In the MMO shooter Destiny , a completely different development structure has been found one year after its release.

Destiny is a huge project and initially struggled to quickly resolve emerging issues. With such a large development team, it was more like an oil tanker, difficult to maneuver.

In a behind-the-scenes look, the Guardian reports how Destiny actually operates in practice. Instead of an oil tanker, it relies more on a squadron, where each part has its own tasks.

Several teams work on the future, one on the present

Instead of one massive team, there are several small ones working on the “next expansions.” This is evident in practice as different Bungie developers step forward to introduce mechanics to players and conduct interviews for each DLC or, as now, for “The Taken King.”

But there is also a larger “live team” with about 20 senior developers focused on incorporating player feedback.

Even if normally about 20 people work here, the team gets much larger when gearing up for the launch of new game content or when extra technicians are needed, they say.

Additionally, they regularly bring in specialists from the entire studio to contribute fresh ideas or develop a game content right now. The live team is like a whirlpool, drawing in Bungie employees and then spitting them out.

This rotation makes those who work on Destiny game content that arrives much later feel involved in the current Destiny.

There is a kind of development tribunal

Besides the live team, there is a handful of the most experienced developers who form a kind of “development tribunal,” the “triage” team.

There are always a thousand things to be done or improved in Destiny. However, the resources available for this are limited. The tribunal decides how to allocate resources. It decides what the team will work on next, what can be fixed next, and what can wait a bit longer.

It is not unusual for a team leader to receive an invitation to speak before the tribunal with the question: “What are you currently working on, what do you want to fix, and why can we not postpone this?”

Vex Mythoclast attracted a lot of attention back then, but hardly anyone had it

An example of a problem that seemed important but actually was not so significant is the “Vex Mythoclast.” During its heyday, there were videos of players dominating entire Crucible matches with it.

Bungie then wondered: “How many people are really affected by this?” It turned out that only 600 players had the Vex Mythoclast at all. Thus, the Vex Mythoclast was not a case for “instant patching” but could wait.

If 3 million players had an issue, then it had to be resolved. But with 600? Priorities had to be set.

This is also how they handle fan feedback when players want new things in the game or improvements to elements. Such suggestions are almost never bad, but practically always fantastic ideas that they agree with. The question is: “Are they more fantastic than the 50 other things we want to do first?”

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In the MMO shooter Destiny there is an interesting new weapon called the exotic sniper rifle Beyond. How does it perform in PvE and PvP? Is it good or Not a Land Beyond?

Today we will take a look at another “random exotic weapon” in Destiny after the Zhalo Supercell. What do the experts say about it? How does Beyond stand out in Destiny? Is it the next Icebreaker or the next Not a Land Beyond?

So much in advance: Neither of the two. It is most similar to Patience and Time.

Where can you get Beyond in Destiny?

Beyond is a random drop, it can come from activities in The Taken King. Xur might bring it at some point or it can be included in an exotic engram.

What makes Beyond special?

The stats of Beyond are quite okay. You can definitely feel the extremely high range. Beyond also has a relatively high Aim Assist of 75, so it forgives weaknesses or sloppiness.

Overall, sniping is the strength of Beyond: you can lie in wait and really zoom in close to enemies.

Our friend Nexxos says, this is the first sniper that made him feel like a sniper in Destiny.

This is due to the perks:

The Beyond – Crouching increases scope zoom and aiming under fire becomes easier.

Blinding Light – Precise kills with this weapon can cause a bright flash that blinds nearby enemies (7 seconds in PvE, 3 seconds in PvP).

Perfectionist – The magazine is refilled when all fired shots are precise kills (the time between hits does not matter).

You can see: The weapon is intended for use at distance to pick off enemies individually or to fire into groups. You can take your time.

What can Beyond do in PvE or PvP?

In PvE, when playing solo, it can be very useful. Snipers can lie in wait and attack enemies from long range. Unfortunately, practically everything that matters in Destiny’s PvE is done in a group.

Therefore, Guardians in The Taken King are practically reliant on dealing maximum damage in a short amount of time against enemies that won’t drop from a headshot. For such cases, it would be better to grab a sniper rifle that hits harder per shot and preferably a legendary sniper, to make room for the Malicious Touch or the exotic sword.

