In Destiny, we take a look at cool concept art from the “Wrath of the Machine” raid. Including a rusty Vosik and a Captain playing guitar.
Last night, on 17.11, the Bungie livestream for “Wrath of the Machine” took place. The developers provided interesting insights into the creation of the raid, while six Guardians played the heroic mode in the background. Occasionally, some amusing concept arts were shown.
If you missed the stream: we summarize statements from Bungie that should interest not only hardcore Destiny fans. Additionally, we shamelessly took some screenshots during the stream to show you the early concepts.
Vosik – Phase 1
The first phase of the Vosik encounter should remind you of the beginning of the Glass Chamber: You need to defend three stations (in this case, three “turners”) before you gain access to the actual raid. The players should also encounter a raid boss immediately, so they know right away: “Whoa, it’s starting!”
In terms of difficulty, the first phase presents a kind of intro that is easy and fun. You can master this Vosik encounter with fewer Guardians, following the motto: “We’ll start, you can join us later.” In the early stages of development, this phase was significantly harder. However, Bungie opted for the fun version.
By the way: These turners, which produce the SIVA bombs, are indeed the “factories” of all SIVA grenades that the Splicers throw at you. That was the underlying thought behind these objects.
Here is an early concept of the starting area:
However, it didn’t look like the entrance to a heavy challenge, which is why it now looks as it does.
Vosik – Phase 2
Have you ever wondered why Vosik has full health again in Phase 2, even though he took devastating damage in the first phase? This question also arose for Bungie. The initial plan was to deduct 50% health per phase. However, it didn’t feel right in the final battle. Therefore, they decided that he would be back at full health. This step is justified by the fact that SIVA is a self-reproducing technology – and thus Vosik could regenerate.
This phase was also significantly harder a month before release. Overall, the entire raid was once much harder than it is now. After all, the focus should be on fun. The Guardians should not think: “Oh man, I have to struggle through this for another 5 hours.” Instead, teamwork and communication are the focus.
Here are two early concepts of Vosik. In the first one, he strongly resembles a rusty heap of scrap metal:
By the way: In Hard Mode, the doors are only slightly open for one reason: so that the Guardians can slide under them like in an action movie. It’s just supposed to look cool.
Siege Engine
With the Siege Engine, there was a funny concept art:
You see a simple siege engine – with a Captain on top! If you look closely, you see: This enemy is holding a guitar. He didn’t make it into the game in the end.
How the Hard Mode was supposed to look, there was supposedly a lot of discussion. For example, all the Outlaws were replaced with Captains, but that was way too hard. Jokingly someone suggested, why not just add a big Fallen tank, a Walker. And that’s how it turned out.
Aksis
The riddle of “Outbreak Prime” was initially supposed to be much more complicated, with long broken codes that could only be assembled through communication and complex calculations. However, the idea that solving it would require a math honors course was discarded.
The final boss Aksis was actually called Meksis for a long time – just like that enemy who now appears on the Siege Engine. In general, it is difficult to find suitable names. Aksis ultimately sounds more threatening than Meksis. That’s why Bungie decided on Aksis and against Meksis.
The design idea for Aksis was that he should be connected to his environment and control it. This can also be seen in the following concept:
In the second drawing, you can see that early on, the back was considered Aksis’ weakness:
Moreover, this is also the reason why the supercharge mechanic was introduced; there should be chaos during the final battle. The Guardians are not supposed to gather in one place and shoot at the boss, but spread around the room. They should communicate with each other.
Conclusion: In general, “Wrath of the Machine” is not intended to be a raid where you encounter bosses that you only have to deal immense damage to. The raid is designed as an activity that one would like to repeat, that is fun, that motivates.
What do you think of this information and concept arts?
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