{"id":98625,"date":"2019-08-16T17:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BungieNet_ContentItem_48072"},"modified":"2019-08-16T17:00:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T17:00:39","slug":"directors-cut-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/08\/16\/directors-cut-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Director&#8217;s Cut &#8211; Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bungie.net\/pubassets\/pkgs\/126\/126212\/D2_Article_Default_Frontpage.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>OK. When I started writing this Director\u2019s Cut, I figured it would be an easy couple-thousand-word post. My plan was to rapidly look back at the past six months of <i>Destiny 2<\/i> and lay out a simple outline of where we want to go this Fall. I think I still did that, but I ended up wanting to talk more about the \u201cwhy\u201d, the team, and share how we are thinking about <i>Destiny<\/i>. I remember following games when I was younger and being excited to dig in to the messages the developers put together, like Tigole\u2019s posts on raids and dungeons back in my WoW days.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And I loved it. And I loved reading those posts.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe this was all a love letter to long-form communication\u2014a relic from a time before it was all hot takes, 140\/280-character posts, and upvotes.<\/p>\n<div>I didn\u2019t think this would add up to something longer than almost every paper I wrote in college. But here we are.<\/p>\n<p>Before we get to today\u2019s programming, I want to circle back on reloader mods and also about mods more generally in Armor this fall, in case you missed my Twitter thoughts.<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>These general mods&#8211;which provide the exact same effect as Hand Cannon reloader (but also affects other small arms weapons)&#8211;cost 4-5 energy (depending on the mod) and do not have an elemental affinity associated with them.<\/li>\n<li>These general mods &#8212; of which there are 11 &#8212; are unlocked for everyone automatically, so you can start to tinker right away.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Basically, when you want to specialize your weapon, it requires matching your armor&#8217;s energy type.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>And then you get an energy discount on socketing the mod.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Thanks for the questions on this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Let\u2019s finish this series by looking at combat\u2014where the action game and RPG collide\u2014and begin the conversation about the \u201csingle evolving world\u201d portion of our vision. (We\u2019ll have more on the evolving world later this month after the feeling has returned to my fingers.)<\/p>\n<h2>Combat: The Inevitable Collision of Action and RPG&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<p>We want the game to be an awesome power fantasy where challenge can push back on its players. As we discussed in Part I, the game started to bend in Year 2 under the weight of this Power and <i>Destiny\u2019s <\/i>imperative that it ride the line between action game and RPG. This section is going to explore that collision across a variety of places: the UI, the player character, and of course PvP.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Part I: Damage Numbers and the 999,999 Problem<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Destiny 2<\/i> was built with very different goals in mind than was the much-improved version of the game we\u2019re playing today. Some parts simply weren\u2019t meant to last for several years. One of those parts is the displayed-damage values relative to the player\u2019s Power level.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This problem most clearly manifests to players as the frequency of \u201c999,999\u201d showing up in your HUD. As the post-<i>Forsaken <\/i>year continued, the curve that dictates the value of displayed damage sharpens into a hockey stick. The display values for <i>Shadowkeep <\/i>rocket off the graph and become almost vertical!<\/p>\n<p>This inflation for damage is getting retooled this Fall. It will look like a UI numbers squish, but more crucially, behind the scenes we\u2019re setting up the damage-display system to last. It\u2019s important that you understand <i>we are not nerfing your outgoing damage<\/i>; rather, we\u2019re refactoring the displayed number game wide.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve also had something that, over the years, the team has come to call \u201cThe Immunity Wall.\u201d This is a value where players cannot damage AI. In the game today, if you\u2019re 50 Power below an enemy and you shoot it, you deal a big ol\u2019 donut. Another change we\u2019ve made for fall is that we\u2019ve lowered (raised?) the immunity wall to 100. This means you can now deal damage to enemies you are up to 100 Power below. The at-Power (you and an enemy are the same Power) experience isn\u2019t changing. This isn\u2019t a nerf. This is a way for folks to take on greater challenges by fighting further below the Power curve.<\/p>\n<p><b>Part II: Buffs, Debuffs, and Stacking Rules<\/b><\/p>\n<p>You know it, I know it, and Gladd knows it: The way damage stacking works in the game right now is <i>busted<\/i>. Multiplicative damage combines with the exponential damage inflation above to send damage numbers to soaring heights of \u201cwe cannot continue this way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve taken all the weapon damage buffs (these enhance the player\u2019s outgoing damage) that can appear on the character and stack-ranked their damage effects (these are effects like Empowering Rift, Well of Radiance, Lumina\u2019s buff, and top-tree Void Titan\u2019s Weapons of Light). We\u2019ve also overhauled the system under the hood, so the damage calculations use only the most powerful buff on a player at a given time. It\u2019s got nuance to it, though: If you\u2019re under the damage effect of something stronger than Well of Radiance, you will <i>still <\/i>receive the healing effect from the Well, but the damage bonus would come from the other buff (e.g., Lumina or Weapons of Light).