Destiny 2: Bungie Offers Gameplay Preview of Epic Sandbox Changes

As promised, Bungie continues to chip away at the incredibly extensive changes that will be [...]

By Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert - March 9, 2018 01:34 pm EST

As promised, Bungie continues to chip away at the incredibly extensive changes that will be occurring within their MMO Destiny 2 throughout the year. The amount of overhaul ahead of the dev team is impressive and will definitely take time to implement in a way that makes sense, but big changes within the Sandbox are ready to roll out.

In their latest developer update, Bungie went into detail about the "gotta go fast" changes coming to the shooter as well as even live test footage to give interested players a look at it in action. This is just one of the ways they are trying to honor their commitment to more transparency since the backlash following the game's launch.

Sandbox Intro

The Sandbox is still in progress but the Senior Crucible Designer wanted to key fans in on what they could expect. Designer Kevin Yanes and Design Lead Josh Hamrick dove right in for what players can hope for come March 27th, here's what they had to say:

Kevin: Hey everyone, Kevin here from the Crucible team. I'm dropping by to share the details on the rest of our changes heading into Update 1.1.4. As Derek mentioned in last week's TWAB, Iron Banner, Rumble, and Mayhem are making their triumphant returns to Destiny 2 with a few twists. Iron Banner has become 6v6, Mayhem features 90% fewer nova bombs (fixed this issue found during the Dawning), and Rumble has welcomed two additional players into the fray. There is a lot to get excited about in Update 1.1.4 but something the team really wanted to do was go back and refine the core experience.

Looking at the feedback, it was clear that the community felt there were two key areas for improvement with the Crucible: "Time to Kill" and "Team Shotting". So we set our sights on re-working systems, mechanics, and values to tackle those two areas.

Does this mean you're changing the Time to Kill?

"When we looked at the core feedback on "Time to Kill" in the Crucible, we saw that it mostly stemmed from a lack of excitement or spikes of intensity you all came to expect from a Destiny experience. This came in the form of feedback that stated the game was too slow, or the core loop was too stale. We agree, and have worked with Sandbox to increase the pace of the Crucible as a whole. Josh is going to speak to all of the Sandbox changes here in a bit, and I won't steal his thunder. So alongside all of the great changes the Sandbox team has made, we're setting our sights on making the Crucible a faster, more dynamic, and more action-packed experience on the activity side."

1.1.4 Changes

Respawn and Revive were tuned in all game modes

Player respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced to 2s.
Player respawn timers for Survival have been reduced to 7s
Revive lockout time in Countdown has been reduced to 7s
Players no longer lose Revive Tokens on death

Power Ammo respawn timers were adjusted across the board

Power Ammo respawn timers in Iron Banner have been reduced ~50%
Power Ammo respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced ~30%.
Power Ammo respawn timers in Survival have been reduced ~40%.
Power Ammo respawn timers in Countdown have been reduced ~25%

Ammo counts have been adjusted in relation to these timers, and in relation to weapon type.

In almost all cases weapons either retained the same ammo count or received a buff. Swords and rockets were brought down to stay in line with the rest of the weapon offering.

Enemy players now drop their Power Ammo on death.

This brick is now networked to all players regardless of faction. Secure the power ammo to keep it from your foes or steal off your enemy's ghost, but be quick because these bricks don't stay in the world forever.

Competitive

"During development of 1.1.4, we realized that while we'd reduced the "Team Shotting" in Quickplay and Iron Banner effectively, we hadn't quite done the same to Competitive. Knowing this, we looked for a change that reinforced the following goals: reduce team clumping, reward individual plays, and incentivize flanks. With those goals in mind we looked to take a big step in shifting the gameplay in Competitive and Trials: starting in 1.1.4 we've opted to remove the Tracker from all Competitive and Trials game modes.

This means more communication is required to secure victories in Competitive and Trials matches. It also means that a crispy flank with Power Ammo is all the more powerful. Subverting expectations and reading opponents is more potent in matches with no Tracker. In playtests we've already seen some clutch underdog comebacks and we can't wait to see what you all do in Competitive and Trials starting with 1.1.4. That said, we're always listening and reacting to feedback so please tell us what you think about this change and all of our 1.1.4 changes once they go live."

Mobility is the Ultimate Goal

"Our goal for this update is to provide individual players with more hero moments by increasing overall speed and mobility, increasing the number of supers you charge to demolish your enemies, and increasing the frequency and impact of our most montage worthy power weapons, especially in the Crucible. With Update 1.1.4 drawing ever closer, it feels like a good time to swing back by and provide some updates and additional clarity to what this patch will bring.

The first thing you should know: we are VERY excited for this update to go live. After weeks of solid play-testing, some with external participants, we feel like this is really shaping up to be an update you will be happy with. Huge shout out to everyone involved that helped the list of possible changes grow instead of shrink. Also, to those who play-tested and gave us quality actionable feedback."

