devtrackers.gg
Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/heresy_crucible_updates
Hello everyone, it’s the Crucible Strike Team here and we have a lot to get into before Heresy releases. If you don’t care about the details and just want high-level stuff, check out the list below. If you really want to dive into the how and why of the changes we are making, read on!
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Trials of Osiris Rework for Heresy
- Move Trials away from a "Flawless" based system to a "get seven wins on a card" system that rewards win streaks, with multiple tiers and exclusive aesthetic rewards for higher win streaks.
- Provide a selectable alternative experience that is closer to Iron Banner in terms of reward structure and matchmaking to get more players into the Trials ecosystem.
- Adding new rewards, including an armor set, Ghost Shell, ship, Sparrow, and emblem.
- Simplify engagement and matchmaking systems.
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Skill and Player Score Stat, Competitive Point System Rework
- We want skill to be more transparent and easily understood so players can get a better feeling of where they sit or how they performed relative to other players in their games.
- Competitive point gains should feel like they make sense and give you more agency over climbing the Ranked ladder.
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Playlist Reorganization
- Using what we’ve learned over the last year, consolidate and solidify our playlists into options that better represent the experiences Destiny PvP can offer, without splitting the population into too many separate slices.
- Introduce Iron Banner Quickplay, which offers a more relaxed variant of Iron Banner, using our Open Skill matchmaking to provide minimal stratification and a focus on the less serious game modes.
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Ability Sandbox Updates – We aren’t going to spend too much time discussing the ability tuning, as much of it is self-explanatory and we have a lot to discuss in terms of the other three items.
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General
- Baseline Crucible ability cooldown penalty increased from 15% to 20%.
- Supers go from 20% to 25%.
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Prismatic Only
- Unpowered Knockout melees will no longer spawn Diamond Lances on kills against players.
- Active energy refund on Prismatic decreased by 20% in Crucible.
- This affects energy refunds from things like Gambler’s Dodge, Shiver Strike, and armor mods, but generally excludes Exotic effects.
- Added a 10% cooldown penalty to Supers so that there is more of a tradeoff to picking these subclasses in modes where Super timing can be vitally important, like Trials or Competitive. ##Trials of Osiris
- Baseline Crucible ability cooldown penalty increased from 15% to 20%.
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Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Trials of Osiris has several problems we are looking to solve with this rework:
- Primarily, Trials is perceived as simply not fun or rewarding for average to below average players.
- In terms of rewards, there has been a lack of new aesthetic rewards, especially motivational ones for high-skill players, and our weapon rewards have not consistently been best-in-class.
- The game mode itself is not always fun to play at a high-stress level. While we have made strides to address this with the 8.1.5.3 weapon tuning, and the 8.2.0 ability tuning mentioned above, we are also making some minor changes to the Dominion game mode to improve the experience.
- Finally, we want to solve the issue where Fireteam-Based Matchmaking can make it too difficult to play with friends, but we need to do this in a way that does not sacrifice the enjoyment of our solo players who make up most of the population. The solution we landed on needed a bit of extra time in the oven but is currently scheduled to be released alongside Heresy: Act II. ###Trials of Osiris Rework for Heresy
To solve the above problems for Heresy’s first Trials launch on February 14, we have:
- Improved the rewards story by stepping back from requiring Flawless to earn the lion’s share of rewards. Instead, we’ll focus on rewarding all players, while giving exclusive aesthetic rewards to those who demonstrate the highest skill.
- Simplified how players engage with Trials, and streamlined the matchmaking states to make it more obvious how you are being matched with opponents.
- Improved the game mode rules to encourage a focus on fighting first, and zone control second, while still directing players to points of conflict around the map and encouraging aggressive play over passivity.
At the core of this rework is one mantra: We want to build a game mode that more people can enjoy, with rewards on par with endgame PvE activities.
Experiences
We’re moving to offer a handful of different experiences within Trials, so players can choose in which way they want to participate. To help simplify the process, we have reduced the number of passages available to players from Saint-14 to two, one for each initial experience.
The Lighthouse Passage
Let’s talk first about the Lighthouse Passage, which grants access to the fabled simulation on Mercury. This experience is like what players currently get when they are playing on a Mercy, Ferocity, or Persistence card, but our goal is to move Trials away from a "Flawless or bust" based system to a "get seven wins on a card + longest win streak" system. Lighthouse for everyone, but much better rewards for longer win streaks.
