[b]“Ishtar Simulations”[/b] So like many before, I got bored one late night studying in college and came up with a sort of game mode that might be hard to create, but possibly worth in regards to participation. Mainly because it’s a [(PvE) v (PvE)] simulated battleground that takes place inside of the “Restored Ishtar Collective” on Venus. Think of it as a simulated digital arena much like the Matrix or Inception that it is solely your conscious that goes in, not your physical body. [b]Now here’s the backstory & lore [/b][i](for those that want to just hear how it works, skip ahead)[/i] Essentially a group of Warlocks under the command of “Ikora” go to the Ishtar Collective in search of knowledge for “research” purposes. If you remember in the grimoire there is a section that talks about how a group of about 3 warlocks trajected images of themselves into a simulated version of our reality from the mind of a vex head they collected. Now under the command of “Ikora” this group of Warlocks have uncovered the methods of inserting their consciousness into this simulated world but also able to control it much better than those before them (if you recall, they almost didn’t come back last time they went in). Now they want to send new teams of guardians in to retrieve important data on the vex which is where you and two of your fellow guardians come in. [b]How the gamemode works[/b] [i](on to the juicy stuff)[/i] It starts out with a short cutscene for first timers and you may even get like a 3rd person beginning part where you step into the pods before you get simulated in. I have ideas on a social space as a sort of hub before so you don’t have to orbit when you want to start the simulations or retrieve stuff from the tower as all vendors will have proxy representatives at the Ishtar collective (wow! I don’t have to orbit everytime I wanna decrypt engrams!? awesome dude!). Then for anyone who doesn’t want to mess around in a social space you can just choose the destination directly from orbit for the simulation and post game press triangle to orbit or (square?, x?) some other button to go to the Collective. Once you load into the game it starts out in a very vex like simulated world, it could have completely different maps (the possibilities are endless) since it’s all how the vex sees things, i.e. Vex transformed Earth, Mars or the Moon. [b]The Objective: [/b] Get to the end of the gauntlet (if you ever played Zelda OT, think the Sand Temple section of Ganondorf’s tower, with like 4-5 rooms and an Iron Knuckle at the end). You must reach the other end in order to get “better” loot (thus you still get decent loot if the other team beats you). Think of like 2 obstacle courses next to each other and whichever team finishes faster wins. This is so we can compare PvE skill in real time rather than just comparing numbers and bragging who killed Oryx faster (or by themselves lol). Also like a mini bar on the side to show progress of each team for reference during the gauntlet. Granted each room can be random and there just be like a bank of 10 to randomly select from and you have to get through 3. This would make things interesting and difficult as people usually get bored of things if they get repetitive (how do you stop that? as many variables as possible). [u]Here’s just a few example rooms that can take place:[/u] [b]Block maze room:[/b] You all start out on top of a vex construct that is literally just a big box. The objective is simple, in the middle of the block is an orb that must be obtained and returned to the start where a console lies. You shove that orb into the console and viola! the next room door opens and your team heads onwards to the next challenge. To make things hard though the 2 people on top have to defend the console (must like vex constructs in VoG) from countless waves of incoming vex. The vex come from all 4 sides to keep the 2 on top on their toes. The runner has to duck, crawl, jump and navigate their way through the cube to the center and back. Also, this would be a HUGE cube so it takes at least 3-5 minutes to get in and out of the cube, you enter and the entrance is closed, the only way to open it and get out is with the orb at the center. [b]Jumping room:[/b] Now I know what you’re thinking, “WE HATE JUMPING PUZZLES!!” Yeah, I get it, I don’t know what to say other than try playing some other platformers like Mario and get used to it. Anyways, the way this room works is think of a semi rectangle/cubicle room you are inside, and the floor is just a bunch of vex panels and there is a door at the top but in no way reachable from base floor. Then you see 3 colored tiles light up, one red, one blue, and one yellow each with their own relic as well. Probably