In Destiny 2, Bungie is planning improvements for the Trials of the Nine. They are now gathering feedback from the community.
In early August 2017, the Crucible design lead Lars Bakken hinted: The new Trials in Destiny 2 will wow the Guardians! Game director Luke Smith also promised that they had a lot of cool stuff planned for the Trials, but they couldn’t talk about it yet.
However, shortly after the launch of Destiny 2, it turned out: The Trials are not that amazing after all. Essentially, it’s just the standard competitive playlist with different rewards. It is played 4v4 like in all other PvP modes, there are no level advantages active, and the Trials do not offer long-term goals either. Another mode that cannot stand out from the PvP blur of Destiny 2.
For months now, the Trials have been failing to motivate the Guardians, which is impacting player numbers: In recent weeks, there have been numerous posts on reddit stating that new negative records for the Trials participant count have been set – of all time. One example:
- In the Trials two weeks ago, only 140,000 Guardians participated,
- in January 2016, around the same time after “The Taken King”, more than 450,000 Guardians participated every weekend
- and in January 2017, the participant numbers were still over 300,000.
Now there are not even half as many Trials players as there were a year ago in Destiny 1. Many streamers recently announced that they will no longer play Destiny 2 live for a while and will move on to other games. So a positive trend for the Trials is not in sight for now.
How should the Trials change?
As can be seen from the roadmap for 2018, Bungie is planning improvements for the Trials, but they are still a long way off. Changes are not expected until autumn, and there are no details yet on what they will look like.
On Twitter, game director Christopher Barrett has now been informed that players are losing interest in the Trials more and more. The rewards are not worth the effort, the Trials need changes – and soon.
Barrett replied: Yes, they are actively discussing improvements to the “Trials of the Nine”.
He then asked what improvements to the Trials you want the most.
The tweet from Barrett was picked up by community manager dmg04 and announced that you should now share your opinions about it in the Bungie Forum. He will collect the community’s feedback on the Trials. So if you are familiar with the Trials and have ideas on how to improve them, you can now forward these to Bungie.
So far, a lot of feedback has been received. Numerous Guardians believe that the level advantages must be reactivated in the Trials. However, this would lead to the problem that Guardians with the “Curse of Osiris” DLC would have advantages over players without the DLC. Furthermore, the time-consuming Trials intro that runs before each match should be shortened. And cool rewards like special emblems or “Adept weapons” should also return.
Many players, however, write that the Trials, along with the entire Crucible of Destiny 2, have much more fundamental problems. The time-to-kill in PvP needs to be reduced, the weapon slot system needs to be revamped so that weapons like snipers become relevant again, perks need to be improved, and players should not have their fun curtailed due to balance.
And that the Trials should provide a break from the monotonous 4v4 is also frequently mentioned.
What is your opinion on the Trials? How do they need to change for you to participate in the Trials weekly again?
Christopher Barrett provided more information via Twitter:
- The prestige version of the World-Eater raid has not been forgotten. More information about it will arrive soon.
- When asked if a PvE arena similar to the Archon Forge or Oryx’s Court will be coming, Barrett writes: He liked those arenas too. Cooperative events are some of the best moments in Destiny. However, he does not go into more detail on this topic.
- When asked if they will soon talk about strike-specific loot, Barrett replies: Maybe.
- He also states that lore is an important aspect of the world of Destiny. In the near future, we can expect more lore within and outside the game. Next week, the next episode of the webcomic series for Destiny 2. will be released.
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