If Bungie hadn’t made this decision, the mood around Destiny 2 would be much better now.
Destiny 2 is currently not doing well at all. The current faction rally is a complete disaster, social media is still full of criticism for the endgame, and even major Destiny YouTubers have announced in recent days that they will put Destiny 2 behind them for a while and move on to new games. It’s increasingly being reported that many Guardians would prefer to return to Destiny 1.
Bungie has only offered apologies and promises so far that they are working on super exciting content for Destiny 2, that everything will be better in 2018, and that they will implement the community’s feedback. And indeed: By the end of January, some new features and fixes are coming that could attract more Guardians back to Destiny 2, such as raid-specific mods and masterwork armor pieces.
Nevertheless, these changes do not address the “big problems” of Destiny 2 – such as long-term motivation in the endgame or boring loot. Perhaps one can expect improvements in the fall when Bungie plans changes to the weapon system. However, it will be months before that can be implemented.
Because Destiny 2 is currently suffering from a wrong decision that cannot be easily fixed. All current events, such as the faction rally, are falling victim to this decision, and the problem of long-term motivation is largely related to it. Namely: Fixed weapon perks can never replace random perks.
Without random perks, the loot is boring
When all the teasers and information about Destiny 2 flooded in during the summer of 2017, my first reactions mostly ranged between “That sounds pretty good” and “Aha, we’ll have to wait and see how that looks in the finished game.”
A new weapon system? Okay! Mods for weapons and armor? Sounds good! New subclasses replacing the old ones? Alright!
But when we received the news that random weapon perks would be removed, I had to swallow initially. Schuhmann and I immediately predicted that Destiny 2 would have problems with the loot. After all, it was precisely the hunt for God-roll weapons that kept many Guardians motivated for months in Destiny 1. The discussions about which weapons with which rolls were the best kept Destiny alive.
The current faction rally is the latest example that a loot shooter without random rolls simply does not work. Bungie introduced five new weapons per faction for Season 2. So that future rallies remain exciting, the developers decided that in the third and final rally of Season 2, Guardians will get four of the new weapons through faction engrams, in the second rally of Season 2, they will get two of the new weapons, and in the first rally (the current rally), Guardians will simply not receive any new weapon.
Of course, Bungie does not want to blow all their powder at once, which is why they are making the weapons available gradually throughout the season. But it cannot be that in the first rally, there are no weapons to earn at all.
With random rolls, there wouldn’t be this problem; with random rolls, the faction rally would be a solid event all around. Assuming each rally of a season would have two faction weapons with random perks in the engrams, then
- casual players could get both weapons with little time investment
- and hardcore players could spend hours hunting for the God-roll faction weapons.
The slow release of the new faction weapons would actually be welcome here because it would give time to find the best perks on the two current weapons.
Fixed rolls hinder such a hunt for God-roll weapons – and thus the thrill with every drop. And if Bungie’s solution for long-term motivation looks like denying any new weapons to earn in the first rally, then it is a clear sign that the current weapon system with fixed perks is not working.
Destiny 2 needs “Perks 2.0”
For many Guardians, it’s clear: The solution to all problems is the return of random perks. Then the endgame would be exciting again, events would be relevant again, and Destiny 2 would be much better off now.
While Bungie is currently working on “Mods 2.0,” which are supposed to make mods more important, some players are demanding that Bungie should rather deliver “Perks 2.0” – namely, the random perks.
These should have the highest priority. We can deal with balance later, but Destiny 2 needs variety and excitement with the weapons. And that best right now. It is time for this “game-breaking” change.
Why are there no random perks anymore?
Why Bungie decided against random perks in Destiny 2 is hard to understand. Bungie itself has only been sparse in commenting on this decision. According to game director Luke Smith, it allows for quicker and more targeted responses to balance issues. Each weapon and armor piece is “handcrafted,” giving the sandbox team more flexibility.
This advantage has not yet been realized in the history of Destiny 2. On the contrary: When the Prometheus lens was completely overpowered in PvP, Bungie reacted only a week later – and that with an emergency fix that weakened the weapon too much. Only by the end of January 2018, almost two months later, will the lens be rebalanced.
Many Guardians think: “Thanks, I would rather have the random rolls back!”
This decision likely also occurred to make Destiny 2 a bit more “casual-friendly,” at the expense of hardcore and midcore Guardians, who wanted to play Destiny 2 not just for a few weeks, but for months and years.
Solutions for the missing random perks are on the way: Bungie wants to increasingly focus on masterworks, which at least bring back a bit of the “God-roll hunting” feeling.
But as long as the weapons continue to have fixed perks, Destiny 2 will always have problems with long-term motivation and seasonal events.
What’s your opinion on this?
Destiny 2 is likely to receive new content that Destiny veterans will recognize.
