Destiny!

I farmed the 1st Crota mission. A Blade of Crota is past the 1st wave, always there. Restart when killed and get another.

That's where I farmed it too, it still took over an hour for me to get it while my friend got two in about 20 minutes... lol

Can cheese the new raid by having the party leader log out the second Crota takes a knee. Game glitches and he never gets back up. I did it the other night. Very tricky to time, probably better to start logging out when his shields are about 5-10%.

You can do the same for Bridge encounter. Everyone dies except Sunslinger and then Sunslinger dies. Self-Revive when 1 second left to Darkness and you can revive everyone. Go up platform, kill Ogres when they pop on the other side, you win.

game is just prone to glitches and exploits, really sad

Did that too, you can cheese the first part as well in a different manner. Hell you can almost cheese the whole raid. cheesed victory is still victory.

That can also count for the Presence of Crota. Do the same thing, everyone can regenerate Health/Shields without the Chalice. You can also multiply the Chalice for 5 people.

finaly.... now just need crota gear and shards to finish this gear too ; ;

been doing this and still nada

edit~~ got it finaly...

Got the Crota's End Sniper (OP), Raid Head/Body (Full set Raid gear), Vex Mythoclast (Finally...). It has been a good day for RNG. Getting my Eidolons Ally tomorrow.

Edit: The Sniper is Black Hammer. Restores magazine if you rapidly precision shot 3x, the gun is broken for bosses. Can just keep on firing and firing with no worrying on ammo. It slaughters the Ice Breaker if you keep abusing it.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly. Random thoughts from a former employee.

So... For those who don't know me, I've been around for a while now. I've been a part of the Bungie community since Marathon (though the first Bungie game I played was Pathways into Darkness), have worked in the video game industry (both other studios, as well as at Bungie itself), and currently do application development in the Medical industry.

Long-winded explanation out of the way, I thought I'd give a somewhat seasoned view of what I see with Destiny. I will share information without attribution that I've gotten from current Bungie employees who I play with - I will give my own opinions, and I hope that this gives an interesting insight into a few things.

The Good

It was several years ago when I worked for Bungie - the entirety of Destiny at that point was sandbox and they'd just gotten scripting into it. Most of the studio was working on both Halo ODST, and Halo Reach, as well as continuing support of Halo 3.

Firstly - the company itself. Nothing bothers me more than to hear things like "Bungie just want your money and don't care". I would say literally every single employee of that studio bust their *** to create a great game - not just for you, but for themselves, and care about what they're doing.

Related to that "Activision has ruined Bungie": That's crap. Bungie are their own studio, and have successfully remained strong. Some decisions are out of their hands (exclusives), but the game itself and what goes into it is absolutely Bungie's choice.

Yes, there's a contract, but anyone who has read it knows one very important thing already: Destiny was slated in that contract to be a 2013 release... Bungie weren't happy with where things were, and decided on a 2014 release.

In releases long past (Halo 3, for example), I'd play with my employee friends for a few weeks and then they'd simply never come back to the title - they'd been working on it for too long and were frankly tired.

In Destiny, 3 months on, I regularly play with the same employees I played with in the Alpha - they are still playing Destiny, and continue to refine their ideas. Since they're playing with us, they can have better conversations about what may or may not need to change. And believe me, they are very much aware.

Having worked there, and knowing the caliber of people working there, I absolutely trust that Destiny will continue to improve. Additionally, while there have been a few high profile departures, Jason Jones (JJ) remains the heart and soul of Bungie, and he's actively involved.

The core gameplay of Destiny is shooting things, and Destiny's mechanics surrounding that are very polished and killing things is very fun. The raids (bugs notwithstanding) have been incredibly fun content to clear.

The Bad

That being said, the game's story as we know it is weak. The lore is strong, but tied up in Grimoire cards (if you say the lore is weak, you NEED to read grimoire cards or posts like this (which sum up and/or cite the grimoire cards)). I'm sure Bungie are aware of that and are actively working on ways to improve the story being told as well as the storytelling within Destiny.

The Destiny we got was assuredly not the first game Bungie developed as Destiny. I've heard it told that there have been 5 or 6 "other games" created and scrapped to start over in the past 6 years. Features people questioned being absent (player customization, story) were likely present in those other iterations of Destiny.

The early 2013 footage was almost certainly another iteration as well. I've also heard that the Destiny which was released was developed over the course of a year. Since there are near 1000 employees and contractors at Bungie, it's certainly not inconceivable to release a quality title in that timeframe. The first Halo was essentially a 10 month development for the Xbox and done by a MUCH smaller team.

It's impressive to me that some of the features I enjoy the most, were actually very much at risk of not being included due to prioritization/allocation of resources (read also people to work on said features). Missions were apparently very last minute and tacked on - it's odd to me that apparently many people at Bungie were convinced we'd be replaying the story more than we'd be out exploring the world they created.

