Published on: Jul 30, 2015 @ 17:38
This week at Bungie we’re inviting you to gaze with us, deep into the Dreadnaught.
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Dreadnaught
Perhaps “daring” would be more appropriate than “inviting.” The space-faring fortress of destruction is far from hospitable. The Taken King himself is, after all, invading our solar system to avenge the death of his brood. You’re not invited. You’ll have to crash the party.
Conceptually, we’ve dreamed of facing the Hive on their own ground for a long time. With the development of Destiny: The Taken King, we’ve had the chance to fully realize the Dreadnaught. Before you hurl yourself headlong into Year Two, we’re going to arm you with a little intel, courtesy of a developer-led scouting mission. Senior Artist Andrew Hopps leads us off with an excerpt from the origin story of the Dreadnaught.
Andrew: It was important to us that you would feel the scale as you moved through the hulls of the Dreadnaught, never sure about what to expect as large spaces condensed to claustrophobic tunnels before revealing entirely new areas of the ship. A sense of wonder about the unknown is what drove a lot of the spatial design.
It was an incredibly fun challenge to find the right balance between a mysterious tomb ship and the flagship for the Taken fleet – to capture the idea of this unfathomable threat, a monstrous spaceship captained by the Taken King, yet filled with vast caverns and unknown passages. I can’t wait for players to explore and discover all of its secrets.
The Dreadnaught allowed us to sprinkle in some unique lighting dynamics to flavor the alien-ness of the Hive! – Madison Parker, Artist
The Dreadnaught offered some opportunities for unique compositions and memorable views that couldn’t have been done elsewhere. – Josh Markham, Artist
One of the biggest challenges we faced was making the Dreadnaught feel unsettling and uninviting while still making it a place people would want to visit and spend a lot of time exploring. – Mike Poe, Lead Lighting Artist
The Dreadnaught is a dark and mysterious space, filled with lots of very interesting atmospherics and ethereal lighting effects. From the perspective of a content creator, you dream of landscapes such as these. –Andrew Baker, Senior Artist
The opportunity to create the vista from inside Saturn’s rings was a dream come true. Creating the illusion that the player is within the ring plane with all that ice visible with a huge sense of depth was a really fun challenge. – Mark Goldsworthy, Staff Artist
As well as being a focal point for the story campaign in The Taken King, the Dreadnaught will also be a centerpiece of The Taken War, a progression that extends well beyond the traditional storyline. It will also provide new ground to explore and Patrol. In that regard, like The Taken King itself, it represents a big leap forward.
Designer Ben Wommack recalls designing the action that fills the Dreadnaught:
Ben: Way back during the planning of the Dreadnaught’s design, Luke Smith challenged us to create “an inscrutable loot-filled fortress.” That challenge was an awesome piece of direction, and went a long way towards inspiring our efforts. We had an opportunity to improve upon the design of our worlds in Destiny, and the results are evidence of how excited this made us.
Ben and the rest of the Open World Design team extended the boundaries of action and adventure within the Dreadnaught in the following directions:
More things to do
Ben: We’ve created a suite of new mechanics and woven them into the Patrol mode. Every week, every day even, it will draw you back to fight through to its depths for loot and glory. Expect to find new Bounties, Patrol Missions, and Public Events both large and small—some of which you can even instigate yourself, if you can discover how.
More secrets to unlock
Ben: The Dreadnaught has its secrets—you’ll need to return again and again to solve them all and acquire the rewards we created for doing so. There are hidden treasures and bosses waiting to be found, and it won’t be apparent how to access them the first time you go exploring. We’ve laid out a lot of breadcrumb trails though, as you fight your way through the ship. So follow the clues you’re given, face the challenges you can find, and earn that sweet loot!
More challenges to overcome
Ben: We play a LOT of Destiny around here. As a result we’re always designing new ways to challenge players. Within Oryx’s behemoth ship, you’ll likely find more challenging Public Events than anything else you’ve attempted before on Patrol.
How to succeed won’t be obvious at first, but the rewards will be worth your effort. Get ready to fight bosses and encounters in surprising combinations of circumstances, and look to your fellow Guardians for help. Patrol is no longer easy mode—we should really get a Twitch stream going before launch to show what I mean.
Speaking of new bosses, Artist Corinne Scrivens brought this hideous creation to life. You’ll face this terror in a Strike that takes place on board the Dreadnaught.
Meet Darkblade.
The Darkblade along with many other Hive abominations are waiting for you on board the Dreadnaught. Oryx has built an army for them to lead, bristling with combatants that were taken from our world, twisted by the Darkness, and sent back to prevent you from looting their fortress.
Ben did have a great idea. We should crack open this ship and storm its depths on Twitch sometime between now and September 15th. Stay tuned for more information on when you’ll be invited to explore the depths of this enemy lair even deeper, as we hold court with Oryx.
We’ll do it live.