- Utilizes Open Skill Matchmaking
All you need to do is win seven games on a Lighthouse Passage and you will earn entrance to the Lighthouse, regardless of how many losses are on the card. The Lighthouse Chest rewards are now broken up into two types:
- Repeatable rewards that you can earn every time you complete a Lighthouse Passage and open the chest.
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Weekly win streak rewards (from one to seven wins in a row), which can be earned once per week and must be true win streaks; there are no mercies here.
- Note: Earning a higher tier weekly win streak reward will grant all lower tier weekly win streak rewards that have not yet been claimed.
Repeatable Lighthouse Chest Rewards
Earned on every Lighthouse visit until a Flawless Passage is earned.
- Enhancement Prisms 1-2x
- Base Trials Weapon x1
- Trials Armor x1
- Osirian Ciphers x3
- Ascendant Shard Chance - 45%
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Adept Trials Weapon Chances – You’ll have two chances to earn Adept Trials weapons with each Lighthouse chest. The chances for a drop are dependent on your highest weekly win streak and the number of wins completed as a full fireteam. These chances are not additive, they are separate, meaning if you win seven games as a trio AND get a three-win streak, you will get two Adepts from the Lighthouse chest. If you win one game as a trio and get a one-win streak, you will have one 15% chance and one 30% chance for an Adept (so you could still get two Adepts).
- Weekly win streak – This chance is based on the longest win streak you have earned this week, not the longest win streak on your current Passage.
- One-win - 30%
- Two-win - 60%
- Three-win or more - 100%
- Wins as Trio – This chance is based on how many of your wins on the way to the Lighthouse were done as a full fireteam. If all seven wins were done as a full fireteam, you are guaranteed at least one Adept regardless of your longest win streak.
- Weekly win streak – This chance is based on the longest win streak you have earned this week, not the longest win streak on your current Passage.
- One Win – Seven Wins - 15%-100%
Weekly Win Streaks Rewards
Rewards packages for each win streak milestone can be claimed once per week and are in addition to the repeatable Lighthouse chest rewards.
Note: Earning a higher tier weekly win streak reward will also grant all lower tier weekly win streak rewards that have not yet been claimed.
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1-Win Streak
- Enhancement Cores 3-5x
- Enhancement Prism x1
- Ascendant Shard x1
- Adept Mod x1
- Ghost Shell - 50 progress points (this system will be explained in the Rewards section, below).
- Hardened By Trial emblem - First time only if not already earned.
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2-Win Streak
- Osirian Ciphers x2
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3-Win Streak
- Osirian Ciphers x2
- Trials Armor x1
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4-Win Streak
- Osirian Ciphers x2
- Enhancement Cores x5
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5-Win Streak
- Yellow Trials Glow
- Osirian Ciphers x1
- Base Trials Weapon x1
- Trials Memento x1
- Trials Vehicle - 30 progress points
- Trials Ghost Shell - 100 progress points
- Trials Shaders - Knockout list (one per week)
- Flawless Emblems - First time only if not already earned.
- Light for the Lost emblem
- Flawless Empyrean emblem
- Sunward Ordeal emblem
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6-Win Streak
- White Trials Glow
- Enhancement Prism 2x
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7-Win Streak (Flawless Passage)
- Red Trials Glow
- Adept Weapon x1
- Base Weapon x1
- Unlocks New Flawless Passage.
- Enables Progress on New Stat Tracker for “Flawless Win Streak.” ###The Completed Lighthouse Passage
After you have earned access to the Lighthouse, your Passage will change to a Completed Lighthouse Passage.
Utilizes Weekly Performance-Based Matchmaking if everyone in your fireteam is on a Completed Lighthouse, Flawless, or Trials Passage.
We will be experimenting with using Weekly Performance to allow us to match mixed skill fireteams that exclusively play together based off their cumulative performance for the weekend, instead of off individual skills.
Utilizes Open Skill if anyone in your fireteam is on a Lighthouse Passage
This experience is like what players currently get when they are playing on a flawed card after having visited the Lighthouse. Players who continue to play on a Completed Lighthouse Passage will get extra rewards on wins, based on their highest weekly win-streak and described below.
If you still have not earned all the weekly win streak rewards, you can reset your Lighthouse Passage and try again.
Additional Rewards for Longer Win Streaks
As mentioned, players who have gone to the Lighthouse and continue to play on a Completed Lighthouse Passage will get additional rewards for their highest weekly win-streak. Higher win streaks can increase your drop chances compared to lower ones, or allow chances to gain additional, exclusive rewards. We’re also experimenting with “mini jackpot” rewards for materials, which are a small additional chance to earn double or triple rewards.
