Destiny Questions

I figured we could just use this for any question anyone has about the game. Of any kind, instead of making a bunch of topics or asking in random topics.

I'll start.

The vanguard points you earn, are those not also currency? In shops it shows that logo for me with a 0. But I've earned 280 vanguard points. Do you only gets points to spend after you reach level 1 or something?

Those are Vanguard rep points not Vanguard Marks which are the currency, you get marks from high level bounties and strikes (maybe raids too).

So rep is for leveling only. Okay that makes sense. How do you earn marks?

Is there any splitscreen in this game? None of the preview coverage made it seem like there is, but Halo has been the last holdout for a while and I was kind of hoping that would translate to Destiny.

No, unfortunately not. Splitscreen is dead.

Going from the Tower to Orbit, I know the screen says press the options button then hold triangle to get back to orbit, but when I do nothing happens. Am I missing something?

Not the options button, the touchpad. You bring up Ghost and then hold Triangle. Same thing to bring out your speeder bike but Square instead.

You have to hold it for like 3-5 seconds. It takes a bit. There should be a progress circle around the triangle icon.

I completely forgot the touchpad, thanks for the help.

Bungie has made some statements that there is a single player in this game. But is it truly a single player game or is there always other players running around?

Always other players (except for specific instanced zones).

It is single-player in the sense that all of the story content can be completed without PS+ and/or without interacting with anyone else. There are also instanced story zones which will never have random people running around.

@sterling: Do the weapons get better sounds ... all I hear is lame ass pew pew and not cool sounding boom boom ?

Rocket launchers make booms but other than that not really. They all sound like future guns (which I think sound rad).

You start earning marks after hitting 18 and you get them as rewards for doing "strikes" and some bounty quests.

@corruptedevil: Bummer ... :( I dont like lazery/future sounds much , guess wont try the game in the end.

If you don't like future sounds this game certainly isn't for you. It's ALL about that shit.

I have Destiny for the PS4. When I first inserted the disc, it started to install just like it always does. It was done in about a minute or so, which is also completely normal. Then, after I started the game, it said "Transferring Game Content" (or something very similar) and proceeded to download another 15GB or so of data. I figured this was the norm, but my friend has it for Xbox 360, and he didn't have to download anything except for the day 1 patch. Is the extra download something unique to the PS4, or perhaps the next gen systems, or maybe just the PS4 and PS3? I'm a little worried that something went wrong with the installation from the disc, so it download the data instead.

It's probably fine, and unless you have a strict download cap it doesn't really matter does it?

@corruptedevil: Probably fine is kind of the problem. My download cap isn't strict at all, but that's not the point. If I had to download it and someone else didn't, that tells me there's something wrong with either my install or theirs. At least if it was on the same system.

@tyrrael Everyone I know bought it digitally so I have no clue what the install process is. Just wait and see.

I can't store any items in the Vault.

I played the Beta and I never had any issues when I tried to store my items. I go to my vault (Access Vault) and I go to my inventory to store an item. I hover over an item (X to Store), click X, and the item glows red and I get an alert sound to indicate that I can't do it. It does this for every item/weapon/emblem/etc.

Why can't I store my items? I'm currently level 6 if that helps with anything.

It was installing it off the disc, not downloading it. Like all PS4/One games, the initial install you see in the dashboard is just enough to launch the game, then it installs the rest of the actual game content once you launch the game. Some games can actually start while the installation happens in the background so you don't normally notice it, but Destiny is not one of those games. As far as your friend's 360 version, 360/PS3 games run off the disc, not the hard drive, so there's no install to be done.

Should I go pick it up tomorrow with Xbox Live

How do I tell which missions I've done from the map screen? Sometimes the missions are so similar that I can't remember which ones I've done, and the map has all these different icons, some are blinking, some are highlighted...I have no idea which ones I've done...

I go by level, each mission is 1 level higher than the last generally.

If you haven't done a mission it has the highlight of the icon and an ! in the upper left corner of the icon. If it doesn't have that, then you've played that mission.

Very helpful, thank you.

Another way to tell, is if you select it, and it doesn't show you a reward. Replayed missions don't offer a reward. Just remembered that.

Ah. These are the kinds of things they used to print in instruction manuals. Thanks again.

Wow I am incredibly stupid. This whole time I've been pressing "X" by pressing the square button. Never bothered to look down at my damn PS4 controller. Why was I pressing the square button? It's in the same position as the "X" on the 360 controller, which I've used for over 6 years (last Playstation was PS2). Crisis averted.

That's hilarious (especially to my sleep deprived brain).

First, you can install 360 games onto the hard drive. It's been that way for quite a while. Some PS3 games allow you to do it too, although I'm not sure about this one.

Second, it normally only takes a couple of minutes to install other games that are considerably larger than this one. Killzone, if I'm remembering correctly was around 50GB and took less time than this one did, and it's only 21 (or at least my install is). It didn't take a ridiculous amount of time (maybe 10 minutes-ish for Destiny), but that's a lot longer than the two minutes or less it normally takes for much larger installs. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it just seems really unusual that it just didn't install the game like it normally does and not force you to launch the game before it continues to install the rest.

Finally, I just want to make sure I'm clear. When I first inserted the game, like I said before, it took maybe a minute or so to install. Then I launched the game. After that, it said "Transferring Game Content", and then proceeded with doing something (either download or install), the rest of the game. It did start at about 25% when it got to the Transferring Game Content part after I launched the game. It makes sense that it was installing, I guess. I'm just wondering. Do you have the PS4 version and have this happen to you, or are you just speculating?

Anyone have an idea what the difference between the two story mission icons mean?

@probablytuna: my understanding is the bigger icon with the fancy symbol is a boss type mission. rather than a standard "go here press button and kill everything" it's "go here press button and kill everything until we give you the boss". but i'm sure others will have more informative descriptions.

