Episode 77: Destiny Community Summit and Warmind Reveal
Let's talk about the Destiny Community Summit and the Warmind reveal stream!
- Arrived Wednesday night. Met some of the other Summit attendees at the hotel for drinks and conversation.
- Thursday Morning Cozmo came and gathered us all in the hotel lobby, then walked us across the street to Bungie.
- We assembled in their theater so we could be introduced to the Destiny 2 Leadership team.
- For the next 3 hours, the Community Summit attendees (I believe there were about 45 of us) were given the opportunity to voice our complaints and ask questions of the D2 Leadership team. Bungie answered every question we directed at them, nothing was avoided. The initial tone from the Community members could be described as accusatory, wary, and slightly combative.
- After the big issues were discussed, we took a short break for lunch.
- We played a new game mode.
- Then we split into two groups of about 22, and one group sat down with the Sandbox team, while the other sat with the Activity team.
- We spent about 1.5 hours asking questions of our respective team, then the teams switched so both groups got to talk to all the devs.
- At the end of both discussions, I left the day with a not-so-great feeling. Some cool stuff had been shown, but I felt that the large group format from the morning had wasted a lot of time going over things that should have already been well known and agreed upon. Bungie had also put forward one idea that had been universally shut down.
- That evening, there was an informal get together at the hotel bar. This is where the experience started to turn around into a more positive one, at least for me. We were able to spend one-on-one or small group time with a lot of the D2 Dev team members. I personally spoke with Chris Barrett, Josh Hamrick, and Jon Wisnewski at length, among others. I was able to ask straight forward questions and hear the responses, and I gained a much cleared picture on what the future would/could hold.
- The next day we played some more content, and then immediately split back into our ~22 person groups and spent more time with the Sandbox and Activity teams. The informal gathering last night seemed to have loosened people up, and the conversations were much better, in my opinion. We covered a lot of ground, and got into some really great discussions. A lot of very good ideas were broached by the dev teams, and more detail was gone into than the first day.
- During the second half of this day was when Myelin, myself, and Aer0Knight were pulled aside by Chris Barrett to discuss the lore and tone of Destiny 2, which was an incredibly productive meeting.
- In the afternoon, we were all again brought back into the big theater, and a given one more chance to speak with the D2 Leadership team and address any issues we still felt needed to be brought up. Conversation was much more orderly this time, since most issues had already been addressed at length. This was basically a summary or capstone event, and I thought it went quite well. The tone at this point had shifted to becoming more positive and hopeful, while still remaining cautious that a lot of work remained to be done.
- I left the second day of the summit feeling much better than I had the first. I'd say my overall hopefulness for Destiny's future is about 8/10, at this point.
Mercules Initial Discussion Points (from my Pre-Summit List)
This is in no way an indication of a solution to the listed issue, and is simply a notice of the initial point, whether or not it was covered, and then my reaction to that discussion if it took place. There was a lot more discussed than just what is listed here, including new things and improvements I feel very positively about, but these are the things I tried to focus on.
- Primary weapon TtK needs to be lower across the board, not just for exotics.
- I feel positive about the upcoming changes.
- There needs to be more subclass customization.
- I feel slightly positive about the upcoming changes.
- Loot pools need to be segregated and special to each location or event. There are far too many "world" legendaries, and they dilute the rewards.
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes.
- Random rolls should return on weapons outside of exotics, trials, and raid weapons. Mods could be more like perks that can be placed on the weapon, to help counteract bad RNG, along with vendors selling more weapons from their inventory at a time (with rotating rolls).
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes.
- Weapon slots need to be addressed. I doubt a reversion will take place, but I'd like to see some experimentation with some of the weaker power weapons in the energy slot again (like with Fighting Lions).
- I feel highly positive about the upcoming changes.
- Shader, mod, and vault inventory space issues addressed.
- I feel highly positive about the upcoming changes.
- Ability to choose the activity I want from the Director, and the points game from Nightfalls expanded into more optional activities (like a Nightfall level Meditation).
- First part I forgot to mention. Second part was mentioned. I feel positive about the upcoming changes.
- Better Strike specific loot, and hopefully some lost sector specific loot as well.
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes to the first part. Forgot to mention the second part.
- A way to make Common, Uncommon, and Rare items into Legendaries.
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes.
- Melee and grenades should be slightly stronger than they currently are, given how slow the recharge rates are without mods.
- Forgot to mention this.
- Grimoire in game (a library of lore in the tower, for example) and some way to track the scannables.
- I feel highly positive about the upcoming changes.
/u/RiseofBacon Initial Discussion Points (from Bacon's Pre-Summit List)
Since Bacon was unable to attend, I tried to make sure his points were represented as well. The rest of the community actually did a great job of covering these on their own, so I only had to bring up one or two of them.
- Light level needs to matter again.
- I feel positive about the upcoming changes.
- Subclass choices need to matter.
- I feel slightly positive about the upcoming changes.
- Going after guns/armor/mods needs to have a good level of significance to your gameplay and make you want these advantages. The game doesn't need to heavily cater to every player type but it does need to have more 'gateways' to open you up to chasing after worthwhile gear and even cosmetics in ways that feel great to accomplish. The game needs more substantial and game changing rewards which make you eat up every exotic chance and every high end piece of content to go get them.
- I feel positive about the upcoming changes.
- Strike Loot needs to make a difference, and Raid gear should enhance the experience, not turn you away from it because 'it doesn't matter' or 'you don't need it'. Why do the Raid weapons not provide anything for the Raid?
- I feel positive about the upcoming changes.
- Purples shouldn't rain on you from everywhere, it makes them lose so much significance.
- I feel slightly positive about the upcoming changes.
- RNG should come back in some form for a lot of the game, even if it is Mods to add weapon perks and armour cooldowns but something to make you think and enhance your experience.
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes.
- Why are all the loot pools linked? Why is there a generic pool linked to all the Vendors?
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes.
- Why aren't there more obtainable chances of cosmetics from everywhere in the game including chances to earn Eververse gear vs Eververse holds all the cards?
- I feel positive about the upcoming changes.
- The mod system could become the new 'Random Rolls' or the Gunsmith could have some key to unlocking or leveling guns.
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes.
- Why does Armour have a selectable mod vs an actual perk attached to it, why not 2 mod slots or just a constant bonus?
- I feel neutral about the upcoming changes.
Feel free to ask me any questions, but please keep in mind we signed a strict NDA, and some or all items may be under an embargo until specified dates in the future.
Things I can talk about:
- My overall impression of the summit
- Any questions we as summit attendees asked of Bungie
- How I feel about upcoming changes
- My general thoughts on the new mode (I'd say 7 or 8 out of 10. It was very fun, and very difficult.)
Things I cannot talk about:
- Info on upcoming features
- Quotes from Bungie Devs
- Any direct info on the new mode
- Details on the sandbox changes
- Any info on weapons, perks, UI
- Any info from the director