a different type of relic as Kabr never went here to construct one but you get the point, an item that has abilities/attacks and makes you go into 3rd person. Once each guardian has picked up their relic the race is on. The red tile spirals upward a bit and then another red tile comes into existence a short jumping distance away. The red guardian jumps to it and then that starts the green guardian’s sequence. As each guardian steps on their next panel that appears the next guardian’s panel appears and they must follow suit. This continues as they start to slowly approach the top where they can exit that room. To make things more interesting though there are tons of vex in little cracks in the walls. I would personally prefer them all to be Hobgoblins without their guns, that way they are forced to throw those grenades which would make an interesting relationship between the Hobgoblins and the guardians seeing as if you take too much time you get rained on by grenades (lets say they target whoever has been standing on their panel the longest). This would help control the pace of the challenge as it is set by the NPC’s and not the guardians meaning the only way one team to overcome the other team is to go faster, or for the other to die and reset. You could make it so if someone dies it resets to the bottom or maybe a bit more merciful like a ⅓ or ½ way checkpoint, iunno up to you. [b]Running Room:[/b] “Wow, you’re really creative with these names” Yeah I know, I’m a freaking H.C. Lovecraft of my time, can’t wait to die and get popular. Anyways, this room is centralized around 3 lanes, each lane has a specific obstacle that makes it hard such as: “Landing on some tricky platforms above a bottomless pit, having to shoot some explosive harpies as they travel along a predetermined path to hit a switch, or a damage inducing mire that has safe points to recover your health, so those with more defense can last longer” One other one I thought was a sorta parkour route with ducks and jumps while being shot at by a crap ton of Hobgoblins, but they’d be altered so that their aim path is just slow enough so you can dodge all their shots if you are constantly running. The way you keep guardians from going just one path though is by giving them all a debuff that hurts each other when close and the cure is at the end of the 3 lanes. You complete your lane? You win! But let’s say folks want to just wait for someone to go ahead a bit and then traverse that lane as well? Simple, we make the debuff inhabit the whole lane so you CAN do that, but you have to wait for them to finish which is why 3 people going 3 different routes is the fastest. [b]Boss Room:[/b] Yeah, pretty obvious, but let’s say the 4th/5th room is a boss room, and it’s quite like the court of oryx to which you have to fight a Miniboss version of one of the Raid bosses: Atheon, Templar, Etc. [b]Added difficulty:[/b] So to add more flavor to the battle there could be these “tears” in the fabric of time that are clearly visible in each room. They spawn randomly but can be prompted manually with a consumable item (bought by some vendor for a vex equivalent of Eris M.) What this would do is prompt the other team if they want to also open a tear (to make things equal, and so each side gets better loot) and they vote. If both sides get a ⅔ or 3/3 vote in favor, then something gets added to the room to make it harder (hobgoblins throw more grenades for jumping room, you have a timer while in the block maze room, etc). There could also be a situation where the opposing side does not agree to open the tear on their side. This means either the prompting side could still go through with the difficulty modifier in hopes of better rewards, but at the risk of losing the gauntlet all together meaning they wouldn’t get those “winning tier” reward multipliers. [b]Another difficulty additive could be a sort of “No die”[/b] run where you can obviously, not die. I feel like Self-Res would be a sort of game breaking thing so either to compromise we can just have no supers, or a Warlocks only playlist XD. I get that’s kinda stupid but let’s be honest, “People WILL complain” and at least I’m trying to think of a solution (to the problem I theoretically created XD). But yeah, no die run, if you get to the end you get some awesome emblem #DarkSouls. So anyways, there you go, just some nerd’s dream of a cool new game mode. I’m sure Bungie may not even notice this, but eh, I did this for me, not them lol. By all means, share your thoughts if you have any and if you want to be harsh and criticize how crappy it sounds and where the faults lie (“It’ll never happen because Bungie doesn’t take the community’s ideas!”) then by all means, fire away. :D