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.

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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.

In the MMO shooter Destiny , there are now anonymous sources allegedly from the developers. They explain why the first story was so weak.

The website Kotaku claims to have spoken to 6 employees from Bungie, who wish to remain anonymous. Their statements explain why the story at release was so strangely weak.

The original story did not please the bosses, was too linear, was discarded

According to reports, Joe Staten, the “main writer”, and his team presented the entire story, cutscenes, and what they had up to that point in a two-hour “supercut” to the senior designers at Bungie in the summer of 2013. They simply did not like what they saw: too cheesy, too linear. And said: “Everything needs to go, we are starting over.”

While they kept the mythology, the alien races, and the Traveler, they decided to completely retell the “plot,” the framework of the story.

There are various statements regarding the story up to that point. One source says it was “confusing, esoteric nonsense,” another source mentions it contained “strong material.” Only the supercut did not account for that. Others state that the story by then had been changed so many times that it seemed like Frankenstein’s monster pieced together.

The important people at Bungie found the original story far too “linear.” During the first few missions, Guardians would have seen all the planets. This did not align with their visions. They parted ways with Staten under “not exactly friendly” circumstances and took matters into their own hands.

Osiris, the Stranger, and the Queen’s Brother

What happened next is unusual: They took the parts for which they had spent millions and reassembled them under time pressure without the support of the original writers. They combined two completely different missions into one. They made use of existing cutscenes and character models.

In doing so, they excluded or repurposed some of the characters.

• Osiris was originally intended to be a kind of “Obi Wan” mentor who would guide players on their journey, but was discarded – is currently only seen as “Trials of Osiris” in the game
• Osiris had an assistant, whose appearance was modeled into the “Stranger“
• Crow played a similar role as Cayde-6 as a daredevil who would lead the player to Osiris; this character was cut and the model was used as the brother of the Awakened Queen
• Rasputin had a larger role in the origin, appearing as an “Exo” that you had to save from the Hive, who had abducted him onto their coffin ship. Later it was revealed that the character was only a “puppet” for the Warmind
• Charlemagne (Charles the Great) another Warmind was completely discarded

Original authors were considered “outcasts”

This “redesign” of the existing parts into a new story was carried out by a small team with people like Luke Smith and Chris Barett, who last year received important roles in the development of the DLCs. This all occurred under time pressure, as the game had already been postponed twice.

The authors they had until then gradually left the studio. One source says they were considered “outcasts.” They rewrote the story without the authors.

While they were hastily reassembling the story without authors, they still thought that Destiny should be released in March 2014. When they achieved a delay to September 2014, they used the additional time and invested it in the gameplay of the game, not in the story.

The original story, before all these changes, was supposed to have a much stronger focus on the narrative. It would have had many more cutscenes at the beginning and end of each mission.

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Mein MMO believes: The insiders tell a story that seamlessly fits the puzzle we know so far. The separation from Staten has been known for a long time, and the two delays have recently been officially confirmed. And in interviews, Luke Smith admitted that they initially did not know where they wanted to go with the story, and that they could make important changes with the new authors in “The Taken King.”

The current sources, allegedly from Bungie employees, give the “known facts” a new spin. Many fans believed that Bungie had unnecessarily butchered a super story “under pressure from Activision.” They use concept art as evidence for their thesis that a lot was cut out.

If you believe the six employees here, the story was neither super nor was there pressure from Activision, but the original author team had gone astray, and the story disappointed the decision-makers at Bungie. Perhaps this is not as spectacular as a huge conspiracy theory, but it is quite plausible. Because such a drastic cut of “We’re starting from scratch with the story” certainly does not happen without reason.

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In a second article, we will address what the anonymous sources say about a possible future for Destiny and why the parallels between Destiny and Diablo 3 might be clearer than previously thought from the outside. Rumors about “free” DLCs are also circulating…

In the MMO shooter Destiny , Banshee-44 has new test weapons and rewards for players. What legendary weapons are available?

On Wednesday mornings at 11 AM (next week at 10), Banshee-44 has new toys for the Guardians in Destiny. We present to you what you need to carry this week and what new rewards are available.

