Your latest changes have brought renewed life to this game, and I have thoroughly enjoyed revisiting it. I left right before Dark Below released because I was burned out and despised some of the changes made then. Despite that, HoW has me very excited. I applaud your efforts and understand the difficulty of game design balance so I acknowledge the need to patch the chest exploit. But here are a few scenarios I LOVED that maybe you should consider when making future tweaks.
[b]A Social Area on Patrol[/b]
The guardians on patrol now are like a bunch of starving, squirrely dreg hording nuts before winter’s scourge. It’s hilarious! Between loot events, I’ve seen many dance parties at Skywatch just like the tower, but of course, these aren’t six man teams. They’re strangers having a ball hanging out on patrol. I’ve never seen that until now, and it’s been fun doing the social thing [i]while[/i] shooting stuff. I fear that if you completely remove the exploit, people won’t hang out anymore. One less opportunity to make friends and form teams. Plus you can see if someone can actually aim before adding them.
[b]Unintentional Sparrow Racing[/b]
It’s fun to race against other people like swimming laps in a pool. I can tell if I’m gaining ground or learn from another person’s path. Of course there’s always hilarious mishaps too where someone gets stuck or flips over a corner or bump. I laugh… until it’s me. I know racing is not in focus, but this is a nice byproduct of the glitch.
[b]Map/Mission Strategy [/b]
Once you do manage to find the chest (and wave to people), you have to figure out what’s the best route to leave and come back or if you should bail and check in to a ticking public event. I like that it’s just one more open world decision to make as simple as it is.
[b]Streams of Chaos[/b]
Skywatch is fantastic when you get a Wolf Pack, then a public event, then a slight breather before another round of scorch cannons followed by an all out war between Fallen and Hive. That craziness is awesome, and I love that there’s now a scenario on patrol where I can get slaughtered if I’m alone. I was with a bunch of guardians racing to a loading point through the war, and some people died in the crossfire losing their ether keys. It was a different threat/challenge that was also fun and a bit dramatic. When there’s no incentive to race anywhere, we revert back to the vanilla “kill everything”. That’s not bad, but wouldn’t you like the option for a tight “racing through gunfire” scenario? There are a few small ones with the Vex/Cabal on Mars but the maps are too big and open for any of them to be threats. Skywatch has all sorts of obstacles that make it interesting to navigate, especially if it’s brimming with enemies like it often does.
We’re all just hoping to get a few Prison of Elder’s Keys even though we have no freaking idea what they’re for. Naturally, people hope to roll some jaw-dropping weapons, and you can’t blame us because of RNGesus and our own personal schedules. It’s a potentially unfair situation that some players have 10+ keys already (I have two), so I understand the desire to adjust things accordingly. I personally don't mind.
If these keys really are super valuable then maybe just reduce their chest drop rate or increase the amount of keys needed to retrieve a reward from 1 to 4. How about replacing the chest keys with currency for a new exotic bounty? I would prefer a solution that doesn’t reduce the ether timer because I like having a full 90 seconds of Sparrow sprinting with guardians spread across the map. I just plead with you to consider the positives when you address this glitch because there are certainly a few.
I’m excited for Destiny’s future and applaud your dynamic changes in response to the fans. Cheers.
P.S. The Scorch Cannons are a great addition. Some people complain about dps, but when you get a group of patient people who know how to use it, the resulting explosions are massive and fantastic! I was once in a situation where a trio of us had cannons and landed shots on the last servitor. Who cares about killing it quickly when you can do it with style? It was really cool to see three impaled rockets fully charge up and decimate its health.
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Edited by Dark Shaman 80: 5/18/2015 10:59:45 PMWell stated. I haven't gotten any keys and don't have time to farm like some do. I only get a couple of hours a day. So Bungie, here's my question for you. How is this fair for me when I have limited time to do anything? I depend on the 90 sec timer because that's my only chance to get a key, which I still have not gotten. That being said I have truly enjoyed racing and playing with other people again. I don't get a chance to raid.
