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“Was it some flaw in the game’s holistic design? Many changes were made in an attempt to improve the game’s feel, and while they were often genuine improvements, none of them fixed the core issue.”

– Former designer at Mythic Entertainment Leah Miller speaking on overlooked keyboard errors. 

With all of the variables that go into game development, it’s likely that something will get overlooked. For programmers it’s usually a small typo which, if not corrected, can have interesting (yet detrimental) effects on how a game runs. 

In a recent interview with Waypoint, former game designer at Mythic Entertainment Leah Miller discusses the impact an unnoticed line of code had for the MMO RPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

Shortly after launch, the studio received complaints from players saying the game felt sluggish and unresponsive — however, they couldn’t pinpoint anything specific. 

“The team overhauled combat to try to make it feel faster and searched for server inefficiencies that could be eliminated,” Miller explains. “Still, the feedback was vague enough that nobody could be certain of the exact cause.” 

Miller goes on to note that attempts to improve how the game felt were genuine, but ultimately none of them fixed the issue. A solution wouldn’t be found for six months. 

A new programmer discovered that something was wrong after digging around in Age of Reckoning’s code. The problem? Age of Reckoning’s code still included a line related to dial-up players for Mythic’s previous MMO RPG, Dark Age of Camelot.

“I believe the main function of this was bandwidth optimization, though it may also have been part of a system designed to make sure dialup players could still be competitive in PvP. ” she says.

“This delay was mostly invisible to Dark Age of Camelot players, since that game’s combat was custom-designed for the standard bandwidth and processing power of that era. Very few players had systems that could process data more quickly than it was being sent and received.”

Once the line was removed, the problem vanished and the game felt smooth again. But it may have come too late, as most of the game’s players had migrated back to World of Warcraft.

While the error may not have directly contributed to the Age of Reckoning’s difficulties, it certainly didn’t help. 

She was speaking as part of a longer interview around Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and how the error affected the game in the long run, so be sure to check it out over at Waypoint. 

Save 25% on Vampyr as part of this week’s Weekend Deal*!

London, 1918. You are newly-turned Vampyr Dr. Jonathan Reid. As a doctor, you must find a cure to save the city’s flu-ravaged citizens. As a Vampyr, you are cursed to feed on those you vowed to heal.

*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time

This week at Bungie, we’re preparing for a celebration.

Today, we showed off what some of the new weapons and armor can do in Forsaken. We love it when the game does the talking. Here is a glimpse of some of the tools of the trade that arrive with Forsaken on September 4.

Full Stream Ahead

Ever since we started talking about the second year of Destiny 2, we’ve dropped a lot of hints about how the state of combat between Guardians will be changing. We know you have questions about how you’ll be using your weapons next season. How will you equip them? How will you customize them? How will you earn the ammunition you’ll need to use them?

Some of these things defy explanation, so we’ll demonstrate the performance of the new arsenal in real time. You are invited to watch us engage in combat—for science!

Year Two Combat Reveal Stream

Tuesday, August 7, 10 AM PDT

Newsk: Hello friends! If you’re a sharp-eyed PvP enthusiast, you may have noticed from some Forsaken coverage that the weapons are doing a bit more damage than they do in the current version of Destiny 2. If you’re a seasoned Destiny 2 player, you may then extrapolate the possibility of a global lethality pass on weapons and abilities that may or may not be in the pipe to go live when Forsaken is released. I’m here to quickly confirm that, along with weapon slots and ammo availability, we have globally adjusted the “time to kill” in the Crucible. If you’d like more details, join us on stream and we’ll get into it! See you then!

And that’s just one question we’ll answer beyond the shadow of a doubt. Tune in for a full demonstration of perks, mods, loadouts, and everything else you’ll need to know to best your fellow players in battle. We can’t give you skill, but we can equip you with a pre-mission briefing.

Save the date, follow our channels, and prepare your favorite chat room snacks.

Back to the Lab Again

Crucible Labs has been on hiatus for a while. It’s time to start experimenting again. Senior Designer Andrew Weldon has the details about the new mode coming next and when you can expect to see it go live. 

