Apologies if posted elsewhere.

What if the other races didn't come from outside Sol? Maybe not natives of the other planets (a la The Silent Planet) but perhaps humans that have changed.

Maybe the Traveler has a sinister like Monolith aspect to it.

Hmm, gives a very potentially interesting new meaning to "Awoken", doesn't it? :)

I like it!

The whole two arms thing with the Dregs made me think of it. The enemies all look pretty humanoid too - why shouldn't there be a reason?

I mean, sure, Bungie's got the fantasy thing going on but they've admitted to using the latest space info - Cassini, Curiosity, and the like. Why wouldn't that trickle to the character designs, and create a logical reason for them to look the way they do?

I mean, sure, Mass Effect is awesome, but the most alien species are the geth and even they favor humanoid bodies. Lol.

Apologies if posted elsewhere.

What if the other races didn't come from outside Sol? Maybe not natives of the other planets (a la The Silent Planet) but perhaps humans that have changed.

Maybe the Traveler has a sinister like Monolith aspect

Some further ideas in a "lets run with it" style:

- Something stomped Humanity so hard that even The Traveler was heavily damaged in stopping it. What if that damage is also doing other things? Like changing the Humans left on other worlds into the monsters we now see. Or changing Humans on Earth into Awoken.

- Or what if it was Humanity's tampering with The Traveler in the first place that caused the damage, and thus the creation of The Fallen humans and others who now attack us. The Fallen, the new section of Bungie's website says, claim to control colonies on all of Humanity's old worlds. Maybe they're right!?

- Or, on a slightly divergent path, what if The Traveler, the sleeping god hanging above earth, is creating all these evil beings? Pathways Into Darkness was referenced in the very first ViDoc after all...

Heh

How funny would it be if Bungie implied from the beginning the Traveller and the other City species were all the same, just slightly separated by time, history and distance, again.

Unless there's a way that the Traveler can imbue normal humans (or robots, assuming that's what the Exos are, and it's not short for Exoskeleton) and not fundamentally change them into The Awoken, then I'd say you've probably put your finger on it.

I can't think of any other reason why the blood-spattered Exo resting in that one image would need to strike so human a pose after combat...

~M

Honestly, part of me will be disappointed if this is the case. I really like the idea that these are all just opportunistic alien species who took advantage of humanity's misfortune to move in and take what we'd built. Then again, it could be interesting to tie the "we're all the same" angle into the Abandoned Earth concept. I expect Bungie will make a compelling story whichever direction they go with it.

I figured he was talking Awoken/Exo. Not sure I'd enjoy all the other factions originally being human.

I figured he was talking Awoken/Exo. Not sure I'd enjoy all the other factions originally being human.

Ah, that would make more sense, then. :)

I wouldn't say the Geth are the most alien. Probably the Elcor or the Hanar.

There was an article recently talking about ME3 and how much extra programming goes into making a non-humanoid playable character. So that is one real-world reason behind the prevalence of humanoids.

I wouldn't say the Geth are the most alien. Probably the Elcor or the Hanar.

There was an article recently talking about ME3 and how much extra programming goes into making a non-humanoid playable character. So that is one real-world reason behind the prevalence of humanoids.

Doesn't that sort of equate to "But GUUUUYS, alien locomotion is HAAARD!!!1!1"?

The price of convincing your audience and maximizing immersion, methinks. Bullymongs from Borderlands 2 we some of the most outlandish and stupid-looking beasts ever. Hopefully we at least won't be subjected to any of that noise.

~M

I was talking all factions being related to humans. Part of it goes with my pleasure of the Sol-centric (heliocentric? ha) focus of the game. Keep it all nice and self contained, with it's own internal logic even.

Sort of like how having something on the Moon automatically imbues it with all the things we think of when we hear Moon because Moon is a real place with a real relationship to us. The Fallen's motivations are very human, cause, well, evolved from humans.

Hard to remember Reach when Reach isn't real, yeah?

I wouldn't say the Geth are the most alien. Probably the Elcor or the Hanar.

On the surface, yes. But on the inside, the geth are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more weird than anything the Elcor or Hanar can manage.

Geth are essentially a post-scarcity social anarchist's wet dream - and basically pacifist to boot.

There was an article recently talking about ME3 and how much extra programming goes into making a non-humanoid playable character. So that is one real-world reason behind the prevalence of humanoids.

(Annnnnnnnd I'm bringing it back to Bungie before I do what I'm so good at. Ha.)

