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The Little Things *IMGS*

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Friday, July 05, 2013, 22:12 (4141 days ago)
edited by Ragashingo, Friday, July 05, 2013, 22:24

With the release of a high resolution version of Destiny’s E3 demo I thought it might be fun to spend an hour poking through the frames to see if I could find any little things I hadn’t seen before. I did. Take a look:

The first thing to catch my eye was the doomed traffic jam.

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This isn’t one of your typical, everyday, Russian road calamities, which are bad enough. Here, everyone is going the same direction on both sides of the road. And they’re not just piled up outside the spaceport, they’re backed up in traffic for many many miles stretching off into the distance:

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Whatever force or power hit Earth took time to kill us. It wasn’t instant like a Drej planet killer.

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Soon after viewing the traffic jam of doom we’re show this:

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Note the hole in the top of the skull. For the longest time, despite concept art of destroyed Human tanks and aircraft carriers, I stubbornly believed that whatever hit Earth mainly did so from orbit. That way The Traveler could do its thing and drive them away. But that hole in the top of the Russian’s head leads me to believe otherwise. I now think whatever attacked Earth made landfall and went on a huge, up close and personal killing spree. Maybe it was an army, or maybe it was one single, powerful being, but whatever it was took the time to shoot fleeing civilians in the head. This wasn't some environmental disaster or uncaring whale probe. This attack was personal.

So what was the Russian populace fleeing towards? A spaceport. Bungie said as much in their various E3 interviews. And what a spaceport it was.
[image]

Each of those colony ships lining the wall has got to be multiple times the size of our biggest modern day rockets. Those shuttles could very well be significantly bigger than the space shuttles. All in all the Russians were leaving in some massive machines. Or at least they were trying too. You’ll note that a lot of these colony ships are still on the ground:

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All but one of them as far as I can tell. Note the empty launch structure on the far right. Even after the players get inside it looks as if very few colony ships actually made lift off. Did the one(s) that made it survive? If so what happened to those survivors?

Inside the wall of the POGA(?) (My Russian is so bad I can’t even write a word in the language) space port we see a few things. One is their neat logo:

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And the other is the repeated lettering of KOH 22, the name of that section of the wall perhaps?

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Soon Joe Staten releases his Ghost. The Ghost seems to assemble itself out of some kind of holographic energy:

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It starts out closed up, with a central ball camera like object surrounded by hard, angled, geometric shapes:

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Closed up the Ghost has multiple animations. It can look around with its “eye” and it can flex or reposition it’s outer parts slightly to help show that it is speaking. Before long the Ghost notices that the players need more light and opens up. The central ball camera seems to stay where it was while the angular pieces expand, and are either containing or being held together by the bright purplish orb of light:

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Bungie says each Guardian gets a Ghost, that they are useful for exploring and activating both old Earth golden age technology and alien tech. They also, apparently, maintain a Guardian’s essence / life force / digital signal / soul when one is killed, thus the name Ghost?

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Note that a Guardian’s body isn’t converted into Energy, it is instead left to flop around lifelessly, as demonstrated here by Darla:

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As things start to heat up inside the wall I just had the note the awesome lighting Bungie has gotten out of their new engine. At E3 they said that they could much more easily do things like change the lighting of a room, switching from almost total darkness to well lit as seen in the demo, which I guess wasn’t possible in their earlier engines. And just look at it in action:


[image]

It feels big and epic, without it descending to that OMG LENS FLARE look that Mass Effect, Halo 4, and the two newest Star Trek movies have. There’s certainly lens flares there, but they feel like their own thing that’s part of the world, not something added in… if that makes any sense.

As the fighting gets underway we are treated to several new weapons and abilities. the Guardians attack with what looks very much like a thrown grenade that puts out a flare of AOE damage. It even bounces once like a good ole’ Halo frag grenade.

