A. When a destination enters the DCV, its PvE content will no longer be available. Explicitly, this includes their unique:

• Story missions and cinematics
• Strikes (detailed above)
• Raids (detailed above)
• Dungeons (detailed above)
• Adventures
• Secret missions
• Vendors and associated bounties
• Destination-specific patrols
• Collectables & scannables
• Destination-specific activities (Ex: Mercury’s Forge, Mars’ Escalation Protocol)
• Freely roaming the destinations themselves, exploring Lost Sectors, etc.

A. With some of the core Year 1 destinations entering the Vault, it’s true that the free-for-all-players Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind campaigns will no longer be playable.

We are building a new, expanded Guardian origin story on the Cosmodrome that will launch alongside Year 4 and will be available to all Guardians to play. It is designed to introduce you to the world and mechanics of Destiny and prepare you to play the action MMO game we all enjoy. The Forsaken and Shadowkeep story campaigns will still be playable in Year 4 for owners of those expansions.

A. The Whisper is entering the Vault alongside Io, and so too is Zero Hour (given the old Tower was part of the Red War campaign and which is also entering the Vault). Their Exotic weapon rewards will not be acquirable until we find a new way to reintroduce them, so if you’re keen to get them, make sure you do that now!

A. No. The Year 2 Seasonal content – including Forges, Reckoning, and Menagerie – will be entering the DCV on November 10. Be sure to experience that content and mark the final items off your collections and checklists before they are Vaulted. Here’s a cheat sheet of what to complete:

• Ada-1, Black Armory, and Season of the Forge quests.
• Gambit Prime, Reckoning, and Season of the Drifter quests.
• Benedict-66, Werner 99-40, Menagerie, and Season of Opulence quests.
• Pinnacle and pursuit weapon quests.
• Note: These weapons will receive an alternate acquisition method. More details to come later this Season.

We have no doubt that you’ll have more questions on what’s coming and going this fall. We’ll be sharing more updates and Destiny Player Support will always have the latest updates available in our help archives. Here is a link to our DPS article that shares more details on the DCV.

Fashion Show at Lunch 

Last week, Dmg challenged you in the ways of looking fabulous. We have been scrolling through the #SolsticeFashionShow hashtag and picking out a few of our favorites. All of these best dressed Guardians will be receiving the rare and coveted Levante Prize emblem.

Prime Gaming 

More Prime Gaming Rewards went live this week. If you’ve already signed up, click here to claim your rewards and Amanda Holliday will have your new items waiting. Everyone else can sign up here by linking your Bungie.net account. Here’s a look at what rewards Amanda will have for you this month:

• Standoff – Exotic Emote
• Neon Helix Shell – Exotic Ghost 
• Vespulaser – Exotic Sparrow   
• Egbe-01X – Legendary Ship

Check back next month and we will have a new shipment of Prime Gaming rewards for you to pick up from Amanda.

Pardon Our Dust 

Our Player Support team is tracking new issues as well as the updates to fix them.

This is their report.

SOLSTICE BOUNTIES 

In today’s Hotfix 2.9.1.3, we resolved an issue where weekly and repeatable Solstice of Heroes bounties did not grant Bright Dust rewards upon completion. Solstice bounties will now award the following amounts of Bright Dust on completion alongside their other rewards:

Weekly Bounty: 200 Bright Dust per bounty.

Repeatable Bounty: 10 Bright Dust per bounty.

We are currently investigating a solution for players who missed out on Bright Dust rewards from bounty completions prior to the Hotfix, and will be granting Bright Dust to affected players in the near future.

MEANS TO AN END 

With Hotfix 2.9.1.3 we have resolved an issue causing the weekly Means to an End quest to be deleted off of players, preventing them from collecting their weekly Pinnacle reward. 

Players who still encounter issues with the quest should report to our #Help forum.

EAZ WEEKLY CHALLENGES 

Earlier this week we disabled the EAZ Weekly challenges due to an issue preventing players from receiving Powerful Gear rewards upon completion. This issue should now be resolved, and the EAZ Weekly challenges re-enabled for all players.

Players who continue to encounter issues with the challenges should report to our #Help Forum. 