Here is a look at how your chances for these additional rewards increase with your win streak.
The Flawless Passage
Players who have earned all seven weekly win streak rewards will be awarded a Flawless Passage, and all the repeatable Lighthouse chest rewards will be folded into their post-win drop chances, alongside higher chances to earn cosmetics and the new Trials emblem. This will also allow players to progress the “Flawless Win Streak” stat tracker, which tracks the longest win streak earned while playing on a Flawless Passage. This experience is most comparable to players resetting their cards and going for additional Flawless runs, with the focus now on one long continuous win streak, instead of multiple separate Lighthouse runs. One wrinkle is that earning those long win streaks may be slightly more challenging than it has been in the past.
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Utilizes Weekly Performance-Based Matchmaking if everyone in your fireteam is on a Completed Lighthouse, Flawless, or Trials Passage
- Because we expect there to be very few players who can earn this passage, it works on a hybrid system where it will spend only a short period of time looking for other similar players, before reverting to Open Skill so that it does not increase matchmaking times or reduce connection quality
Utilizes Open Skill if anyone in your fireteam is on a Lighthouse Passage
Earning the Flawless Passage weekly will be the only thing that increments the new “Flawless Lighthouse Passages” stat tracker. The previous tracker, “Flawless Tickets” has been locked and will no longer increase, but can still be displayed on emblems.
The Trials of Osiris Passage
We want to provide a separate place in Trials that is more like Iron Banner in terms of rewards and matchmaking to get additional players into the ecosystem. If you are asking why we would want to make any part of Trials more like Iron Banner:
- Iron Banner averages more than 3x the daily participation of Trials. In the last 48 months Trials has had more than 20% daily participation only 18 times, which is actually the exact same number of days that Iron Banner has had less than 20% participation. In fact, the worst performing Iron Banner we had during that period still had almost identical participation to the best performing run of Trials over the same period.
- Compared to Iron Banner, players who are not able to consistently go Flawless find Trials to be unapproachable due to both the lack of rewards, and how unfair many of the games feel with randomized matchmaking and lobby balancing. For a mode that needs a high population to thrive, this is problematic.
- Because many average and below average skill players do not participate in the current version of Trials at all due to the perception that Flawless is impossible and the experience will be negative, this leads to a baseline skill creep that on average makes Trials 10-15% harder than normal PvP and perpetuates the cycle.
This experience builds off the Practice Pool, which despite the lower total population, has helped keep average and below average player participation in Trials over the last several months ~20% higher than the similar low point from before the 2021 rework.
- Utilizes Weekly Performance Based Matchmaking if everyone in your fireteam is on a Completed Lighthouse, Flawless, or Trials Passage.
This passage allows players to take advantage of the improvements to the base reward structure of Trials that we will detail below (increased reputation, rewards for wins and losses, Challenges, earning Ghost shells, etc.) with a matchmaking system that is fairer, lower stakes, and none of the stress of worrying about a loss negating progress. We still want to motivate trying to win, so the Trials of Osiris Passage provides a healthy reputation bonus of 75 – 150 per win, depending on your current rank with Saint-14.
Playing on this passage will give you access to all the following rewards:
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Wins Grant:
- Reputation
- Base Reputation + the Trials Passage Rep Bonus
- Chance for an engram
- Chance for a base Trials weapon
- Small amount of progress points towards Trials Ghost Shells from the knockout list
- Reputation
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Losses Grant:
- Reputation (10x more than what is currently given for losses)
- Chance for a base Trials weapon
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Additive Extras
- Playing in a full fireteam grants (win or loss)
- Bonus rep
- Chance for a base trials weapon
- Chance for an engram
- Playing with a clanmate grants (Win or Loss)
- Bonus rep
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Challenges
- Rewards Pinnacles + Trials armor pieces
- Winning 50 rounds
- Winning seven games ###Rewards
- Rewards Pinnacles + Trials armor pieces
- Playing in a full fireteam grants (win or loss)
Now that we’ve talked about how the Trials experience will be updated, let’s go over the specific rewards that Trials of Osiris will offer, and talk about some changes to the way they are granted.
New Armor
Armor pieces will not be able to be earned from engrams until they have been unlocked, either via Challenges or from the Lighthouse chest rewards.