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As a bonus it doesn’t seem completely useless like the Forerunner grenades in Halo 4. Then we get to see Darla use what seems to be a power of her Warlock that charges her gun with fiery energy. Hits on enemies even burn them up:

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Staten then whips out his pistol with a nice twirl animation:

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and proceeds to lay waste to the remaining Fallen. When he reloads we get to see something interesting. Yep, this gun was made for the Forces Of The City:

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Pretty cool. As is his combat knife:

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Is that a Hunter Symbol at the bottom?

In any case the Fallen soldiers are wiped out but then the two Guardians encounter Rixis, some sort of Fallen boss type enemy. Rixis has a variety of moves and weapons, but what I thought was interesting was the hole it crawled out of:

[image]

It looks very much like it removed the fan that used to be in that tunnel and ran cables, perhaps for power? Also note bits of Fallen language on either side in faded white paint. If you were to turn to your right and face one of the silver support pillars you’d catch site of this symbol as well:

[image]

Overhead there seems to be a red tarp hanging or suspended above Rixis’ area. Are the Fallen infesting our old structures? If so why? Are they using them as bases, or are they maybe using them to hide from something more dangerous?

Once our two heroes get outside and engage in the public even we get a few more treats. One is a Fallen Captain using some sort of energy shield:

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It absorbs or deflects a few shots from the Thunderlord and seems to visually degrade before breaking in spectacular fashion:

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If one watches closely one can also make out the several different weapons sported by the Devil Walker type Spider Tank:

In addition to it’s main cannon it has it’s forward Twirly Whirly gun:

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Its four tubed missile launcher fires what appears to be tracking energy bolts:


[image]

Interestingly it seems like the missile launcher keeps track of each tube and at least once it fires the first three at a Guardian, then waits for him to get back out from cover before firing the fourth shot.

And then there’s the most cherished attack favored by all Halo Reach players, the EMP Burst. The Spider Tank seems to activate it when it recovers from being stunned. Note the large blast range. It’s able to send a dead Fallen soldier flying (as seen on the far right) from about the range that all the Guardians back off to.

[image]

And finally, oh look, a tank sitting just beyond the inside of the wall:

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I somehow did not notice that before. Looks pretty awesome.

The sense I get from Destiny, is that this time around Bungie has a universe that they really believe in, not one that they put together after the first game turns out of be a success. It seem like Destiny will have more purpose, more environmental clues, and more details to find than Halo’s sometimes stale levels. I sure hope it does anyway!

P.S. A very big thanks to Claude and whoever else is responsible for the DBO video archive. In this day of constantly buffering flash video it's nice to be able to just plain download something and watch it without interruption!

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by Grizzlei ⌂ @, Pacific Cloud Zone, Earth, Friday, July 05, 2013, 22:42 (4141 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by Grizzlei, Friday, July 05, 2013, 22:46

I've grown infatuated with tanks after obsessing myself with Girls und Panzer and World of Tanks lately and have concluded much about these armored behemoths rusting within the confines of the spaceport.

It's design is uniquely Russian dating back to Soviet-produced tanks of the 1950's. All feature a very low profile with a bulbous turret. Proposed Russian tanks to replace the thousands of Cold War-era designs take a departure from the aforementioned design "laws." They still retain their low profile but the armor plating is angled and flows elegantly from the turret and main body, This tank still very much follows the traditional design. I could conclude that this tank isn't so much a radically new model, but simply an upgrade of an existing model.

These tanks to us in 2013 are not unfamiliar to us. Not one bit on that tank screams that it's a relic of a distant future. Coupled with the very simplistic, brutally tough, and seemingly archaic Russian-y designs of the colony ships, I believe it is safe to conclude that Earth's demise happened in the time of our grandchildren, only mere decades from now.

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by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Friday, July 05, 2013, 22:57 (4141 days ago) @ Grizzlei

Agreed. My sense of Destiny's timeline is:

- Within a hundred years from now The Traveler comes to our solar system. It terraforms most of our planets and somehow provides us with the means to colonize them, including (limited) faster than light travel.

- Within another hundred years Humanity has built cities of significant size on Mars, and possibly the other planets, and is experiencing a Golden Age when some mysterious force knocks us down devastating the Earth and our colonies. (Else why didn't the Marsies and others come and help us rebuild later?)

