This Week At Bungie - Feb 21st 2019

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

THIS WEEK AT BUNGIE – 2/21/2019

8h - dmg04

This week at Bungie, the Drifter is preparing for a turn to lead the next season. 

 

We’re nearing the end of Season of the Forge. Guardians have plundered the Black Armory of its secrets and weapons. Shaxx hosted Crimson Days and Lord Saladin is watching over the final Iron Banner of the season. Before the Drifter takes center stage, we’ll be hosting a Raid-Along livestream featuring Scourge of the Past. If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to build a raid from the ground up, this is your chance to peek behind the curtains here at Bungie.

 

Scourge of the Past Raid Along

Date: Tuesday, February 26

Time: 10 AM–12 PM PST

Watch: Twitch.tv/Bungie

 

Members of the Raid Test team will be fighting the good fight, as designers, artists, producers and more lend commentary on taking an idea and creating the greatest challenge our game has to offer.

 

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Alright, Alright, Alright…

 

To get Gambit primed for the Season of the Drifter, we have been working on some Quality of Life improvements We’re changing the way this little game is played, based on our own experience as players and a lot of feedback that we’ve collected since Forsaken launched. Today, Senior Designer Robbie Stevens is speaking on behalf of the team to take us through the changes you can expect on March 5.

 

Robbie: As we build on the Gambit theme in Season of the Drifter, we want to make sure to address some of the top feedback items for the base activity. Below is a sneak peek of changes we’ve made based on the community’s feedback. Expect more details and additional quality-of-life changes for Gambit when Season of the Drifter drops on March 5.

 

• • • Changed the third round of Gambit to a Primeval rush sudden death. This will speed up Gambit matches overall and add a change of pace to the final round.
    • Overhauled how we choose the invader spawn location and increased the number of invader spawn points for each map. This should greatly reduce the chances of spawning very near or in direct line of sight of an enemy Guardian.
    • Implemented Idle Protection which means that players that remain dormant for too long will not receive end-of-match rewards or Infamy points. 
    • The Triumph “Light vs. Light” can now be progressed by killing any Guardian using a Super, not just invaders. This makes attaining the Dredgen title a less daunting task.
    • Adjustments to Blocker types by deposit tier:
      • • Small Blocker = Taken Goblin with less health than the previous Phalanx. 
        • Medium Blocker = Taken Captain with more health than the previous Knight.
        • Large Blocker = Taken Knight with more health than the previous Ogre.

 

These changes arrive with the Season of the Drifter. To get you ready for the change in seasons, we’re enabling Triple Infamy for the final week of Season of the Forge.

 

Triple Infamy

Start: 2/26/2019, 9 AM PST

End: 3/5/2019 

 

Are you looking to become a Dredgen and impress the Drifter? Or maybe acquire a few weapons to round out your collection? Wins, losses, and bounties will all reward you with increased Infamy throughout the week.

 

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Back to the Sandbox

 

Alongside the Gambit quality-of-life changes, our Sandbox Team will be fine-tuning some weapon archetypes to refresh the gameplay experience in Destiny 2. The following is a quick preview of some changes coming with Destiny Update 2.2.0, with developer commentary from Sandbox Designer Victor Anderson:

 

Linear Fusion Rifles

These Energy weapons have dominated Gambit for quite some time. First came Sleeper Simulant. Then came the Queenbreaker. We’ve made them less forgiving so we can enjoy a change of pace.

 

• • • Linear Fusion Rifle aim-assist values will receive an adjustment to reduce effectiveness at very long ranges.
      • • While Queenbreaker has high aim-assist values by default, we discovered an issue where it was not honoring aim-assist values that applied to other Linear Fusion Rifles of the same archetype. This resulted in Queenbreaker having over double the intended aim assist.
    • Linear Fusion Rifles will receive a 10% damage increase in PvE to compensate for the above changes.

 

Shotguns

In Season of the Drifter, we’re making a few changes to rapid-fire Shotguns, and the Full Auto perk. We're doing this for a few reasons, one of them being that the Full Auto perk feels far too important to Shotguns in PvE. This perk effectively doubles the damage output of any given Shotgun due to the rate of fire increase.

