So, I was playing the Eye of the Gate Lord mission the other night for my Exotic Bounty & decided to take some time to explore around the endless steps after summoning the gate lord. That area is HUGE and seems VERY underutilized. It's got caves & 'dark doors' for enemies to enter from, yet they're not used.

I wonder, was there more intended to the final encounter in that area? Perhaps we were intended to visit that area another time for another boss battle?

There's a Ghost hidden there and a lot of space beyond the Gate that could be used.

There's also a little cave on the near side, under where you enter, that isn't one of the standard modular caves.

I've theorized that whenever in the future we get to explore the Citadel via "the Juncture", we may revisit this area or exit out unto it at least.

But I'd actually like more empty areas to explore. Make the game world bigger and wider so I can get lost in it. I'd love to see an area like the Barrens on Mars expanded out like eight times, where you'd truly feel isolated amongst sand dunes. Maybe next-gen-only sequels will be able to embrace those expectations.

The black garden and its approaches are dotted with monster closets. Maybe Bungie was just hedging their bets. Maybe they intended to add lots of new missions by just staring the mission in a new place each time and activating different MCs.

Of course, of all races, Vex need MCs the least, given that they can just teleport in.

If only they could remove those invisible walls an death barriers. I'd love to climb the buildings in the buried city or explore the craters on the moon.

The first time I played that mission I jump right over all the enemies to the gate lord and never even play that part of the encounter. In retrospect I think I missed out on the awesome experience of fighting my way up the steps. Oh well.

I could see them adding more and more to do in each world.

Like, multiple starting spots for Patrol, new public events, and missions that would make use of that space.

Maybe "Room to expand". I don't particularly want every corner of the game world filled with something, because that effectively makes the game world smaller. When there are open areas without an obvious purpose, it builds wonder and promotes exploring. I'm okay if they fill it in and fully utilize it eventually, as long as they expand the uninhabited zone around other areas of the planet.

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I spent well over an hour just jumping around the area on the other side of the stairs where the gate lord spawns. Cool area; wish there was something there.

You still made a great observation about the space. That's not an area I wonder into very often, as I'm usually only there for the gatelord mission, and if that's the case I'm usually just pounding out a bounty asap. You have encouraged me to go look around that space again :)

One of the things I loved about Skyrim was exploration. Not every place had something mission-based going on, but you would stumble across a story in an isolated corner of the game (usually a body and a journal) or you would find an odd arrangement of world elements that implied history. The Ghosts kind of work like this, but they don't give you any immediate satisfaction. I want more incentive to explore (NPCs in the wild would help a lot). I don't want a saturated world, but give me enough to make it satisfying.

One of the things I loved about Skyrim was exploration. Not every place had something mission-based going on, but you would stumble across a story in an isolated corner of the game (usually a body and a journal) or you would find an odd arrangement of world elements that implied history. The Ghosts kind of work like this, but they don't give you any immediate satisfaction. I want more incentive to explore (NPCs in the wild would help a lot). I don't want a saturated world, but give me enough to make it satisfying.

That waterfall with the diving board and the bard. Greatest thing ever.

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If only they could remove those invisible walls an death barriers. I'd love to climb the buildings in the buried city or explore the craters on the moon.

There is a reason those barriers are there. Those buildings in the distance? More cards then mesh more likely then not. That said - I too have said to myself "I want to go over there".

Dear Bungie,

Bring me to that horizon.

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One of the things I loved about Skyrim was exploration. Not every place had something mission-based going on, but you would stumble across a story in an isolated corner of the game (usually a body and a journal) or you would find an odd arrangement of world elements that implied history. The Ghosts kind of work like this, but they don't give you any immediate satisfaction. I want more incentive to explore (NPCs in the wild would help a lot). I don't want a saturated world, but give me enough to make it satisfying.

This right here is what, for some reason, what I was expecting before Destiny launched. A Shooter the size of Skyrim. (Though I recall using exploration in Mass Effect 1 in my examples)

Lying through their goddamn teeth.

Bungie, this game has undone much of the goodwill you earned through your many previous and excellent products. Why did you let that happen?

This right here is what, for some reason, what I was expecting before Destiny launched. A Shooter the size of Skyrim. (Though I recall using exploration in Mass Effect 1 in my examples)

I think this is what we all expected. Except with each planet being just as big as Skyrim's map.

Also I expected a plot.

Lying through their goddamn teeth.

Bungie, this game has undone much of the goodwill you earned through your many previous and excellent products. Why did you let that happen?

It's not that that the critique is invalid. But if Bungie could have given you that game, I think they would have. They just couldn't. Destiny didn't reach a lot of its goals, but I don't think Bungie failed to get there from lack of effort. When they said that's what they wanted to do, they meant it.

Maybe they bit off more than they could chew, but if I lost any respect for them, it wasn't because of this.

...spoiler-ish, I guess?...

...be ready to fight a tidal wave of Forsworn first.

I've come to terms with the size and scale of Destiny. I think I too was hoping it was going to be much bigger, but I understand the reasons for its smaller size. What I'm hoping for is that the world is filled with lore. Give us a reason beyond "scan this thing" to poke around. I know Leviathan is still exploring and that is awesome, but I just don't get the same pleasure outof it as I did in skyrim. Previous Halos did this to a degree. The Elite bodies in ODST, the rocket launchers on the corpses of soldiers who lost an untold battle in the Library, Marty's sad music at the top of AoTCR, the odst body with the two hand guns in the cave on Delta Halo. Those types of things, even though they all are variations on a theme (people died doing something) worked better in Halo because my story connects to theirs. They died, but they gave me something to help me in my journey. Imagine if you got the start of an exotic bounty by randomly coming across the remains of a guardian in Destiny.

This is all pretty limited in scope. As I said, the stories are all "someone died and I get their stuff" but you could do a lot more. Maybe include something like the terminals in which you get a meta story over the main narrative. I just want patrols to be alive.

I'm starting to rant so feel free to leave if you've made it this far. Maybe they could have an algorithm that randomizes which enemy groups spawn when I enter a zone so that I don't know what to expect. The Blades of Crota was a step in the right direction. Wouldn't it be eerie to wander through Old Russia and have the opening areas completely empty. What about the pitch black room where you first encounter the hive? What if that was empty most of the time, but every once in a while it would be full. I think that is much scarier. Bungie would get a lot further mileage out of their environments if they did stuff like this.

Eh, do any of you have realistic ideas for what bungie could do to bring life to their shared world action shooter?

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