Your install is fine and ran just as it was intended to.

I have a PS4 myself and I went through the exact same experience.

Believe us, it was simply installing the rest of the game from the disc. I was up and running in about 10 minutes and I certainly don't have the bandwidth to download 15GB in that timeframe.

Is it a crappy first run experience? Yes. We've become conditioned to expect the game to run once the game is ready to launch. This is the only title (to my knowledge) that doesn't follow that pattern. In fact I found it annoying enough that I tool a photo of it and had a little moan on Twitter. Is it a problem and will it affect your playing of the game? No.

Hopefully the knowledge that at least one other person had your exact experience will give you a little peace of mind.

I guess my explanation wasn't adequate, so I'll try again and directly address everything you said.

1. Yes, I know 360 games can be installed, but it's not mandatory. Any 360 game (aside from GTA V I believe) can be played directly off the disc with no install necessary, it's simply optional if you wish to improve load times and keep the disc drive quiet. PS4 and Xbox One games require every game to be installed in order to play, no games on these console ever plays off the disc.
   
   
2. While it is true that many games appear to install very quickly given the massive size, this is just clever misdirection on the part of the developers. Many games (Killzone included) actually allow to play while the data is still being installed on the hard drive. It installs as little as possible to allow you to start the game and play the beginning of the campaign and installs the rest in the background while you play. The full install takes much longer than 2 or even 10 minutes, you just happen to playing the game already during most of that time. Other games are unable to do this as seamlessly. If you saw Giant Bomb's launch day live streams on the day, games like NBA 2K14 would start but then limit play, in that instance only two teams were available on a single stadium with no commentary while the rest of the game data was loaded.
   
   
3. Yes, I understand that when you insert the disc the game shows install progress on the PS4 menu which appears to go very quickly, but this is not the full install. As is the case with pretty much every PS4 game, this is simply the amount of data required to start the game. In the case of Destiny starting teh game simply means getting to a menu while the rest of the data installs. The progress bar is never representative of a full install, only the minimum to launch the game. Like I said before many games manage their data and installation procedures in such a way as to allow you to play after only the minimum install, but Destiny does not. As for what makes Destiny different than Killzone as to not allow you to play with a partial install, my guess would be the fact that the opening area is quite large and not realistic to have installed and playable in a significantly shorter time than the full game install as to make much difference. Also, just to be clear, you didn't have to launch the game to finish the install. The reason it started at 25% is because it was installing before you launched it. If you had put your disc in and walked away for 20 minutes you would have never even seen that install screen upon launching the game.
   
   
4. Yes I have Destiny on PS4 and yes it installed exactly like yours did, that is how the game is installed for everyone. I don't know how many PS4 games you have, but it is not uncommon for games to be installed in this manner. As I said some games are able to install while you play so you never notice it, but many others aren't structured in a such a way as to make that a viable solution to the "every game must be installed" problem.

You can play this game co-op on the PS3 without PS+. Even with another person who DOES have PS+.

Not sue about PvP, though.

Are there challenging encounters that require strategy and precision like Halo on Heroic/Legendary? The gunplay in the quicklook seemed shallower than Borderlands.

It only needs PS+ for anything associated with matchmaking, so the bigger raids and pvp, co-op is free on both PS4 and PS3 for the majority of stuff.

I know that White items are Common, Green is Uncommon, and Blue items are rare. How many other levels of rarity are there and what colors represent them?

@smtdante89: In addition to what you listed, there's also purple legendary gear and gold exotic gear.

Anyone an idea if the droprates will improve later on? I'm level 10 right now and found 4 green items and a bunch of whites (excluding the mission rewards, talking about random drops). I kind of like the rarity of item drops, but it might be a bit too much.

@bubsy64: There are big boss fights which require strategy and precision. Running in blindly with your fireteam will get you killed. For example, in the first strike, theres a spider tank. You can shoot it anywhere, but if you shoot it in the legs (I believe), you can make it go down and expose its weak spot. While this is going on, waves of enemies are spawning and the tank is firing some pretty damn powerful attacks at you. There are bosses during story missions too which require a bit of strategy. IMO, this is where the game is at its best.

Is there any way to change your appearance after completing character creation?

The character creator has a massive flaw in that you can't zoom in or out and you can't spin the character around to see what they look like from different angles. I ended up not liking my first character's looks once I was in the game proper, and not seeing a way to change it I just started over with a new one which was some bullshit.

I got my first blue in the crusible at lvl 12 (it's about twice as good as any other chest plate in my inventory). Maybe had 10 greens before then. It seems you have about 1/3 chance of an uncommon or higher drop in the crusible for each match (finishing in the first few might help with the drop rate too). I think it's the best way to earn gear aside from your first time through certain missions and strikes.

But but ... what if I don't like the crucible :(

Your best bet is strikes and specific story missions then. You can repeat strikes but you get guarantied good stuff in story missions only once. Keep your eye out for cheap uncommons at your class vendor too.

So I did the last mission on the moon with the heroic mod on yesterday (the one where you destroy the big ball at the end after a boss fight). A good chunk of that mission had only major variations of regular enemies. That means I got 25 glimmer a pop for about 20-30 enemies. Is that normal?

Hmmmm, interesting. Just one more question. When I inserted the disc, it did the install thing right away like it always did. However, the progress bar filled up just like after every other install I've ever done, much like you mentioned in the first sentence in number 3, where it appears to finish very quickly. You're saying that, if I had waited, even though it wouldn't have looked like there was any other progress, it would have still been installing in the background if I had left it on the PS4 menu?

Also, thanks for the breakdown. I was beginning to think I was the only one that bought a disc copy for the PS4.