{"id":114107,"date":"2020-06-09T16:37:40","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T16:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BungieNet_ContentItem_49189"},"modified":"2020-06-09T16:37:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T16:37:40","slug":"building-a-viable-future-in-destiny-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/06\/09\/building-a-viable-future-in-destiny-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Viable Future in Destiny 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Destiny 2 is too large to efficiently update and maintain.<\/li>\n<li>The size and complexity of the game are also contributing to more bugs<br \/>\nand less innovation.<\/li>\n<li>Instead of building a Destiny 3 and leaving D2 behind, each year, we<br \/>\nare going to cycle older, less actively played content out of the live game and<br \/>\ninto what we\u2019re calling the <b>Destiny Content Vault<\/b><b> (DCV)<\/b>.<\/li>\n<li>This will allow us to add to and support D2 for years, including the three<br \/>\nnew annual expansions we announced today, starting with <i>Beyond Light <\/i>this<br \/>\nfall.<\/li>\n<li>The DCV will include all content from Destiny 1 and anything that<br \/>\ncycles out from Destiny 2.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>We will bring back (or \u201cunvault\u201d) activity and destination content<br \/>\nfrom the DCV each year.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Unvaulting starts in D2 Year 4, with the Cosmodrome coming back, as<br \/>\nwell as its three strikes and the return of the Vault of Glass raid.<\/li>\n<li>The primary D2 content leaving the game and going into the DCV this<br \/>\nfall are the destinations \u2013 Mars, Io, Titan, Mercury and Leviathan \u2013 and their supported<br \/>\nactivities.<\/li>\n<li>There will be new ways to earn the Exotics originally linked to content that<br \/>\nhas entered the DCV.<\/li>\n<li>When Beyond Light ships, the Director will have the following<br \/>\ndestinations:&nbsp;<\/li>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Europa (new)<\/li>\n<li>Cosmodrome (unvaulted)&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Moon&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Tangled Shore&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Dreaming City&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>European Dead Zone&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Nessus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<li>This approach allows us respond to player feedback more rapidly,<br \/>\nenable more innovation, and will keep Destiny 2 and your characters thriving for<br \/>\nyears to come.<\/li>\n<li>More details to come<br \/>\nsoon and throughout the year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Earlier<br \/>\ntoday, we laid out a vision for Destiny&#8217;s future, built right inside of Destiny 2. A future where we maintain your<br \/>\ncharacters, accounts, and continuity with our game systems and build on each of<br \/>\nthem for years. This fall ushers in a new era in Destiny&#8217;s journey, launching<br \/>\noff a trilogy of expansions where your Guardians will explore the true nature<br \/>\nof Light and Dark:<\/p>\n<div>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bungie.net\/pubassets\/pkgs\/136\/136269\/EN_2.png?cv=3983621215&amp;av=353636825\"><\/div>\n<p>Put plainly, we are investing in Destiny 2 for years to come. But to<br \/>\ncontinue your Guardian\u2019s journey and deliver on this roadmap, we need to make<br \/>\nsome changes to our ever-growing world so it can flourish. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><h2>The Limits of Growth<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>Over the<br \/>\npast couple months, we\u2019ve mentioned the problems that come with maintaining a<br \/>\ngame the size of Destiny 2; and we\u2019ve said that it cannot grow infinitely.<br \/>\nAfter three years of non-stop growth, the scope and complexity of Destiny 2 has<br \/>\nballooned to unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n<p>As of this<br \/>\nwriting, Destiny 2 features nine destinations, 40 story missions, 54<br \/>\nadventures, 42 Lost Sectors, 17 strikes, 31 PvP maps, 12 one-off special<br \/>\nactivities (like Menagerie or Zero Hour), seven raids, six Gambit arenas, three<br \/>\ndungeons, many, many<br \/>\nquests, patrols, public events, and of course, thousands of associated rewards.<br \/>\nAll of that, plus hundreds of game systems which layer on top of that content.<\/p>\n<p>This<br \/>\nunrelenting growth has resulted in a game that requires players to download up<br \/>\nto 115GB to play, as well as huge patches tied to frequent updates. And those numbers<br \/>\nare rising rapidly, as we\u2019ve been adding approximately 25GB of content each<br \/>\nyear to Destiny 2 since launch. Those sizes not only stress hard drive capacity<br \/>\nbut also push the limits of patching capability. It also makes the time to<br \/>\ngenerate a stable update for the game after all content is finalized, tested, and ready to go balloon to literal <i>days<\/i> instead of hours.