- The Traveler intervenes in Humanity's destruction and fights off the big bad (temporarily of course) at great cost to itself. Its last act is to settle over the Earth and provide protection to a single city. Over the next couple of hundred years the remains of Humanity gather under the Traveler's protection and begin rediscovering lost technology.

- As Humanity begins to venture back out into the solar system it encounters strange new alien races that have taken over our old worlds. These aliens are not part of some Covenant, but are diverse and fight among each other, and even fight others of their own race. Why they wish to fight Humanity is unknown but probably involves The Traveler.

- Destiny The Game begins.

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by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Friday, July 05, 2013, 23:01 (4141 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Yeah, I've been thinking something like that as well.

Another major point I believe is that the 'knocking down' part took at least half a century of major beating, else we would get back on our feet a lot faster.

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by Malagate @, Sea of Tranquility, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 04:14 (4140 days ago) @ ZackDark

Yeah, I've been thinking something like that as well.

Another major point I believe is that the 'knocking down' part took at least half a century of major beating, else we would get back on our feet a lot faster.

Part of me suspects humanity is actually extinct, and the Traveller has somehow preserved us through whatever technology allows Guardians to respawn/resurrect. So, in a way, the Traveller is winning (or eventually will win) a war of attrition against all our foes. Just keep on throwing resurrected Guardians out there and little by little we'll secure outposts and then whole territories; and ultimately make planetfall on worlds further and further out in our system.

~M

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by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Saturday, July 06, 2013, 06:21 (4140 days ago) @ Malagate

The Persians did eventually get beat, don't forget it.

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by TTL Demag0gue ⌂ @, Within the shadow of the Traveler, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:07 (4140 days ago) @ Malagate

Yeah, I've been thinking something like that as well.

Another major point I believe is that the 'knocking down' part took at least half a century of major beating, else we would get back on our feet a lot faster.


Part of me suspects humanity is actually extinct, and the Traveller has somehow preserved us through whatever technology allows Guardians to respawn/resurrect. So, in a way, the Traveller is winning (or eventually will win) a war of attrition against all our foes. Just keep on throwing resurrected Guardians out there and little by little we'll secure outposts and then whole territories; and ultimately make planetfall on worlds further and further out in our system.

~M

That's... actually not the craziest theory I've heard. It would explain why each Guardian has a Ghost -- and why it's actually called that.

(And I'm kicking myself that I didn't think of it first...) ;-)

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by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:29 (4140 days ago) @ TTL Demag0gue

But what about The City? Millions of resurrected humans? Also I think it was said that Guardians are issued a Ghost. Not that they all happen to have one.

Still, it is a very interesting, delightfully scifi idea. Interesting and delightful enough that I don't think it should be ruled out until we know more. :)

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by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:24 (4140 days ago) @ ZackDark

Yeah, I've been thinking something like that as well.

Another major point I believe is that the 'knocking down' part took at least half a century of major beating, else we would get back on our feet a lot faster.

While we don't know a lot, what we do know makes me inclined to agree. Humanity's golden age wasn't some silly Star Trek "we don't have money or disease or war" type thing. Russia had a very major wall guarding a space port. Various nations still had tanks, aircraft, and aircraft carriers. Mars had war intelligences named after mythic swords. I even believe the Exo to be some kind of either heavily cyborgized human (with everything mechanical but the brain) or straight up human created artificially intelligent warriors that survived the fall. I think Humanity quickly lost any kind of space superiority and then was beat down by forces hanging overhead in orbit. They didn't have the ability to glass us Covenant style, but they had sufficient ground forces to slowly destroy everything. I'm not sure it took decades, but it at least took years.

Then there's the scary part. I don't think the Fallen / Vex / Hive are the ones who knocked us down. I think they came to our solar system for their own reasons, perhaps looking for The Traveler. This part from Alpha Lupi has stuck with me:

In ecstasy they search for you, finding nothing but dense quiet dropping from the stars.

