Yes it is Thursday but this slice of Destiny 2 news does not come from the This Week at Bungie blog, but rather assistant game director Joe Blackburn’s Twitter feed.
While it might seem a bit strange, we appreciate that Bungie’s staff feel comfortable enough to engage with their community directly.
Weird format aside, what did Blackburn talk about? Quite simply, the ailing state of Destiny 2’s player-vs-player (PvP) ecosystem sometimes referred to generically as The Crucible.
Ahead of the showcase this month, I wanted to take a little time to talk about Destiny PVP.
— Joe Blackburn (@joegoroth) August 4, 2021
Destiny 2 is a strange game in that the end-game consists of PvE (Raids, Grand Master Nightfalls) and PvP (Trials of Osiris, Competitive, Iron Banner) activities. This means that when Bungie balances its game it needs to balance for two separate sandboxes and the PvP sandbox needs a bit of love.
“This year the team has spent a lot of our future facing effort on plussing up the current Crucible experience. You’ve seen some of this already in Stasis balancing, reputation updates, and shifting weapon metas,” explains Blackburn.
Next season players will see more changes particularly to the habit of 3-peaking (a term used to describe equipping a sword or emoting so that your character is in third-person and you have a wider field of view) as well as a revamp of the Trials of Osiris playlist. More details on this will be shared during the Bungie Showcase on 24th August.
The assistant game director goes on to explain that much of 2021 has been spent on fixing the Crucible’s foundations and now Bungie is spinning up teams which will work on new maps and new modes.
Consistency is key
With the foundation seemingly in a good state, Blackburn says that Bungie can now “open the faucet again”.
This means that there will be new content coming for PvP but, it’s going to take some time.
In that regard, two maps which entered the Destiny Content Vault last year are being brought back into the game. Players will only see these maps in Season 16 and there is a good reason for that.
“When we upgraded our engine with Beyond Light it means we had to hand port all of our Destiny 2 maps and modes. So, while it may seem from the outside like we’re just pushing a button there’s a significant lift from the team to get more of this content back in rotation,” explains Blackburn.
We don’t know what those maps are but we’re hoping Emperor’s Respite isn’t one of them.
A brand new map will be released in Season 17 and in Season 18 a map from Destiny will enter Destiny 2 for the first time.
Then we need to talk about modes.
Right now Destiny consists of deathmatches, capture the point and yeah, that’s about it when it comes to PvP. Players have been asking for a return of Rift, a mode from the first Destiny game and the teams at Bungie are working on bringing Rift back.
This might not happen as the game is a lot faster than Destiny was so don’t hold your breath.
There are plans to release new modes in 2022 but details weren’t provided.
“Finally, after the dust settles on the Trials update in Season 15, we want to look at what other broad systemic improvements the PVP ecosystem needs. We want to provide something on the scale of this trials rework to players every year,” Blackburn added.
The Gambit problem
Gambit is boring, frustrating and fun, all at the same time.
The idea of a Players versus Enemy versus Player mode is incredibly appealing but Gambit has been left to soil itself since launch with updates to that sandbox as rare as hen’s teeth.
While Blackburn didn’t go into much detail the mode’s foundation is being improved and we will likely see the fruits of that labour in Season 16. The assistant director said that the team was working on the heavy ammo economy within Gambit, the Primeval fight, invasions and more.
With more details expected at Bungie’s Showcase, 24th August can’t get here soon enough.
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) July 7, 2021
