Post-Beta thoughts: how Destiny can reach its full potential

(Outside of large changes and paradigm shifts that would likely be completely unfeasible at this point.)

1. Improve Chat Accessibility

Prior to trying experiencing Destiny in the alpha and beta, if you had told me that players would have to form a party after being matched in order to chat in Bungie's big shared-world shooter, I would have responded that the chances of that were zero.

It is strange that, in this highly social and coop-focused shooter, there are more barriers than ever to voice communication. If some people demand an option to auto-mute others, I suppose that's alright, but the current situation has a crushing impact on Destiny's cooperate gameplay. Strikes and Crucible should support automatic team chat, and explore mode should support some kind of automatic proximity chat. To reduce confusion in explore mode, perhaps the game could show an icon on non-chat player's names to indicate the lack of communication.

Implementing automatic chatting options would elevate cooperation in Destiny to another level, it would help the world feel more alive, and it might give the Tower a greater sense of purpose.

2. Improve Directional Feedback

Hectic close-quarters fighting in Destiny can often feel muddy, as though it can be unexpectedly hard to keep track of things. This is probably partly because of the deliberately imprecise radar. However, I agree with the widespread opinion that the new radar system has numerous benefits. So, what can be done?

A. Damage Arrow

Destiny's main indicator for where you're taking damage from is a funky pointer in the middle of the screen. It's not very readable. Although it gives a precise indication of damage direction, its shape makes it look similar for a lot of different impact directions, so that you have to study it for a brief moment to figure out what it's trying to tell you. By contrast, despite not being very precise, Halo 1's red edge-of-screen arrows feel much better because they shoot an immediate and clear signal to your reflexes. Perhaps a similar mechanism could be emphasized in Destiny, or the damage indicator restructured to be more rapidly interpretable.

B. Sound Directionality

I'm not an expert on sound processing in games, so maybe my articulation of this issue sucks; I can't articulate this point in a very structured detail-analyzing way at all. But, sound in Destiny doesn't seem to telegraph its directionality very well. I typically play using just the TV stereo speakers, so that's obviously part of the problem, but under the same circumstances most games seem to do better. This affects large-scale events as well; when Fallen ships arrive, it always takes me longer than I'd expect to locate them.

I'm not expecting anything A3D-tier, but it feels like it could be improved.

C. Field of View

Destiny's FoV is about 72 degrees horizontally. That's hardly higher than Halo 3, which many people have criticized for being a bit lacking in peripheral vision. For how low it is, simply looking around and moving feels better than I would have expected, but the view restrictions can be felt when things get messy.

An increase to 80-90 degrees would be welcome (as demonstrated by the near-unanimous praise in the shift in FoV from Halo 3 to ODST).

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(Outside of large changes and paradigm shifts that would likely be completely unfeasible at this point.)

1. Improve Chat Accessibility

Prior to trying experiencing Destiny in the alpha and beta, if you had told me that players would have to form a party after being matched in order to chat in Bungie's big shared-world shooter, I would have responded that the chances of that were zero.

It is strange that, in this highly social and coop-focused shooter, there are more barriers than ever to voice communication. If some people demand an option to auto-mute others, I suppose that's alright, but the current situation has a crushing impact on Destiny's cooperate gameplay. Strikes and Crucible should support automatic team chat, and explore mode should support some kind of automatic proximity chat. To reduce confusion in explore mode, perhaps the game could show an icon on non-chat player's names to indicate the lack of communication.

Implementing automatic chatting options would elevate cooperation in Destiny to another level, it would help the world feel more alive, and it might give the Tower a greater sense of purpose.

I just so strongly disagree with you on this. Communicating with randoms has an almost guaranteed chance to be obnoxious. I can't imagine how stupid the tower would be with the nonsense randoms would say.

It feels social when you run into other people and wave at them before joining them in the fray. Waving, pointing, sitting, and dancing just about cover how I want to communicate with randoms.

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I just so strongly disagree with you on this. Communicating with randoms has an almost guaranteed chance to be obnoxious. I can't imagine how stupid the tower would be with the nonsense randoms would say.

