This Week At Bungie – 10/17/2019

The Show Must Go On

Bungie Bounty

Platform - PS4

October 19 2PM – 4PM Pacific

Shifting Sands

Super Energy Refunding Kills

Goals:

For a while now, Trample and Everlasting Flames have been an outlier, especially in PvP. We’ve previously done a pass to add diminishing returns to this but it’s proven to not be enough. In this update, we’ve tightened the curve a bit and split it out over PvE and PvP. This should allow Guardians to keep dunking on combatants for longer while being less oppressive against one another.

Additionally, for Striker, we’ve increased the cost of the light attack to make dashing across the map a little less forgiving. We still want this to be used as a way to run people down or dodge and be shifty, but this change should make it costly enough as to be prohibitive as a form of long distance travel. Finally, regeneration will no longer proc on melee kills while in super. The combination was just too strong and overly forgiving of strategic or positional mistakes.

Striker - Code of the Juggernaut (Bottom Path)

• Trample:
• Tuned the amount of Super energy returned per kill
• Reduced amount returned possible per kill from 15% to 13% (before diminishing returns)
• Reduced the low end of the diminishing returns from 5% to 3.25%
• Changed the kills for the diminishing returns by splitting them out between players and combatants
• Previously it was 15 kills. Now it is 14 combatant kills or 7 player kills (players count for 2X towards diminishing returns)
• Cost of light attack in super increased by 50% from 2% to 3%
• Regeneration on kill no longer procs on super kills

Dawnblade - Attunement of Flame (Bottom Path)

• Everlasting Flames: 
• Tuned the amount of Super energy returned per kill (handled differently than Striker as this attack in an AoE)
• Increased the low end of the diminishing returns from 0.75% to 0.95%
• Changed the kills for the diminishing returns by splitting them out between players and combatants
• Previously it was 30 kills. Now it is 21 combatant kills or 7 player kills (players count for 3X towards diminishing returns)

Quality of Life and Bug Fixes:

Sentinel - Code of the Protector (Top Path)

• Ward of Dawn:
• Armor of Light timer now correlates with the life of the Ward of Dawn
• Particle FX move more rapidly towards the end of the Ward of Dawn's life

Nightstalker - Way of the Wraith (Middle Path)

• Shattering Strike: 
• Fixed a bug in which Shattering Strike activation window was reduced to 3 seconds along with Truesight
• Shattering strike last the proper 9 seconds once again

Shoulder Charge

We’ve removed a bug that allowed players to shoot immediately before activating shoulder charge, which allowed players to apply the 1-2 Punch damage buff to shoulder charge. This bug was caused by a quality of life change made for Tempest Strike. Before Shadowkeep, if player's had the sprint button configured as "hold to sprint", then they would need to be holding the sprint button while sliding in order to activate Tempest Strike. With the release of Shadowkeep, we added a small window of time where players could activate Tempest Strike after letting go of the sprint button. This change had unexpected effects on other melee abilities, so we have reverted this change until we can find a better fix for Tempest Strike. 

Patch Note Preview

Fully Operational Art Station

Armor Two Point Zero

Hi everyone! We wanted to check in and talk a little about Armor 2.0, its goals, your reactions, and upcoming additions and tweaks to the system.

The most frequent questions and feedback come from the energy affinity system, which determines which mods can be socketed into which armor pieces. We wanted to kick this discussion off with a little bit more information on the reasons why the energy system came about, and what it’s intended to accomplish. The armor energy system has the three following primary goals:

1. Give players the freedom to experiment with builds, while also requiring players to make creative choices when putting together those builds. The biggest reason why mods became unlocks instead of consumables is to encourage players to experiment with perk combinations. The energy type and cost of a mod asks players to consider which mods they value most for a particular build, sometimes requiring them to make choices or come up with creative combinations of armor energies across all five equipped armor pieces.

2. Give players the ability to balance mods above and beyond pure effectiveness. When mods have no restrictions on their use (as was the case prior to Armor 2.0), each mod is only evaluated on its strength and usefulness (or access, in the case of consumables). Giving mods an energy cost gives us a knob to turn that gives weaker mods value and stronger mods a drawback. Giving mods an energy type allows us to limit the scope of combinations within a single armor piece (making their use cases easier to predict and balance for), and also gives us room for other perks and mods (for example, artifact mods) that break these restrictions. This means the perks and mods that break the rules can be compelling choices, without them having to also be significantly stronger to be appealing.

3. Relieve information overload pressure on the mod UI. Early playtests, which did not have the energy system, had all mods for a particular slot visible each time you moved your cursor over them. This resulted in a huge amount of information overload, and also made it hard to quickly find, and change out, mods that you were seeking. Cutting down on the number of mods visible for a particular armor piece makes it easier to process this information.

There’s a lot more to it than that, but those are the most notable points.

When it comes to deciding which weapons were associated with which affinity, there were three main criteria used to choose where to put them:

1. Ammo Type: Each energy type needed to have a good mix of primary, special, and power ammo weapons.

2. Range: Each energy type needed to have a good mix of short, middle, and long-range weapons.

3. Thematics: Each energy type should have weapons that are similar thematically, when possible, and feel like the kinds of weapons that match other mechanics associated with that energy type.

We have seen feedback suggesting that, instead of locking mods into an energy type, the affinity should simply be a discount on the energy cost of the mod. That’s actually what the broad-category mods (such as Rifle Loader, Precision Weapon Targeting, etc.) are meant to represent: a higher cost for gaining the benefit with a weapon not normally associated with that energy type. So, instead of having to display every mod for that slot when you move your cursor over the socket, you see only the two to three broad-category mods in that socket, plus the ones with energy types associated with it.

