Destiny: DLC strategy

[wittyscorpion]

This article gives a glimpse of what's possible: www.totalxbox.com/80404/what-to-expect-from-destinys-dlc-strategy-bungie-has-elaborate-plans/

My takeaways:

1) Due to its set up, Destiny has plenty of room to grow content wise; (we already know about this)

2) The game is built for background online updates:

"From a very practical standpoint, we've had to create new technology," said Barnes. "We did some things in the beta - I don't know if you noticed but at one point we kicked everybody into orbit, no matter where they were playing, so we could do updates and all the balancing and things.

"So we can do small changes seamlessly, and then we can do larger changes - let's say, we were going down for a very small window to do an update. And then of course, we have expansions which have their own contained story and all of the activity types that you would expect to have from Destiny, so they're a much broader offering than normal DLC from Bungie. So yeah, we're going to grow the universe."

Above mentioned 3 ways of pushing changes: 1) seamless for small changes, 2) small downtime for a larger change, 3) expansions.

3) Expansion packs are designed to be entirely optional. As result, I believe that they will NOT introduce new planets or new enemies through an expansion pack, but rather through main game release;

4) "Bungie's post-release strategy will to significant extent depend on how players take to the main game."

[n1gh7]

3) I don't see why expansions being optional precludes Bungie from including new planets and new enemies in expansions. If the goal is for the expansions to be contained, it actually makes more sense to me to have the expansion zones be completely separate via a new planet rather than be a "marked off" area from the main game.

[wittyscorpion]

Aug 19, 2014 19:45:57 GMT -5 n1gh7 said:

3) I don't see why expansions being optional precludes Bungie from including new planets and new enemies in expansions. If the goal is for the expansions to be contained, it actually makes more sense to me to have the expansion zones be completely separate via a new planet rather than be a "marked off" area from the main game.

It is not something absolute, but a sensible thing for Bungie to do (Note that by new enemy I meant to say an entire new enemy "races", not new enemy types of an existing race)

Yes, if we look at Borderlands 2, we saw entirely new areas and enemy types added as part of DLC. So it is conceivable that Destiny can do the same thing. However, Bungie is trying to market Destiny as 1) one continuous game that can be played over multiple major releases over a decade, and 2) Expansion Packs are strictly optional. From that I speculate that they will leave new planets out of expansion packs because these are a major deal in terms of playable content. Since enemy races are tied to planets, they are likely excluded from expansion packs as well (but probably more possible that new planets, because races based on the new planet can come to the existing planets).

Sure, there are nothing preventing them from including such content in expansion packs if they really want to. They can introduce a new planet in an Expansion Pack and make it playable in the next main release. The flexibility is definitely there.

Of course, this does not matter that much for us as we are probably planning to get all the expansion packs anyway

BTW, the article is trying to shed some lights on the first expansion pack:

Destiny's first official DLC pack is The Dark Below, which adds new story missions, Strike missions, competitive multiplayer features, gear, armour and weapons. It's out in December, and will take you through unfamiliar parts of areas that are included with the main game, which means that you'll still rub shoulders occasionally with players who don't own the DLC.

"Even some of those expansions are going to cross over with people who aren't in the expansion, so they're going to have those collisions too, so they're not in separate environments, with some familiarities and some new places," Barnes explained. It's hoped that this will serve as an enticement to buy the DLC, but this remains strictly optional. "Really it's not necessary, it's not required and it doesn't mean that [DLC buyers] have an advantage, but it does mean that they will see some cool stuff that maybe they'll want to participate in."

The bold part is intriguing: "unfamiliar parts of areas that are included with the main game". How does that work, areas that are artificially sealed off?

[mannon]

It will probably work the same way missions and exploration worked in beta. Even while on mission if you pass through a common area you'll encounter other players but as soon as you enter a mission specific area you disappear from their PoV, even if that area is accessible in exploration. For example if you went around in exploration and hung out at the entrances to the buildings like for The Last Array, you will see people go in, but if you attempt to follow them they disappear if they are on a mission and not on exploration like you are. Even if you're on the same mission, but not in a strike team together you will disappear from each other's PoV by entering the mission area.

This sort of phasing of realities bothered me at first, but I got used to it. If you think about the lore spouted by the Future War Cult NPC (who talks about alternate timelines and such), it almost makes sense.

[wittyscorpion]

More details on the first Expansion emerge, from GameStop listing: thedestinyblog.com/2014/08/21/gamestops-site-states-that-destinys-first-expansion-pack-to-inlcude-an-all-new-hive-story-line-more/

The content section is much more detailed than previous reveals:

In The Dark Below, you’ll discover an ancient tomb has been unsealed. Beneath the surface of the Moon, a dark god has answered centuries of prayer, and a dark army has risen. Explore the true depths of the Hellmouth. Stop the dark Hive ritual and survive.

Below that it provides a tease as to what content comes:

An all new Hive story line
New competitive multiplayer maps
New cooperative activities
A wealth of new weapons, ships, armor & gear to earn (including all new Rares and Exotics)
New Grimoire Cards and Dead Ghosts to collect
New story and cooperative areas to explore

[n1gh7]

From that snippet, it does look like I was right.

[wittyscorpion]

Aug 21, 2014 19:20:26 GMT -5 n1gh7 said:

From that snippet, it does look like I was right.

Yeah, what you said is very likely to be how things work. In Destiny beta we have seen the "public" areas where random people can meet through matchmaking, and "private" mission specific areas where you can only see your fire team members. The same mechanism can be easily used to separate "main game" areas vs. "DLC" specific areas and have people with and without DLC play together in a similar fashion.