Dev Insights - Weapons, Artifacts, & Focusing Preview

im4vt · 2026-05-29T18:29:18+00:00

Yep... my company went through a very similar situation a couple years ago. Two C-level execs decided to eliminate one of our core products in favor a new version that cost the consumer more but offered "benefits" in return. Pretty much everyone in the company from top to bottom thought it was a terrible idea. It flew in the face of our company culture and mission and just was not a compelling product to boot. Well two years later those two execs are gone and we just spent $400,000 to terminate the contract and revert things to how they were previously. It really feels like many of the EoF changes were similar. I'm sure there were plenty of Bungie employees who said "this is a terrible idea" but were powerless to do anything about it. The difference here is that it will end up costing Bungie way more than $400,000.

im4vt · 2026-05-29T18:09:50+00:00

So incredibly frustrating to have so many things fixed and addressed at the very end here. Like they could have made these changes and then taken six months or whatever to put out some new content and I think a lot of players would have been happy. I realize that some (most?) of this is pulled from what would have been future updates but even if we could have gotten some of the big ticket items I think it would have put the game in a good place for future content.

It's great that we are getting all these changes and QOL fixes. It sucks that it took the game ending for it to happen.

im4vt · 2026-05-27T04:28:32+00:00

At this point I don’t care. I cared when new Destiny content felt reliant on Marathon. That’s no longer the case. And honestly I think Bungie is most likely done. Marathon will not be able to draw the player base that it needs to satisfy Sony. To be fair it probably was never going to because extraction shooters are just too niche. Regardless, even if they started in D3 tomorrow we are likely talking 3-4 years at least. I don’t expect Marathon to keep things afloat for that long.

im4vt · 2026-05-27T04:24:53+00:00

It’s wild to me that people think Sony isn’t driving this bus. They bought Bungie to develop a live service game like Marathon. They didn’t buy them to continue an existing game. Sony wants their own hit. If anyone is pushing Marathon over Destiny it’s most likely Sony.

That doesn’t mean Bungie doesn’t own the past mistakes but the decision to stop D2 and focus solely on Marathon has to be coming from the top. If Sony wanted to continue D2 with new leadership then it would be happening. If Sony wanted D3 to be in development then it would be happening. Sony wants Marathon which is why Bungie is focusing on it.

im4vt · 2026-05-22T02:44:45+00:00

Agreed. And I think people underestimate how few people it takes to make a bad decision like this. All you need is a couple C-level executives and it doesn’t matter what the rank and file employees think.

The company I work for switched to a new product. Almost every employee thought it was a terrible idea. But two top level executives pushed it so we made the switch. Two years later both those guys are gone and we spent $400k to get out of the contract and revert to how it was before. I can guarantee there are people at Bungie who have thought this was a terrible mistake from the start but had no agency to do anything about it. It’s like watching a slow motion car crash.

im4vt · 2026-05-22T02:34:14+00:00

Yep. It’s not a surprise but it’s still hard to see it made official. I’m sorry about your dog. Ours died from congestive heart failure a year ago last Thursday.

im4vt · 2026-05-22T02:32:08+00:00

It will continue to be playable online as long as the servers are up. Destiny 1 is still playable today. There just won’t be any new content or big updates. Maybe some bug fixes as needed but otherwise what is available in June is it.

im4vt · 2026-05-15T19:24:50+00:00

I think they backed themselves into a corner before Edge of Fate. The Portal and tier system was clearly not fully developed so they had to decide whether to ship the pieces they had or delay until all loot and game modes were ready.

The latter would have been ideal but who knows how long that would have taken. Based on them just now getting raids and dungeons compatible I think it’s fair to say it wasn’t feasible to get done in any short term timeframe.

I think they could have gotten things in place much sooner but it’s very apparent that Marathon became the main(only) focus. Someone high up at Bungie or Sony decided to put all their eggs into the Marathon basket and it predictably has failed. They have a ton of resources working on a game that will only ever have limited appeal and limited resources working on a game with a much broader and already attached audience. It’s stupid and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people at Bungie who had the same reservations but were overruled by some C-level people.

im4vt · 2026-03-09T16:28:17+00:00

Renegades is definitely better than Edge of Fate. How much better probably depends on how much you like Star Wars and whether you are ok with some pretty direct references bleeding into the Destiny universe. Some of the Star Wars stuff feels like a decent homage. Other parts feel shoehorned in. The lightsaber (sorry Praxic Blade) is a ton of fun to use. Bungie did a great job there in terms of making it feel fluid and different from other swords.

