Someone said that Deej was on a Twitch stream with 2old2play, and when asked how many areas each planet had, he said there was one.

No:
European Deadzone?
Mumbai?
Old Chicago?
Twilight Gap?

If that's true… man I'm going to be so sad. I was just about to post how hype I am after the moon mission, but I guess I'll just wait and see on the 9th.

All and all though, the Beta was great and I had tens tons of fun. Going dark, and will see you all release day.

Someone said that Deej was on a Twitch stream with 2old2play, and when asked how many areas each planet had, he said there was one.

No:
European Deadzone?
Mumbai?
Old Chicago?
Twilight Gap?

If that's true… man I'm going to be so sad. I was just about to post how hype I am after the moon mission, but I guess I'll just wait and see on the 9th.

All and all though, the Beta was great and I had tens tons of fun. Going dark, and will see you all release day.

I've been pondering: what if Destiny didn't have sequels?

What if the next ten years are spent with the same "Destiny" base experience, which is slowly expanded via expansion packs, which add new areas similar in size to what we've seen.

So those places you mention above might come as a series of 4 expansion packs over the years. A pack could have 1 new area for each planet/moon, slowly building the number of areas on the game... this would essentially operate like WoW, where the game itself hasn't changed, but they keep expanding it and making it deeper.

Someone said that Deej was on a Twitch stream with 2old2play, and when asked how many areas each planet had, he said there was one.

No:
European Deadzone?
Mumbai?
Old Chicago?
Twilight Gap?

If that's true… man I'm going to be so sad. I was just about to post how hype I am after the moon mission, but I guess I'll just wait and see on the 9th.

All and all though, the Beta was great and I had tens tons of fun. Going dark, and will see you all release day.

I think the Twilight Gap is in Russia (or "Old Russia"), but yeah, I hope there are other areas. One per planet would kind of fit with only one raid, though, and they'd have multiple little maps and some way to go between them, or map the whole planet but have most of it not have missions, and that last one will have people complaining about how empty the planets are, probably. I want to see the ruins of Chicago and London and other places.

I was afraid of this.

Unfortunate, but not surprising; the interface for selecting areas isn't really visually designed to support more than one area per celestial thingy.

Frankly, I've had many of the same thoughts the past few days and was wondering the same thing.

Great minds and all. No matter what though, I'm having a blast with the beta, even with the trouble it's been to play with friends due to various networking/connection issues.

Killer job, Bungie :)

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Didn't anyone see this coming? 14GB for two zones and 4 MP maps? We wont get more than 5 zones of the size we have seen in the Final due to Blue ray size.

It's how they use it that matters. I'm confident given how much fun I've had out of this brief taste that there will be plenty to do, maybe not like an MMO, or grindfest like Borderlands, or like the randomised fun of Payday 2, but the quality is there to make up for it.

And hey, we might be very pleasantly surprised!

5 personality and content rich, secret filled, action heavy zones is better than 20 bland ones pumped out for a content starved playing public. Yes they will re-use assets between missions, Halo 1 style, but like that title it's a weakness that can be turned into a strength, with the sense of place and consistency it can give to a narrative.

Looking forward to this big time, I cannot even imagine a worse case scenario (Only 8-10 hours of SP content) disappointing me at this stage.

-Vince

Someone said that Deej was on a Twitch stream with 2old2play, and when asked how many areas each planet had, he said there was one.

No:
European Deadzone?
Mumbai?
Old Chicago?
Twilight Gap?

If that's true… man I'm going to be so sad. I was just about to post how hype I am after the moon mission, but I guess I'll just wait and see on the 9th.

All and all though, the Beta was great and I had tens tons of fun. Going dark, and will see you all release day.

This is what I've been expecting. We've never seen the Director suggest multiple locations per planet. Cool concept art like that city, buried in snow, now seem to be replaced with stuff like the Mars city, buried in sand.

