Bungie has been facing a ton of criticism over Destiny 2. The developers have been trying to make good with the community through updates and promises of more transparency.
The latest developer update for Destiny 2 has revealed that will be undergoing a massive overhaul to tone down the Eververse, alter loot distribution, add to the Crucible and a ton more. By next year, Destiny 2 will not be the game it is today.
In Season 2 of Destiny 2, Iron Banner, Faction Rallies, and their rewards will be available to everyone – they will not be locked behind expansions. New Seasonal rewards from Crucible, Strikes, and Trials of the Nine will be available to all players as well.
Faction Rallies is set to return on January 16th and Iron Banner will be back in rotation on January 30th.
Moving forward, the Eververse will be toned down so it no longer feels like a substitute for end game content and rewards. In order to reach this goal, Bungie will be making three changes in Season 2.
- Shifting the balance of new content in favor of activity rewards over Bright Engrams. This includes adding Ghosts, Sparrows, and ships (to date found only in Bright Engrams) to achievement reward pools.
- Providing a gameplay path to earn Bright Engrams and all contained rewards (including Event Engrams).
- Giving players more direct purchase options and make adjustments to Bright Engrams to allow players to get the items they want more often.
The upcoming Crimson Days event (beginning on February 13th) will see the beginning of these changes.
- Completing Nightfall, Raid, and Crimson Days milestones during Crimson Days will reward you an exclusive Legendary Emote, Weapon Skin, and Exotic Sparrow, respectively.
- Players will earn double engrams at level-up: one Crimson Engram and one Illuminated Engram for the duration of the event.
- Crimson Engrams can also drop from completing the Crimson Days match and from completing the Crimson Days milestone on each character.
- Each Crimson Engram is very strongly weighted to new rewards when decrypted until all new event items have been obtained.
Bungie promises that Season 3 will see “even more” changes.
Over the next year, Bungie will be bringing more updates to the game and have offered a roadmap that offers general details on their upcoming expansions.
January 30th (Masterwork Armor, Raid Reward Rework)
- Masterwork Armor
- Expand the Masterwork system to include armor.
- Masterwork Armor provides increased damage reduction while using your Super.
- You can reroll the armor stat type on Masterwork Armor, and similar to Masterwork weapons, you can upgrade a piece of armor to Masterwork by spending Masterwork Cores and Legendary Shards. >Image Link >
- Raid Reward Rework
- Update Raid rewards to make them more unique and interesting. They will now feature mods with Raid-specific perks, and we are adjusting the rewards to ensure a Raid item drops from each major encounter. The Raid vendor will also directly sell Leviathan and Eater of Worlds armor and weapons for purchase with Raid tokens and Legendary Shards.
- Adding a new Ghost with Raid-specific perks that has a chance to drop from the Leviathan and Eater of Worlds final encounters. (Bungie intends to return to creating more Raid and other activity-unique rewards in the future.)
February 2018 (Scores, Mods, Exotic Drops, Tower Chat, More)
- Strike Scoring + High Score Tracking
- Strike Scoring is coming to Nightfall and replacing the current time limit mechanic. The scoring is similar to the Destiny 1 system but with adjustments to emphasize competitive execution of Strike objectives and support for player selectable score modifiers. In February, Nightfall High Scores will be exposed in-game via new emblems and will unlock rewards. We also have plans for Clan and Community High Scores in the works.
- Mods 2.0
- Work is underway on a full rework of armor and weapon mods. This will focus on reducing redundant mods, more unique theming, and greatly increasing their impact on your power. Bungie is aiming for a February release, but the scope of the rework could push parts or all of it out to early spring. The devs will be evaluating how Mods play into the Bright Engram economy as a result, as they are “sensitive to pay-to-win outcomes.”
- Quickplay Improvements
- Adjust game mode rules to increase the pace of gameplay and power ammo acquisition in Quickplay.
- PC Tower Chat
- Add text chat to the Tower for the PC version of the game.
- Exotic Repetition Reduction
- This will prevent players from receiving the same Exotic twice in a row. You may still receive duplicates, just not consecutively.
- Fireteam Members on Destination Map
- You will finally be able to see the other members of your fireteam on the destination map. No more having to ask your fireteam where they went when they fast travel to another landing zone.
Spring 2018 (Crucible alterations)
- Crucible Rank
- Season 3 will introduce Seasonal Crucible Ranks. There will be two different ranks for players to pursue:
- Valor – A progression rank that goes up as you complete matches. Winning helps you move up faster, but there are no loss penalties.
- Glory – A progression rank that goes up when you win and down when you lose. Performance is how you move up here.
- Private Matches
- Private Matches are coming to all players of Destiny 2. Players will be able to invite their friends to play on the map and mode of their choosing.
- 6v6 Playlist
- 6v6 PvP is coming to Destiny 2 in addition to the current 4v4 game modes.
- Mayhem Event
- Mayhem will return as a limited-time event during Season 3 and going forward.
- Additional Fixes
- Bungie is making changes to make quitting less common and behind-the-scenes security improvements to help improve the overall Crucible experience.
- Weapon and Ability Balance Pass
- Sandbox adjustments based on player feedback and data from the live game.
- Exotic Weapon and Armor Balance Pass
- Exotic weapons and armor are receiving a comprehensive design pass to ensure they stand out from the rest of the gear and offer new, exciting, powerful ways to play.
- Seasonal Reputation
- Specific vendors will now display a Seasonal ranking. Earning reputation will unlock unique Seasonal rewards and will reset each Season.
- Improved Iron Banner and Faction Rallies
- Bungie will continue iterating on these to make them unique, exciting experiences that you all look forward to.
- Playlist Repetition Reduction
- This feature solves the problem of experiencing the same playlist entry multiple times in consecutive or frequent succession for both Crucible and Strikes.
- End Game Player Pursuits
- Bungie agrees with claims of an imbalance between Achievement and Bright Engram rewards and will be making adjustments to shift more rewards into specific endgame pursuits instead of generic XP grinding for Bright Engrams.
- Multi-Emote
- When multi-emote launches, you will be able to choose which emote you have equipped to each of your four emote slots.
- Vault space
- Bungie is targeting an additional 50 slots to player vaults as well as other changes to reduce load on your vault space.
- Adding an Exotic accessory tab to Vault collections so you will no longer need to spend Vault space on Exotic Ships, Sparrows, and Ghosts.
- PC Clan Chat
- In addition to the Tower chat that is targeted for February, we are adding clan chat to the PC version of the game.
- Heroic Strike Changes
- New modifiers will be introduced to add more gameplay variety to the experience.
Future Updates
- Item Collections and Records
- Weapon Slot and Archetype Improvements
- Additional Crucible Playlists (e.g. Rumble)
- Better Clan Rewards
- Masterwork Exotics
- Pinnacle Weapon and Gear Improvements
- Trials of the Nine improvements
- Shaders and dismantling
- The Future of Guided Games
- Address Solo Vs Fireteam matching
