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Destiny: The Taken King – A Review

September 19, 2015 by

I’m going to jump straight into the review of The Taken King without a paragraph or four regurgitating the challenging first year Destiny has had. We all know the story of ‘no story’, so let’s move on.

The first thing that jumps out is the improvements in navigation (thanks as much to the Destiny 2.0 update). The quest screens, the communication is all more obvious and it’s a great thing. Here’s the quest overview screen, something that wasn’t there at all in year one:

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If you played in Year 1, you’ll have 5-10 minutes of running around the Tower picking up some gifts for your previous patronage then you’re ready to launch into the new story. And I’m extremely pleased to report there is story! It’s quite engaging as well, with the banter between Eris Morn and Cayde-6 particularly entertaining.

As far as locations go we only get the one new one: Saturn, but the re-use of the other planets is done well enough to keep it fresh. The new vistas are as stunning as you’d expect and throwing Taken into the mix gives the new content some good variety whilst also ramping up a feeling of how hectic things are getting in the story. The main storyline revolves around taking down Crota’s dad Oryx, but once you get to the end of that there’s a bunch of other quests to do to build your reputation, skills and sub-class. Time-wise, it took me half a dozen hours maximum to get from Level 34 to 40.

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The game mechanics in the new Strikes are overall excellent – lots of frenetic activity is the name of the game with most. I really enjoyed the Echo Chamber strike in particular – there are some nice mechanics to keep it interesting. I haven’t gotten geared to Raid level yet, let alone that the Raid content isn’t available at time of writing, so I can’t comment there. On the PvP side of things I’ve only recently gotten into Crucible matches but from what I’ve seen of the new content it’s a worthy addition to the stable and the new modes (Mayhem and Rift) are welcome as well.

Just to be as balanced as possible, there are still some annoyances with the game. There are a number of locations where you’re presented with a vast chasm to get across. If you look in a certain direction a small levitating rock ledge appears that you jump on, with the next ledge appearing. For me at least though, the next ledges didn’t appear a lot of the time, either because it was glitchy or I wasn’t looking in a very specific location. Very frustrating and unnecessary – how many players want to be playing Mario jumping in a game like this? The direction arrow on your mini-map also remains very misleading in some locations – there was one instance of me dying three times assuming I had to try and do some Mario jumping when in fact I was meant to go in the opposite direction to where the arrow was pointing. Hopefully there’ll be some incremental fixes on this stuff.

So is The Taken King worth the nearly $100 you’ll pay for it? For me the answer is yes, though I’d still tend towards buying the disc given it has all the content on it to date. For new players there’s now a game that will keep you occupied for months. For those that listen to our podcast, you’ll know we both lost a great deal of faith in the game. I’m happy to say  most of that faith has been restored but I still have an eye of what moves Bungie makes in the coming 3-6 months. In the meantime, I’m never going to get sick of that view:

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Now it’s your turn: if you’re playing The Taken King, is it meeting your expectations?

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, Other Games Tagged With: ,

Destiny 2.0 Patch Notes

September 9, 2015 by

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2.0 Patch notes

 

Just a quick update this morning now that patch notes are live. How’s that 18Gb patch?

https://www.bungie.net/en/News/News?aid=13474

2.0.0 – The one to prepare for Oryx.

 

This update begins Destiny Year Two. It contains sweeping changes that will impact the way we all play. Prepare for the arrival of The Taken King.

 

Player Character

  • Character Level Cap raised to 34 for all players
    • Your Character Level will be grandfathered into your highest possible Light Level from all gear in your inventory and vault 
    • Character Level Cap will be increased to 40 on 9/15 (requires The Taken King)
  • Character Level and Light are now separate stats
    • Light is now calculated by the average of the Attack and Defense scores of all your gear
    • Weapons, Ghosts, Class Items, and Artifacts now all contribute to Light
    • Grimoire Score has been moved from the Character Nameplate and now displays in the Character Screen
  • Attack Power values on weapons and gear have been renormalized in preparation for the Taken King
    • Year 1 Attack and Defense values caps have been renormalized for Year 2 (previously 365 Attack is now 170 Attack) 
    • All Defense values are now on the same scale as Attack
    • Weapon damage numbers and combatants have been scaled against renormalized Attack and Defense values
  • Outgoing and Incoming damage has been changed to reflect new Light system
    • Ability Damage is directly computed from your Light Score
    • Player Health is directly computed from your Light Score
    • Weapon Damage is heavily weighted by both your Light score and the Attack value of the weapon

 

Classes

General

    • Intellect, Strength, and Discipline now only change their effect in fixed tiers
    • Intellect, Strength, and Discipline stats now display their tier and the exact duration of the effect on the tooltip in the Character Screen
    • Orb generation is now capped to a maximum of 8 orbs at once when wearing exotic armor items that increase orb spawning rates
    • Increased Recovery stat time at low end by 1 second and Reduced high end reduced timer by 2 seconds.  These were re-normalized Recovery stat effects to make a more compelling character stats choice
    • Pulse Grenades secondary effect distance are now globally 8 meters (Thermal and Void: 7 -> 8 meters, Arc: 9 -> 8 meters).  Detonation distance still unchanged at 7 meters
    • Pulse Grenade fuse times have been reduced
    • Thermal Pulse (Incendiary Grenade) base detonation and damage have been increased to unify stats with other Pulse Grenades
    • Fixed an issue where perks that grant additional super energy for grenade kills did not work correctly in the Crucible

 

Titan

Defender

      • Line attacks (Fist of Havoc Shockwave and Arc Blade Razor’s Edge) can now no longer penetrate Ward of Dawn

 

Hunter

Gunslinger

      • Golden Gun Damage increased (350 -> 360) to ensure it consistently killed opponents in the Crucible

Bladedancer

      • Arc Blade can now generate up to 6 Orbs when geared with exotic armor that increase orb spawning rates
      • Blink movement ability activation delay increased by 0.07 seconds (0.26 seconds to 0.33 seconds)
      • Blink movement ability visuals now changed to better telegraphing direction: clearer activation FX and trail FX
      • Blink Strike now does Arc Damage
      • Arc Bolt grenades (Thermal and Arc) damage reduced by 25% to 75 damage
      • Arc Bolt Range reduced by 11% to 8 meters
      • Flux Grenade tracking shape volume has been changed to reduce tracking aggressiveness

 

Warlock

General

      • Armor Bonus perk “Strength of the Ram” (found on exotic helmet, The Ram) has been reduced (5->3)

Sunsinger

      • Fixed an issue where Sunsingers who self-resurrected from Fireborn were given a free orb upon respawn
      • Fireborn Sunsingers must now successfully kill to spawn orbs

 

Weapons

Read our detailed review of weapon change philosophies.