Guess it just shows that we're all human. Even those of us who really enjoy Destiny (I have 463 hours, 43 minutes, and 34 seconds of game time on the playstation) can acknowledge that there are some issues.

The Ugly Future

So I'm relatively certain that we will see improvements to story telling in the future as the game continues to evolve.

Before Destiny 2, I'm sure we'll have more DLC than just house of wolves. We will see game improvements (vault enlargement, for one) released without charge. I even believe (but don't know for certain) that we'll see content additions/improvements free of charge simply because Bungie really does care about we the players enjoying Destiny.

Story time
when I was working there I was part of a meeting about Saved Film rendering, and whether it was appropriate to charge players for something which should simply be provided to them. That's where the concept of Bungie Pro came from - and why everyone got "credits" towards rendering every month. People who work there passionately defend our wallets and unless there's been a massive culture shift - I'm certain that continues.

Bungie as a whole could communicate a bit better. That being said, the reason they won't is because in software development nothing is ready until it's done. It's not done until it's thoroughly tested. They cannot tell us "it'll be here in 2 weeks" unless it's already complete and waiting for deployment. Last minute issues can stop an entire patch if they're bad enough, and if you "promised" or communicated that something was coming and doesn't? You've lost your credibility.

For a while, I stubbornly insisted that Luke, and Max (Hoberman) did the job better. My stance today is that DeeJ is a tiny god among mortals.

Deej performs a thankless job. As community manager, he has the "pleasure" of listening to our feedback regardless of whether or not it's delivered politely. He goes out of his way to remind us that the way we feel is neither good nor bad - it simply is how we feel and he encourages us to feel however we feel and share it with him.

Yes, sometimes he has to deliver news to us that isn't what we want to hear, but at least he's here, reading this sub (and other, less-friendly places), and communicating to us what he's able.

TL;DR: Bungie are collectively aware that this game isn't what we, or they, want it to be... yet. My faith in the company comes from working there. It may take a while to hit stride, but I have complete confidence they will.

EDIT: since I'm saying it a lot elsewhere - there are other issues/opportunities within Destiny that trouble me. The lack of social tools don't bother me too much since I went into the game with my own set of friends, but acknowledge freely that in ensuring people aren't spammed by incessant babble (you know it's waiting for you in the tower fire team chat), there's not a lot of natural interaction aside from waves - and not a lot of motivation to interact with others unless you're seeking it. I also feel it should be addressed - but know it's going to be difficult. I truly hope that conversation is ongoing behind the scenes and will make a note to pry further.

With Matchmaking for raids not being a thing, I can only encourage everyone to keep making friends that you enjoy playing with and work towards getting your own raid group. While I've had some fun in LFG groups, the most fun I've had in Destiny by far is with my raid group - even when we've decided to just do crucible or Nightfalls.

Also, somewhere in this thread, I was "vouched for". I wrote this post to say what I said - I didn't do it for karma, notoriety, or because my gold ran out. Thank you for the front page, and for the gold, but it wasn't necessary. I only hoped to provide my own views for others to read.

I'm currently debating fully outing myself. My relative anonymity is my own, and while it makes things like "proof" of anything difficult, I'd like to think I've started to establish a track record of my own in this sub without having to provide proof of prior accomplishments/employers.

EDIT 2: While I wrote this for a myriad of reasons, it's worth noting that my personal opinion is such that some of our early feedback didn't come in time to greatly impact TDB, and our current feedback may not wholly influence the direction for HoW. I personally feel that what comes after HoW will be the best way to evaluate whether or not Destiny will be a long-term investment for you.

A game this size doesn't turn on a dime. There's a feedback loop which takes time to create changes in the content we play - some of which is developed as we dialog. Don't expect major changes for HoW based on something that we talk about, in, say February, or even right now.

The thing I simply can't look past in this game is the lack of content. Nothing in this game is honestly fun after the first few times except for possibly the raid. The entire game from start to finish excluding the raid is basically just running point A to B, with potential enemies in between, or defending your Ghost while it does something and you fight off waves of enemies.

The fact the entire game at this point has basically boiled down to Raids, Nightfalls, Weeklys, Heroics, Xur, and possibly Vanguard Roc, disappoints me greatly.

-Nightfalls and Weeklys are both a once a week thing that take a couple of hours, are boring, and hardly ever give anything good outside of the first few times you do it unless you're extremely lucky.

-Heroics and Vanguard Roc are rewarding, but they're both simply asking you to repeat the exact same things you've done over and over again. The Heroics are worse at this than anything, they recycle the same modifiers every single time, they aren't even random like the Nightfalls and Weeklys are.

