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Paradoxical [Destiny/Worm Post-GM]

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ensou said:
"Out of the three of us, who do you think she might be more open to? The… serious, imposing Titan," he gestured at Zavala, "the secretive, intelligent Warlock," his other hand went up towards Ikora, "or the roguish, easy-going, nonthreatening Hunter?" he finished, indicating towards himself.
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Out of the three of you, who deals the most DPS with only around a sec. to cast the power?.... The ''nonthreatening'' hunter :p
 
I know basically nothing about Destiny, but I like Cayde already.
What was different in D2?
 
Crilltic said:
I mean to be fair, it's not like his plan was materially worse than Zavala (Step 1: Zerg Rush Step 2: Pray) or Ikora (Sulk on Io).
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It is not high bar though.
By the way, is there a good story summary of Destiny? I do not play(also can't play) first person shooters without keyboard and mouse.
 
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Too be fair grabbing a teleporter wasn't a terrible idea, he just failed during the execution of the plan. Bedsides he had the best trailer.
 
ensou said:
This. Zachary is effectively the player character in Destiny. The protagonist. And in-universe, well, the player character is ridiculous. Like, prophesied savior, almost all major events unfolding around them and defeating enemies who killed literally thousands of other Guardians before them ridiculous. Protagonist power is at its maximum (and which I'm toning down in here no matter what because it really is ridiculous).

His role in this story is to get Taylor out of the Reef. He'd be doing his own things whether Taylor was with him or not, and when they go their own ways after the Black Garden, he'll be doing his thing and she'll be doing her stuff, and the story will follow Weaver (until something happens that the Awoken get involved in, probably). But yes, he's a good point to start causing chaos and upsetting the plot, and the image of this shadowy woman standing off to the side while the player character met the Queen the first time (basically the prologue) was what inspired all of this.

I wanted to try telling this story primarily through outside sources and maintain some degree of mystery (which I seem to have already failed at, but I really wanted to do the QA chapter, and then this one logically followed and... ugh. yeah.). The problem is that he's the only notable person who's really been around her in-story, so I don't have any other perspectives to use yet.

...And now I'm debating the actual weight/importance of this chapter in the overall story and if it should get cut to try and maintain that outside-perspective format. I think her thoughts and decisions in such a shaky period are important, though, and there was one more Taylor chapter left to tie them up neatly before it moved back to...
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Really I like the chapter being included, even if you use outside perspectives for the rest of the story I feel a look into Taylor's head is essential to understand where she's at right now. Nobody else in Destiny really has the background knowledge to piece together what exactly is happening to her. From this point on I don't think we need her inner thought process to determine what she's thinking, but that's just because we have a baseline.

I'd also like to say I find the idea of Weaver vs Taylor to be interesting, she's effectively lived 38 years at this point, but in two radically different ways in what is a pretty even split, even if the weaver side has more weight from being in the present and not having to go through childhood. Seeing how she develops should be interesting.
 
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Gods of Fire by VereorNox
  • Apocrypha
    • Talking with @ensou in chat gave me this idea and I had to write it :V

    Gods of Fire
    ################
    There used to be an old legend. A story of the dawn of the gods. In that story, one of the gods, who comes from fire and carries the torch with him to the lands of the gods will burn all of reality.

    It was hard to say these stories were nothing more than that. She raised the hand cannon, aiming down the sights. Three targets, but only one of them was really threatening. The wizard stood was floating above the ground, its distorted twitching to a silent beat.

    Whether or not the gods of fire were real didn't matter, because she could make them real for just a moment. Taking aim at one of the thralls on the ground, she pulled the trigger. One, two. The first shot entered its chest. The second took off its head. Its body started to cook.

    The heat coming off it tickled her skin. She went into cover before it exploded. The wizard was knocked out of the air, the other thrall was badly burned. With another shot, another explosion echoed, the second thrall following its brother to hell. The wizard screeched, floating off the ground again. She emptied the other five bullets into its torso.

