Also, NO CAPES

What about this one?

Yeah, that looks pretty similar to Xenos', which looks pretty rad in action.

The guardian in the foreground? I have that cloak and armor. I was talking about that ridiculously glitched cloak in front of him.

Didn't even notice that. Yuck.

Also, NO CAPES

What about this one?

Yeah, that looks pretty similar to Xenos', which looks pretty rad in action.

The guardian in the foreground? I have that cloak and armor. I was talking about that ridiculously glitched cloak in front of him.

Also, NO CAPES

What about this one?

Yeah, that looks pretty similar to Xenos', which looks pretty rad in action.

Also, NO CAPES

What about this one?

Also, NO CAPES

- Voice chat sucks. Fireteam emphasis really encumbers the social aspect of the game. Give us full lobby chat with proximity voice (at least in Crucible)!

See, I actually really like the way they did this. One of my least favorite parts of Halo was having to listen to the Timmies on the other team in the lobby. I almost always put my settings to party-only. I do occasionally miss having proximity chat while out exploring, but mostly, I don't.

- Crucible maps are so-so. The Moon map is okay, I guess, but Mars and Brick-walls-everywhere maps are disorienting due to their uniformity, they lack distinctive landmarks and unique areas.

The Venus map is actually one of my favorites. I haven't played any of the maps enough yet to find my way around easily, but that map in particular has been some of the most fun I've had in the Crucible so far.

- The game is clearly loot-focused rather than gameplay focused.

I've enjoyed the loot system. I love the surprise of picking up new gear and discovering what I just earned, even if it's not necessarily something I want or plan to keep. The Beta does feel a tad more grindy than the Alpha did, but again, it's a Beta. I expect there's going to be more tweaking between now and release. (Heck, there may be some tweaking happening right now that we'll see tomorrow.)

You could have a fairly fully featured browser interface to manage this stuff. There could even be a web service behind it all, publish the interface and let the fans fine tune your UI for you.

Could someone write a malicious script or server that takes player credentials and trashes their loot?

Grrr, I think the simple answer is yes. I wonder if that explains some of the limitations of the companion app.

I'd love to be able to setup a loot manager to take out some of the busy work. But it would probably be a bitch to setup the rules. A bitch for Bungie to do a UI for and a bitch for me to tell it what to do.

Simpler would be 'Hold Square to pick up loot drop' rather than auto acquiring it. That way you can just ignore the whites.

Some of the white gear is actually decent for multiplayer because of the leveling. I do get a little annoyed when I get multiple identical weapons though.

It would be easy to specify a rule to auto-dismantle duplicate whites because they don't have special effects: plus discipline, grenade damage recharges melee attack, etc

I'd love to be able to setup a loot manager to take out some of the busy work. But it would probably be a bitch to setup the rules. A bitch for Bungie to do a UI for and a bitch for me to tell it what to do.

How about an overflow vault?

I pick the nine items I want in my active set; everything in addition to that goes into my overflow.

I get notifications of rares or items with stats that exceed a value that I set. For example: stat > 57 or stat > current stat + N. (where N is an integer > 0)

Maybe limit notifications to:

• damage
  
• protection (or whatever it is that armor has)
  
• discipline
  
• strength
  
• the other things like discipline or strength that I have forgotten

The extra wrinkles like: (makes reloading pulse rifles faster) can be ignored; you look for that stuff when you manage your overflow vault.

I then just play the game and get occasional notifications of rares or items that might be of interest.

In my down time I clean up my overflow. I can do this in-game or via companion app or web page(s).

• dismantle
  
• move to active 9
  
• ???
  
• profit

Do we need a separate vault for our top faves to swap between characters? Do we want to rank weapons so that the good ones are easy to switch between characters?

Would anything like the above work for you?

- Class designs/weapon designs/everything art designs. They have really stepped up their design game since Reach.

Oh I have a gripe! I don't like the way hunter cloaks look, and I much prefer the scarves. However, I don't think you can get scarves anymore in the beta… I haven't had a single hunter item come up as a scarf.

- Too much time spent in loading screens. Elaborate loading screens really aren't necessary, especially in Crucible, just a simple lobby screen showing your team and map is all that's necessary.

Agree about the loading screens (though they are really pretty loading screens).

- Voice chat sucks. Fireteam emphasis really encumbers the social aspect of the game. Give us full lobby chat with proximity voice (at least in Crucible)!