The Traveler and its low orbit could be the dense quiet dropping from the stars.

And If my speculation is correct, if the races we'll be fighting at first aren't the scariest one, then all of us, Humanity, Fallen, Vex, Hive, and The Traveler might be in future danger. Imagine a major gameplay event in the future if The Traveler is further damaged or destroyed exposing The City to everything that is out there! I think it will happen. Not soon. But three or four years after Destiny launches I think we will lose The Traveler and The City. Won't that be fun! :)

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by Lurono @, Oklahoma, USA, Sunday, July 07, 2013, 22:14 (4139 days ago) @ Ragashingo

If not that, then perhaps an alliance with one of the previously hostile races? Kinda similar to the end of Halo 2 going into Halo 3.

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by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, July 07, 2013, 22:40 (4139 days ago) @ Lurono

I think so. Bungie has said that the various houses of Fallen don't like each other. There's got to be alliance opportunities there. We don't really even know anything about the Vex or Hive. And I'm still heavily betting on a Bungie Twist™ close to the size of The Arbiter in Halo 2. I mean, a whole new universe and we think Bungie has laid it all out for us? Not a chance! :)

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by Lurono @, Oklahoma, USA, Sunday, July 07, 2013, 23:04 (4139 days ago) @ Ragashingo

I think so. Bungie has said that the various houses of Fallen don't like each other. There's got to be alliance opportunities there. We don't really even know anything about the Vex or Hive. And I'm still heavily betting on a Bungie Twist™ close to the size of The Arbiter in Halo 2. I mean, a whole new universe and we think Bungie has laid it all out for us? Not a chance! :)

I had missed that bit on the Fallen, gonna just file that away for reference. It would be an interesting alliance considering we're the only two races that appear to be holed up on Earth. There's at least, quite literally, some common ground.

And I agree, there's no way that we're going to be handed this universe without also being given a hearty dose of the unexpected! A lot of answers probably lie with that as-yet-to-be-revealed race with the creepy pyramid ships (unless I missed that too, of course lol).

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by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Friday, July 05, 2013, 23:11 (4141 days ago) @ Grizzlei

These tanks to us in 2013 are not unfamiliar to us. Not one bit on that tank screams that it's a relic of a distant future. Coupled with the very simplistic, brutally tough, and seemingly archaic Russian-y designs of the colony ships, I believe it is safe to conclude that Earth's demise happened in the time of our grandchildren, only mere decades from now.

Interesting catch. As far as you can tell from the burnt-out and rusted frames, the vehicles in the traffic jam all look pretty typical for our day as well.

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by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:33 (4140 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

Indeed. Note the fairly modern if not slightly futuristic bus on the left:

[image]

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Very nice! Thanks for taking your time!

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Friday, July 05, 2013, 22:59 (4141 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Lots of cool stuff I hadn't noticed.

Just a little tidbit on the 'POGA' logo. Those letters in Cyrillic are better translated to our alphabet as 'RFBA', phonetically.

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Very nice! Thanks for taking your time!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:36 (4140 days ago) @ ZackDark

Lots of cool stuff I hadn't noticed.

Just a little tidbit on the 'POGA' logo. Those letters in Cyrillic are better translated to our alphabet as 'RFBA', phonetically.

Thanks! I knew I didn't know enough about Russian to even correctly type in the letters but I figured the community would come through. And you did. :)

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Awesome analysis. Thanks!

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Friday, July 05, 2013, 23:30 (4140 days ago) @ Ragashingo

And finally, oh look, a tank sitting just beyond the inside of the wall:

[image]

I somehow did not notice that before. Looks pretty awesome.

The sense I get from Destiny, is that this time around Bungie has a universe that they really believe in, not one that they put together after the first game turns out of be a success. It seem like Destiny will have more purpose, more environmental clues, and more details to find than Halo’s sometimes stale levels. I sure hope it does anyway!

