Tag: Destiny

1.1.2 update coming prior to House of Wolves From Destiny

Bungie has further detailed the next update for Destiny, revealing some new features that should be extremely useful for select players.

On the audio front, Destiny’s 1.1.2 patch will add new options to help boost the volume of voice chat relative to in-game sound. Players will be able to tweak a Chat Volume setting that affects player voices coming through your speakers (but not your chat headset) and a Game Volume option that controls all game dialogue, sound effects, and music.

The game’s music, wonderful as it is, can be disabled in the new patch, allowing players to listen to their own music. To incentivize players to keep it turned on, Bungie teases a secret in its latest blog post. “To prove again that Destiny music can also enhance the time you spend with your friends, we’ve added a fun little audio Easter egg to the game,” writes audio boss Jay Weinland. “It’ll be in there, somewhere. Once the update is live, see if you can find it…”

Colorblind support is also being introduced in 1.1.2. While you might not realize it if you aren’t colorblind, the condition can have a real effect on a player’s ability to perceive certain things in the game. The images above demonstrates this; by using the slider to compare the two screenshots, you can see how a colorblind player might be unable to differentiate between loot drop qualities or enemy shield types. The image below shows how higher contrast levels will allow for these players to be able to identify things more easily.

Other changes in the update, which is coming sometime before the House of Wolves DLC, include raid fixes and additional storage space.

Destiny Players said Destiny’s Xur relevant?

I, as many other Guardians, picked up Destiny on day one, and have sunk 500+ hours into the game since September. I used to count down the hours until Xur would arrive in the tower with shiny new Exotics for Guardians to buy, but since November Xur has become less relevant to most Guardians. Which leads me to the question, is Xur relevant?

 

When Destiny first launched on September 9th I, like many other Guardians across the world, stayed up late to start my adventure. As I plunged myself into the game’s story, I was driven by the hunger to hit level 20 as quickly as possible. As I grinded away at the story and eventually hit level 20, I discovered to reach the level cap of 30 I had to grind for new armor with Light. Destiny power leveling make upgrade easy. Around came Friday, and a strange looking person called Xur: Agent of the Nine appeared with a variant of sought-after Exotic items for Guardians to purchase. These incredible looking armor pieces and weapons had Light levels and perks I had never seen before – I had to get them. And so started the struggle to get enough Strange Coins to purchase those beautiful Exotics before Xur disappeared on Sunday morning.

Many others like myself couldn’t wait for Xur to bring new stock each Friday. We would grind away at Strikes, trying to save up those prestigious strange coins to buy an incredible piece. This was the norm for players at the beginning of Destiny’s launch. Nightfalls offered one chance a week at a beautiful Exotic, but with the level being set at 28 and most players struggling to get to level 24, the never-ending circle was born. Grind for gear to get to 28 for Nightfalls, get nothing; so wait for Xur and try again next week.

As Destiny evolved from its origins at launch, however, Xur has changed, and so have players’ mentality towards him. Xur was seen as the key holder for that final piece of armor to get you into the Vault of Glass (VOG) Raid. Then when VOG wouldn’t drop that Titian arm piece, Xur was your only option. Week after week he would come, and week after week he didn’t have the Exotic that you needed to finally reach level 30. With patches and updates though, Xur became less relevant until Iron Banner, for me, broke Xur and VOG all together.

When Bungie announced that Iron Banner would be improved and would bring those ever sought after amour pieces to get to 30, it broke the game and the games main focal point. For me and many others, the main focal point – and the only reason I was still playing Destiny – was to grind out that last piece and to finally get to 30. As someone who loved playing RPGs with mass-grinding whilst growing up, Destiny called out to me and made this grind the main point of the game. Week after week I would complete VOG and not get the Titan gloves or the Warlock helm, but this didn’t deteriorate me as I knew one day I would get these and when I did I would feel like I deserve them.

Destiny: Vault space and Raid fixes

In its weekly blog update about Destiny Patch 1.1.2, Bungie has said that it will be addressing a number of player concerns in the future update, including more Vault space and Raid fixes, to further improve the game.

Earlier this week, Bungie had released a 1.1.1.1 hotfix patch to Destiny that was meant only for back end improvements to help the game’s developers monitor the game. Bungie will be releasing the next patch, Destiny Patch 1.1.2 sometime in the next several weeks, ahead of the launch of The House of Wolves expansion pack.

In the latest blog update, design lead M.E. Chung has discussed how the team identifies the improvements and features that need to be added in their updates. After listening to their community feedback and brainstorming with the research team, Bungee follows a process for selecting and developing new features for its updates. Apparently, time constraints allow the developer to limit the number of features and fixes they can work on for the update.

