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The State of Destiny 2 (Destiny)

by bluerunner @, Music City, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 14:56 (2550 days ago)

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Full unformatted text.

by Funkmon @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:06 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

Unformatted text:

Hey everyone,

With Destiny 2’s console and PC launches behind us, we want to take some time to talk with you about Destiny 2 – specifically where it’s at today, and where it’s going. Our team has been reading feedback and working on updates to improve the game. We’ve also been reading some tough criticism about our lack of communication, and we agree we need to be more open.

Going forward, Destiny 2’s post-launch game systems, features, and updates are being designed specifically to focus on and support players who want Destiny to be their hobby – the game they return to, and a game where friendships are made. We want Destiny to be a game that fits into your life, providing you with reasons to log in and play with your friends, clans, and families. We want Destiny to be a world you want to be a part of.

A month ago, we published a list of improvements on the blog. Today, we’re going to revisit that list and update its status, and share some of the work the team is readying for December, January, and beyond.

We know it’s frustrating when there isn’t enough of a dialog with the development team. You have our commitment that we’re going to do a better job going forward.

- Luke Smith & Chris Barrett


Upcoming Updates Overview

We previously published a list of upcoming Destiny 2 improvements we want to deliver. Some of these updates will be introduced on December 5 and December 12. Others will land in the New Year.

New systems and rewards to give our most engaged players additional, optional pursuits, including:
A new Weapon Tier: Masterworks, which will feature stat trackers, random, re-rollable stat bonuses, unique item tooltips, and item details screens (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
Improved vendor rewards, adding ways for people to purchase items directly with their Legendary Shards and Tokens (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
Adding Armor Ornaments that grant visual permutations of armor as players complete specific Challenges (see the December Update Details section below for more info)

Better incentives for players who complete challenging Prestige activities
We’re targeting a January update to provide better incentives to complete Prestige activities

Better rewards and replay value for Strikes, Adventures, and Lost Sectors
In December, we will be introducing a Heroic Strikes playlist and more generous Strike rewards
Rewards for Adventures and Lost Sectors are still on our radar, but will not be delivered for our December updates

Private matches for the Crucible
Still targeting early 2018 and expect to have better insight into exact timing in the New Year
We are also moving Ranked PVP to the top of our priority list for next year to support the competitive community

Crucible tuning like adjusted Supremacy scoring and better spawning rules
In December, we will introduce additional updates and bug-fixes intended to improve these areas of the Crucible

Better incentives for completing Crucible matches (and penalties for quitting competitive games)
A "Quitter Penalty" system is currently in development, and you can expect an update on the deployment of this system in the New Year

Continued improvements to Iron Banner and Faction Rallies, including uniqueness of rewards
The next Iron Banner and Faction Rally will introduce improvements in both these areas (see the December Update Details section below for more info)

Changes to make the mod economy more interesting and impactful
The Gunsmith will have some updates to how Mods are acquired (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
We are exploring more updates to this system in the New Year

Ongoing improvements to Exotics, including adjustments to reduce instances of duplication
We plan to tune under-performing Exotics and will continue to make targeted updates and improvements
Duplication protection will be added for Exotics in the New Year

New ways to spend surplus currency and materials (looking at you Legendary Shards)
Players will be able to spend Tokens and Legendary Shards on Vendor inventory (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
Xur will have new items, as well (see the December Update Details section below for more info)

An emote interface that allows players to equip Salty, Spicy Ramen, Six Shooter, and Flip Out all at the same time
Emote interface improvements are still on the list, and you can expect an update on the development of this system in the New Year

We will continue to revisit and update this list in the weeks and months ahead to keep you up to speed on what we’re working on. Below, you’ll find more specific detail about each of the features and updates you can expect to land in December.


December Update Details

There are four key areas we’re targeting for improvements in December. Some of these updates will arrive with the December 5 update, and some additional updates will be included in a patch that will be deployed the following week on December 12.

Both updates combined include improvements set against the following goals:
Deepen Rewards for advanced players
Provide More Player Control over obtaining rewards
Make Shards Useful by adding things to use them for
Provide General Quality fixes wherever possible

The following changes are the first steps towards achieving these goals, with more planned for our next release in January. Here is a preview of impending changes to Destiny 2. Each category is marked with a forecast delivery date.