KNOWN ISSUES 

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

• The armor glows on the Magnificent Solstice armor sets and ornaments are less intense than intended.
• Upgrading from the Majestic to the Magnificent Solstice armor set can result in a slight Power level reduction.
• The Hunter Solstice Vest creates a gap at the waist of the female character model when used with certain leg armor.
• The Solstice glows on male Hunters aren’t aligned on the right knee.
• The Renewed Solstice Triumph incorrectly states it unlocks after earning a Majestic Solstice set, when it actually requires a Magnificent Solstice set.

Places Everyone 

Let’s watch some movies, yea? We’re lucky to have so many talented members of our community cutting together creative videos each week and love showing them off. The rules are simple, the winners get an emblem, and don’t tell DeeJ about the carton of milk I left under his desk before quarantine began. Here are the winners.

Movie of the Week:  Bikro Mini

Honorable Mention:  Space Cowboy

Congratulations to all the winners. Please make sure you have your Bungie.net profile in the description of your video so we can send you your emblems.

It’s been a busy week. Solstice rolls on as Guardians collect their armor and explore the EAZ. We gave you another look at the Destiny Content Vault and what changes to expect next season. We’re sure you have more questions. We will have more info to share before the end of the Season. See you next week.

<3 Cozmo 

Remember that only those on Xbox One / Windows 10 / and Android may participate in the Beta builds.  You will not be able to join Realms or non-beta players worlds and you will not be able to open worlds opened in the Beta in earlier/current stable builds of Bedrock.

Are you excited for these changes?  I am!  Those of you that are familiar with Java Edition will recognize some of these changes below.  Hopefully, some of your crashes have been fixed as well.  Happy crafting!

Vanilla Parity

• Brewing Stand can now be crafted with Blackstone (MCPE-90465)
• Players can now spawn farmland with the /give command and pick it with Pick Block (MCPE-25691)
• Cod and Salmon killed by fire damage now drop cooked fish (MCPE-30693)

Performance and Stability

• Fixed a crash that occurred when entering a game with specific texture packs enabled
• Adding tags to the Ender Dragon will no longer crash the game when reloading the world (MCPE-89076)

Blocks

• Fence gates now align with Blackstone Walls (MCPE-78002)
• Placing blocks on Crimson Roots and Warped Roots will now properly remove the roots (MCPE-81521)
• Target blocks no longer power additional blocks above them (MCPE-85455)
• Cocoa Beans can now be placed on and survive on all jungle wood variants (MCPE-46638)

Experience Orb

• The Experience Orb now ignores world lighting, allowing it to always be at max brightness (MCPE-67448)

Items

• Dropped items no longer float too low to the ground
• Dragon Egg now always drops when it is destroyed by an explosion (MCPE-52632)

Mobs

• Mobs in lava were not able to find a path out. This fix makes it so they can enter a lava block if they are already in lava
• Pathfinding will now account for “minecraft:scale'” component
• Updated BrewingStand, ButtonBlock, ChestBlock, EnderChestBlock, SlabBlock, and SoulSandBlockblock types to allow path-finding and navigation (MCPE-47075)

Technical Updates

• Updated Actor Properties. Two fields that were invalid and appeared in some vanilla content will now give a content error. The field “value” on “minecraft:can_fly” and the property “minecraft:foot_size” should simply be removed from any entity files
• Make boat use the Buoyancy Component. Added two new components, the inside_block_notifiercomponent, which fires specified events when the actor enters or exits specified blocks, and the out_of_control component, which sets a corresponding actor flag, in order to make this possible
• Added error checks to parsing of minecraft shareables items. Displays content log if item name is invalid or the array is empty
• Attempting to load a custom material that is not defined no longer causes a crash. A proper content error is now thrown
• Exposed new data parameters to control the behavior of Drop Item For Goal. This includes: “seconds_before_pickup”, “cooldown”, “minimum_teleport_distance”, “max_head_look_at_height”, “teleport_offset”, and “entity_types”. Check out the new Actor component documentation!
• Exposed new data parameters to control the behavior of Harvest Farm Block Goal, including “max_seconds_before_search”, “search_cooldown_max_seconds”, and “seconds_until_new_task”. Check out the new Actor component documentation!