New Cosmetics
Cosmetics are earned on a point system. Various actions give you points such as completing challenges, winning games, or opening the Lighthouse chest. Your chance of getting a cosmetic from those actions increases exponentially as your total points increases. If you hit the upper limit of points in one of the pools (1000 points), you are guaranteed a cosmetic from that pool. Earning any cosmetic from the pool resets your points.
Cosmetics are divided up into vehicles (ships and Sparrows), which are exclusive to players who can earn high win streaks, and Ghost Shells which all players can earn, but it is faster if you go to the Lighthouse and get higher win streaks. In Heresy we will be introducing a new ship and Sparrow, along with a new Ghost Shell. All the existing Trials of Osiris vehicles will be in one pool, and all Trials of Osiris Ghost Shells will be in the second. These are knockout lists, meaning you cannot get duplicates from either pool, so if you play enough, you will eventually earn them all. The new Trials emblem, Lighthouse-Keeper, will also be earned this way, exclusively for players who can get the upper win streaks.
New Weapons
To start the Episode, we’ll be bringing back an old favorite in Exalted Truth with some great new perk combos. We’ll also be introducing a new Sniper Rifle, Keen Thistle, which is designed to give Mechabre a run for its money in Crucible and has at least one wild perk combo for PvE too. Triple Tap + Fourth Times may catch your eye, but after the recent Sniper buffs, don’t sleep on Discord + Incandescent.
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Keen Thistle – Solar Aggressive Sniper Rifle
- Left Column: Snapshot Sights, Lone Wolf, Under Pressure, Incandescent, Envious Arsenal, Slickdraw, Triple Tap
- Right Column: Opening Shot, Closing Time, Discord, Bait and Switch, Moving Target, Vorpal Weapon, Fourth Times the Charm
- Origin Traits: Trials, Crucible, Hakke
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Exalted Truth - Void Adaptive Hand Cannon
- Left Column: Slideshot, Lone Wolf, Destabilizing Rounds, Moving Target, Zen Moment, Keep Away, Withering Gaze
- Right Column: Eye of the Storm, Opening Shot, Precision Instrument, Magnificent Howl, [REDACTED], One for All, Repulsor Brace
- Origin Traits: Trials, Crucible, Suros
We will also be adding a third weapon to this group later in the Episode, as part of a late-season refresh.
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The Inquisitor - Arc Precision Slug Shotgun
- Left Column: Envious Assassin, Lone Wolf, Offhand Strike, Loose Change, Perpetual Motion, Slideshot, Threat Detector
- Right Column: Bait and Switch, Closing Time, Cascade Point, Fragile Focus, Jolting Feedback, Opening Shot, Precision Instrument
- Origin Traits: Trials, Crucible, Suros
Going along with this, we have increased the Osirian Ciphers cap to 30, from 10. We have also removed the requirement to earn the Adept weapon each week it is available, and it now only needs to be earned once and then can be focused in subsequent weeks when it is the featured weapon.
Pinnacle Challenges
The Pinnacle Challenges remain unchanged in terms of how they are completed, but they now grant a piece of Trials armor in addition to the Pinnacle gear.
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Win 50 Rounds – Trials Challenge
- Pinnacle gear drop
- Trials armor x1
- Trials Ghost Shell – 40 progress points
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Win Seven Games – Saint-14 Challenge
- Pinnacle gear drop
- Trials armor x1
Reputation
We have increased the amount of reputation gained on losses by 10x and added a new bonus that is earned by playing in a fireteam with clanmates.
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Base Win
- Trials Reputation - 135-205
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Base Loss
- Trials Reputation - 60-155
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Clan Bonus
- Win - Trials Reputation - 100
- Loss - Trials Reputation - 50
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Trio Completion (Win or Loss)
- Trials Reputation - 25
Base Rewards
We have added a new set of base rewards for wins and losses that will be added to the existing Trios completion rewards, but for players in any fireteam configuration.
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Base Win
- Base Trials weapon - 50%
- Trials engram - 33%
- Ghost Shell - 1 progress point
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Base Loss
- Base Trials weapon - 33%
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Trio Completion (Win or Loss)
- Base Trials weapon - 50%
- Trials engram - 50% ###Dominion Game Mode Quality of Life Changes
While the sandbox changes outlined above and in the 8.1.5.3 patch represent the bulk of our work towards making Trials gameplay a more enjoyable experience, we’re also making some changes to the game mode itself. We want to encourage players to engage in combat first, with the zone being utilized more as a focal point and to break stalemates and less to win rounds quickly outright.
- Zone now spawns after 40s, instead of 30s.