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve made some changes to debuffs as well (a debuff is an effect that weakens the enemy). We\u2019ve touched the effects and durations of a number of them. These effects include Hammer Strike, Shattering Strike, Tractor Cannon, and Shadowshot (Shadowshot will now work on powerful weapons as well).<\/p>\n<p>In general, only one ability buff can be active on a player at a given time, and enemies can be affected by only one debuff at a time. There are notable exceptions in the form of Exotics and weapon amplification perks (Kill Clip, Rampage, et cetera). The Exotics and weapon amplification perks will remain multiplicative increases to damage above the ability buff values.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a simple version: Buffs that apply to a single weapon (Rampage, Kill Clip, Exotics) can still stack. But buffs that affect all your weapons no longer stack. The most powerful of those buffs will be applied to your damage. I\u2019m sure someone is gonna make a video that shows this in action on October 1st.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Part III: Supers Everywhere&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Masterworked guns. Super mods. Orbs everywhere.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Right now, for a pretty decent player running Super mods, the time it takes to gain a Super is under two minutes in PvP. If you compare the duration and damage of roaming Supers in <i>Destiny 2<\/i> to roaming Supers in <i>Destiny 1<\/i>, you\u2019ll see they\u2019re more powerful now than ever before. We didn\u2019t even have roaming Arc Titans in <i>Destiny 1<\/i>, but every time I play PvP, I get killed by one twice in the same Super. Similar to the way that deep down, we all know the damage-dealing capabilities of Guardians has gotten out of control, we know the Supers have too. <i>Destiny 2<\/i> was overly restrictive at launch, but now the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. We\u2019ll start bringing this back toward center in <i>Shadowkeep<\/i>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On a livestream a couple months ago, I mentioned that we\u2019re lowering roaming Super damage resistance. And we are. Seeing someone pop a Super should not instinctively make us want to run away, give up, or float off the map. We want Super kills to feel earned, and we want players on the business end of a Super to feel like they can make a big play and put down that Striker Titan. Being able to challenge someone in their Super is important, and right now, many of the Supers are very, very hard to challenge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On top of that, more things than ever now contribute to players getting their Supers back, so we\u2019re doing some tuning there as well. Supers will be just as powerful, but they will be a more strategic choice. As such, we\u2019re reducing the effectiveness of orbs on refilling the Super meter and reducing the Super energy gained from kills and assists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t just a PvP problem. Remember that series on the Reckoning in Part I? It\u2019s all related. Supers are still very, very powerful in the PvE game\u2014players will just need to be slightly more specific with their timing and positioning than in the past. This kind of tuning is a pendulum: We\u2019ve swung it hard in different directions, and we\u2019re all hopeful that these changes will begin to find a better middle ground for <i>Destiny 2<\/i>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I know you\u2019ll let us know your thoughts (once you\u2019ve played it this Fall).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Part IV: Heavy Ammo Available<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In <i>Destiny 1<\/i>, Heavy ammo became an in-match rally point in 6v6 matches. Once opened, players nearby would all get some Heavy ammo. In <i>Destiny 2<\/i>, Heavy ammo is a jockey-for-position speed-before-need looting game that gets played all the time. In Destiny 1, Heavy ammo felt metered, and in <i>Destiny 2<\/i> you can defeat a team (but not an Arc Titan) multiple times with a brick for a Hammerhead.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>See where is this heading?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re making some changes to Heavy ammo in <i>Destiny 2<\/i>: Heavy ammo will be communal in 6v6 playlists. We\u2019re also reducing the amount of ammo per brick in PvP for certain 6v6 archetypes. It\u2019s not exactly the same as D1 though\u2014when a player cracks open the Heavy crate, other players have a window of time to interact with it to get their Heavy ammo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Part V: Let\u2019s Talk About PvP&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There has been a lot of conversation (internally and externally!) at different points during the year around the support Bungie provides PvP. On one hand, we have continued to tune the game each quarter, added pinnacle PvP weapons (that somehow ended up as pinnacle PvE weapons), tried out a ranking system in the Crucible, and returned the game to its 6v6 roots. On the other hand: We haven\u2019t released a new permanent game mode, many game modes from <i>Destiny 1<\/i> are nowhere to be seen, there isn\u2019t a public-facing PvP team, and the last real thing we said was Trials is staying on hiatus indefinitely.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s get some of this sorted out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Trials of the Nine wasn\u2019t the hero we wanted it to be. We made too many changes to a formula that\u2014while it had begun to decline in<i> Destiny 1<\/i>\u2014wasn\u2019t as flawed as we thought. When we were making <i>Destiny 2<\/i>, we talked a lot about making sure it felt like a sequel, bringing in new players, and simplifying the game\u2014and Trials of the Nine created another casualty there. It happened on my watch, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BsKbwR7WXN4\" title target>if I could turn back time<\/a>, I\u2019d challenge us to do many things differently. If nothing else, I hope it\u2019s clear we are committed to learning from the mistakes we make and making it right.