Hi Luke, I know this has probably been a roller-coaster couple of months for you. You've soared through the heavens as the creative Director of a AAA release DLC and you've had your wings melt when you flew to close to the interview lights. I'm not going to bash or rehash the past. Let's chat about today's update. [quote]Luke Smith: In our Strike the Dreadnaught reveal earlier this week, we showed some and told some about how we wanted Strikes to move forward into Year 2. Strike replayability is augmented by variability. Bosses with more interested combat phases and less vitality. Strike-specific rewards. E.g., Armor drops that look like trophies from the Strike boss E.g., weapons that only drop from certain Strikes[/quote] No issues with any of this. Actually it all sounds like welcome changes. [quote]But those aren't the only changes coming to Strikes. We've also looked at the programming/Strike playlists and made some changes there, too. Nightfall Our desired Nightfall experience is the weekly ritual where you get together with your friends for a test of thumbskill and allow players to optimize for gear.[/quote] Actually, many of us run them solo every week because there isn't an option to search for teammates. [quote]Burn skulls motivate weapon rotation and now the Burn resist talents found on chest pieces will rotate armor.[/quote] I like the idea of burn resits on armor and hopefully this will inspire you all to stop putting up Nightfalls with no burns. This game is supposed to be at it's heart about having fun and weapon burns are FUN. The Nightfalls have never been harder without burns, but they can be tedious and dull. [quote]The death penalty of being kicked to orbit often leads to players feeling forced to play too safe, rather than running through the world as a monster killing machine.[/quote] This is the first really intriguing thing in this update for me. The main argument against omm for the Nightfalls was always the RTO. Now that it's being removed, does that mean we can possibly search for teammates to run the Nightfall with? [quote]Another thing we didn't like about the Year 1 Nightfall was how players could feel forced to play Nightfall as early as possible in the week to maximize the benefit from the Nightfall buff. So, we've shelved that buff until we can reform it into something closer to its original intent - a mark of prestige for having achieved something challenging. We've adjusted sources of XP and Reputation up to account for its absence.[/quote] This seems kind of odd and self-defeating. Pretty much the last 3 months, I didn't need any weapons or armor out of Nightfalls and my only motivation to run them was for the XP boost. By removing that, you're potentially removing a significant reason to keep running that content once we are fully geared. Also, I find it more than a bit odd that you could write [quote]we didn't like about the Year 1 Nightfall was how players could feel forced to play Nightfall as early as possible in the week[/quote] And yet it doesn't seem to bother you at all that players are forced to go outside the game to play your endgame content when they don't want to. It seems to me the lesser of those two evils is abundantly clear and it's not your door #1 [quote]Now Requires Level 40 Wiping no longer returns Fireteams to Orbit Now uses 30 second time-out penalty for Death (same as Raid Normal)[/quote] I don't know that I like the "requires level 40" part either. My first Nightfall I ever beat was solo as a level 26 and it took me about 4 hours, but it was one of my favorite accomplishments in this game to this day. The only reasoning I could see for the level 40 requirement is if matchmaking is on the table for it... unless we can't hit level 40 without buying TTK. [quote]Weekly Heroic Strikes We've removed a dedicated Weekly Heroic Strike from the game this Fall. In its place we've added a new playlist: the Vanguard Heroic Playlist.[/quote] Not sure I see the point of this other than to get people to run the strike playlist. I can' also tell you right now that if this is going to run like I'm guessing, you're going to create a giant s**tstorm when it goes live. By removing the weekly and putting the rewards into the first 3 runs of a regular strike playlist, what you are effectively going to create is a situation where rather than choosing to run the particular weekly like we have now (or skipping it if you hate the strike); people are now going to be quitting out of strikes in numbers not seen since Rockets McD*ckface in vanilla Destiny. How many people do you think will run a Strike they hate to get their 3 in and how many quit out until they get one they like? Hope you all have thought this through because you've shown a staggering lack of foresight in the past when implementing changes. [quote]Each week players receive bonus Legendary Marks from the Weekly Heroic Playlist. These awards are received at the Account level rather than the character level - as was the case with Year One Weekly Heroic Rewards. We made this change to enable players to focus on a single character more, or feel less pressure to gear three characters at once for Legendary Marks.[/quote] Again, hopefully you've thought this through, because I think most people probably weren't feeling pressure to gear three characters, I think most spent time gearing 3 to have more to do in the game. [quote]Requires Level 40 Removed the Weekly Heroic Strikes Instead, accounts receive Legendary Marks for completing the first three Weekly Strikes Removed the Weekly Cap on how many Legendary Marks can be earned. Guarantee a Legendary Engram drop from a character's first clear of a Weekly Heroic Strike[/quote] Curious since it is a normal strike playlist you didn't come out and say if they require TTK or not and if so, what the rewards will be for people without the DLC. [quote]Weekly PVP Ritual Nightfall was built as a ritual experience for groups of three players in PVE. In Year 1, we didn't have a good weekly ritual experience for PVP players. Once players have completed the PVP Intro chain on Lord Shaxx, they receive access to the Weekly PVP quests on Lord Shaxx and the PVP Quartermaster. Each week, Lord Shaxx has a Bounty called "The True Meaning of War." Completing this Bounty each week (which requires completing the PVP weeklies) grants players Nightfall tier rewards.[/quote] This is a welcome addition and will hopefully give the regular Crucible more of a Iron Banner feel of importance, but all this was already covered last week. I'd much rather have more detailed information on the changes to Endgame PvE. [quote]Daily Heroic/Daily PVP It's important to us that Destiny remain compatible with real life. Playing multiple characters can sometimes feel like a job or a chore, the Daily Heroic and Daily PVP often felt that way. So we increased their rewards and made them an account completion. We want players to choose which characters they want to play on and earn Legendary Marks on.[/quote] This again is a quality statement from you but when you make the declaration that [quote]It's important to us that Destiny remain compatible with real life. [/quote] It forces me to ask you, [b]what in God's name is your defense of your matchmaking philosophy then???[/b] Is my coming home after 14 hours at work and having to "complete the challenge of going outside the game to find a fireteam to be able to run endgame content" compatible with real life? No Luke. It's not. In fact, I'm not sure anyone at Bungie has a realistic idea of what it's like to be a non-Bungie employee trying to play endgame content in Destiny. [quote]Playing multiple characters can sometimes feel like a job or a chore[/quote] You think that's a job or a chore? Try having to troll forums or LFG sites EVERY SINGLE TIME you want to run an endgame activity. Seriously Luke, do you all ever read these forums at all? [quote]Did we mention that you’ll need to confront the immediate threat first? Oryx lies between you and these challenges. You'll need to survive his wrath to partake in the new endgame.[/quote] Say what? You really are going to end with that? So what does that mean, because people are freaking out they'll have to beat the raid to play endgame (unlikely, but can easily be inferred from your remark). Are you saying that unless we purchase TTK that all endgame will be completely locked for us? Here again we have a problem with clarity of thought. When something sounds nice in your head, it's always nice to read it and make sure it's not vague ominous corporate-speak that is going to piss off half the internet. So maybe you should think about telling us exactly what that means and exactly how you are or aren't going to bend us over to buy TTK rather than making us want to buy it for the quality of content. Thank-you, we hope to hear some clarification soon.