Bungee has not provided any clear details on what can be expected in the Destiny 1.1.2 update, though it has listed these five features as a priority on its blog:

Vault Space – We know you need more space to collect all the treasures you gain from your missions, and more gear is on the way.

Raid Fixes – There are times when Atheon and Crota can be uncooperative, so we’re tackling their worst bugs.

Destiny: Iron Banner offers multiple buffs an Armour Shader

This week in Destiny marks the return of the fabled Iron Banner PvP playlist, which in turn brings with it a series of armour pieces and weapons that have Raid-level stats – a must-have for any player looking to expand their current inventory. What follows is a guide in order to avoid grinding your hours away, and tips on how to quickly reach Rank 5 to get the best gear.

Personal Destiny power leveling, plus some helpful tables from Reddit, suggest that the best way to complete the Iron Banner is to spread your hours of playtime evenly across the week in which it’s available. This piece of information is, of course, a no-brainer; but it’s the math behind it that’s interesting.

Destiny‘s Iron Banner offers multiple buffs – an Armour Shader, an Emblem, a Class-item, a purchasable ‘Tempered Buff’, and a multiplier for every day it’s available. Basically, if you equip all these and play later in the week, you’ll rack up experience faster than you will earlier. The trick is knowing when to play, and for how long.

Just as a start: The best method to achieve Rank 5 is to either play 1 hour per day for the whole week; or 2 hours per day over the last 4 days.

The following table, as provided by Reddit user GenericDeadHead, offers stats based on the following variables:

  • You play 6 matches per day
  • You have the Shader, Emblem, and Class-item equipped
  • You have the Tempered Buff
  • You win 50% of your matches
  • You turn in 3 Bounties per day

Although it may look confusing at first glance, the data shows that if you play roughly 6 games of Iron Banner per day, with all the buffs active while winning at least half of your games, you will achieve Rank 5 by the end of the week. The chart shows how much Rep you gain from handing in your Bounties and winning your games for each day, and shows how far along that gets you towards each rank.

If you aren’t available earlier in the week, or you need to catch up on lost time, there’s another chart to calculate how long you need for the last 4 days of the week.

The following table offers stats based on the following variables:

  • You play 10 matches per day
  • You have the Shader, Emblem Class-item equipped
  • You have the Tempered buff each day
  • You win 50% of your matches
  • You turn in 4 Bounties per day

 

This chart shows that, by starting on Friday, you only need to put in an extra 4 games per day on average, and you should be able to hit Rank 5 by the day before reset.

All of this information is based on the variables presented, and is certainly up for change depending on how many of the buffs you have, or how many games you win/lose. Ultimately, it provides a guide to how many games you should be playing per day, so as to avoid mindless grinding.

Bungie Has Been Doing What It Can To Prevent This Player’s Predictions From Destiny

The vendor’s name is Xûr, and if not for his paltry asking price-per-piece, many players wouldn’t have gotten their favorite guns yet — even now, half a year after the game released.

 Every week, the anticipation of Xûr’s stock creates high hopes, and — due simply to the limited shelf space available — dashes them to the ground. For the past month, one intrepid player has been data mining Destiny to reveal Xûr’s stock before it goes on sale.

The player, the Japanese-speaking Redditor Megamanexe4, has not revealed his specific system for data mining Destiny, but his results have been dead-on since he began revealing them around one month ago. Every week, he has been able to exactly predict not only what Xûr would sell, but the modifiers on the weekly events, as well as uncovered loads of info about the upcoming expansion House of Wolves. Aside from satiating the players’ curiosity, revealing Xûr’s stock has had huge implications on Bungie’s relationship with their game’s community.

By nature, a randomized list would mean Xûr’s stock often wouldn’t meet your desires, but the patterns the vendor has exhibited since release have frequently looked more like trolling than a random selection. He sold the worst exotic weapon in the game on Christmas, he has sold the exact same stock (three armor pieces, one weapon, and other assorted goodies) a handful of weeks apart, has sold a stock solely composed of items from the first DLC expansion more than once, and has had streaks of selling the same exact piece of gear over and over for weeks on end. These data points could all be coincidences, but that’s the point on which Destiny’s community sticks; Bungie has explicitly and repeatedly claimed that Xûr’s stock is both random and out of their control. Megamanexe4 seems to have proven otherwise.