This is great. I hadn't thought about how much the environment alone says about the history of the area in the demonstration. I love how the tank is all overgrown with foliage. Wasn't that one of the art directions Staten and Barrett mentioned in the GDC presentation? The organic taking over? It seems like a great way to take the familiar and turn it into something alien and exciting. I wonder how much information about Earth's past will be given to us in expository material versus environmental detail like we see here. Exploring these ancient locations is going to be a blast.

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Awesome analysis. Thanks!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:46 (4140 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

I wonder how much information about Earth's past will be given to us in expository material versus environmental detail like we see here. Exploring these ancient locations is going to be a blast.

A lot I hope. One of the things Skyrim did really well was tell small stories with without using major exposition or cutscenes. Just having some dead soldiers arranged a certain way around some traps and maybe a single two page journal can tell a fantastic little story. Add up a lot of those little stories and you get a world. I still want my cutscenes, because I think a strong main story is important, but I also want more life breathed into the world of Destiny. Hopefully with the much longer development time Bungie will have done just that.

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Normal day on the 405.

by biggy ⌂ @, Tinseltown, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 04:38 (4140 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Really great work, Ragashingo! You've got me speculating even more now :)

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One more reason I avoid L.A. at all costs

by Mid7night ⌂ @, Rocket BSCHSHCSHSHCCHGGH!!!!!!, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 07:23 (4140 days ago) @ biggy

Except of course if I have a really good reason to go there. ;)

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:)

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:47 (4140 days ago) @ biggy

- No text -

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Very helpful

by Mid7night ⌂ @, Rocket BSCHSHCSHSHCCHGGH!!!!!!, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 07:30 (4140 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Thank you for this, very well done. Analysis/speculation like this is why I was excited for DBO in the first place. I personally don't feel I have the time or talent to do such writeups justice, but I thoroughly enjoy reading along and letting my imagination wander. Once in a while I'll throw out my own theories, usually about overly-technical babble that is quickly yawned at, so mostly I like to sit back and watch the show.

Thanks for putting on a good show. :)

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:)

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:47 (4140 days ago) @ Mid7night

- No text -

Much appreciated!

by Lurono @, Oklahoma, USA, Sunday, July 07, 2013, 22:37 (4139 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Gave this a read while waiting for the video to download (thank you DBO media library!). Made me appreciate it that much more and clued me in to things I probably would have missed!

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Much appreciated!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, July 07, 2013, 23:44 (4138 days ago) @ Lurono

Gave this a read while waiting for the video to download (thank you DBO media library!). Made me appreciate it that much more and clued me in to things I probably would have missed!

Thanks. :)

Also be sure to check the Destiny Updates analysis too. Lots of good stuff there!

The Little Things *IMGS*

by Oz Mills, Monday, July 08, 2013, 04:21 (4138 days ago) @ Ragashingo

[image]

Note the hole in the top of the skull. For the longest time, despite concept art of destroyed Human tanks and aircraft carriers, I stubbornly believed that whatever hit Earth mainly did so from orbit. That way The Traveler could do its thing and drive them away. But that hole in the top of the Russian’s head leads me to believe otherwise. I now think whatever attacked Earth made landfall and went on a huge, up close and personal killing spree. Maybe it was an army, or maybe it was one single, powerful being, but whatever it was took the time to shoot fleeing civilians in the head. This wasn't some environmental disaster or uncaring whale probe. This attack was personal.

This actually says a lot.

Look at the picture. How much time do you think it would take to decompose a body, as well as the seat itself, and have grass start growing through the car?

This is a LONG time since The Fall, or whatever it's called.

I'm wondering if the hole in the skull is just due to birds, regular decomposition, or that the vehicle crashed and the poor sod wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

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The Little Things *IMGS*

by bluerunner @, Music City, Monday, July 08, 2013, 06:25 (4138 days ago) @ Oz Mills

There's an old abandoned car in a ravine close to where I grew up that has been there since the late 60's. It looks similar to the condition of those cars. There's a tree growing through it. It might not take as long as you think. Just a few decades.

