This Week At Bungie - 1/17/2019

This week at Bungie, we continue our journey.

Before we dive into the weekly roundup of information about the game, we'd like to shed some more light on the future of the franchise.

Destiny Franchise Director Luke Smith:

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share three things on behalf of the Destiny team today.

First: Our sincere thanks to the people at Activision who've helped bring Destiny to our players, High Moon Studios for their wonderful collaboration on Forsaken, and Vicarious Visions who helped establish a Destiny community on PC, worked with us on Warmind, and who is currently readying their Destiny swan song with content that will appear in the upcoming Season of [Redacted].

Next: In the short-term, we're continuing to build the content we've promised for the Annual Pass. We've learned a lot from Black Armory that we will apply to future releases, most notably that we'd like the beginning experiences of content drops to be a better point of convergence for the playerbase. In Black Armory, we set the Power requirement for the first forge too high, and that meant it wasn't a great chance to jump into some new content. We want to find the line between new content that many players can play, and aspirational content for players to progress toward. We're exploring improvements to catch-up mechanics for players in upcoming seasons.

Last: Long-term, Bungie is committed to Destiny. We created the universe and we hold its future entirely in our hands. The vast majority of the team is hard at work envisioning future experiences, enemies, and ways to play the Guardian you've been building since 2014. We're going to keep doing that.

We're thinking about what it means to be truly independent, what it means to self-publish, and crucially, what Destiny's future can now look like for our players.

It was a busy Fall, and it is going to be a busy year.

When I look ahead and think about Destiny and where it could go, I see a bright future, with roots in a memorable past. Not everything has been lost in the dark corners of time.

See you soon,

-luke

Up the Damage

Paired with changes to Super abilities in Destiny 2 Update 2.1.4, the team has is also set to deliver some fine-tuning to weapon archetypes in your vault, waiting to be used. Designer Victor Anderson has a rundown of our goals and the changes being made to reach them.

Mr. Anderson: In the 2.1.4 update, we're making several adjustments to weapons with the following goals in mind:

• Buff underutilized weapon archetypes
  
• Adjust hot button weapons in PvP, including Telesto and Wavesplitter
  
• Avoid PvP adjustments that will negatively affect PvE efficacy
  

In summary, our design philosophy is to keep the sandbox feeling the same, but tune damage separately dependent on activity where it makes sense.

Here's a sampling of some the changes you'll see:

Weapon Archetypes

Auto Rifles

• Damage increased for rapid-fire, adaptive, and high-impact families. We find that Auto Rifles are a little unforgiving for the ranges they ask you to occupy in a world with special weapons, and as a result, we're increasing the damage to offset the higher risk.
  

Scout Rifles

• Damage increased for lightweight and rapid-fire families, as well as an increase to all Scout Rifles in PvE. Scout Rifles are always going to be on the lower end of damage due to the safety that their range affords you, but the difference currently between them and other primary weapons is too drastic. As a result, we're reducing the size of the gap.
  

Sniper Rifles

• Increased the damage on the rapid-fire archetype to be able to kill in two bodyshots. Although snipers are still finding success, we believe that allowing you to clean up a kill easier with a Sniper Rifle will allow the sniper to have that success at more ranges and in more situations.
  

Exotic Weapons

Legend of Acrius

• Increased the damage and bumped out the range slightly. As time moves on, things tend to trend upward in terms of power, and in a post-Forsaken world, Acrius simply didn't have the output to match other heavy weapon Exotics.
  

Telesto

• PvP damage brought down to match a standard Fusion Rifle charge rate. Optics (zoom) was also increased to match Fusion Rifles with long-range scopes. Telesto has become fairly notorious in the Crucible for its effectiveness, even in some cases getting accidental multikills due to how damaging the explosions were. To combat these, we've reduced its (PvP) damage to match its charge rate. This brought up an issue where doing so was significantly hurting the usability of the weapon, so the optics were buffed in return. In general, you should still find it an effective weapon, it just won't be quite as generous as it was before.
  

Trace Rifles

• Increased the minimum amount of ammo you could receive from special ammo boxes. Trace Rifles had a pretty rough time keeping ammo reserves in the Crucible as it doesn't have access to scavenger perks. You should have more success using it more often in the Crucible now, and the changes also affect PvE bricks.
  
• Reduced the strength of Wavesplitter in PvP. After the ammo changes noted above, Wavesplitter had its one weakness removed, so we've opted to bring it in line with the other Trace Rifles before this patch hit the public.
  

Weapon tuning is an ongoing process. We'll be sure to talk to you about it again in the future. Some topics we're looking at for future potential adjustments include Trace Rifle damage in PvE, Submachine Gun damage adjustments, Shotgun adjustments, and taking a holistic look at the heavy slot options and how much of an impact it has on loadout choices for PvE content. We are always looking at what's currently in use and what isn't in use, as having more choices is always better than being locked into a narrow band.

These changes are currently planned to land on January 29.

Stoke the Forge

Sandbox won't be the only aspect of Destiny 2 receiving Quality of Life changes in the next update. We've also spent some time collecting player feedback on the Black Armory experience. What follows are some details for the changes we have planned for weapon forging.

Black Armory

• Ballistics Logs will no longer be removed at reset
  
• Stack limit for Ballistics Logs increased to 5 per character
  
• Weapon frames carried across reset now refund into the following
  • "Gold" frames refunded into 1 Ballistics Log
  • "Silver" frames refunded into 3 Modulus Reports
  • Any instance of a Radiant Matrix will be removed on weekly reset
  • Players should stop experiencing the issue where frames are missing from Ada's inventory on a week-to-week basis
  • Players may still only purchase up to 2 "Gold" frames per week
• Drop rate for Black Armory Lore increased from 10% to 20%
  • Now requires successful forge ignition for chance to drop
• Quest step that requires players to defeat a high-value target on Nessus no longer requires a player to land the final blow.
  