Masterworks


[DEC 12] Legendary Weapons will drop as or be upgraded to become Masterworks versions
Masterworks will have a few advantages over the baseline Legendary weapon:
Track and display the number of kills with that weapon (with choice between total count or Crucible-only count)
Generate orbs for you and your allies on multi-kills
Add weapon stat bonuses that are selected randomly from a small pool and are re-rollable
Masterworks drop from any source of Legendary weapons for characters above 250 Power
Unwanted Masterworks can be dismantled into materials that can upgrade an existing Legendary Weapon into a Masterwork
Raid and Trials of the Nine Weapons will have a very high chance to be Masterworks
We have future plans to extend Masterworks to other gear and expose your kill counts in more places (e.g. Crucible kill screen)

Armor Ornaments


[DEC 5] Armor Ornaments will be added to some existing Armor sets for more visual customization without losing your Shaders or Mods
These ornaments will be unlocked by completing objectives specific to each set, and are permanently unlocked account-wide, just like Exotic Weapon ornaments
They will be applied to the base pieces that you may already have collected, and can now unlock on Vendors if not
In Season 2, the following sets have ornaments unlocked in their respective activities:
Vanguard Faction Armor
Crucible Faction Armor
Trials of the Nine Armor
Iron Banner Armor
Dead Orbit Armor
Future War Cult Armor
New Monarchy Armor
Eater of Worlds Raid Lair Armor

[DEC 12] Faction Armor and Weapons will be unlocked for purchase for Legendary Shards and Faction Tokens on most Faction Vendors
All five Armor Slots will always be present, and Weapons will rotate weekly on Factions that have them
Slots will be unlocked by claiming Reward Engrams from the respective Faction
You will get credit for engrams you may have already claimed since launch

[DEC 12] Xur has some new offerings for players collecting Exotics:
Every week, you’ll be able to acquire one of the new Fated Engrams using Legendary Shards that will decrypt as Exotics that aren’t already in your collection
A simpler Three of Coins that boosts Exotic drop rates from any source for 4 hours
No obscure stacking mechanics or need to re-apply before every boss
These cost Legendary Shards and you can have as many as you like

General Investment


[DEC 5] Banshee has some updates on the Weapon and Armor Mod front:
For players wanting to clear some Mod inventory space, Rare quality Mods will dismantle into Gunsmith Materials and have a chance to produce Legendary quality Mod Components
For players chasing specific Legendary Mods (including Legendary Kinetic Mods), Banshee will offer a selection of specific Legendary Mods for direct purchase, with a selection that will rotate daily and cost Legendary Shards and Mod Components

[DEC 5] For players chasing a world Legendary or looking for Masterworks, Master Rahool will sell some of his rumored hoard of Legendary Engrams for Legendary Shards

[DEC 12] Commander Zavala and Lord Shaxx will sell Gift consumables for Legendary Shards that can be used during a Strike or Crucible Match that will serve the following functions:
Grant bonus rewards to everyone in that activity upon completion, friend or foe alike
Award anything from Faction Tokens to a round of Exotics for everyone in the match

[DEC 12] Exploit safeguards on Chests and Resource Nodes are greatly relaxed and players should encounter them less frequently
Even if they do, drop rates for Tokens is only reduced to 30% instead of 0%, and Glimmer will be unaffected
We want to associate a visual indicator with this in a future update, but we weren’t able to pull that off in this update (but we hear you!)

[DEC 12] Vendors will now beckon you to hand in your Reputation Tokens only when you’re carrying enough to earn a Reward Engram

[DEC 5] Changes affecting Reputation Tokens:
Daily Challenges will have Reputation Token awards increased across the board
Cayde’s Treasure Chests still offer variable rewards, but now guarantee (at minimum) a payout of destination appropriate Reputation Tokens
Strikes will drop a larger number of Vanguard Reputation Tokens
Common quality Destination Resource Tokens will have their drop rates increased to 100%, and values per Token increased as well (by 50% for common quality Tokens and 250% for rare quality Tokens)
On the balance, Reputation required per Reward Engram will increase for Destination Factions (+37%) and Gunsmith (+50%)
Leviathan Raid Tokens will be redeemed at Benedict immediately upon obtaining a Token, instead of requiring a full clear before unlocking

With the launch of Curse of Osiris, and the beginning of Season 2, you can expect to see a full suite of patch notes that will document all of the changes outlined above, as well as additional gameplay and sandbox tuning changes the team is making to improve Destiny 2. We’ll also soon be providing pre-load and launch day details, as well as a roadmap for our Season 2 content, which includes The Dawning in mid-December.