    Sunfire danced on the tip of her fingers, the hand cannon humming with power as it slowly cooled down. She reloaded, moving towards the burned remains of the dead wizard.

    "Everything clear," she said. Her ghost transmitted the message.

    "Alright, we'll be right there."

    Her hair was standing up at the back of her neck. There was something about Hive magic that made Guardians uneasy, but no one seemed as affected as she did. It was why she got the scouting jobs. She could tell you the location of an ogre from five-hundred meters through closed doors.

    It wasn't that she was comfortable with it, but she was good at it, and being good at something made it kind of her duty.

    Two women arrived in the hallway. Their guns were bigger. Heavier. Holstering the hand cannon, she waved.

    "Everything alright up there?" she asked.

    The two of them nodded. "I don't know what the Cabal want with this lonely old tower, but whatever it is, I want it first."

    "There's Hive here, Rubedo, we better torch it to the ground as soon as we can."

    "Isn't that the decision of Zavala, ass-kisser?"

    If she didn't stop it now, they'd keep going for an eternity. Walking between them, she looked at the young woman with the pale blue skin.

    "Calm down, Rubedo. Trix is right, you know his stance on Hive."

    Trix-2, the exo, shrugged. "It's fine, Sunny, I think investigating a bit before burning things down wouldn't hurt."

    Sunny nodded. "We'll have to plant the explosives anyway. If we find anything the Cabal might've been looking for we can grab it. There's no communication channels with the Vanguard until we're out, so watch each other's backs."

    "Sure thing, boss," Rubedo said. Trix-2 nodded.

    They planted the first bomb right there, then continued further down. The tower was tall, but built into a mountain, which meant they had to collapse it into itself rather than simply topple it and burn everything down. Of course the Hive loved dark places, and Sunny hated them.

    Ikora once suggested she could spend her time on Mercury, keep an eye out on the crazies and bask in the sun. She had seriously considered it.

    "Heads up," Sunny said, moving down the stairs with a silent slide. "There's a big one behind the door. Could be a knight."

    The cursed thralls that skittered and twitched and hissed and knocked their teeth together were audible without a warning. Staying next to the stairs would be suicide. They had to take out the knight swiftly. Grabbing a shotgun from her waist, Sunny aimed at the door, pressing the gun against it.

    Raising her hand, she lifted three fingers. Two. One. She fired, a loud screech echoing behind the door. With a strong kick, it crashed into the knight and sent it flying. It was hurt, but not down yet. Using the Sunshot here would be a bad idea, so she jumped onto the door and emptied the rest of the slugs downwards. Trix and Rubedo had her back, showering the thralls with heavy fire. When thralls exploded and took out chunks of the wall with them, the knight took the opportunity to throw Sunny off, sending her into the ceiling as it stood up, raising the blaster on its arm throwing fire towards her allies.

    No time to reload. Grabbing the Sunshot, she raised it at the knight. The first shot hit its shoulder. The second was deflected by a shield. Trix and Rubedo had taken cover inside the room down the now fire-lit hallway.

    "You alright, chief?" Rubedo asked, her voice loud. Crashing onto the ground with the grace of a dead cat, Sunny dodged to the side before its foot came down on her. Cracks spread from the point of impact. With a swift motion, she stood and rushed behind cover. It was a dirty old shelf, but it'd have to do.

    "Just dandy! Plant the rest of the explosives, I'll finish this!"

    "You sure?"

    "I said dandy! Fuck off!"

    They did. She could see their figures move further in through the smoke. She glanced towards her shotgun, still lying next to the knight. It approached, its weapon raised.

    "If there's one thing I can't stand about Hive, it's that disgusting clicking noise," Sunny said. Her loadout today wasn't suited to fight knights in small hallways. One chance, and one chance only. It'd make it hard using her powers until she was out again.

