[quote][b]4) 25 Sub-Exotic Equipment Abilities from the Alpha[/b][/quote]Unfortunately my notetaking was not meticulous enough to include the original combination of abilities I found on each specific item nor the equipment tiers that each ability was found on, but I hope that the reader can quickly get a general idea of Destiny's most basic triggered and passive abilities by reading through the following section, which I will lightly annotate. We'll begin with a few of the more basic weapon abilities: [quote]1) Kills with this weapon grant bonus damage for a short time.[/quote][quote]2) Kills with this weapon increase reload speed for a short time.[/quote][quote]3) Kills with this weapon reduces the cooldown of your grenade.[/quote][Trigger] causes [Effect]. Simple, right? The triggers themselves really could be any verb or action that takes place while using a weapon, for example: [quote]4) Precision kills with this weapon dramatically increase reload speed.[/quote]Presumably a precision shot is an accuracy reliant shot that damages a weakpoint for increased damage. For most enemies, this would probably come in the form of a headshot. An ability like this is perhaps harder to trigger than an ability which requires generic kills, but the payoff would hypothetically be stronger because of the added layer of difficulty to activate. [quote]5) Body shots with this weapon increase precision damage for a short time.[/quote]Likewise, I'd assume that body shots are any type of shot that doesn't cause increased damage from hitting a weak point. That sorta makes this particular ability interesting, it encourages players to hit enough body shots before capitalizing on the bonus precision damage to go for some headshots to finish off the kill. [quote]6) Melee kills increase the reload speed of this weapon for a short time.[/quote]The perfect ability to have when you find yourself out of ammo and you have to club someone to death, am I right? That way you'll be able to quickly reload and swap out of "desperately melee for life" mode. [quote]7) Causing damage with this weapon increases its stability.[/quote]Stability was a statistic which affected the degree to which your weapon recoiled when you shot it if memory serves. The more accurate you are, the more accurate you are. Funny how tautology works that way. [quote]8) Reloading this weapon grants a damage bonus for a short time.[/quote]Not all triggers need to revolve around death and damage, this ability is interesting because it rewards the player for reloading just prior to combat. If you reload too early, the effect might wear off and you won't get the full benefit, if you reload too late, your opponent will get a few shots off on you before you can return fire. [quote]9) Kills with this weapon grant bonus ammo, directly to the magazine.[/quote]This ability was found on a particularly frightening legendary shotgun. As the ability says, the ammo you gain goes directly to your magazine, so it allows you fight for longer without having to reload. [quote]10) Kills with this weapon grant bonus reserve ammo.[/quote]In contrast, this ability gives you more total ammo, so it's more useful for long term engagements than it is for short term engagements. [quote]11) Expect to find more ammo for this weapon.[/quote]Along with the previous two abilities, this is a good example of an ability which can range in power depending upon what type of weapon it is placed on. The ability might not be noticed or appreciated on a primary weapon as players are usually given an abundant supply of primary ammo, but on a special weapon and especially on a heavy weapon this ability really spikes in appeal and power. [quote]12) The last round in a magazine deals bonus damage.[/quote][quote]13) The bottom half of each magazine causes additional damage.[/quote]I rather like the style of these two abilities and their no doubt numerous cousins. Placing special abilities on specific bullets or specific parts of the magazine creates climax moments during combat which creates interesting decisions for players. Do you purposely waste ammo to get closer to the special bullets? Or do you ignore it and treat it as a nice occasional bonus? It also allows powerful abilities to exist that would otherwise be obnoxious if they triggered with every bullet fired. [quote]14) One random bullet in the magazine causes considerable bonus damage.[/quote]This last variant is interesting, because usually randomness is an undesirable aspect in a competitive game, but at the very least the ability is consistently random. No matter how many times you reload, you are guaranteed that only one bullet in your magazine will deal bonus damage, and because of that fact you can predict and adjust your expectations as you burn through your magazine. Whether or not the ability is successful will depend on how reliable players feel that weapon is, though it would help tremendously if there was a visual cue to warn you when you've reached the location of your special shot. ____________________________________________________________ The next couple of abilities were all found on various types of armor. Their triggers tended to be more broad than the triggers found on weapons, and usually revolved around general actions completed as a player. [quote]15) Increased reload speed with scout rifles.[/quote][quote]16) Carry more ammo for shotgun.[/quote]These two were the most common abilities I found on Armor during the Alpha, and came in a variety of flavors for the different weapon archetypes. Finding the variant that matches your favorite loadout type might be a pain, but it's presumably worth it, I unfortunately didn't do much testing to see just how impactful each ability was. [quote]17) Grenade hits restore melee energy.[/quote][quote]18) Increased grenade throw distance.[/quote][quote]19) Increased melee attack speed.[/quote]While it would make sense for these sorts of abilities appear on arm armor, I actually found some of them on helmets. It shows that Bungie isn't going to let thematic cohesion get in the way of creating enticing pieces of armor. [quote]20) Replenish health when you pick up an orb.[/quote]Picking up an orb refers to collecting the orbs of light that are generated when an ally uses his super to vanquish enemies. Usually these orbs significantly reduce the cooldown on your super, but by wearing armor with this flavor of trigger, there are other bonus effects which encourage you to stick close to your fire team. I am curious to see if replenishing health includes shields, and if the effect is instantaneous or more gradual. [quote]21) More super energy from non-guardian kills.[/quote]Abilities which shave time off of your Super's cooldown are powerful for obvious reasons, and this one is interesting in particular because it's the only ability I've seen which tries to create a separation between the Crucible (where Guardian kills are frequent) and the rest of the game (where there are no Guardian kills). I have mixed feelings on that, but I'm curious to see if there will be other abilities which are triggered on specific enemy types. ____________________________________________________________ The final few abilities were all rather interesting ones I found on weapons, some of them thanks to my Decoherent Engram shopping spree. [quote]22) This weapon grows more accurate the longer it is fired.[/quote]Presumably accuracy in this case refers to the spread of the bullets. I'm curious to see if this ability causes any weird metagame tactics where you preemptively fire the weapon to increase its accuracy by the time you pop out from cover. [quote]23) Slide further while this weapon is equipped.[/quote]Mobility is always a fun aspect of any action game, and I imagine that abilities which impact your mobility will be rather popular amongst players. [quote]24) This weapon can be fired in full auto mode.[/quote]Remember the aforementioned frightening legendary shotgun which gave you ammo directly to the magazine for bonus kills? This was its second ability. Very terrifying. [quote]25) Radar stays active while aiming down this weapon's sights.[/quote]While Destiny’s radar isn’t as powerful as Halo’s radar, an ability like this would be hyper useful on any weapon for which you want to spend the majority of your time aiming down sights. ____________________________________________________________ Hopefully the reader can see how these basic building blocks add additional decisions and considerations to the standard gameplay in rather natural and interesting ways. Remember though, this is merely the tip of the iceberg, from here on out the abilities that we expect to see on exotics are only going to get stronger and crazier. What might Destiny’s end game have in store for us? [b]Destiny Speculation: Exotic Abilities continues on the next post. [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/65973166]Please click this Hyperlink to continue reading![/url][/b] [spoiler][b]Table of Contents 1) [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/65973135/0/0]Introduction[/url] 2) [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/65973146]Closing Time: a Case Study[/url] 3) [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/65973153] A Brief Intermission and Apology[/url] 4) >> 25 Sub-Exotic Abilities from the Alpha << 5) [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/65973166]Exotic Abilities[/url] 6) [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/65973172]Epilogue[/url][/b][/spoiler]