<\/p>\n<p>Worse<br \/>\nstill, that 115GB includes a lot of content that isn&#8217;t relevant anymore \u2013 and<br \/>\ncan&#8217;t remain relevant \u2013 as we evolve the world and introduce new experiences<br \/>\nthat will take center stage instead. For example: Warmind\u2019s campaign represents<br \/>\nonly <b>0.3%<\/b> of all time played in Season of the Worthy and yet the Warmind<br \/>\nExpansion accounts for <b>5%<\/b> of our total install size. This dramatic<br \/>\nimbalance between player engagement and overall cost to maintain is found in a lot<br \/>\nof our legacy content.<\/p>\n<p><h2>Impact on the Live Game<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>Maintaining<br \/>\nthat much content in perpetuity slows down our ability to update the game with<br \/>\nfresh experiences, reduces our ability to innovate, and delays our reaction to<br \/>\ncommunity feedback. The test surface alone is massive, to say nothing<br \/>\nabout how it impacts our designers, artists, and engineers trying to make cool<br \/>\nnew stuff every day under the weight of the crushing complexity of our scale.<\/div>\n<div>Unfortunately<br \/>\nit also means that we sometimes ship content that doesn\u2019t meet the quality bar<br \/>\nwe\u2019ve set for ourselves and that our players have come to expect. Recent<br \/>\nexamples are the issues with Felwinter\u2019s Lie quest or when we had to perform<br \/>\nour first-ever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bungie.net\/en\/Explore\/Detail\/News\/48723\" title target>rollback of player progress<\/a> due<br \/>\nto a bug.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>Our<br \/>\nambition is for Destiny 2 to be the best Action MMO in the world and that means<br \/>\nbeing far more agile and nimble than we are today. But the simple fact is that our<br \/>\ngame&#8217;s size and complexity prevents us from improving Destiny as fast as we \u2013<br \/>\nand you \u2013 would like.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><h2>The \u201cDestiny Content Vault\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>With Destiny<br \/>\n1, we solved the \u201cever expanding, exponential complexity\u201d problem by making a<br \/>\nsequel in Destiny 2. We left behind all of Destiny 1\u2019s content and many of the<br \/>\nfeatures players grew to love. We believe now that it was a mistake to create a<br \/>\nsituation that fractured the community, reset player progress, and set the<br \/>\nplayer experience back in ways that took us a full year to recover from and<br \/>\nrepair. It\u2019s a mistake we don\u2019t want to repeat by making a Destiny 3. We don&#8217;t<br \/>\nbelieve a sequel is the right direction for the game and for the past two years<br \/>\nwe have been investing all of our development effort into new content, gameplay,<br \/>\nand new engine features that directly support a single evolving world in Destiny<br \/>\n2.<\/div>\n<div>\nTo create a sustainable ecosystem where the world can<br \/>\ncontinue to evolve in exciting ways, and where we can update the game more<br \/>\nquickly, we&#8217;re going to adopt a new content model that we&#8217;re calling the <b>Destiny<br \/>\nContent Vault (DCV)<\/b>. Each year, usually at the expansion boundaries, we<br \/>\nwill cycle some destination and activity content out of the game (and into the<br \/>\nDCV) to make room for new experiences. <\/div>\n<div>\nThe first cycle of Destiny 2 content going into the DCV<br \/>\nbegins this fall, with the appearance of the Pyramid ships in Season of<br \/>\nArrivals and the <i>Beyond Light<\/i> expansion, which we revealed today. Those<br \/>\nevents will usher in dramatic changes to the Destiny universe, affecting characters,<br \/>\ndestinations, and Guardians for years to come. <\/div>\n<p>\nTo set a<br \/>\nnew maintainable foundation for the game this fall and to create room for <i>Beyond<br \/>\nLight <\/i>and the future roadmap, the first Destiny 2 deposit into the DCV will<br \/>\nbe larger than those to come in the future.<\/p>\n<h2>Curating the Vault<\/h2>\n<div>Content<br \/>\nthat goes into the Destiny Content Vault may return in the future, altered (if<br \/>\nnecessary) to fit the new state of the universe. Furthermore, we consider all<br \/>\nDestiny 1 and 2 destinations and activities part of the new DCV and we\u2019re going<br \/>\nto be pulling from that archive \u2013 revisiting some of the most interesting<br \/>\nplaces in Destiny\u2019s history \u2013 from now onwards. It\u2019s why the original Destiny 1<br \/>\nRaid \u2013 the Vault of Glass \u2013 will be returning to Destiny 2 in Year 4.<\/div>\n<p>\nGoing<br \/>\nforward, our explicit goal will be to try to keep the scope and scale of Destiny<br \/>\n2 at a relatively consistent size in order to increase our agility and to be<br \/>\nable to properly support and maintain the game. Over the course of each year,<br \/>\nthe game\u2019s content scope will grow as we add new destinations and activities in<br \/>\nour expansions and Seasons. As we approach the next expansion, another cycle of<br \/>\ncontent will go into the DCV to make way for a new influx of destinations and<br \/>\nactivities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We will<br \/>\nalways do our best to give early notice of what&#8217;s being cycled into the DCV, to<br \/>\nhelp you and your friends plan around how you want to complete your collections<br \/>\nand build up your account before the new Destiny year starts. The vast majority<br \/>\nof content we choose to vault will also be from destinations and activities<br \/>\nthat have been free for all players for several months prior to their<br \/>\ndeparture. For example: the Curse of Osiris campaign, which has been free since<br \/>\nShadowkeep launched in October 2019, and part of the Destiny 2 experience since<br \/>\nDecember 2017, will go in the DCV later this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><h2>Year 4 Destiny Content Vault<br \/>\nPreview&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>Here is an early<br \/>\npreview of some of what\u2019s going into the Destiny Content Vault (DCV) and what\u2019s<br \/>\nreturning in Year 4.