This Week at Bungie - 8/16/18

Aug 16, 2018 - A_dmg04

This week at Bungie, we’re heading to gamescom.

The away team is all packed up and ready to ship out to Köln, Germany, for a week of community love and Gambit trials. Our booth will be home to some friendly skirmishes. We’ll host as many Guardians as we can. We'll find some moments to show you some things you have yet to see and tell you some things you have yet to hear. Keep your eyes on our social channels next week!

Not all of us will be battling jetlag and minions of Darkness. Here at home base, Forsaken is in the very final stages of development. We’re applying finishing touches, and we know there are still some questions you want answered before the Prison of Elders is breached.

Let’s introduce you to the devs with the details for this week.

Known by All

Many of you have asked about how rewards will work in Gambit. We’ve seen questions as to whether it will feature a ranking system akin to Valor or Glory in the Crucible. Senior Designer Robbie Stevens and Test Lead Sam Dunn can answer these questions with an explanation of Infamy ranks.

Robbie: With Forsaken just around the corner, Gambit will soon be unleashed into the wild. I wanted to discuss our high-level goals for the mode:

Fuse the best aspects of PvE and PvP into a brand-new activity that you can experience only in Destiny 2
Make the mode accessible to players of all skill levels, but give it depth and variety that will keep even the most hardcore Guardians coming back for more
There’s always a role to play; whether it’s slaying enemies, scooping up Motes, or invading, there’s always a way to contribute to your team’s success
Communication isn’t required, but strategy and quick thinking are just as important as thumb-skill
Always make it possible for teams that fall behind to come back, so they don’t become discouraged

Gambit was designed with replayability and variety as a core part of the experience, but we knew that wasn’t enough. Players need desirable loot to chase and a way to show their dedication. So, with that in mind, we created our very own ranking system: Infamy.

At a high level, Infamy is:

A progression-based ranking system where completing matches earns you points

Winning matches will greatly accelerate your climb, while losing matches still earns you points, just fewer than if you win

An experience that rewards players with unique Gambit weapons and armor

We’ve been watching the response to the Valor ranking system in the Crucible. A lot of this new work takes that community feedback into account. At this point, I’m going to pass it to Sam, who pulled double duty to design and test the Infamy ranking system.

Sam: To start, we’ve designed Infamy ranks to be more granular by splitting most of the familiar ranks into three tiers. This will allow players to work toward shorter-term goals that are achievable in a few play sessions, rather than over many weeks. It also gives us more opportunities to grant rewards. The Guardian, Brave, Heroic, Fabled, and Mythic ranks will all have three tiers. The Legend rank will remain as one solid chunk.

Apart from this major change, Infamy ranks will function very much like Valor ranks:

Each rank will require more Infamy points to complete than the last
Win streaks award bonus points
Your win streak caps at 5 and doesn’t get reset until you lose a match
Your win streak won’t be reset if you join a match in progress

In addition to completing matches, you can also earn Infamy by completing Gambit bounties. Each day, the Drifter will have a selection of daily bounties available for sale that will award Infamy points, as well as other rewards. He’ll also sell a special weekly bounty once you reach Level 50. The weekly bounty will award a large number of Infamy points and a piece of powerful gear. This allows you to always be making progress toward Legend, no matter what your short-term goals are.

Guardians notorious enough to catch the Drifter’s eye by climbing the Infamy ranks will be able to earn some pretty sweet gear.

Guardians who have tried Gambit in the wild have given it high marks for fun. At the same time, we know you well enough to know that a worthwhile reward is another crucial ingredient in a recipe that brings you back to the fight again and again. We hope to see you in Gambit when it launches with Forsaken!

“Magnificent!”

During our combat reveal stream, we used the Crucible as a proving ground to show off how new weapon systems and tuning will affect the way we fight in all activities as Guardians in Year 2 of Destiny 2. The updates to the tools of the trade are not the only changes you can expect in the arenas that pit players against players. Senior Crucible Designer Kevin Yanes is here to be accountable for how you’ll distinguish yourselves and earn awesome rewards in glorious combat.