It feels social when you run into other people and wave at them before joining them in the fray. Waving, pointing, sitting, and dancing just about cover how I want to communicate with randoms.

I totally get the reluctance to embrace full open chat, but at the same time I definitely feel like Destiny is lacking. To me, the communication tools at our disposal might as well be being paralysed in a wheelchair only able to communicate through blinking. It actually discourages me from any social interaction, since the only way to properly communicate is to dive full-on into inviting people into a fireteam. That's a little bit intense for some people, and it'd be great if there were some less-commital ways of starting up a conversation or otherwise engaging socially.

Others have talked about proximity voice (yes, this could be problematic, but there are also ways of dealing with it; you can mute/report people who abuse this feature, and if they have too many negative reports they could be permanently muted in proximity, say). The range of gestures could be wider, too.

It does occur to me however that for a game which is primarily co-operative, the default communication black-out seems misplaced. It's generally in competitive games that the worst behaviour of gamers is exhibited, and it's not hard to see why: if somebody beats you, then some players might feel compelled to lash out verbally. But in a game where you most need more communication in a co-operative environment, I'm not certain that players would be regularly abusive. Players in MMOs can be offensive, but generally speaking having free text-based chat is more positive than negative, after all.

I have to wonder if Bungie have perhaps jumped the gun a little.

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I think they have indeed jumped the gun. Beta-wise, Destiny seems like a single player game trying to be social rather than being social from the ground up. I understand how proximity voice may not be ideal in some situations (such as the tower), but it would actually be quite cool in explore mode. Surely, some won't like it, so give them to option to turn it off.

I understand why Bungie has gone the direction of less chat interaction due to online jerks and such, but a lot of players enjoy chat despite these jerks. Why can't they give players the option to choose rather than force something only a segment of the population enjoys, it would be so easy. Of course, I say this with no regard to technical limitations or resource sacrifices required for these options, but limited chat just seems like a step backward in terms of video game innovation.

I never thought that games of the future would not feature options that seemed standard 4 years ago. (I say this in regards to lack of full party chat in multiplayer modes)

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It does occur to me however that for a game which is primarily co-operative, the default communication black-out seems misplaced. It's generally in competitive games that the worst behaviour of gamers is exhibited, and it's not hard to see why: if somebody beats you, then some players might feel compelled to lash out verbally. But in a game where you most need more communication in a co-operative environment, I'm not certain that players would be regularly abusive. Players in MMOs can be offensive, but generally speaking having free text-based chat is more positive than negative, after all.

This is true. Running into obnoxious players in ME3 multiplayer, for example, is extremely rare. Practically non-existent, I'd say (as an aside, I have a feeling this relative lack of douchery is part of the reason I hear way more female voices in ME3 than I do in say, a Halo multiplayer lobby).

I'm still not sure I'm sold on proximity voice for Destiny. ME3 has no competitive multiplayer at all, so the players who focus on that exclusively aren't present for the most part. Destiny does have competitive multiplayer though, and it's not super hard to move between the modes. Inevitably there's going to be some cross-over.

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Haven't read all the replies, so forgive me if this has been suggested.

What about a lounge/bar/public space that is part of the tower, but is a "proximity chat zone." For example, you walk into the Last City Pub (or whatever) and proximity chat kicks on allowing you to assemble a fire team of strangers. That way, any sort of obnoxious player is minimized to one area and not the entire tower. If you don't like proximity chat, steer clear of that zone.

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I like this idea.

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I wonder if stunt is doing Destiny?

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maybe there could be a pub some day.

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Doesn't have to be a pub, that just came to mind. Maybe down the hall that is opposite the Shipwright's entrance would work. I seem to remember a lounge already built into that area. Maybe near the tree (The Gathering Tree? Yes? No?). Maybe something really cool that Bungie can add.

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What about a departure lounge?

You chat to people in the lounge to discus which activity will be done and who will be the leader - (s)he goes to a departure gate - presses [] or the xbox equivalent to pick a destination from the navigator - the gate opens and two other people can enter with him and board one of those large transport planes that we see docking with the tower. The transport takes this newly formed team to the destination.