XP Mechanics

Last weekend, we disabled a scaling mechanism that adjusted XP gains up and down without reflecting those adjustments in the UI. Our intention was to keep slower-paced activities as rewarding as high intensity grinding without confusing variations in displayed XP values, but the silent nature of the mechanic betrayed the expectation of transparency that you have for Destiny 2.

We were able to disable the system with a server-side change, but a new solution is now needed to rebalance XP in Destiny 2. We have begun that work, and will continue to provide updates to you about timelines and specifics. The values coded into our website API are being updated today (and may already have been as you read this post) to reflect the removal of this scaling mechanism. In a future update, we intend to link these internal and display-only values together for greater consistency, and to ensure that when changes are made they are accurately reflected everywhere we report them.

We already see that the newly adjusted 160K XP per level value means that leveling is too slow for some activities, and we have begun the process of collecting data and recalibrating XP earn rates to improve them as quickly as possible.

XP boosts, including both consumable items and passive bonuses like the Well Rested 300% bonus, were always applied after this system and never resulted in early slowing of XP. They should be unchanged by the disabling of this system and will continue to provide their stated increase in XP gain.

Expect to see a lot of conversation from our team on this front, as XP rewards are updated and brought back in-line with player expectations.


The Future

Going forward, we plan to continue this dialog as openly and frequently as possible. This will be an ongoing process, but one that we are committed to.

This week we’ll be publishing a new episode of the Bungie Podcast where we will sound off on the current state of Destiny 2, how we think about our communication challenges, and what it takes to update the game in the wild. You’ll be able to listen on both Apple and Android devices.

Thank you for playing, for being passionate about the Destiny 2 experience, and for working with us as we look to continuously improve our game and studio communication.

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Reaction

by Funkmon @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:13 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

Seems all right. Let's see if the weapon mods on the guns are any good. I have little to complain about here.

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by CyberKN ⌂ @, Oh no, Destiny 2 is bad, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:14 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

Like, really? You couldn't just buy gear from vendors with legendary marks?

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Yep

by unoudid @, Somewhere over the rainbow, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:15 (2550 days ago) @ CyberKN

- No text -

First reaction...

by Claude Errera @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:26 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

...early December is gonna be Christmas in Destiny.

'Seems' like good improvements

by DEEP_NNN, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:28 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

Being able to use earned Raid tokens without completing the Raid made me smile.

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+1

by breitzen @, Kansas, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:28 (2550 days ago) @ Claude Errera

And since they didn’t show us all the gear, we’ll get to be surprised!

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My favorite change

by stabbim @, Des Moines, IA, USA, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:36 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

[DEC 12] Vendors will now beckon you to hand in your Reputation Tokens only when you’re carrying enough to earn a Reward Engram

Excellent. No more yelling at Zavala.

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Whoever programmed that one needs a raise and a vacation.

by Funkmon @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:37 (2550 days ago) @ stabbim

- No text -

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Ranked PvP - 2018

by UnrealCh13f @, San Luis Obispo, CA, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:37 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

Hell yeah.

That's really all I need at this point.

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My favorite change

by Kermit @, Raleigh, NC, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 15:45 (2550 days ago) @ stabbim

[DEC 12] Vendors will now beckon you to hand in your Reputation Tokens only when you’re carrying enough to earn a Reward Engram

Excellent. No more yelling at Zavala.

Unless I'm mistaken, there already was a threshold. Do the vendor icons blink at you when you have only one or two tokens?

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I am intrigued. (Masterworks & Xur)

by INSANEdrive, ಥ_ಥ | f(ಠ‿↼)z | ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 16:05 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

- No text -

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First reaction...

by Korny @, Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 16:09 (2550 days ago) @ Claude Errera

...early December is gonna be Christmas in Destiny.

