Bungie Ride Along: Cosmodrome - Recap

Bungie is about to do another Ride Along on Mars. For those who haven't seen the last Ride Along in Old Russia, or simply want a refresher, here's a recap!

This edition of the Bungie Ride Along was in the Cosmodrome. Nearly every area in the Cosmodrome was covered in some way or the other on the walking tour lead by DeeJ and Lead World Artist Rob Adams. There was also an amazing amount of concept art and in-progress renders that were shown during the nearly two-hour stream.

General
To start off, Lead World Artist Rob Adams talked about some general thoughts that inspired the look and feel of the Cosmodrome. The designers wanted to create an area depicting what they believed an area like the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan might look like 30-40 years into the future. But, to bring this in line with the story of Destiny, they also wanted to evoke feelings and imagery of nature ascendent over humanity. This is a popular theme of Destiny's design, so this element was crucial to the overall setting. Throughout the Cosmodrome, we can see that many of the structures and facilities are damaged simply by the passage of time, not by any human means. This explains the stark lack of things like holes left from bullets and grenade explosions and the overwhelming presence of elements like rust, collapsing structures, and similar things.

On the subject of why Russia was picked as a location, Rob Adams stated that it made sense from a realistic point of view and that it was important to have a familiar location in order to make the invading forces (the Fallen and Hive) seem appropriately more alien and invasive

The Steppes
The look of the rock formations in this area of the Cosmodrome were influenced by rock formations in the real-life Kazakh Steppe. This resulted in a look that was not only geographically accurate, but also visually appealing and suitable for creating "pockets" for encounters with Fallen enemies.

Transition Spaces
These are the smaller areas between the larger areas of the map. Examples include the large dip between the Steppes and Mothyards, the Lunar Complex, the winding canyon between Mothyards and Forgotten Shore, and Dock 13. Smaller areas such as these provide a memory buffer between the larger areas of the Cosmodrome and helped make the game feasible on last generation consoles.

The Divide
The working name for the Divide was simply "Graveyard." Rob Adams said that this originated from the original backstory of the area, which meant for the area to be the scene of a battle between the Cosmodrome's para-militarized security forces and an annexed civilian population desperately trying to board a Colony Ship to leave Earth during the Collapse. The original intent was to scatter numerous civilian vehicles around this area, similar to the area outside of the Wall where players start the game. Unfortunately, this was scaled back due to a number of reasons, including limited memory space and artistic reasons.

This brought up the question, "So, was the Wall meant to keep out the Fallen or the Human population?" According to Rob Adams, the answer is that it was meant to be ambiguous, and that a case could be made for either. Perhaps one day we'll find out more in regards to this backstory.

The Skywatch
The backstory of the Skywatch is that this is the location where communications between Earth and its various colonies were sent and received. This explains the numerous satellite dishes that can be seen throughout the area.

Forgotten Shore
This area was loosely inspired by the Aral Sea, even though in real life it is quite a distance from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. One way the design team wanted to show that much time had passed between the Collapse and the current time in the game was through the apparent change in bodies of water. The grounded ships imply that the water level was once much higher, giving depth and longevity to the area's history. 

Miscellaneous
During the stream, both DeeJ and Rob Adams briefly touched on a few unrelated things. Rob Adams noted during a fight against a Devil Walker that Bungie is aiming to make more bosses like the Devil Walker in terms of things like boss phases and player engagement.  

A viewer asked if we will ever be able to visit the Last City, to which Rob Adams said that there are many people at Bungie who would like to. This could mean that something like this is being considered for future Destiny titles or even expansions.

When asked about the origin of the name "Jovian Complex" and it's relation to Xur (who is a Jovian), they both almost immediately said they couldn't answer or even comment on the matter.