Yup. I like the idea of playing on that limitation to help craft the story and give it direction. Very meta.

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That assumes, I think, that we won't be expanding beyond our own solar system in the sequels...

Doesn't it?

It does, but like they've said, Sol is full of worlds and weirdness. More than enough for a ten year franchise, if you pace yourself.

There was an article recently talking about ME3 and how much extra programming goes into making a non-humanoid playable character.

That and from the start they knew many of the supporting characters would be alien. I recall reading something about how the designers found that it's harder for an audience to become emotionally invested in a character whose appearance is too unfamiliar, leading them to give most of the main aliens a humanoid form.

It's not so much that alien locomotion is hard, as it is a lot easier to adapt skeleton systems between similar physiques. Imagine the difference between a human of height 4' and a human of 6'--not that much programming would change. But between a human and a tiger, the animation rigs would have to be completely redone, controls would have to handle the wider skeleton footprint, everything.

Again, not that it is harder, but it simply takes more time, time is money, and that time could be used to perfect other things.

Also, as the other poster mentioned, we humans like looking at/playing with other humanoids.

You have a point about their philosophy/internal weirdness.

I still think the Hanar and the Elcor are fantastically weird though, "This one is not sure if the Geth are stranger." "Dubiously: Did we see enough of the Elcor and Hanar to truly understand them?"

We definitely saw a lot more of the Geth, particularly if you did the Legion loyalty mission.

It's not so much that alien locomotion is hard, as it is a lot easier to adapt skeleton systems between similar physiques. Imagine the difference between a human of height 4' and a human of 6'--not that much programming would change. But between a human and a tiger, the animation rigs would have to be completely redone, controls would have to handle the wider skeleton footprint, everythin

I understand (at least most of) the technological implications. There would surely be tons of work needed to tweak and perfect animations, making sure nothing clips(if you care about that), and all the bugs and required fixes that would result from running even a single model through all of the different contextual animations (or equivalents) that the humanoid characters have, not to mention all the permutations of gear, powers, etc.

Again, not that it is harder, but it simply takes more time, time is money, and that time could be used to perfect other things.

Sure, but I think it's a pretty weighty choice that the developer has to make. The attention to detail and thoroughness with which the world is crafted are going to be things the community thrives on. Given that FPS as a format has some pretty entrenched standards ( or at least developer habits) across the industry with regard to how things move, fight, obey physics, etc. I think that variety and originality not only go a long way to set a title apart, but sustain a title.

Also, as the other poster mentioned, we humans like looking at/playing with other humanoids.

Eh. Well there's always CoD for that. I say bring on all the creatures.

~M

There would surely be tons of work needed to tweak and perfect animations, making sure nothing clips(if you care about that)

sOT but this is one thing I have always loved about Bungie games. Being a Bungie fan and going from the Halo games to the Mass Effect games I cringed frequently because they did NOT do a good job keeping clipping to a minimum.

I most definitely trust in Bungie to create an excellent game, regardless of what shape the characters are :)

I most definitely trust in Bungie to create an excellent game, regardless of what shape the characters are :)

All characters will now be poop shaped.

That assumes, I think, that we won't be expanding beyond our own solar system in the sequels...

Doesn't it?

I haven't been paying much attention to the marketing lately, but is it ever implied anywhere that FTL is possible in Destiny? I think I brought this up way back in one of the first topics of this forum. FTL is an extremely sci-fi invention, and there's a lot of factors going against it being remotely possible IRL.

If humanity terraformed Mars and Venus (and other planets?) in the world of Destiny, then that seems to indicate we were never capable of just traveling beyond the solar system and finding life-supporting worlds. No FTL = where stuck with Sol. Which isn't that bad really, there's tons and tons and tons and tons of places to explore on Earth alone, having the entire solar system to play with for 10+ years shouldn't get old or boring at all.

I hadn't thought about it before, but all of the enemies being former humans (or human creations) makes a lot of sense.

I dunno. Even light takes a handful of hours to cross our solar system. A 3 hour-long load screen is not fun after the first or second time.

Unless they skip ahead.

Watch Pathways Out Of Darkness again. Early on a player style ship accelerates in dramatic fashion and later on another one decelerates above Earth in equally dramatic fashion. Based on this and the gut feeling that we won't be told that we go into months long hypersleep every time we leave Earth I think limited, "slow" FTL will exist in Destiny. Fast enough that we can explore the solar system in non-limiting amount of time, but slow enough that exploring other stars is either not possible or not currently feasible.