The director of Destiny 2 has dropped one other of his sporadic 4000-word thoughtdumps reflecting on the state of the MMOFPS, its successes, and its failures. One huge downside Luke Smith acknowledges is that the newest seasons, beginning with Season Of The Undying, create a disappointing “feeling of ephemeral private activities and rewards that go away” reasonably than the thrilling “evolving world” they’d wished. Bungie will attempt to repair that with the subsequent yr, he says, and so they have another huge modifications deliberate. It sounds promising however I want he’d addressed Eververse’s position in FOMO.
Luke Smith’s latest Director’s Cut post is 4134 phrases lengthy and a contact rambling, so let’s take a look at the massive components.
First, the present mannequin of seasons, began alongside the launch of Shadowkeep, isn’t working. When Smith talked about Destiny’s new season mannequin in August 2019’s wordblast, he mentioned they wished to construct an “evolving world” and that “the best Destiny stories are the ones where ‘you had to be there when…’.” That was meant drive the present run of seasons, with seasonal modes, gear, actions, and tales that wrapped up then went away. The earlier run of seasons after Forsaken, in distinction, completely added Forges, Gambit Prime, the Menagerie, and questlines accompanying them. He acknowledges this transformation kinda sucks in a number of methods.
“We aren’t delivering the feeling of an evolving world. Instead we are delivering the feeling of ephemeral private activities and rewards that go away. The Forsaken Annual Pass had its share of challenges (see last year’s DC), but it also had this awesome property: If I stopped playing for a Season, when I came back, there were a bunch of rewards and activities that I could catch up on.”
Smith concedes that “this year’s version of Seasons has too much FOMO in them” and says subsequent yr’s run “will have less.” For you unhepcats on the market, FOMO is Fear Of Missing Out.
He says Bungie are presently “talking about moving away from creating Season-bespoke private activities and instead using that time and effort to build themes that aren’t just represented by a marquee event that will fade away, but rather to inject these Seasonal themes into more of the game.” It’s a multifaceted downside which is able to take many small options. He mentions the thought of pushing seasonal rewards and themes extra into the “core activities” of Crucible, Strikes, and such. And perhaps Bungie may put extra improvement sources into fancy story quests like saving Saint-14 then not take away them on the finish of the season. Perhaps they’ll have extra harmful fights in open-world zones that require cooperation. I’d be up for all this.
Destiny seasons presently discourage taking a break and danger lacking content material, and that does suck. Players are nudged to stay round and preserve ticking off duties, which makes some angrily burn out and others simply outright depart. And the seasonal modes after Menagerie haven’t been nearly as good as core modes; I performed Sundial and Vex Offensive sufficient to get the rewards and triumphs I wished then stopped. I do assume final season’s Vex Invasions rampaging throughout the Moon’s public areas have been truly a great instance of the form of “You had to be there when…” second he mentioned they wished to create, thoughts, and extra huge public rumbles could be grand. Though I feel Smith skips over a key downside with Destiny’s present mannequin.
Part of the seasonal FOMO and tedium is right down to Bungie eradicating the random engrams of contemporary Eververse beauty objects we as soon as bought as level-up rewards, making a load of latest seasonal content material out there solely by the microtransaction retailer. While most Eververse objects are ultimately offered for the foreign money we will earn by enjoying, Bright Dust, getting sufficient requires ending a complete lot of bounties. I don’t even need all of them however the chance that I’ll not have sufficient Dust for good issues developing later within the season is sufficient to preserve me grinding. The game will really feel like a chore listing so long as I go surfing, go straight to the Tower (which takes ages due to an ongoing terrible load time bug), resolve which mode’s Bright Dust bounties I’ll tick off immediately, gather them, then choose my loadouts (and Strikes) to optimally full the objectives. Eververse shapes a lot of my playtime but I don’t earn practically sufficient Dust for every part I’ve preferred even with three characters banging out bounties.
Look, I don’t object to Bungie utilizing Eververse to lift additional money from a game with a vastly beneficiant free-to-play aspect (I’ve purchased some Eververse bits for actual cash myself!) however I don’t like that they join so many seasonal objects to a tedious and FOMO-inducing grind. Especially when their real-money costs are ludicrously excessive. You can’t fairly speak about FOMO with out acknowledging Eververse’s position in it.
Moving on… energy creep! Because we will infuse weapons to greater Light Levels, they by no means naturally turn into out of date. Smith says which means it’s onerous to make Legendary weapons like Pinnacle (now Ritual) and raid rewards really particular as a result of they’ll be round run to roughshod over the game till usurped by one thing much more highly effective. But it’s good to have specialness not restricted to Exotics and it does suck that raid weapons are simply but extra loot. So he proposes an answer: Legendary weapons may be particular and robust, however Legendaries will solely be capable of infuse as much as a sure Light Level. The concept is that after stomping round bellowing for some time — he suggests a lifespan of “between 9 and 15 months” — Legendaries (and never Exotics, to be clear) will naturally be left behind because the game’s max Light Level retains rising past the weapon’s cap. I’m unsure how that can work when Light Level is irrelevant in most of Destiny however I belief they’ve a plan?
“Our hope is that instead of having to account for a weapon’s viability forever when we create one, it can be easier to let something powerful exist in the ecosystem,” Smith mentioned. “And those potent weapons entering the ecosystem mean there’s more fun items to pursue.”
I desire the meta to shift over time anyway so positive, I assume that is one other different to nerfs or limitless energy creep. I’ll must see the way it works in actuality.
Onto two remaining factors…
Smith introduced that Faction Rallies won’t return however their armour and a few weapons will enter the Legendary engram pool in Season 10. I began Destiny 2 after Faction Rallies ended so I stay up for getting that cool clobber. I need these Faction shaders too.
And he admits Bungie accomplished goofed with the brand new participant expertise for New Light, the free-to-play launch. Right now, gamers undergo a brief mission then are dumped into the identical expertise as gamers who’ve accomplished every part. The three free story campaigns are hidden on an NPC in an out-of-the-way space, and that’s mind-bogglingly daft.
“We dramatically underestimated how many new Guardians would wake up on the Cosmodrome,” Smith mentioned. “We’re going to improve the New Light entry this fall and flesh the starting experience in Destiny out.”
Good. I’d hesitate to advocate Destiny 2 to somebody until I used to be keen to stroll them by the present post-intro abandonment.
Smith says a lot extra in his full post however my very own put up right here has blown previous 1000 phrases so I have to cease. Bear in thoughts that every part he talks about is simply an concept which may change or be deserted, yeah? And evidently the plans Bungie had for the continued run didn’t pan out. Do additionally be aware these plans are for previous the tip of the present run of seasons – of which we nonetheless have two extra to go.
The subsequent season of Destiny 2 is Season Of The Unworthy, beginning March 13th. Bungie formally introduced it in a single day with a quick video confirming the return of Trials Of Osiris, a critical endgame 3v3 PvP mode. We don’t know a lot concerning the season however Bungie have mentioned Fighting Lion is getting buffed so hell, I’m completely happy.
