[quote]I'd much rather hear your thoughts on the specific things that came with the podcast.[/quote]Which is fine, it's just not a realistic expectation to set for myself after spending 4 hours straight transcribing shit :) [quote]On how hand cannons will work as primaries, the weapon slots and each sub category within them.[/quote]So it's interesting because I was mulling over the Hand Cannon in my head as I was writing a different thread that might hopefully come out in the next week (though now I need to maybe redesign some of the talking points with regards to the new information on investment). I was trying to think of the loadouts I would use for a versatile all-range Titan in Destiny, and I found myself thinking "Wow, it feels like a ton of people are going to end up using the Hand Cannon because the Shotgun might be too close for most builds, and who knows what the hell Fusion Rifles are supposed to do from a functional sandbox standpoint?". It's not like the Hand Cannon fills an unusual niche, it does conceptually make more sense as a primary weapon than just some secondary weapon that everybody is dragging around. I've expressed my concern over Snipers in the past, and it surprised me to hear that they were moved from the Heavy Slot (where I had predicted they would be) to the Special Slot. This isn't to say that I don't trust Bungie to do what is right for their game, I just understand that it would possibly be a very tricky thing to balance given all the problems that can be created when players are spawning with full-ammo'd Snipers, and I'm very curious to see what they've implemented to offset those problems. I wonder if they nerfed some of the power of Snipers to compensate for the fact that you now start with ammo for it, and if so, how. I've got ideas, but I'd like to ruminate over it a little bit as I know it would be a touchy subject. I also feel that the departure of the Sniper from the Heavy Weapons leaves a bit of an unsatisfying void in the Heavy Weapon Category, 3 options as opposed to 2 is just so much cleaner and nicer looking with regards to build variety. Perhaps there are some oddball weapons we'll find that fit into the Heavy Weapon slot but not the two major archetypes, or perhaps Bungie is holding something back, but I don't believe the latter based on how candidly Tyson was naming off the different number of weapon types off the top of his head, it's not like he was carefully saying numbers to try to dance around what the community knows and doesn't know. [quote]What preconceptions did you have that were shattered?[/quote]Mostly things like "Update: Handcannons are Primary and Snipers are special!" I suppose it's better to say that I heard a lot of exciting things in this Podcast. For one, my personal fantasy of a Titan has always involved ending somebody's day with a well placed shoulder charge, so I am estatic that Bungie has decided to include tools for that archetype in Destiny, and I am now eager to hear more. Affirming that they're planning to dynamically support Destiny's Metagame well after launch is also very good news, it's what a game like this needs in order to survive and hopefully it will lead to more interesting communication between the developers and the community like it does on the League of Legends forums. In general there were a lot of little details that came together to help flesh out our vision of what Destiny might become, I still need to digest / remember more of what was said.

I don't think special weapons spawn with ammo. At least not in PvP. I remember a podcast where thy stated the easiest way to get [i]primary [/i] ammo is to die. Nowhere did they mention of spawning with special ammo. So, I don't think you'll find people spawning with sniper ammo. My concern is with hand cannons going to primary. Something about hand cannons made bungie put them with shotguns snd the mystery fusion rifles. Shotguns are considered a power weapon, lumping hand cannon in there must mean it is at the very least poised to be a power weapon. The same concern you have for the sniper I now have for the hand cannon. Except we know you spawn with primary ammo. Where as I don't think you spawn with special ammo.