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Its not new at all, just more useful.
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Deej confirmed theyre not patching it anytime soon.
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Most fun I've had with destiny in a long. Going against the public events + urzok + wolves all at once with 2 friends and randoms is a f*cking blast. Wish destiny was always like this.
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Well said only I wish there was a lot more crazy areas like skywatch throughout the destiny universe. Imagine going through an area on your sparrow solo and being too scared to get off for fear of hordes of enemies whoopin dat ass lol
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Myself and 2 friends hadn't played destiny in about 2-3 months. I get on to see about these House of Wolves pre events going on. After learning of the chest farming and the battles with the fallen I quickly called up my buddies and told them to dust of destiny and check this out. For hours and hours afterwards we ran around Venus hunting fallen and sparrow racing back and forth and calling out what we looted (and laughing when someone flipped over their sparrow) we literally played beyond all bed times(5 am work days, we are all in our 20's) and and put off "being social" because of the sheer amount of just random fun we were having. It was the best time playing destiny since The Beta/First VOG run. That says a lot in my opinion. Some people don't like this because it's an exploit and some people may burn out quickly by getting all end game content but that's okay. For now. Just have fun with your friends and randoms. It won't last forever, take advantage of the fun now while you still can.
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Agree even though there aren't supposed to be 6 people on a so called patrol it is actually fun now. If they patch it they should at least allow 6 man patrols
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We had a party of 8 randoms going at one point. Never once talked to them. We had a -blam!-ing blast and a half. Racing, having to say "let everybody hit the boss.... OK MELT THE BITCH!" and generally having a kick ass time with people I have never seen before or who I would have never met because I wouldn't have given a damn without the treasure hunt.
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Bump. 6 man patrol is amazing idea
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Well said, not gunna lie waiting in between events is a drag but I have time to do something else like eat haha. But that's my only gripe about the whole experience. Other then that I throughly enjoyed my time so far on patrol About what you were saying about the chaos. Had a fireteam of three last night at the ember caves and out of nowhere we get a walker and a pack of wolves. And we just so happened to be in the dead center. Long story short we were struggling trying to focus on the wolves with the walker hammering us. Eventually we got some back up from some randoms and finished them off. That was a the most fun I've had since the first time I'm ran a vog.
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Play it your way I'll play mine....freaking baby
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There should be pvp servers where you can fight on patrols, missions, ect.
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Genuine curiosity. Can someone explain to me how farming the chests is an exploit? The loot is randomized. Its obvious that they were meant to be constantly replayed i think.
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Edited by Roughneck: 5/19/2015 12:18:57 AMNothing against your post, I just want to make the prediction that they likely will not directly nerf the exploits. They'll likely just nerf the chests that the keys open. And they will undoubtedly reduce the engram drops when the DLC drops.
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Edited by Racebum: 5/18/2015 11:11:08 PMit takes on average 3-5hrs to get a key. you can power grind a character in that amount of time...well slightly longer and get a key running POE again. no reason to reduce rate, would make it much less attractive agree with your post though, it's a nice thing to see happen
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Bumped
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You should put this in feedback too man
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Skywatch is the -blam!-ing raid. The hive and fallen move on each other, Pack of wolves event, Uzrok the hated, and kill the target public event. All at the same time, I was actually panicking during a patrol... It's the best
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Could not agree more, well said
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I agree guardian. 👍👍👍
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Key info
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I actually got invited to a PSN party and the guy, along with the 6 other strangers, said "Skywatch dance party!" And we did just that until the next scorch captains came
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\______/ just here to collect tears, don't mind me
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Edited by CLipsAhoii: 5/19/2015 12:16:48 AMThe keys gave a discription if you didn't know
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Well said sir
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I agree with 99% of what you said OP. Except don't be salty because someone has more time to play than you. I have 1 key, I knocked out 10 hours on two systems and cheesed chests. If a player got 3 from one chest cheese I'm happy for them.