Destiny 2: private Crucible matches, ranked PvP, better Raid rewards and masterwork armour highlight nine month road map
Destiny 2 has a solid line up of content, events and updates ahead of it - many of which address pressing community concerns.
Destiny 2 game director Christopher Barrett took the helm of the Bungie Weekly Update to issue a whopping outline of what Bungie has planned for the loot shooter - along with yet another promise to be more communicative in future.
After a bit of a painful silence over the holidays, the developer now feels confident enough in its own plans to at least sketch in the details of two upcoming Destiny 2 updates - one on January 30 and one in February - and outline what's planned for a series of updates scheduled for northern spring 2018 and northern autumn 2018.
The updates will introduce many features the community has been asking for such as ranked PvP and private Crucible matches, and come in addition to the second Destiny 2 expansion and scheduled seasonal content.
Speaking of Seasonal content and events, Crimson Days beings February 13, a new Faction Rally starts January 16 and Iron Banner returns January 30.
Anyway, here's the current Destiny 2 roadmap, which is subject to change. Everything listed here is free to all players regardless of what expansions they own - think of it as features for the base Destiny 2 client.
Destiny 2 January 30 Update
Masterwork Armor
- We are expanding the Masterwork system to include armor.
- Masterwork Armor provides increased damage reduction while using your Super.
- You can reroll the armor stat type on Masterwork Armor, and similar to Masterwork weapons, you can upgrade a piece of armor to Masterwork by spending Masterwork Cores and Legendary Shards.
Raid Reward Rework
- We are updating Raid rewards to make them more unique and interesting. They will now feature mods with Raid-specific perks, and we are adjusting the rewards to ensure a Raid item drops from each major encounter. The Raid vendor will also directly sell Leviathan and Eater of Worlds armor and weapons for purchase with Raid tokens and Legendary Shards.
- We are also adding a new Ghost with Raid-specific perks that has a chance to drop from the Leviathan and Eater of Worlds final encounters. We intend to return to creating more Raid and other activity-unique rewards in the future.
Destiny 2 February Update
Stroke Scoring + High Score Tracking
- Strike Scoring is coming to Nightfall and replacing the current time limit mechanic. The scoring is similar to the Destiny 1 system but with adjustments to emphasize competitive execution of Strike objectives and support for player selectable score modifiers. In February, Nightfall High Scores will be exposed in-game via new emblems and will unlock rewards.
- We also have plans for Clan and Community High Scores in the works.
Mods 2.0
- Work is underway on a full rework of armor and weapon mods. This will focus on reducing redundant mods, more unique theming, and greatly increasing their impact on your power. We are aiming for a February release, but the scope of the rework could push parts or all of it out to early spring. We will be evaluating how Mods play into the Bright Engram economy as a result, because we’re sensitive to pay-to-win outcomes.
Quickplay Improvements: We are adjusting game mode rules to increase the pace of gameplay and power ammo acquisition in Quickplay.
PC Tower Chat: We are adding text chat to the Tower for the PC version of the game.
Exotic Repetition Reduction: This will prevent players from receiving the same Exotic twice in a row. You may still receive duplicates, just not consecutively.
Fireteam Members on Destination Map
- You will finally be able to see the other members of your fireteam on the destination map. No more having to ask your fireteam where they went when they fast travel to another landing zone.
Destiny 2 Spring 2018 updates
Bungie will release a second Destiny 2 expansion during spring 2018, and will have more to say on that later. For now, here's what's coming to the base game around the same time:
Crucible
"We want to give players new reasons to play, more variety, and balance improvements. Spring will bring a number of exciting and long awaited features to the Crucible."
Crucible Rank
Beginning with Season 3 we will introduce Seasonal Crucible Ranks. There will be two different ranks for players to pursue:
- Valor – A progression rank that goes up as you complete matches. Winning helps you move up faster, but there are no loss penalties.
- Glory – A progression rank that goes up when you win and down when you lose. Performance is how you move up here.
Private Matches
- Private Matches are coming to all players of Destiny 2. Players will be able to invite their friends to play on the map and mode of their choosing.
6v6 Playlist: We’re bringing 6v6 PvP to Destiny 2 in addition to the current 4v4 game modes.
Mayhem Event: Mayhem will return as a limited-time event during Season 3 and going forward.
Additional Fixes: We are making some changes to make quitting less common and behind-the-scenes security improvements to help improve the overall Crucible experience.
Additional Highlights
- Weapon and Ability Balance Pass: Sandbox adjustments based on player feedback and data from the live game. The Sandbox team will share specific changes as we lead up to Season 3.
- Exotic Weapon and Armor Balance Pass: Exotic weapons and armor are receiving a comprehensive design pass to ensure they stand out from the rest of the gear and offer new, exciting, powerful ways to play.
- Seasonal Reputation: Specific vendors will now display a Seasonal ranking. Earning reputation will unlock unique Seasonal rewards and will reset each Season.
- Improved Iron Banner and Faction Rallies: In addition to the changes that you will see when Iron Banner and Faction Rallies return this month, we will continue iterating on these to make them unique, exciting experiences that you all look forward to.
- Playlist Repetition Reduction: This feature solves the problem of experiencing the same playlist entry multiple times in consecutive or frequent succession for both Crucible and Strikes.
- End Game Player Pursuits: We agree with your feedback on the imbalance between Achievement and Bright Engram rewards, and we will be making adjustments to shift more rewards into specific endgame pursuits instead of generic XP grinding for Bright Engrams. We are excited to share the details as soon as we have them worked out.
- Multi-Emote: When multi-emote launches, you will be able to choose which emote you have equipped to each of your four emote slots.
- Vault space: We are targeting an additional 50 slots to player vaults. We don’t believe just adding more space is a complete solution and are actively working on other changes to reduce load on your vault space. We are adding an Exotic accessory tab to Vault collections so you will no longer need to spend Vault space on Exotic Ships, Sparrows, and Ghosts.
- PC Clan Chat: In addition to the Tower chat that is targeted for February, we are adding clan chat to the PC version of the game.
- Heroic Strike Changes: We’ll be introducing modifiers to add more gameplay variety to the experience.
Destiny 2 Fall 2018 updates
Bungie said it has a lot in the works Destiny 2 that it can't yet discuss, but offered this sample of things it expects to bring to the game or overhaul by autumn - and maybe sooner.
- Item Collections and Records
- Weapon Slot and Archetype Improvements
- Additional Crucible Playlists (e.g. Rumble)
- Better Clan Rewards
- Masterwork Exotics
- Pinnacle Weapon and Gear Improvements
- Trials of the Nine improvements
- Shaders and dismantling
- The Future of Guided Games
- Address Solo Vs Fireteam matching