GamesFPS’Destiny has a long history of reinventing itself in response to feedback': Assistant director teases a Metroidvania-inspired future, talks weapon crafting and vault space, but fails to address the shocking number of bugsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesFPS’Destiny has a long history of reinventing itself in response to feedback': Assistant director teases a Metroidvania-inspired future, talks weapon crafting and vault space, but fails to address the shocking number of bugsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
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The key art for Destiny 2: Frontiers hints at a location the guardians will visit beyond the Sol system.(Image credit: Bungie)
Recent updatesGlobal community lead at Bungie, Dylan Gafner,has addressedwidespread criticism of Destiny 2’s The Dawning seasonal event, admitting that it “didn’t kick off on the high note that we intended it to,” and that Bungie is “fully aware of the general conversation around bugs and quality”. Gafner notes that “we [Bungie] have work on our plate to reinvigorate the desire to play Destiny. We’ll need to re-earn your trust, not just for our future, but our studio as a whole.”
Recent updatesGlobal community lead at Bungie, Dylan Gafner,has addressedwidespread criticism of Destiny 2’s The Dawning seasonal event, admitting that it “didn’t kick off on the high note that we intended it to,” and that Bungie is “fully aware of the general conversation around bugs and quality”. Gafner notes that “we [Bungie] have work on our plate to reinvigorate the desire to play Destiny. We’ll need to re-earn your trust, not just for our future, but our studio as a whole.”
Recent updates
Global community lead at Bungie, Dylan Gafner,has addressedwidespread criticism of Destiny 2’s The Dawning seasonal event, admitting that it “didn’t kick off on the high note that we intended it to,” and that Bungie is “fully aware of the general conversation around bugs and quality”. Gafner notes that “we [Bungie] have work on our plate to reinvigorate the desire to play Destiny. We’ll need to re-earn your trust, not just for our future, but our studio as a whole.”
Stevens cites the removal of weapon crafting as a particular pain point. The decision to cut crafting from seasonally-released weapons was sold as a way to make each loot drop more exciting, rather than just grinding out the patterns necessary before you could create your perfect ‘God Roll’. However, and this may shock you, many people have not been delighted at going back to relying on RNG, particularly when as Stevens acknowledges, the new ‘Tonic’ system designed to mitigate that RNG has been buggy and onerous to interact with.
We know we missed the mark with the Tonic timers and not guaranteeing a weapon from the active Tonic.Robbie Stevens, assistant game director, Bungie
We know we missed the mark with the Tonic timers and not guaranteeing a weapon from the active Tonic.
The way Tonics work is that you use materials to mix potions, which once glugged will give your character an increased chance of looting a particular item for a set amount of time. In theory, it lets you target farm for the weapon you want, regardless of which of the game’s many activities you’re playing. In practice, some found themselves locked out of creating tonics entirely, others simply couldn’t be bothered to manage the timers, and it was eventually discovered that certain tonics weren’t even rewarding the right items.
Add that to the recent’Weightgate’controversy, in which the community uncovered a problem with the way loot RNG works (ie much less randomly than it should) that seemed to date all the way back to 2018, and it’s little wonder that players have become increasingly frustrated and mistrustful about the game’s fundamental systems. “Tonics were meant to provide loot agency in-lieu of crafting and give you a fresh way to chase gear,” said Stevens. “But we know we missed the mark with the Tonic timers and not guaranteeing a weapon from the active Tonic. So, we’re in the process of developing changes to make Tonics last longer and give better payouts on top of a series of bug fixes planned for December 17.”
To craft, or not to craft(Image credit: Bungie)That is the question. And please indulge me with a mini-rant: Bungie really needs to sort out how Dungeon loot works. Certain exotics aside, weapons that drop from Dungeons have never been craftable, and that makes farming them a huge annoyance, specifically because the loot pool is clogged with armor that no one needs once they’ve unlocked the transmog. I recently spent two nights farming for a perfect VS Pyroelectric Propellant [picture top], andnoneof us even came close to the roll we wanted. We sure did get a lot of boots though.