 

Auto Rifles

    • Base Damage increased across all archetypes
    • Damage Falloff now starts closer to the player to emphasize its role as a close range weapon
    • Base Stability reduced slightly.  Landing consistent precision shots require more weapon control
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 30%

Pulse Rifles

    • All Stable (low recoil) Pulse Rifles (i.e., Hopscotch Pilgrim) now use “Medium” Rate-of-Fire base stats
    • “Medium” Pulse Rifle’s Rate-of-Fire has slightly increased, but with base Damage reduced slightly (2.5%)
    • PVP: Bursts-to-kill (all precision hits) is 2 or 3, depending on victim’s Armor stat
    • Magazine Size increased on all base stats
    • Base Stability reduced slightly. Landing consistent precision shots require more weapon control
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 25%

Scout Rifles

    • Base Damage increased slightly for “Medium” to “High” Rate-of-Fire Scout Rifles. Small adjustment, does not change shots-per-kill in PVP against another Guardian with full health
    • Magazine Size increased on all base stats
    • Accuracy when firing from hip is reduced
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 5%

Hand Cannons

    • Damage Falloff distance has been reduced to be closer to the player to limit long range lethality
    • Accuracy while in Aim-Down-Sights reduced slightly, making long range snap-shooting less reliable
    • Accuracy when firing from hip is reduced
    • Magazine Size reduced on all base stat settings
    • Base Optics (zoom) reduced so Aiming Down Sights grants more width (in favor for depth)

Shotguns

    • Shotgun precision damage scalar grants 10% bonus damage (Was 25%)
    • Shot Package perk reduces the cone spread by 20% (was 50%)
    • Rangefinder perk adds a 10% base Range increase on zoom (was 20)
    • Damage done against AI combatants reduced by 45% ( 2.25-> 1.15)

Sniper Rifles

    • Final Round perk now buffs precision damage, not base damage. This change only affects this perk when combined with Sniper Rifles

Fusion Rifles

    • Fusion Rifles now no longer get more accurate with each projectile fired
    • Fusion Rifles that are slow charging, high impact now have a slightly lower base Range value, making it harder to max out
    • range for these weapons
    • Accuracy increased for low range Fusion Rifles; Accuracy reduced for high range Fusion Rifles
    • Max Fusion Rifle projectile speed decreased slightly
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 15%

Sidearms

    • Base Reload Speed increased
    • Ammo Stats for Sidearms have been reduced to match other Secondaries, but still retain starting bonus ammo

Rocket Launchers

    • Blast Radius distance slightly increased
    • Grenades and Horseshoes perk proximity detonation distance reduced to 1.3 meter (was 2 meters)

Machine Guns

    • Fixed an issue with all Dead Orbit Machine Guns where attached plasteel plate failed to animate properly on reloads
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 5%

 

Weapon Perks

General 

    • Reduced Damage bonuses and penalties granted from weapon barrel upgrades
    • Overpenetration perk now only works on bipeds (no longer works on environment materials)
    • Mulligan perk chance increased to 20%

 

Year One Perks

We have revisted all of these Year One stat perks and reduced the amount they buff your weapon stat to re-normalize against Year Two weapon lethality and reinforce specialization so players are making meaningful trade-offs on weapons.

 

To compensate for the weaker stat perks from launch weapons, we added some new stat perks (introduced in House of Wolves) that provided a significant increase to a stat in exchange for a reduction in other stats. This allows players to be able to spike a stat that reinforces their specialized play style, but at a cost.

 

    • Accelerated Coils: Reduced charge time by 50%
    • Accurized Ballistics: Reduced range and damage bonus by 50%
    • Aggressive Ballistics: Reduced damage bonus by 50%. Increased stability and range penalties by 100%
    • Aggressive Launch: Reduced damage bonus by 50%. Increased stability and projectile speed penalty by 100%
    • Confined Launch: Increased projectile speed penalty by 25%. Reduced stability bonus by 33%
    • CQB Ballistics: Reduced range bonus by 25%. Reduced stability bonus by 33%
    • Enhanced Battery: Reduced magazine bonus by 60%
    • Extended Mag: Reduced magazine bonus by 33%
    • Field Choke: Reduced damage bonus by 50%. Reduced range bonus by 60%. Reduced stability penalty by 20%
    • Field Scout: No longer affects magazine. Reduced inventory bonus by 37%
    • Fitted Stock: Reduced stability bonus by 60%
    • Flared Magwell: Reduced reload bonus by 80%
    • Hammer Forged: Reduced range bonus by 50%
    • Hand Loaded: Reduced range bonus by 50%
    • Hard Launch: Reduced projectile speed bonus by 50%
    • Heavy Payload: Reduced blast radius bonus by 50%
    • Javelin: Reduced projectile speed bonus by 50%
    • Linear Compensator: Reduced damage bonus by 50%
    • Luck in the Chamber: Reduced damage bonus by 3%
    • Perfect Balance: Reduced stability bonus by 40%
    • Send It: Reduced by range bonus 40%. Inventory and equip penalties added
    • Smart Drift Control: Reduced stability bonus by 40%. Reduced range penalty by 33%
    • Smart Drift Control (Rocket Launcher): 
    • Reduced stability bonus by 40%. Reduced projectile speed penalty by 33%
    • Smallbore: Reduced stability and range bonuses by 25%
    • Smooth Ballistics: Stability bonus made into penalty. Range penalty is now a bonus.
    • Soft Ballistics  : Reduced damage penalty by 50%
    • Soft Launch: Stability bonus made into penalty. Projectile speed penalty is now a bonus.
    • Speed Reload: Reduced reload bonus by 80%
    • Warhead Verniers: Reduced blast radius bonus by 37%. Reduced projectile speed bonus by 60%. Reduced stability penalty by 20%

 

Exotic/Legendary Weapons

Hard Light

  • Base Stability increased to 80
  • Hard Light projectiles now have increased bounce count
  • Hard Light projectiles are now not affected by Damage Falloff
  • Hard Light projectile FX updated so it is easier to track the projectile ricochets

Suros Regime

  • Stability reduced
  • Added a Range boost to the Focus Fire node on the Talent Grid

Necrochasm

  • Base Stability increased to 60
  • Magazine Size increased
  • Cursebringer perk will now always trigger on a precision kill
  • Cursebringer perk explosion radius increased and deals more damage
  • Rangefinder perk has been replaced by Zen Moment

The Last Word

  • Range reduced by 10
  • Base Stability reduced by 10
  • Accuracy while in hip fire is increased
  • Precision Damage aim assist while in hip fire is increased
  • Fixed an issue where damage bonuses while in hip fire was not applying correctly

Thorn

  • Base Damage of Thorn DoT reduced by 1/3 for both PVE and PVP
  • Thorn DOT now stacks up to 5x over multiple shots
    • This is a net buff, but it is now spread over multiple shots to eliminates the PVP “2-shot walk away.”
  • Thorn DoT damage now correctly reports as poison

Hawkmoon

  • Luck in the Chamber and Holding Aces perks now have a stacking limit of 2.  Only 2 of the bonus damage perks will ever stack, which should eliminate the Hawkmoon 1-hit PVP kill to an undamaged opponent
  • Holding Aces perk now increases magazine by 2 rounds

Icebreaker

  • Ammo Recharge time increased to 7 seconds between rounds (was 5 seconds)

Gjallarhorn

  • Reduce damage of Wolfpack Rounds by roughly 1/3

Black Hammer

  • White Nail perk now fills the magazine from your ammo reserves

No Land Beyond

  • Fixed an issue where there were overlap/parallax issues in Sights during aim-down-sights view
  • Base Handling increased
  • The Master perk has an increased base precision damage bonus scalar (2.6x -> 3x)

Lord of Wolves

  • Rally perk now grants +5 Recovery to allies in close proximity

Thunderlord

  • Arc detonation chance for Lightning Rounds kill increased to 50%
  • Magazine size increased to offset ammo stat changes

Vex Mythoclast

  • Projectile Speed increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes
  • Stability increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes

Universal Remote

  • Base Range increased by +20

Monte Carlo

  • Stability increased to compensate for global Auto Rifle Changes
  • Fixed an issue where the Method perk did not only trigger when killing players or combatants. Can no longer trigger when “killing” destroyable objects

Bad Juju

  • Stability increased to compensate for global Pulse Rifle changes

Red Death

  • Stability increased to compensate for global Pulse Rifle changes
  • Fixed an issue where Rate of Fire and Impact stats were displayed incorrectly. Stat values were not changed, UI display only

Plan C

  • Range increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes
  • Stability increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes

 

Exotic Armor

General

    • Many pieces of Exotic Armor now recolor when a Shader is applied

 

Titan

An Insurmountable Skullfort

      • Gain a second melee charge for Storm Fist and Sun Strike. (It doesn’t apply to Void melee yet—this is a bug I believe we have fixed in 2.0.1.)