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- No text -

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Maybe the mobile app can be leveraged in some way?

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(Outside of large changes and paradigm shifts that would likely be completely unfeasible at this point.)

1. Improve Chat Accessibility

Prior to trying experiencing Destiny in the alpha and beta, if you had told me that players would have to form a party after being matched in order to chat in Bungie's big shared-world shooter, I would have responded that the chances of that were zero.

It is strange that, in this highly social and coop-focused shooter, there are more barriers than ever to voice communication. If some people demand an option to auto-mute others, I suppose that's alright, but the current situation has a crushing impact on Destiny's cooperate gameplay. Strikes and Crucible should support automatic team chat, and explore mode should support some kind of automatic proximity chat. To reduce confusion in explore mode, perhaps the game could show an icon on non-chat player's names to indicate the lack of communication.

What platform were you playing on?

For coop, I'd only want to hear my fireteam, and that's how it is by default.

For strikes, where you might need matchmaking if you don't have a full fireteam, you may need to check your privacy settings to allow voice from fireteam members not on your friends list. I seem to remember having to switch this early on, and I seem to have heard more of this from Xbox One users than 360; YMMV. However, I appreciate that the default had that off rather than on.

For Crucible, I sort of agree. There should be team chat on by default that can be switched off if desired. The fast pace of PVP compared to PVE, in my opinion, leaves much less time for someone to just look at the situation, assess it, and decide what the most productive thing to do is. Your teammates need to be able to tell you immediately, and not just about flag/ammo status.

Implementing automatic chatting options would elevate cooperation in Destiny to another level, it would help the world feel more alive, and it might give the Tower a greater sense of purpose.

Heck no. The reason the Tower is a tolerable and relatively peaceful place is that the game's built-in emotes are the only communication possible with non party members. What those people are actually thinking as they point, dance, bow and jump around is best left unheard.

2. Improve Directional Feedback

Hectic close-quarters fighting in Destiny can often feel muddy, as though it can be unexpectedly hard to keep track of things. This is probably partly because of the deliberately imprecise radar. However, I agree with the widespread opinion that the new radar system has numerous benefits. So, what can be done?

A. Damage Arrow

Destiny's main indicator for where you're taking damage from is a funky pointer in the middle of the screen. It's not very readable. Although it gives a precise indication of damage direction, its shape makes it look similar for a lot of different impact directions, so that you have to study it for a brief moment to figure out what it's trying to tell you. By contrast, despite not being very precise, Halo 1's red edge-of-screen arrows feel much better because they shoot an immediate and clear signal to your reflexes. Perhaps a similar mechanism could be emphasized in Destiny, or the damage indicator restructured to be more rapidly interpretable.

I dislike effects that give information while also obscuring the view, so I was glad that damage indication was mostly restricted to the radar.

I also like the relative imprecision of the radar compared to Halo; I just wish it gave a slightly better indication of target elevation.

[snip]

C. Field of View

Destiny's FoV is about 72 degrees horizontally. That's hardly higher than Halo 3, which many people have criticized for being a bit lacking in peripheral vision. For how low it is, simply looking around and moving feels better than I would have expected, but the view restrictions can be felt when things get messy.

An increase to 80-90 degrees would be welcome (as demonstrated by the near-unanimous praise in the shift in FoV from Halo 3 to ODST).

I think this is a case where what people want (or say they want) isn't always best. Of course I'd like 360 degree wraparound vision, but this wouldn't be good for the game. I'm also betting there's some performance impact of doing this, especially on the older platforms.

Also, ODST did not have any multiplayer included except Firefight, and this may also be a factor. The wider the FOV, the harder it is to sneak up on somebody from the side or behind.

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Heck no. The reason the Tower is a tolerable and relatively peaceful place is that the game's built-in emotes are the only communication possible with non party members. What those people are actually thinking as they point, dance, bow and jump around is best left unheard.

