Shader Sit-down

Since the launch of Destiny 2, we’ve gathered a lot of feedback on the new shader system. As time went on, and the shaders began to pile up, players lamented the cumbersome process of trying to delete each shader one by one.

You’ve been asking us why we can’t just allow you to dismantle entire stacks of shaders. I mean, there are other consumables that can be dismantled in mass. It’s a totally reasonable question and we wanted to let you know the facts. We’re not making excuses or claiming this problem is too hard to solve. We just want to be transparent about what the problem is, and how we are going to go about solving it. Here is Senior Design Lead Tyson Green to shed some light on shaders.

Tyson Green: Shaders are individual items, and individual items trigger individual reward bundles when dismantled, even when those rewards are simple. That creates a challenge for us that we haven’t yet addressed, which is triggering dozens (or hundreds) of reward bundles simultaneously when an entire stack of shaders is dismantled. This is challenging not simply because an arbitrary number of rewards need to be run and delivered simultaneously, but because we also have to safeguard against scenarios where this produced items that couldn’t fit in your inventory, which could be instantly lost (ex: shaders that produce Glimmer could easily evaporate into nothing if you were at or near the cap.)

It would be relatively easy to find another button on the controller (L2 + X?) and let players actually delete a full stack, but that isn’t the spirit of what players are asking for, so we’re looking at a stronger solve. In addition, we’re also looking at how to address other shader feedback:

It should be easier to get rid of a stack of shaders. We are looking at mass exchange solutions.
We know you miss D1 Armor Shader mechanics. Looking at ways to re-integrate that capability without losing the ability to shade weapons, Ghosts, ships, Sparrows, or customize specific pieces of armor.
We also understand you want shaders to be more freely usable and not limited by availability. We’re looking at re-introducing shader collections or a way to get copies of a shader in your possession.

This work is ongoing, and we’ll go on record as to when the solution will land as we get closer to a fix that we test and certify. For now, it was important to us that you know it’s on our workbench.

I'm happy to hear they're taking this seriously. I'm pretty okay with the current shader system, but I'm glad they're looking into other options and collections. Honestly, I just want more options for colors!

Yeah, this is really good feedback and an excellent explanation of what's going on under the hood. As someone who likes to play Shader Dress Up before every activity, I'm looking forward to whatever they come up with as a solution.

I'm actually really excited they didn't just decide to go back to D1 style shaders (other than it requiring a complete rework of some of the methods for rewarding them) and I have some hopes for a few things. My likely wishful thinking hopes in response to the bullet points:

It should be easier to get rid of a stack of shaders. We are looking at mass exchange solutions.

Emphasis mine. The discussion point of having them sold to vendors is likely the easiest solution. Single click to sell a stack of X or something. That would greatly accelerate their dismantling but not necessarily lead to accidental stack deletion.

We know you miss D1 Armor Shader mechanics. Looking at ways to re-integrate that capability without losing the ability to shade weapons, Ghosts, ships, Sparrows, or customize specific pieces of armor.

I would appreciate the ability to acquire/make a usable space in our Inventory section where shaders were in D1. Allowing you to apply it to all of your armor, but still allowing for a toggle override on shaders applied directly to armor pieces. I think that would be a nice balance and not remove having shaders we can apply to other items.

We also understand you want shaders to be more freely usable and not limited by availability. We’re looking at re-introducing shader collections or a way to get copies of a shader in your possession.

And all of this leads to: Where is Eva Lavante, and can she just become a shader/emblem vendor again? I miss having that. Other than bringing back kiosks (which I also support) I think that would be a more manageable option. Let her sell shaders specific to herself. Perhaps she is the only way of getting the inventory shader items other than events/end game content. Thinking out loud. I think it would be beneficial to have her back, though.

This was a really good update. Re-rolling armor is great, hopefully I can eventually actually wear my ornamented New Monarchy stuff.

Most of the Titan Recovery gear is fugly, so I'll be happy when we can reroll. Time to start accumulating more sets that I previously discarded!

The way they've implemented it seems fine, but also sort of less interesting than actual raid mechanic based perks.

Rather than just base stat increases that apply while you're in the Leviathan, I'd love to see encounter specific perks. Increased mobility while holding the orb for The Gauntlet. Increased damage resistance while holding the buff for Pools. Stuff like that. There's obvious downsides to that, too, mainly the potential to have to keep multiple sets of gear to switch out between encounters, so maybe what they're doing is actually better at the end of the day. Just a little more pedestrian than I wanted.

I did not like the Raid perks in Destiny. It's a cool concept, that gets muddy in practice. I like the border approach they are taking for this. I'm still not a fan of Raid exclusive perks, as now I "need to hold on to this stuff for a raid", and I know my current iteration of the Vault can't take that.

The way they've implemented it seems fine, but also sort of less interesting than actual raid mechanic based perks.

Rather than just base stat increases that apply while you're in the Leviathan, I'd love to see encounter specific perks. Increased mobility while holding the orb for The Gauntlet. Increased damage resistance while holding the buff for Pools. Stuff like that. There's obvious downsides to that, too, mainly the potential to have to keep multiple sets of gear to switch out between encounters, so maybe what they're doing is actually better at the end of the day. Just a little more pedestrian than I wanted.

I agree with you, though I am glad to see the raid perks are being done in a way that keeps raid gear from being superior in pvp and required to be competitive. To quote Stranger Things: Half happy.

In the sense that they could have made it so they had a base benefit but also a niche benefit depending on the encounter.

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Is this possible 15% damage reduction for masterwork armor applicable in PvP?

It's only while using your super, when you are more vulnerable to energy weapons already.