Sans Dawning event, but yeah.

"There will be a ton of loot!"

Regarding XP Buffs...

by EffortlessFury @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 16:15 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

XP boosts, including both consumable items and passive bonuses like the Well Rested 300% bonus, were always applied after this system and never resulted in early slowing of XP. They should be unchanged by the disabling of this system and will continue to provide their stated increase in XP gain.

If you apply a 300% boost and then a 50% cut, that's the same as a 50% cut followed by a 300% boost. It's still technically cutting your gains because you chose this activity. Yes, it was to keep XP levels somewhat balanced across different activities types of different lengths, but as the data shows public events were triggering the throttle entirely by themselves.

Still a major bummer. Even as an accident this kind of mistake has an irrecoverable effect on time spent. (note the use of "effect," without qualification of the amount or individual's own subjective importance ascribed to that effect)

My favorite change

by marmot 1333 @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 16:19 (2550 days ago) @ Kermit

The behavior is inconsistent.

I've had a marker on screen when I only had 3 tokens to turn in that would NOT result in a level-up/item drop.

But it doesn't consistently happen, so it tricks me everytime.

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All sounds pretty awesome.

by cheapLEY @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 16:25 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

- No text -

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Regarding XP Buffs...

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 17:04 (2550 days ago) @ EffortlessFury

If you apply a 300% boost and then a 50% cut, that's the same as a 50% cut followed by a 300% boost. It's still technically cutting your gains because you chose this activity. Yes, it was to keep XP levels somewhat balanced across different activities types of different lengths, but as the data shows public events were triggering the throttle entirely by themselves.

I don't think they meant what you think they meant. As I understood that sentence, the throttling required a certain XP threshold to be passed. However, only unadulterated XP counted towards that threshold, not total XP, so the bonus wasn't speeding up the incoming wall.

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The State of Destiny 2

by Kahzgul, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 17:11 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

Looking at the issues which I consider serious, and seeing if they were addressed in the blog post. Responses in bold.

- PvP is stale and uninteresting. The advanced movement and character control from D1 is largely absent. Double primary is boring.
While the OHK-only games are gone (this is good), the other, fun parts of D1 pvp are also gone (this is bad), including 6v6 PvP. Despite the dumbing-down of PvP, it remains grossly imbalanced.

Addressed, but only in the most vague terms possible. There is clearly an acknowledgement that a problem exists, but it's unclear as to whether they understand what the problem is. Gonna have to wait and see what changes come with the December update.

- Party size as it correlates to activities makes no sense. 6 players to raid, 4 to pvp, 3 to strike... It's awful design because it reduces player choice and activity control based on party size.

Not addressed.

- The new gear system is still absurdly RNG based.

Addressed! Armor will now be purchasable for tokens from the respective vendors. Weapons will rotate. There was something about "unlocking slots" which I think means unlocking which armor you can buy, but it wasn't clear to me what that actually meant.

- The vault was apparently organized by a blind person who doesn't know braille, and it re-organizes itself every time you take out a weapon or add one. You still can't delete items from the vault directly.

Not addressed.

- Shaders are consumable isn't the issue now that we've seen how easy they are to get. The problem, rather, is that there are more shaders in the game than the player can actually carry, and deleting unwanted shaders has to be done one at a time. I have 75+ of some of my shaders. Do I want to spent half a damn hour deleting shaders just so I can hold a new one? Of course not. Come on, Bungie.

Not addressed.

- The shader and vault problems are emblematic of lots of the supporting systems of the game: They feel rushed, half-assed, and poorly planned. The overall archetecture of patrol mode being integrated into missions is GREAT, but Bungie completely lost patrol being integrated with the Raid (VoG, for example).

This general complaint will need to be revisited after the January update.

- Strikes cannot be selected directly and rely on a random playlist that also completely lacks a "don't let the players play the same strike two or three or even four times in a row" feature.

Not addressed, and possibly exacerbated with the addition of a heroic strike mode.

- Speaking of poor map selection, pvp map voting still isn't a thing? In 2017?

Not addressed, though the addition of custom pvp in "early 2018" will take some pressure off of this.

- Custom PvP is missing from D2 when we had it in D1.

