Destiny September 25, 2014 Patch Notes

[Aranea Highwind]

So after i dismantle 2 legendary equipment and not received ascendant shards i wondered what was happening. Only to realize Bungie launched a patch today. Here the the full patch notes.

 

On September 9th the Bungie team traded late nights building Destiny for late nights playing Destiny with all of you. We'd looked forward to that day for years, knowing that it would bring millions of fresh eyes into our world and quickly change many of our plans and priorities. We were not disappointed.

 

In the last two weeks there have been many surprises, bugs, exploits, world firsts, and a whole lot of fun. It's been an amazing time. We think now is a great time to step back and let you all know how we think the game is holding up and to talk about some changes we are contemplating going forward.

 

We will be patching some of these issues as early as today. Others may not be addressed for a month or two. Stay tuned for updates and thank you for all your feedback online.

 

Loot

 

He Who Shall Not Be Named

Long ago during development, the Cryptarch decoded engrams of a given color into gear of that same color. Early in 2014 we added randomness, both for better and worse, to the decrypting process. The result was that end-of-session engram decoding got a lot more exciting and the Cryptarch himself suddenly acquired a personality. Both of these experiences were positive additions to the game.

 

But we didn't adequately communicate the potential random outcomes of decryption. Players see what looks like the familiar metaphor of item identification, while the Cryptarch thinks he's opening a grab bag of loot. Rage sharding of blues ensues. Expect to see changes to address this soon.

 

Destiny: The Cave

The social experience of a cave farming run is amazing: the herding to get a team of Guardians all behind the line and firing in the right direction, the rush to grab the loot, the scramble when the panic wave starts, the beckoning glow from inside the cave. The speed at which the community organized around this activity was inspiring and humbling to us.

 

But shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn't our dream for how Destiny is played. Our hope is that social engagement in public spaces is only one part of the Destiny experience. Expect changes soon which decrease the efficiency of cave farming and correspondingly increase engram drops from completing activities.

 

Reward Celebration

Growing more powerful by acquiring new upgrades, gear or progression is central to Destiny's player experience. Our goal is to always celebrate when this occurs, both as a reward in and of itself and to communicate to players what is going on.

 

During development we sometimes prioritized making a system functional over celebrating its rewards, for example:

The Vault of Glass contains highly coveted loot but the actual moment of reward happens without fanfare and can be easily missed.

The lowest level of the Daily Heroic gives great XP and Reputation rewards, but neither of these progressions appears on the postgame screen.

 

We will slowly be addressing these and other issues going forward.

 

Social

 

Voice Communication

Our vision for Destiny is that all players, even matchmade players in the Crucible, Strikes, the Tower or public spaces, be able to communicate with one another in a way that promotes positive socialization. Voice communication is the easy answer, but existing voice paradigms, including those in our own Halo games, have not done enough to protect players from abusive griefing from a minority of players.

 

Destiny's near-term solution will be to allow players to opt-in to voice communication during matchmade activities. Work on this feature was underway at launch and should be rolled out this year in Strikes and the Crucible.

 

Activities

 

Strikes

Strikes are intended to be a fun, combat-filled romp and stomp with a big boss and cool rewards at the end. Better with cooperation, but doable in a pick up group.

 

Since launch we've tracked down an issue which has made Strikes more challenging than originally designed by both increasing damage taken by players and decreasing the damage inflicted by players on the boss. Expect to see this addressed soon, and for Strikes to become a little less grindy as a result (sorry, Raiders - incoming damage is working as intended in the Vault of Glass). 

 

Balance

 

Our goal when balancing Destiny is to never have one player choice-- for example a choice of class or weapon-- either be so much better than the alternatives that it is the only valid choice or to be so much worse that it would always be a mistake to choose. When we are successful with this kind of balance the result is a wide set of equally compelling player builds, some of which may be preferred by one player or another but none of which is an absolute right or wrong choice.

 

Exotic Weapons

Exotic Weapons are designed to look, feel and sound overpowered, but to not actually break the game. We hope these weapons challenge the way players think about their loadouts and expect their idiosyncrasies to sometimes be a little frustrating. We find ourselves wanting to collect them all and hope players feel the same way.

 

Not all our Exotic Weapons currently live up to this promise. In particular those weapons received from completing exotic bounties including Thorn and Bad Juju have disappointed many of us who have gone through the great effort to obtain them because, despite looking and sounding amazing, they feel underpowered. We're here to offer some advice: don't shard those guns. Their time will come.

 

Auto Rifles

The Auto Rifle archetype is designed to appeal to players who like to throw up a wall of bullets and not worry if a few miss their target. It is intended to inflict sustained damage at close to medium range, but to lose effectiveness at longer ranges.

 

Today the Auto Rifle is too effective at long range, even beating Scout and Pulse Rifles in some circumstances. Expect stability and/or damage adjustments to the Auto Rifle to address this in the weeks ahead. 

 

Scout Rifles

Scout Rifles are for players who like to keep their enemies at medium range and hate to miss. They are intended to be an awkward weapon to use at close range but to be dominant-- as long as you land your shots-- at medium and longer ranges.

 

Scouts just aren't hitting hard enough today when compared to other precision weapons. We'll be addressing this soon.

