Public Event Proposals by Max Golden Overview In the initial release of Destiny, Public Events were one of the core ways that players got to interact with other people in the world. Many of the public events required cooperation, or they were at least challenging to complete alone. Further, the events helped to characterise the world, deepening the players’ experience of the Destiny universe. As the first two DLCs and The Taken King expansion have been released, they brought more public event-type activities: Killing the Blades of Crota, Fallen Wolf invasions, and Taken invasions. These have served to heighten the player’s experience of the new content by broadening its effects beyond the single player missions. While these new events have been very good at heightening the players experience with regards to the story, I think that more can be done to make the events more engaging on a strategic level, allowing players to pick from multiple roles to assist the ad-hoc groups that take on public events. With that in mind, I have drafted up a public event concept for each of the first four planets, with each event focusing on a different enemy race. Earth - Fallen Football The Fallen invasion of earth is progressing, with stealth units being sent in to try to sabotage strategic points in the Cosmodrome. The event starts with a wave of fallen dropships with normal dreg/vandal/captain mobs, then a second wave of 3 dropships come and each deploy a squad of stealth vandals. One of these is a Major vandal carrying the bomb. This Major is trying to make it to one of three marked zones to detonate the bomb. The players must try to prevent this. Upon successfully killing the Major, the bomb is dropped and can be picked up by a player. The player retrieving the bomb is SLOWED by 50% and cannot use weapons. This effect can be partially negated: any player within 5M of the carrier restores 10% of the carrier’s speed, up to 90% of base. Additionally, any player in this “blocking” radius receives a buff reducing grenade and super cooldowns. When a player picks up the bomb, all guardians are shown the location of one target zone (which should be reasonably far away from the pickup location). The players much endure more Fallen waves, including Major Sword Captains, who are incredibly spooky when you’re going slow. When the carrier arrives at the target zone, the bomb is automatically disarmed and the cycle repeats, with a new wave of stealth vandals, one of which is carrying the next bomb. A player disarming the bomb by bringing it to the target zone scores 1 point. If the Fallen successfully arm one of the bombs or successfully kill the bomb carrier, they score 1 point. The event ends when one side reaches three points. Notes This event gives one player the explicit role of the bomb carrier, and the other players are instructed to protect them at all costs. Giving the carrier movement buff + defending guardian buff incentivises players to stay close together and protect the carrier at all costs. Rewarding these tight formations gives players a unique experience which is not really useful in many other contexts. Moon - Lord of Husks The Hive grow restless after the deaths of Crota and Oryx, and now certain faction leaders are taking off small broods to explore the surface of the Moon. The Lord of Husks is one of these commanders, and his swarm will wreak havoc on the Moon until he is killed. The Lord of Husks is an Ultra Wizard, featuring a strong elemental shield. Along with standard attacks, the Lord will never hesitate to cast the poison cloud on Guardians who get too near. His retinue includes Ogres along with the standard Hive fare, but there are no other Wizards in the event. The most interesting mechanic in this event occurs when the Lord of Husks is brought down to 75%, 50%, and 25% HP. At each of these points he will become immune, then invisible, then attempt to possess one of the other Hive in the event. He will target the highest HP unit, ideally an Ogre or a Knight. When this unit is being possessed, it will stop attacking and moving and writhe for about 5 seconds. If the unit is successfully possessed, the unit will become a Husk-Powered [Ogre/Knight/whatever], returning to full HP and becoming more aggressive, particularly with charging at Guardians. Killing this Husk-Powered hive releases an explosion in a 15 meter radius which damages and suppresses Guardians. After this explosion, the Husk Lord will reappear and the fight will continue. If Guardians successfully kill the possessed unit before it becomes Husk-powered, the Husk Lord will reappear along with two illusory Husk Lords. These are identical to the Husk Lord, starting at the same HP % and dealing the same damage, but they take 3x more damage from guardians. Of course, they do not possess units when driven below the event HP thresholds, but instead die when the Husk Lord would have started a possession. Notes This event is one attempt to spice up the classic “Kill the Unit” event by adding the additional mechanics of possession and illusions. A well-coordinated group could stop possessions (which slow down the event) as well as communicate to pick out and kill the illusions (which still deal full damage). Venus - Integration Matrix Vex probes are popping up all over Venus as they try to formulate their new strategy after the destruction of the heart of the Black Garden. Players must integrate with the probes to halt Vex progress as well as gain insight into just what the Vex have planned. The event starts with three integration pylons spawning in the bubble. Any player can go up to the pylon and press X to integrate, receiving the Integrated buff and starting the spawn of heavy waves targeting them. An Integrated player is unable to regenerate shield naturally and must stay near the pylon to stay Integrated. Dying or losing the buff sacrifices the pylon to the Vex. Integration takes 30 seconds, with many Vex being thrown at the Integrated guardian, including a wave of Minotaur with at least one Major. If the guardian survives, they receive full shield/super/grenade/melee energy and an overshield lasting 10 seconds. Nearby allies also receive regen bonuses to their energy pools for 10 seconds. The event ends when an Integration attempt has been made at each pylon. A single squad could go around to all three sites, or there may be different groupings going after each point. Notes I see this as a sort of reimagining of the Vex sacrificing to pylons, focusing on defending against the Vex while needing to stay pretty close to the objective location. I’ve tried to keep it interesting by again isolating one player to play the crucial role in the event, but hopefully the 30 seconds of integration isn’t too long to hold out without shield regeneration. Of course, this is where allies would come in handy, picking off major threats to the Integrated guardian. Mars - General Jumper A Cabal general is surveying the field to prepare to drop in heavy armaments. Players must eliminate the threat while also keeping him from restoring his life from Cabal resupply pods. When the Jumper spawns initially, he is not interested in engaging with Guardians. He wanders the bubble, using his jump jets to cover large swathes of territory quickly. When attacked by a Guardian, the event begins in earnest, with three dropships touching down and dropping off an invulnerable Supply Pods along with a squad of Colossi for each one. The event proceeds like a normal boss event until the General reaches 50% HP, at which point he the supply pods open and a red light blinks on them. The Jumper will jump to the nearest pod and attempt to use it to rejuvenate himself. When he gets to a pod, he will engage with it and his life will slowly regen to full, taking about 15 seconds to fully cap out. Using the pod in this way destroys it. The other pods become invulnerable again as soon as the Jumper begins to regenerate. When the pods are open and blinking, they are vulnerable, but they have a large amount of HP, requiring roughly a Nova Bomb-level commitment to destroy. If a pod is destroyed in this way, the general cannot use it to regenerate health. When all three pods are destroyed, the general will become more aggressive and use more rockets in the fight to the bitter end. Notes I like the idea of having stationary objectives which aren’t direct combat priorities, but with a little coordination the players can make the event dramatically easier. Being able to prevent the ultra from regenerating 150% of his HP is no small feat, and I believe players will be able to effectively self-organise when they understand the mechanics.