 

While we believe it is important to have useful perks on your weapons, the efficacy of this was so impactful that rapid-fire Shotguns became the only Shotguns worth considering for PvE. When the following changes release in Season of the Drifter, we hope you might be inspired to equip an aggressive Shotgun or maybe even take a slug Shotgun for a spin in a PvE activity.

 

• • • Shotguns will receive a damage multiplier in PvE activities, effectively doubling their damage.
      • • The Legend of Acrius is an exception to this.
    • Full Auto rate-of-fire bonus for Shotguns is now +10%, down from +100%.
      • • In addition, it no longer increases the Shotgun pellet spread.
    • Default rate-of-fire values for have also shifted:
      • • Aggressives are 55 RPM, up from 45 RPM
        • Precisions are 70 RPM, up from 55 RPM
        • Lightweights are 80 RPM (they were erroneously stated to be 90 RPM previously)
        • Rapid-Fire 140 RPM, down from 200 RPM (they were previously natively 100 RPM, but due to the intrinsic full auto, actually had 200 RPM)
        • Also reduced base damage for Shotguns across the board to align with their new rates of fire on a per sub-archetype basis.
    • Ammo reserves for Shotguns were re-evaluated due to the increased efficiency of having more damage per shot.

 

We also took the opportunity to slightly adjust Shotguns for the Crucible. While Shotguns will remain effective in the Crucible, we have toned down the range at which Shotguns could secure a one-shot kill.

 

Additionally, the team has some information regarding balance changes for the One-Eyed Mask Exotic, which will release with Update 2.2.0:

 

One-Eyed Mask

In various combat situations, One-Eyed Mask has been too effective, and has become a non-choice Exotic for Titans in PvP environments. After implementing the following changes, we believe the Exotic will still be potent if used well, but there will be more opportunities to counter it.

 

• • • The duration of the Mark of Vengeance has been reduced from 15 seconds to 8 seconds
    • The way players refill health after a successful kill has changed. Before, it restored all of your health and the overshield refilled over time. Now, the health refills over time alongside the overshield. This should give a leg up when encountering situations where multiple people are fighting one person with the One-Eyed Mask equipped.
    • Vengeance will no longer trigger for players in Super. This was making Supers far too potent.

 

A new season means a new reality in combat. Keep up the chatter, and we’ll keep curating the Sandbox so that Destiny adapts to the way you play!

 

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They’ll Be Your Guide

 

Navigating the various destinations of Destiny can sometimes be difficult, whether a snag occurs when following a quest line or an enemy fails to appear in the world. The Player Support Team is here to shine a light on the right path forward so you can get you to the loot you’ve been hunting.

 

This is their report.

 

Destiny 2 Update 2.2.0 Resolved Issues Preview – Part 2

Following the conversation from last week, here’s the second batch of player-impacting issues that we expect to be resolved with Update 2.2.0 in early March.

 

• • • “Mint Condition” Triumph: The “Mint Condition” Triumph is not unlocking.
    • “Forged in Fire” Triumph: The “Forged in Fire” Triumph is not unlocking.
    • “Master Smith” Triumph: The “Master Smith” Triumph is not updating for Rare research frame completions.
    • “Calculated Trajectory” Triumph: The “Calculated Trajectory” Triumph and medal do not trigger in Iron Banner.
    • “The Eternal Return” Emblem:The emblem “The Eternal Return” is not updating each time players conquer Dûl Incaru in the Dreaming City.
    • “Senior Recruiter” Emblem: The emblem “Senior Recruiter” is not updating for Refer-a-Friend referral completions.
    • “Black Armory Devotee” Bounty: The “Black Armory Devotee” bounty does not progress when using non-frame Black Armory weapons.

 

Check back next week for our third and final Resolved Issues Preview for Update 2.2.0. For the full Destiny 2 Update 2.2.0 patch notes when they are available, players should monitor our Updates page.

 

Relics of the Golden Age

Also resolved in Update 2.2.0 is an issue that has caused confusion regarding the “Relics of the Golden Age” quest for Sturm.