To craft, or not to craft
(Image credit: Bungie)That is the question. And please indulge me with a mini-rant: Bungie really needs to sort out how Dungeon loot works. Certain exotics aside, weapons that drop from Dungeons have never been craftable, and that makes farming them a huge annoyance, specifically because the loot pool is clogged with armor that no one needs once they’ve unlocked the transmog. I recently spent two nights farming for a perfect VS Pyroelectric Propellant [picture top], andnoneof us even came close to the roll we wanted. We sure did get a lot of boots though.
(Image credit: Bungie)
That is the question. And please indulge me with a mini-rant: Bungie really needs to sort out how Dungeon loot works. Certain exotics aside, weapons that drop from Dungeons have never been craftable, and that makes farming them a huge annoyance, specifically because the loot pool is clogged with armor that no one needs once they’ve unlocked the transmog. I recently spent two nights farming for a perfect VS Pyroelectric Propellant [picture top], andnoneof us even came close to the roll we wanted. We sure did get a lot of boots though.
“More details on these weapons as we approach Heresy but rest assured that it will be clear when they hit your inventory that they’re worth inspecting,” said Stevens. My hope is that this might be an entirely new tier of weapon rarity, which frankly the game has needed for years. I’d love something like the Mythic Uniques found in Diablo, but if I had to guess it’s more likely to be similar to the’shiny’weapons that dropped from the original version of Onslaught.
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Vaulting ambition
More gear means more pressure on Guardians' storage vaults, but Stevens also hinted at help coming on that front. “We’re in the early stages of planning long-term changes to relieve vault pressure that will start [to] manifest later in the year of Codename Frontiers.” For those of you who’ve understandably lost track of the lexicon of Destiny expansion codenames, Frontiers is the next big narrative cycle coming to Destiny, which will begin after Heresy wraps up next summer. Frontiers will comprise two expansions in 2025, each pegged at a roughly similar size to the Rise of Iron DLC, and involves players venturing out beyond the Sol system for the first time.
The working title for the first of those expansions is Apollo, and Stevens confirmed that it will feature a brand new planetary destination which is already content complete: “We’re focused on polishing the non-linear campaign, Metroidvania gameplay experience, developing the finer details of the world and fleshing out the numerous quests that you’ll discover during the journey through new frontiers. The Core Game Portal, activities, modifiers, and next generation gear that will be Destiny’s new backbone are coming online.”
For those who might need a refresher, here’s the roadmap for Destiny 2 content in 2025. Click to see it full size.(Image credit: Bungie)
Speaking of playtesting Apollo’s content, Stevens revealed that multiple community summits are in the works, and that Bungie is also hiring a number ofgameplay specialiststo test the core systems and activities. On that front, let’s also hope the QA department is being staffed back up. I’ve played Destiny 2 for 10 years andmanythousands of hours, and I’ve never known it to be this buggy. Only yesterday, an ‘Event Card’ for the game’s winter celebration went live for free, when it normally costs $10, before it was pulled from the store.
Bungie described that as a “bank error” in favor of those players who grabbed the cosmetics quickly enough, but that magnanimity aside, there are anenormousamount of bugs in the game which are hampering players. We’ve had loot chests that drop nothing. Abilities doing way too much (or too little) damage. Regular crashing in certain areas, UI glitches, in-game notifications that repeat ad nauseam—on and on it goes. As my colleague on GamesRadar noted last month: ‘Destiny 2 is kind of a mess right now’.
At no point in the blog does Stevens engage directly with the community-wide sentiment that something really needs to be done to stabilise the game, but I have to hope it’s being made a substantial priority. Again, it’s hard not to look back at those layoffs as the most likely culprit for the overall downturn in reliability. I mean, if developing your game is a bit like building a plane while still flying it, then maybe it isn’t a good idea to get rid of a bunch of the people whose job it was to ensure things work properly.
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