Destiny [PS3,X360,PS4,XO]

[goonergaz]

The pricing on this expansion seems messed up, I bought this on the US store (Guardian edition so $90) - now as I understand it they want $40 for the intital expansion pack, which doesn't seem so bad - but why the hell is the collectors edition giving away the oringinal game and DLC? Where's my 'thanks' for buying the game full price at launch? I have an option to buy it $15 cheaper without the DLC or pay the same price as a new player and essentially pay for stuff I already bought - WTH!?

 

[orangpelupa]

Year 1 player do get special stuff. You get a car, shader and something something.

Bungie also said that more stuff for year 1 players will be announced on bungie.net weekly update

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The pricing on this expansion seems messed up, I bought this on the US store (Guardian edition so $90) - now as I understand it they want $40 for the intital expansion pack, which doesn't seem so bad - but why the hell is the collectors edition giving away the oringinal game and DLC? Where's my 'thanks' for buying the game full price at launch? I have an option to buy it $15 cheaper without the DLC or pay the same price as a new player and essentially pay for stuff I already bought - WTH!?

What's the difference between buying a game and aload of DLC and buying the GOTY edition a year later at a lower price with all the upgrades? Or buying a console Day 1 without any bundled game versus someone buying it cheaper years later with 3 bundled games? I suppose the thinking here is you've had $90 of enjoyment from your investment already.

 

[BRiT]

The other bit I caught is the new edition includes 3 special emotes that you cant get anywhere else! So you need to spend the extra $ to get what brand new players get. Way to reward the faithful players, Bungie. The interview (GiantBomb?) with the bungie spokesperson was hilariously bad when talking to this point.

This just reaffirms my initial classification of this game.

 

[AlNom]

This just reaffirms my initial classification of this game.

It's not like Reach all over again?

Very peculiar SKU setup.

What's the difference between buying a game and aload of DLC and buying the GOTY edition a year later at a lower price with all the upgrades? Or buying a console Day 1 without any bundled game versus someone buying it cheaper years later with 3 bundled games? I suppose the thinking here is you've had $90 of enjoyment from your investment already.

It just seems a bit odd. Current owners will pay $40USD for the expansion, but if they want the CE stuff, it's an extra $40USD for the following:

• Three Class Specific Emotes
• Three Armor Shaders
• Three Exotic Class Items with XP Bonuses

The digital CE is priced the same as the retail CE, but the retail CE also includes a bunch of physical collector's items.

:s

 

[goonergaz]

What's the difference between buying a game and aload of DLC and buying the GOTY edition a year later at a lower price with all the upgrades? Or buying a console Day 1 without any bundled game versus someone buying it cheaper years later with 3 bundled games? I suppose the thinking here is you've had $90 of enjoyment from your investment already.

As AlNets said, essentially there's a $15 thanks for buying the standard edition but a kick in the teeth if I buy the CE edition.

 

[BRiT]

Here's the interview I was thinking of previously. It's from EuroGamer. It was painful to read just how full of it Bungie seems to be: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-king-director-defends-40-expansion-price-tag

----
Eurogamer: I get that it is big but it is also the same price as the base game. That had four areas rather than one and more missions than the Taken King. Why is it the same price?

Luke Smith: All I can do is answer that with the same thing I just gave you... We're really comfortable with the value we're giving to players this autumn. I believe that once we begin to share more, players will be even more excited. And for existing players it also comes with the Founder's pack with a new Sparrow, shader and emblem.

Oryx, father of Crota. He isn't too pleased with you.

Eurogamer: Just not the emotes.

Luke Smith: It doesn't because they come with the Collector's Edition.

Eurogamer: Final question on prices -

Luke Smith: Is it also the final question on the emotes?

Eurogamer: I'm not going to mention them again. I can't get them.

Luke Smith: But you can if you buy the Collector's Edition.

Eurogamer: I'm not going to buy the game and the two DLCs all over again.

Luke Smith: Okay, but first I want to poke at you on this a little bit.

Eurogamer: Poke at me?

Luke Smith: You're feeling anxious because you want this exclusive content but you don't know yet how much you want it. The notion of spending this money is making you anxious, I can see it -

Eurogamer: I do want them. I would buy them -

Luke Smith: If I fired up a video right now and showed you the emotes you would throw money at the screen.
---

 

[Rangers]

Ehh, it's probably more Luke Smith. I remember listening to him many hours from 1up podcast golden age (Luke, Shane, Garnett, and John Davison) (it's funny to see him making it"big" now), he's a bit of an ass I guess you'd say, he's definitely very sophisticated in the ways of the internet and up to something one way or another, I cant imagine he was just trying to be straight obvious greedy sounding, but then again maybe he was. But I love Destiny so sometimes I wonder if he's partly responsible for how good the game is, or not really.