All three glides plus Catapult and Strafe Lift have been retuned and buffed to make them faster and more unique.
The mobility stat range has been expanded and completely retuned as well. In short, everyone gets faster and the high end is higher.
The players' ground speed cap has been increased, allowing for faster total movement speed, regardless of how you may get there.
Arcstrider, Sentinel, and Striker all move faster, and at the same speed as one another, while in their Supers.
Arcstrider, as a whole, is performing well in PvP but mostly due to its neutral game perks. We've made the following changes in an effort to get the Super to be a more competitive option:
- Faster Attack Animations.
- Faster Dodge Animations.
- Increased range of all attacks.

The previous Shoulder Charge changes are being reverted, allowing Shoulder Charge to be used as a movement mode once again.

Dawnblade has been improved:

Reduced cost for throwing swords, allowing for one additional throw
Increased super duration extension gained from "Everlasting Fire"
Removed all in-air accuracy penalties while "Swift Strike" is active
Reduced the Icarus Dash cooldown
Increased the Grenade and Melee energy "Heat Rises" gives you per kill

Invisibility on Dodge / Smoke Updates:

Invisibility on Dodge no longer breaks Aim Assist or Projectile Tracking in PvP (unchanged in PvE)
Dodging still breaks both Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking, but only for the duration of the actual dodge
Increased the duration of Invisibility on Dodge by 1 second
Increased the duration of Smoke Bomb Invisibility by 1 second

Supers recharge faster for everyone!

Supers now recharge 1:40 faster, a cooldown reduction of 25%.

Mods that reduce Grenade, Melee and Class Ability cooldowns have been buffed to allow for up to 2x faster cooldowns.

This is NOT replacing Mods 2.0, which was recently delayed. More information is available below.

Buffs

Pulse Rifles

Increased PvE damage for all pulses
Increased rate of fire for adaptive and high-impact pulses
Increased base damage for adaptive, high-impact, and rapid-fire Pulses
Increased precision multiplier for lightweight pulses
Decreased precision multiplier for adaptive pulses
This keeps precision damage close to where it is now, putting most of the buff into body shots, though it is still an increase in precision damage overall.

Scout Rifles

Increased PvE damage for all scouts
Increased base damage for High-Impact Scouts

Hand Cannon

Increased PvE damage for all Hand Cannons
Increased precision multiplier for precision hand cannons
Increased hip fire accuracy on consoles
Increased ADS accuracy on consoles

Sidearms

Increased PvE damage for all sidearms
Increased hip fire accuracy
Increased ADS accuracy
Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
Increased minimum range
Added an ADS movement bonus

SMG

Increased PvE damage for all SMG's
Set Optics to 1.3x
Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)

Linear Fusion Rifle

Increased PvE damage for all linear fusions
Increased precision multiplier
Increased aim assist
Reduced flinch multiplier

Shotgun

Increased PvE damage for all shotguns
Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
Increased aim assist for Suros precision shotguns

Sniper Rifle

Increased PvE damage for all snipers
Increased precision multiplier
Increased aim assist
Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)

Grenade Launcher

Increased blast radius

Assault Rifles

Decreased range and aim assist stats for precision autos (Uriel's Gift). Base damage is not changed.

A few weapon perks are also getting some updates:

High Impact Reserves

Increased PvE damage

Kill Clip

Increased PvE damage

Rampage

Increased PvE damage
Increased duration

Dragonfly

Increased damage
Increased radius
Stronger visual effects

Grave Robber

Reloads .5 magazine instead of .3

Timed Payload

Splits damage 55 Explosive / 45 Direct instead of previous split which was more direct damage

Explosive Rounds

Decreased PvE Explosive Rounds damage
This decrease has been compensated for with an increase in PvE damage for the base weapons - your weapons with explosive rounds will not do less damage after 1.1.4

Mods Rework and Gameplay Demonstration (VIDEO)

"First, let's talk about the changes to the potency of Ability Cooldown Mods. In our last update, we mentioned that we were going to wait and buff ability cooldowns at the same time we dropped the mods rework. Over the last few weeks it has become obvious that the mod rework was going to need more time to come together due to the scope of the changes. That decision, which has already been accounted for in the last Roadmap that you saw, is ultimately going to be a win for all of us. It gives us more time to deliver something we believe will add value to the game. However, we understood we should not delay the much-needed improvements to ability cooldowns. So, while there are many, many improvements to mods planned for the future, we are going to greatly increase the output for Ability Cooldown Mods in Update 1.1.4.

While we are very excited to get this update into your hands, and we believe you're really going to enjoy the changes, we all know these aren't the only changes we'll need to make to address feedback. It's just the first leg of a long journey.

We hope this makes the game more fun for you all, that it begins to bring back hero moments, and makes you feel a bit more like tiny gods, but we also hope you know there is more to come and that this gets you excited to come along for the ride."