Aseprite

• The UI now supports using aseprite JSON files for animations, which allows more advanced animations than simple flip books

Commands

• Added a new /structure command that allows to save and load structures without having to use structure blocks
• Added /playanimation command which allows you to run a one-off animation. It assumes all variables have been setup correctly for the animation to run
• Added /ride command which allows you to make entities ride other entities, stop entities from riding, make rides evict their riders, or summon rides or riders

Format Version Checks

• Updated the format_versionfield in geometry, particles, and animation files to behave as entity behavior files do. That is, you no longer need to specify a specific version for it to be accepted, instead, you can just specify the version of the release you are targeting

SetBannerDetailsFunction

• Now supports customizing non-Illager banners
• Up to 6 patterns and colors can be specified

Accepted banner types

• “default”
• “illager_captain”

Accepted color values

• “black”
• “red”
• “green”
• “brown”
• “blue”
• “purple”
• “cyan”
• “silver”
• “gray”
• “pink”
• “lime”
• “yellow”
• “light_blue”
• “magenta”
• “orange”
• “white”

Accepted pattern values

• “base”
• “border”
• “bricks”
• “circle”
• “creeper”
• “cross”
• “curly_border”
• “diagonal_left”
• “diagonal_right”
• “diagonal_up_left”
• “diagonal_up_right”
• “flower”
• “gradient”
• “gradient_up”
• “half_horizontal”
• “half_horizontal_bottom”
• “half_vertical”
• “half_vertical_right”
• “mojang”
• “piglin”
• “rhombus”
• “skull”
• “small_stripes”
• “square_bottom_left”
• “square_bottom_right”
• “square_top_left”
• “square_top_right”
• “straight_cross”
• “stripe_bottom”
• “stripe_center”
• “stripe_downleft”
• “stripe_downright”
• “stripe_left”
• “stripe_middle”
• “stripe_right”
• “stripe_top”
• “triangle_bottom”
• “triangle_top”
• “triangles_bottom”
• “triangles_top”

Possible input

“function”: “set_banner_details”,”type”: “default”,”base_color”: “blue”,”patterns”: [  {    “pattern”: “flower”,    “color”: “white”  },  {    “pattern”: “triangle_bottom”,    “color”: “brown”  }]

In this Soapbox article, Gavin discusses the warm familiar feeling he experienced while watching this week’s Nintendo Indie World Showcase…

I was planning on beginning this with a big ‘list o’ shame’; all the indie titles I’ve got backlogged on my Switch that I still need to play, many of them purchased but never ‘opened’. However, after scrolling through my alphabetically-ordered library and reaching double figures before getting to ‘H’, it’s probably better to skip all that and replace it with a sentence underlining what everyone reading this already knows: the sheer breadth and variety of gaming experiences on Switch is mind-blowing.

Hardly an original sentiment, for sure, but it’s one I still can’t wrap my brain around, even over three years since the console launched. It just doesn’t want to sink in, perhaps because it represents such a sea change from previous generations. I was a big fan of Wii U, but at the time I remember being surprised by the (relatively) solid indie support it received. With big retro-inspired games like Axiom Verge, Shovel Knight and Shantae leading the charge, the console attracted more quality independent developers and smaller releases than I’d imagined given its very modest install base.

Years before that, the Wii certainly had a wealth of software and interesting indie WiiWare experiments, but both Wiis were just pinkie toes in the pool compared to Switch – I feel like I’m drowning in games here! Watching the Nintendo Indie World Showcase earlier in the week underlined the incredible difference yet again, but more than that, it finally felt like there’s no going back in this cosy Nindie relationship.

We asked readers how they felt about the presentation, and the majority of you (nearly 40%) were very happy with what was shown – I certainly fall into that group. Of course, different strokes and all that: around 30% felt it was a decent (if not amazing) broadcast; 20% saw very little to get excited about; and then there’s the one-in-ten of you who won’t be satisfied by anything less than the meatiest of ‘proper’ Nintendo Directs. I understand that desire, certainly, but I also find it hard to believe people found nothing at all to like in the Showcase. I thought it was absolutely excellent from start to finish.

the number of shadow-dropped games was kinda crazy – and a bit of a nightmare for outlets trying to put out timely reviews

I’m a huge fan of Supergiant Games’ Bastion, and Transistor is one of the aforementioned games I’ve bought but haven’t played yet, so seeing Hades coming to Switch was a great opener. I must have missed Raji: An Ancient Epic‘s reveal at some point, but it sure caught my attention in the presentation, not least because it’s available on the eShop right now.

