Destiny Opens Up Voice Communication, Closes Exploit, Balances Weapons
Bungie shared a long developer note today about changes being made to address problems noted in Destiny’s first two weeks.
Maybe the most welcome, at least for high level players, is that Destiny has noticed the rage that ensues the purple legendary engram decodes to disappointing rare equipment. The engrams are color-coded to the type of equipment you can expect to them, but there’s also a confusing element of randomness that makes them often spit out equipment of other levels. The post promises that changes to the Cryptarch are being made to make this experience less controller-smashy.
That’s good, because the randomness of the encrypted engrams making a low drop rate even lower is probably a big part of what drove people to stand outside a cave on Earth for hours and kill respawning enemies to farm engrams. And that “Loot Cave” is now closed as of a hotfix today
“The speed at which the community organized around this activity was inspiring and humbling to us.But shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn’t our dream for how Destiny is played. Our hope is that social engagement in public spaces is only one part of the Destiny experience,” the post reads.
Another complaint about Destiny is that can feel a bit lonely and silent because you can’t talk to the people you’re playing with unless they’re in your fireteam. It’s obviously an anti-griefing measure, but some players have asked to be allowed to take the risk. Bungie is allowing players to opt in to voice communication during matchmade activities like strikes and the crucible.
And then we get to the buffs and the nerfs. Bungie is making some strikes easier and make lots of changes to weapon balance. They’re powering up exotic but functionally lame weapons like Bad Juju and Thorn and reducing the auto rifles insane accuracy at long range.
You can read all about these and more changes here.