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The Little Things *IMGS*

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, July 08, 2013, 08:45 (4138 days ago) @ Oz Mills

I'm wondering if the hole in the skull is just due to birds, regular decomposition, or that the vehicle crashed and the poor sod wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

I think we can rule out all three actually. If it were birds then it must have been some pretty darn aggressive birds to peck a hole in the guy's head and to cause that crack running down the side of his skull..I'm no doctor, and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I'm thinking a crack like that need to be made by something more forceful than a bird. Likewise, normal decomposition won't cut it. As for the guy crashing hard enough to smash his head... I don't think so. He's stuck in traffic stretching for at least a couple of miles assuming the wall was right over the most distant hill. No way he was going fast enough to cause serious, head fracturing injury.

I'm thinking either a nuclear type event that would knock the guy around, but then wouldn't the cars be more scattered and off the roadway, or a more up close and personal killing.

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The Little Things *IMGS*

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Monday, July 08, 2013, 14:55 (4138 days ago) @ Ragashingo

I tend to think 'up close and personal' killing in that scale would make people run like mad. Hell, it doesn't even take killings to get people to abandon their car and run the opposite way. Every traffic jam in which criminals take advantage of and start robbing people has this effect here.

(Have I mentioned you people shouldn't come for the World Cup next year?)

You are so awesome

by Avateur @, Monday, July 08, 2013, 18:56 (4138 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Thanks for the great write-up. All of that detail into just one E3 demo in a little part of Russia. And we're going to be going to different planets at some point in this game. If the detail is on this level all over the place, sheesh.

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The Little Things *IMGS*

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Sunday, July 14, 2013, 21:18 (4132 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by General Vagueness, Sunday, July 14, 2013, 21:30

Soon after viewing the traffic jam of doom we’re show this:

[image]

Note the hole in the top of the skull. For the longest time, despite concept art of destroyed Human tanks and aircraft carriers, I stubbornly believed that whatever hit Earth mainly did so from orbit. That way The Traveler could do its thing and drive them away. But that hole in the top of the Russian’s head leads me to believe otherwise. I now think whatever attacked Earth made landfall and went on a huge, up close and personal killing spree. Maybe it was an army, or maybe it was one single, powerful being, but whatever it was took the time to shoot fleeing civilians in the head. This wasn't some environmental disaster or uncaring whale probe. This attack was personal.

If that was what killed him (her?), would it still look like that (black with a pretty well-defined hole) after enough time for there to only be a skeleton left?

Each of those colony ships lining the wall has got to be multiple times the size of our biggest modern day rockets. Those shuttles could very well be significantly bigger than the space shuttles.

It's too bad Stephen Loftus isn't into Destiny, he'd be able to tell us for sure.

Inside the wall of the POGA(?) (My Russian is so bad I can’t even write a word in the language) space port we see a few things. One is their neat logo:

[image]

And the other is the repeated lettering of KOH 22, the name of that section of the wall perhaps?

I searched for all the Cyrillic terms I could make out... but I forgot to search for this one as it was (РФБА) until now...

It feels big and epic, without it descending to that OMG LENS FLARE look that Mass Effect, Halo 4, and the two newest Star Trek movies have. There’s certainly lens flares there, but they feel like their own thing that’s part of the world, not something added in… if that makes any sense.

just an aside here to say I appreciate this

Overhead there seems to be a red tarp hanging or suspended above Rixis’ area. Are the Fallen infesting our old structures? If so why? Are they using them as bases, or are they maybe using them to hide from something more dangerous?

My guess is they're scavenging and also turning it into some kind of base.

The sense I get from Destiny, is that this time around Bungie has a universe that they really believe in, not one that they put together after the first game turns out of be a success.

I don't think it's fair to say Bungie didn't believe in the Halo universe, and even if they didn't know if it would be successful, they'd done sequels before where it presumably would've been even less of a certainty they'd be successful, so I'd think they knew what they were doing with that on some level.
I like your analysis though.

