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

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 04:00 (3562 days ago) @ uberfoop

(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.