Wait what? That's definitely not something you get in a Vanilla FPS. It may be crudely implemented in a few others where this one is really slickly implemented.

Right, but I'm not getting this "shared world" part of the shared world shooter. It's the shooting that's shared, and that's nothing really revolutionary.

The 360 version is bad about this. I've had no issue with the XB1 or PS4. Not sure about PS3.

- CC

PS3 has consistently seen a significant delay between opening the menu and actually displaying all the gear for me.

~m

- CC

Destiny's coop is smooth as butter on my connection compared to Halo 3, and I have a suspicion that it's because stuff that does not affect outcomes is being allowed to go out of sync; but this might mean that things that don't affect progression don't have precise values, which may mean that the complete predictability that films rely on no longer exists.

Either that, or Bungie built Destiny from the ground up optimized with online co-op in mind, rather than adding it to an existing code base.

Still, even if you are correct, wouldn't that just result in films slightly different for each player on your fireteam? Surely what you see on your screen, with the values your game is receiving would be unaffected.

Yes. See also: Halo multiplayer films.

Phoenix_9286 talks about how magic it is to have your friends just drop straight into your fireteam. That could already be done in a vanilla FPS (don't know why they typically want people to be in the lobby for new members to join). I see this as nice "polish", but after the novelty wears off, it's going to be a minor thing.

Wait what? That's definitely not something you get in a Vanilla FPS. It may be crudely implemented in a few others where this one is really slickly implemented.

Also the running around in a massive environment and running randomly into other players has never been done in an FPS that is this mechanically rich.

Destiny's coop is smooth as butter on my connection compared to Halo 3, and I have a suspicion that it's because stuff that does not affect outcomes is being allowed to go out of sync; but this might mean that things that don't affect progression don't have precise values, which may mean that the complete predictability that films rely on no longer exists.

Either that, or Bungie built Destiny from the ground up optimized with online co-op in mind, rather than adding it to an existing code base.

Still, even if you are correct, wouldn't that just result in films slightly different for each player on your fireteam? Surely what you see on your screen, with the values your game is receiving would be unaffected.

Regardless, if you didn't have to always be connected, you could at least keep playing or doing something. Instead, boom, you're kicked out completely. I wonder if that will affect any theater mode or whatever they have. Will all functionality just cease?

I'm guessing there isn't going to be one. The replay capabilities that Bungie built into Marathon, Myth, and then Halo I think depend on the game world being absolutely predictable in all relevant aspects, so when you take the game's initial state and add the inputs, you get the same result.

Halo's coop, for instance, for me is nigh unplayable because of how strictly in sync it wants to stay, and it stutters when one side can't catch up.

Online coop and theater mode both were added in Halo 3, and Bungie said at the time they were related technically.

Destiny's coop is smooth as butter on my connection compared to Halo 3, and I have a suspicion that it's because stuff that does not affect outcomes is being allowed to go out of sync; but this might mean that things that don't affect progression don't have precise values, which may mean that the complete predictability that films rely on no longer exists.

Possibly the only recourse is the kind of built-in video clip sharing features that the new consoles have. A pity, I suppose.

Regardless, if you didn't have to always be connected, you could at least keep playing or doing something. Instead, boom, you're kicked out completely. I wonder if that will affect any theater mode or whatever they have. Will all functionality just cease?

As an aside, I lost internet connection last night (for the first time in months, honestly), and got kicked out of the Beta. Now sure, it's a Beta and pretty much would have needed online regardless. The fact is, though, that if this had occurred in the actual game, I would have been screwed out of any story mode progress or anything else I was doing. And I agree, stats and public events are cool, but for something that is so minor in this game (referring to public events), it's really not worth making this game required to be connected at all times.

I got disconnected during a story mission in the Beta. When I reconnected and selected that story mission again, it loaded the checkpoint where I was right before I got disconnected. I lost very little progress, and absolutely didn't have to restart the whole mission.

Was doing a Warsat public event by myself, definitely underpowered for the Knights and Wizards that were showing up to take it away from me. Thought I was a goner (and so was the Warsat) when two Guardians showed up and saved my bacon. For something so seemingly trivial when I talk about it, that sort of thing is AWESOME.

That exact same thing happened to me on a Warsat event. I was doing pretty good until the Fallen and Hive started dropping in advanced troops. I wasn't getting killed, but my health was always down and I kept on having to waste my heavy ammo. Thankfully some angelic soul came in and saved me. In the end we were both killed and spawned after the event ended, failing it, but that feeling of camaraderie is so remarkable even between complete strangers.

I immediately got thrown into a Public Event and danced away with 4 other guardians.

I was just wandering around in explore mode and did a public event by myself and DAMN is the game that much more amazing with the magic of guardians coming over the hill.

I don't think it'd be Destiny if it was missing that magic.

Totally with you on this.

Was doing a Warsat public event by myself, definitely underpowered for the Knights and Wizards that were showing up to take it away from me. Thought I was a goner (and so was the Warsat) when two Guardians showed up and saved my bacon. For something so seemingly trivial when I talk about it, that sort of thing is AWESOME.

I don't think it'd be Destiny if it was missing that magic.

This would be one hell of a boring single-player game. It's the co-op aspects that sells it, for me.

But back to the "always connected" shared world. Before the Alpha and Beta, I was probably thinking of Fallout 3 / New Vegas as approximately what Exploration in Destiny would be like. A large world with a sparse population, lots of hidden things to discover and interact with, and enough of a simulation of NPCs with different behaviors and agendas to make it feel like a living world. Instead, Destiny Exploration feels liks a sub-par mission with mobs kind of clinging to their spawn area.

Yeah. I feel as if Bungie had made Destiny like Deus ex in terms of story, character progression, side quests, and secrets, then added their matchmaking and public event system, then the game would be significantly stronger, to the point where it would be considered the best FPS ever made.

Phoenix_9286 talks about how magic it is to have your friends just drop straight into your fireteam. That could already be done in a vanilla FPS (don't know why they typically want people to be in the lobby for new members to join). I see this as nice "polish", but after the novelty wears off, it's going to be a minor thing.

Grizzlei talks about camping an area for an hour, killing random mobs between Public Events. I'm happy you found this fun, but this is what sours Exploration mode and Public events for me... they happen about every 30 minutes, and the rest of the time I'm just killing time waiting for the next one. The more traditional Story and Strike missions I find much more entertaining, because they at least set up interesting set-pieces to fight my way through. (And I'm finding those less interesting than other FPS games, but hoping it gets better...)

I think before trying the Alpha and Beta, I was hoping that Exploration mode would be more fun in terms of random sandbox fooling around (GTA is probably the best-of-breed for that), and that the random missions would be more interesting. The random missions are boooooring. For some reason I can't put my finger on, I do find myself drawn to completing the Bounty challenges.

But back to the "always connected" shared world. Before the Alpha and Beta, I was probably thinking of Fallout 3 / New Vegas as approximately what Exploration in Destiny would be like. A large world with a sparse population, lots of hidden things to discover and interact with, and enough of a simulation of NPCs with different behaviors and agendas to make it feel like a living world. Instead, Destiny Exploration feels liks a sub-par mission with mobs kind of clinging to their spawn area.