Addressed! Coming in "early 2018."

- Guided games is poorly implemented and results in waiting in orbit for 20+ minutes for the people seeking guides.

Not addressed.

- You have a map, but no compass on your radar to indicate which way you're facing relative to the map. /facepalm

Not addressed. There were several UI tweaks mentioned specifically, and this wasn't included, but It's more of a poor design choice than a real issue that should be keeping anyone up late at night.

- The whole game reeks of oversimplification while still needlessly obfuscating systems. Which is contradictory design, of course.

Addressed! In several different ways, actually. The addition of masterwork weapons will add some complexity to those items. Bungie is working to un-obfuscate the exp gain systems. The new per-armor set challenges at more depth to your armor. Other tweaks to add more depth, and Bungie specifically stated that they want this game to be your hobby, implying depth that keeps you coming back is their goal.

- Power level is largely meaningless in the game, begging the question: Why even have it if not to create artificial grindiness within the game?

Not addressed, unless you count that masterwork items are going to be gated behind 250 power level.

- Gear is uninteresting and largely boils down to reskins rather than meaningful choices. Most guns within a class feel the same (or ARE the same) with only one minor perk difference.

Addressed. No specifics were given, but Bungie stated that they want IB and Faction Rally gear to be more unique, and they're also adding various ornaments etc. to specific sets which will require the completion of challenges. They stated that they hear how the guns and armor choices are not satisfying and are working to address that. Will need to revisit after Curse of Osiris launches.

- MIDA is the PvP defining weapon (in no small part due to the radar and movement bonuses) and, as such, PvP is relegated to largely long distance plinko affairs that aren't fun.

Not addressed.


All in all, I'm pretty happy with the response. I've heard the "we'll be better at communicating moving forward" line before, so I don't expect much on that front, but I do like the overall tone of the response, and all of the changes appear to be trending towards the right direction.

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Kahzgul, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 17:22 (2550 days ago) @ CyberKN

Like, really? You couldn't just buy gear from vendors with legendary marks?

This was a concern for me with D1 as well, and seeing the number of no-brainer changes in D2 is just... frustrating. There's a lot of game design 101 type of stuff that simply isn't in the game.

Why do we have a map with up (north) and down (south) but no compass on our radar display?

Why is the vault so awful?

6 player raids, 4 player pvp, 3 player strikes...

Why wasn't custom pvp a thing on launch?

Why is there no real level select to go back and play old story missions?

What's the point of power level?

No map voting/selection in matched pvp? Coupled with no protection against playing the same map over and over?

No way to select strikes? Coupled with no protection against playing the same strike over and over?

It's all just bad and begs the questions: What did they think would happen? Why is the game like this? Will Cody's tell-all book ever be published?

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by LostSpartan, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 18:48 (2550 days ago) @ Kahzgul

It's all just bad and begs the questions: What did they think would happen? Why is the game like this? Will Cody's tell-all book ever be published?

Find out on the next episode of Dragonball Z!

Regarding XP Buffs...

by EffortlessFury @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 19:12 (2550 days ago) @ ZackDark

If you apply a 300% boost and then a 50% cut, that's the same as a 50% cut followed by a 300% boost. It's still technically cutting your gains because you chose this activity. Yes, it was to keep XP levels somewhat balanced across different activities types of different lengths, but as the data shows public events were triggering the throttle entirely by themselves.


I don't think they meant what you think they meant. As I understood that sentence, the throttling required a certain XP threshold to be passed. However, only unadulterated XP counted towards that threshold, not total XP, so the bonus wasn't speeding up the incoming wall.

I suppose. Then again, it's already pretty easy to hit. Not sure how much that matters.

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I'll grant you that

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 19:17 (2550 days ago) @ EffortlessFury

I hope the solution doesn't involve reducing the frequency of Public Events. It's really cool how often they happen (as well as how transparent it is to find them).

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+1

by peaksutah, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 19:34 (2550 days ago) @ Kahzgul

hopefully they'll expand vault and inventory space at some point too

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by cheapLEY @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 20:01 (2550 days ago) @ Kahzgul

No map voting/selection in matched pvp? Coupled with no protection against playing the same map over and over?