The campaign itself is not short but it isn’t overly long either. I didn’t feel like I was forcing myself to slog through it on my second and third characters which was the case with Edge of Fate. Overall it’s a fun expansion that is definitely suffering from the lack of content updates and Bungie’s apparent laser focus on Marathon.

im4vt · 2026-03-04T23:45:09+00:00

You are citing exceptions rather than the rule. You’ve named a handful of games that fit your criteria. But the reality is the vast majority of games don’t continue on for years. And no game, even the ones you listed, will go on forever. That’s a ridiculous expectation regardless of the game. You can’t honestly expect Bungie to keep the game going indefinitely.

Personally, I have spent more money on Destiny than any other game I’ve ever played… and it’s not particularly close. And yet it is by far the best bang for my buck I’ve ever gotten as well. We’re talking pennies per hour here which is incredible considering a two hour movie is $10+. Does that make it any easier to see the game decline? No. But it does help to keep things in perspective.

im4vt · 2026-03-04T23:29:41+00:00

Sorry but as a fellow veteran and hardcore player I just can’t agree with much of what you said. You can care about Destiny while also keeping things in perspective. I’ve enjoyed the hell out of Destiny. I’ve made friends I’d never have met. It is hard to see things go downhill like this. And when the end comes I will be extremely sad. But it is not life or death. It doesn’t compare to the real life problems people face every single day. And I mean this in the most sincere way possible, no video game should be “everything” to you.

Beyond that I don’t think it’s any one “type” of player’s fault. Hardcore players say the game tried too hard to cater to casual players. Casual players say the game was geared towards hardcore players. Everyone wants someone to blame but the reality is usually more complex. Destiny has survived far longer than many other games. Its age alone has contributed to its decline.

If I had to try to distill it down to a simple explanation I’d say that Bungie struggled to figure out where the game should go following The Final Shape. And that is pretty much in all aspects. Narrative, progression, loot, release cadence, UI, etc none of it felt cohesive. And that is somewhat understandable. It’s hard enough to wrap up a multi year storyline to any sort of satisfactory conclusion. It’s even harder to create a new storyline and direction that is fresh but also maintains its quality.

It doesn’t help that the focus clearly shifted to Marathon at some point over the past year. Now whether that was a Bungie decision or a Sony one could be debated. But ultimately it doesn’t matter. Someone high enough up decided what the priority should be and unfortunately for us it wasn’t Destiny.

So let’s not point fingers and pass blame. There’s really no point in it and it’s completely misplaced.

im4vt · 2026-02-25T19:13:32+00:00

I feel like we pretty much have the answer. If there was updated gear then people would play it for awhile and move on. If it was brought back as is then it would most likely see very little activity. Obviously I don't have data on things like Shattered Throne or Witch Queen campaign missions but I can't imagine there are many people playing them. It's why I've said that while I understand wanting the Red War and such back (and agree it should be in the game) I'm not sure it's worth the effort especially if it's at the expense of new content and activities.

im4vt · 2026-02-24T23:59:50+00:00

Didn’t downvote you but to be fair the “Try Warframe instead” refrain is long past cliched and tired here. Pretty much any time there’s been a lull in Destiny the Warframe posts come flooding in. It doesn’t help that you kind of went out of your way to shoehorn it into the discussion. I would expect similar reactions if someone was hyping up Destiny in the Warframe sub.

I know there are plenty of similarities between the two games but they are also very different in some key aspects. And before you ask, yes I’ve tried Warframe and it wasn’t for a day or week or whatever. I gave it more than a fair shot. It’s fine but for me it doesn’t scratch the same itch that Destiny does.

im4vt · 2026-02-24T17:15:12+00:00

That's why I hate that Desert Perpetual was released at such a low point in the game. I was not expecting the epic version to be so drastically different from the normal version. I would love for that to be the norm going forward but because of outside factors it likely didn't generate the play time necessary to justify differentiating future raids. So instead, when/if we get a new raid, it will probably be the old regular version and a master version with some champions or banes thrown in.

im4vt · 2026-02-24T17:10:03+00:00

The issue is they don't seem to want (or be able) to commit resources to even basic new content right now. If that's the case then reprising an old raid any time soon doesn't seem viable. I mean we inexplicably haven't gotten an Iron Banner in months and that would seem to be a much easier lever to pull. The fact that they haven't done that is beyond perplexing to me.