Andrew: Hello again!

Back in May, we launched the first Crucible Labs playlist with the game mode “Showdown.” As discussed in the following week’s TWAB, this was a good opportunity for us to test the playlist on a relatively safe baseline that we had mostly already shipped for Crimson Days and the standalone Doubles playlist. The first test served its purpose—we stood the system up and got great feedback on an in-development mode. We’ve also made one noteworthy change to Labs as a whole—with the 1.2.3 update, Labs matches will now also count toward your Valor ranking and will offer standard Crucible rewards at match complete!

Now that we’ve released that 1.2.3 update, we’re ready to deploy our next Crucible Labs experiment to you—“Lockdown.” Lockdown is a new 4v4 round-based Competitive mode that, like Control, is about capturing and holding zones. Unlike Control, your only score comes from playing the objective. Those of you from the Taken King/Rise of Iron era know this mode’s predecessor, the Control variant “Zone Control.” Here’s how it plays out:

Both teams start Lockdown with a “Progress” percentage of 0% displayed under the scoreboard. Once a team holds two zones, progress will begin ticking up for that team at a rate of 1% per second. There is no round timer—the first team to reach 100% will win the round, and the first to win three rounds will win the match.

That’s not all, though—if a team can successfully capture all three zones, they will instantly win the round, regardless of each team’s progress state. A well-coordinated push from your opponents will always be dangerous, which means you need to stay focused on your objective.

However, winning a round that way is not necessarily as simple as it might seem. To earn capture progress or win on the triple cap, you must hold uncontested zones. If a team holds two zones, you can fully halt their progress by contesting one or more zones (you’ll see “PROGRESS HALTED” display under the scoreboard to let you know this is happening). They won’t start earning score again until they clear you and your progress off the point(s). The same applies when going for the triple cap lockdown—the instant win only applies if all three zones are completely clear.

We’ve seen some really exciting matches play out from this ruleset internally, and we hope you have similar experiences out in the wild!

As with any Labs playlist, this mode is not final, and you may come across some tuning issues or bugs. Your most direct avenue for feedback on this mode will be in a new Labs thread on the Feedback forum, and we’ll be monitoring the conversation we see around the mode to pluck out actionable items for future iteration and polish.

We hope you enjoy this first look at the new mode—and you can play it right now.

Shhhh

Many Guardians have heard whispers on Io and rushed to investigate. Some of you encountered a long streak of Cabal drills—far too many Cabal drills. We did some investigating to see if this was a bug. Turns out there’s no bug, but the current random generator doesn’t do a good job of preventing streaks of either event. 

We’re currently investigating ways to prevent these bad luck runs in the future. We did some simulations to see if there might be any more long streaks of one type of event in the forecast. We expect a few more outliers, but balanced with long streaks of only Taken Blight events. This activity will be available every week, and once you do unlock the Heroic version, it will stay unlocked. We will continue to monitor the situation. Happy hunting.

From Now Until Forsaken

We’ve been pretty true to the plans we laid out in the last roadmap, but there were some new entries. As we do, today we’d like to provide some commentary on Director Updates and Milestones and Challenges Updates. 

Two of the main functions of the Director have been to help players know what to do next and lead them to sources of more powerful gear. We have some new ideas for how we can better support these goals, so we’re changing the way those things work.

There will be three ways to acquire Powerful Engrams in Forsaken:

Most of these sources of power will be refreshed weekly or daily. Some will be one-time sources.

Once these changes are deployed into the wild, the “Milestones Blade” will call attention to these activities:

Additionally, the layout of the Director will be updated to accommodate two new destinations: The Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City. You’ll obviously need to purchase Forsaken to visit them, but they’ll appear on the interface that we all see.

Today, we wanted to set some expectations for what’s changing, and why it was on the roadmap. You’ll understand the full experience for how these new (and improved?) features lead you on your journey to your maximum potential as a Guardian when you play. That’s always the best source of understanding. Plus, discovering the path is part of the fun.

