Destiny Dev Notes 9/25/2014

Bungie: On September 9th the Bungie team traded late nights building Destiny for late nights playing Destiny with all of you. We'd looked forward to that day for years, knowing that it would bring millions of fresh eyes into our world and quickly change many of our plans and priorities. We were not disappointed.
In the last two weeks there have been many surprises, bugs, exploits, world firsts, and a whole lot of fun. It's been an amazing time. We think now is a great time to step back and let you all know how we think the game is holding up and to talk about some changes we are contemplating going forward.

[admiralvic]

If true, I'm sad to see Bungie is hellbent on forcing people to follow the regimented gameplay path they wanted people to take with Destiny. I mean, how many people think it's a successful business model to basically make the best way to play, one that requires small time commitments every day for a long span of time? Especially when most people didn't come out that far ahead with the loot cave.

[BiggCMan]

I'm not so annoyed at this, though it does belong in the game because of how broken a lot of the loot systems are. Plus it's just a farming/grinding type game, so why restrict people to the way you want it, let them loot this cave.

What i'm more annoyed with is the fact that the purple gear you get from doing the Queen kill order missions no longer gives you ascendant shards when you dismantle them. Now THAT is ridiculous.

"Today's patch will also stop players from getting ascendant materials when they dismantle Queen's Wrath gear."

If every other purple item gives you ascendant shards/energy, then why shouldn't these?? I swear this game is just full of restrictions, some MMO huh? Bungie is full of themselves with this game man.

[--Onilink--]

yeah, i dont even care about the cave. It was obvious it was going to get removed and with good reason. They also mention they are working on making sure that other activities such as Strikes and Crucible are a better source of high level gear, which is the way it should be.

Same as you, im more annoyed at the Queen's change, since the missions (even though you could make them several times) were not exactly a walk in the park. It took me like 40min to complete one in mars because everyone there does Solar damage.

They could have just lowered the amount of shards to 1, or maybe just lower the chances of getting, but not outright removing it

[kneon]

It's probably because the Queens kill missions are the easiest way to get legendary gear. I've already completed 2 solo, if I had a fire team I'm sure I could have gone through the other 6 I have waiting in no time.

[isa_scout]

Yeah, I need so many shards it's ridiculous. This was helping out a lot. Bungie should've made a playlist that was for high level players to gain shards... Every time I do the weekly strike and the nightfall strike I get pissed because it keeps giving me ascendant energy instead of ascendant shards. This game is WAY to random in the way it rewards players.

[JeffGUNZ]

How do you do multiple queen missions? I did the mission on the top left of the travel guide above dialy mission and after I completed it I got a purple legendary chest piece and then it was grayed out and I could not do it again?

[Conzul]

I like their weapon reballances, but pulling ascendant shards from Queen gear is stupid. I HAVEN'T FOUND THEM ELSEWHERE except from the Cryptarch.

They've just ensured that I don't waste any more time with the queen.

I think we've been Royally screwed. Heh, heh.

[DeadMansHand]

Yeah its official, I'm trading this in for Shadow of Mordor on Tuesday. Talking the cave away and the shards of Queens armor is ridiculous. I don't want to do the same damn raids over and over and over again.

[MysticStrummer]

"Talking the cave away and the shards of Queens armor is ridiculous. I don't want to do the same damn raids over and over and over again."

There be irony here.

[nX]

The thing with the cave is, it was just getting ridiculous. People associated Destiny with mindlessly shooting at a cave. I think that it was the right decision to fix it but Bungie should've readjusted/increased the rewards for other activities in the SAME move as well. Instead, they made those stupid changes to the Queens gear not dropping any shards, making the situation worse again.

[levian]

Really, they think shotguns are effective at a longer range than intended? In my experience, they don't work any farther than melee distance, and even then it seems you're better off using a fusion rifle. Better damage and range.

[Ozmoses]

The cave doesn't bother me... I only did it 2 or 3 times anyway... just garbage... if anything I got a few strange coins from engrams.

I'm not bummed about the engram drop rate either... that's how it should be...

dismantling the Queen's gear should give you ascendant materials though... since Legendary gear is Legendary gear... so this change doesn't make much sense...

but I can understand why they did it... people will just keep dismantling the queen stuff for easy materials...

I love this game.. I have experienced all the so-called "unfair" loot drops just like everyone else... Especially in crucible...

However, I wouldn't say the loot system is broken... It's FAR FAR from broken.. It just needs balance.

And the Rare Materials... are by far the only thing really stopping people from progressing to higher levels...

