Public Events are one of the biggest tools in Destiny that Bungie can use to bring players together and breathe life into their universe. The example Public Event that we saw in the E3 Demo was fairly simplistic: Simply kill the Fallen that get dropped into the local area; but Public Events have the potential to be very intricate and bring all sorts of experiences to life if they are well designed. So Community, what sort of encounters would you like to see in Destiny? Below is an example Public Event that I came up with a few days ago to illustrate a particular concept in a different thread:[quote][b]PUBLIC EVENT: Downed Research Ship[/b] Several scientific vessels and their escort have been downed by Fallen Patrols and have crash landed near your position. Find the main research ship and protect them from repeated Fallen Assault while they make critical repairs. A side objective requires a smaller group to split off from the main defense force to fan out and locate the other ships that crashed in the area so that survivors, critical data, or parts neccessary to speed up repairs on the main ship might be located.[/quote]It's not that hard to come up with these sorts of Public Events, first, think of an Experience (Like a crash landed ship, a natural disaster, or a terrorist plot), then think of objectives and mechanics that would arise out of and reinforce that Experience. Think of where your Public Event would take place, and think of how your Public Event would be memorable and interesting. Here are other things to consider while you design your Public Event: [b]> Is the Public Event optional?[/b] [spoiler]Destiny is a game with a ton of different things to do, and Bungie doesn't particularly want to force players into doing things they aren't interested in. Especially for solo players, the idea of public events might not be all that appealing, and so they should be able to avoid them if at all possible. For example, if you don't want to help aid in the rescue of the downed research vessel, you need not follow the Distress Beacon.[/spoiler][b]> Does the Public Event promote teamwork?[/b] [spoiler]One of the core design philosophies of Destiny is that everything that is fun to do alone is even more fun when you do it with other people. Public Events should promote teamwork and communication in interesting ways. For example, to have a complete victory in this Public Event, the main ship must be defended successfully, and all the escort ships must be located and stripped of survivors / data / parts. Coordination between the search parties and the main defense force is crucial to success, certain waves of Fallen might be so strong that the search parties need to be called back to the ship to help hold the line, or during a lighter wave a portion of the defense force could head in a new direction while a search party cycles back to the ship to replace them, speeding up the process overall.[/spoiler][b]> Does the Public Event promote different playstyles?[/b] [spoiler]There's a lot of different people who will play Destiny, and different people will enjoy different aspects of the game. If you're a fan of heavy combat, defending the main Research Vessel will be right up your alley, as the majority of the Fallen forces will be funneled to your position. If you're more into scouting, light skirmishes, and exploration, being a part of the search party might be more appealing. The best Public Events I think will be the ones that offer a ton of different objectives and tasks that force you to use your entire skill set.[/spoiler][b]> Can the difficulty of the Public Event be easily scaled up and down?[/b][spoiler]The best Public Event should be very dynamic with regards to their difficulty. A Public Event that is challenging for 8 players to clear might be impossible for 3 players to complete, and super easy for 16 players to finish. Or, a Public Event that is hard on eight medium leveled Guardians might be a breeze for four high leveled players. These Public Areas are presumably a melting pot of all sorts of players of different experience, equipment levels, and so on and so forth, and Public Events should be able to scale themselves to accomidate many different groups. For example, with my Public Event, you can easily increase or decrease the number of crashed escort ships to increase or decrease the need to have search parties, and you can always increase or decrease the size of the Fallen waves to increase or decrease the difficulty for the main defense group.[/spoiler]I'm really curious to see what sort of experiences you guys think would fit into the world of Destiny, and I'm interested in seeing how you guys go about bringing those experiences to life with different objectives and mechanics. Good luck!