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30 September 2021
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This Week At Bungie - 9/30/2021

This week at Bungie, we introduced our new D&I club.

The TWAB must go on. We are deep into Season of the Lost now. New secrets are unfolding in the Shattered Realm each week and the plot is thickening up real nice. We don't want to spoil anything here but make sure you are keeping up with Seasonal quest and give Crow a hug for us.

This week the Iron Banner rages on. In case you missed it or haven't played this week. We increased the score target from 125 to 150 to match the base Control mode. We also adjusted the Mercy threshold to try and reduce the number of games that end shortly before a team reaches the score target. Let us know how these new changes feel. With Iron Banner being live this weekend we are giving Trials the weekend off. But we wanted to give one more update on how week three went.

Clinical Trials Debrief

Last weekend was the third weekend of our ongoing "test and learn." The two big changes this week were running the Trials Labs: Capture Zone mode and tweaking the flawless pool to enable Sunday morning at 10 AM. Here are some updates on what the data looked like in week three.

Solo win rate remained high at 27%. Solo blowout rate was 37% prior to enabling the flawless pool and dropped below 30% after. These are all consistent with week two.

Non-competitive matches (5-0/5-1) were at 55% on Friday/Saturday and dropped to 51% Sunday/Monday — very consistent overall with week two.

We saw solid sub-50-second matchmaking times all weekend, aside from early-in-card matchmaking protection causing a slight rise (up to 75s) during the middle of the night in North America on Sunday and Monday.

Overall, we had 667k players participating in Labs (down 33k from week two), with 220k players going flawless. We had 100k fewer matches played overall, which roughly the same average matches per player.

One dataset that is particularly informative is average hours played by skill. This shows us that the mid-range of skill (AKA "the average Crucible player") are playing 1.5 to 2 hours more on average! Meanwhile, the average hours played at the high end of the skill range has barely changed.

We did find one bug with the way the pool-based matchmaking interacts with disabled pools: it collapses them down into the previous pool. Unfortunately, the setup for aiding matchmaking for the first few wins of the week causes an unintentional 'flawless mini-pool' for the first two wins of the card. If you went flawless and are on win-0 or win-1 of your reset passage, you preferentially match against other flawless players in the same state. Once you get to win-2, this goes away.

And of course, starting at 10 AM on Sundays, the entire passage has preferential matchmaking against other flawless players. So, those of you who thought matchmaking got harder after going flawless on Friday/Saturday - even though the flawless pool wasn't on - you were right!

We are planning a fix in for this in the next few weeks.

This weekend is off for Iron Banner but the next few weekends will be back to standard Elimination, with the flawless pool starting Sunday at 10 AM. We know shaking it up every weekend has been a bit jarring and are looking to keep some consistency in the weeks ahead.

Labs Talk

The first weekend of Trials Labs went well. We played a lot, read a lot of feedback, talked to our friends and clanmates, and looked at the data. Analytically, the weeks looked very similar, and matches were slightly more competitive as players grappled with the new ruleset. Experientially, there are some changes we are looking at to make the mode better:

  • Find a different way to vary the capture zone location without giving positional advantage to either side.
    • Internally, we initially tested a single central zone but found that it created dull, repetitive games, as it always collapsed the usable map space to that central location.
    • The current method uses the central tiebreaker position as center, and A/C positions from Control during advantage rounds. We used those points to get the mode into testing quicker, but unfortunately that had the side effect of giving one side an advantage. We liked the dynamism that created when we playtested internally, and that might be a good mechanism in a less competitive mode, but we heard you loud and clear - THAT significant of an advantage is too much for Trials of Osiris.
    • We are looking at authoring additional neutral capture locations in a few maps to support further Labs this Season. We may still play around with a milder advantage position to use in extreme cases depending on the map, but we want to make sure we have at least three neutral locations.
  • Remove the 'gain Super energy on capture' from the capture zone.
    • This, specifically after an elimination, leads to more snowballing.

These changes are going to need more work and playtesting than the changes we have been making so far - we are looking to get something ready for another run at Trials Labs: Capture Zone as early as December.

Disability Awareness

At Bungie, we believe that everyone should be able to play our games, regardless of a barrier or disability they may have. October is Disability History Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month in the United States, which is held annually to increase awareness and understanding of the contributions made by persons with disabilities.

Yesterday, we announced our newest inclusion Club, Accessibility@Bungie. Their mission is to partner with organizations within the gaming industry who are dedicated to game accessibility. This club has worked closely with several teams here at Bungie to create our Diversity and Inclusion pin series for the Bungie Store entitled "Everyone Can Play." An emblem of the same name will also be included.



The pin and emblem feature an open door that leads out into the world, symbolizing that there are no barriers and that possibilities are endless. Throughout the month of October, 100% of profits from the pin's sales will be benefit the AbleGamers Foundation. This organization creates opportunities that enable play to combat social isolation, fosters inclusive communities, and improves the quality of life for people with disabilities. After October, profits will be collected by the Bungie Foundation to distribute to other organizations that do accessibility-related work.

