding an activity as a raid.

I really, really hope that Bungie takes the time to address the way Escalation Protocol is handled, from a player-grouping point of view. Because at the moment, there are some severe barriers between the player and this fun activity. Everything about how the activity is accessed seems to imply a sort of "vision" of how Destiny is played that, in my experience, does not at all line up with the reality of how Destiny is played.

If the patrol spaces were filled with 3-person fireteams who were constantly out and about, looking for EP instances or other public events, then the current implementation might not be so bad. But in my experience, finding 3-person fireteams patrolling mars almost never happens, except for the rare times I come across a group who is looking to run Escalation Protocol. The far more common situation I find myself in as to be alone in a patrol zone, or to find myself along side 1 or 2 randoms. And because of how Destiny's patrol space/instancing/player cap system works, if there are 3 random individuals in an instance on mars, the game won't allow more players to join that instance unless they are being invited in to a fireteam by one of the already present players.

I know there are some real hotshot players out there who have managed to 3-man Escalation Protocol, but that is simply impossible for the majority of players to ever achieve. A group of 6 organized players, all max light, who are all communicating and know what they are doing, have a decent chance of making it through as long as at least of few of them are real damage-dealing monsters. Any less than that, and the chances of success drop to slim at best.

All this to say, I love EP and would love to see Bungie address its current implementation. Its a super fun activity that not enough players get to experience, purely due to the severely awkward player-grouping systems around it. It would be a great platform to add to, as well. I'd love to see new IKELOS weapons and armor added, perhaps some new wave variations.

In the meantime, I'm always up for running EP with anyone here at DBO. If you happen to catch me online, feel free to fire me a message or invite! (My Xbox gamertag is NevinDouglas).