The Redditor has not only predicted Xûr’s exact stock, the weekly event modifiers, and gear and maps from the upcoming expansion, but has also documented when Xûr’s stock has been manually changed, which again, is something Bungie vehemently claimed they could not do. Last week, Destiny received a tiny patch that installed tools to help Bungie better inspect and manage databases. Astute — or paranoid — members of the community immediately assumed it was to prevent gamers from being able to suss out upcoming content. Earlier today, Megamanexe4 posted an explainer on Reddit that seems to confirm those guesses of the astute and fears of the paranoid.

Since that tiny patch, the Redditor explains that there are now two versions of Xûr — an original copy that is still predictable, and a new, unpredictable copy that Bungie manually controls. If Megamanexe4’s observations are to be taken as true, then Bungie managed to fix their Xûr leak — though the weekly event and upcoming DLC data still seems to be running from a faucet. If Bungie does continually use what Megamenexe4 describes as a manually operated Xûr, then the developer figured out a way to beat dataminers. If Megamanexe4 is right and Bungie has been able to alter Xûr’s stock all along, then they’ve either been lying to Destiny’s community or at least intentionally misleading them.

You Need To Know About Xur Stock From Destiny

Over the last couple of months, Reddit user Megamanexe4 has managed to data-mine Destiny and successfully leak Xur’s stock over a number of weeks. This prediction fell flat a couple of times when Bungie changed Xur’s stock at the very last minute, right before he was due to arrive in the Tower. ‘How does this work?’, you may ask; Megaman has posted a Q&A to answer all your Xur-and-Destiny-related questions, revealing what really happens during those changeovers, and hinting at possible future stock.

In a previous post on Destiny‘s Xur, Megaman explained that the original stock he predicted for that weekend (15th of March) was altered, and that the weapon Red Death wasn’t present in the ‘original Xur’. He also suggests in this post, and his current Q&A, that Xur may sell Hard Light, Thunderlord, or MIDA Mult-Tool some time over the next few weeks, given that they’re the Exotics he is yet to offer – as a result, some of Destiny‘s rarest weapons.

To avoid explicitly stating the list, he remains cryptic, so as not to entice Bungie to change anything in Destiny this weekend.

“If this week’s Xur (3/20) is the Original Xur, then we can assume that everything I’ve leaked in the past is true. If you go through my past posts, you can see the Original Xur’s schedule for 3/20 and 3/27. Hint: you will probably be more excited about what he has to sell on 3/27 than 3/20.”

To avoid losing any information in translation, here is Megaman’s Q&A about Destiny, Xur, and Bungie, where he discusses exactly what happens when Bungie changes the stock and how this affects any future predictions.

Q: Were Xur’s goods changed on 3/15

A. Yes.

Q. Was Xur’s list changed?

A. This was a different Xur from the “normal” Xur, so I cannot confirm any changes at this point.

Q. What do you mean “different Xur?”

A. There are 2 types of Xur. One has a standard list of goods for sale that can only be changed by patches. The other is controlled by Bungie, who can upload his data directly to the game without patches. The Xur that appeared on 3/15 was the latter type, directly controlled by Bungie.

Q. Can you get the list of the Xur that is controlled by Bungie (the latter type of Xur as described above)?

A. No. This Xur has his data directly uploaded on the day of his appearance. It is impossible to obtain data about this Xur on any other day.

Q. How did you figure this out?

A. Because a very similar thing has happened before. On January 30, the “original” Xur was scheduled to sell No Land Beyond. However on that day the Xur ended up selling Dragon’s Breath.

I tried accessing Xur’s list that day, but all I could find was the goods actually sold on that day.

I then tried accessing the list using a different method, but my access was denied and I was unable to see anything. The following week I was successfully able to access the original list.

Also, the actual appearance of Xur is always directly controlled by Bungie.

From these facts I deduced that the Xur on January 30th was different from the original Xur, in other words a Xur whose goods are directly controlled by Bungie.

The Xur who brought Red Death on 3/15 responded the same way as the Xur on 1/30 when I tried to access his data. In other words, this Xur was directly controlled by Bungie.

Q. Will you be able to get the data for future Xur’s?

A. Yes, as long as it’s the original Xur. But not if it’s the Xur that Bungie controls directly. As long as the original Xur does not appear, all leakers (myself included) will not be able to see his data in advance. Obviously, in that case all data that I leaked about Xur would basically become garbage.

Q. Can you make any predictions about future Xur’s based on the data you’ve already gotten?

A. Yes. As of the release of 1.1.1.0 I have gotten all of the original Xur’s data thru May 15. None of that data changed with 1.1.1.1, so I can predict only the original Xur’s goods, thru May 15.

Q. Can you get data other than Xur?

A. Yes. There were no signs of any changes to the data with the releases of 1.1.1.1. All Nightfall data remains accesible.

