Destiny 2 Beyond Light Announced + 2021 / 2022 Expansions Revealed

[IronFalcon1997]

Also, it'll allow them to touch up old D2 zones alongside the new expansions so that they aren't stuck in the Red War era in perpetuity. Titan making a return as a retooled zone will probably be a really nice feeling, better than it just sticking around taking up space the same way it always has

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Exactly! Titan and Io have been almost completely irrelevant since the Red War campaign ended, and Mercury is really small, but this allows them to evolve those areas with the story and to develop more freely! For instance, what will Mars be like without Rasputin when it inevitably comes back. Also, if this allows them to bring back the Dreadnought, then I'm all in!

 

[IronFalcon1997]

Raid weapons have been pretty lackluster for a while now (except for Anarchy and One Thousand Voices). Raid armor has higher base stat rolls but that's less of an issue since they buffed the chances of getting high stat rolls from other sources.

It's very easy to get very good gear in D2 right now.

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Yes, honestly, raiding is more about the experience/story of the raids and the fashion of the gear available.

 

[ThatMeanScene]

I don't really have an issue with the temporary removal of the plant patrol zones but removing the Strikes stings. I can't really defend that.

 

[Landford]

I don't really have an issue with the temporary removal of the plant patrol zones but removing the Strikes stings. I can't really defend that.

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But they are doing it to remove the assets. It makes no sense to keep the strikes since they will need all the assets for the strike and the install size will be the same.

 

[Van Bur3n]

What they need to fucking do is get that Corrupted strike the fuck out of this game.

 

[IronFalcon1997]

What they need to fucking do is get that Corrupted strike the fuck out of this game.

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I love that one!

 

[GamerDude]

how would starting from scratch in destiny 3 not be removing content

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Because you could still play the Destiny 2 campaign...in Destiny 2. Now I can't even play a lot of the single player activities I was planning to play on the next gen version. They will be gone. If Destiny 3 launched, no content would be gone. I would also prefer a new game because I think it would force them to make bigger changes.

 

[Hamchan]

I find it baffling that in a grind/looting game, they couldn't find a good way for players to revisit old environments on a regular basis and are removing them instead.

Downloading it now to play through those two DLCs for the original D2 while I can.

 

[Deleted member 39374]

Collector's Edition

Can also be bought without the game code.

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That is the dorkiest lunchbox and flask I've ever seen. What is up with collectors editions in general and their terrible merch?

 

[Lothars]

Raid weapons have been pretty lackluster for a while now (except for Anarchy and One Thousand Voices). Raid armor has higher base stat rolls but that's less of an issue since they buffed the chances of getting high stat rolls from other sources.

It's very easy to get very good gear in D2 right now.

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Garden weapons are very good, the pulse is awesome. they are worth getting if possible.

 

[EloquentM]

Time to finish wayfarer 👀

 

[Mafro]

I find it baffling that in a grind/looting game, they couldn't find a good way for players to revisit old environments on a regular basis and are removing them instead.

Downloading it now to play through those two DLCs for the original D2 while I can.

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TLDR the game engine is ass.

 

[Deleted member 43070]

See as mentioned the engine is the problem. Bungie has in the past admitted that the engine is a pain in the ass. It's also a modified Destiny 1 engine. It's also clear by this that the engine is not capable of creating the experience Bungie truly wants. Hence they do need to go back to the drawing board and develop a new engine capable of doing what they need it to do. I mean create a new engine too. Not just modify yet again the old engine that is the problem. They don't even need to make a Destiny 3 for this to happen. Just build the new engine and import the old content or rebuild it and eventually just release a new client.

Now I know some people are going to say oh that's hard work and that takes time. Yes I know that. However it's beneficial for Bungie if the new engine can handle what they want to make and is easier to work with development wise. It's a better experience for the fans if they can actually keep all the content after ported or rebuilt in the new engine and continue to add more without removing old content too. The easy thing isn't always the right thing to do.

Just my opinion. I don't pretend to be an expert. I'm just a minority who loves to go back and play old content.

 

[EloquentM]

Isn't the destiny engine from reach originally lol.

 

[Serene]

Isn't the destiny engine from reach originally lol.

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I think they use some of the same matchmaking tech (or at least they did at the start) but most of the engine was new for D1.

 

[Jest]

None of that stuff was done because "the game was too bloated" though. These games currently both have magnitudes more content than destiny 1&2 combined had and I didn't see Square Enix removing old areas because of "bloat," Shadowbringers came out with another 5 explorable zones and didn't get rid of anything from earlier games because the game is too big.

I feel like you are missing the entire point of what I'm saying.

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The statements you were making and the ones you were responding that compared D2 removing content to WoW and FFXIV made no mention of bloating. The context was that other games have removed content. Trying to focus on, "but Bungie is saying it's because bloating and the others didn't say that" is shifting goalposts. It doesn't matter what the stated reason is. People are saying they're upset that the content is being removed. Other games have done it and will do it and haven't had the same response. That's the point of that comparison.