Also there's a good contingent on reddit who think it's basically Luke/Bungie's way of trying to say our hands are tied by Activision. Activision being the bad guy which is reasonable.

Anyways I usually think 90% of "pro consumer" movements in video games are baloney (the whole idea that DLC is bad being front and center of the stupidity), so I'll generally try to side with the corporation most times out of principle. Here though, I'm a little perturbed, just because what's funny is dance emotes are just, really valuable, hah. Seriously, people love their dumb dancing.

Deej said year one players will get something way better than the CE stuff. I think that may just be the ship/shader/emblem/sparrow or whatever it was, which frankly is not as good as the emotes probably.

There's also this:

Three Exotic Class Items with XP Bonuses

Now, this could be a big deal but I'm not sure how they're structured. What I understood is other MMORPGS like WOW will give out items like this with purchase of new expansions as a way for new players to catch up. Because MMO's must always be sure not to put too many barriers from brand new players reaching endgame. So it makes sense that way and shouldn't be desired by current players in that case. But only IF it's structured a certain way, to help you fly through the lower levels and catch up. But in that case it should stop working at level 20, or whatever. It shouldn't be a continuing bonus.

Basically:

-if the class items with Xp bonuses are only for reaching end game and then cease working, they aren't desirable to current players

-However, if they are permanent bonuses, then they are desirable to current/endgame players (in fact this would be kind of a big deal, so I cant imagine it)

Although even in the first case, they could be desirable for rapidly leveling any new alts should you choose, again just depending in how they really work.

 

[NRP]

Luke Smith is a douche nozzle. I'd imagine his only contribution is making Destiny a frustrating grind. His only real claim to fame is being a goddamn egomaniac game reviewer after all. Bungie was making cool, fun game play long before that diaper stain showed up.

 

[Scott_Arm]

That expansion had better be damned good for $40. The DLC was garbage. The base game was worth the asking price, but the season pass was not. Not confident in this expansion at all. It has sub-classes, a new area and new enemies, which is what I was expecting from the dlc. In theory, it could be better, but Bungie has to really earn my dollars. There had better be significant hours in the campaign and a lot of replayability.

 

[shredenvain]

That expansion had better be damned good for $40. The DLC was garbage. The base game was worth the asking price, but the season pass was not. Not confident in this expansion at all. It has sub-classes, a new area and new enemies, which is what I was expecting from the dlc. In theory, it could be better, but Bungie has to really earn my dollars. There had better be significant hours in the campaign and a lot of replayability.

Yeah one thing people seem to think is that year one weapons will be phased out so all the work done grinding to upgrade and ascend raid weapons would be for not.

 

[Rangers]

Yeah one thing people seem to think is that year one weapons will be phased out so all the work done grinding to upgrade and ascend raid weapons would be for not.

Grinding to ascend isn't too bad now imo, what else are you going to do with Etheric light? which you basically get just for playing the endgame content anyway.

I dont know, I guess because I already have almost everything I could really want leveled, I have found the grind in HoW not nearly as grueling as it was in TDB. The more annoying grind is filling out the perks IMO, but there are not many new weapons I need to do this for since usually my old stuff is better. And when I do have to do it it feels exciting since I'm excited for whatever I'm leveling, it's actually a relevant weapon.

As Datto has complained, not phasing out old weapons presents it's own drawbacks, it basically means you're not excited for new expansion guns. And only being able to get excited once a year for loot in a loot game is not good. It's not too bad to upgrade legendaries anyway IMO.

I think maybe something like reducing the XP required to fully level out gear by 20% or something like that might be a good change, it might be a tad too grindy currently imo. Just the fact a lot of guns/armor simply drop at 365 really reduced the impact of grinding to begin with. Now it's much more fun because you're just getting cherry on top perks, rather than feeling the gun/armor is wimpy until upgraded.

 

[Rangers]

That expansion had better be damned good for $40. The DLC was garbage. The base game was worth the asking price, but the season pass was not. Not confident in this expansion at all. It has sub-classes, a new area and new enemies, which is what I was expecting from the dlc. In theory, it could be better, but Bungie has to really earn my dollars. There had better be significant hours in the campaign and a lot of replayability.

