Forbes posted an opinion piece about Bungie's choice of non-matchmaking in Destiny's endgame activities - how do you feel about the need to bring your own teammates into these events? CruelLEGACEY has opinions about this stuff - go throw in your own two cents!
A few days ago, AllGamesBeta noticed a filing at the US Patent Office by Bungie - for 'Eververse' and 'Eververse Trading Company' (and an accompanying logo). Their search links have expired, but the story was picked up again this morning by other sites, including Gamespot. The newest speculation is intriguing - they're wondering if Bungie will be introducing a player trading system. (There is no evidence that this is anything other than speculation... but if we learn more we'll let you know.)
This picture showed up on reddit a couple of weeks ago - the artist, NKOV (she goes by deealeksei on reddit) drew her boyfriend's guardian as he visited Venus. It's spectacular, and you should see it. (Her own guardian is also in her DeviantART gallery.) Check 'em out!
We haven't had a lot of action in our Fan Fiction section recently - but after filtering out the Viagra articles, the truth about kittens, and other ridiculous spam, we DID find a submission from a couple of weeks ago, provided by RebornUmbraHaze. Go give Shadows, Part 1 a read!
Hedge tweeted of Ethan Scheu's post on his ArtStation regarding an inside look on some of the models and textures that went into making this beautiful new Crucible map for the House of Wolves DLC.
Wow, we're behind on stuff. Sorry! This showed up a couple of days ago - the folks at Planet Destiny got together with Bkbunny87, whose husband was awarded the exotic gun 'Fate of All Fools' 6 months ago, far in advance of its release to the general public (you can earn a bounty for it in the Trials of Osiris now). Eric's story is a touching one - if you don't know it, swing by and read the details at reddit. But back to the news at hand! At some point in the past, the PD folks contacted Bkbunny87, and got access to her husband's account for a short time, to create some footage showing off how the gun performs in the Crucible. They promised not to release this footage until House of Wolves dropped, which is why we are seeing it now. What a great story - and what a great gun! Thanks, unoudid.
Destiny's second expansion, House of Wolves, launches today at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern. Players will gain access to new weapons and armor, a new social space in The Reef, new missions, a new Strike, the Trials of Osiris Crucible playlist (on weekends), and The Prison of Elders end-game arena combat. See you in The Reef!
Kermit let us know about a Time interview with DeeJ, covering Bungie and the launch of House of Wolves, as well as a look into the role of our illustrious Community Manager. Nothing really new for frequenters of the Destiny community, but it's nice to see Destiny getting some coverage from more traditional press.
After a slight delay, Bungie has released Destiny Update 1.2.0 this morning. Here are the patch notes from Bungie.net (which also include preview notes for next week's hot fix to activate House of Wolves):
1.2.0 : The one to pre-load House of Wolves
Weapons
Fixed an issue in which Vex Mythoclast was not respawning with primary ammunition
Fixed an issue with the Hive Disruptor perk, which now appears in the Black Hammer perk set again
Fixed an issue in which the Phantom Gift and White Nail perks would become interrupted when non-precision damage occurred from other perks
Bonus damage from other perks (e.g., Explosive Rounds, Hive Disruptor) no longer interrupts the count
Three precision hits within the time window will trigger the intended refund bonus
Fixed an issue in which the Hive Disruptor perk did not work correctly with sustained damage events (auto rifles, pulse, etc.)
Oracle Disruptor perk now triggers more often
Hive Disruptor perk now triggers more often, but does less damage per event
PVP
Salvage: Moved the first Relic to more consistently appear in a centralized position on the map
Fixed an issue that caused players to wait an excessively long time to respawn
Tower
Faction reward packages will no longer produce Shards
The Speaker will now exchange Ascendant and Radiant Materials for Glimmer and Motes of Light
Xûr will now exchange Strange Coins for Motes of Light
Commendations are no longer required to purchase gear
Commendations can now be converted to receive +250 gains in Vanguard, Crucible, or Faction reputation
Note: Etheric Light will not be made available for ascending gear until the release of House of Wolves
User Interface
Vendor Interaction Panel has been updated to support Quest chains
Vendor Interaction Panel now has better animations and fewer popping issues
Number of buffs that can be displayed on the Character screen has been increased
Inventory item stacks that have reached their highest possible count will now display gold numbers along with an alert in the tooltip that maximum quantities have been acquired
Audio
Added improved feedback for players who take damage from energy weapons
Companion
Fixed an issue in which the Mercury Grimoire card was not being awarded
Retroactively awarded the Mercury Grimoire card to players who have found the "Mercury Memory Fragment" Dead Ghost
Vendor items, damage types, and perks will now be visible on Bungie.net and the Mobile App
Technical
Addressed a crash on Xbox One that was induced when too many explosions/projectiles were generated
Fixed an issue that affected the network quality user interface
Indicators will no longer display persistently bad ("red") quality after a user's connection recovers from a temporary quality issue
The quality indicators should now always correctly reflect a user's live connection quality
*Addendum
We have discovered that Legendary Engrams will drop in 1.2.0 that the Cryptarchs will not recognize
Hold on to all newly-acquired purple Engrams until May 19th to benefit from their upgraded decryption skillset
Destiny Hot Fix - 05/19/2015
1.2.0.1 : The one with House of Wolves
Along with the release of Destiny Expansion II, we are delivering some new investment and upgrade paths. The following are changes that will have an impact on every player of Destiny.