 

Hunter

Spine of Young Ahamkara

      • Bonus to Tripmine grenade duration increased
      • Gain a second grenade charge for Tripmine grenade

 

Warlocks

Heart of Praxic Fire

      • Gain bonus Agility when Radiance is active

 

Activities

World

  • Year 1 Activities have been converted into Quest system
    • Year One Questlines do not require ownership of The Taken King
    • You can replay the story for more experience and reputation by looking at the Quest Collections in the Tower
  • The Ghost is now voiced by Nolan North
  • Fallen Wolf Hunt Patrols will retreat in anticipation of the arrival of Oryx in our solar system
  • Fixed an issue where “Medic” and “Blast Shield” PVP medals displayed while playing PVE activities 

Strikes

  • Players now are required to participate in the boss fights to be eligible for end-of-activity loot.
  • Bonus Loot and Reputation can now be earned via Vanguard Streak Bonuses for players who continue to recycle back into the Strike playlist without exiting to Orbit
  • Burn (Arc, Void, Solar) Skulls now only increases player damage by 2x (down from 3x). Combatant damage to player is unchanged at 3x.
  • Fixed an issue where the incident for completing a strike (i.e., earning the “Strikes Introduction” grimoire card) was not triggering in Strike playlists

Prison of Elders

  • Fixed an issue where the “Servitor Bonds Weakened” buff did not clear when Skolas is pushed into phase 2 
  • Fixed an issue where the web mine FX extended beyond effect area 
  • Fixed an issue where the rewards for Skolas’s Revenge does not grant “Hildian Seeker” to players who already have Ceres Galliot 
  • Glimmer Consumable drop rates reduced drastically from the Arena chest
  • Removed the Elder Cipher exotic bounty 
    • These exotics now have a chance to drop from the large chest in the Queen’s Arena
    • Players who were on any step of the elder cipher should receive a token to redeem at Variks for their choice of House of Wolves exotic weapon

King’s Fall

King’s Fall Raid will unlock on 09/18/15, 10AM Pacific

 

Quests

  • Quest Screen added to Menu
    • The Quest Screen allows you to view all active Quests
    • Quests may be abandoned, but they are recoverable at Abandoned Quest Archives at the Tower
    • Each Quest has a Details Screen that describes the current and previous quest steps
    • Up to four Quests can now be viewed in the Director and while in Nav Mode 
  • Year One Activities have been converted into Quest system
  • New Questlines have been added for each Year One Subclass
  • Reputation panel has been moved from the Inventory screen to the Quest Screen

 

Bounties

  • Bounty slot size increased to 16
  • Incomplete Year 1 Bounties are auto-abandoned on 09/08 in preparation for The Taken King launch
  • Incomplete Year 1 Exotic Bounties are auto-completed at their respective Vendors
  • Bounties are now turned in for completion reward via the Quest Screen
  • Bounties can now be tracked via the new Progress UI in NavMode
  • Eris Year 1 bounties will be retired. Reputation with Crota’s Bane can continue to be earned via TTK Quests on 09/15

 

Tower

General

    • All Vendor reputation from Year One carry over
    • Collections have been added to the Tower 
      • Shaders & Emblems Collections can be found near Eva Levante in North Tower
      • Ships & Sparrow Collections can be found near Amanda Holiday in Tower Hanger
      • Exotic Armor & Weapon Blueprint Collections can be found near the Class Mentors
    • Vault space has been increased to store up to 72 Weapons, 72 Armors, and 36 General 
    • The Bounty vendor, Xander-99, has a new stock of daily Bounties 
    • Map droids have been removed from North Tower, Plaza, and Hangar 
    • Loot announcements now appear in the Tower, but have a maximum range of 10 meters

 

Gunsmith

    • Starting on 09/09, reputation will be earned with Banshee-44 by using his Field Test Weapons

 

Speaker

    • New Ghosts are on sale with the Speaker
    • Year One Emblems have been moved to Eva Levante

 

Factions

  • Faction Emblems are no longer purchasable but will come from faction packages instead
  • Former Vanguard emblems are now unlocked at level 10 and 20 of their respective class quest chains

 

Crota’s Bane

  • Eris’ bounties have been retired as her ire shifts from Crota to Oryx and his Dreadnaught
  • Eris reputation can now be earned weekly by killing bosses in the Crota’s End raid, or through new methods to be discovered in The Taken King’s new destination
  • Eris’ reputation requirements for each rank have been adjusted to be faster
  • Characters will retain any rank they currently have with Eris
  • Eris’ reputation is no longer capped at Rank 4, and players will receive reward packages for Rank increases
  • Players will be able to earn rewards by continuing to level up the Crota’s Bane reputation

 

Queen’s Wrath

  • With the launch of The Taken King, Petra will have new bounties available in the Reef upon completing a new quest
    • These bounties will also drop a Treasure Key the first time one is completed each week

 

Inventory 

  • Class-specific Armor materials have been deprecated in favor of a unified material
    • On Sept 15th, Vanguard Quartermaster Roni-9940 will exchange old materials for new ones
  • Fixed a bug where item upgrade UI was triggering when nothing was actually earned
  • Armor dismantle now makes a sound when dismantling is complete
  • Year Two Weapon Telemetries have now been combined per weapon slot instead of per weapon type

 

Crucible

Preview Event

  • The Taken King maps will be available for all players to preview for free 09/08 until 09/15
  • Rift game mode will be available for all players to preview for free 09/08 until 09/15
  • Crucible Daily will not be available on 09/08 and will resume on 09/15
  • Mayhem Clash game mode will be available for all players to preview for free from 09/11 until 09/15

 

General

  • House of Wolves maps (Widow’s Court, Black Shield, Thieves’ Den) are now available to all Destiny players
  • Year 1 Platform-exclusive maps (The Timekeeper, Exodus Blue) are now available to all Destiny players
  • Added a new Mercy rule that will end blowout games early
    • When the Mercy Rule hits, Shaxx will call out the end of the match. We immediately disable join in progress to prevent any additional players from joining the game (if anyone has dropped already) and reset the game clock to 10 seconds. After those 10 seconds, the match will end normally. All players will receive their end of match rewards and return to matchmaking.
    • More detail about this system can be found here
  • Legendary Loot drop rates have been increased
  • PVP post-game scoreboards now use abbreviated names
    • Hover over these stat headers to see more detailed information on what each stat tracks
  • The PGCR now does not display the “Score” column if the mode does not have individual player scores
  • Shaxx will now comment on multi-kills and kill streaks
  • “Victory Imminent” voice-over will no longer play when there is less than 30 seconds remaining in Crucible matches