The pin and emblem will be added to the Bungie Store on October 1. Be sure to check out the Bungie Store tomorrow and follow them @BungieStore on Twitter for when it gets added.

Fashionistas


Last week, we announced our first digital fashion magazine called Threads of Light. We also kicked off a brand-new fashion show to start our search for who will be on the next cover. Our feeds are fashion packed right now and we wanted to share a couple of winners so far.












All these posts will be receiving an emblem, but we still haven't chosen the Hunter, Warlock, and Titan that will grace the cover of the next edition of Threads of Light. It's not too late to throw your fancy hat into the ring. You have until the end of today to post your Guardian's appearance page with #ThreadsOfLight to be eligible to win.

GM Time

Next week, Grandmaster difficulty unlocks for Nightfalls. First up this Season, you will be going into The Hollowed Lair to face off against The Fanatic and his horde of Scorn. Be careful, dead thing, as the Scorn have recently discovered ways to wield Stasis. Things might get a little icy out there.

If this is your first go in the realm of Grandmaster difficulty, the Power bar is set high for this aspirational activity. Make sure you have those numbers pumped up to 1345 to get started. Trying to catch up? Snag some bounties, complete your seasonal challenges, and earn as many Pinnacle-powered rewards as you can. Iron Banner is all the rage this week, so make sure to complete all four Pinnacle bounties before Lord Saladin packs up shop!

Later in the Season, we will be making some changes to Grandmasters and their accessibility. We mentioned these changes in a previous TWAB and upon re-reading them some of the bullets, we realize it may have looked like these changes were going live in tandem with Grandmasters becoming available this Season. Apologies if we caused any confusion but the following changes are coming in an update currently planned for December.

Here's a quick recap of what's coming:

  • The Grandmaster catch-up node will become available at the same time Grandmaster difficulty is available, so long as you have the Conqueror title but have not yet gilded it this Season.
    • Grandmasters will have already gone live by the time this change comes later in the Season, but the catch-up node will be available when Grandmasters first start in Seasons going forward.
  • Each Grandmaster Nightfall will be available if the fireteam leader has not completed the gilding Triumph for that strike during the Season.
  • In other words, you may play each featured strike for a Season to earn your gilded title.
  • Once you've gilded your title, the catch-up node will no longer be available.

In terms of loot, there aren't any major changes happening. Completing Grandmaster Nightfalls gives you the chance to earn Adept variants of Nightfall specific weapons, such as the Palindrome Hand Cannon or the newly released Hothead Rocket Launcher. Players may also earn Enhancement Cores, Prisms, and Ascendant Shards for their efforts. We recently made a change where Adept weapon mods for Impact, Charge Time, Blast Radius, and Projectile Speed can now be acquired from Grandmaster Nightfalls in addition to Trials of Osiris and raids.

Good luck out there, Guardians. Fireteam up and take on the Darkness. Don't feel shame if you need some guidance, mind you. There are plenty of creators throughout our community that are eager to provide tips, tricks, and in-depth guides to help you on your way to the Conqueror title.

Wake Me Up When September Ends


Now we turn it over to our trusted experts on the Player Support team with an important update on the state of the live game.

This is their report.

BUNGIE NAMES AND THE CODE OF CONDUCT

Earlier this week, many Bungie Names that players have been using since Season of the Lost began were removed and changed to "Guardian." This change occurred due to players attempting to bypass our filters and Code of Conduct.

Players will be able to change their Bungie Name sometime later in the Season.

KNOWN ISSUES

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:
  • We're aware of player reports claiming that Nothing Manacles isn't working as intended. This is under investigation.
  • Players having issues unlocking an entry in the Ripples lore book may need to wait in the H.E.L.M. until the entry unlocks.
  • Step 43/53 of the Wayfinder's Voyage quests continuously points players to the Portal regardless of what side they are on. To complete this step, players should make their way to Savathûn's location.
  • If players abandon Wayfinder's Voyage on step 19/53, they are unable to complete it when they reacquire it.


For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Wide Angle Lens


I don't have any extravagant stories this week. Let's just get straight to the movies.

Movie of the Week: "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Movie of the Week: Title 2

Our winners are taking home a special emblem, so please make sure you put your Bungie.net profile link in the description of your video. If you have a cool video idea and want to be considered for a future MOTW, just post it somewhere we might see it, the Creations Page is always a great choice.

Rendering

Welcome to our own weekly art gallery. This is where we take a moment to enjoy the arts of the community and pick a few of our favorite community created masterpieces to share. Here are our favorites this week.

Art of the Week: Warlock life

Art of the Week: Lookbook looks

Congratulations to the winners! If you won, please make sure you reply to your post with a link to your Bungie.net profile so we know where to send your new emblem.

What a week. The fashion game is strong, Iron Banner bounties are live, and the Season of the Lost narrative is zigging, zagging, and tugging at the heartstrings.

We also shared an update from our CEO, Pete Parsons, on our continued efforts to improve diversity and inclusion within our company and the industry. We have been far from perfect in these areas and you can read about our commitment to be better going forward here.

We hope you are doing well wherever you are. Have a great week both in and out of the game.

<3 Cozmo

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