 

Shotguns

Shotguns are for those situations where you need to deliver a massive spike of damage, right now, to the thing standing next to you about to do you harm. 

 

Today shotguns are effective beyond their intended range, especially when upgraded with that intention. Expect changes soon to address shotguns which push the envelope of what it means to be close quarters.

 

 

Thank you for helping us drive these changes. Keep sharing. Keep talking. We’re watching and listening.

 

--Bungie

 

 

http://www.bungie.net/7_Destiny-Dev-Notes/en/News/News?aid=12188

 

[Asuka Langley]

Fuck. Bungie.

 

RIP To the cave and RIP to the game

[Carville87]

Noooo end of the cave

[Omar]

Oh maaaaan, that cave was like Christmas and my birthday happening at the same time all the time!! You will be missed

[McJacs2]

Thank god they fixed the Cryptarch. I found two legendary engrams the other night and I got two stinking rares out of them! And I'm glad they are nerfing the shotguns, they were just too OP in PvP.

[kidson2004]

Glad I haven't even played this yet. Gonna wait until they patch the game up, then I'll enjoy it more.

[Gwinambele]

Tldr

cant the make patch note like every other developer??

That Queen Wrath reward nerf is stupid as hell.

After 8 missions i managed to get only chest armor and helmet x4 so at least i got some mats and now??

As a solo player i barerly can make that missions ( i cant manage to beat missions on mars at all Qq )

and they do such thing?

Its stupid there is no party matching for that..(Heroic strike and raid same)

And what the hell are clans in this game for??

To have a clan tag? Even if you are in clan you need to have ppl on friend list so....

You will find ppl to play with here on PSNP more likely then on some lol bungie web.

Why there is no in game clan chat or LFP feature or something..(GTAO at least have clan list in game with ppl online )

If i play on console i dont want and i wont turn on my PC or smartphone for that

Weapon balance:

Auto rifle is OP???rofl

Have they see how OP is fusion rifle?

One hit from half of the map is ok??

They rly need to learn a lot about balancing game and about multiplayer features of that kind of game otherwise it wont last long.

I still enjoy it but unfortunately i cant taste whole game and that sux.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Gwinambele

[YoChiink_]

Bungie should have fixed the god damn loot system before they fix the loot cave because now since the loot system is randomized theres no certain way to get legendarys, ascendant shards etc because o fhow broken the loot system is. A person going 3-11 on a control match shouldn't get a legendary engram its just beyond stupid. I love destiny but this needs to be fixed ASAP

[mahoganyman]

Not a huge fan of this game so far..  SO WHY CAN'T I STOP PLAYING

[d3m0nd00d]

Bungie should have fixed the god damn loot system before they fix the loot cave because now since the loot system is randomized theres no certain way to get legendarys, ascendant shards etc because o fhow broken the loot system is. A person going 3-11 on a control match shouldn't get a legendary engram its just beyond stupid. I love destiny but this needs to be fixed ASAP

Why not? If the loot is random more people will play pvp with the hope of getting better gear. Making the loot system only give to the top people will eventually discourage people from staying in pvp before they actually learn the maps and get better which will make the game more enjoyable over all.

[STRANGEgenius]

They should fix the loot system first of all.

 

Auto Rifles OP? Okay then... like Shotguns and Fusion Rifles aren't.. smfh.

[Nihiris-]

 

One of the main reasons why you can't blame people for being mad that the loot cave is gone. 

[Hong_Kong_Hermit]

It was a bad thing to make these Queen's Wrath legendaries give zero shards. Even just one would be a fair balance. I do feel that it was perhaps a bit too generous before. Complete one bounty, which earns one ticket to a difficult story replay, which earns a guaranteed legendary item. That's... well I got two helmets, and have another 5 tickets waiting. Considering my only other legendary was bought with Vanguard marks yesterday, the event loot is very easy to get (comparatively) at my level (25).

The weapons are still just about worth buying at my current stats, and I want the rest of her items, but the missions are still pretty long if you are running them solo as I am (because Bungie hates matchmaking). My first one was on the Moon, and took me a couple of hours. It was TOUGH, and I earned that helmet. Second time I just reloaded from orbit until I got the Restoration mission on Earth. Still quite tricky as the solar shields on the Shanks in an enclosed area gave me trouble, but was much faster. I cam see how 3 shards per broken up legendary would make this an overly fast farming spot for the raid level and above players, but they now have no reason to run these missions at all, which means they also have no reason to take the bounties. Even one shard would help keep them interested, and players of my level need them to be interested so that maybe they'll run the mission with us.

It was a bit of a downer that the event was just "replay old missions with a modifier" anyway, but shutting down the rewards is dumb, and not realising that the event was going to be seen as a chance for shard farming in advance was even dumber. Bungie don't seem to understand fully how people play MMO style games.

I don't miss the loot cave though. Tried it for 5 minutes and it was boring as hell. I'm not going to do something dull for hours, just so I can get better stuff to go and play actual content, not when playing actual content gives almost the same amount of reward anyway. Being level 30 with the best gear isn't the goal, it's enjoying the journey to that point. I'll fully concede that some players, with a different philosophy from me, were using the cave as a way to "patch" the loot system which is all kinds of broken. So, sucks for you guys I guess.

Edited September 26, 2014 by ParkingtigersX