 

Director

  • Salvage and Rift are now core Crucible playlists
  • The Taken King maps are now included in the core Crucible playlists

 

Medals

  • Added set of new Crucible medals
  • Buckshot Bruiser, Machine Lord, Sharpshooter, and Master Blaster medals can now be earned multiple times in a row (if you’re awesome enough)
  • Fixed an issue where “First Place Kill” score bonus (which triggers the “Uprising” medal) was awarded when killing the highest scoring player on the winning team, instead of the highest scoring player in the match

 

Maps

Widow’s Court

    • Added invisible physics to keep players from hiding in the ivy overlooking the courtyard Heavy Ammo 

 

Game Types

Salvage

  • Reduced Salvage score limit from 10000 to 7500, as our data showed too many games were ending to the time limit
  • Modified the base 3v3 options to have a 7-second min respawn timer

Skirmish

  • Modified the base 3v3 options to have a 7-second min respawn timer

Inferno

  • Changed special ammo crate timing for Inferno Clash, Inferno Control and Inferno Rumble modes to 2 minutes (small team modes will remain at 3 minutes)
  • Removed heavy ammo crates from all Inferno playlists

Rumble

  • Placing in the top 3 in Rumble playlists now counts as a win for Quest Step purposes

Control

  • Bastion, First Light, and Skyshock have been added to the core Control playlist with Pikes and Interceptors disabled
  • “Zone Captured” and “Zone Neutralized” scoring messages in Control will now display the zone being captured, i.e. “Zone A Captured,” “Zone C Neutralized”

Trials of Osiris

  • Trials Passage Coins are now discarded by the stack rather than by the item

 

UI

  • Super icons in kill messages are now displayed in yellow
  • Added icons to kill messages for precision kills
  • Super kill messages now display the name of the Super used
  • Voice channel settings in Nav Mode have been moved into the Nav Mode toggle display, which also includes quests & bounties, active modifiers, and PvP Scoreboard

 

Technical

General

    • Cinematics can now be skipped
    • Show/Hide Helmet options now also applies to the Character Screen
    • Unused update compat packs will be removed automatically on PS3 and 360 (to save HDD space)
    • Fixed a crash on PS3 when cycling through too many activities
    • Properly report free space required on PS3 when out of disk space
    • Enabled support for game content to be loaded from USB devices on Xbox 360
    • Improved Xbox One messaging and flow handling for users performing certain party options; the Pineapple error should only occur for actual malfunctions now
    • Fixed an Xbox One issue with suspend/resume on certain loading screens
    • If there is a valid playlist, use that for rich presence instead of the activity

 

Networking

    • Reduced latency of kill notifications in Crucible
    • Improved damage validation systems to reduce the effectiveness of players with extreme lag
    • Improved accuracy of network quality meters slightly

 

There are more changes scheduled to take effect with the official launch of Destiny: The Taken King. Final patch notes will be published at 2AM Pacific on September 15th, 2015.

 

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

Destiny: The Beta Is Over

September 9, 2015 by

destinyLast week, in the Bungie weekly update, Deej let us all know that Destiny 2.0 would be going live on the 8/9/15. Sadly that was U.S. time as the Patch won’t go live until 3am on the 9th September AEST. Also sadly we still don’t have the final patch notes making it a little bit difficult to report on……

So what to write about? Well let’s get you guys prepped for what’s coming early morning.

The first thing you guys need to know is this patch is a biggie. If you’re on current gen consoles then be prepared for an 18GB download. Make sure you have some free space available and set the console to auto download updates while it is in rest mode and it will there ready and waiting for you tomorrow morning. Also due to the size make sure you take into account any download limits you might have. For last gen console owners the patch is slightly smaller. Xbox 360 owners make sure you have at least 10gb free and PS3 owners you will need at least 20gb free to download, but it also will only take 10gb of space once it has been installed.

All this patching and data is to get ready for the Taken King on the 15th. So even though you may not be able to access all the features in the patch it will make some significant changes which you will be able to access this week! Listed below is the info Deej chose to share with us last week.

Character 

  • Character Level Cap for all players will be raised to 34
    • Level Cap for The Taken King will be 40
    • You will be able to level up by gaining XP alone
    • Character Level and Light are now separate statistics
    • Your Character Level will be grandfathered into your highest possible Light Level from all gear in your inventory and vault
  • Attack and Defense ratings for armor and weapons will be translated to the new systems – their power levels will be unchanged
  • Grimoire Score has been moved from the Character Nameplate and now displays in the Character Screen

Quests

  • A Quest Screen will be added to your Menu
  • Tracks all active Quests
  • Abandoned Quests can be recovered in the Hall of Guardians
  • Year One Activities have been converted to the Quest system

Bounties

  • Bounty slots will be increased to 16
  • Incomplete Year One Bounties will be auto-abandoned on 09/08 in preparation for launch of The Taken King
  • Incomplete Year One Exotic Bounties are auto-completed with their respective Vendors
  • Year One bounties issues by Eris will be retired
  • Reputation with Crota’s Bane can continue to be earned by completing Quests in The Taken King 

Tower

  • Collections have been added to the Tower
    • Emblems/Shaders can be found near Eva Lavante
    • Ships can be found near Amanda Holliday
  • Exotic Armor and Weapon Blueprint added to the Tower 
    • You will now have the Blueprint for all Exotics you own in your Collection
    • Report to the Vanguard in the Hall of Guardians

Inventory

  • Motes of Light will be used to grant XP to Weapons and Armor
  • Class-specific Armor materials will be deprecated in favor of a unified Armor Material 
  • Vanguard Quartermaster, Roni-9940, will exchange old materials for armor material  [Update: This change takes effect on 09/15] 

Weapons & Armor

World

  • Fallen Wolf Hunt Patrols will retreat in anticipation of the arrival of Oryx in your solar system

 

Also you can expect all weapon balancing that has been promised over the last little while start to take effect. Sorry Thorn and Last Word users, your hand cannons won’t pack the same punch anymore. Speaking of weapon balancing and the crucible, starting this week we will be able to preview the two new game modes coming with The Taken King. Get yourself some Mayhem and Rift action in before the new subclasses come out and we are all complaining about them all being OP. Lord Shax is waiting: https://youtu.be/zTiCFIwW37Y

Finally, if you’re still trying to complete your Year One triumphs you have one last week to accomplish it. There are many community sites offering to Sherpa people through to get them completed, so get amongst the community and beat those challenges Guardian. You might find me running people through raids if you’re lucky, but until then I’ll be hanging out starside.

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

Destiny: Summing Up Year One

September 7, 2015 by

Huge kudos to the team at Badass Gaming for this very funny summary of Destiny’s Year One. It details in very humorous detail the infuriating shortcomings the game has had over the past twelve months but remains hopeful for the future. Or does it?

Enjoy!

Thanks to Ben McJannett for the heads-up!

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

The Taken King: The Momentum Builds

August 12, 2015 by

Picture1For the longest time Bungie has been saying “We are listening.” As fans we have said again and again and again: “Prove it”. With each DLC and patch Bungie has shown signs they have been.  But if all reports for The Taken King in the last couple of weeks is to be believed, I don’t think we will be asking them to prove it anymore and I really, really hope that they live up to the hype this time.