<\/div>\n<p>There were some really cool parts to the Emissary. Some of the gear was pretty potent (Sup, Darkest Before), but the theme felt weaker, the Trials card was less important, and the stakes felt lower. Trials of the Nine didn\u2019t work the way we\u2019d hoped, and Trials of the <i>Nine <\/i>is on hiatus indefinitely.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So why have we been so quiet about PvP? Well, we didn\u2019t have a lot to say. We weren\u2019t actively developing something to hype up. We knew PvP was going to be something everyone got for free in <i>New Light<\/i>, so it wasn\u2019t really a part of the <i>Shadowkeep <\/i>core offering. What are we doing about PvP became a question we were asked internally, too. A bunch of folks on our team are passionate about PvP and wanted to know where it was heading.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>PvP is in need of some quality-of-life improvements and restructuring. This Fall, with <i>New Light<\/i> (hopefully) bringing a bunch of new folks into <i>Destiny <\/i>and with our existing players looking for some updates to PvP, we will start by making significant changes to the PvP portion of the Director.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Today, it\u2019s a fine balance between adding playlists and maintaining healthy populations when we\u2019re looking at changes to playlist structures. We want to achieve a couple of goals: First, we want players to have some more agency with respect to \u201cpick a playlist, play a mode.\u201d And second, we want the playlists to drift back to the \u201ceverything is a factor of 3\u201d that <i>Destiny 1<\/i> used (and that the rest of the game mostly uses).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Player counts being based on a common number (like 3) is important. It enables a bunch of activity options for groups of friends to engage with. In <i>Destiny 1<\/i>, players could run a couple strike groups, team up for a raid, go play 6v6 PvP, split up and go to 3v3 PvP, et cetera. At launch, <i>Destiny 2\u2019s<\/i> 4v4 PvP completely broke this pattern, and we want to reset that bone with PvP this Fall.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve revised the playlists a lot, and here\u2019s how it\u2019s going to work:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>We\u2019ve removed the Quickplay and Competitive nodes from the Director.<\/li>\n<li>If you\u2019re looking for an experience like Quickplay, we\u2019ve added Classic Mix (a connection-based playlist [like Quickplay today]). Classic Mix includes Control, Clash, and Supremacy.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Competitive is replaced by 3v3 Survival (which now awards Glory).<\/li>\n<li>We\u2019ve also added a Survival Solo Queue playlist that also awards Glory.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>We\u2019ve added 6v6 Control as its own playlist.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>With the potential influx of new players this Fall, we want to have a playlist that signals to new players that this is where to start.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>We feel like 6v6 Control is the right starting place when introducing new friends to <i>Destiny<\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<li>We\u2019ve added a weekly 6v6 rotator and a weekly 4v4 rotator.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>These rotator playlists are where modes like Clash, Supremacy, Mayhem, Lockdown, and Countdown will appear.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<li>We\u2019ve removed some underperforming maps from matchmaking, too.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We\u2019ve also been working on four variants of 3v3 Elimination. They include different approaches to revives (token resurrection or not) and variations on how Heavy ammo works. Elimination is going to make its return in Crucible Labs. However, Elimination is very much unfinished. It\u2019s missing VO, and there are no unique medals associated with it. Between the missing polish and the four variants we\u2019d like your feedback on, Elimination\u2014for the time being\u2014is a great fit for Crucible Labs. We fully expect it to graduate out of Labs and find a warmer home.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>We wanted to make sure we could test Elimination on some familiar maps, so we\u2019ve brought back Widow\u2019s Court and Twilight Gap. We want to play with you, and watch you play Elimination in this combat sandbox and see how it all fits together.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re also changing how we do matchmaking. With a bunch of potential new players entering Destiny via <i>New Ligh<\/i>t, we don\u2019t want PvP to feel like you\u2019re being told it\u2019s time to learn to swim as the helicopter door opens over the Pacific Ocean. So, we\u2019ve made some changes to separate the new swimmers from the Olympians.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, we\u2019ve also taken a longer look at matchmaking and overhauled the skill-matching system. In the game today, Quickplay is the only playlist that doesn\u2019t have some version of skill matching in the game. We\u2019re preserving that behavior (connection matchmaking) in the 6v6 Classic Mix playlist. Here\u2019s what gets really annoying about skill match:<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>When it\u2019s overly restrictive, it\u2019s fatiguing when every single game feels like a sweat fest.<\/li>\n<li>When it\u2019s overly loose, a player can get an entire evening of unlucky matchmaking RNG where they\u2019re getting dumped on by squads of Terminators shredding Kinderguardians. A bad time (for the Kinderguardians)!