I would say if you really have to ask if you should buy the expansion by now Destiny is not for you. So dont come back complaining after you buy it

 

[Rangers]

Luke Smith is a douche nozzle. I'd imagine his only contribution is making Destiny a frustrating grind. His only real claim to fame is being a goddamn egomaniac game reviewer after all. Bungie was making cool, fun game play long before that diaper stain showed up.

People say he designed Vault of Glass though, which is like on a pedestal for Destiny content by many players.

Myself I have doubt any one person is really "responsible" for something in the game. I also dont love VoG as much as I used too, I probably like POE better currently, despite it being fashionable to bash POE nowdays.

I never got the feeling from his podcast days that he was some super brilliant guy either.

He's likely just one somewhat irrelevant cog in a big machine.

 

[shredenvain]

Grinding to ascend isn't too bad now imo, what else are you going to do with Etheric light? which you basically get just for playing the endgame content anyway.

I dont know, I guess because I already have almost everything I could really want leveled, I have found the grind in HoW not nearly as grueling as it was in TDB. The more annoying grind is filling out the perks IMO, but there are not many new weapons I need to do this for since usually my old stuff is better. And when I do have to do it it feels exciting since I'm excited for whatever I'm leveling, it's actually a relevant weapon.

As Datto has complained, not phasing out old weapons presents it's own drawbacks, it basically means you're not excited for new expansion guns. And only being able to get excited once a year for loot in a loot game is not good. It's not too bad to upgrade legendaries anyway IMO.

I think maybe something like reducing the XP required to fully level out gear by 20% or something like that might be a good change, it might be a tad too grindy currently imo. Just the fact a lot of guns/armor simply drop at 365 really reduced the impact of grinding to begin with. Now it's much more fun because you're just getting cherry on top perks, rather than feeling the gun/armor is wimpy until upgraded.

The grind isn't bad at all with House of Wolves. My problem is if they don't allow you to ascend your fatebringer or Fang of ir yut after the taken king drops. It would mean that the work put in to vault of glass and Crota as well as PoE to get your gun to 365 would have been a giant waste of time. Also think about it. If these raid weapons are taken away or even not allowed to be ascended then what will that do to the Vault and Crota? A lot of players have gone back to VoG to get fatebringer and Found Verdict and so on. There are a lot of people playing VoG regularly because of the ability to ascend the loot. So let's say the taken king comes out. A player preorders the $80 collectors edition and Bungie comes out a week before and says all VoG and Crota weapons are phased out. This player just purchased two DLCs either for the first time or even the second and now the major content aka Raids have been made completely irrelevant.

 

[shredenvain]

The loot problem that Datto is referring to stems from the poor decisions Bungie made with the weapons and the perks from HoW.

Removing field scout was a mistake as well aw firefly from snipers.
The weapons that drop from Skolas with elemental burns are weaker than any raid weapons before. On top of that they are missing an entire perk that you get from vendor weapons. The perks are replaced with Fallen themed burns.
Which in itself isn't bad, but compared to all the perks of past raid gear there a joke. Even the vendor and crucible legendary weapons are a joke. Bungie doesn't need to take away any raid weapons. They need to actually put some work into the new weapons and make them unique enough that we want to use them over fatebringer and VoC. The only good elemental primaries that drop in HoW come from going 9-0 in trials and even then they have perks geared at the crucible.
Who the hell needs arc burn in the blaming crucible?

 

[Rangers]

Ok game stuff nobody cares about:

One longstanding goal I have is to acquire legendary rocket launchers of each element with tracking, for PVE. I've never really had these and always wanted them, for when you are carrying another non-heavy exotic and want a RL. Of course I had them but they didn't have tracking in the past.

Well with reforging I've already been able to get two. I have a solar and void legendary with tracking. The problem is they are both one in the tube. Which is probably theoretically compensated by having a large blast radius. The best would be tripod and tracking, but running the numbers AND getting the correct element, the numbers get high. If I'm calculating right. Tracking is 1/6 possibility for that perk slot, and tripod is also 1/6, so I think tripod and tracking together is a 1/36 chance. Which is already like ~100 weapon parts on average (and I have around 60 WP's right now). But then throw in a 1/3 chance at being the correct element (well, first doesn't matter, second is a 2/3 chance, third is a 1/3). For the third element you're looking a 1/108 chance of getting that roll, which is over 300 weapon parts!

So I've decided to hell with trying to get BOTH tripod and tracking LOL. I will just take what I get in the tripod slot. My void is actually spray and play which is fast reload when the mag is empty. This works out nicely on a one shot RL.

So that's why I started doing crucible, I'm going to buy the dead orbit launcher that holds two shells, and reroll it until I get tracking and arc, which will only be something like 1/18 chance. I just need the 150 marks.

