That's part of the goal though right? Someone who's gone through some third party channel to find people willing to raid is far less likely to just say "fuck all" and grief/go awol/not know the rules/ be a dick etc.

I imagine that's more likely (but probably not a guarantee!) - kind of a shame that jumping through hoops to demonstrate you're not an asshat is even needed though, eh?

Personally I'm not sold on Raids needing matchmaking, but I do think we need more ways I engage socially in-game, since that's what leads to meeting new friends who you can do Raids with.

Yea I agree with that.

I think the issue that people feel left out of the raid isn't as much the matchmaking, it's the fact that Bungie is developing a significant chunk of content that apparently requires such tight coordination between 6 people that they don't feel it's feasible with randoms.e. I think the core design is the issue people dislike, rather than matchmaking. That hard requirement to get 6 people working in synch makes it really interesting, and guarantees I probably won't be able to ever experience it.

Actually, if the 6 man raid works out, I'd love to see that philosophy brought to 3 person content. That's much more feasible for me.

kind of a shame that jumping through hoops to demonstrate you're not an asshat is even needed though, eh?

I dunno, every time I go into any kind of matchmaking, I almost immediately wish for asshat hoops. ;)

I've definitely died to the devil walker multiple times because I got bored of standing across the map shooting its legs with my scout rifle. This only really happens because of random bad people though - I've found a group of three who know what's up will finish the walker pretty fast.

I'm inclined to take Bungie's word for it until I have sufficient information to make a reasonable judgement.

I also don't like randoms. Kept dying during the Strike. I'm not reviving you. You keep dying. Seriously, why are you in front of the Devil Walker.

Sigh.

In all fairness, Devil Walker is so boring that I decided to mix it up some, and I died like 9000 times to it and bluerunner had to keep reviving me. It was hilarious because just about the exact moment he would revive me, it would fire its big cannon of doom at him, hit me, and I'd auto-die again. You could hear his kid in the background laughing and making fun of me for dying AGAIN over and over again. :P

I guess what I'm saying is, you don't just need randoms to have someone stupid on your team! :D

It's hard to have a negative k/d in PvE, but we found a way.

I also don't like randoms. Kept dying during the Strike. I'm not reviving you. You keep dying. Seriously, why are you in front of the Devil Walker.

That's not very charitable. Everyone has to learn sometime.

That's fine, as long as it isn't on my time. I'm here to kill Fallen and Hive, not babysit Guardians.

Requiring that players carry around a second (presumably inferior) weapon just to ensure they have a damage type that isn't resisted isn't interesting gameplay.

You think those 9 spare slots for each item of gear are for nothing? They're so you can customise to the individual mission or even encounter if you want.

It was already evident in the Alpha and I came on here and told everyone that switching between weapons of the same type (shotgun->shotgun, MG->MG) carried no ammo penalty. Something like that doesn't just get dropped in with no reason.

You can have duplicates that are equally powerful, just of different damage types. Already happened in the Beta: I was rolling around with 2 Gozen-C Sniper Rifles, one Arc and one Solar. Aim right, with the right damage type, and most Fallen Captains and Hive Wizards dropped in a single shot.

How do you think Cody was able to take out the Wizard in a single burst of his Fusion Rifle? Correct damage type

I did the same thing in the Alpha - except with a Solar Rocket Launcher.

This is not unprecedented: in Halo it was Plasma for shields, bullets for health.

Ever tried played with the Tilt skull on? Shoot an Elite all day with an Assault Rifle if you like - all you'll get is a mocking 'wort wort wort'.

Gear too: I did some Ability-only runs in the Beta to see if it was possible (it is). Eventually I realised I could sacrifice a little defence, to use a helmet that sped up my melees, maximise my stats for grenade recharge, balance the other pieces to up my throwing knife recharge, etc.

I much prefer the idea that bosses require you to change what type of weapon within a class you use, e.g. Auto Rifle vs Scout Rifle.

There is really not much difference between the primaries other than range and handling properties. All the ones we've seen just do standard 'kinetic' damage.

These are difficult challenges when designing a game like Destiny, but they're also solved problems if you look at the state of the art elsewhere. Maybe there are some other reasons they felt they couldn't do things this way that will only become apparent once you play a raid, but it seems like that might not happen soon for a lot of players.

We'll see. The B in DBO stands for Bungie, not Blizzard, and I say vive la différence!

After all, Bungie has redefined the state of the art before.

Blizzard solved this by breaking the matchmade version of each raid into smaller chunks, each lasting 30-45 minutes. You would then queue for that section of the raid, assuming you had unlocked it by already completing the previous chunk. That's a no brainer to me, plus it's far more time-friendly to those who can't commit to a solid 2 hours of gaming without interruption (how many people can, anyway?) - I've been able to experience the developing storyline of the past two WoW expansions without committing to endgame raiding thanks to this.

These are difficult challenges when designing a game like Destiny, but they're also solved problems if you look at the state of the art elsewhere. Maybe there are some other reasons they felt they couldn't do things this way that will only become apparent once you play a raid, but it seems like that might not happen soon for a lot of players.

To be fair, I don't think we know that it doesn't work that way yet. Something one of the devs said in an interview or vidoc recently made me think the Raid(s) were broken up into chunks which could be done progressively. I wish I could remember exactly who and where this was - I didn't know at the time that I'd need to reference it later. And I'm, uh... not really in a position to watch gaming-related videos right this moment. :)

Yeah, you don't normally see direct ownership of decisions being made publically. I hope people are reasonable and respect the fact that it's a deliberate design choice and it seems that they have solid concerns driving that choice.

That barrier to entry - the requirement that you get a group of people together and venture into something that is going to challenge your ability to work together (first) and your thumbs (second) - is a barrier I was willing to erect to preserve the activity goals.

Article here.

Either way, I'm Impressed he's directly stamping his own name on that decision personally.

The raid system has been hung on Luke's shoulders for as long as we've known about it. It's his baby.

[...] join a Strike that was already underway [...]

I joined Strikes mid-way through several times during the Beta. The capability is already there.