At reputation level 2, you can get a legendary class weapon from Banshee, at reputation level 3 an exotic weapon just for your class, and at reputation level 5 a quest that leads to “The First Curse”.

Those who have gathered a bit of reputation with Banshee-44 can order a weapon today, which Banshee will then deliver next week in various versions.

These legendary weapons can be ordered

Clicking on the name of the weapons opens the corresponding page in the official database.

• Arminius-D, an automatic rifle by Häkke, low impact, large magazine, fast reload. Can be quite useful with perks like “Persistence” or “Spray and Play”, but generally not highly sought after.
• SUROS-Dis-43, a scout rifle from Suros, decent scout rifle, nothing special, can come with perks like “Perfect Balance”, Snapshot or Roulette, but you need to be lucky. Relatively decent range and impact, but there are strong alternatives among scout rifles.
• Judith-D, a hand cannon from Häkke, outstanding impact, terrible stability, a very interesting choice. The Judith-D can get perks like Snapshot or Zen Moment, and Spray and Play is possible as well, should definitely be checked out by friends of quality hand cannons.
• Uffern HC4, a hand cannon from Omnolon, with decent impact and stability. A balanced elegant weapon from Omnolon, can get Fireball and Roulette, absolute killer perks. Definitely an interesting and elegant choice!
• Lyudmila-D, an impulse rifle from Häkke, balanced stats, perks like Fully Automatic, Headseeker or Snapshot are possible. The Lydumilla is considered a strong, solid impulse rifle. Definitely worth taking.

With the two hand cannons or the impulse rifle, you can’t go wrong. Remember: You don’t have to redeem the weapon if you don’t like the perks next week; you can wait another week to see if they are stronger then.

These weapons from last week can be redeemed by you this week at Banshee and be sure to get strong perks.

These test weapons are available from Banshee-44

• Automatic rifle Häkke-4 – Kills on Fallen
• Automatic rifle SUROS TSA-10 – Precision kills
• Fusion rifle Omnolon TEST FR1 – Vex Minotaurs
• Hand cannon Häkke Test-A – Double kills
• Shotgun Häkke Test-A – Shark creatures

In the MMO shooter Destiny, a new exotic weapon was added with the patch yesterday: the Pulse Rifle No Time to Explain.

That was quick: The last remaining exotic weapon in Destiny, known by name, has been found. Last night with the new patch came also a follow-up quest for a small secret that could only be completed during a bonus mission. The current quest is quite strenuous, but at its end waits the “No Time to Explain.”

It is indeed as many thought: The “bonus things” in the mission “Paradox” must be completed, while the one is daily, only then you trigger the follow-up quest that became active today.

This quest is called “Not Forged in Light.”

For this quest, you must:

• First, hand in Praedyth’s Ghost (from the bonus mission Paradox) – You probably had to hand in the Ghost last time. It seems that at least one day must pass in between, It was the same with the Sleeper Simulant. Players who just completed the Paradox mission with the bonus objectives today will start the quest tomorrow.
• Join the Future War Cult
• Gather reputation for them (about 50 Light particles should suffice)
• Defeat a Major or Possessed Minotaur
• Disassemble its core
• Kill Atheon, the raid boss from “The Glass Vault”
• Find a chest in the mission “Twilight Gap”, which is actually a PvP map. You can only enter solo, you have to regularly cleanse yourself in Light until you find the chest
• And finally, in the mission in the Black Garden in Destiny, defeat the enemy “Groundskeeper” while its rage meter remains above 100. You achieve this by eliminating the smaller enemies, the Minotaurs, around him.

Here is a video guide in German on how to go through the individual steps. For much, you need a group.

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The “No Time to Explain” itself is a pulse rifle with kinetic damage. It is fully automatic, precision shots return to the magazine. It is very similar to the “The Stranger’s Rifle” from the first year of Destiny with further selection perks Soft Ballistics/Improved Ballistics/Targeting Adjustments and Quick Reload/Hand Loader/Custom Stock.