Overview
The Vex Collective in Destiny 2 had some minor updates from the original Destiny, receiving a smaller amount of development time and resources similar to the Hive. While the Red Legion were more of a new faction with heavy emphasis on new units and abilities, the provided goals were to improve upon and update existing Vex. The Vex are a robotic hive mind race notable for being the only race to not attempt to take cover when damaged. They tend to march forward and push player space a little more aggressively, applying pressure with their unrelenting nature and refusal to retreat.
As always, development is a team effort, and I cannot take sole credit for anything; with that being said, here are some examples of notable design work I contributed in updating the Vex.
A Vex Hobgoblin with VFX I created indicating that their shield ability is charged.
Hobgoblin
The Hobgoblin is a medium health specialist combatant usually equipped with a sniper rifle.
Hobgoblins have a defensive shielding ability:
While the shield ability is charged, the Hobgoblin lights up a bright orange. If damaged without being killed while the shield is charged, the Hobgoblin will brace and become immune for a short time, damaging nearby players and healing. This same ability existed in the original Destiny, but in Destiny 2 I pushed for and created a much stronger VFX language for when the shield was charged and able to be used.
In the original Destiny, it was much more difficult to tell when the shield ability was available, encouraging players to act as if any Hobgoblin had the shield charged unless the player actively saw the shield just end. This led to a negative player experience of shooting the Hobgoblin then feeling forced to wait while still aiming at the enemy, as opposed to the desired feeling that players can outsmart the ability by damaging the Hobgoblin, focusing on other targets briefly, then returning to finish the Hobgoblin off. Updating the readability of the shield's availability and significantly increasing the cooldown of the ability allows the shield to feel less like the proper player response is "wait", and pushes the ability towards the desired "ping and come back" gameplay.
Harpy (Laser Weapon)
The Harpy is a suppressive unit that does not attack until it finds a stationary location to open up and fire from.
Vex Harpies are the primary carrier of a new Vex laser weapon I designed:
The laser weapon --which can infrequently be seen equipped by the Hobgoblin and other Vex combatants -- has a wide horizontal sweep. The beam damages stationary players reliably, but tracks moving targets poorly. Players are encouraged to continue moving to avoid continual damage from the laser, and skilled players can react to the direction of the sweep or jump to completely avoid all damage. The laser weapon took some resourceful usage of tech built for the Red Legion sniper rifle laser sight to get around strict performance limitations on enemy projectile counts.
A laser firing version of the Vex Harpy, identifiable as a laser version by the purple coloration.
A Vex Fanatic
Fanatic
The Vex Fanatic is a suicide exploder unit.
When a Fanatic get close enough to their target or otherwise dies, they will explode dealing high damage to any nearby players or combatants. After exploding, Fanatics leave an AoE pool on the ground for a short time (~6 seconds) which damages any combatants or players. Fanatics are unique among exploder units in Destiny 2 in that they can also shoot while approaching and for the aforementioned damage pool.
Fanatics are high priority targets that also offer a strong moment of opportunity to kill them near or in the path of other Vex units, due to their explosion and pool harming Vex combatants as well. The area of denial pool can restrict movement and cover options, so players are encouraged to take out the Fanatics before they move into a player's safe encounter space.