It all started almost two weeks ago when Game Informer announced their cover article for September (psst hey guys it’s only the start of August…. just saying…). In it they revealed that the new level cap will indeed be 40, as many had speculated. There are multiple cut-scenes in the new content, which are also skippable now. And surprisingly Ghost has been completely been re-cast and even had his original dialogue re-recorded. And after Gamescom last week and over the weekend we have had some more information made available.

Game Informer has all this information over on their page. The have all the scoops and information is being drip fed from their website as we speak. In fact there is supposed to be another update tomorrow. As they have done all the work I’m not going to go into huge depth here. Go read their articles. Buy the magazine. Credit where credit is due and all that. But here’s the skinny on what they have so far.

The new level cap is 40. Gone are light levels. Kind of. Light will still exist and be on your gear to some extent. How the new light system works Bungie is yet to reveal, but now you can reach max level with just experience. No more chasing gear to and praying to RNGesus to get into the end game proper. At Gamescom Bungie have said when the Taken King launches your character will be of equal experience level to whatever your current highest level achieved is for that character so far. An example would be if you were level 34 with gear, with experience you will be 34 also. If your 31 with gear, then you will be 31 with experience. Bungie also confirmed to IGN at Gamescom that there will be a one off level boost available to everyone so everyone will be able to enjoy the new content from day one.

Story is finally going to be in the campaign. Yes finally, they have time to explain what they didn’t have time to explain last time. We haven’t seen or heard a lot really. That was until GameInformer shared their latest video interview with Taken King Creative Director Luke Smith and Executive Producer Mark Noseworthy. I’m really excited to see Cayde-6 get his time in the sun, mostly because Nathan Fillion is amazing as Cayde and the character is the one I have hoped to see expanded on since I first played the Beta back in July of last year. Actually I hope now that they have announced Nolan North as the voice of Ghost, they announce (or sneak in) the other biggest VO name in games today, Troy Baker. And then cast him as the voice of Cayde’s Ghost. The banter possibility there is brilliant.

Like I said, there’s more information coming soon, and I expect Bungie to announce upcoming live twitch streams to reveal more this week in the weekly update, but in the meantime check out these and the other articles Game Informer have on their site.

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

Destiny: The Rip-Off King

June 25, 2015 by

I want to start by saying I am a Destiny fan. I pre-ordered the legendary edition and have no problems with it. I have been playing since the alpha and have enjoyed the game immensely. But today I am seriously questioning if I will continue to play anymore. Why? Because the newest expansion (this one I will call an expansion as it actually looks to be one content wise) is going to cost more to buy in Australia than the original game. Since when has an expansion ever cost more than the original game?

I would much rather be writing about all the great things the expansion has in store for us. New sub classes, new story missions (with actual story included this time round), new strikes and a new raid. All stuff I’m extremely keen to play. Plus I’m sure there will be new trophies/achievements to pickup, which will help entice some of my clan mates back into the game. But instead I’m sitting here writing about how it is going to cost me more than the original game did. And that’s not right.

Let’s first look at the offered pricing coming out of the US. The digital download of taken king is US $40 (AUS $51.77), The “Legendary Edition” is US $60 (AUS $77.65), and lastly the Collector’s Edition is US $80 (AUS $103.53). Also announced today the price for the digital Collector’s Edition items (that’s only the digital items included in the collector’s edition, not the game) US $20 (AUS $25.88). All the prices listed here when converted to Australian currency all look to be pretty reasonable (excluding the digital collector’s items only which I think is overpriced both in the US and Australia) from an average consumer point of view. When Destiny launched in September of last year the Standard Edition was AUS $79 at most retailers. For comparison to another AAA title, I purchased Batman: Arkham Knight yesterday for $69 on the PS4 (on special, normal price is $89 at the retailer I went to). So that’s the prices we should be expecting, however Bungie and Activison seem to have a different idea in mind.

To break it down this is what we are looking at in terms of price from the current pre-order options available in Australia (according to the official Destiny website). To Pre-order the expansion digitally the options are as follows: PS4 $119.95

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And Xbox One $119.70:

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Those are currently your only digital options Australia. You’re seeing that correct! You can only order the digital collector’s edition. There is currently no way to pre-order a straight up digital download of  just “The Taken King” itself. If you select digital download on the Bungie website for your selected console your only options are “coming soon”, except for the Xbox One which does offer a link to the Xbox store but there is no price currently listed.

The big thing to keep in mind is this is the digital price. Not the physical price. I can’t stress that enough. So shall we compare the physical copy prices now? Well it’s not going to get much better folks. To start with let’s look at what they are calling the legendary edition. The two pre-order options for Australia listed on Bungie’s website are JB Hi-Fi and EB Games (Australia’s version of Gamespot). JB Hi-Fi has the legendary edition listed for all consoles at a staggering $99:

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That’s a whole +$20 more than what is being paid in America. Sadly our other brick and mortar option isn’t much better. EB Games is also the only retailer selling the Collector’s Edition. And again they are charging another $20 more than when purchasing in the States:

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What’s your take: will you be forking out for The Taken King?

(No damn way at that price – Ed)

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, Op-Ed Tagged With:

Destiny 1.1.2 Update: Lotsa Fixes

April 16, 2015 by

swtor-patch-incoming-bannerIf like me you’ve logged into your console and found that there’s a 6+ gigabyte download waiting for you, it’s the latest Destiny patch. The patch itself has no new content, just a slew of bug fixes. So read on to see if you pet hates have been addressed:

Update 1.1.2 : The one with Vault space and Raid fixes.
With this update, we’re responding to player feedback and addressing larger issues that compromised the quality of the Destiny experience.
Spotlight Improvements & Additions
  • Vault Capacity increased to 24 Armor Slots, 36 Weapon Slots, and 24 General Slots
    • Disabled gear comparison in Vault on Xbox 360 & PS3 platforms to account for additional slot memory
  • Colorblind support (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia) added for highly color-driven gameplay elements
    • Motion tracker
    • Loot drops
    • Shield energy
    • Item categories
  • Audio Controls are now available in the Settings menu
    • Volume control
    • Music toggling
  • Item Lock now allows players to prevent gear and weapon items from being accidentally dismantled
  • The purple ball has been reborn in the tower as an interactive sphere with a parallaxed energy core that grows with object velocity and tints based off time of day
Weapons
General
  • Fixed a bug that caused a player to lose ammo when switching weapons while dead
  • Fixed a bug where ammo consumables did not reliably replenish ammo
  • Pocket Infinity behavior is less likely to fail during edge case conditions
  • 4th Horseman weapon stats restored to original intended values
Perks
  • Updated Thorn’s first-person player feedback poison effect
  • White Nail perk no longer triggers on immune targets
  • Defensive Reflex (Don’t Touch Me) perk no longer triggers on throwing knives
  • Performance Bonus ammo on Fusion Rifles reduced to match Shotguns and Sniper Rifles
  • Fixed an issue introduced in 1.1.1 that allowed Ice Breaker to persist ammo after respawn
World
  • Players can now choose to wear their helmets in social spaces
  • Quest loot pyramid baubles are now easier to spot
  • Added Quest indicator badges to the Tower when a Quest is either completed and ready to turn in
  • Increased Crota’s Bane Reputation rewards on Eris Morn’s bounties
  • Fixed a bug where Major Thralls had two jaws and two left hands
  • Fixed a bug where player’s equipped items did not receive experience from completing missions
  • Fixed a bug where the Black Garden Level 30 Featured Story was incorrectly listed at Level 28
  • Fixed a bug where Heavy Ammo consumables were not available for purchase from Xûr
Strikes
Cereberus Vae III
  • Valus Ta’Aruc’s strength has been reduced by 33%
  • Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Valus Ta’Aurc fight
Dust Palace
  • Dust Palace: Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Psion Flayer fight
  • Dust Palace: Lowered the strength on the Psion Flayers’ shields
Raids
Vault of Glass
  • Vault of Glass will no longer display a highlighted activity notification despite players best efforts to remove it
  • Fixed a bug where splash damage could penetrate the Aegis bubble
  • Shield Relic melee attacks now land Minotaurs more consistently
  • Improved issues associated with walking through the teleport
Crota’s End
  • Crota will now wait until fully standing before a sword attack
  • Fixed a bug where the sword immediately despawned after killing a swordbearer
  • Swords will now last a full 30 seconds after being picked up
PvP
General
  • Greatly reduced the weighting of Blind Watch and Firebase Delphi in Control, Iron Banner, and Inferno Control playlists
  • Fixed a bug where a player that was killed by an enemy could commit suicide and be revived for points
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving points for neutralizing a control zone
  • Fixed a bug where capture points were not properly disabled after the game ends
  • Added incremental revive timers to Skirmish and Salvage
    • Each time a teammate revives you, it takes longer before you can be revived again (currently +5s each revive)
  • Stopping Power now requires Shotgun kills instead of sprees
  • Target Practice now requires Hand-Cannon kills instead of sprees
  • Electrocutioner now requires Fusion Rifle kills instead of sprees
Maps
  • Anomaly: Added invisible physics over the pool table to keep people from hiding
  • Shores of Time: Added kill volume to the open edge of “A” cave in to keep players from hiding
  • The Burning Shrine: Moved the spawn point to fix camera view
Ammunition
  • Crates are now visible for all players long before they are available to pick up, with a countdown timer added to show when they will arrive
  • Guardians no longer drop Special ammo on death
  • Lowered the amount of Special ammo picked up from crates (from 50% to 25%)
  • Special Ammo crate respawn time raised (from 45 seconds to 120 seconds)
  • Increased drop radius when a friendly picks up a Special crate (from 20 meters to 100 meters)
  • Slightly increased interaction time on Special Ammo crate (from 0.1 seconds to 0.8 seconds)
  • Reduced the number of Special crates on the maps and relocated them (from 6-8 crates to 3-5 crates)
  • Special and Heavy ammo bricks now despawn when a player dies or on a timer (20 seconds for Special, 30 seconds for Heavy)
  • Heavy ammo now lets everyone know which player or Faction picked up ammo
  • Increased warning time on Heavy ammo (from 10 seconds to 15 seconds)
UI
  • New visual treatment to Quest nodes and nodes that involve Quest activities or steps
  • Players can now click the left stick to hide the UI when inspecting items, for screenshotting/sharing purposes
  • Fixed a bug where precision kills did not appear correctly in the PGCR
  • UI flyouts are now easier to navigate (i.e. “Amazon Flyout Menu”)
Audio
  • Fixed an issue where Stealth Vandal audio was being suppressed by gunfire or other loud sounds
  • Titan Ward of Dawn now has audio indicators at low energy so players can more easily read when it will time out
  • Players walking into enemy Wards of Dawn now hear a sound when blindness is applied
Companion
  • Fixed issue where Combined Arms Grimoire card was pointing to the wrong unlock conditions
  • Fixed issue where Grimoire cards were awarding the incorrect number of Grimoire points
Technical
  • Fixed a rare soft-lock when a player’s internet connection drops
  • Clarified error that displays when user has insufficient hard drive space
  • Better handling of rest mode/resume on PS4

[Source]

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games, Patch Notes Tagged With:

Destiny: What’s Wrong With It

February 9, 2015 by

UntitledDestiny. It’s one of those games that divides gamer opinion. It’s a game you love to hate, but if it gets its hooks in it will be one you won’t want to stop playing. You only have to look at Polygon or Kotaku any day of the week to see that the game has its fair share of issues. Yet these same people at both sites can’t seem to stop playing it or writing about it. So what is it about Destiny that keeps people coming back for more? Well for each person I’m sure the reason is different. For me, I keep coming back to play with my friends, and with the competitive nature we all share we keep trying to out perform each other. Also I am part of a pretty relaxed raid team that can complete the content and enjoys playing together. And if you ask any end game player, they will tell you that the raids are the best parts of the game.

So what is wrong with Destiny? If you’ve spent even half an hour in the game you will probably notice that the game is very, VERY story light. It’s most noticeable after the second mission when in the cut scene the Speaker says “I could tell you about…” and then doesn’t really tell you anything at all. Even better is another point in the game when you first meet “the Stranger” and she says “I don’t even have time to tell you why I don’t even have time.” Thankfully this has improved slightly in the recent The Dark Below (TDB) Expansion. Eris is a character that at least attempts to fill in some gaps. Not many gaps are filled in, but something is better than nothing.

The biggest problem with Destiny’s story is its delivery. There are countless moments throughout the main campaign where the opportunity to fill in the blanks is missed. An example: the line about the wizard coming from the moon, that was cut last year, is early on when the player encounters the hive for the first time. Now your ghost simply says something about the hive being on earth and that’s the end of the mission. If you were to do only the main story missions you would next go to the moon to track down a missing guardian for the speaker. The problem here is that the main story essentially skips two missions about Rasputin, which itself could be better integrated, and doesn’t provide a link between your first hive encounter and your reason for heading to the moon.

My idea to rectify this plot hole would be to have a dialogue with the speaker or your vanguard mentor where you report about the hive being on earth. Following this they maybe send a fellow guardian to the moon to investigate what the hive are doing there, while they send you back to Russia to find out what the hive are after, which would lead you to discover Rasputin. Once you get Rasputin up and running again, you return to your Vanguard mentor where they inform you that the guardian who went to the moon has gone missing and they ask you to seek him out. By doing this it would give the player the sense of inclusion into the proceedings at the tower and also it would give the NPCs a chance to have a personality. I’m not saying this needs to be fully integrated cut scenes, just put a small dialogue tree in when returning to the tower with mission rewards. It might not be much but it’s still better than what is there now.

As I said before, the problem isn’t so much the story itself, but its delivery. Other ideas to help with story mechanics for House of Wolves, or any other future content, would be to include the NPC characters in the missions. For example, have Cayde-6 (the hunter vanguard mentor) show up half way through a mission to help you track down and kill the boss. Doing this it would give your guardian a chance to speak. The few times you guardian does actually speak in cut scenes are the only good parts as it finally gives the NPCs someone to have a back forth dialogue with, even if there is very little dialogue there. Bungie did this is in Halo with Sgt. Johnson, so why not do something similar with the Vanguard mentors.

 

The other big story problem with Destiny is the Grimoire. Yes all the story that fills in the blanks is in there. But guess what? No one wants to go to the website to read it. I have seen many people say it should be in the game. One of my mates said just for looking at reputation levels he doesn’t even want to look at it on his phone or on a laptop screen. His reason: he doesn’t want to put down the controller to do it. All these things are essentially menu screens that need to be added. Probably a lot easier said than done, but when you pick up any RPG with extra background information/story, you can usually find it all in a journal of some sorts. Mass Effect and the Elder Scrolls series are great examples of this. Even last years Dragon Age: Inquisition has something along these lines (which reminds me I should go back and play this some more as it is bloody amazing). Hopefully this is something be added in the background for future DLC or updates. If you’re looking for a great way to get into the Grimoire, look no further than the Guardian Radio Networks audio Grimoire cards. All voice acted, brilliantly done and worth a listen.