In fact, the number of shadow-dropped games was kinda crazy – and a bit of a nightmare for outlets trying to put out timely reviews, but that’s not something players need worry about. There’s even an argument that not having all the reviews to dissect before buying a game brings back a frisson of old-school excitement. Remember when our purchasing decisions were guided more by the screenshots on the box than an aggregated review score? Always a chance you’ll end up with a lemon, of course, but thanks to indie games’ more modest price tags, any turkey will likely be much less painful than the 60 quid you burned on Turok 2 back in the day (hey, I was more of a GoldenEye guy, okay?!).

Sorry, I got distracted – where was I? Oh yes, all the video games. A Short Hike looks like an appropriately restorative little jaunt, Hypnospace Outlaw is something I’ve had my eye on since it first launched on PC, Card Shark looks like a lot of fun, Manifold Garden and the pair of Subnauticas have been on my radar for a while, and both Evergate and Garden Story seem intriguing. And there’s even two-player coming to Untitled Goose Game! I was less enamoured with that one than most (yes, there are a handful of indies I’ve actually managed to play to completion!), but two-player could be the thing to really hook me.

It’s been a while since so many interesting games were packed into such a tight presentation, and I’ve got around a dozen titles for the backlog, some of which I’ve had my eye on elsewhere and never got around to playing. Now I can not play them on Switch!

Jokes about my ever-dwindling gaming time aside, a comfortable and warm sensation came over me while watching the presentation; a reassuring feeling that Switch is the best possible fit for all these diverse indie experiences and only a fool would turn away from a relationship this fulfilling, this satisfying, this mutually beneficial. Nintendo’s got a good thing going here – they’ve been going steady for a few years, but the relationship has always seemed a little tumultuous. It really feels like they’re ready to settle down now.

there are times when you wouldn’t put it past the company to abandon everything–developer support, industry-standard control schemes and formats, whatever–if it dreamed up some radical new idea

There’s always a niggling sense that hungry-hearted Nintendo, always eager for novelty, could pack up its bindle at the drop of a hat and head out on the road, Springsteen-style. Irrational it may seem, but there are times when you wouldn’t put it past the company to abandon everything–developer support, industry-standard control schemes and formats, whatever–if it dreamed up some radical new idea and ran away with it, chasing a dream like a Darner Dragonfly.

That willingness to take chances makes Nintendo products exciting and unique, of course, but seeing how smaller developers have helped prop up the Switch lineup–this year especially–and with the platform holder focusing attention on them like never before, you get the sense (finally) that they won’t be running out on them any time soon.

It’s not a perfect relationship by any means, and stories that devs are struggling to be seen on Switch eShop are increasingly common. We’ve spoken before about how Nintendo needs to do more with its digital store to solve discoverability issues. A ‘happily-ever-after’ requires hard-graft and–there’s no other word for it–work to stay fresh, healthy and interesting. Make no mistake, Nintendo really needs to double down with support and do better where it can if it wants to keep that spark alive.

The argument that people only buy Nintendo consoles to play Nintendo games also holds some water, of course–and staggering sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons highlight that first-party games are vital to its hardware success, but the ecosystem and convenience of Switch is what struck a chord with gamers, casual and core, where Wii U blew a big raspberry. After all, Wii U had the great games, but the fact is that comparatively very few people bought that Nintendo console to play those Nintendo games – most of which have since come to Switch and outperformed original sales many times over, proving their quality and worth. Nintendo is also putting out fewer games (pound-for-pound across its systems) than it did before it combined its home and handheld consoles into one platform. That smaller developers have stepped up to fill the software gap–and that Nintendo is working to showcase them–highlights the effectiveness of the partnership.

it would be a mistake to discount the huge number of curios and offbeat indie games of all sizes as mere filler while we wait for the ‘real’ deal. These are real deal!