Of course, not every mod type got a broad-category version, notably the mod types that affect the ammo economy. That’s because any mods that tinker with the ammo economy have a lot of caveats and exceptions, mostly due to weapons that use ammo types not normally associated with that weapon archetype, such as Eriana’s Vow, the Mountaintop, Whisper of the Worm, and so forth. 

We needed a bit more time to build the broad category versions of these mods and test them thoroughly, but at the start of next season there will be broad-category mods for both the ammo finder and ammo scavenger categories, and they will be automatically unlocked for all players (no need to hunt them down!). This should help round out your builds more easily, and give you more options for tinkering with your ammo no matter what armor energy type you use. We’re also working on some broad category ammo capacity mods, but those need some more work before they’re ready for primetime.

Another big change coming up is the loosening of stacking restrictions on Armor 2.0 mods. Starting next season, the restrictions on having multiple mods of the same type in a single piece of armor will be removed (with a few exceptions). So, you’ll be able to run two Hand Cannon Loader mods, or two Shotgun Ammo Finder mods, and so forth. The only exceptions to this stacking come from mods that provide no benefit when stacked, such as Fastball and Traction. We needed a little more time to make sure that stacking mods wouldn’t cause any major technical issues, and think that stacking mods of the same type gives more flexibility in crafting your build, provided you have the armor energy to spend in socketing them in.

One thing to be aware of with mod stacking: In most cases, stacking up identical mods will provide diminishing returns on their effectiveness. For example, two Hand Cannon Loader mods don’t provide twice the benefit; instead, they provide about 1.5x the benefit of one Hand Cannon Loader mod. However, this puts them on equal footing with the enhanced mods. So, two Hand Cannon Loader mods provide the equivalent benefit of a single Enhanced Hand Cannon Loader. We’re also going to be lowering the energy costs of some of the armor mods to better reflect the value of an enhanced mod.

One last bit of news on Armor 2.0. When we created the system, we wanted to include armor mods in Collections, so you can see how many you have gathered, and where they can be acquired. This also presented a good opportunity to do some housekeeping on the Collections tab in general, but, unfortunately, proved to be a little more time-intensive than we’d hoped, so the changes didn’t come alongside Shadowkeep. Good news, though! In the 2.6.1 patch, coming later this month, armor mods will be visible in your Collections, allowing you to browse through all the possibilities and see which ones you have already collected. Additionally, starting next season, the armor mod Collections will get a UI upgrade, allowing them to display armor energy type and cost on the icon, just like they do in your armor socket.

Fashion Week

Cyber Sleuths

Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.6.0.4

This week, we deployed Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.6.0.4 to players on all platforms. This hotfix resolved several issues to emerge in the player experience since launch. Here are some highlights:

• Fixed an issue where the Servitor spawning in the Gofannon Forge could crash the game.
• Fixed an issue where Nightmare Hunts Time Trial Master triumph would not progress correctly.
• Fixed an issue where Nightfall: The Ordeal would not drop a powerful reward for players who had already completed the Vanguard Strikes Challenge.
• Fixed an issue that provoked the temporary deactivation of rally banners and the “Tire Game” in the Sanctuary vendor space on the Moon.

As with all updates and hotfixes, players should follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net for the latest details as soon as they are available.

PC Migration

Since launch, we’ve been investigating player reports regarding a subset of issues which may cause PC Migration to fail for PC players importing their accounts from Battle.net.

While investigations are ongoing, we’ve deployed several fixes to Bungie.net over the past two weeks which are expected to resolve a number of issues encountered by players. If your account has failed to migrate, to include the transfer of characters, Silver, and/or licenses, we encourage you to try again. As a reminder, once PC Migration has been initiated, it cannot be undone.

Aside from issues being investigated in the migration process, we’ve also observed reports from players who’ve linked the wrong Battle.net or Steam accounts to their Bungie.net profile, resulting in migration either to or from an undesired account.

Players who linked and migrated from a different Battle.net account than desired can perform migration again. To do so, players must link their intended Battle.net account to a new Steam account through Bungie.net and perform a new migration.

Players who link and migrate to a different Steam account than desired must log in to that account on Steam in order to access their characters, Silver, and licenses. Once migration is initiated, these cannot be transferred to another Steam account.

Players encountering process issues with PC Migration may opt to assist us in our efforts to aggregate information. Player who wish to do so should submit a response to our contact form. Please note that this form is designed to gather information about PC Move issues, and that each ticket may not receive a personalized response.

As a final note, we’ve also observed confusion from players believing that their Forsaken licenses did not transfer from Battle.net to Steam, because the Forsaken campaign was not available from Amanda Holiday. Unlike the Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind campaigns included in New Light, which are received from Amanda Holiday in the Tower Hangar, the Forsaken campaign begins with players launching directly into the first mission from the Tangled Shore destination map.

Destiny 2 Known Issues

Destiny Player Support monitors player reports on our local #Help forum and tallies the latest issues into our Known Issues thread. Listed below is a selection of recent issues that have been reported by players:

• The Black Armory Key Mold cannot be obtained by players who did not receive it before Season 8.
• Players who have the "Invitation from the Emperor" and "Golden Hero" quests on multiple characters can't unlock the Tribute Hall.
• Warlocks wagering Weak Motes in Reckoning are receiving Titan armor.

As always, players who encounter issues are encouraged to report them to our #Help forum.

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