You keep pointing this out, and I have to wonder if you've ever played a game with map voting. In my experience it almost invariably leads to playing the same three popular maps endlessly while never playing on anything else.

Destiny 2's current system is absolutely broken. The last time I played (which was over a month ago, admittedly, we played Legion's Gulch literally four times in a row, then switched to The Dead Cliffs for two games, then back to Legions' Gulch for another three games. Almost every time I've played Crucible, it's been similar.

Map voting is not the way to fix that issue, in my opinion though. It will end up exactly the same, except the maps you see over and over again won't change from session to session because the community will decide what the "good" maps are and never vote for anything else.

Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Tails @, Across the Pond, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 20:11 (2550 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Why do we have a map with up (north) and down (south) but no compass on our radar display?

Out of curiosity, if "up" on the map and "north" in the game world were not synonymous (spoiler: they're not, as your MIDA will show you), which one would you want your radar display to point to?

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by CruelLEGACEY @, Toronto, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 20:27 (2550 days ago) @ cheapLEY

No map voting/selection in matched pvp? Coupled with no protection against playing the same map over and over?


You keep pointing this out, and I have to wonder if you've ever played a game with map voting. In my experience it almost invariably leads to playing the same three popular maps endlessly while never playing on anything else.

Destiny 2's current system is absolutely broken. The last time I played (which was over a month ago, admittedly, we played Legion's Gulch literally four times in a row, then switched to The Dead Cliffs for two games, then back to Legions' Gulch for another three games. Almost every time I've played Crucible, it's been similar.

Map voting is not the way to fix that issue, in my opinion though. It will end up exactly the same, except the maps you see over and over again won't change from session to session because the community will decide what the "good" maps are and never vote for anything else.

Map voting can work quite well... some games will just offer up a choice between 2 maps and let players vote between the 2. As long as the pairs of maps being offered are mixed up often enough, it can avoid repitition.

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First reaction...

by Cody Miller @, Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 21:09 (2550 days ago) @ Claude Errera

...early December is gonna be Christmas in Destiny.

My first reaction was surprise that the word 'sorry' did not appear even once.

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HUNTER BOOTS?

by squidnh3, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 21:26 (2550 days ago) @ bluerunner

It still seems impossible these aren't fixed yet. Were they coded by Dennis Nedry?

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First reaction...

by Harmanimus @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 21:59 (2550 days ago) @ Cody Miller

"Sorry we are continuing to develop and grow this game into something hopefully everyone can continue to or increase their levels of enjoyment from"?

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First reaction...

by Cody Miller @, Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 22:06 (2550 days ago) @ Harmanimus

"Sorry we are continuing to develop and grow this game into something hopefully everyone can continue to or increase their levels of enjoyment from"?

I really only thought they'd say it with regards to two things, only one of which I care about.

"Sorry we haven't been more communicative with the fans". I don't care, but a ton of people are upset about this and I guess a certain level of communication is expected in MMO games.

"Sorry we misled you about exp throttling in the game". This one kind of deserves an apology.

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My favorite change

by stabbim @, Des Moines, IA, USA, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 22:16 (2550 days ago) @ Kermit

I dunno about blinking, but they sometimes display on your HUD while you're not right next to the character, or looking at them. As if there were something important to do there. But then you go over and select them, and there isn't.

First reaction...

by Claude Errera @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 22:31 (2550 days ago) @ Cody Miller

"Sorry we are continuing to develop and grow this game into something hopefully everyone can continue to or increase their levels of enjoyment from"?


I really only thought they'd say it with regards to two things, only one of which I care about.

"Sorry we haven't been more communicative with the fans". I don't care, but a ton of people are upset about this and I guess a certain level of communication is expected in MMO games.

"We know it’s frustrating when there isn’t enough of a dialog with the development team. You have our commitment that we’re going to do a better job going forward."

That's not specifically "sorry" but it sure as hell is a mea culpa, which is pretty close.

I hope the same!

by marmot 1333 @, Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 22:59 (2550 days ago) @ ZackDark

That really would be anti-fun.

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About the MIDA

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Thursday, November 30, 2017, 04:22 (2550 days ago) @ Tails

Out of curiosity, if "up" on the map and "north" in the game world were not synonymous (spoiler: they're not, as your MIDA will show you), which one would you want your radar display to point to?

