Today, we fix Iron Banner. (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, October 16, 2017, 07:37 (2396 days ago) @ ManKitten
edited by CruelLEGACEY, Monday, October 16, 2017, 08:13

Iron Banner was rather disappointing for me but I don't want to just be a hater complainer. Instead, let's discuss how it could be better.

Also, I believe this is not the true Iron Banner they want to present to us. Since the PC version is not out yet, they are probably holding some stuff back. Once PC releases, there may be a busted dam of content that floods our machines, who knows.

So I have no more info than anyone else does, but I wouldn't hold my breath. It just doesn't seem realistic to me. I think we would have heard about any PC-related content release by now if there were one coming.

But anyway...my thoughts.

Tokens and Ranking - I didn't mind tokens and thought they were a decent way to rank up. It seemed I could complete daily challenges within 1-3 games. Just from challenges alone, you could get 21 tokens. Even if you lost those three games that's 27 tokens, so it was possible to complete 2 ranks (with the assumption that you could win at least 1 of 4 games.)(Edit: don't critique my math skills)

Rewards - This is where it really hurt. I really wanted some samurai armor! I turned in 10 packages and got a helmet and a cloak. The rest was duplicate weapons. Lame. It totally makes sense to have a challenge for 10 levels...and also offer 10 rewards. 1 per level. Why is this not the case! To me there is a difference between farming and grinding. Farming is fun, I'm playing and working the fields knowing that come harvest there will be great reward. Grinding is playing despite fun for the sole purpose of end reward. After rank 4, Iron Banner was a grind. It wasn't particularly fun. And since I had a better winning record going in solo vs with friends...it was lonely. Then after completing the 10 rank challenge, the prize was an emblem. whoopty doo.

Yeah, they sort of took D1 Iron Banner and inverted what worked/didn't work about it IMO. I loved the fact that the challenges are now based on individual performance, rather than wins/losses. I also loved that you earned tokens after every game... giving more tokens to the winning team seams like a totally fair way to incentivize winning without making those who have fallen out of favor with the matchmaking gods feel stuck.
But, I did miss being able to work towards specific pieces of gear. I was hoping that after reaching Rank 10, Saladin would have a small selection of gear available to purchase.

Season 1 - Is this the only Iron Banner in Season 1? Will I get another chance to earn Samurai armor? How long is a season?

Power Levels - Why no power levels all of sudden? Could this be related to the PC release?

If I had to guess, I'd say Bungie perhaps felt that making power levels apply to PvP didn't actually add anything interesting or fun to the game.

Gametypes - So we have crucible. We have trials of Nine. We have Iron Banner. All of them are 4v4 with essentially the same games. What's the point? Where is the variety? One of the things I've been curious about with Destiny PvP and their comment "[paraphrase] we want to unhide the fun"...how come this doesn't apply to PvP. Bungie used to have so many PvP gametypes. Capture the Flag, Oddball, King of the Hill, Juggernaut, Headhunter, so many gametypes that could work so well in Destiny. And the Iron Banner playlist would be the perfect place for them. These strange and rare gametypes would ONLY be in Iron Banner.
"Capture the Core" - Team A has to infiltrate Team B base to steal their power core and return it to A base.
"Bestowed Light" - Free for all game with an oracle of light. Whoever picks up the oracle has infinite light until death and they drop the oracle. 5 points for killing the bestowed, 1 point for killing as the bestowed.
And so on.

Great point. I actually had way more fun with Iron Banner this week than I ever had with IB in Destiny 1, but on the flip side, I think Trials has been quite thoroughly ruined. 4v4 Control just seems to be a nice fit for the IB event, IMO. But I do feel the lack of 3v3 game modes is a big omission. I always felt that 6v6 was way too chaotic and sloppy in D1, but I'd be interested to see how it plays in D2 now that ability cooldowns are more substantial and the overall time to kill is slightly longer.