Have you played any other MMOs? There's so much more richness and fun that can arise in shared (non-combat) social spaces like cities than just emotes. Give people the tools and they'll surprise you.

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Have you played any other MMOs? There's so much more richness and fun that can arise in shared (non-combat) social spaces like cities than just emotes. Give people the tools and they'll surprise you.

Isn't that exactly what happened in 2004, though? When Bungie released Halo 2 with proximity voice and open team chat and "created a monster."

In my experience, the majority of people don't even use voice chat (for whatever reason). The next biggest proportion of people were in party or private chat and couldn't hear you anyway. A large group had obnoxious interference or feedback from their TV sets, or I could hear everything going on in their house - earning an instant mute. Many were chatting with their friends or otherwise not engaged with the game. Then there were the trolls and assholes.

Times where people were pleasant and helping out the game, without me already knowing them and being in a party, were rare and I find difficult to recall.

I'm quite content with the idea that voice chat is off by default.

Yes, I think in-game non-verbal signalling could use some work but, voice chat isn't a magic bullet.

FWIW, it also makes the game less bandwidth hungry :P

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Isn't that exactly what happened in 2004, though? When Bungie released Halo 2 with proximity voice and open team chat and "created a monster."

In my experience, the majority of people don't even use voice chat (for whatever reason). The next biggest proportion of people were in party or private chat and couldn't hear you anyway. A large group had obnoxious interference or feedback from their TV sets, or I could hear everything going on in their house - earning an instant mute. Many were chatting with their friends or otherwise not engaged with the game. Then there were the trolls and assholes.

But wasn't this almost exclusively in competitive multiplayer (i.e. PvP) gameplay? I'm curious whether the same would happen in a social environment. Also, with the Halo series often you'd find people playing multiplayer with another friend (split-screen) and so they could be talking to that person; that's something simply won't happen in Destiny given the lack of split-screen multiplayer. If they're talking over voice to a friend, that friend is just like you — somebody else in another place, who can't see what they see.

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But wasn't this almost exclusively in competitive multiplayer (i.e. PvP) gameplay? I'm curious whether the same would happen in a social environment.

I'm pretty sure the stories of guys bugging anyone with a female avatar would be more awful.

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But wasn't this almost exclusively in competitive multiplayer (i.e. PvP) gameplay? I'm curious whether the same would happen in a social environment.

I'm pretty sure the stories of guys bugging anyone with a female avatar would be more awful.

Yeah, that's definitely a problem, but it's one we need to solve at a higher level.

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But wasn't this almost exclusively in competitive multiplayer (i.e. PvP) gameplay? I'm curious whether the same would happen in a social environment.

I'm pretty sure the stories of guys bugging anyone with a female avatar would be more awful.

Yeah, that's definitely a problem, but it's one we need to solve at a higher level.

I'd say it's one we should strive to solve at every level.

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Yeah, that's definitely a problem, but it's one we need to solve at a higher level.

I'd say it's one we should strive to solve at every level.

I hear you. I'm just not convinced that ‘no communication except between existing friends, pointing and waving’ is an acceptable outcome for a game that's ostensibly social like Destiny. I'd rather there be a more permissive system, then consequences for antisocial behaviour.

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Yeah, that's definitely a problem, but it's one we need to solve at a higher level.

I'd say it's one we should strive to solve at every level.

I hear you. I'm just not convinced that ‘no communication except between existing friends, pointing and waving’ is an acceptable outcome for a game that's ostensibly social like Destiny. I'd rather there be a more permissive system, then consequences for antisocial behaviour.

I think it can be.

Go back again to what Bungie called Destiny: a "shared world" shooter. It's not really about socialization as such. It's about making your gameplay feel like a part of something larger.

I'm thinking more of an expansion of the Journey experience, rather than a contraction of the WoW experience. That's OK with me.

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I'm thinking more of an expansion of the Journey experience, rather than a contraction of the WoW experience. That's OK with me.

I like the way you put that.

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It understand the backlash to this. I dont recalll ever having a particularly bad time with voice chat, but even if it IS a wretched hive of scum, 12 year olds and bigotry, it wouldnt have to be compulsory, just streamlined a little.