    Raising her hand, the sunfire danced above it. Spinning into view of the knight, she twisted her hand, throwing a massive ball of solar energy towards it. It raised its shield.

    "Good luck!" she shouted. "Voidwalkers got nothing on me!"

    The fire burned through the shield. It continued into its chest, and she stopped it from spreading any further. The knight fell forward, the smell of burned flesh traveling around.

    "I hate Strikes in dark places."

    "The Traveler's light cannot reach all," her ghost said. "Perhaps Ikora's offer still stands?"

    "It's fine, Noelle," Sunny said. "You know I don't like the Osiris fanatics."

    "You've always prefered Mars," the ghost said. "But then again, that's also invested with the Hive."

    "Bombs placed," another voice spoke from her ghost. "We found an exit here, you coming?"

    "It's fine, I'll take the exit up the stairs. We'll meet at the base of the mountain."

    ###

    The moment she stepped out, everything felt fine again. The Traveler's light invigorated her, and the flickers of fire danced on her fingers again. Trix and Rubedo were waiting for her, the latter giving her a thumbs up.

    "What's that?" Sunny asked, pointing at the large box next to Rubedo.

    "Seems to be a Cabal prototype weapon," Trix said. "Banshee will probably want to take a look at it. Zavala's gonna be happy."

    "That's all that matters, doesn't it?"

    "Shut up," Trix said. Sunny sighed.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Storm_Herald said:
    He had some good dialogue but his actions were flat out retarded. What the hell are you even doing in the ass end of the system Cayde?
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    Recovering a powerful piece of Vex tech he could use for an assassination strike on Ghaul. Because removing the leadership of an invading alien armada worked out damn well for him last time around. It's just that this time he wasn't as lucky as the Lone Wolf and got in over his head.
     
    Really Destiny 2 Cayde would have been fine if they had just toned down the "Bumbling Idiot" act down by about 20%. Like I get that they were trying to make him The Fool, but at some point it becomes a question of why they let him be in charge of anything.

    A lot of the other creative decisions like making him less of an asshole that D1 Cayde and making him actually being (vitriolic) friends with Zavala and Ikora are things that I felt created more potential. Plus he did have some genuinely good lines.
     
    @ensou Now that I am aware of it, I follow your fic with interest.

    KaneTW said:
    There's a whole host of issues starting from "everything about the story is an abomination" and ends with "really goddamn grindy."
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    The storyline was meh, the final boss battle was very meh (The Valkyrie dropped once the entire fight, and when it happened, I used it to clear ads), but Destiny has ALWAYS been really goddamn grindy. As a Year 1 player, I do not recall a single instance where it wasn't grindy to get from "here's the end of the missions" and "here's the start of endgame play".

    Deathwings said:
    Gotta hook people for that fat Lootbox goodness. :rolleyes:
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    What lootboxes do you speak of?
     
    Matrix Dragon said:
    Tess having Fucking Everything.
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    I'm very confused. I only ever remember Tess having cosmetic items like ships, sparrows, ornaments, and shaders. Ghost shells were the only thing she sold that had an material impact on the game, and even that was incredibly limited. Bonus EXP if you're on a specific planet, the possibility of generating minute amounts of gunsmith EXP if you are using weapons of a certain element, or loot radar on a specific planet. That was the extent of her impact on the game.

    If I wanted new guns, armour, or literally anything that contributes to my statline, I always got them from other people and places.
     
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    Schielman said:
    I'm very confused. I only ever remember Tess having cosmetic items like ships, sparrows, ornaments, and shaders. Ghost shells were the only thing she sold that had an material impact on the game, and even that was incredibly limited. Bonus EXP if you're on a specific planet, the possibility of generating minute amounts of gunsmith EXP if you are using weapons of a certain element, or loot radar on a specific planet. That was the extent of her impact on the game.