Kevin: I’m glad to have the chance to talk to you all about Crucible ranks going forward. This past season of gameplay has taught us a lot about what has worked well and where we can do better. As we kick off the next season, we’re excited to give players new ranks to earn! Let’s dive right into the goals we had for designing the Crucible rank system in Season 4 and the changes that they generated:

Goal: Make earning a high rank in Glory NOT feel like your second job
Changes:

Glory rank points gained and lost have been re-tuned to reduce the overall climb to higher ranks
The weekly award has been fixed and its gains have been doubled

Goal: Recognize the achievements of players who did not receive their weekly awards in Season 3
Changes:

Players who competed in Season 3 will earn bonus rank points for completing their first match in Season 4
Does not require completion of any previous weekly milestones

Goal: Encourage more players to strive for higher Glory ranks
Changes:

Losses in the Competitive playlist no longer reset your Valor win streak
Radar has been reenabled during Competitive gameplay
Control and Clash modes have been added to the Competitive playlist
Loss streaks have been removed
We are currently investigating activity reconnections to Competitive Crucible for players who encounter an error midgame; this will not be available at the launch of Forsaken, but we are looking to add this feature postlaunch

Goal: Remove the time pressures associated with Glory ranks
Changes:

Pinnacle Crucible rewards are now awarded via quests

Some of these quests will ask you to engage with Valor or Glory ranks
These quests will NOT go away at the end of the season

Redrix’s Claymore is being retired in Season 4

Players who already earned the weapon will still be able to equip and use it
Players will be unable to earn Redrix’s Claymore beyond Season 3

Shaxx will offer a new quest that players can complete to earn Redrix’s Broadsword, a companion weapon to Redrix’s Claymore

Redrix’s Broadsword features a similar talent arrangement, but it does not share the lore and Triumphs associated with Redrix’s Claymore
Once you’ve earned the weapon, random roll versions of Redrix’s Broadsword will start dropping from Crucible engrams
Each drop will have the fixed Outlaw + Desperado combination
Each drop will also have randomized barrels, magazines, and Masterwork perks

Players who earned Redrix’s Claymore in Season 3 will receive additional bonuses

Owners of Redrix’s Claymore will be granted an exclusive emblem when redeeming the corresponding Triumph
Claymore owners will be eligible for drops of Redrix’s Broadsword from Crucible engrams even without completing the corresponding quest

A new Crucible reward will be added via a quest in Season 4

Goal: Continue to promote Rumble as a third mode
Changes:

Earning a place in the Top 3 in Rumble will now count as a win
The correct number of Valor rank points will be granted

If you committed to any of the rank ladders we established in Season 3, thanks for making the fight lively. We love supporting the competitive community, no matter your skill or mood. Keep your feedback coming, and we’ll keep making the Crucible a place where you submit to some of the finest tests of skill that Destiny has to offer players.

—Kevin

You heard him.

Getting Social

Since the original launch of Destiny 2, we’ve been reporting your feedback on Guided Games and matchmaking systems to our Social team. Today, Design Lead Steve Dolan will be detailing changes that will make it easier to keep your Fireteam together. He also has news for how Clan features will be updated in Forsaken.

Steve: I want to fill you in on changes coming to social systems before we start our Forsaken adventure together.

We're bringing back a feature that many have asked for on many occasions. Fireteams that are formed in some activities will stay together once the activity is complete. This applies to the following:

Strikes
Gambit
Crucible

Note: This does not apply to Competitive Crucible. Additionally, if a Crucible match ends by a mercy ruling, or the scores are wildly disproportional, players will be put back into matchmaking to find a new team.