The only gameplay footage I've seen of the Reef shows a character walking in 3rd person, which aligns with the suspicions that it is a social space like the Tower. Could just be Bungie using some dev camera, though. But I'm not optimistic.

So,

Old Russia
The Moon
Mars
Venus

Doesn't seem like a lot, but we haven't had access to all that these spaces have to offer. I'm hoping Mars is a larger environment designed for roaming vehicles, but the open world design so far seems to focus on small environment pockets connected through narrow passages.

The information available for the first two "expansion packs" suggests to be that they won't be adding new worlds, just additional areas to the existing worlds.

Has anyone found out what the Vanguard icon next to the Crucible on the Director does? Raids?

Old Russia
The Moon
Mars
Venus

Doesn't seem like a lot, but we haven't had access to all that these spaces have to offer. I'm hoping Mars is a larger environment designed for roaming vehicles, but the open world design so far seems to focus on small environment pockets connected through narrow passages.

This is my biggest concern with the exploration areas so far (was The Moon like this too?) but I'm hoping that they'll be able to expand the scope of exploration with new areas.

My guess is that the general format of additional content added to the game will follow this format:

DLC for each game: new strikes, raids and weapons/armour
Destiny 2, 3 etc.: new worlds/areas on existing worlds to visit

We know they've done concept work for other locations on Earth, so my guess is we will get to visit these eventually, just not in this game.

There is one aspect of the game that you seem to be forgetting about.... The Crucible. Perhaps there are multiplayer maps set on a majority of these locations. We will be able to visit them, but they won't be even remotely close to the scale that we see in Single Player. If Deej said that there was only 1 area per planet, this is the best explanation I can come up with.

There is one aspect of the game that you seem to be forgetting about.... The Crucible. Perhaps there are multiplayer maps set on a majority of these locations. We will be able to visit them, but they won't be even remotely close to the scale that we see in Single Player. If Deej said that there was only 1 area per planet, this is the best explanation I can come up with.

That's a reasonable assumption and would mitigate the disappointment somewhat.

Isn't Earth kind of over used in a lot of existing games?

I really am not interested in a destroyed Chicago or heaven forbid, another Statue of Liberty disaster site.

I thought that that Iron Banner map in the "Eastern Flood Zone" was in Old Chicago, for instance.

Could still be a Europa, couldn't there?

Could still be a Europa, couldn't there?

Doubt it; we're to ‘attempt no landings there’.

Doubt it; we're to ‘attempt no landings there’.

Sounds like a challenge.

This is on Destiny's Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2bv20d/spoilers_this_is_what_we_can_reasonably_expect_at/

If that's all there is, is anyone else wondering where the budget of hundreds-of-millions of dollars went?

I'm really, really hoping that they have a lot of DLC ready to go. I would be okay with this if we receive material (not a 5 minute mission for a weapon, a new story arc supported weekly) content consistently.

If that's all there is, is anyone else wondering where the budget of hundreds-of-millions of dollars went?

Bungie's snack bar?

Well, the good news is, it looks like you can experience all of the story mode content in very little time. So, you can get by with renting if you only want to play for the campaign.

Also, I'm a little disappointed in seeing 3v3 playlists. Shouldn't the dedicated servers easily accommodate more than six players on a multiplayer map? Why are they pushing toward three and six member teams rather than four and eight?

Also, I'm a little disappointed in seeing 3v3 playlists. Shouldn't the dedicated servers easily accommodate more than six players on a multiplayer map?

Pretty sure it's peer hosted. Don't know where people are getting the idea there are dedicated servers.

Why are they pushing toward three and six member teams rather than four and eight?

Design choice.

Not having dedicated servers for a next gen game would be really strange. I think it's normal for people to assume that competitive multiplayer games on the XB1 and PS4 are on dedicated servers. Microsoft practically gives away access to their servers for XB1 titles.