<\/p>\n<h3>Returning from the DCV<\/h3>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>On September 22, 2020:<\/li>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Cosmodrome as a selectable, explorable destination (but not yet at<br \/>\nfull Destiny 1 parity on 9\/22).<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>Note: We\u2019re looking to leverage Cosmodrome\u2019s initial return to expand<br \/>\nthe new Guardian origin story to the world of Destiny. Veteran players will be<br \/>\nable to experience that story as well.<\/li>\n<li>Cosmodrome\u2019s Will of Crota strike will also be added to the strikes<br \/>\nplaylist for all players.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<li>During Season 13:<\/li>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Cosmodrome will be<br \/>\nfleshed out to roughly Destiny 1 Year 1 parity.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Cosmodrome\u2019s The Devil\u2019s Lair and Fallen S.A.B.E.R. strikes return.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<li>During Year 4:<\/li>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Destiny 1\u2019s first raid, Vault of Glass, returns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Heading to the DCV<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>On September 22, 2020:&nbsp;<\/li>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Io, Titan, Mercury, Mars, and Leviathan will be cycled out and no<br \/>\nlonger be accessible.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>This includes all PvE activities (including campaigns) on those<br \/>\ndestinations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bungie.net\/pubassets\/pkgs\/136\/136269\/EN_1.jpg?cv=3983621215&amp;av=353636825\"><\/p>\n<h3>Other Key Year 4 Details:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>There will be three raids playable this fall, including a new one set<br \/>\nin the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa as part of the <i>Beyond Light<\/i> expansion.<\/li>\n<li>There will be new ways to earn Exotics originally tied to destinations<br \/>\nand activity content that have entered the Destiny Content Vault.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Available strikes will be based on a pool of possible strikes from<br \/>\nactive destinations. When a destination goes into the DCV, so too will its strikes.<\/li>\n<li>The PvP Map playlist will remain a curated \u2018best of\u2019 mixture of maps<br \/>\nfrom Destiny 1 and 2.<\/li>\n<li>Gambit and Gambit<br \/>\nPrime are being merged into a single mode, with their original armor visuals<br \/>\navailable to earn from the Drifter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>To be<br \/>\nclear, the DCV does not apply to any weapons and armor in a player&#8217;s inventory<br \/>\nor vault. The DCV is about activities and destinations. We know you will have a<br \/>\nlot of questions about how this will work. We will share more updates about our<br \/>\ncontent plans throughout the summer. This includes a detailed overview of<br \/>\neverything changing via patch notes, extensive DPS articles that will help<br \/>\nbreak down what\u2019s changing and when, as well as lots of opportunities for you<br \/>\nto ask us questions along the way. <\/p>\n<h2>A New Beginning<\/h2>\n<p>This fall,<br \/>\nwe will begin delivering on the future of Destiny by making way for new adventures,<br \/>\nlocales, and stories dreamed up by our creative team, and forging the<br \/>\ntruly evolving world that it was always meant to be. These changes allow us the<br \/>\nfreedom to finally weave an overall experience for the Destiny universe that<br \/>\ncan truly live, starting with <i>Beyond<br \/>\nLight<\/i>. We can now fit puzzle pieces we haven\u2019t been able to pick up since<br \/>\nthe beginning of the original Destiny \u2013 including the true nature of the Darkness and<br \/>\nLight and how such power will change you as a Guardian. We can now bring some<br \/>\nof the greatest experiences in Destiny to the forefront of the current game alongside<br \/>\nnew ones to come.<\/div>\n<div>\nThe past<br \/>\nsix years, we\u2019ve seen the Destiny universe grow and our community along with<br \/>\nit. We want our quality of service to grow in kind, to be able to react to<br \/>\ncommunity feedback quicker, to innovate more often, and to continue to tell new<br \/>\nstories with your characters. We\u2019re excited to continue that journey with you.<\/div>\n<p>\u2013 Destiny 2<br \/>\nDev Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Destiny 2 is too large to efficiently update and maintain. The size and complexity of the game are also contributing to more bugs and less innovation. Instead of building a Destiny 3 and leaving D2 behind, each year, we are going to cycle older, less actively played content out of the live game and into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bungie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}