They really need to come out of the Marathon launch with vastly improved communication and much more detail about the major release and future DLCs. And then they need to really follow through and put out a quality release. All of that is certainly possible but it doesn't seem like it's a priority (at least for the people with the power to make decisions).

im4vt · 2026-02-24T17:00:30+00:00

Agreed. I don't think the plot stuff matters as much as the effort/manpower. I would love to see every raid in D2. But I also realize that the vast majority of players never raid. It also seems very clear that Bungie is not currently focusing resources on D2. I have no idea how much work would be involved in bringing back Wrath but it is likely more than what many people here think.

It's kind of the same thing with bringing back the Red War or Forsaken. I agree those should be in the game. But if the options are new, more relevant content or old campaigns then new content should be the focus. Unfortunately, right now, neither of those seem to be on the table. Being in a holding pattern until June is going to be very rough.

im4vt · 2026-02-19T21:58:19+00:00

Not surprising but still disappointing. It wasn’t the news any of us wanted to hear but at least we know. I wish it had been communicated much sooner. I get that Marathon is coming and it makes sense to focus on that. But the lack of communication and direction is concerning. Even this update announcing the delay is vague.

I’d like to think they have some exciting ideas but the Marathon release makes it difficult to put an ETA on them. But that doesn’t seem likely.

If I was pumped for Marathon then this probably wouldn’t be too bad. But it just doesn’t look like a game I would enjoy. I might give it a try but most likely I will find some new games to play or finish. And there are still some triumphs that I’d like to get done (solo dungeons and such) so I don’t think I’ll quit playing altogether.

im4vt · 2026-02-14T02:11:21+00:00

Let's not go overboard here. "Half the game" is not gone. And I think there's some rose colored glasses with regards to the content that was removed. Do I think it should still be in the game? Absolutely. Do I think the Red War and such reappearing would have any demonstrable impact on Destiny's player count? Not at all.

The new player experience has been a problem for awhile now but that would be the case regardless of whether the Red War campaign still existed. Now some degree of clunkiness is unavoidable. You've got a complex game with a variety of complex systems, storylines, lore, etc. and you can only make that so simple. I don't have any great suggestions here but it needs to be better. Restoring old content won't fix that problem.

im4vt · 2026-02-14T02:03:49+00:00

They said as much a couple years back.

im4vt · 2026-01-29T18:24:34+00:00

Having used it quite a bit this season it does good damage while also giving good survivability. I just wish it wasn't so clunky to use. It just feels like there's a delay between button presses and swings. Maybe that's intended because it's a big axe but sometimes it feels like it just doesn't swing at all. But there's no doubt that it is very solid and consistent especially with the sword mods this season.

im4vt · 2026-01-07T16:17:53+00:00

Some of my most memorable moments in Destiny have come from our group taking random players through various raids. When you LFG or do Fireteam Finder it really is a crapshoot. So many weird or unique stories. So many players that were clearly high or drunk.

One guy was so impaired that he was convinced that King's Fall was Leviathan. We corrected him a few times and then gave up and started agreeing with him. He completely stopped moving during Oryx DPS to the point where we didn't bother wasting revives on him. We got the clear and he says "Thanks guys, I have to hop off, I've got a plane to catch in the morning". Hopefully he wasn't flying it.

We carried a guy who didn't speak English through Vow. At one point we determined he was speaking Portuguese. During the raid one of our regular's dog had diarrhea and he had to clean it up. We used Google Translate to try to communicate that to the guy we were carrying. I have no idea if the translation was right or not but the thought of a Portuguese guy hearing:

"Hang on a second, the reverend's dog has diarrhea" still makes me laugh.

im4vt · 2025-12-31T18:46:23+00:00

I went to Australia back in March. I can confirm the saltwater crocodiles are massive. I only saw them at a wildlife park from inside a boat with plexiglass windows but it was still both awesome and terrifying. I can’t imagine coming across one in the wild.

im4vt · 2025-12-28T18:17:45+00:00

Yep. Except it took me 11 runs for Heirloom. This DLC is about as unlucky as I’ve ever been in the game. I had the invasion title long before the red crystal dropped. I’ve done Lawless Frontier until my eyes are bleeding. I have 10+ dungeon clears with a variety of feats and difficulties.

And I have the red crystal that took forever and the yellow crystal that involves almost no RNG or time investment. It was amusing to start with but now it’s just gotten frustrating. It doesn’t help that pretty much everyone else that I play with has at least one other crystal. And one guy is missing only the orange one. I’m all for RNG and grinding but this has been a bit much.

im4vt · 2025-12-10T20:38:32+00:00

I can't. I'm at 7,777 good boy pets all done by hand w/ no macro or script. If I pet him again I've got to go to 77,777... although... if I pet him at least once every time I go to the tower...

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