PVP
General
Added a new Daily Reward package upon completion of the first game in the Daily Featured Crucible playlist
Added Passage Coins to reward streams across all playlists, including the Daily reward package
Increased Crucible Mark drop rate across all playlists by 100%
Increased Crucible Reputation earnings across all playlists by 100%
Increased Rare Weapons and Gear drop chance for completing games across all playlists by 100%
Added Legendary Weapon drops into the Crucible reward stream across all playlists
Added Dark Below maps into all Crucible playlists for all players to enjoy (Pantheon, The Cauldron, Skyshock)
Iron Banner
Adjusted the power curve for Iron Banner playlists to accommodate the competitive range of power in House of Wolves
Across one Iron Banner event, players competing in Iron Banner with more than one character on the same account will receive a reputation boost for the lower-ranked characters to reach parity with the higher-ranked character more quickly
Six additional Iron Banner bounties have been added to the bounty rotation
Removed an errant buff from Iron Banner Control playlist
Etheric Light will now be available at Ranks 3 and 5 in Iron Banner
Tower
The Cryptarch will no longer convert newly acquired Legendary Engrams to Shards (possibilities include gear/weapons or exotics)
Daily Heroics will produce Motes of Light in lieu of Shards
Ascending: Year 1 Legendary and Exotic gear can be upgraded to the highest power levels available in Year 1
User Interface
The Control UI above the mini scoreboard has been fixed & returned to the players HUD
Technical
Added a new “Connection Recovery†System
Specific player networking problems will now be fixed instead of kicking affected players to orbit
This will be enabled first for Trials of Osiris and rolled out to other activities over time
This week's Deals with Gold includes 50% off Destiny on Xbox One and Xbox 360. The Digital Guardian Edition is 33% off, but that offer is only for Xbox One. Neat!
GDC recently posted Justin Truman's talk from GDC 2015 on their website in PDF form (with transcription included). This one is titled: Shared World Shooter: Destiny's Networked Mission Architecture and covers how Bungie handled the complicated networking to handle matchmaking as seamlessly as possible. Go give it a read!
Check out the latest message from MIDA Industries:
The ‘Multi-Tool’ interfaces with all current tactical sensoria to provide real-time combat data, significantly bolstering the limited computing power available to Guardians working in the field. The Multi-Tool is a Guardian’s best friend, able to adapt to any situation a Guardian may find themselves in.
Bungie released a short teaser for the Prison of Elders. For the full reveal be sure to tune into the Bungie Twitch channel tomorrow at 11am PST. I wonder what awaits us! Thanks, CyberKN. (Local, too.)
Chris Barrett shared this awesome concept art of the Celestial Nighthawk exotic helmet from House of Wolves on his Twitter account. Looks like House of Wolves is going to filled with a lot more than just wolves!
The Bungie Store is currently taking pre-orders for a special edition Nepal Aid T-Shirt. The shirt costs $24.99 and you’ll receive a custom in-game shader and emblem. 100% of the profits will be donated to charities involved with relief efforts in Nepal. The last day to order one of these t-shirts is May 24th and they will start shipping in early June. Help support those in need!
The Bungie Weekly Update recaps the Trials of Osiris reveal and highlights some of the Crucible tweaks and changes players can expect after downloading the 1.2.0 update on May 19th. Players who did not purchase The Dark Below will have access to all three PVP maps - neat! Also, be sure to check out how you provide aid to the people of Nepal though the Bungie Foundation. Next stop, The Prison of Elders! Thanks, CyberKN. (It's local, too)
BUNGIE™, DESTINY™, MARATHON® and the Bungie, Destiny and Marathon logos are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Bungie, Inc., used with permission.
Forbes posted an opinion piece about Bungie's choice of non-matchmaking in Destiny's endgame activities - how do you feel about the need to bring your own teammates into these events? CruelLEGACEY has opinions about this stuff - go throw in your own two cents!
The most recent podcast from the Ready Up Live crew has some House of Wolves discussion - it starts at 42:30 or so. Go listen! (Thanks, CruelLEGACEY.)
We haven't had a lot of action in our Fan Fiction section recently - but after filtering out the Viagra articles, the truth about kittens, and other ridiculous spam, we DID find a submission from a couple of weeks ago, provided by RebornUmbraHaze. Go give Shadows, Part 1 a read!
Amazon is currently selling Destiny (physical) for $19.99 on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4. Not bad!