 

The other big problem that turns players away in droves is the walls that are placed in front of a new level 20 guardian. This was not something I was aware of until I was listening to Flash Point Episode 92 the other week. Essentially Simon, David and David all said they were stuck at the grind to get better gear so they could just participate in TDB missions. From what I was able to understand they were doing the strike playlists, which itself is a great start, but is not the best way to get legendary gear. The problem with this scenario is there isn’t any real explanation on what to do once you reach level 20 in the game. In the mentioned scenario here I would recommend the guys do the weekly strikes to start out as even at the lower levels the chance to get a legendary piece is higher than doing the strike playlists. The problem with this is the minimum level for this is level 24 (prior to TDB it was 22) so having a few pieces of blue gear with a reasonable light level before attempting this would be a good idea. By doing the weekly strike they would gain 3 strange coins (more depending on the level being completed). Once they get thirteen they can trade them in with Xur, in the tower on the weekend, for an exotic piece of armour. One exotic piece starts with a light level of 30 and can be upgraded to 36. That alone would boost a new player up a few light levels. But there are no tool tips or information provided to the newly levelled player to guide them to discover this.

I mean seriously, just put in the tool tip for strange coins that says something like “can be traded for powerful armour and weapons in the tower”. Not really rocket science here. The other big barrier here is weeklies still have no match making, so if you don’t have a few friends to group with you’re on your own for the entire strike, which is doable but for some new players can be extremely challenging and off-putting.

 

Finally, I want to talk about expansions. I’ve got no issue with the content or how much there was or even the price. My problem is calling it an expansion. If you look at it as a straight up DLC content pack or more like a DLC episode than an expansion, then size and cost don’t seem like a big deal. Let’s compare it to say, a Call of Duty DLC pack. You get maybe 3 or four multiplayer maps and a co-op map and a couple of new guns, for I believe $15-$20. Most people seem to see that as reasonable. Now for almost the same price with Destiny we get a new raid, some new single player missions (which can be done co-op), 3 new multiplayer maps and new weapons and armour. So comparatively, Destiny’s DLC seems like the better deal. I’m not saying the DLC itself is better, that’s up to an individual to decide, but for price it’s on par with what else is offered out there. But the reason so many people complained about it being small or a rip off, and so on, isn’t because of how much was there, but because of the way it was presented. People see the word expansion and immediately start comparing it to say a World of Warcraft expansion or anything else along those lines. Even the last SWTOR expansion had more content, and I think was for a cheaper price (if you pre-ordered and were a subscriber). The Dark Below feels nothing like a true expansion and therefore should not be called one. Naming it as episodic content or a DLC pack like Call of Duty does would have prevented it from being issue before there even was one.

 

It’s not so much what is in the game that is the problem: it’s that the way it is delivered to the user is poor in performance. Whether it is by design or marketing, it’s these things that let Destiny down. Because at its core, especially when playing with friends, the game is a tremendous amount of fun, glitches and all. I just hope Bungie can turn around the way it delivers its product before the next DLC.

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, Op-Ed, Other Games Tagged With:

Destiny: EV-30 Tumbler

November 21, 2014 by

Did you purchase the Expansion Pass? Bungie sent you a toy in the post…. Yeh they did…

As a reward for purchasing The Dark Below, everyone who purchases it before 2015 will receive the Tumbler Sparrow on December 9th. If you have the expansion pass you will already have it waiting for you at the Postmaster. My opinion on the sparrow: it is fun as hell to do tricks on.

Hold the right trigger when you get airborne and you will spin whichever way you turn the left thumb stick. Hit the d-pad while in the air and your Guardian will do a variety of tricks. Expect to see plenty of videos in the coming months of tricks being done around the galaxy.

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, General News

Destiny 1.03 Patch Notes

November 18, 2014 by

swtor-patch-incoming-banner

While you were sleeping Bungie snuck out the latest patch for Destiny last night. This is the patch they were referring to when the servers were brought down for maintenance last week. It’s about 2.44GB in size (at least on the PS4) and has a few handy new features, including more bounty slots, previewing shaders and emblems, and the new opt-in voice chat feature.

For all this and a list of fixes see the patch notes below.

http://www.bungie.net/7_Destiny-Update–11172014/en/News/News?aid=12398

1.0.3 : The one about Iron Banner and Voice.

 

This is the first in a series of updates that will deliver new content in the lead up to The Dark Below. Update 1.0.3 provides new social features, revisions to activities, alterations to competitive spaces, adjustments to the player overall experience, as well as a sizable download of new content and geometry to support the first expansion of the world of Destiny. The Iron Banner special event is also being updated with new rules and features prior to its second run.

 

Voice

  • Added a new social feature that enables users to access a channel for Team Chat
  • Matchmade teammates will now be able to talk to each other in Strikes and team-based Crucible matches
  • To learn more about how to toggle between chat channels, click here

 

Classes

  • Fixed an issue in which two players who performed a melee lunge simultaneously would teleport through each other
  • Fixed an issue in which Blink Strike damage would be caused by colliding with the Blink Strike, rather than melee impact
  • Fixed an issue in which Warlock Bonds dismantled into Titan materials

 

Weapons

General

    • Reduced camera shake when being hit with explosive rounds

Perks

    • Clown Cartridge: Replaced Clown Cartridge perk with other perks in shotgun upgrade trees
    • Headseeker: Fixed an issue in which the bonus Precision Damage perk did not always get applied

 

Activities

Missions

    • Buried City: Fixed an exploit in Mars that would clear all enemies from Clovis Bray

Strikes

    • Winter’s Run: Fixed an exploit zone in the Aksor boss encounter
    • Difficulty will scale less for 3-player Fireteams, making Strikes less deadly for them

Heroics

    • Fixed an issue in which engrams earned during Daily and Weekly Heroic activities were not displayed in the post-game carnage report

 

Event: Iron Banner

  • Players must now be level 20 and above to lead an Iron Banner Fireteam
  • Players below Level 20 can only accompany players above Level 20
  • Lord Saladin now has 5 reputation ranks (increased from 3)
  • New Features Added: Tempered Buff, Reforging
  • For more detailed information, click here

 

Cinematics

  • Fixed several issues with the synchronization of cinematic subtitles in various languages

 

Destinations

Combatants

    • Fixed an issue in which Vex Cyclops and Hive Shrieker health bars would not update properly
    • Reduced the number of Stealth Sword Vandals that spawn in the basement of the Terrestrial Complex on lower difficulties

Events 

    • Public Events will occur 10-15% more frequently in all public spaces

 

Vendors

  • Increased the number of Bounty slots in the Inventory from 5 to 10
  • Added shaders to Eva Levante’s stock in the Tower
  • Shader preview functionality added to vendor and inventory screens
  • Emblems on vendors can now be previewed in the inventory screen
  • Marks and Reputation icons and meters were adjusted to better differentiate the two
  • Fixed an issue in which Strange Coins and Motes of Light would not route to the Postmaster if your inventory was full
  • Fixed an issue in which engrams were not displaying the possible contents in the Cryptarch vendor menu
  • Fixed an issue in which players did not receive Bounty or Mission credit when assisting in the killing of a Walker or Vex Cyclops
  • Armor Stat upgrade potentials added to item compare on vendor and inventory screens

