Each year or so, one of the top developers of Destiny 2 will write a vast blog post inspecting MMOFPS problems and proposing solutions. “This can be good,” I always think, “depending on how they implement it.” But plans are always vague and are often disappointing in reality. I am very pleased, then, that the most recent blogblast has some very specific changes that are definitely welcome. Furthermore, it looks like they can continue Destiny for many, many years to come.
Firstly, the longer-term news from game director Joe Blackburn’s 3600-word post: This fall’s annual expansion, The Witch Queen, has been delayed until early 2022. they want it very good when Destiny’s story comes to some kind of conclusion. Players expected that end to come in that Lightfall, the 2022 expansion, but apparently not – in two ways.
Blackburn said Bungie realized “that we needed to add an additional unannounced chapter after Lightfall to fully complete our first Destiny saga.” 1) Oh, then Lightfall will not be the end. 2) Oh! Even the end after Lightfall will only be the end of the “first saga”! Ooh! The current position is called “Saga of Light and Darkness”, he said, with no hint of what could happen. I would be happy with more Destiny expansions until Bungie releases its mysterious novelty in 2025 and hell, I would get more Destiny after that too.
Witch Queen’s delay can be worrisome, as Beyond Light’s delay last year left the final pre-expansion season stretched. They have a lot of time to plan around that, at least, and plans for this year’s seasons look promising.
The biggest news for next season, 14, is that Bungie is ending. Non-exotic weapons and armor will no longer have a high limit for you to infuse your power level. This set a timer on how long the equipment can be used for the game’s final activities, caused many beloved weapons to be discarded and led to a series of replacements for old favorites. While Bungie is not completely breaking the sunset (which would make me regret equipment so much that I unnecessarily dismantled it), they are killing it. If the equipment can currently be infused up to this season’s 1310 peak energy level, congratulations, it will be good next season too and forever.
“With Season 11, we introduced infusion caps, an iteration of the infusion designed to keep the Destiny equipment set up to date from launch to launch and to create a healthy ecosystem for our aspirational content,” said Blackburn. “Although we still believe in these goals, it is clear that our execution was wrong.”
I myself was willing to decline cautiously in theory, if Bungie could demonstrate interesting consequences. They do not have. It is a nuisance to look for new armor and especially new sunset weapon rolls that are reissued. Sunsetting also left the current target with a real shortage of kinetic weapons using special ammunition. Goodbye, bad system.
Looking ahead to more changes with season 14 still unnamed …
- Power grind is being reduced, with future caps going up just 10 each season. Good. Although, at this point, why keep it?
- Destiny’s Vault Of Glass’s first attack emerges from Destiny Content Vault. There will be another First World race as well, with a load of challenging triumphs beaten at the top because people already know how to complete the raid.
- Ikora will stop silently whining around the Tower and really be part of the story again.
- Transmogrification will finally arrive. The Armor Synthesis, as it is called, will allow players to transform the armor into universal ornaments to place other equipment (and no, you don’t need to accumulate in preparation – it will escape from your Collections). Ada-1 from the Black Armory will return to do this, with the materials needed for transmog materials obtained through rewards or by paying Silver (the real cash in microtransaction money). I have so many fashion plans.
- Shaders will no longer be inventory items either, just unlocks that can be easily applied through ornaments on the new Appearance Personalization screen. Hooray.
Bungie also plans to adjust Stasis in PvP this season and the next two. Stasis Hunters and Titans will be nerfed, Warlocks will have bugs fixed and being frozen will give extra damage reduction. I still think Stasis is hopelessly bad for PvP because being slow or frozen is never fun in a first-person game, but do I think this is anything?
Other promising future plans …
- Finishing “3-peeking” in Trials and Competitive PvP, the strategy of drawing a sword without ammunition to take the third person camera and look at the corners. You can only equip them if they have ammo. Good.
- Fight cheating by doubling the size of the security team.
- Polishing underutilized Light subclasses, which I think for these points is … most of them?
- Try to make the Trials not so boring that players would rather jump off cliffs than actually play.
- Real Stasis weapons suitable for your energy and power slots, not just this rubbo ice launcher we currently have.
- The multiplatform game arrives in season 15. PC and console players will not be combined in PvP, unless the consoles specifically join a PC group.
- Continue to fine tune the Crucible by rebalancing weapons, introducing new weapon advantages and perhaps making weapons a little more focused than they currently are compared to skills.
- And yes, the Crucible Felwinter’s Lie dominating rifle will receive a nerf. Although it is bad news for PvE peeps: Warmind cells are also likely to suffer attacks.
Ah, many good things. Yes, some of these plans are vague declarations of intent that we have heard before, but there are plans excellent enough that I am very satisfied. Swallowing your pride and ending the sunset is a great relief. The reduction of energy grinding should already be done. Destiny’s violence, exploitation and attacks are so good that I would have continued without these changes, but now I will complain a lot less. Even though I’m incredibly skeptical about an even more vague conversation about fixing the Crucible, which has been broken and neglected for so long.
I didn’t recap everything because ha ha ha so read the blog post yourself. How do you feel about all of this?