-Xur is the only reliable way to get Exotics in the entire game and the worst case of RNG screwing players, which only pops up once a week for 48 hours and is tied to a ton of things. While not a piece of content it feels like one due to the fact I spend so much time simply waiting on him to pop up so I can finally get an Exotic. The fact the drop rates on Exotics via every other method is so low is exactly why I don't even care to try for them anymore outside of him.

-Raids are the best part of the game except for the fact we only have two. One is only useful for shards, energies, and primary weapons. The other is buggy, short, and in almost every way easier than the first was. The Raids are the best part of the game and yet they're such a small piece of content. If we had more content like this, that'd be one thing, but we simply don't. It's raid or bust when it comes to truly enjoyable content unless you enjoy the same old song and dance constantly.

At the end, I can't help but feel like they did cut things out. I know so many want to jump to the defense and say they didn't, they wouldn't, but the fact we've found so many areas locked behind doors that are entirely built? I can't accept that it wasn't just taken out for the sake of money unless I've some substantial evidence to support it. After all, we've enough evidence to support the opposite. Hidden areas, weapons and such in the game's files long before implementation, and the fact they've already done this in a sense through the PS exclusive content... It all leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and leaves me feeling as though I've been ripped off. The game's largest issue in my opinion is a lack of content and if they've ripped out content simply to stretch things out it's no exaggeration to say that very thing is what ruined the game for me.

Agreed, another reason why they shouldn't have bound themselves to a deadline. As my previous post explains, they only had a year on the current version of Destiny, and they only got missions done in the final weeks of development before the alpha.

Destiny is a passion project that was ruined by being on a strict deadline that they even extended to 2014.

Sadly Destiny needed more years to be what Bungie envisioned it to be.

so finally got destiny for PS3 GEN45X if you wave to me i will try and wave back

Its harder then i thought it would be, not sure if i will ever fully get used to the speed the enemys move at cause dang are they bloody fast. So far lvl 4 and just finished the second mission, man the wizard was a pain to kill with all the other fallen that kept coming at you. Only main thing i dont like so far is your limited on how you can change the controls. besides that its pretty fun :3

Just got this for my son today and after the 1st 25MB download file, it keeps saying ERROR: Expansion content appears to be damaged, please contact bungie.net for more info. Anyone know why this is? I've gone to their website and it doesn't tell me anything.

NVM, just found that they are having technical issues for both ps4 and ps3 and players are unable to connect to their servers. Ain't that a ***..

odd only issue i had was when i tried logging in for second time and it told me servers were down but tried again right after and it let me on, could be holiday traffic?

Party on, Wayne. Party on, Phogarth...

So far made it to lvl 10 tried a crucible run st 7, i learned my lesson to not go back there until i reach 25 and got way better gear xD. i tried the 3rd earth mission at 8 was not ready for the blitz rush at the end and it did not end pretty lol though probably gonna try again tonight.

just curious about the raids even though i am not ready for them i have a few questions if someone can awnser them would be much appreciated.

1. from what i saw destiny has a mic chat function?

2. so all i need to do is hook up a PS3 mic and it should auto set it up right?

3. what would be a good headset with mic to get for PS3 that does not cost a arm and a leg? xD

Sorry not the best typer and i make mistakes often e.e

I like your post it seems a good balanced view. I only hope they do improve communication aspects in game as having to use 3rd pt sites just to engage the community is disappointing. Also little things like xur only being up on a weekend irritates me. I have not played on the weekend now the last 3/4 times because of rl schedule. So I feel a bit punished in a way. Overall though I have enjoyed the game. It's easy to pick up and play which is great for me atm.

destiny sucks & so does bungie.

So just got this game the other day and was wondering something. Is there a difficulty for missions higher than "hard". Have done the first 5 missions on "hard" instead of "normal" and it seemed fairly easy. (Barely taken any damage at all, have yet to go into red health/broken shield/whatever)

Sure there are more enemies, and they are a little more aggressive but they still don't really hurt (if they can hit you at all), and they still do dumb ***.

Or are the early missions just easy regardless of the difficulty setting? Please tell me this game gets harder later on in a sense of "you have to fight this boss/mob exactly like this in order to beat it". Eg. little to no room for any errors.

There is a higher difficulty than "hard".You'll start seeing "very hard" soon. When you play "hard" their is a small change from "normal". On "hard" you'll face some more major/ultra enemies (enemies with yellow health), a slightly increase of enemies, and the enemies are a bit aggressive. In the early process of the game you should be able to beat everything on Earth on the "hard" difficulty. The next two worlds you'll encounter a slightly harder versions of Earth. As far as main bosses go um I don't think you'll have a problem with Earth, but once you start on the other worlds the bosses get difficult where you need to be at a certain spot. There are also moments where if you make a error you could possible die. But all in all you should be fine with the missions on hard until you reach the last world.

I play on....xbox.....

*Cries in her lonely corner*