Sure you can get the loot... But if you don't get the materials to upgrade it than it is basically useless. (unless that's the weapon you like)

but the way it is... so many different styles and scenarios... you have to constantly pay attention to what weapons you're rolling with and which ones you have to switch up with... Especially with the Epic/Heavily Shielded monsters in the Queen's Wrath Missions

just do the Daily Mission on LVL 28 for 2 ascendant materials and on LVL 24 for 1 ascendant material... you can also get them from completing public events

[HeavenlySnipes]

I've played less than a lot of my farming friends on PS4 and I'm like 1 light away from level 28 without ever farming

Just doing public events, buying exotic armor from the vendor, getting crucible and vanguard marks, and doing the daily, weekly and weekly nightmare strikes.

Just play the damn game. I don't understand why people want to max out their character within the first month of the game

[admiralvic]

Sigh~ Some people need to keep in mind that others play games differently and have very different circumstances that come into play. Like I want to see the post game content in Destiny, because I think all the stuff prior is fairly boring. In my own personal opinion, the weekly strike / nightfall / raid are far more enjoying than any other aspect to Destiny, because they have depth (those burns can VASTLY change both how I play and how you go about the mission) and offer a better experience than say doing the level 24 Vanguard strike, which is just the same strike at whatever level, but now it's level 24 and gives rare gear at the end.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some people can't play Destiny every day, but they can commit to playing it 10 hours in a day. However, based off how Destiny is designed, you would be getting significantly less reward by putting in 10 hour sitting than 5 2 hour sittings. So if you can something like put in a couple hours each day and buy all your gear via marks in 8 days, someone who can only put in like 10 hours twice a week is looking at maybe a month to hit the same point as you, even if they put in countless hours more.

That was ultimately the appeal of the cave. When you had nothing else to do (bounties were done, weekly / raid finished or no one on and daily completed), you could sit there and try to get some decent gear / level your current gear and progress in some way that wasn't just constantly running the same mission, which is logically just AS much of a grind / tedious, only not as effective.

TL;DR Some people have different circumstances and something like this made the game easier for them to get into. It also doesn't help that playing the game normally and grinding that cave aren't exactly different events once you finish all the special stuff for a day.

[Conzul]

Spacing out our playtime of Destiny won't fix a risk-reward loop that is essentially broken ... it'll make it worse. The admiral is right.

[Gh05t]

I would like to play the damn game... I just want to play my damn game how I want to play.

I am sick of farming games and being told that I shouldn't be allowed to do that and eventually leading to the game being changed.

I hate when Devs tell me that they don't want me to play the game like that and take what I consider fun from me and give me what they consider fun. I'm looking at you Gearbox and Blizzard and now Bungie.

If the "new" loot drop rates or whatever they are going to do would REALLY make playing the game "More" fun then they wouldn't have to get rid of the loot cave (No one would use it if playing the game was more fun and offered better rewards, but it wont really which is why they still have to take the cave away)... It always amazes me how they talk about balance and not forcing a player to play one way or another when what they do is force you to play by their rules which change on they fly.

Its like being in a sand box and digging a hole and someone coming over filling it in and telling you that you can only build castles because that's more fun and what we made this sand box for. GTFO! I will play in the damn sand how I want! I was having fun digging a HOLE!

I knew I shouldn't have bought this game. I cant stand games where they release the game, I find something enjoyable and they nerf it to "Balance" things out. Everyone has the same opportunity, just because they choose not to that is fine but its not like they CAN'T.

Grinds my gears.

Not like I have an opinion or anything. XD

[HeavenlySnipes]

None of you made an argument for how playing the post game unlock able modes isn't a valid way of playing

I don't play the game all day long or have long gaming sessions. The only thing I have that I found from a drop is an exotic fusion rifle (from upgrading my cryptarch level and getting a legendary from the mail guy)

Everything else was from buying stuff from vendors. All the materials you need can be gathered by just doing the daily strikes.

Farming the cave is solely so you don't have to play the rest of the game

[Gorilla_Killa_X]

I agree. I'm level 27 without the cave and I'm having a blast. Some people are just so whiny and self entitled. Get over it.

[Christopher]

I want to get equal equipment out for equal time and effort in.

The problem is that a random system, let alone a doubly random one (random drops and random cryptarch results) doesn't do this.

Their comments about it being perfect is just BS, IMHO. What they want is for you to keep playing because you aren't getting the gear you need but that also means that while I can spend, literally, 4 days of in-game time to get what I have, it could take someone else only 2 days of in-game time to get it.

That's not fair, that's a limitation based solely on luck.

Combine that with the fact that I get the exact same rewards for doing level 1 quests as I could from level 28 quests and that I get, at most and being extremely generous with this estimate, one legendary that I likely can't even use for every two hours I play on average no matter how I play, I can totally see how people rely on grinding to get what they need.

I won't deny that people are abusing the system, but I also won't deny that their game design/philosophy is broken to high heaven as it is right now.

***None of you made an argument for how playing the post game unlock able modes isn't a valid way of playing ***

There's no point in doing the unlockable modes when they reward you with less than just farming and otherwise provide you nothing more than what you could get for killing level 1 guys. What's the point in spending half an hour or more to run a strike/raid when you have the same, if not better, chance to get gear drops from running a level 12 quest over and over.