 

PVP

General

    • Enabled revive scoring for Skirmish and Salvage
    • Fixed an exploit with revive scoring when entering a kill volume and having a teammate revive you for easy points
    • Adjusted Join in-Progress settings for all playlists to minimize long periods of unbalanced teams due to players quitting out of matches.
    • Added new functionality to match pre-formed fireteams against each other
      • This will slowly roll out to all playlists over time, but will start with the 3v3 playlists
      • In 3v3 games, Fireteams of 2 or more players will match together more frequently
      • In 6v6 games, Fireteams of 4 or more players will match together more frequently

Medals

    • Won’t Be Beat now triggers correctly when a team wins a game after coming back from a 500-point losing deficit 
    • Mark of the Unbroken no longer requires a minimum player count 
    • Sum of All Tears no longer requires a minimum player count
    • Sum of All Tears should now trigger consistently 

Maps

First Light

      • Implemented multiple fixes to stop players from getting into advantageous positions

Blind Watch

      • Addressed some balancing issues for the Control gametype by moving Zones, modifying routes, and adding cover objects
      • Adjusted landing and respawn points to accommodate new geometry changes
      • Added protection to prevent players from getting  on top of a pipe high above the intended playable space

Firebase Delphi

      • Added protections to prevent players from getting outside the intended playable area between Control Zone A and the crane room

Rusted Lands

      • Blocked off the monitors above Control Zone A to prevent players from hiding in them

Shores of Time

      • Added a Vex pillar to prevent players from sniping through the small gap on the ninja platform
      • Implemented multiple fixes to stop players from getting into unfairly-advantageous positions

Exodus Blue

      • Multiple fixes implemented to stop players from getting into advantageous positions, especially the giant hose reel near Control Zone A
      • Fixed an issue with visibility culling behind Control Zone A

Twilight Gap

      • Adjusted landing points to keep players from fighting too soon in Rumble matches
      • Added protections to prevent players from getting into unintended areas, for example, atop the security camera at Control Zone C
      • Added geometry to fill in small gaps that let players see out of the world

 

HUD

  • Improved the readability of Grenade and Melee recharge states
  • Improved the visibility of objectives in the Motion Tracker
  • Improved the visual look of Revive waypoint and Last Man Standing 
  • Added skull modifier descriptions to the Navigation Mode screen
  • Fixed an issue in which the names of downed teammates did not always display on-screen

 

Orbit

  • Destiny version number added to the Character Login screen 
  • Added dialog imagery for various events
  • Fixed an issue in which new items available from the Special Orders vendor would not show up in the message count in the Director
  • Fixed an issue in which a PlayStation Plus dialog was mistakenly shown when selecting a specific PVP activity
  • Added countdown timers for weekly/special events
  • Fixed various issues with Director animations
  • Fixed an issue in which the Player/Inventory screen would sometimes close during certain parts of the spaceflight sequence
  • Added the post-game carnage report for the previous games during Matchmaking search

 

Menus

General

    • Fixed an issue in which cursor speed in 4:3 and PAL was not consistent

Roster

    • Network Connection Quality Indicators now added to the Roster
    • New icons added to the scoreboard and roster to indicate voice problems due to connection issues (NAT issues)
    • Added support for direct fireteam joins from the roster on the Xbox One

Inventory

    • Updated Spinmetal, Relic Iron, and Helium Filaments icons to better represent in-game visuals
    • Fixed and updated several inventory icons
    • Fixed and updated several talent tree icons

 

Audio

  • Improved audio cues for sticking others and being stuck with certain Grenades
  • Fixed an issue in which an audio cue would not play when completing a Bounty
  • Fixed an issue in which “Guardian down!” referenced the wrong gender in French, Spanish, and Portuguese

 

Technical

  • Added the ability for the Bungie DOC to send in-game alerts and messages
  • Fixed stability issues across all platforms
  • Fixed an issue that would  cause a rare crash during space flight into activities
  • Improved patch installation process
  • Implemented PS3-specific performance optimizations
  • Fixed some issues causing beetle and lionfish Kicks to Orbit

 

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, Other Games

Destiny Downtime

November 13, 2014 by

destiny-installIn order to facilitate future updates Bungie will bringing down the servers for maintenance. There won’t be a patch but the servers will be ready for The Dark Below when it comes down the internet wires in a few weeks. Expect the servers to be down from 2am tomorrow morning (8am PST).

For info on what future content is coming look no further than notes from Deej’s weekly update post from last weekend below.

We’re inbound with several bundles of joy in our hold. They’ll land in the weeks to come. Some of them will give everyone new things to do and earn. Some of them will prepare the world you’ve conquered for some new arrivals, and push the boundaries. Your level of engagement will be up to you. Each of us finds our own level in Destiny.

 

Here are some things we’ve mentioned:

  • Channels for talking to matchmade teammates, if you so wish
  • Exotic weapons that are stronger and more interesting to upgrade
  • New gear to let you slip into something a little more Legendary
  • That which waits in The Dark Below

 

Here are some things we’ve kept secret, until now:

  • New shaders for your gear
  • Ways to preview items before you spend your Glimmer
  • Greater chances of “showers” in public spaces
  • Adjustments to some arenas that needed better traffic flow
  • New economies to equip you with upgrade materials
  • Fixes, patches, and other invisible technical evolutions
  • Some other tricks up our sleeve
  • Maybe even a more generous Cryptarch
    • (he’ll still be sort of a bastard)

 

Those are the broad strokes. More detail is on the way. There will be Dev Notes and Patch Notes and love notes on our forum to explain what we mean, why we’re doing this, how it will all go

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, Other Games

The Week In Destiny

October 14, 2014 by

UntitledIt’s time to stop staring into caves and hoping it will become loot cave 3.0 and read about the latest week in Destiny

While news has been very slow this week, there is still a little bit to talk about.

First, Extra Life is coming up very soon, and the guys over at Guardian Radio have setup some fund raising in Destiny which Bungie themselves are getting behind.

Deej is back again with another weekly update – this time you get a little insight in to how the Iron Banner is supposed to be working. In my opinion and others, it is not as originally described, but that has at least allowed me to get to rank one (you only need your team to win 4 matches to rank up). If you want to provide Bungie some feedback on the iron banner, you can do that too. Also I liked the little tease of some more audio options (being able to turn down the music so I can hear my fire-teammates would be ideal), as well as the talk of some more updates to come soon.

A Hot Fix has hit today. I’m sure a lot of people will be upset about their auto rifles copping a nerf. Also getting hit by the nerf bat is Shotguns, their range effectively being reduced. And for those of you running the raid, you’re going to have to avoid your “sniper pillar” strategy from now on. But it isn’t all bad as Scout Rifles and Hand Cannons are receiving a buff.

Almost half a million players have completed the Vault of Glass raid. 472,082 to be exact. That’s about a quarter of the 1,970,807 that have launched themselves head first in to vault’s depths. Something that’s even more impressive is the fact that 3.2 million players login daily to play in Destiny, about half of the daily traffic WoW sees.

Finally, just a point of note, the game officially became one month old last week.

That’s it for another week, good luck in the crucible Guardians and hopefully next week we have some new updates and events to talk about.

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:
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