Activity Reconnections
Starting with Forsaken, if you disconnect from a Guided Game, you'll be offered the opportunity to reconnect to the activity if it is still active. We'll reserve your slot for up to three minutes. After that, Guides will be able to backfill the Guided Game with Seekers that are currently in queue.

In Guided Raids, these reconnections will help with individual player disconnects. In the case that an entire Fireteam disconnects, we want to minimize the impact to raid teams. Going forward, players will be able to take their raid checkpoints out of Guided Games and use them in the normal version of the raid. If you all disconnect, form up your Fireteam again and head into the normal version to continue on your path of total raid destruction.

Clans Update
Since launch, 50% of you have hit max rank in your Clans each season. Going into Forsaken, there are two major things we wanted to improve with Clans:

Give you more reasons to play with your clanmates
Make clan perks more interesting

How you earn Clan XP is changing. When you start your journey in Forsaken, Hawthorne will have three daily bounties. They can be completed alone or with a Fireteam to grant a small amount of Clan XP. Once your character reaches level the new 50, Hawthorne will add three additional weekly bounties that grant larger amounts of Clan XP, but require you to fireteam up with your clanmates.

Here is a preview of the new clan perks for Season 4 that will be more impactful and worth the time it takes to achieve them.

Rank 3: Increased resilience when you’re in a fireteam with clanmates.
Rank 5: Grants a chance to receive additional Etheric and Baryon resources when collecting them in the Reef.
Rank 6: The weekly clan milestone also grants a Masterwork Core.

Express Yourself
And of course, we’ve been busy making sure you'll be able to express yourself to other Guardians in the world come Forsaken. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming on September 4.

If you don’t have a Clan, someone is always recruiting. You’re missing out on another roster of willing teammates, a whole shared loot stream, as well as all these new features.

Going out with a Bang

Next week, a new mode will be featured in Crucible Labs, and we’re expecting explosive results. Senior Designer Andrew Weldon is here to set the stage for your final lab session of Season 3.

Andrew: This past weekend, you got a chance to play the updated version of Showdown. This iteration contained updates based on your feedback and our own observations. Like Lockdown, we’ll gather as much information as we can and start making decisions as to our next steps and will update you when we have more to share.

We’ve received feedback on both Lockdown and Showdown that both modes felt too tilted toward the Competitive playlist style of gameplay – 4v4, round-based, higher stakes, etc. And you’re right – that was the target experience for both modes. This next time around, however, we’re going to swing the pendulum the other way…

Our next Crucible Labs will be the mode Scorched. This mode has a very deep, complex, and serious rule set:

You spawn with a Scorch Cannon
Everyone else spawns with a Scorch Cannon
You shoot each other with said Scorch Cannons

Seriously, that’s it

Our designers were so pre-occupied with whether or not we could, we didn’t stop to think if we should.

Tuesday, 8/21 at 10 a.m. PT: Free-for-all
Friday, 8/24 at 10 a.m. PT: 6v6

This is a wild and zany mode, but one that we’ve had a ton of fun playing here at Bungie. We hope you’ll also have a blast with this mode as the final Labs offering before Year 2 begins.

Scanning…

Update 2.0 is just around the corner, followed by Forsaken a week later. Destiny Player Support has a forecast for what to expect on the week between, where you may notice a few hiccups in the experience.

This is their report.

Hotfix 1.2.3.2 Recap
This week, to address issues blocking some players from upgrading their Solstice Armor at the Statue of Heroes, we deployed Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.2.3.2.

Upon installing this hotfix, some players on PC reported seeing odd behavior in the character screen. With the conclusion of the Hotfix 1.2.3.2 deployment we expect issues causing this behavior to be resolved, however, players who continue to be affected should try running Scan and Repair from the Blizzard launcher.

Players who encounter other issues following this hotfix should report them to the #Help forum.

Resplendent Masterworks
Last week, we confirmed that Solstice Armor can no longer be upgraded after the conclusion of Solstice of Heroes. This week, we can confirm that players will be able to complete objectives to masterwork their Legendary Solstice Armor (Resplendent) after Solstice of Heroes ends on August 28.