Save the Dates

There are plenty more than just downloads that have to happen before Forsaken launches. With Gambit as our special cargo, we’re heading to gamescom, where we will make some important announcements. We’re going to PAX West, where we’ll mix it up with the community (and, yes, play some Gambit) one more time before launch. As always, there will be fun things happening in the game to keep you challenged and entertained as you count down the days until September 4.

Check out our August calendar of events in the game and in real life.

The Sacred Texts!

A popular request among Guardians is to see the Grimoire committed to print. Today, we are proud to announce an upcoming Destiny Grimoire Anthology.

Until now, the myths, mysteries, and machinations of the Destiny universe were found hidden throughout the worlds—enticing threads that hinted at a greater tapestry. The Destiny Grimoire Anthology weaves tales from multiple sources together for the first time, casting new light on Destiny’s most legendary heroes, infamous villains, and their greatest moments of triumph and tragedy. 

Each unique volume intends to illuminate a facet of the world, and the complete anthology will confirm and challenge players’ thoughts and assumptions about what it means to be a Guardian, offering new and differing perspectives on the cosmic war that rages between the Traveler and its ancient enemies.

Service Guarantees Citizenship

There are many ways we collaborate with our players to make a better game. We pore over feedback loops from multiple sources on the internet. We contract notable experts among you to join us as testers for a limited run. Sometimes, we’ll even host a summit in our studio to dig into our future plans. Those measures, while effective, unfortunately don’t stand a chance of including everyone.

Bungie User Research casts a wider net. Willing test subjects complete online surveys. There are even occasional invitations to visit our studio and step into the lab to sample something in development. The registration questionnaire has been updated with new data points that we’d love to know about you. If you’re already in our database, hit it again. If you didn’t know about this opportunity to do your part, this is your chance to sign up for a future testing opportunity.

Would you like to know more?

For the Monarchy

New Monarchy claimed the third and final Faction Rallies victory of Season 3. They were dominant in previous seasons but were winless coming into this one. The faction managed to squeak out a victory despite Dead Orbit having more players pledged. It’s about action, not promises.

Helping Hands

This is the Player Support Report. 

Tuesday Morning Glory

This week, Destiny Player Support became aware of an issue impacting the Glory bonuses earned by players who were completing three or more Competitive Crucible matches a week.

With the launch of Crucible Ranks in Season 3, it was intended that players who were Fabled rank or below would receive a bonus allocation of Glory points following the weekly reset of any week during which they completed three or more Competitive matches. After investigating player reports regarding this feature, we have determined these Glory rank packages are not being granted as intended.

While we’re working with our Crucible team to investigate this issue, players should expect that this issue will persist for the remainder of Season 3. Players who are aiming to unlock Glory rank–based rewards for Season 3 should plan their Crucible play accordingly.

Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.2.3.1

Next week we’re deploying Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.2.3.1 to players. This hotfix is the final barrier between players and the launch of Solstice of Heroes, and all players will need to install this hotfix before they can join the celebration. Provided below is a brief timeline of this deployment.

On Tuesday, July 31, 2018:

• 9 AM PDT: Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.2.3.1 will become available to all players.
• 9–10 AM PDT: Players will be prompted to accept Hotfix 1.2.3.1 as they return to orbit after completing activities.
• 10 AM PDT: All players who have not yet accepted Hotfix 1.2.3.1 will be removed from activities and returned to the title screen to take this hotfix.

Since the reveal of Destiny 2: Forsaken, players have asked whether or not Cayde’s Exotic Stash will be included with pre-orders directly from platform online marketplaces. We can confirm that this pre-order bonus will be available to all players who purchase through the PlayStation, Xbox, and Battle.net online stores before launch.

Additionally, shown below is what players can expect to become available to them in Year 2, based off of title ownership:

For information on purchase eligibility from other retailers, players should visit the official destinythegame.com page.

Smoke and Mirrors

Movie of the Week: We Were Here II

Honorable Mention: Bad Day

Before we go, here is a quick peek at last week’s top scorers in the Nightfall.

<3 Cozmo