In PvP, however, Beyond is considered to be top-tier by experts from Planet Destiny.

It has great handling and the “blinding effect” from Blinding Light can soften tightly-knit teams and potentially decide an entire battle. Our friend Nexxos was also impressed by how easily he could send enemies to Beyond with Beyond. Due to the high rate of fire, two body shots are easily possible, and the zoom and strong handling always make headshots an alternative.

What do you think about Beyond?

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In the MMO shooter Destiny there are items that can only be obtained from bosses in certain strikes. Which ones are they?

Update: Here you can find all strike-specific items since “Rise of Iron.”

In Destiny, the developers have been brainstorming lately, trying out new ideas. They want to limit the role of randomness when it comes to what items players receive.

Therefore, they rely on quests, provide guardians with class-specific exotics, and experiment with infusion instead of rerolling fresh mechanics.

One of the new ideas from Destiny: Specific items drop only from bosses in strikes. Which ones are they? What can you expect? We can already reveal this much: There are six weapons and some really good-looking armor pieces!

These strike-exclusive items in Destiny for Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One likely cater to players’ desire to “be special” and “have items that not everyone has.”

It’s not even that hard to get the items. You don’t even have to play the highest versions of the strikes to obtain the specific items. However: The items come with randomly selected attributes. There is no rerolling like before. To get a truly useful version of an item, you will probably need to go into the strikes more often and rely on luck.

You will learn more on the next pages!

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In the MMO shooter Destiny there is a way to improve items through Infusion by dismantling other items. Through Infusion, players increase their Light.

The mechanic of sacrificing items to strengthen or feed others is called “Infusing” or “Infusion” in Destiny. This was newly introduced with The Taken King.

This mechanic is important for later increasing in Light level. With Infusion, you can still get something good out of items that you would otherwise delete. And you can actually take items that are too weak but that you like to the maximum level.

Infusion is important for achieving a higher Light level and you can obtain a unique gear this way. Through this mechanic, all exotic and legendary weapons and armor pieces from Year 2 in Destiny can reach the maximum value of 310.

This is how Infusion works in Destiny

The basics are clear:

• You sacrifice an item with a higher attack value (weapons) – or defense value (everything else) to help a weaker item reach a higher attack or defense value.
• Beneficiaries of such infusions can only be legendary or exotic items that have the property to do so, which all TTK items have.
• Rare (blue), legendary (purple), and exotic (gold) items can be “sacrificed.” They must be “unlocked,” in your inventory, and they must have a higher value than the item you want to strengthen.

• The item that is “sacrificed” and the one that is “fed” must fit into the same item slot: Chest armors feed chest armors, primary weapons strengthen primary weapons. It does not matter whether the Guardian can use the item: A Hunter can also feed Titan armor.
• In addition to the weapon or armor piece itself that is being sacrificed, you also need some items such as weapon parts (weapons), armor parts (for everything else), Glimmer (always), Light particles (legendary items), legendary marks (always), or exotic shards (exotic items). This depends on the item that is to be strengthened.

How much stronger does a weapon or armor piece become when Infusing in Destiny?

There is still debate about the exact formula. That is where some nuances still need to be worked out.

Currently, it is assumed that legendary items become 80% of the difference to the sacrificed item stronger (if you feed a 300 weapon with a 310 item, a 308 weapon results). However, exotic items become only 70% stronger (they would only reach 307 in the example). Thus, the Light increases through Infusion.

If the difference between two items is only 6, the item to be strengthened gets the full value. However, that is still somewhat in doubt.

Some say: For Exotics, the difference may only be 4 for the maximum value. Others say it has to do with whether the weapon that is sacrificed is upgraded or not.

This video describes the Infusion of special weapons with the Black Spindle, as it comes with 300 attack value from the weapon blueprints, you can easily get any special weapon up to 300 – that is supposed to be fixed soon:

Here is a page that calculates for you how Infusion will work in practice

A reddit user has created a page that calculates what the result of Infusion in Destiny should look like. Here is the page with the Infusion calculator.

Related to the topic: Our guide for Light levels in Destiny.

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