I think the question you are ignoring is why run later game content if it provides the same results as the first quest you do on earth?

As it is, the most important thing to do in the game right now are bounties. I prioritize those over everything else. And most of the time those just get me to replay the other elements of the game I've already played a hundred times.

[geddesmond]

Yeah honestly Bungie thinks that if they limit the amount of legendaries people get that its going to keep people playing in order for them to get better gear but what it's actually doing is stopping people from playing because they are so sick of getting legendaries, as in one every day if lucky and decrypting it only to find it's a dumb blue item or upgrade material.

I'm getting sick of this game. From not having a matchmaker for daily and weekly heroics so you have to rely on strangers or PSN friends that are too busy to help or overpowered enemies that kill real fast and have retarded regenerating shields that regenerate instantly.

The games just one very repetitive grind and as soon as I have another game to plkay its bye bye destiny for ever.

[Gh05t]

I wish I got one legendary engram a day. I have only ever got one legendary engram from a "Monster" and I have played plenty. I swear if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all.

[geddesmond]

@ghost

That 1 legendary a day was an average I created based on my luck and my psn buddies luck because its not one a day for me either. I got one legendary drop today from the weekly heroic and one yesterday from the cave farming. 2 legendary from queen kill commands and about 3 legendary altogether from cave farming over 4 hours these past few days and 2 of those legends turned out to be motes of light.

Bungie removed our only way of farming legendaries without spending time and time repeating the same missions or strikes in hope even though we never get any really. It's like they took everything hated about MMOs nd roled them up into one game without giving us enough content to stop the game feeling so repetitive

[DaGR8JIBRALTAR]

Almost to that point myself brother.

[Kryptonite42O]

I am in the same position as you gh05t... I think I've actually only ever received about 3 legendary engrams total that weren't from just leveling up my cryptarch and all 3 of those turned into blue rare items. If you include even what the Cryptarch has given me for leveling him up, I'm still sitting at a Legendary chest piece. My helmet I got from completing one of the queens missions so that hardly counts. So after countless hours, I have 2 legendary pieces of gear... No weapons yet, so completing the queens mission or anything else solo is out of the question. Let alone the weekly strike or anything else that might actually give me some decent loot or rewards for my time.... My Cryptarch is nearly level 10 so I've decoded engrams to no end!! All it seems to give me is poop gear, while my roommate manages to have all the luck. 2 of his legendary engrams managed to give him 2 exotic pieces. He's decked out and I'm twice the player he is.. its sooooo frustrating. When far cry 4 comes out, this game will be collecting dust. Hopefully they fix it.

[pompous]

How is sad...What's sad is people upset an exploit got fixed, LOL.. Their model is crap, but it's designed to keep players playing and is further proof the game is shallow. Everyone jumped on the game because it's Bungie and the RED FLAG was review embargo that expired release day. The scores don't matter, but the content you get to read from multiple reviews could have saved some gamers money from a shallow game they otherwise may have passed on for being shallow.

[geddesmond]

It wasn't a exploit. It was just a way for people to get around the horrible loot system and demand for veru boring farming.

[ramiuk1]

i spent a few hours there in total and never got any leg gear,couple guns but no armor types.
i found about 10 leg engrams,but all turned out blue.

bungie should give loot drops for nameds/bosses.
most of time u do a strike and recieve nothing for it except rep.

u should also be able to buy shards from a merchant because its taking me way to long to increase my armor.
i dont mind a grind when there is an ecosystem like in other mmo games,but with this im grinding and dismantling everything and i just feel like im wasting my time

[admiralvic]

"u should also be able to buy shards from a merchant because its taking me way to long to increase my armor. "

One of my biggest pet peeves with this game is that you have a conceptually small span (21 to 30) that has an absurdly large amount of difference. Like getting to 20 can be done in 10 hours. Getting to 24 can be done in another like 15 hours. Then getting to 28 takes something like 8 days of extremely regimented gameplay, with 29 being a waste of time as you need the raid gear (something you really only have 2 chances of getting a week) to hit 30.

So ultimately it doesn't matter if you get the shards fast or slow, since you're going to need more to hit 30 anyway. Also they add up pretty fast once you do the daily heroic, daily mission and the raid every week. You can get something like 30 a week just doing that.

[Elwenil]

@ Admiral,

Just a note, you can hit 29 with one exotic armor and the res normal legendary armor. I barely made 29 and still had 2 upgrades left on my boots. Everything else was maxed.

[Christopher]

@Elwenil: That sounds off considering I have 1 exotic, 2 legendary, and 1 rare and am just barely 27. I have yet to max my exotic out because ascendant shards are just that hard to come by. Same with my two legendary items.

My profile for reference: http://www.bungie.net/en/Le...