I think they use some of the same matchmaking tech (or at least they did at the start) but most of the engine was new for D1.

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I believe the Tiger Engine was at least based from Halo's engine. Have no idea how radically it may have been changed though. There's GDC vids on it, I believe, but I'm no dev so I wouldn't be able to parse those types of discussions.

 

[Kadath]

on a personal note, I do hope they are retooling the mission structure for the Forsaken expansion. As someone who only started playing late last year, it was hugely disappointing when I got to that content. Everyone raves about it but as a new player it's basically gibberish and doesn't work at all.

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This matches my opinion too, and I don't think it's so personal, since it indirectly affects everyone.

The butchering of legacy content started with Shadowkeep, now they are just cleaning the mess by removing it all completely. Forsaken was part of the butchering but is left out from this removal, but I think it's also obvious that Bungie doesn't want to spend even a second maintaining legacy content. So don't expect them to touch Forsaken at all.

What they'll do is set up a new short introductory campaign through the Cosmodrome and then a slightly tweaked EDZ. I doubt it will even reach two hours in length, but we'll see.

 

[Kadath]

TLDR the game engine is ass.

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See as mentioned the engine is the problem. Bungie has in the past admitted that the engine is a pain in the ass. It's also a modified Destiny 1 engine. It's also clear by this that the engine is not capable of creating the experience Bungie truly wants. Hence they do need to go back to the drawing board and develop a new engine capable of doing what they need it to do. I mean create a new engine too. Not just modify yet again the old engine that is the problem. They don't even need to make a Destiny 3 for this to happen. Just build the new engine and import the old content or rebuild it and eventually just release a new client.

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I have a different theory about this. Jason Schreier is the guy who reported about Destiny engine problems, he's also the guy who wrote the article on Bethesda saying that engines don't need to be entirely rewritten from the ground up, but can be upgraded progressively.

Destiny has an masterpiece of an engine compared to Bethesda. Of course none of us can measure the feasibility of fixing Destiny's engine issues, but I don't think it's impossible to overhaul its filesystem.

This is the contradiction: they tell us they are focusing on D2, rather than 3, but all they are showing is that they have no intention of overhauling the engine.

IN FACT they are telling us they need to remove half the content because they don't have a way to fix the game. The filesystem isn't being touched, it's just cut content.

This seems to have a rather straightforward explanation: if D2 can't be fixed at a deep level, and has to be maintained by cutting content, then it means that their best programmers aren't "focusing" on D2, they abandoned it so they can work on actual new things that will take years to materialize.

The fact we have no D3, and that D2 is untouched, is precisely the proof their technical team is busy elsewhere, working on stuff that won't surface for years. In the meantime there's only the same old D2 that needs to keep the cash flow open.

P.S.
Also consider this: if it's true we're getting in D2 content built for D3, then it means D3 was built as almost identical, or it would take a massive amount of work to backport assets to a completely different engine.

 

[lorddarkflare]

TLDR the game engine is ass.

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We know they have issues, but we don't actually know that it is bad.

We just know that their pipeline does not fit the kind of game they have been making / want to make.

 

[Wolffen]

We know they have issues, but we don't actually know that it is bad.

We just know that their pipeline does not fit the kind of game they have been making / want to make.

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I think it's safe to say, given the way D1 came together, that the Destiny engine was not designed to be a continuous content delivery game. Hell, based on the leaked contracts with Activision, I'd say it was designed to deliver medium chunks of content every year, with a new game every 3 years. So odds are, the size/content management issues weren't considered prior to D1 launching. D2 is running on an upgraded D1 engine, with some tooling adjustments to help their development pipeline, but short of ripping things down to the studs, I don't know that they can fix things to truly run this game as a "platform". I mean, they are doing that, but based on the new content vault, I'd say they are struggling there. I completely understand what Bungie is saying about testing and patching becoming more difficult as content is continuously added, though. Happens in the software world all the time, especially when software grows well beyond the original scope it was designed for.

 

[lorddarkflare]

I think it's safe to say, given the way D1 came together, that the Destiny engine was not designed to be a continuous content delivery game. Hell, based on the leaked contracts with Activision, I'd say it was designed to deliver medium chunks of content every year, with a new game every 3 years. So odds are, the size/content management issues weren't considered prior to D1 launching. D2 is running on an upgraded D1 engine, with some tooling adjustments to help their development pipeline, but short of ripping things down to the studs, I don't know that they can fix things to truly run this game as a "platform". I mean, they are doing that, but based on the new content vault, I'd say they are struggling there. I completely understand what Bungie is saying about testing and patching becoming more difficult as content is continuously added, though. Happens in the software world all the time, especially when software grows well beyond the original scope it was designed for.

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Agreed 100%. I run several development teams for my company, and while we are tiny compared to Bungie, I feel the problems they are having in my bones.