Legendary Rocket Launchers imo are kinda underpowered though. In POE 35 they will literally not even take the shield off a captain if they're not arc (might have even been 34). It's quite sad. They only do around 3k damage and then a secondary (blast?) of around 900 (maybe the reverse). Whereas Black Hammer will hit for like 3200 on a boss, which is almost as much. That doesn't seem right to me. I guess with the RL you're getting the area effect too is the idea, but still.

Also, I really like Queenbreakers Bow, after being not that jazzed to get it. It's just fun and unique and awesome, regardless even if it's effective. I'm not sure where it would be good, maybe in POE 35? Crucible? But 81 shots on a sniper-esque is incredible.

 

[Rangers]

The grind isn't bad at all with House of Wolves. My problem is if they don't allow you to ascend your fatebringer or Fang of ir yut after the taken king drops. It would mean that the work put in to vault of glass and Crota as well as PoE to get your gun to 365 would have been a giant waste of time. Also think about it. If these raid weapons are taken away or even not allowed to be ascended then what will that do to the Vault and Crota? A lot of players have gone back to VoG to get fatebringer and Found Verdict and so on. There are a lot of people playing VoG regularly because of the ability to ascend the loot. So let's say the taken king comes out. A player preorders the $80 collectors edition and Bungie comes out a week before and says all VoG and Crota weapons are phased out. This player just purchased two DLCs either for the first time or even the second and now the major content aka Raids have been made completely irrelevant.

VoG and Crota have not ever been irrelevant yet though, each time they remained relevant. VoG was relevant in TDB endgame at the least as the best way to get ascendant energy. Then even at 300 many people wanted Fatebringer etc also keeping it somewhat relevant. Now that you can ascend any gear to the cap, in a way it made VoG and Crota evergreen because you might go back to them for certain weapons or armor. Like Black Hammer is one of the best guns in the game and you can only get it from Crota.

So if they kept the past raids somewhat relevant throughout why wouldn't they figure out how to do it again?

Bungie wont phase out old weapons, at worst they'll just make a new higher cap they cant go to. So it's not like your old stuff will become worthless, just maybe not ideal. But on the positive, side, now you will be able to get excited for new gear again.

I dont know how they'll handle it, should be interesting. What if they allowed you to ascend just some arbitrary limited number of pre-TTK gear in TTK? Like, 4, or something? I dont know...

At the end of the day grinding is the lifeblood of the game though, so it cant ever go away.

 

[Rangers]

The loot problem that Datto is referring to stems from the poor decisions Bungie made with the weapons and the perks from HoW.

Removing field scout was a mistake as well aw firefly from snipers.
The weapons that drop from Skolas with elemental burns are weaker than any raid weapons before. On top of that they are missing an entire perk that you get from vendor weapons. The perks are replaced with Fallen themed burns.
Which in itself isn't bad, but compared to all the perks of past raid gear there a joke. Even the vendor and crucible legendary weapons are a joke. Bungie doesn't need to take away any raid weapons. They need to actually put some work into the new weapons and make them unique enough that we want to use them over fatebringer and VoC. The only good elemental primaries that drop in HoW come from going 9-0 in trials and even then they have perks geared at the crucible.
Who the hell needs arc burn in the blaming crucible?

But this is what the community wanted. They complained bitterly and loudly because they lost the grind investment in old guns in TDB.

It's important to understand Bungie just gave players what they said they wanted. The players just aren't always smart enough to understand the repercussions even when they should be obvious. It should have been obvious Fatebringer and Gjallahorn are going to trump anything new that comes along. I was posting about that problem months ago. The only solution is "here's you new hand cannon thats even better than Fatebringer!". Except then if you keep moving the bar up PVE balance is gone, that is untenable.

And yeah, Bungie does seem to be nerfing new guns you are right. It could be that was before they decided to allow ascending old gear. But it's obviously for balance reasons, Bungie must think Field Scout for example was overpowered in a sense.

It's kind of weird in many ways things are way overpowered, the burns, Gjallahorn, reforging allowing the best perks on every gun (now that I think about it that's probably exactly why Bungie is nerfing these perks), Felwinters Lie, Thorn...yet OTOH Bungie appears to be trying to sneak nerf many classes of weapons.

 

[orangpelupa]

sweet moves that probably come with TKK

or at least i hoped...

about new weapon sux. they are sux simply because they dont have element. I keep getting new HoW weapons and i mindlessly sharded them. they only do kinetic damage. what its useful for...