As a seasoned Guardian with countless hours spent exploring the Tower and battling the darkness, I must say, Bungie’s latest changes to Destiny 2 have truly piqued my interest. The streamlined Portal menu and the overhaul of core activities sound like they’re designed to make the game more accessible for newcomers while also adding a layer of depth for veterans like myself.
In the upcoming update for Destiny 2, developer Bungie aims to simplify and enhance user experience by significantly modifying the way players discover and engage with game activities, while also introducing more incentives in the form of increased reward systems, making each playthrough more enticing and worthwhile.
In a sequence of blog articles, Bungie disclosed plans for modifying Destiny 2, detailing significant changes expected in 2025 under the codename Frontiers – the upcoming multi-year storyline for the game. The modifications encompass a variety of aspects, such as transitioning to two medium-sized annual expansions rather than one, which seem to be paid content, accompanied by four major updates distributed throughout the year that will not require payment.
Apart from modifying how fresh content gets rolled out, Bungie is fine-tuning the fundamental activities in Destiny 2 with the aim of making them consistently engaging for players to revisit frequently. The initial step on this transformation path is the introduction of The Portal, a revamped menu screen that provides a clearer distinction between various activities and offers options to customize their difficulty level as well as preview potential rewards.
Bungie’s blog post mentioned that the ‘Destination Map,’ which is also known as the Director, is Destiny’s main screen for browsing and selecting activities. Over time, it has become quite complex, making it difficult to find what’s new and interesting to play, and needing increasing expertise to navigate in order to find desired content.
The Portal interface categorizes various game activities, with Bungie suggesting fresh activities to populate some of these newly formed sections. Some categories are recurring: Fireteam Operations are multiplayer missions designed for three players and encompass tasks like Strikes, Onslaught, and The Coil. Meanwhile, Pinnacle Operations represent challenging three-player matchmade game modes, featuring dungeons and Onslaught runs through its 50 levels of horde defense.
Here’s Bungie’s rundown of the Portal’s six categories:
- Solo Ops: 1-3 player activities requiring very low time or social commitments. These activities are designed for solo players, yet are still fun with a fireteam, and are easy to pick up and play for a quick session. Solo Ops will also feature a new activity type which will get a deep dive soon.
- Fireteam Ops: Three-player activities for matchmade or premade groups. Designed for fireteams with more cooperation and coordination, these will feature activities like Strikes, Onslaught, The Coil, and new types in the future.
- Flashpoint Ops: Six-player activities for matchmade or premade groups. Planned for a future Season, this category will be introduced later next year. It will feature more chaotic six-player combat like Offensives.
- Pinnacle Ops: Three-player activities featuring some more challenging content, including Dungeons, Exotic missions, and full-length Onslaughts. Pinnacle Ops have an exclusive reward pool to claim, but success is not guaranteed.
- Crucible: A selection of core Crucible playlists for solo players and fireteams, providing an opportunity to test your mettle against other Guardians. An exclusive reward pool is available to claim, with the same depth of tier as other Categories.
The primary goal of the Portal is to simplify the process of locating relevant content promptly. It will feature recent expansions and fresh updates, ensuring a straightforward starting point whenever you resume play. Additionally, you’ll notice options such as bounties and seasonal rewards on the main screen, aiming to minimize the time spent on tasks like traversing the Tower or interacting with various vendors before engaging in gameplay activities.
Certain game aspects, such as raids, won’t be integrated with the main portal, and it seems the way you interact with these parts may not undergo significant changes. Additionally, expansion or newer content updates will have their own sections for easy navigation. Furthermore, specific categories will offer bonus rewards for participation, like unique weapons, armor with specific stat foci, or advanced upgrade materials. This encourages players to engage in all that Destiny 2 has to offer. The activities doling out these bonuses will rotate daily, as Bungie mentions.
Beyond simplifying the layout of the Portal menu, Bungie is also making significant adjustments to the fundamental activities in Destiny 2 to enhance engagement. For instance, Strikes already provide various difficulty levels and possibilities for distinct rewards depending on the selected difficulty. The revamped Portal interface will give you a greater level of control, enabling you to customize the base difficulty, apply modifiers or alterations to enemy types and abilities, among other options–all aimed at providing a more challenging and fresher Strike experience.
It seems like those changes in matchmaking might cause a bit of inconvenience. The matchmaking system will have several predefined difficulty levels, but if you wish to customize the level of challenge, you’ll need to assemble your own team. Bungie mentions that their recently introduced Fireteam Finder, Destiny 2’s built-in group finder tool, should alleviate some of these adjustments.
The rewards for the new tasks you perform are determined by your accomplishments. You’ll receive a collective score for your team, which might resemble scores like Nightfall in certain situations, but it won’t involve competing against other team members. Additionally, there will be an individual score that reflects your own performance. These two scores combined will establish your reward score, which ultimately decides the type of rewards you receive.
The perks associated with legendary weapons will undergo modifications. In the future, these weapons may provide multiple tiers, such as the current option between basic and Adept versions of certain weapons. Adepts currently offer enhanced statistics and unique abilities that make them desirable, and it’s anticipated that the same will apply to multiple tiers of Legendary firearms, providing additional options and incentivizing you to engage in activities at higher levels of difficulty. Additionally, future rewards may include armor customized for specific statistical attributes.
In summary, new gear for the ongoing gameplay session will be distinguished by a distinct visual marker, signifying these items are fresh loot. This marking serves to highlight the gear relevant to the current season, capitalizing on features like Artifact mods and bonuses. Previous gear may not have this distinction, making it beneficial to pursue the season-specific loot. Importantly, new gear won’t replace existing weapons or armor but will be an additional part of the game experience, making it easier for you to create builds and select weapons that optimize your play in the current season.
Primarily, Bungie appears to be making adjustments aimed at simplifying the game for beginners or those returning, addressing complexities that might confuse them about current activities and priorities, rewards, and character development. Collectively, these changes could significantly alter the Destiny 2 experience. Moreover, the new approach to expansions hints at narrative and gameplay styles that may blend fresh genres into Destiny 2, such as roguelikes, metroidvanias, or survival games, potentially adding more diversity to the overall gameplay.
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2024-09-09 21:39