Nope, it’s the convenience of Switch in both its form factor and its catalogue of brilliant non-Nintendo titles that’s the reason I’m struggling to keep my gaming head above water these days. Yes, we may be craving the really big first-party announcements, but it would be a mistake to discount the huge number of curios and offbeat indie games of all sizes as mere filler while we wait for the ‘real’ deal. These are real deal!

There are undoubtedly people finding the Switch lineup a little dry of late, but a drought?! Personally, I’m drowning in great stuff! Compare and contrast to the Wii U days if you must, but whatever way you cut it, the huge buffet of indie delights on eShop is incredibly impressive. For me, that tidy 20-minute Indie World Showcase had one of the most varied and exciting lineups I’ve seen all summer, and half of them are available right now.

Long may the Switch stork continue to deliver us beautiful bouncing Nindie babies!

‘Duh, Switch has lots of great games – did we really need an article about it?’ Short answer: yes! 2020 has been a real piece of work, so there’s always space for some positivity and optimism.

We’re busy working on reviews of games from the Showcase, so look out for those over the coming week or so. Be sure to leave your own drop of positivity below, and let us know your thoughts on anything you’ve picked up from the presentation.

Electronic Arts has been slowly inching toward a Steam launch of its freshly renamed subscription library EA Play, and has now finally announced when that launch will take place.

EA Play is set to launch on Steam on August 31, which’ll give Steam-favoring players a way to sign up for discounts and unlimited access to a library of EA games without going through EA’s own Origin launcher like the program previously required.

All in all, its an interesting partnership as Origin and Steam could be considered competing platforms and, until just recently, EA kept many of its games from appearing Steam until just recently likely due to that fact.

Steam will become the fourth platform to support the service, following in the footsteps of Origin, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 before it. Up until recently, those services had different names depending on the platform: EA Access for consoles and Origin Access for Origin on PC.

 While the entire program has now been united under a single name thanks to last week’s rebrand, it’s important to note that EA Play is still a per-platform subscription. Those looking to use their subscription benefits on both Xbox and Steam, for instance, would need a separate monthly subscription for each individual platform. 

Facebook-owned Oculus is starting to pivot away from the sole use of Oculus accounts on its VR devices, and will eventually end support for Oculus Accounts all together.

Instead, Oculus the company is looking to make Facebook accounts the go-to account service for its entire line of headsets. The full switchover on the player side of the fence isn’t expected to take place until 2023, but Oculus has already announced a series of gradual changes how its accounts work to ready for that transition.

Folks signing up for a new account will, starting in October 2020, need to do so through their existing Facebook account. Those that already have Oculus accounts, meanwhile, will have the option to coast on their current setup until that full 2023 switch or can opt to permanently merge their Oculus and Facebook accounts ahead of that.

Declining to do so won’t render current VR headsets unplayable, only limit access to some features, but all future Oculus devices will require a Facebook account.

This looks to also at least partially apply to developer accounts. Developers can find more on those specific changes in Oculus’ dev portal, but in short it looks like developers will only have access to a limited set of features for in-headset testing should they decide not to merge their accounts with their personal Facebook accounts.

In order to access the full gamut of testing tools, devs will need to use either a Test User account, where they can download apps uploaded by their organization and “ test features such as Entitlement Checks, In-App Purchases, and social features, in addition to playtesting your application” or merge a personal Facebook account with their developer account to “friend users outside of your organization and purchase content from the Oculus Store” in addition to what’s offered by the Test Account.

“There will also be an option to continue logging into current devices for development purposes using your unmerged Oculus Developer account, but with limited functionality,” explains that post. “For example, you will not be able to test new, updated, or social features, which require a Test User account or a Facebook account.”

Logging into the Oculus Developer Dashboard, meanwhile, looks to remain unchanged by Oculus’ larger shift toward Facebook accounts.