[Elwenil]

@Cgoodno

The info above is mostly correct, except I was mistaken on how many upgrades I have left on my legendary boots. I only have one left on them, not two and my exotic helm, and legendary chest and gauntlets are maxed. Too many late nights grinding, lol. You can see my Bungie profile by searching my name. It's the same as my username here on N4G.

[ITPython]

What kind of ticks me off is that they are removing things that I haven't even been able to take advantage of yet due to my low level (taking me forever to obtain blue gear). I only just reached level 22, and I have yet to do ONE daily mission, weekly mission, or any of the queens missions due to the ridiculous level requirements.

So in essence the no-life 24/7 players who are already level 29 and have played every strike, raid, daily, weekly, and Queens missions and have all legendary gear, got to take advantage of things like dismantling gear for ascendent materials. Whereas when I finally manage to struggle to a higher level so I can play these missions, I won't have that opportunity to get these ascendent items by dismantling purple gear like everybody else did. Which IMO is complete BS. This basically rewards the no-life players and punishes those who can't play the game all day every day 24/7.

I probably won't even reach the required level to play any of the queens missions before it ends on October, all because I am not a no-life 24/7 player.

[admiralvic]

"I only just reached level 22, and I have yet to do ONE daily mission, weekly mission, or any of the queens missions due to the ridiculous level requirements. "

Not to get into a big "I have better things to do" argument, but the requirements for level 20 are pretty low. You could easily get there just beating every story stage, strike and a couple of bounties and accomplish this in as low as like 3 hours a day for 3 days. Getting gear with light is just as easy, since the Vanguard strikes routinely give it away at level 20 and you can slowly progress forward like that or just work on the marks and jump straight to like 25~.

"So in essence the no-life 24/7 players who are already level 29 and have played every strike, raid, daily, weekly, and Queens missions and have all legendary gear, got to take advantage of things like dismantling gear for ascendent materials. "

Ignoring the fact that just about every game is like this and simply less people would be at this point had these things not existed, but none of these things were particularly fast or routinely good.Furthermore, the things that actually took level (besides the queens wrath) are as good now as they were before. Everything else was just low level stuff you could have exploited at level 18 if you wanted to.

Also the queens wrath was more annoying for me than good. Most of her missions were pretty tedious (getting 3 devil walkers with people debating on how close or if you need to make the final hit got boring fast) and then you had to do another mission (I kept getting the same hell mouth moon one -.-) and then I finally got my gear, but even then you're talking about people getting a maximum (ignoring variables with dismantling) of 36~ shards per character. Anyway, this change ultimately hurts the high level people more than the low level people.

Like you're ****ing about something that would have only greatly favored the high level people, when the missions still give legendary gear and that will level you crazy fast (36 light with no upgrades if you get both known pieces from this event), where as I, a person who is level 28 now has no reason to do those missions unless I really want that specially designed sniper or the ship (got 2 of those though).

"This basically rewards the no-life players and punishes those who can't play the game all day every day 24/7. "

No. It basically rewards the life players and punishes the no life players. Like you can keep doing those missions and get 2 free pieces of legendary gear and maybe the other 2 pieces next week, which will get you to level 27 (28 if you have an exotic) before you need more than a few ascendent materials and it's a great source of XP and way to level your gear. Then you have people like myself, who're level 28+ and this change basically makes the queens wrath event pointless unless you want to get the gear from her shop and even that requires at least 35 bounties to hit level 3. In the end, it just made the event a waste of time for us, but still left you an easy way to get legendary gear, which is still significantly more difficult to get than ascendent materials.

[ITPython]

@admiralvic - Yes but you still were able to get a ton of ascendant from breaking down those legendary items... and if the ascendant material is so hard to come by, then when I do reach the higher levels I will have MUCH less to use than you did since you got it more easily.

Bottom line is, Bungie removing that hurts both players, but it hurts the non no-life players significantly more because we didn't have the opportunity to easily get ascendant materials like you did. What you got in those few days probably will take the rest of us, who didn't have the opportunity, several weeks if not months to get the same amount via other methods.

[cooperdnizzle]

@admiralvic

Sorry dude but he makes a better point then you. You are in the wrong here.

To bungie, you made a crap single player game, an even worse loot system, failed with pve, have failed at making it enjoyable to meet new players (can not talk with each other or text) you can't talk with people over pvp unless their in your fire team. Level design is horrible ( Games ten years ago found better ways to give you more mission types) and then you wouldn't let anyone review it so me and my brother went and bought the game on your lies and pr bullcrap and bought the season pass. Shame on you! Shame on me! I will never by a bungie game again.

[Gamer1982]

Look i'm all for removing the loot cave as it is an exploit but theres a reason why so many used it. The loot system is massively broken and if your gonna remove the cave you should patch in a fix at the same time. At least give us purple items for purple engrams 100% of the time even if you have to get a certian level for your cryptarch first. Hell whats the point of even levelling him other than free engrams?? After level 1 you can buy everything he sells as he only ever has greens. They have a broken system and instead of fixing the root problem they cut off the workaround people found. Not the best move Bungie. Now where it once took 2 weeks to get to lvl 30 its going to take over 3 months of constant grind and with a lack of content thats gonna put off 99% of players.

