A bunch of random thoughts on this new season (Destiny)

by marmot 1333 , Friday, June 12, 2020, 12:09 (1629 days ago)

I've only played a little bit, but I wanted to share some thoughts on this season so far.

First Day Experience
The first day experience was really cool. Cool cutscene, cool story mission(s), cool dialogue, actual story stuff happening.
The first quest was cool and didn't stretch on too terribly long. This meant that I was into the meat of the season fairly quickly, which I like.

Pinnacle rewards instead of Powerful
I vaguely remember this being covered in a Bungie article but didn't see it in the patch notes. The weekly strike reward for doing three strikes with the matching element is now a pinnacle reward instead of a powerful. Has it been like this already, or was this a new change this season? This seems to be true of the other Director-based rewards too, like crucible and gambit. I like this change a lot.
However, there seem to be fewer avenues for rewards visible on the Director. I'm not sure that is true. Does anyone know or have a list for comparison?

Lots of engram Drops in activities
It seems like I get quite a lot of the umbral engrams while playing, which is fun. During strikes I was getting purple drops that decode immediately to Strike armor (Noble Constant 2). I was having trouble remembering the specifics of how this worked before--but this is a cool change.

Higher Stats on armor drops
This is the real reason I made this post. I've gotten more random armor drops with high-stats(60+) in 2 days of playing than I think I have ever gotten since high stats started being a thing. This is really cool and a great change.

Great seasonal Music
The music this season is really good. There are a few pieces that are string quartet style, much less bombastic than some past Destiny music, that I think have a really good feel.
There are a few locations I have been hanging out (Titan, last night) where I think the music is different / updated for this season. That's really cool.

Playspaces going away
I don't have a sense what the "community" at large thinks about it, but I think shoving old play spaces in the vault to make room for newer places is fantastic. This also gives me a reason to go around and get all the scannables for those areas.
Overall, I think having a more streamlined, more-updated game is cool. I don't need it to be the exact same game it was when it was launched. And personally, I would vote to just keep updating D2 over releasing a brand new D3.

I got sunsetted
I'm one of those weirdos that liked swords even before last season. I had a Steel Sybil Z-14 with Relentless Strikes and Assassin's blade that I have been using since OG Forsaken. Last night I got.... a Steel Sybil Z-14 with Relentless Strikes and Assassin's blade. Um. This new one has a power cap 300 points higher. I wasn't one of the people that was mad about Sunsetting when it was announced but... this is really dumb. I thought it was too make room for new weapons?

The Almighty
Everyone else already talked this to death, but I am cautiously optimistic that the technology introduced by this will be used in the future to do some real-time world-changing events. The day of, I was able to be online at 10am on the dot, but had to leave around 10:35 to be somewhere else by 11, so I basically missed the exciting parts completely; I left right after the missiles launched at 10:30.
Particularly knowing that a bunch of playspaces are going to be vaulted at the end of this season, it seems like this technology has the potential to be used for some really cool stuff.

Forward-Looking
I am also cautiously optimistic about the talk about getting rid of FOMO caused by season pass design for Shadowkeep. I sat out season 9 completely despite having the season pass (I had gotten a switch and Breath of the Wild) but it was still shocking to come back and basically, have nothing to do from that season. Couldn't even get one of the exotics. "You had to be there", indeed. Perhaps this is controversial, but I think it is much better if you take a break from the game, come back, and have a ton of new content to play through.

Final thought: One game to rule them all
I mentioned that I sat out Season 9. One reason for that is that when I play D2, I feel a compulsion to optimize my playtime, optimize my bounty and quest gathering. Have to do the things to make the numbers go up, have to do the things to fulfill the bounties. So for me, it is easier to not play at all for a designated time than to play 'a little bit'. Some of that is on me--my personality and decision making--but a lot of that is on the game design. That being said, more and more AAA games are moving in this direction. Animal Crossing has so much stuff that you have to do 1/day or you just miss out on it. Gotta find the fossils every morning. I used to play Pokemon Go, in the before times, when people commuted to offices, and it was full of similar FOMO stuff. Daily bonuses, rewards that grow for each consecutive day played.
It's weird thinking about this kind of meta-game design. Hits a little too close to Skinner Box stuff. No real point here--just something I have been thinking about. This concludes my ramble.

Anyways, it's been a fun season so far.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. I'll miss [not] seeing people for PAX this year :(