As it stands, if Im in a matchmade Strike I need to load into Orbit, start matchmaking, find two partners, wait for the level to load, and send out Fireteam invites.

At which point the two matchmade players who just went through all those loading screens have to accept the invite, load out of the instance, and then load back into it again just so we can hear each other. Even if you still had to activate 'fireteam chat' with an option at the start of the Strike, that would be enough.

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As it stands, if Im in a matchmade Strike I need to load into Orbit, start matchmaking, find two partners, wait for the level to load, and send out Fireteam invites.

At which point the two matchmade players who just went through all those loading screens have to accept the invite, load out of the instance, and then load back into it again just so we can hear each other. Even if you still had to activate 'fireteam chat' with an option at the start of the Strike, that would be enough.

That is egregiously bad. I recall that when I was invited to somebody's fireteam (a guy who was a few levels below me, who'd just helped me on a public event) I got dropped back out to the orbit screen as it loaded; the whole process taking well over a minute. That kind of thing is really quite annoying.

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As it stands, if Im in a matchmade Strike I need to load into Orbit, start matchmaking, find two partners, wait for the level to load, and send out Fireteam invites.

At which point the two matchmade players who just went through all those loading screens have to accept the invite, load out of the instance, and then load back into it again just so we can hear each other. Even if you still had to activate 'fireteam chat' with an option at the start of the Strike, that would be enough.

That is egregiously bad. I recall that when I was invited to somebody's fireteam (a guy who was a few levels below me, who'd just helped me on a public event) I got dropped back out to the orbit screen as it loaded; the whole process taking well over a minute. That kind of thing is really quite annoying.

That would help alleviate whatever issues I have with the lack of non-fireteam voice chat.

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Yeah, first time it happened I thought something had gone wrong.

I was stood literally right next to a guy in the Skywatch, and he invited me to a Fireteam. Except despite being right next to him, pointing, dancing and killing with him, it didnt just open up a chat channel. Instead I flew off into Orbit (so I could sign some official Fireteam paperwork?), and dropped back down into Old Russia. In a completely different part of the map, so I had to trek all the way back to him.

That is not a seamless cooperative experience.

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Yeah, first time it happened I thought something had gone wrong.

I was stood literally right next to a guy in the Skywatch, and he invited me to a Fireteam. Except despite being right next to him, pointing, dancing and killing with him, it didnt just open up a chat channel. Instead I flew off into Orbit (so I could sign some official Fireteam paperwork?), and dropped back down into Old Russia. In a completely different part of the map, so I had to trek all the way back to him.

That is not a seamless cooperative experience.

Exactly what happened to me. It's not good.

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At which point the two matchmade players who just went through all those loading screens have to accept the invite, load out of the instance, and then load back into it again just so we can hear each other. Even if you still had to activate 'fireteam chat' with an option at the start of the Strike, that would be enough.

WHAAT!? That's got to be a bug, right?

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I dunno. I figure the lack of voice chat and the ability to invite them to a Fireteam means a matchmade Fireteam isn't actually, mechanically a Fireteam.

So when you join them it has to load you into a Fireteam proper, same as with Guardians you run into in the Wilds.

Unless Im totally wrong and it was just a one-time bug, or maybe I did it wrong. I didnt try it a second time, caise it was such a pain the first time round. If anyone experienced different do let me know.

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Unless Im totally wrong and it was just a one-time bug, or maybe I did it wrong. I didnt try it a second time, caise it was such a pain the first time round. If anyone experienced different do let me know.

No, that's exactly how it worked ... really not a great user experience. This is why I tried to join fireteams while I was still in orbit. Doing it after being on the surface already was annoying.

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Heck no. The reason the Tower is a tolerable and relatively peaceful place is that the game's built-in emotes are the only communication possible with non party members. What those people are actually thinking as they point, dance, bow and jump around is best left unheard.

Have you played any other MMOs? There's so much more richness and fun that can arise in shared (non-combat) social spaces like cities than just emotes. Give people the tools and they'll surprise you.