"Up" does consistently align with one of the four notches, though. It just happens to be a diagonal. ;p

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Bungie, seriously

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Thursday, November 30, 2017, 04:31 (2550 days ago) @ squidnh3

- No text -

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First reaction...

by narcogen ⌂ @, Andover, Massachusetts, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 05:08 (2549 days ago) @ Claude Errera

"Sorry we are continuing to develop and grow this game into something hopefully everyone can continue to or increase their levels of enjoyment from"?


I really only thought they'd say it with regards to two things, only one of which I care about.

"Sorry we haven't been more communicative with the fans". I don't care, but a ton of people are upset about this and I guess a certain level of communication is expected in MMO games.


"We know it’s frustrating when there isn’t enough of a dialog with the development team. You have our commitment that we’re going to do a better job going forward."

That's not specifically "sorry" but it sure as hell is a mea culpa, which is pretty close.

Not that close.

I think Bungie is still either acting as if everyone assumes this was the result of an honest mistake, or is choosing only to address those who believe that.

There are a bunch of people who believe that was an intentional change made to deceive people in a way that made it more likely they might buy Bright Engrams.

I think it's worth apologizing for the fact that it even looks like they were doing that.

Perhaps they're concerned that apologizing for it would be taken as confirmation that they did intend to do that.

No good choices here, really.

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Not the MIDA

by Durandal, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 05:19 (2549 days ago) @ Kahzgul

I hardly see MIDAs anymore. It's almost always Uriels with energy weapon handling and recoil bonuses. The extra flinch, high Rof and controllable recoil makes it a low skill, high reward weapon that can compete well outside it's intended range. For close in work it's Last Hope.

I've been in some games where a team of 4 only gets kills with Uriels, power weapons and supers.

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Not the MIDA

by unoudid @, Somewhere over the rainbow, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 05:53 (2549 days ago) @ Durandal

MIDA is the second most used weapon in PvP Currently. You might not be seeing it nearly as much, but it's still widely used.

[image]

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I mean...

by Xenos @, Shores of Time, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 08:07 (2549 days ago) @ squidnh3

This wasn't really a post about bug-fixes...

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Not the MIDA

by MacAddictXIV @, Seattle WA, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 08:47 (2549 days ago) @ unoudid

MIDA is the second most used weapon in PvP Currently. You might not be seeing it nearly as much, but it's still widely used.

[image]

I would also guess that those stats started from the beginning of the game. What you need to see is a graph over time. It could be that the last couple months showing very little MIDA use, because they found different guns, where as at the start of D2 MIDA was used for everything because people hadn't found other guns yet.

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View current stats here

by unoudid @, Somewhere over the rainbow, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 09:01 (2549 days ago) @ MacAddictXIV

Destiny Tracker keeps daily stats on weapons. Guardian GG also keeps overall usage stats.

https://guardian.gg/2/weapon-stats

http://db.destinytracker.com/d2/en/items/1331482397

http://db.destinytracker.com/d2/en/items/3762467076

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View current stats here

by MacAddictXIV @, Seattle WA, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 09:08 (2549 days ago) @ unoudid

Interesting enough, MIDA is the most used gun in PvP, but Auto rifles as a class far outweigh scouts. So basically, MIDA is the only good scout rifle :P

as an auto rifle guy, this makes me happy. It also makes me happy that there isn't entirely an dominating auto rifle in PvP.

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View current stats here

by unoudid @, Somewhere over the rainbow, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 09:19 (2549 days ago) @ MacAddictXIV

Interesting enough, MIDA is the most used gun in PvP, but Auto rifles as a class far outweigh scouts. So basically, MIDA is the only good scout rifle :P

as an auto rifle guy, this makes me happy. It also makes me happy that there isn't entirely a dominating auto rifle in PvP.

Going off the numbers on Guardian.GG the Uriel's/Prosecutor/Origin Story archetype make up 36.78% of all PvP kills. The 450 RPM Auto rifles are currently too good. When you pair Uriel's with High Caliber Rounds it becomes a stupidly easy weapon to use. Not saying I don't enjoy using them though.