Conclusion:

I don’t know why Bungie chose this timing to manually control Xur. Was it to squash me, maimonguy, and other leakers? Was it a one-time-only thing? Was there some other reason? All I can say is that only Bungie knows the true plan for Xur.

If they only use the manually controlled Xur from now on, then there is the possibility that Thunderlord, Hard Light, MIDA Multi-Tool, Obsidian Mind, and other items will not get sold. On the other hand, that also would mean there is a chance he will sell Gjallarhorn, Mask of the Third Man, Red Death, and other items not in the Original Xur’s list.

Players Can Glitch Into Locked Areas Of The Game From Destiny

It’s no secret that Destiny players can glitch into locked areas of the game – they’ve been doing it since launch. Now, ahead of the House of Wolves expansion pack, a number of players have managed to get into the location of one of the new Strike missions on the Moon, and were kind enough to  give a small tour of their findings.

The first location featured is called ‘Dusk Warren’, located on the Moon. According to user ‘Rob85M’, the trick to getting to Dusk Warrens is in its ‘perilous’ out-of-map jumps. The location itself is through the Temple of Crota, and largely accessible through the World’s Grave.

After dropping between scenery, navigating a series of tricky out-of-map jumps and drops, then landing behind a locked door, it’s just a case of exploring and finding the new area. Interestingly enough, there’s a functioning teleported that transports players to the next location within the Strike, showing that the area itself is fully-functional, and just waiting on enemies to fill it.

The second area is on a Fallen Ketch, where the Strike’s boss fight takes place. The boss fight itself, as we know from previous House of Wolves leaks, will feature a Fallen Walker (potentially as its boss). The second video shows off a room with two Walkers stored in the wall, and a platform in the middle of the room that could potentially open up to reveal yet another.

Whether both of these Walkers will animate, or one will reveal itself from underground, is unknown. The latter seems more likely, given the Strike’s description of an ‘infamous Walker’.

While this method and location are nothing new, it’s interesting to watch after learning the context behind the new Strike mission in the upcoming expansion: Guardians must go to the Moon under the Queen’s bidding, fight a ‘Fallen wolfship’, and defeat an ‘infamous Walker’, according to the Strike description at the top of the article.

Destiny‘s House of Wolves expansion pack will allegedly release May 19th and feature new missions, new weapons, and a new social area.

Destiny: Player soloing the Raid in just 16 minutes

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We’ve seen impressive Destiny Raid runs that combine solo attempts, no weapons, speed, and other factors. Another entry makes a mockery of Crota’s End, with a player soloing the Raid in just 16 minutes.

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On a good run for a full group the Raid would take roughy double that time at least, but The Legend Himself–the biggest name in Destiny feats–did it in just 16 minutes and 7 seconds by himself.

He only dies one time, but that death has the effect of speeding up Crota’s spawn to improve the overall time. It’s not hard mode, but I don’t think it will fail to impress anyone regardless. The Legend Himself uses a bunch of tricks you may recgonize, and some you may not, to fly through the Raid on his own. Enjoy in the video below, and if you think you can better his accomplishment, feel free to record your own attempt.

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A great recent run featured a player defeating Crota on his own without firing a single shot, which is ridiculous. He managed to figure out the perfect combination to succeed with a Warlock, and is well worth a watch. Prior to that a group had completed the whole Raid together with no weapons.

Bungie team looking at tackling Raid bugs

Bungie’s Destiny live team has outlined its hopes and priorities for the 1.1.2 update that is currently being coded.

The team cites increasing vault space as a key objective, meaning that players who accrue items won’t need to micro-manage their inventories so much. Writing on the Destiny blog, community manager David Dague also cites Raid bugs and Strike difficulty balances as goals for the next update.

Meanwhile, further in-game display and audio options will allow players to better customise the way Destiny looks and sounds.

The list of tweaks, as written by Dague, follows:

  • Vault Space: We know you need more space to collect all the treasures you gain from your missions, and more gear is on the way.
  • Raid Fixes: There are times when Atheon and Crota can be uncooperative, so we’re tackling their worst bugs.
  • Audio and Visual: Not everyone wants to see or hear a game the same way, which is why we’re looking at providing more options.
  • PVP Ammunition: The Crucible team wants to change the way ammo crates dictate the flow of a battle.

Strikes: The numbers tell us that there are some missions that are successfully completed far less than others, inspiring us to look at why people quit.

No timeline for the update was announced. Elsewhere in the Destiny blog update, Dague talks to some of the team about how they consider and plan updates. Read about that here.

Despite dividing critical opinion upon release, Destiny has accumulated numerous awards from the industry, the latest being the BAFTA Best Game Award.

