WASHINGTON: In a lengthy post on NeoGAF, Destiny game designer Luke Smith made some statements regarding the future of Destiny and what fans can possibly expect next from the game. Specifically, he was responding to a fan’s post regarding the next upcoming standalone expansion for The House of Wolves. Smith responded to criticisms about the upgrading of Exotic weapons and gear and the purchase of new armor. It was encouraging to hear one of the game developers actually address the game’s problems head on.
Smith said Bungie is not ready to announce anything official, but he said the “mistakes” made with the first DLC for Destiny, The Dark Below, and its reward economy will not be repeated. After the release of The Dark Below, existing Exotic weapons received a damage increase. However, players who already owned those Exotic weapons could only get the new buffs by taking the weapons to Xur to upgrade them.
This cost valuable resources. Not only that, it reset all the weapon upgrades of the Exotic weapon back to zero. This greatly frustrated fans. According to Smith, it was a mistake, and it is a blunder that The House of Wolves will not repeat. If there are changes being made to the upgrade system for Exotics in The House of Wolves, I am totally on board. That sounds like a positive change.
Another fan complaint was that vendors began selling gear that basically made it pointless to compete in the Vault of Glass to earn certain vendor gear. This is another mistake Bungie plans to address with The House of Wolves. I am not as interested in this issue. The true problem involves the painfully frustrating and random loot drops from the Vault of Glass. However, this issue might be more important to other players.
Luke Smith claims that Bungie will “continue to improve acquisition stories and frequency, lessen the grind and get players to the fun parts of their arsenal faster.” Honestly, that sounds great. However, if Bungie is not serious and does not deliver on that promise, it will be very frustrating and upsetting. This particular remark by Smith must be marked down, so Bungie is held to the proclamation.
Another issue Smith discussed at length concerned amending the game’s Shard economy. Smith claimed, “The part where this didn’t work as well as we’d hoped is with the Shard economy. Shards are a barrier between you and equipping a sweet new piece of gear.”
There is an easy solution to this. Exotic weapons and armor now only require one Exotic Shard to complete the upgrades for the weapon. So, if Shard economy is the problem, then make it so Legendary armor and items require fewer Shards to complete their upgrades. Same thing with Energy economy for weapons. Again, if Bungie is serious about fixing these things, then it is time for the company to put its money where its mouth is.
While the changes have not been implemented, it is still encouraging to hear a game developer for Destiny address these issues. Smith actually acknowledged fan complaints and stated how Bungie will address them in the future. Now, Smith could be misleading. Whether it happens for Destiny or not remains to be seen, but what Smith had to say was better than nothing.