    If I wanted new guns, armour, or literally anything that contributes to my statline, I always got them from other people and places.
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    For starters, I'm of the belief that yes, cosmetic items do in fact have an effect on the player experience. Bungie clearly believes so too, given that not only are they charging real money for them, they've also often made ads abourt upcoming events in Destiny that are literally Eververse advertising and nothing else. I'm also of the belief that lootcrates should not be in a AAA full price game. Taking into account the season pass, I've already spent over $150 Aus on this game, so trying to leech more of my money through microtransations like it's a free to play game is slimy as shit. The fact that Bungie put items that were originally available for permanent unlock in Destiny 1 in a in-game currency, behind their paid RNG as consumable items in 2 is disgusting. The fact they had the XP bar deliberately LIE to to the player about the amount of XP they were actually earning is fucking contemptible. And as a final touch, even if I wanted to buy a single lootbox, I'd need to buy their 'Silver' currency, which just so happens to not come in the correct amount, so you've always got a little left over, a classic psychological ploy used to encourage gambling.

    I love Destiny. I love Destiny 2. But whichever collection of walking fuckstains at Bungie were behind the Eververse idea should be ashamed of themselves, and the fact they continue to trot out the 'it's just cosmetic' and 'you can still grind for it if you want to, we're only providing options' excuses only makes them look even more pathetic and greedy. They're lucky that they managed to avoid being the shining example of corporate gaming sleezbaggery because the morons at EA managed to fuck up with the same thing on an even larger and more incredible scale with Battlefront 2.
     
    Matrix Dragon said:
    For starters, I'm of the belief that yes, cosmetic items do in fact have an effect on the player experience. Bungie clearly believes so too, given that not only are they charging real money for them, they've also often made ads abourt upcoming events in Destiny that are literally Eververse advertising and nothing else. I'm also of the belief that lootcrates should not be in a AAA full price game. Taking into account the season pass, I've already spent over $150 Aus on this game, so trying to leech more of my money through microtransations like it's a free to play game is slimy as shit. The fact that Bungie put items that were originally available for permanent unlock in Destiny 1 in a in-game currency, behind their paid RNG as consumable items in 2 is disgusting. The fact they had the XP bar deliberately LIE to to the player about the amount of XP they were actually earning is fucking contemptible. And as a final touch, even if I wanted to buy a single lootbox, I'd need to buy their 'Silver' currency, which just so happens to not come in the correct amount, so you've always got a little left over, a classic psychological ploy used to encourage gambling.

    I love Destiny. I love Destiny 2. But whichever collection of walking fuckstains at Bungie were behind the Eververse idea should be ashamed of themselves, and the fact they continue to trot out the 'it's just cosmetic' and 'you can still grind for it if you want to, we're only providing options' excuses only makes them look even more pathetic and greedy. They're lucky that they managed to avoid being the shining example of corporate gaming sleezbaggery because the morons at EA managed to fuck up with the same thing on an even larger and more incredible scale with Battlefront 2.
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    That's not my point.

    Now before we both miss each other's points, let me make something clear; I know what your point is. You are angry because Bungie decided to put microtransactions in a game that, if Destiny 1 is any indication, will cost you approximately $200 USD just to play, and you would like some respect and appreciation for the money you have already spent just to play the game. Then, to encourage the players to spend money on said microtransactions, Bungie tweaked the way the XP system worked to make it harder to get bright engrams by grinding, and then they tried to hide all that from the players, and you are furious because you wanted some honesty from Bungie and and some respect for the time that players invested in the game. I get that. The only reason I'm not that worked up about it is because I found D2 to be kind of disappointing and didn't get that invested in it.

    However, that does not change the fact that saying Tess has, "Fucking Everything" is false from an empirical standpoint and disingenuous from an argumentative one. She does not have, "Fucking Everything". She has cosmetic items, and that's it. If you want to get mad and Bungie because of their business practices, fine. Do that. I'd be happy to have that discussion (and personally, I agree with you). But if we are going to have that discussion, I'd like some honesty in it.
     
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