Not much. Eve Online for a few months.

That said, Destiny really isn't an RPG, it's a shooter. It has a different fanbase that are looking for different things.

I'd sort of like it if Bungie went all in and made an RPG, but it's clear Destiny is not that. That's fine, but it is first and foremost a shooter, which means it is very likely its audience is going to be fans of shooters, first and foremost-- what we've seen in Halo, Gears, and CoD. For me, that means that the change of having a thoughtful exchange really goes down when voice is allowed among users who don't already know each other.

That might be a sad and elitist thought, but that's been my experience so far in those games, and was NOT in Destiny-- because those options do not yet exist.

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C. Field of View

Destiny's FoV is about 72 degrees horizontally. That's hardly higher than Halo 3, which many people have criticized for being a bit lacking in peripheral vision. For how low it is, simply looking around and moving feels better than I would have expected, but the view restrictions can be felt when things get messy.

An increase to 80-90 degrees would be welcome (as demonstrated by the near-unanimous praise in the shift in FoV from Halo 3 to ODST).

I think this is a case where what people want (or say they want) isn't always best. Of course I'd like 360 degree wraparound vision, but this wouldn't be good for the game. I'm also betting there's some performance impact of doing this, especially on the older platforms.

Also, ODST did not have any multiplayer included except Firefight, and this may also be a factor. The wider the FOV, the harder it is to sneak up on somebody from the side or behind.

FOV doesn't seem to hurt performance too much in my experience. If you think about how a GPU rasterizes a scene, resolution is far more important. (Basically a GPU samples what color a pixel should look like based on what's in it's path, and handles movement of vertexes and things like that. If you change the FOV you aren't changing the resolution, just the size of everything within that resolution)

Destiny may have some heavy duty polygon culling offscreen it might make some difference, but at a higher FOV you are probably going to be getting more LOD (level of detail) switching to the point where it's more of a wash.

(so yea, it's an effect, but most likely, a small one and something bungie could work around if they wanted to).

As for gameplay, Reach was 90 right? so It's not just MP. I think the other issue is how jarring it is to go from a wide FOV into ADS. COD uses a heavy handed auto aim solution to make that less jarring. I actually wouldn't mind a big jarring jump, Destiny does a good job of making ADS a decision in a fight, rather than mechanical busywork, and the resolution jump would probably emphasize that more.

As for flanking, as said, I think going ADS and map design have more to do with getting flanking into destiny. I personally feel like outflanking is more important in Destiny than in Halo, and more common.

Narrow FOV tends to make people motion sick also, so I'm a big fan of upping it.

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As for gameplay, Reach was 90 right?

It's 78, for the standard single-person 16:9 view anyway.

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What platform were you playing on?

PS3 and PS4.

For coop, I'd only want to hear my fireteam, and that's how it is by default.

For strikes, where you might need matchmaking if you don't have a full fireteam, you may need to check your privacy settings to allow voice from fireteam members not on your friends list. I seem to remember having to switch this early on, and I seem to have heard more of this from Xbox One users than 360; YMMV. However, I appreciate that the default had that off rather than on.

I'm not sure you follow: I'm arguing that it ought to be possible to enable voice chat even with people who are not in a fireteam. Right now, people who don't want to chat have that option, so they only chat when in a fireteam; people who do want always-on chat have to go through extra interfacing to make it happen, and ultimately winds up serving as a pretty nasty discouragement to chatting, both in your chances of getting someone to agree to join up and, for some of us as noted by kapowaz, taking the initiative to invite (and even if these weren't issues, the system still feels very clumsy for those of us who want to chat by default).

Heck no. The reason the Tower is a tolerable and relatively peaceful place is that the game's built-in emotes are the only communication possible with non party members. What those people are actually thinking as they point, dance, bow and jump around is best left unheard.

What's the issue with having it be an option?

I'm not arguing that you should have to listen to people. I'm arguing that there should be an option to choose between public chat and fireteam chat.