This will require players to have already upgraded to their Legendary Solstice Armor (Resplendent), since the Statue of Heroes will no longer be available to upgrade the Scorched and Rekindled sets. As a reminder, these armor sets only generate elemental orbs during Solstice of Heroes.

Lastly, players should be aware that Valor ranks reset at the conclusion of Season 3. If players do not unlock their masterwork for achieving Legend in their Valor ranking by the end of Season 3, their Valor rank will reset and they will have to begin anew in Season 4.

For more details on Solstice of Heroes, players should visit our Vital Information thread.

Forsaken Preparation
To set the table for the launch of Forsaken on September 4, all players will be prompted to accept Destiny 2 Update 2.0.0 on August 28.

As Destiny 2 crosses into its second year, players may observe a number of issues in the week between August 28 and September 4. While we are working to document known issues for this week-long transition, players should be prepared for some general turbulence.

To set expectations, here is a sampling of issues confirmed for the week leading up to Forsaken, starting on August 28:

Exotic weapons will lose their +5 Power mod in preparation for the Year 2 mod system, but Legendary weapons will not until September 4
Nightfall strikes will not have scoring until September 4
Some tooltips and item descriptions may reflect Year 2 item behavior, even if item functionality is not updated until September 4
Some tooltips and item descriptions may reflect Year 1 item behavior until September 4, even if item functionality has already been updated for Year 2
Year 2 weapon slots will be live for all players, which may cause some weapons in players’ inventories to go to their Postmaster

All players should ensure their Postmasters are clear by August 28 to prevent loss of items
Some Year 1 Power weapons which previously had an elemental attribute will become Kinetic for Year 2
The elemental attributes for a handful of targeted Year 1 weapons will be changed and locked to a specific attribute for Year 2
All other Year 1 Energy and Power weapons in players’ inventories will have their elemental attributes locked for Year 2

Players can expect more details about the week leading into Forsaken in next week’s Player Support Report.

Splice it together

With just a few short weeks until Forsaken releases, we’re seeing some great plays in the Crucible being shared amongst the Community. While weapons slots and sandbox changes are imminent, we still want to tip the hat to those who’ve been showcasing skill through the first year of Destiny 2. Not only skill with a controller, but also in for form of awesome artwork being posted to the Creations Page.

Movie of the Week: If Destiny 2 had an Anime Opening!

Honorable Mention: Rest well, Cayde.

Honorable Mention: Look at this Titan main.

I love this game.
("Killin' Floor by Blues Saraceno) pic.twitter.com/v5hTViJyZo
— True Vanguard (@TheTrueVanguard) August 3, 2018

If you’d like a chance to earn the Lens of Fate emblem, make sure to submit your video to the Creations page on bungie.net and include #MOTW in your title.

Here are last week’s top scores for the Nightfall

Tomorrow, 3x Valor kicks off at 10AM in the Crucible. 12 days left to complete your Moments of Triumph, and your Solstice of Heroes armor sets. Once August 28 rolls around, we’ll be in a new world with Sandbox and Weapon slot changes. Seven short days after that, Forsaken launches. Time flies when you’re having fun, and I have to say, it’s flying fast.

As a final note, I’d like to throw a shoutout to a collection of our community artists. Their work inspires so many of us here at Bungie, and we want to give them the proper spotlight that they deserve.

It's been months in the making, the 2018 #Destiny2 community fan art mega collaboration! Over 60 unique guardian self-portraits drawn by your Destiny favourite artists! @Bungie @DeeJ_BNG @Cozmo23 @A_dmg04 @cgbarrett @gtricky77
4k Wallpaper: https://t.co/NmxEThoDPp pic.twitter.com/Iy2UtwJu45
— Faysal Mekki (@f_mekki) August 15, 2018

Cheers,

Dmg04