I really hope they have more social options! Fire team/Proximity chat toggle would be great.

- Crucible voice actor, why does he have to be English?

Honestly I really like this guy.

- Crucible maps are so-so. The Moon map is okay, I guess, but Mars and Brick-walls-everywhere maps are disorienting due to their uniformity, they lack distinctive landmarks and unique areas.

My favorite maps were the Mars and Earth maps. Made some great shotgun plays and had a lot of fun playing those maps.

- The game is clearly loot-focused rather than gameplay focused. This is my biggest gripe with the game. Everything is centered around grinding. Want a new gun? Grind for it. Want a new Ship? Grind for it. Want to have fun? Sorry, you're out of luck. :D It's as if there was a huge brainstorm session during development solely dedicated to grinding options, and all suggestions made it into the game. The loot hooks are very strong and are the source of the beta's addictive quality. The addictiveness really overshadows other game content in some respects.

Maybe its because I have a lot of mmo experience under my belt, but I like the loot focused aspect of the game. Combined with the good gameplay it gives me excuses to go out and have fun killing aliens. To each his own I guess.

My guess (without having played Destiny at all) is that encryption is designed to keep the flow and your head in the moment. If you knew exactly what the loot was, you might be very likely to stop, look at everything, maybe think about equipping it and then go back to the game.

Lots of start / stop.

Already happens with regular gear. You run over a white item, then have to open the menu and dismantle it so you don't fill up your inventory with useless gear.

Some of the white gear is actually decent for multiplayer because of the leveling. I do get a little annoyed when I get multiple identical weapons though.

Likes:
- Music/sound effects. It's a shame Marty left.
- Class designs/weapon designs/everything art designs. They have really stepped up their design game since Reach.
- Story. Even the short story shown in the story missions is pretty compelling. It's a shame Staten left.
- All three classes are really fun to play.

Dislikes:
- Lack of streamlining.
- Too much time spent in loading screens. Elaborate loading screens really aren't necessary, especially in Crucible, just a simple lobby screen showing your team and map is all that's necessary.
- Field of view is too narrow.
- Bosses enemies are boring, they just seem like bullet sponges, like Spider Tank and Serpis Prime.
- Voice chat sucks. Fireteam emphasis really encumbers the social aspect of the game. Give us full lobby chat with proximity voice (at least in Crucible)!
- Crucible voice actor, why does he have to be English?
- Crucible maps are so-so. The Moon map is okay, I guess, but Mars and Brick-walls-everywhere maps are disorienting due to their uniformity, they lack distinctive landmarks and unique areas.
- The game is clearly loot-focused rather than gameplay focused. This is my biggest gripe with the game. Everything is centered around grinding. Want a new gun? Grind for it. Want a new Ship? Grind for it. Want to have fun? Sorry, you're out of luck. :D It's as if there was a huge brainstorm session during development solely dedicated to grinding options, and all suggestions made it into the game. The loot hooks are very strong and are the source of the beta's addictive quality. The addictiveness really overshadows other game content in some respects.

My guess (without having played Destiny at all) is that encryption is designed to keep the flow and your head in the moment. If you knew exactly what the loot was, you might be very likely to stop, look at everything, maybe think about equipping it and then go back to the game.

Lots of start / stop.

Already happens with regular gear. You run over a white item, then have to open the menu and dismantle it so you don't fill up your inventory with useless gear.

Lots of start / stop.

I didn't feel like the game was too grindy. I think it might feel more so in the Beta because we only have a tiny percentage of the content. Running that strike 10 times, stuck at Level 8... well, it does feel grindy if you are just trying to get a single Shingen-C rare drop. But if I have 10 strikes and 25 story missions to play through and each has a chance to drop great gear, I won't even feel the grind. I'll be having a blast, getting rare loot (by probability), getting unique loot (because diff strikes/bosses will drop diff loot), getting rare, legendary, and exotic loot (because we only have common and uncommon available in Beta), leveling my new guns, having the ability to be choosy (my gun choices changed frequently until level 8 cap was hit) because there won't be a level cap. It will feel good I suspect when we get to run full to 20, and then even higher as we level our other subclasses.

By late-game, I suspect there will be several options for high level play (either really difficult strikes, story bosses, or raids) - where you won't grind, but the loot will be directed and streamlined because the challenge will be so high.