[admiralvic]

"The loot system is massively broken and if your gonna remove the cave you should patch in a fix at the same time."

I fully agree and mentioned this below. Right now we have a negative (we lost this and a few grinding spots) and all we got to replace it were vague promises that they will fix it in the future. They really should have fixed this or at least pick bigger fish than people "getting ahead" by shooting a cave.

"Hell whats the point of even levelling him other than free engrams?? "

Same concept applies to most things in this game.

After level 3 Vanguard and a Crucible group at level 3, there is no point in doing bounties or patrol besides the XP boost or getting engrams.
After getting full legendary gear, there is no point in buying anything with marks. You need to do the raid or some people claim the Iron Banner also works to get the last level. This also makes leveling normal legendary gear pointless as you're wasting tons of resources to just hit level 29. Same goes for the Queens Wrath, as now that it gives nothing there is no point in doing it if you got good gear already.
Once you get the exotic you want, strange coins become pointless. Just like once you get the cosmetic item you want motes of light become pointless.
etc

"Now where it once took 2 weeks to get to lvl 30 its going to take over 3 months of constant grind and with a lack of content thats gonna put off 99% of players."

It can still be done in 2 weeks, but the vast majority of people will have the materials long before they have the gear. Since you need raid armor or possibly Iron Banner armor to hit 30, you need to hope it drops in the raid and the right pieces drop. The first person to do it said it took them 8 runs I believe and unless you want to make multiples of the same character, get super lucky or do both the normal and hard each week, you're looking at 2 months to get the armor that would use the materials. On the other hand, you can get 2 ascendent materials from doing the daily heroic (6 if you have 3 characters that high) and 1 guaranteed from public events with a chance of them dropping and the raid gives a fair amount. Even then, if you were to get them 50% of the time from just doing 1 daily heroic, you could get 60 in 2 month and it takes like 72 (too lazy to do the real math) to cap, so if you were to do other things / have other characters you should logically hit that cap WELL BEFORE you ever get the armor you need to get level 30.

[Novistador]

What bothers me the most about all this is that Bungie moved in swiftly to deny players shards and the cave, but as of right now they offer nothing to compensate with the broken loot system. Strikes are still a waste of time and the engram system is just beyond broken. The other night i completed weekly nightfall strike and received JUST a legendary engram, which turned out to be a blue. Why do dungeons when they don't reward anything useful? Bosses don't even drop loot. I love the crucible, but gaining gear from that is unreliable. At this point in time the only upgrades i can receive are from xur or from Vault of glass, so really theres nothing for me to do. It's looking more and more likely ill just trade this game in for Super Smash or the Master Chief collection, since the majority of the talent clearly went to 343.

[globeofgamers]

Good thing they don't take the loot back lol

[tylercolp]

That would be a real bummer!

[SojournUK]

They can have it back, all the legendary engrams give blue crap back anyway..

[cl1983]

Well time to farm on Venus

[enebreated]

They adjusted a number of spawn areas across the territories...from Dev Notes:

Respawn timers for monster caves in Skywatch have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 6)

Respawn timers for monster caves in Forgotten Shore have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)

Respawn timers for monster caves in Ember Caves have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)

Respawn timers for monster caves in the Shattered Coast have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)

Respawn timers for monster caves in the Barrens have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 20)

[porkChop]

Wow wtf? So, what, are we just supposed to kill the enemies and then walk around a barren wasteland?

[--Onilink--]

you can also do the 1st mission on the Moon, the thrall part. That one is pretty good

[Software_Lover]

wow. Why kill fun and excitement?

[Hellsvacancy]

Is that your idea of fun and excitement?

[CJDUNCAN]

If he paid $60 for the game let him have fun with it how he pleases.

[Hellsvacancy]

^^^^

I pay my internet bill so let me comment how I please, not everything I say has to be taken so negatively

[crusf]

You have the right to say whatever the hell you want here but that does not mean whatever you say will be accepted or deemed positive. If you are oblivious to the possible reactions to the things you say it's your own fault.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

People can say what they want about the game, but I wouldn't really call farming a single cave over and over fun and excitement. Were you being sarcastic?

[Gh05t]

Thats the problem... We arent saying you are having fun doing it or that you even have to. The point is I was having fun and they are saying I cant have the fun I was having.

I also don't see how standing in a spot killing enemies is any less exciting than running the same missions over and over. Both are extremely repetitive but the cave pay off is quicker so to me more exciting.

But its all a matter of personal preference and perspective.

[slinky123456]

That's not the point. It's REALLY NOT FUN, to play an hour of a strike over and over again and get NOTHING for it. Or just get one item that is no use to you. But farming somewhere and actually getting something there, a few things actually, can be quite a bit more fun of a grind.

