As expected, Destiny's servers have been taken offline as Bungie readies to release the new patch (1.0.2.1). The scheduled maintenance is expected to last for "several hours," during which Destiny's servers will not be accessible.
Detailed yesterday, the new patch is aimed at improving the technology that enables players to connect to Destiny. "The player experience will remain unchanged, aside from the stability for some users who have encountered issues connecting to servers," Bungie says.
Below are the notes for patch 1.0.2.1:
- Added more data logging for matchmaking systems
- Improved connectivity failure handling to reduce beaver (Kick To Orbit events) KTOs
- Improved logging of player disconnections
- Internal tools fixes to speed up our release process
- Fixes to the roster system to allow us to tune the frequency of roster updates on Xbox One
- Fixed a bug that allowed users to quick scope on some weapons
- Security fixes
- Server performance improvements
- Fixes to reduce the frequency of some KTOs
- Better logging to help diagnose connectivity problems
- Fixes to some Centipede errors that were exclusive to specific player characters
Hopefully the maintenance goes quick because today also marks the start of The Iron Banner, a week-long Crucible event that offers players a different kind of PvP experience by removing the automatic balancing. Of course, there's also all sorts of rewards, like Legendary armor and weapons.
In addition to today's hotfix, Bungie last week week made note of another separate update that will focus more on gameplay balancing. Though they didn't give an exact date, they did say the update — which is coming "very soon" — will bring a batch of "enhancements, refinements, fixes, and tweaks."
We'll keep you updated on when the servers come back online, or you can keep track over at Bungie's help page.