Destiny: Could This Be Why the Orbit System is Necessary?

One of the many complaints that players have had since the launch of Destiny is the the long loading time involved with having to go to orbit prior to picking a new location to travel to. Many players have asked for a “Go To Tower” option to replace this so that they can instantaneously go from activities in the world to the Tower. One post on Reddit may actually give a very good explanation as to why this system is necessary.

[THC CELL]

I wish you could skip cinematic clips

[King-u-mad]

I wish this game was never released for the ps3 and xbox360. So we could have the real game...

[xSparr0w]

explain!!

[BattleTorn]

@xSparr0w

Really?

It goes without saying that by releasing cross-gen, that the games get limited by the lastgen hardware. They can make the nextgen version look prettier, but that's about it - they can't omit gameplay elements from the lastgen version.

It's the primary reason, I believe, that we have had such massive disappointments from Watch_Dogs, Titanfall, and Destiny.

There were all cross-gen.

[Baccra17]

Even if it wasn't cross gen, it would still be a crappy, shameless, lazy cash grab. Not being cross gen doesn't change the fact that Activision would still be there mucking things up.

[nX]

Every game is better if the developer doesn't have to worry about Old-School Hard-Ware.

[Kevlar009]

Last Gen didn't cut out large pieces of content and Story to release as DLC.

[Stick89]

While I do agree with you, I also want to be salty and throw in there aren't enough cinematics to skip.

[ITPython]

I am pretty sure the long loading times in orbit are actually just concealing the matchmaking that is going on in the background. I mean think about it, you are joining lobbies full of others players, it's essentially a new online match each time you go anywhere.

I still hate it and wish travel was as convenient and instantaneous as Diablo 3, which was absolutely amazing. You could pop in and out of town, or anywhere else, then just jump back through your little worm hole and you are right back where you left off nearly instantly.

[tlougotg]

Yeah cinematics not being skippable suck big time! Its absurd we are in 2014 and we cant skip cinematics in this game when back in the 90s they were skippable in many games lol and good amount of games now also let you skip. Wtf decides these bs ideas of not allowing skippable scenes!!!!

The load times dont feel bad to me when in orbit but hey thats just me. Faster is definitely better tho.

[isa_scout]

Yeah it's crazy that a game like TLoU has skippable cutscenes(where story means so much) and a game like Destiny with a virtually nonexistent narrative forces you to watch horribly written cinematics. It's been a LONG LONG time since I've played a game that is as poorly written,acted, and put together as Destinys story.

[Gr1mmyshadows]

cool story bro

[Dirtnapstor]

So let's revert to skipping cut scenes and watching a black screen for a minute or two with a spinning thingamabob, loading the next segment...
I like the format now when it's used to mask load times.

[ITPython]

A lot of games use cinematics to conceal loading screens, which is fine by me. However those games also let you skip the scene as soon as the game is done loading. Destiny does not.

Luckily if you play the same mission in Destiny with the same character a few times a week, it will stop showing you the cut-scenes. Although I do notice they come back the next week until you play the level again a few more times.

[The_KELRaTH]

Exactly! I just don't understand why so many want the "LOADING _________________" (with bar) rather than the animated aquarium style screen.

[one2thr]

Make sense, but goodness I thought going to the tower to then go to the orbit to choose my destination was a stupid idea, seeing that there is a ship hanger in/at the tower and to me it would make more sense to choose the destination from then and there, instead having to goto said orbit to do so.

[Cryptcuzz]

That is a brilliant idea and perspective on how it works currently. I 100% agree with this and hope Bungie implement something like this in the near future.

I would also like to add that same idea anywhere as well. Say your doing patrol, they should allow us to pull up a destination list to where we want to go next and have our ship come down, beam us into the ship and fly directly to where the destination was set.

In the beginning mission, where we first got our ship, and how the ghost beamed us up and flew us directly to the tower. Something like that would save a lot more time and make it much less tedious in traveling from one destination to the next.

[The_KELRaTH]

and then selecting a planet followed by clicking again to actually go to it - though we seem to be in a period of click to continue game madness... "CLICK TO READ NEXT WORD"... currently :)

[Alsybub]

The article is just saying that all of the network setup like matchmaking, data syncing and server connection is done in the background as well as loading the location you are going to.

I actually assumed this was the case and didn't realise that it wasn't apparent to a lot of people. When did they think it was doing all of those other things? It simply doesn't have all of those different screens that you get in other games. I'm assuming that is to make things seamless. It still needs to do all of the usual thinks i.e. search for a lobby, sync data, find other players and connect. It just doesn't express that.

[Naga]

Yeah, I'm with you. Last night, I was thinking about how horrendous of an experience it would be if there were just loading screens instead of these clips.

[xSparr0w]

I agree. For a game that's reported to "play like an MMO" though, it doesn't do a very good job at being as seamless as many other games on the market today. Many other massively multiplayer games don't even have loading screens anymore. Just seems like a lot of wasted time.

[The_KELRaTH]

Except it plays more like a typical FPS game but with far more fun building up weapons etc than CoD (where you do sit and watch loading static map screens).

[Dirtnapstor]

People found something else to complain about... Thief got blasted for load times, but really, it's just visually different. Sit in a lobby for match making for almost any game, same difference.

[Perjoss]

'cos the cutscenes are so light on story it just reminds me of when i cannot skip the first 5 to 10 mins of a porn movie.

[Jack_Reacher]

Wtf. Have you never heard of fast forward. In fact try watching a whole movie in ff. Pretty frickin funny. And dont get me started about in reverse. Thats just sick.

[23Breach]

Man, that was interesting

[sprinterboy]

I am chatting to friends and going through inventory when in orbit loading plus having a cigarette break so all good tbh for me

[xSparr0w]

True, it's a lot like matchmaking in any other FPS. I think people don't understand they are trying to make it a little more attractive :p

[isa_scout]

I do the exact same thing... I really need to quit smoking though.

[SojournUK]

smoking baaad, hulk smash!

[MelvinTheGreat]

Lol, people dont realize the orbit is for loading the game. You didnt really think a 7200rpm hard drive could load everything instantly

[SojournUK]

I don't buy it, it's just a loading screen for a poorly optimised game.

[Dynasty2021]

Poorly optimized or lacklustre hardware more like.

An SSD on a PC version would make the loading times almost non-existent.

It baffles me how putting an SSD into the PS4 saves you maybe 1 or 2 seconds, where as on PC it saves 20+.

Games like Skyrim don't even really get a chance to load the lore screens before you're in and playing.

*herpa derp downvote because PC suxor elitism*

Sod off. The new consoles are terrible if an SSD changes pretty much nothing. That's a hardware change making no difference. Something is very wrong there.

[SojournUK]

Well I'll agree to that, been using SSD's in my laptop and desktop for a few years now - makes a massive difference :)

I game on both PC and PS..oh and urm xbox... :/

[The_KELRaTH]

Not so baffling as Sony opted for old gen SATA II controller rather than III

[SECondsaway]

I feel like this game wasn't next generation it was made for 360 and PS3 if it was next gen then it wouldn't have invisible walls everywhere you go still a fun game but It would be better if you could explore ALOT more

[The_KELRaTH]

Yeah know what you mean. it's better than CoD and others but still it would be nice to explore and use the landscape fully.

In this respect I miss older PC games like Quake/UT/RTCW etc etc etc where what you saw you could use!