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Uriels is acendant

by Durandal, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 10:32 (2549 days ago) @ unoudid

Looking at the latest usage, Uriels is pretty steadily rising, where as the MIDA usage has stagnated in the last few weeks. When 36% of the kills are one weapon archtype, it's time for a balance pass.

It's really Trials where the MIDA seems prominent, and that is unsurprising to me given ToO was a snipe fest back in D1. The long range camp and pick strategy fits perfectly with that playstyle. Competitive is very hard on anyone trying to close with the other team.

Note that Uriels is still tied for #1 in Trials as well. It's the reign of the Suros all over.

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Kahzgul, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 10:58 (2549 days ago) @ Tails

Why do we have a map with up (north) and down (south) but no compass on our radar display?


Out of curiosity, if "up" on the map and "north" in the game world were not synonymous (spoiler: they're not, as your MIDA will show you), which one would you want your radar display to point to?

The radar display should match the map so that you can see on the map "the lost sector is northwest" and then use your in-game radar to point you northwest and walk that way and be confident that you will encounter the lost sector you're looking for.

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Uriels is acendant

by Kahzgul, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 11:00 (2549 days ago) @ Durandal

Adding to this: Usage of Uriel's and MIDA are not mutually exclusive. A lot of people run both at the same time.

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Harmanimus @, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 13:35 (2549 days ago) @ Kahzgul

I just use my player icon on the map which tells me exactly what I am facing toward. I guess a compass might make it easier, but land nav isn’t super hard in the first place I don’t think. The only map problems I ever have are due to verticals.

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First reaction...

by Harmanimus @, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 13:37 (2549 days ago) @ narcogen

Have you listened to the Podcast yet. They address it pretty head on, even acknowledging that there are people who won’t believe them regardless of what they say about it.

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Kahzgul, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 15:01 (2549 days ago) @ Harmanimus

I just use my player icon on the map which tells me exactly what I am facing toward. I guess a compass might make it easier, but land nav isn’t super hard in the first place I don’t think. The only map problems I ever have are due to verticals.

It's no hard; it's cumbersome. You have to open the map to orient yourself when a simple compass on the radar would be more effective and more elegant. That's my entire point: This is a minor oversight that is detrimental to the flow of gameplay. it's a very simple thing, that we already know the game is keeping track of, but that is not reflected in the default hud and which requires you to stop playing momentarily in order to orient yourself, despite a perfect directional UI element already in place within the HUD.

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Harmanimus @, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 15:29 (2549 days ago) @ Kahzgul

I guess I was confused because you still are opening your map to orient yourself the first time, right? I don’t have to repeatedly open the map once I’ve done my initial orientation to whatever object I am after. I guess if you need to repeatedly open your map for that. /sheug

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Kahzgul, Thursday, November 30, 2017, 20:53 (2549 days ago) @ Harmanimus

I guess I was confused because you still are opening your map to orient yourself the first time, right? I don’t have to repeatedly open the map once I’ve done my initial orientation to whatever object I am after. I guess if you need to repeatedly open your map for that. /sheug

Lots of times I'm headed one way, get into a fight or public event, get turned around, and then need to re-open the map to see which way I'm facing again. Which is silly, because a compass would solve that problem right away.

Or a friend says "there's a chest over there!" "where?" "north" "where's 'north?'"

Again, it's a pretty minor thing, but if you have a map, I firmly believe you should have a HUD element that tells you which direction you're oriented relative to that map.

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Surprised how much of this stuff wasn't already in the game.

by Cody Miller @, Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, December 01, 2017, 07:46 (2548 days ago) @ Kahzgul

It's all just bad and begs the questions: What did they think would happen? Why is the game like this? Will Cody's tell-all book ever be published?

Yes. But you know, conducting and sorting through 6,000 pages of interviews, hundreds of articles, posts and websites, as well as hundreds of hours of video takes a while okay?

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I frequently feel like Halo 3 perfected matchmaking.

by Vortech @, A Fourth Wheel, Sunday, December 03, 2017, 13:44 (2546 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

- No text -

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I frequently feel like Reach perfected matchmaking.

by unoudid @, Somewhere over the rainbow, Sunday, December 03, 2017, 14:33 (2546 days ago) @ Vortech

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