Hot on the heels of last night’s announcement that the Trials of Osiris mode will return next season, Destiny 2 director Luke Smith has published another mammoth ‘Director’s Cut’ post outlining the studio’s thinking about Destiny 2’s future. That future includes some shifting thoughts about the seasonal model, and a major change to the way weapon progression works.
The big news: Bungie is planning to put a cap on how much you can infuse Legendary weapons. The limits “will project the weapon’s viable-in-end-game lifespan and we think that lifespan is somewhere between 9 and 15 months.” Those limitations won’t apply to Exotics (for now), but when a god roll drops on an optimal Legendary weapon, it won’t stay relevant in all content forever.
Smith explains that the change is designed to fix a huge design problem: how do you make new guns exciting when years-old weapons are still just as viable as ever? Smith says that limitless infusion “passively creates power creep (an ongoing Destiny problem), which also means our teams need to spend more and more of their time re-testing and supporting old stuff instead of making new stuff.”
He adds “Our hope is that instead of having to account for a weapon’s viability forever when we create one, it can be easier to let something powerful exist in the ecosystem. And those potent weapons entering the ecosystem mean there’s more fun items to pursue.”
‘Aspiration’ is a consistent theme throughout the post. Smith envisions a shifting weapon ecosystem where new favourites come and go, giving players more interesting guns to chase.
“Part of aspiration is the pursuit that comes with it and, right now, the way we are (and have been) treating weapons in Destiny 2 isn’t actually fueling the aspiration engine.”
It’s a big shift in the game designed to solve “the problems with weapons that last forever”. For players cradling a pristine, optimal Spare Rations, this is tough news.
Elsewhere in the post Smith talks about Bungie’s desire to remove some of the fear of missing out built into the current seasonal system, though he doesn’t say specifically how just yet. He does confirm that Faction Rallies are still on the shelf, though the cool themed Faction gear could make its way into the loot pool somehow in future.
Bright Engrams are leaving the Eververse microtransaction store, though they will still drop as part of your seasonal progression track. Finally, the quest list is going to be getting some much-needed tabs to let us sort between different types of activity.
What do you think of the Legendary weapon changes? Let us know in the comments or on the PC Gamer Forum.