[Alicornium]

Welp. Yay. Now we can play by the rules by putting 100+ hours into countless of the same missions, to get a few engrams that aren't green. Maybe they should have kept this until there was a point where they didn't drive us to do this, like, I dunno, fixing the loot system.

[kurruptor]

You must have skipped the part where they said they will be increasing loot from the regular activities?

[admiralvic]

Keyword being "will." I think it's great that Bungie wants to improve the game, but there NEEDS to be a give and take, but right now we just have the take. The last patch apparently fixed the cash farming method (not like cash was hard to get or even that important, but okay Bungie, GJ!) and this one apparently killed the loot cave and all we got in return was Bungie saying they would be doing something in the future.

This brings up a number of questions, namely, what does "soon" mean? Soon is a conceptual term and could easily mean a few days to something much longer depending on the person. Not to get into the semantics of what conceptual terms mean, but I figure the update is coming later than sooner (probably something more like the auto rifle nerf that says "Expect stability and/or damage adjustments to the Auto Rifle to address this in the weeks ahead") as it would make more sense to increase the rates when removing the cave if they wanted it done fast and the update to go over better.

Sadly, right now we just have a promise that things will improve, though we don't know when or even by how much. Like they could double the chance of getting a legendary on a blue engram (so like 1% becomes 2%) and most people won't notice the change. But what we can say for certain is that one of the best grinding spots is gone and all we got to replace it was a vague "we'll get to it," when lets call a spade a spade and say that they should be focusing on say balancing the shotgun (like they claim they're going to be) instead of making sure people can't farm materials. There are bigger fish to fry and it seems sad that their focus is on stuff like that.

[Alicornium]

You must've skipped the part where I said it's the same 20 or so missions every time? Even if they do give us "more" we'll all just get bored before we get legendaries!

[Gh05t]

If they fixed the loot system then they wouldnt need to fix the cave. Fixing the cave is because no matter what they do it wont make the rest of the game any more fun so people would still use the cave.

How is running and grinding any more fun than standing and grinding? One takes more effort and pays off less and offers less fun to me.

[Novistador]

As of right now (on the xb1) Strikes, crucibles, and events do not have an increased drop of anything. What Twilight is trying to say is, they should have paired this update with the loot update. Right now upgrading and hunting gear is just a giant rng clusterf***

[AiirJordann23]

They shouldn't do this. Even if you did farm 4 legendaries they just turn blue anyways.

[--Onilink--]

if you look at the dev notes, this is all part of several changes to the loot game.

Besides this, they are adjusting the cryptarch and making Strikes and Crucible give better rewards.
All of that sounds great IMO

[AiirJordann23]

I hope so. If they took away the loot cave it only make sense they fix the loot game

[one2thr]

Dammit! I just started doing the loot cave thing today!!!

[Illusive_Man]

How about fixing the Cryptarch decoding my Legendary items into Titan gear when I'm a Warlock?

[Kal-V3]

You can just put those items in your vault and use them if you want to create a new character and play as a Titan.

[Megaplaynate]

This happened to me three times, and I got the same loot from the Queen's wrath.
If they are already making it hard to get why don't they make sure you receive something you can actually use.

[AiirJordann23]

I have 4 warlock legendaries and I'm a Titan

[MrCherry]

I give this game 4 to 5 months thin other games will fill our hrs of gameing.

[CJDUNCAN]

It's a game I'd come back to every once in a while but I'm kind of done with Destiny. Mordor comes out Tuesday then the following tuesday NBA 2k15. Then in November COD and AC Unity.

[MrCherry]

All games im geting as well, hrs of fun.

[Gh05t]

I give it two months... I am hoping that Sunset Overdrive, AC Unity, HMCC, Dragon Age, and Far Cry 4 will all be better than this.

Maybe I will come back in December when DLC drops since I broke my rule for not buying season passes and went against my judgment for this game.

[Kal-V3]

I have no problem with the "Cave of Wonder". I got my exotic Warlock robe from it so i have mad 'spect. My only problem with it is if you just started the game and you go from lvl 5 to 15 just doing the cave that's just pointless. But if you are lvl 20-21 and finished the story and all the strikes and you wanna just farm for more drops, then that's fine, i think.

[mydyingparadiselost]

Play how you want!!!.... Numerous restrictions apply, loot gain void where prohibited, most items will be worthless, content isn't guaranteed, offer only available in the continental United States, even more restrictions may apply, contract may be changed weekly based on the needs of the company, may cause thumb fungus, product may not represent the product advertised, Bungie and Activision reserve all rights to everything ever, product not guaranteed to function properly, rollover minutes will expire every other month.

[Kal-V3]

No purchase necessary, details inside... :P

[Cha0tik]

This is why I don't tell people about where I farm. Till they add new content to keep this fun I'll continue to Farm in my spot.