Achievements And Weaknesses From Destiny

Destiny is one of the the most polarizing AAA games of its scale in a long time.  Just mentioning the game in a busy room brings up mass cheers and boos, often dividing a space and creating a huge cacophonous argument where no one gets out alive.

I’m usually in the cheering side of the room. I believe the game to be a unique console experience and if I had access to it all the time, I’d be putting in a few hours into it daily. The core gameplay provides possibly my favorite shooting on the market. It’s progression loops are addictive, but also very satisfying.

Now, I completely understand people’s complaints of there not being enough content, the story being awful or putting up a barrier to hardcore progression.

That is why I was excited to talk to Bungie’s community manager David ‘Deej’ Dague ahead of tonight’s BAFTA Game Awards. We talked about that divide between players, the successes of the game, but also the weaknesses it has. We also pondered on the meaning of award shows and the industry as a whole.

With out anymore ado, here is the interview:

Patrick Dane: Do you think awards are important to video games? They don’t seem to have as big of a public or cultural impact as they do in other mediums, i.e. the Oscars to Film. Why do you think that is? Do you hope that grows?

I believe awards are incredibly important. If game awards don’t resonate with the public in the same way that the Oscars have, it’s because games themselves have yet to become as established as film.

Also, as we’re not a passive medium, the characters and the stories in our games are driven by the player. Players are the stars of our games, so a lot of awards focus on the craft we put into the experiences we create, and that’s important to us as we take our art form very serously.

PD: Why do you think an institution like BAFTA supporting video games in this way is so important?

We appreciate the fact that BAFTA recognizes the importance of interactive entertainment. People are spending more and more of their time enjoying entertainment software, and BAFTA adds decades of credibility to evaluating the art of creating entertainment. Their traditions for assessing and recognizing quality drives people in our industry to strive for even greater accomplishments.

PD: Looking back on Destiny, what are you most proud of in terms of the achievement on the game?

Personally, I’m most proud of that fact that we’ve created a game that is best enjoyed cooperatively. I’m still playing with my friends, even after six years working on Destiny. I don’t know of another action title that has had that effect on me. Many of the people on our team are also incredibly proud of the core gameplay mechanics. The game is fun to play, and we’ve worked hard to get where we are today and we’re very proud of what we accomplished.

PD: It’s no secret that Destiny is a divisive title that spurred polar opinions in some people. There are those who play it for three hours every day without fail and those who had quite strong negative reactions to it. Why do you think that is?

Games inspire strong opinions. The events that transpire in the experiences we create directly involve the player. We’ve seen a player-base rally around Destiny that has a lot to say about how the game can get better and we encourage this dialogue as it informs how we change our worlds. While we always have our own opinions on the matter, we always welcome a challenge from the player to improve upon our work.

PD: Why do you think Destiny remains so strong with its core audience? There are a lot of repetitive cycles in the later portions of the game towards level 30. What is keeping players hooked?

From the start we wanted to create a hobby with Destiny. Something you could jump into for quick enjoyment or deeper participation and reward the player in both cases. To do this we believed we needed to slope the floor for people to play together, create character progression and create AI (not scripted) gameplay, so the experience was different over time. While building on the core action gameplay Bungie was renowned for. I believe that recipe is responsible for the games success.

PD: Looking back, what do you think the last year has told us about video games?

People expect an incredibly high standard of execution for console games now. You have to succeed on so many vectors. Fortunately, new hardware is giving us new opportunities we can use to push our craft for creating games. It’s also been extremely interesting to see our audience grow in a game in which the world is persistent. This has already changed how we make games going forward, on all platforms, but also makes us think differently about the desires of the player.

PD: If you had the chance to add or change one aspect of the game’s design, what would it be?

I think we’d make some different choices today on realizing our story.

Personally, I wish we could build more places in our universe faster. Fortunately, the systems we use to build those worlds is evolving right alongside the player, better enabling us to meet their demands.

PD: What should we expect from Bungie and Destiny going forward? What do you hope to see from the game’s and your own Guardian’s narrative in the future? How do you perceive the announced sequel to build upon Destiny?

Time and again, players communicate to us what they perceive to be the potential for Destiny. We’re thrilled to have captured their imaginations with something new and bold and ambitious.

This moment in time we have a great problem: too many good options in front of us for the team to focus on. Ultimately, we’ll choose the one which resonates with the studio. As we’re all gamers at heart and we’ve consumed the fire hose of feedback from the community since we launched.

I’d like to thank Dague, Bungie and Activision for taking the time to talk to us about Destiny. There is lots of interesting things in there, that as a Destiny player, I can relate too.