The biggest changes look to be user-facing. On that side of the fence, once January 1, 2023 rolls around, un-merged Oculus accounts will no longer be supported. That won’t render Oculus VR headsets unplayable by any means, but Oculus warns that some games may no longer work for those users as “they include features that require a Facebook account or because a developer has chosen to no longer support the app or game you purchased.” On top of that, all future Oculus device launches will skip right ahead to requiring a Facebook account.

The full post has more on what to expect from the change, and notes as well that merging accounts will let Facebook use info about VR to “provide and improve your experience,” an addition that, given Facebook’s privacy background and despite Facebook’s assurances that this was a partially privacy-driven change, has some concerned.

There’s also the fact that a Facebook account requirement makes Oculus a potential no-go for people who have left Facebook’s ecosystem over privacy concerns or the company’s complicated history of forcing legal name usage on Facebook, sometimes in cases where doing so is inaccurate or unsafe for the people behind the profiles.

Tipsworks has released the newest expansion for Pascal’s Wager. Tides of Oblivion has been anticipated for a fair while, and brings the Action-RPG to a brand new aquatic setting – Ichthyosauria. Though a mouthful of sea water to say, the new setting adds fresh enemies, characters, and new adventures for the player, as they sound the depths of Ichthyosauria and dredge up its secrets for themselves.

The actual setup of Tides of Oblivion is fairly simple – Jerold, a familiar friend, asks Terence to team up with him to travel to the land of Ichthyosauria, and find a way to save it. Jerold is also the new playable character, and if the trailer is anything to go by, he seems to be a duelist who wields a rapier, with a courtly manner of fighting.

For those that don’t know Pascal’s Wager, it’s basically mobile’s answer to Dark Souls, channeling influences from the FromSoftware series to create an outstanding mobile Action-RPG – just read our Pascal’s Wager review if you don’t believe us! The new setting of Ichthyosauria gives off some serious fishing hamlet vibes from Bloodborne’s Old Hunter DLC, which we’re always happy to see.

You can watch the trailer for Tides of Oblivion below, which features a little gameplay, and some suitably ominous narration:

If you want to pick up Pascal’s Wager, you can find it on Google Play and the App Store, and Tides of Oblivion is purchasable in-game. Either that, or enter our current Pascal’s Wager giveaway, where we’re offering both a code for the base game, and Tides of Oblivion.

For some other games like Pascals Wager – though nothing is quite like Pascals Wager – be sure to check out our list of the best mobile RPGs!

Today, Microsoft Translator adds two Kurdish dialects, Northern and Central, to its list of text translation languages. Northern and Central Kurdish are available now, or will be available soon, in the Microsoft Translator app, Office, and Translator for Bing.

You can also use Azure Cognitive Services Translator in your own applications, websites, and tools to add Northern and Central Kurdish text translation to or from more than 70 languages. To translate speech into Kurdish text, or to translate Kurdish text into another language with speech output, you can use Azure Cognitive Services Speech, which combines Translator’s AI-powered translation service with Speech’s advanced speech recognition and speech synthesis. You can view the list of languages available for speech recognition and speech synthesis on the Microsoft Translator website.

Northern and Central Kurdish are the two most common forms of the Kurdish language. Northern Kurdish, also known as Kurmanji, is spoken in Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq, and northwest and northeast Iran by 15-17 million Kurds. Central Kurdish, also known as Sorani, is spoken in Iraqi Kurdistan and western Iran by an estimated 9-12 million Kurds. These two dialects make up about 75% of all Kurdish speakers¹.

Northern and Central Kurdish are generally not mutually understandable. Here are some examples of words and phrases in the two Kurdish dialects.

Learn more about the Northern and Central dialects of Kurdish on Bing.

What you can do with Microsoft Translator

At home

Translate real-time conversations, menus and street signs, websites, documents, and more using the Microsoft Translator app for Windows, iOS, Android, and the web. Learn more

At work

Globalize your business and customer interactions with text and speech translation powered by Translator and Microsoft Speech service, both members of the Azure Cognitive Services family. Learn more

In the classroom

Create a more inclusive classroom for both students and parents with live captioning and cross-language understanding. Learn more

For more information on Microsoft Translator please visit microsoft.com/translator.

—
¹ Translators Without Borders: https://translatorswithoutborders.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Kurdish-Factsheet-English.pdf