That would suck. I mean, the levels are big, but only four of them is not a lot of variety. Unless they plan on adding new levels via expansions, then this game may not seem as epic in scale as I was hoping for. My hype levels have declined a bit from this news. Still, it's going to be a fun game, but I would have rather them put all their effort into the story/campaign part of the game and not bothered with multiplayer at all.

Also, I'm a little disappointed in seeing 3v3 playlists. Shouldn't the dedicated servers easily accommodate more than six players on a multiplayer map?

Pretty sure it's peer hosted. Don't know where people are getting the idea there are dedicated servers.

I guess I assumed is was server based because that's how the tower and explore mode seem to operate, since people come and go as they lease with no noticeable affect on other players.

Why are they pushing toward three and six member teams rather than four and eight?

Design choice.

So, I guess the additional player(s) would make the game too chaotic and dis-likable. I can't see how a 3v3 gametype could be more fun than a 4v4 gametype, the more the merrier, right? Or perhaps it's just an excuse to avoid building large play areas that can accommodate larger teams.

I guess I assumed is was server based because that's how the tower and explore mode seem to operate, since people come and go as they lease with no noticeable affect on other players.

Very true. It's incredibly smooth.

So, I guess the additional player(s) would make the game too chaotic and dis-likable. I can't see how a 3v3 gametype could be more fun than a 4v4 gametype, the more the merrier, right?

It's probably extended from this base-3 design they've got going on. 3 weapons, 3 classes, 3 races, 3 man fireteams etc. The larger gametypes are 6v6 - a multiple of 3.

They have to limit the proliferation of playlists somewhere (Reach got a little silly), so rather than 2v2 and a 4v4, 3v3 hits the sweet spot and matches with other activities.

Or perhaps it's just an excuse to avoid building large play areas that can accommodate larger teams.

WUT?

Indeed, why is it that whenever some "Global" disaster, alien invasion or major crime event occurs, it always seems to be in LA or some other typical US city? (Dam Hollywood).

Bungie - please let me explore the ruins of Wellington or Auckland, otherwise pre-order cancelled /s

They have to limit the proliferation of playlists somewhere (Reach got a little silly), so rather than 2v2 and a 4v4, 3v3 hits the sweet spot and matches with other activities.

The biggest so far is 12 total (6v6), so I hope we get a multi team playlist. 3v3v3v3.

That count is wrong. Here's a newer post with newer data

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2bw74e/please_remain_calm_destiny_has_32_story_missions/

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Urk's response (Hi Urk!) to the "one area per planet" rumblings on NeoGaf.

Oh, hello.

Destiny's pretty big. It's the biggest game we've ever made, by far, and we're sort of known for making games you can play for months, years, and even decades if you're a little bit...dedicated.

With Destiny, we're looking to exceed what we've done before, not just in terms of scale - the Moon is our smallest destination - but in terms of scope and breadth of activities. That's true for day one, as you expect, but it also means we want Destiny to have super long legs.

If we're fortunate enough to have you playing months after launch, you still find lots of compelling stuff to do. That will manifest itself in a myriad of ways, from straight up content to cool activities we've yet to show off.

We think we did a decent job supporting Halo, post launch, but we were only ever able to cater to the competitive set. That left a lot of players out in the cold. That made a lot of the team grumpy. We wanted to do better. So, Destiny is philosophically built support every type of player, and all modes with ongoing activities and events. We look at it quite a bit like television programming, as opposed to a singular film, as we had in the past. We think it's gonna be pretty great, but we wanted to test out a bunch of our new stuff with Beta, to make sure we could flip knobs and levers live, reacting and responding with lots (and, ho boy, did we see LOTS) of players online and playing.

Beta was water wings. Level 8 is nothing. You barely scratched the surface, and it seems like some folks had fun with what was there.

If you did, good news. More soon.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=122942974&postcount=2709

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However, Urk implied more areas might be introduced in the coming months.