• Modulus Reports and Ballistics Logs will now go to Postmaster if lost. Cap on Modulus Reports still at 15 per account
  
• Forge emblems will be awarded when completing a forge, no longer requiring a specific bounty to be completed
  

That's not even the final form of our next deployment. Check out the Player Support Report below for a list of known issues being addressed in Update 2.1.4.

Clubhouse Renovations

Over the last few weeks, members of the Community, Player Support, and bungie.net teams have been meeting to discuss some ways we can improve the experience on our forums. The first change will be a reorganization of our current forum structure, paired with some under-the-hood improvements to moderation tools.

A large piece of feedback that we're looking to address is that players didn't know exactly where to go to join the conversation. As such, we're condensing Destiny 2-related forums, eliminating subforums that weren't used frequently, and giving the Destiny Companion its own place of discussion. Second, we wish to create a more welcoming place to discuss Destiny 2. Whether you're giving critical feedback on your experience or looking to share some sweet lore you've just uncovered, we're looking to maintain a healthier community on our website. We absolutely welcome topics and discussion on what we can do better in Destiny 2, but players must follow the Code of Conduct if they wish to join the conversation.

That said, here's what you can expect on January 22 when visiting the bungie.net forums:

• Destiny 2
  • Feedback
  • Gameplay
  • Rewards
  • Lore
• Destiny 1
  
• Clan Recruitment
  
• Companion
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Web
• Help
  • All current Player Support subforums
• OffTopic
  

Like anything else related to Destiny, we're eager to hear your feedback on how this experience can be improved.

Reporting for Duty

Week in and week out, members of the Player Support Team dedicate themselves to identifying the issues you're facing, and working with the development team to investigate. We've said it a thousand times before; the only good bug is a dead bug.

This is their report:

Destiny 2 Update 2.1.4 Resolved Issues Preview - Part 1

This week, we'd like to pick up the conversation on some existing known issues in Destiny 2. The following issues are expected to be resolved with the launch of Destiny 2 Update 2.1.4 on January 29.

• Lost Radiant Matrix: Players can become blocked from accessing Black Armory activities if the Radiant Matrix is pushed out of their Postmaster inventory.
  
• Ada-1 Missing Weapon Frames: Weapon frames may disappear from Ada-1's inventory in a given week for some players.
  • [Editor's Note: This issue will no longer be present due to the system changes for Ballistics Logs described above.]
• Mysterious Box Keys: Forge Keys are sometimes not applied when used for the Mysterious Box but are removed from inventory, blocking progress. Spent keys will be applied retroactively.
  
• "Fastidious Miser" Triumph: The "Fastidious Miser" Triumph may sometimes not unlock when players access all relevant chests in the Dreaming City.
  
• Full Pursuits at Ada-1: Players are able to purchase weapon frames from Ada-1 when their Pursuits inventory is full, receiving nothing while still costing materials.
  
• Nessus Roaming Captains: High-value targets on Nessus do not count for other fireteam members when someone defeats them for the "Siviks's Delivery Note" Pursuit.
  
• Earning Redrix's Broadsword: Redrix's Broadsword is sometimes not granted when completing its quest, requiring players to restart the Destiny 2 application for it to drop.
  
• "Knife Flip" Emote: The "Knife Flip" emote does not loop indefinitely.
  

Check back next week for Part 2 of our Resolved Issues Preview, where we'll discuss other known issues that are expected to be resolved in Destiny 2 Update 2.1.4 later this month.

For information on deployment timelines when they are available, players should visit our Destiny Server and Update Status page, follow @BungieHelp on Twitter, or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net.

Season of the Forge Vital Information and Known Issues
In addition to the items listed above, Destiny Player Support would like to remind players of the following known issues in Destiny 2.

• Black Armory Key Molds: Investigations are ongoing regarding issues causing the Black Armory Key Mold to only be available on the first character it is received on.
  
• "Relic Rumble" Triumph: We are investigating an issue where the "Relic Rumble" Triumph isn't unlocking for players.
  
• "Submachinist" Medal: We are investigating an issue where the "Submachinist" Medal does not appear in the Crucible.
  
• Izanagi's Burden Scope: We are investigating reports that the scope on Izanagi's Burden experiences issues with Well of Radiance, with Inertia Override, and while invading in Gambit.
  

For the latest known issues as soon as they are available, players should visit our Destiny 2 Known Issues and Vital Information knowledge base article.

Lost Sector Discovered

Throughout the week, we're on the hunt for entertaining Destiny montages and creation. Showcasing skill is one thing, but covering a spider tank in flaming swords made of space magic? Stupendous.

Movie of the week: Well, Well, Well...

Runner up: Minimalist

If you want a chance at the Lens of Fate emblem, make sure to submit your content to the Creations page on bungie.net. Do not throw away your shot!

To close out, we invite you to take a step back to Friday, January 11, 2019.

Guardians had been working together to solve puzzles in the Niobe Labs. A final clue was given to nudge players in the right direction. After three and a half days, the Hubris of Niobe was recognized, and the puzzle was completed.

World First: The Destiny Community

While a fireteam executed the plan, we wanted to highlight that this was achieved by more than just three Guardians. We thank everyone in the community who lent their troubleshooting skills to help crack this code. Many shout outs to /r/RaidSecrets were made, but we also must acknowledge those who engaged with each other via social media. Whether you were on forums, tweeting, texting, or submitting your theories to stream chats: Thank you for taking part in this experience.

Until next time, I'll be in the Iron Banner. Maybe I'll dip my toe into Gambit to get the final two wins I need for Dredgen. See you online.

Cheers,
Dmg04