In the MMO shooter Destiny anonymous sources provide insight into the inner workings of the massive shooter. What does this mean for the future?
Kotaku has spoken with six sources who can allegedly provide deep insights into the development and evolution of Destiny. Yesterday, we reported on the time until the release of Destiny and found explanations for why the story was so weak. But there are also many insights regarding the time after the release.
When Bungie separated from the main story, it had an impact on the entire plan for how to further develop Destiny. And it seems likely that we will see some of the “ideas” that Bungie had back then and wanted to develop in the future of Destiny.
Disillusionment after the release – but the work had already begun
But in order: Bungie was quite disillusioned by the press reaction to the base game of Destiny. That they only landed at a mediocre 70 on Metacritic and thus missed out on a “substantial” bonus hurt the studio. Internally, they had expected a 90. But early on, Bungie noticed the weaknesses of the game and attuned themselves to player feedback, drawing consequences from it.
According to sources, after the “vanilla game” was released, the planned DLCs were “rebooted.” So they had to finish “Darkness Awaits” in just 9 weeks, as one source recounts.
Diablo 3 – an important turning point
In December 2014, the director of Diablo 3 came with some colleagues and gave a talk at Bungie that was described as “very inspiring”. There were many parallels between both games. Diablo 3 had also launched under difficult circumstances, had faced much criticism from fans, and then regained the trust of fans with the expansion “Reaper of Souls”.
The Diablo 3 team advised the Destiny developers that they must let players dictate their fate, and not rely too much on “chance”. While they could use the illusion of randomness, it had to be weighted “in favor of” the players. Another piece of advice from the Diablo team was to ensure that when players stopped playing a game, and they would inevitably do so, they left it with a good impression.
Between the lines, it is hinted that publisher Activision organized this visit from Diablo 3 to Bungie, hoping that Destiny could rehabilitate itself in the eyes of fans as Diablo 3 had.
Comet – what would later become “The Taken King”
The next major expansion of Destiny was then planned as “Comet” and intended as a $60 expansion for September 2015. Bungie also “rebooted” this again, even before vanilla Destiny was released. The original concept for Comet still relied on the “original story”, from which they had separated, and which already included locations like the Tomb Ship.
Actually, a new planet, “Europa” was planned for Comet, and they wanted to bring the “European Dead Zone”. They also wanted to develop a feature where “multiple fire teams” would be active at the same time, so about an activity where three teams cooperated together. One source explained the mode as follows: Imagine, we are both in a fire team and fighting along a path, and at an intersection, other teams join us, and we fight together against a boss or a wave of enemies.
But none of that came to be.
As early as March 2014, they “rebooted” Comet and wanted to set it in the Tomb Ship (which they had cut from the vanilla game, actually, the Rasputin storyline was meant to take place there) In addition to the Tomb Ship, “Comet” was supposed to include another location on Mars with Strikes and Raids. However, during development, they then only focused on the Tomb Ship and cut Mars.
This part, the Mars part, is now being developed by the High Moon Studios for Destiny 2 in September 2016.
Great difficulties with the tools
A significant difficulty with Destiny is described as the cumbersome tools that developers work with.
If a developer wants to make a small change to a map, like moving a resource node two meters, he has to load the map overnight, which takes eight hours. If everything goes well, the next day the developer comes into the office, opens the map (20 minutes), moves the resource node (half a second), and then has to compile everything again (20 minutes).
Even though the tools are powerful and make Destiny a great-looking game, working with the engine to develop new missions and maps is extremely tedious.
No more 20 Euro DLCs?
The difficulties in the first year of developing two “20 Euro” DLCs and the first expansion “The Taken King” led Bungie to propose to Activision to change their approach. They would rather make one big release a year and skip the smaller 20 Euro DLCs: The idea would be to release a new Destiny title in “even years” and a “Comet title” (i.e., a major expansion) in odd years.
They want to finance the loss of DLC revenue through “cosmetic items” in the Tower. They aim to keep players engaged with drip-fed game content in the months leading up to Destiny 2.
Many answers, even more questions
Mein MMO says: It is important to mention again that none of this is official. However, much seems to make sense and explains surprises. “The European Dead Zone” suddenly appeared as a PvP map, Widow’s Court. Players were surprised to suddenly see a new, well-designed location “out of nowhere”. It is quite conceivable that they recycled the components for it from the time it was planned for Comet.
What the new “planet” Europa was supposed to look like is, however, a mystery: Europa is a moon. Perhaps they have already recycled that, the Cabal base from the first mission “The Taken King” also takes place in a new environment, on Phobos, which is also a moon. Whether Europa will come back and how it fits into the new story is hard to say.
In contrast, the “Mars” seems to be a very logical next major area. With Mars and Cabal, there has been too little so far. Unlike the Vex (vanilla), the Fallen (House of Wolves), and the Hive (Darkness Awaits, The Taken King), they have not yet had a proper appearance.
It is reasonable to assume that there will soon be further developments with Mars and the Cabal. The “restructuring” of the story and the many shifts of game content are likely responsible for the extremely resource-thin first year. The decision to rewrite the story led to the need to redistribute planned elements: The Cabal and Mars were neglected here.
The information about the “drip-feeding content” is interesting. Because even though Bungie pushed the limits in the first year to design two DLCs and the expansion, fans expect at least as much, if not more, for year 2. If the current tools are really that cumbersome, alarm bells should be ringing for players.
How will Destiny bridge the gap until September 2016 and the next full-price title?
Perhaps the collaboration with High Moon Studios, which is officially confirmed, will provide some relief.
How exactly they plan to keep players engaged with Destiny for a year without paid DLCs is surely the big question of the coming months. At the moment, at least something new happens every week. But the “Taken King” surprises are likely coming to an end: the last “secret” weapons have been found.
Admittedly: They still have the hard mode of the raid, 9 exotic armor pieces and the Trials of Osiris up their sleeves. But by 2016 at the latest, players will be calling for new game content.
Currently, there is still no data or fixed dates on how game content will continue in the coming months. Except for the distant “Destiny 2 in September 2016.” Bungie urgently needs to fill that time with substantial content.
The doubt about whether they will succeed has grown with this new information.