[SINISTERGENESIS]

The should've fixed the loot system as well

[Cha0tik]

They are. It's in the notes... "Expect changes soon which decrease the efficiency of cave farming and correspondingly increase engram drops from completing activities."

[SINISTERGENESIS]

Thanks for the info hopefully not just green orbs

[SojournUK]

I think the changes in the loot system will be available as DLC for $9.99.

[isa_scout]

I'm just pissd that they made it so that you don't get ascendant shards from breaking down the legendary gear you get from playing The Queens Wrath...... That was literally the only reason I had to play it. They make it to difficult to find those things any other way. I have no reason for anymore legendary gear, I just need to upgrade what I have. Very disappointed in Bungie, it's like they don't foresee these things happening before they release this stuff. Like they didn't think high level players would be interested in the shards.....OK

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Yea that's pretty damn annoying, and being that this is a limited time event, I thought they were throwing us a bone, as a easier way to get those materials. I have no use for this specific gear, especially when you give me the same ones over and over, so why not let me upgrade the gear I do use? This is just stupid.

[isa_scout]

I couldn't agree more... I'll probably drop all the bounties I have for her now as I have no use for the gear I've been earning. I don't need the same freakin chest plate 4 times in a row. Hell, I didn't need it the first time I got it. Every legendary piece of armor I have I've purchased from future war cult, and I got my helmet from Xur. Level 27 with a 1.78 KD in the crucible and still haven't got anything meaningful from loot drops. Sick of watching the shittiest player on the team get legendary and exotic weapons... I saw a guy get 2 kills and 13 deaths in Clash last night and he unlocked the hawk moon exotic hand canon...Are you serious Bungie?

[mochachino]

I'm glad they're removing the cave exploit and making actual game modes like strikes more rewarding, the way the game was intended.

Excellent job Bungie but a legendary engram should alway decode into a legendary item for your class.

[1nsomniac]

I just wish they had fixed it sooner. It's already done the damage & spilt the game into 2 tiers. 1 group of honest gamers with lower gear & a 2nd separate group of cheats that are fully spec'd out.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

That's a little extreme. There ate no 2 tiers, and it's not like the people who did the cave farming hacked the game or anything like that. It's not so different than farming a specific area in any RPG. I don't even understand why they're called cheaters. Nothing was done on the players end to manipulate game code or the hive monsters instance in any way other than his Bungie themselves programmed it.

[Baka-akaB]

there is no cheating involved and nothing dishonest about it . Of course some people will seek a way to gain more , without breaking rules or glitching , and of course the devs will patch it if they dont want it

[1nsomniac]

That's exactly what it is. You're benefiting from glitching. As Bungie said themselves, this is not the way the game is meant or designed to be played & that's clearly obvious to everyone as you have to manipulate the games mechanics in order to achieve it.

[Pintheshadows]

No you don't. All it is is waiting for the spawn timer which was set absurdly low by Bungie. That isn't a glitch.

[SojournUK]

How do you sleep at night making comments like that?

:)

[JoGam]

Just a question....If I unplug my PS4 from the internet, will the cave still work or is it just for Multiplayer?

[Baka-akaB]

wich multiplayer ? Dont you realize the game is only online ?

[JoGam]

Oh shit really? Wow didn't know that it was online only.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

If you "unplug your PS4 from the internet," you unplug from Destiny.

[Goku781]

How about finish patching in the story first.

[spektical]

what a mess. I would have waited until the loot system was improved before removing one of the viable ways of getting upgraded gear post story. The game is barren, and now it will seem even more empty. The loot system needs to go back to the drawing board.

[jmac53]

Thanks Bungie! Now can you just patch in a story?

[MegaSackman]

So... if I have a sandwich with cheese I lose the cheese if i remove the bread...? that's some logic Bungie.

[SojournUK]

Bungie...BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Look at my N4G avatar, that is aimed directly at you Bungie!!!

[SojournUK]

Oh, and after re-reading the patch notes I suddenly thought - hang about Bungie, this sounds like a patch you should be applying to a BETA of a game, surely these issues should have been fixed during or soon after the open beta earlier this year?
Maybe you should have been fixing these things instead of ripping things out to package as DLC!!!

[MrCherry]

Thk you, this game is a cash cow! the dlc for this game going to suck $$$ from your babys meals.

[Jubez187]

The fact that people are mad they're taking away cave farming. SMH

[MysticStrummer]

Yeah one guy above is mad about the cave being taken away because he doesn't want to do the same raids over and over again.

smh

[Jubez187]

The same raids might be monotonous but still more fun than loot cave

[Tedakin]

The Loot Cave was seriously the only thing keeping me playing this boring ass game..... Not interested in killing the same boss in the same cave for the 10th time to get bad loot due to luck of the draw and not level up because I can't find fucking LIGHT

[Baka-akaB]

So you're tired of the repetitive nature of the missions and strikes , but you'd rather go at it fixating a hole in a cave for 1-2 hrs for loots ?