I dislike effects that give information while also obscuring the view

That's an implementation issue. Reach's edge-of-screen effects could be really obnoxious while still feeling fairly vague, but Halo 1's arrows are pretty mild most of the time, only even edging on ridiculous under AR fire (and that could easily be avoided by decreasing intensity when the damage rate is high).

so I was glad that damage indication was mostly restricted to the radar.

Was it? I got the sense that the primary damage indication was the arrows in the middle of the screen. Which is directional, but it doesn't feel like "arrows" with an immediately obvious tail and head. Strictly speaking, they pivot around a center point, but this is something it regularly took my brain a moment to register. It's possible that I just need to acclimate better, but it did not feel very clear.

Radar indication is alright, but it also lacks reflexive immediacy, and it's not visible during ADS.

I also like the relative imprecision of the radar compared to Halo; I just wish it gave a slightly better indication of target elevation.

Yes. I'm wondering how they can do that. It works as well as it does in Halo because they can adjust shape; I wonder if a similar concept can be applied in Destiny, like adjusting the shape of the pizza slices on the inside or outside depending on whether the person is above or below.

I'm also betting there's some performance impact of doing this, especially on the older platforms.

Possibly. That's a common argument, though in PC games which have adjustable FoV, the impact usually barely registers. Perhaps that becomes more complicated in Destiny, which has a fairly sophisticated visibility solution, and where the bottlenecks might be in different places (oh, the eternal cries of "anisotropic filtering is practically free").

Also, ODST did not have any multiplayer included except Firefight, and this may also be a factor. The wider the FOV, the harder it is to sneak up on somebody from the side or behind.

From how Destiny plays right now, that sounds quite beneficial to my ears. This also isn't completely hypothetical either, high-FoV multiplayer already exists in Halo in the form of 2-player screen splits (in the cases of CE and Reach, far higher than what I'm suggesting the FoV be upped to).

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Radar indication is alright, but it also lacks reflexive immediacy, and it's not visible during ADS.

There's a weapon upgrade for that...

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Is there?! Now I'm interested!

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Is there?! Now I'm interested!

Pretty sure I saw it on one of the Legendary weapons available in the tower.

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Is there?! Now I'm interested!

Pretty sure I saw it on one of the Legendary weapons available in the tower.

It seems like a pretty unfair advantage if you ask me…!

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Is there?! Now I'm interested!

Pretty sure I saw it on one of the Legendary weapons available in the tower.

It seems like a pretty unfair advantage if you ask me…!

Nah. Or yes, but many guns have advantages. Some even more interesting. Someone showed me a high end sniper that would activate active camo when you stayed zoomed in with it! Which would you rather have, short range situational awareness at all times, or greater ability to camp with no situational awareness at all? Destiny isn't balanced the same as Halo on a gun for gun, ability for ability level, but in the end with all things considered it seems to come out balanced.

For instance, I loved my Hand Cannon that reloaded quickly when you used up its magazine. Maybe not the best weapon perk in the world but it FELT right. Similarly I loved my shotgun that shortened grenade cooldown on kills since if I had my shotgun out I probably needed grenades too.

I can't wait to see what kind of wacky abilities something like Thorn has!

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so who knows how many named weapons have...

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(Outside of large changes and paradigm shifts that would likely be completely unfeasible at this point.)

1. Improve Chat Accessibility

Prior to trying experiencing Destiny in the alpha and beta, if you had told me that players would have to form a party after being matched in order to chat in Bungie's big shared-world shooter, I would have responded that the chances of that were zero.

It is strange that, in this highly social and coop-focused shooter, there are more barriers than ever to voice communication. If some people demand an option to auto-mute others, I suppose that's alright, but the current situation has a crushing impact on Destiny's cooperate gameplay. Strikes and Crucible should support automatic team chat, and explore mode should support some kind of automatic proximity chat. To reduce confusion in explore mode, perhaps the game could show an icon on non-chat player's names to indicate the lack of communication.

Not having chat in Destniny is overall I think a good thing. I've had many more experiences ruined by voice chat with strangers than I've had experiences elevated by it.