 

Currently, one of the steps in this quest directs players to “decrypt” five Legendary engrams and one Exotic engram. In Update 2.2.0, this quest description will update to direct players to “pick up” these engrams, which aligns with Year 2 world-drop engram behavior.

 

To set the correct expectations, here are special cases that players should be aware of when completing this step:

 

• • • Prime Engrams do not count toward this quest step.
    • Vendor rank-up rewards and Cryparch-purchased engrams do not count toward this quest step.
    • Fated Engrams and direct-purchase Exotics from Xûr do not count toward this quest step.
    • Engrams left in activities that recover to postmaster do not count toward this quest step.
    • Year 1-style Legendary and Exotic engrams that slot into players’ inventories and require manual decryption do not count toward this step. These are very rare, but are still available from some sources.

 

As always, players who encounter gameplay issues should report them to the #Help forum.

 

With just 12 days between you and Season of the Drifter, the team is hard at work dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on Destiny 2 Update 2.2.0.

 

Before we go, I wanted to share a quick preview of something that the Hunters among you have been asking for. If you ever found yourself thinking, “It would be awesome if I could see my entire cloak when previewing shaders,” we have some good news for you. Update 2.2.0 will make a slight change to your view when inspecting cloaks in the character screen.

 

 

We’ll have more patch note previews leading up to Season of the Drifter. Until then, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you in the wild.

 

 

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Full auto shotguns taking a huge nerf! Good on them for trying something different. Might check out the Legend of Acrius in Gambit for a runout.

 

Also, Gambit will get:

 

• Better invasion spawning
• New Blocker types with different health
• Round 3 Primeval Sudden Death

 

That final round speed sure is needed to inject the fun back into it. Most people, me included were getting tired of super long matches.

 

It also sounds like Medium blockers could be the future with annoying Captains having more health than the previous Knights.

[Baabcat 1,646]

Kinda interesting the almost total lack of info on Season of the Drifter, with two weeks to go. Not at all sure what to expect , which is a bit worrying!

[NCA-Paendrag 2,758]

Gambit is Gambit so nothing that really peaks my interest. 

Only waiting for a new power cap. 

Should probably forge some weapons as I wanted the bow but don't think it will happen. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

2 hours ago, Baabcat said:

Kinda interesting the almost total lack of info on Season of the Drifter, with two weeks to go. Not at all sure what to expect , which is a bit worrying!

Yeah, I'm kinda worried too. Almost could mean 1 of 2 things. Either they want to cause suspense and give chance to more secrets happening as they happen (like Apex) OR they don't ti hype up content that's likely to not last long or be enjoyed by everyone.

 

I hope it's the former.

42 minutes ago, NCA-Paendrag said:

Gambit is Gambit so nothing that really peaks my interest. 

Only waiting for a new power cap. 

Should probably forge some weapons as I wanted the bow but don't think it will happen. 

They have said there will be non-Gambit content as well but sure would be nice to know what it will be on the lines of.

 

 

I read a tweet by Gothalion that mentioned that they could be holding back content for Penumbra and go all out later in the year due to the other games being released around this time. I must admit Titanfall 2 clearly shown that timing is everything to get players playing.

[The3rdWalker 1,271]

30 minutes ago, GazzaGarratt said:

I read a tweet by Gothalion that mentioned that they could be holding back content for Penumbra and go all out later in the year due to the other games being released around this time. I must admit Titanfall 2 clearly shown that timing is everything to get players playing.

 

That is my theory, they need to wow people because it's all on them. There's no more blame towards Activision. 

[NCA-Paendrag 2,758]

Well, if they wait too long with content, I fear people might leave it. Would be interesting to see numbers of how many is playing these days, with pretty much nothing to play for. At least that's hiw I feel until the new power cap and hopefully enjoyable content. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

I think they've already lost many players @NCA-Paendrag, and the others are not fully leaving Destiny, just waiting for new content.

 

Based on releases upcoming the larger base I think will come back in Penumbra. At least the Gambit changes in the meantime should mean we have chances to get some people back.

 

If its enjoyable as Iron Banner last night, then that has every chance of happening.