You're just trading further boredom for the sake of expediency

[Tedakin]

Yes if the only way to level up to get to the damn Raid is the find LOOT, and getting Loot in the cave is 10 times more efficient than doing missions. At least the cave guarantees drops. You can do a whole 30 minute mission and get nothing. The only thing this game has left is the potential for the Raids to be good, and most can't even play the damn thing due to the horrible leveling system. I mean this week there was a daily strike we did, and it was just the same mission we'd beaten 3 times before AGAIN. Why?!

[Baka-akaB]

Well i guess i'm lucky , i leveled up the normal way so far and with the vanguard and factions ranks . i discovered the infamous cave , via a patrol with a friends , we stood there shooting stuff for 15-20 mins and decided it was boring and more efficient for us to just go do strikes or other patrols . I've hit a snag at 27 , but it's more about my schedule than most things else .

[metalgod88]

I think these are all good changes. The game was kind of built to grind simply for the fact that missions and strikes don't provide enough goodies to warrant replays as you can grind in places like the cave for 5 minutes and obtain better equipment than you would in a strike that takes ~15 - ~30 minutes.

That seems broken to me.

[masterfox]

meh they can cut out whatever they want, I'm very close to stop playing Destiny. All exotic and lengendary gear can be obtain without any luck needed the only issue here is that you need to do over and over the same task one after another, and by doing that you will get experience well "duh", but this can take hours and hours, lots of hours doing the same thing! progression percentage is very slow here, Destiny by doing this are making players or forcing them to keep playing the game for weeks if not months, well guess what Bungie, I will not support that cheap tactic and I will keep moving on, I already planned to trade this game for Driveclub :D.

Thanks for the ride, and good luck with the 10 year idea. lol!

[solidboss]

When you play a strike and get a blue or sometimes no items (it has happened to me) or when you play crucible and become the top player while the guy at the bottom is the one who gets legendary loot you force us to choose a better alternative for ourselves. The loot system is broken period. I get if they wanted to fix the cave farm then they should of released a loot fix as well. There are so many things about this game that is disheartening and make it so there's no point in "trying". I've played crucible the right way came in first place plenty of times only to see the guy at the bottom with a legendary..I've done strikes only to recieve one blue item or none at all. I've decrypted legendaries only to get blue items..I've been playing the game the way it was meant to be played and was not recieving anything for it but wasted time! Why grind so much in a game where the output is so few when I can enjoy myself in other games? The loot needs to be fixed ASAP

[90Supra]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooo!

[Kaka-boi-baka]

As good as destiny looks on both next gen consoles, I do believe bungie have missed a trick by not releasing it on the game boy color.. With the great network capabilities and ease of playing on the go this would have truly be a game changer.

[leemo19]

Never used the cave, I use the other farming solution and seems to always work. Glad Bungie will be fixing the cryptroll because its bs when you turn in multiple legendary engrams and not one is legendary. Why did they remove getting ascendant shards from the Queens gear, it was the only way to get the material that was already hard to come by. I don't mind grinding but when you got to grind more than use too just to get something its annoying.

[DJ]

Bungie says "Our hope is that social engagement in public spaces is only one part of the Destiny experience."

Yet I must say, seeing a bunch of random people lining to loot farm was the most social experience Destiny has ever offered. Waving at strangers is NOT social.

[THC CELL]

Destiny is nothing but a grinding game, it's limited and bs. I've not farmed much I get fed up too quick, also shotguns are over powered. Trade this game in before its worth nothing

[g-nome]

Looks like some people would have liked to max their characters out in the first 15 hrs of playtime .... IT IS SUPPOSED TO TAKE ABOUT A 100 HRS OR MORE.

[HumanatPlay]

Its only a matter of time before better games come out and this game collects dust on peoples shelves and bargain bins.

[ShowGun901]

they are literally working on EVERY single problem online complainers have been crying about, and still this thread is filled with people crying... just goes to show no matter how much they fix and add to destiny, some people will just dislike it. half the people are crying about stuff they said they acknoweledged and are working on, if only people read the article. i feel sorry for devs who work hard and actually listen, cutting and adding and tweaking their games, only to still get blasted...

[Tru_Blu]

So the short answer is once you hit 28 and don't have 5 friends online with hours to spare the game is a coaster.

[Maxor]

Exactly. You basically spent weeks of grinding for absolutely nothing.

[DillyDilly]

Bungie is going 2 kill Destiny on their own bravo

[Emme]

Since when is an open world game supposed to be played in a certain fashion ?

[Maxor]

This cave is a tumor inside the cancer that is Destiny. Removing it does absolutely NOTHING. Now instead of easy and boring way to grind you're left with tedious and boring ways to grind. The loot system is still horribly broken and unrewarding.

[Voyevoda]

All today's top stories are about Destiny and the loot caves.