Destiny needs more non vocal communcation options. In destinies boss fight's, timing and positioning are pretty crucial. To be effective against hte devil walker you really need two people on opposite sides of the arena, and you need to communicate "Hey a leg is about to blow, ready up those supers/heavies/nades/fusion rifles to hit the core. The current system of non verbal communication is mostly there as a toy, why not give it more usefulless. For example, pointing , why can't I point at a limb I'm targeting, or point at a position I need my fireteam to take? More than that, I think people would actually use it more than voice com. I mostly play games (okay, I don't really play many games anymore lol) after my 11 month old has gone to sleep, and I live in a tiny apartment where Voice chat is basically a no go. If I could call out targets, send warnings, and communicate voicelessly it would be huge.

Portal 2's co-op had a deep system for this, where you even had timers, and a bunch of communication options about where to look and what to do. Battlefield on the other end has a marking system to call out targets. I think Destiny needs something like this, especially since so many of it's systems are reliant on co-operation for success.

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I dont have an 11 month, but I work daft hours and house share, so while I'm in the voice chat camp (at least in matchmade fireteams. Maybe not in the wilds, and definitely not in the tower), more context-sensitive stuff would be nice.

On a side note, being able to run all my audio through my controller and headphones without trailing cables at 3am is a massive bonus to the PS4 compared to the PS360. Is that an X1 option too? That needs to be standard across the board I think.

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On a side note, being able to run all my audio through my controller and headphones without trailing cables at 3am is a massive bonus to the PS4 compared to the PS360.

I didn't realise you could do this, that sounds awesome. I also recently noticed that the PS4 uses the same plug type for stereo headphones plus mic that the iPhone uses, which means any third-party headphones/mic that works with an iPhone works with it too; I have a very nice pair of Sennheiser cans that I can use this way (whenever I get around to it).

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I didn't realise you could do this, that sounds awesome. I also recently noticed that the PS4 uses the same plug type for stereo headphones plus mic that the iPhone uses, which means any third-party headphones/mic that works with an iPhone works with it too;

It's pretty great. I've been using a pair of in-ear headphones and Im noticing audio cues and little details I never caught through my surround. Made Outlast a pants-wetting experience.

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I dont have an 11 month, but I work daft hours and house share, so while I'm in the voice chat camp (at least in matchmade fireteams. Maybe not in the wilds, and definitely not in the tower), more context-sensitive stuff would be nice.

On a side note, being able to run all my audio through my controller and headphones without trailing cables at 3am is a massive bonus to the PS4 compared to the PS360. Is that an X1 option too? That needs to be standard across the board I think.

That's pretty sweet. I have a pair of tritons, but to be honest, they are pretty goddamn terrible. Lousy sound quality, poor build quality. I'd rather hook a pair of Grados into my conttroller and be on my way.

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To weigh in, I pretty much agree on every point.

1. I'd like even if it was something like our guardians saying hello for each proper wave [a proper wave being the non-spammable appearance it makes in the history of emotes text panel]
I'd like the Tower to feel busier with real people, like an MMO hub honestly.
Similarly, I want their to be some on tower minigames you can play with people, e.g. chess [except be 'FUTURE CHESS'] kind of like Playstation Home.

2. Agreed on both A & B counts, little to add.
For C, the fov.. I wish this could be improved by launch or after.
I doubt there's even a possibility of it, which is a shame.

Hopefully the fully 100% confirmed PC Destiny Third Strike: Alpha Arcade edition coming in 6 months allows us the regular suite of graphics options.

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We’ve seen the feedback, and there’s quite a bit of ongoing discussion happening around this right now. I don’t have a definitive decision, but I can say that the team wanted to err on the side of promoting and fostering positive communications between strangers in the world, and knew that friends were going to find simple and effective ways to enable voice chat with friends through the Fireteam audio channel, and platform chat. We hear you, though. Please keep sounding off with feedback. We’re just getting started!

From the Q&A JDQuackers linked here.

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Post-Beta thoughts: how Destiny can reach its full potential (Destiny)