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The Little Things *IMGS*

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Monday, July 15, 2013, 16:51 (4131 days ago) @ General Vagueness

I didn't find anything that seems related on КОН (Wiktionary page; a round of a game seems like the most likely meaning if it's a word).
The word on the billboard and on the front of the wall, as mentioned in the commentary video, does indeed translate to "forward". That seems, well, pretty straightforward to me-- I think those are telling people to keep going.
Searching for "RFBA" didn't seem to give anything relevant even with "Russia" or "Soviet" added on. Searching for "РФБА" turned up stuff about the Russian Library Association, or something similar, the fact that it's very close to the Russian word for "fish" ("Did you mean: РЫБА"), things that didn't seem related, and... people talking about the Destiny gameplay reveal in Russian. I was just finishing looking through what I found when I saw that it's defined in the video. >_<
Looking at the video, the KOH 22 is actually КОН 22-5.
The thing about РФБА I actually saw in this picture. That spot doesn't seem to show up in any of the videos and I can't make it out in the other places it shows up. In that picture I'm almost certain it's "Russian Federal [something something]".
The same goes for the white sign-- there's a white sign in front of the wall that has more Cyrillic lettering on it, but even looking at it at the highest resolution available (and getting this computer to even handle it), I can't make out a good portion of the characters, if they're even there, and I'm not familiar enough with Russian to take a guess at what they were.

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The Little Things *IMGS*

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Monday, July 15, 2013, 17:24 (4131 days ago) @ General Vagueness

The thing about РФБА I actually saw in this picture. That spot doesn't seem to show up in any of the videos and I can't make it out in the other places it shows up. In that picture I'm almost certain it's "Russian Federal [something something]".

Nice catch. I'll download the E3 demo vid on highest resolution and try to make it out. And yes, it's definitely 'Russian Federal' something, but mistranslate, I think.

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The Little Things *IMGS*

by Beorn @, <End of Failed Timeline>, Monday, July 15, 2013, 17:51 (4131 days ago) @ General Vagueness

The thing about РФБА I actually saw in this picture. That spot doesn't seem to show up in any of the videos and I can't make it out in the other places it shows up. In that picture I'm almost certain it's "Russian Federal [something something]".

Looks like that passageway is from the part of the demo right after the Ghost turns on the lights and they confront the Fallen:
[image]
Just can't see the symbol there because he's reloading in front of it!

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Awwww!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, July 15, 2013, 18:10 (4131 days ago) @ Beorn

- No text -

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Argh

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Monday, July 15, 2013, 18:26 (4131 days ago) @ Beorn

Still, I'll nitpick the video and try to find more cyrillic there.

Argh

by relaxgiant, Sunday, July 20, 2014, 18:40 (3761 days ago) @ ZackDark

I came to this thread by googling "РфбА" and just minutes later came across this in game, the entire text under the letters.

It's big, so here's a link.

I think the second word is federation and the last one is pretty much "aeronautical."

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If I were to guess, judging by what little I know

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Sunday, July 20, 2014, 19:22 (3761 days ago) @ relaxgiant

Russian Federation (?) Aeronautics

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Argh

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Sunday, July 20, 2014, 20:23 (3761 days ago) @ relaxgiant

I came to this thread by googling "РфбА" and just minutes later came across this in game, the entire text under the letters.

It's big, so here's a link.

I think the second word is federation and the last one is pretty much "aeronautical."

Transliterated it's "rohskoye federal[?]noye byooroh aeronavteekee" (I read a book on Russian in junior high and I don't remember the words but I remember most of the letters). Running that through Google's translator says it is what it looks like, Russian Federal Bureau of Aeronautics. Google's search doesn't seem to recognize that as existing, per se, but the first result for it is the page on the Russian Federal Space Agency. Basically, it's what I thought it was, and something you'd expect. The fact it's not marked with ФКА (FKA) or РКА (RKA), the abbreviations for the actual present-day Russian space agency, means either something changed, whether it was a major shift or just a name change, or it's an alternate universe where the Russians called their space agency something else, which could hint at other subtle differences, but that's a bit of a stretch.
Oh, and спасибо, thank you for sharing this.

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