1 wub u

but f u for not texting me re: Skolas. bs!

:(

(Sorry. I absolutely knew that if you, me, and nico tried this out, we'd fail miserably - none of us has any experience, and we're not known for our sticktoitiveness. I told nico I was gonna look for a couple people to carry me, and he convinced me that one person could carry two of us. ;) )

Happy to do it again, now that I've had a run-through, though!

but f u for not texting me re: Skolas. bs!

I fully agree.

I think it's easy to get stuck in a rut of "well, this is what worked last time" and don't experiment so much with how to tackle each encounter. Part of it is the punishment for nightfall failure is so extreme, but I'd also argue that the "hardest version" of a level is the one where you should definitely *not* be experimenting. During Dragon Strikes, I routinely mess around with shotguns only or NLB only etc.. It's much more fun. Just changing your weapon often dictates a change in strategy in order to make that weapon effective. Valus Ta'Ruc is hilarious with three bubble titans and all shotguns.

Heh, one of the last times the Taniks strike was the Nightfall, our Fireteam spent the whole time screwing around. I can't remember who was with me (I've played with so many of you now, thanks to Kermit's Co-op night!), but they spent the Walker portion screwing around trying to get into the monster closet area in the upper left, and I was using nothing but Found Verdict on the Walker from the lower right hallway. It was an absolute blast, and definitely not what I would think of as the "normal" way to tackle that encounter (Cowering the back left with sniper rifles).

I've increasingly been screwing around during my Nightfall and Weekly Heroic runs (I hope the doesn't bother you Co-op participants). Used only Hard Light for the Nightfall a few weeks ago. I mean, I think we're at the point now where if you're doing the Nightfall and Heroic just because it's the weekly routine, screwing around seems like the perfect way to liven things up a bit. It's the equivalent of the Necrochasm or shotgun raids. We all know the encounters, it doesn't really matter if we wipe a bunch or whatever.

I actually really enjoy almost every single Strike, but I hate doing the playlists for them, because 99% of players just run through every encounter straight to the boss because they want to just finish the strike and move on. I just don't get the point of that. It's fairly obviously not a fun way to play, so why bother? I like fighting all the enemies, and in different ways.

If you happen to be looking at it when it happens. There's actually no guarantee you'll ever see it because you could just be shooting at the guys across the way the whole time.

I guess you could miss it, but it'd be really hard to. A red flare gets fired into the air by the entrance to Dock-13, so your attention gets pulled that direction, then a big vortex (Halo slipspace rupture) appears in the sky. It'd be hard to miss.

Also, no enemies are even in that area until that happens. The Ketch jumps in, then a Skiff comes in and drops off the Fallen the very first time. None of the regular patrol enemies are out there.

If you happen to be looking at it when it happens. There's actually no guarantee you'll ever see it because you could just be shooting at the guys across the way the whole time.

I've been playing a little of the original Gears through BC. One of the things that I loved about that game was the functionality where you click Y to let the camera look where it should so you can see in-game cinematic moments.

I think it's easy to get stuck in a rut of "well, this is what worked last time" and don't experiment so much with how to tackle each encounter. Part of it is the punishment for nightfall failure is so extreme, but I'd also argue that the "hardest version" of a level is the one where you should definitely *not* be experimenting. During Dragon Strikes, I routinely mess around with shotguns only or NLB only etc.. It's much more fun. Just changing your weapon often dictates a change in strategy in order to make that weapon effective. Valus Ta'Ruc is hilarious with three bubble titans and all shotguns.

The closest thing we get to that now is actually still that, as it does happen. I've just seen a few people in other places mention that specific event and are under the impression that it only happened in the E3 demo for some reason.

I think that's because while it is still in the game, you only see it once per character. Whereas the array is in a mission that you can (and do) run plenty of times later, so you keep seeing it.

In fact, in just that particular mission, which I do not find remarkable, I personally have done it in plenty of different ways as I evolved as a player. I started by hanging out by the thing the ghost was cracking. Then I did it on the walkway. Then I tried from the entrance to the room where the Crota wizard is sometimes. Then I tried it from the subway, and as I became better at the game, me and friends have started just running to where the bad guys spawn and killing them there for added fun.

Then there's the tank. Snipe from the entrance, snipe from the far left, those are pretty similar. But you can do it mid range from under the bridge. You can take out the middle adds and get him with auto rifles close to the tank from the left pillars or the right hallway. You can run up and shotgun him in the neck. You can blow off his legs, or blow off his shank dispensers, or blow off his secondary cannon.

Then the Sepiks Prime battle. Take him from the top, take him from the bottom, take him from the middle, hide in the right room with the shank bags killing adds as they show up and taking potshots at sepiks when you can, use bubble titans at the entrance and just stand there, hide in the left room and snipe through the window etc. The boss room has fewer meaningful options than the other encounters in the strike, but even that fight now has changed substantially. I used to go on the right and spend a lot of time killing adds. Then I would hide on the left and snipe him through stairs. Now I just shoot the piss out of him wherever and become a burden on my teammates as they revive me.

The closest we get to that now? well the only thing i can put a finger on is the radar dish at skywatch.

The closest thing we get to that now is actually still that, as it does happen. I've just seen a few people in other places mention that specific event and are under the impression that it only happened in the E3 demo for some reason.

I guess I was just being ass by only nitpicking that specific thing and not replying to the overall point, but I only have a few minutes on my lunch break here. Everything I would have said has been covered by you and Claude, so I don't have anything to add now.

So far I have only found 1 or 2 that let you take the levels in a different way that feels decidedly different and enjoyably challenging (but even they depend on some self diciplined constraints which I may be sharing at a later date when i've had chance to tweak the requirements with the pheonix's).

I disagree with this in the strongest terms.

I regularly play with Miguel, who has a completely different playstyle than I do. (I like to play safe, hanging back and killing stuff from a distance, with periodic shifts for my Titan's Fist of Havoc or my Hunter's Bladedancing). Mig is much more up-close-and personal... and we often find ourselves in completely different parts of a playspace, sometimes being surprised that the other is where he is.

The fact that you can get to most areas from completely different directions (The Refinery can be reached from the Grottos or from The Rocket Yard, on Earth, Temple of Crota can be reached from The World's Grave or Anchor of Light, on the Moon, etc) - these suggest that your point is only as true as you make it yourself.

Now, this isn't exactly anything new, we know the game went through some major changes before release especially on the story front

I always hear this claim but zero source other than some anonymous dude on Reddit like 10 months ago who provided no proof.

How do we know that's true?

EDIT: Also, some levels with major encounters you can run pretty differently.

The Warmind
The Last Array
The World's Grave
Sword of Crota
Stranger's Call
Ishtar Collective
The Archive
Eye of the Gaylord
Exclusion Zone
Garden's Spire
Black Garden
Siege of the warmind
The Wakening
A Kell Rising
Silent Fang

Sexy Prime
Phogoth
Aksor
Nexus
Omnigul