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>There\u2019s much more complexity and nuance to an evening of PvP than those two statements above, but they do accurately capture the core problem: a lack of match-to-match variety. Sure, for a bunch of Terminators, a night of stomping might be a blast, but what about the folks on the receiving end of that business? This is where it gets tricky to improve matchmaking\u2014people generally tend to focus on their own experience in their feedback.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We think variety across an evening of PvP is important. This Fall, skill match should ensure a wider variety of matches, regardless of player skill. Some matches should be tense and thrilling, while other matches should be stomps. This philosophy should also apply to the top players, so they don\u2019t feel like every match is a sweatshow, either.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve refactored how players gain Glory ranks with these skill match changes\u2014we\u2019re factoring in your skill value to Glory gains and losses, so that number can more effectively represent skill.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve also made a number of quality-of-life changes to Glory, Valor, and Infamy to make losses less punishing to your streaks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Once the above changes go live in October, we\u2019ll be watching, listening, and reading as you check them out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>An Evolving World<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s an aspirational vision for what \u201cevolving\u201d could mean for <i>Destiny<\/i>. Someday, <i>Destiny <\/i>could become a dynamic world, where the world changes each season. We want playing <i>Destiny <\/i>to feel like you&#8217;re playing in a game world with true momentum, a universe that is <i>going somewhere<\/i>. A game where <i>things are happening<\/i>\u2014not just in terms of new items and activities but also in terms of narrative. It\u2019s frequently seemed like <i>Destiny <\/i>was treading water in terms of moving the world\u2019s narrative forward. We want to tackle this in <i>Destiny 2\u2019s<\/i> third year.<\/p>\n<p>During Season 8, a new situation will unfold on the Moon (I\u2019m being cagey here only because I am reluctant to spoil anything). Over the course of the season, parts of the game will change before the situation culminates in an event that will ultimate resolve it, and its content will be exhausted. But this resolution sets up the events of Season 9, which again adds something new to the game and resolves it, something that too will go away, but not before setting up Season 10, et cetera.<\/p>\n<p>This differs from last year\u2019s Annual Pass, which permanently added activities to the game. This year will see events that last for three months and offer new rewards to chase, although at the end of that period, some of the activities will go away. For a time, the rewards will too. But we also acknowledge that part of playing <i>Destiny <\/i>is collecting all of the stuff, so in future seasons the weapons and Legendary armor associated with these seasonal activities will be added to other reward sites.<\/p>\n<div>I alluded to some of this when we were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bungie.net\/en\/Explore\/Detail\/News\/48058\" title target>Looking Back<\/a>. The game continuing to grow forever isn\u2019t something we can support. <i>Destiny\u2019s <\/i>simulation, fidelity, and architecture fundamentally make it a big game. I\u2019ve seen a lot of \u201cgame X does it, why can\u2019t <i>Destiny<\/i>?\u201d but the referenced games and ours have very different technical profiles.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>Technical limitations aside, we also don\u2019t think making a game that grows forever is <i>Destiny\u2019s <\/i>path forward. It\u2019s why the second component of the vision is a single, evolving world (to clarify, that single evolving world doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s only one destination on the Director\u2014that\u2019s not where we\u2019re heading!).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You were there with your friends, got the gear and weapons to remember it by, made the memories, and changed alongside <i>Destiny<\/i>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In late August, we\u2019re going to talk more about the Annual Pass and how it\u2019s continuing to evolve.<\/p>\n<h2>Closing Time<\/h2>\n<div>If you\u2019ve made it this far, thanks. I think I could probably write another 10,000 words about this game. This Fall is my ninth working on <i>Destiny<\/i>. And at times it\u2019s felt way longer than nine years. There have been dark, dark days. For you. For us here, and certainly for me. But this year has been special\u2014it\u2019s been a lot of fun talking with you all and getting to try some different things (whether <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/videos\/435300410\" title target>they are a stream where I turned up unshowered<\/a> because my hot water went out the morning of [yep] or a Twitter promise that turned into way too many words [this]).&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>The Bungie team has worked <i>incredibly <\/i>hard, and we\u2019re excited to get <i>Shadowkeep <\/i>onto your hard drives in October. Big thanks to them for their hard work and also for helping me put this together on a comically tight timeline. Many, many emails and work-related IMs were sent during the construction of this message.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for playing, reading, and being a part of this community.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>See you soon,&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Luke Smith&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OK. When I started writing this Director\u2019s Cut, I figured it would be an easy couple-thousand-word post. My plan was to rapidly look back at the past six months of Destiny 2 and lay out a simple outline of where we want to go this Fall. I think I still did that, but I ended [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98625","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\/98625","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=98625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}