Read the comments below the post. He didn't parse the database properly. He's counting each difficulty setting of each Strike as a separate Strike. The original information is current as of the database on 6/30/14, and is correctly parsed. I'm hoping it's is wildly inaccurate, but I'm reigning in my hype for September. That being said, I enjoyed the hell out of Old Russia for a little over 12 hours and never complained. So, I imagine we'll all be just fine with the full game, it's just not nearly as large as I was expecting.

It also helps if you take the perspective of Destiny being a FPS, not a MMO. Bungie has been very careful to not refer to Destiny as a MMO. Now we see why. As a FPS, this is a beautiful, beautiful game. As an MMO, it's small. This, of course, is based on what we know from the Alpha and the Beta.

Prior to this knowledge, I was still having a blast with the Beta. Knowing it's smaller than I thought doesn't make it less fun, it just requires me to reset my expectations. Which, admittedly, is difficult to do.

Hype is reigned in (probably brought to 'non-Bunge fanboy' levels really) but I'm still looking forward to September in a big way.

That's what I meant.

That was a "Yes, you're absolutely right. But it'll *feel* bigger I swear". Which we've heard before from a million other debs.

Now, this is Bungie so I trust them to mean it, but still - my biggest concern all along has been that it will feel less 'mythic fantasy' and more short story.

That was a "Yes, you're absolutely right. But it'll *feel* bigger I swear". Which we've heard before from a million other debs.

Now, this is Bungie so I trust them to mean it, but still - my biggest concern all along has been that it will feel less 'mythic fantasy' and more short story.

Again, remember how Bungie said Halo 2's great Journey could fit all of the geometry from Halo inside it? That was true. But, which was more fun, all of Halo, or the single level Great Journey?

Destiny does not really get a lot of 'Bang for Your Buck' so to speak, out of the modeled areas, since they are:

1. Mostly Empty
2. Don't contain designed encounters, but rather roving enemy packs
3. Story missions are not substantial
4. Explore mode missions suck

As such, because of the way Bungie designed Destiny, it really NEEDS tons of content to stay fun. Marathon and Halo did more with less, because the games were more concentrated in their design.

It doesn't matter if we are going to play for months, if those months are going to be spent replaying the same things over and over for better loot, or to complete bounties. Again, I'd rather have a game like Vanquish that packs such a dense experience into its levels, rather than a vast expanse that is empty with missions that don't feel as substantial.

2. Don't contain designed encounters, but rather roving enemy packs

I was agreeing with you on this point at the beginning of the beta. But all of the roving enemy packs have some specific spots that they're working within and appear to have a solid understanding of the environment.

So I felt like each pack was a designed encounter that I could approach from many more ways than I did in most encounters in Halo as the levels were largely linear.

Just didn't help that by the time I started understanding that, I was already Level 8 and therefor was not at risk from most of the packs.

Replayability.

B.net is telling me I sunk 30 hours into my main Hunter character in the Beta. With all the limitations that had.

With another 3 areas to properly explore (I only had a hour and a half on the moon), another 12 character levels to unlock, another subclass, and two other classes (I only played with each for maybe 90 minutes) to explore, and deeper customisation with the Legendary and Exotic weapons and armour; I'm definitely going to be spending a lot of time in Destiny.

It says I also played 48 matches of multiplayer - which seems a lot compared to any other MP games I've played. I felt like I was only just starting to get the hang of it on the last night. Despite some frustrations in the middle of last week, I kept seeing new ways to play right up to the close.

Plus, what looks like space for a 3rd subclass at some point, 2 expansions in the first year, promise of more active management of both PvP AND PvE...

Well worth it.

Of course you can always want MOAR but I really, really, really want it to come out NOW.

My only concern is that the story missions won't do the gameplay mechanics justice. Hopefully they turn up the dials later on in the story mode.

Indeed. If you start to get tired of Old Russia you can very easily jump to AT LEAST Mars, The Moon, or Venus. I think just having a change of scenery from time to time will help immensely.