- Zone takes 20s to capture, up from 15s.
- Neutral Special ammo crate spawns at 30s, instead of 20s. ###Fireteam-Based Matchmaking
We would of course be remiss if we did not mention Fireteam-Based Matchmaking (FTMM). Before we explain the changes we are going to make in Heresy: Act II, we want to provide you with some background on why we cannot simply remove FTMM from Trials.
Statistically, FTMM has kept solo players playing much more frequently than the old Freelance weekend system did. If we were to remove FTMM and revert to Freelance weekends, it would not increase the number of trios or improve their experience, it would simply decrease the number of solos playing most weeks.
Below is an example of how the population split worked before FTMM:
- Trios players didn’t increase when Freelance went away, but solo players decreased dramatically.
- Most solo players only played during Freelance weekends, on average less than 25% of them stuck around during non-Freelance weekends.
Image Link.png)imgur
Instead, starting in Heresy: Act II we will allow duos to match trios right off the bat in both Trials and Competitive. This will continue to allow duos to play with our 3v3 playlists without making it feel like an advantage that they can avoid trios. We have not enabled this in the past because, for the solo player that gets brought into the match to fill out the duo’s team, it always feels like a bad experience to see a trio on the other side. We also understand that filling out duos games with solo players often makes it feel like a lottery to see who gets the better team.
To help with this friction, we will be setting it up so that any solo player that gets matched against a larger fireteam in either Trials or Competitive will be granted loss forgiveness for the match, on the condition that they do not quit, go AFK, or intentionally throw the game. Doing any of these actions will still result in a loss, and potentially a matchmaking restriction depending on the severity and number of occurrences.
We believe this change will have the effect of encouraging more people to play as full fireteams, while also improving the experience of solo players who get matched with fireteams in these modes.
Skill Rework and Player Score Stat
In Heresy, we have undertaken the task of updating our internal “skill rating” and adding a new visual indicator players can see to measure performance. While our skill rating is accurate on a macro level (there is a very high chance that a player 50-100 skill above another player is, in fact, the better player), there is room for improvement when comparing players who have very similar skills on a game-to-game basis, and especially when reflecting performance in objective modes.
There are three main changes we are making to the way skill is tracked:
- Make objectives on par with base kills for points. As it stands currently, objectives are either not tracked towards skill at all or are worth fractions of what kills are worth. This means that players who slay out but ignore the objective and lose can end up with higher skill ratings than players with less kills but who play the objective better and win. In practical terms, skill had been defined for objective modes the same way it was defined for slayer modes, which didn’t always lead to an accurate indication of what players would contribute towards their team winning.
- Kills are still vitally important for any mode, but not all kills are created equal. As Shaxx has said, your opponents cannot capture zones if they are dead. We are going to be adding additional points to kills that are in service to the objective. For example, this could be something like kills while your team has zone advantage in Control, kills on an enemy that is attempting to capture an allied zone, or kills against the Spark Runner. Each mode that is not purely slayer based will have a new Objective Defeats stat on the post-game scoreboard which will detail which kills are eligible for this multiplier.
- We are also removing multiple "farmable" points like damage dealt, revives, and longest kill streak. These are not true indicators of skill performance and can muddy the water; but we will still display them as informational stats on the post-game scoreboards.
Overall, these changes will make playing the objective more valuable for modes which have them and allows players who get kills in service of the objective to have those contributions recognized and reflected in their skill. Additionally, being able to more appropriately determine how much value a player can provide to their team will help to improve the accuracy of our lobby balancing systems.
What does all this mean for you? In a very simplified explanation, our skill effectively works by taking the points you earned each game and comparing them both to your historical average, and to the points earned by the other players in your lobby, as well as their historical averages. These results are then run through a modified version of the Glicko algorithm to determine skill gains and losses and interpreted back into our SkillZ values, on a scale of -1000 to 1000.
To better reflect this, we are going to be displaying a new stat called Player Score on our post-game scoreboards, which is a direct reflection of how many points you earned towards updating your skill rating in a game. On the pre-game banners in Control and Iron Banner Control, the only two playlists where skill is currently utilized in matchmaking, we will also display your seasonal average Player Score for those modes alongside that of your teammates. While the average Player Score corresponds to our internal skill ratings, it is not a direct one-to-one representation, as we run several modifications in the backend to prevent direct skill manipulation (for example intentionally tanking your skill to play worse opponents or to manipulate point gains in Competitive).
We have also reworked the post-game scoreboards of all modes to show Opponents Defeated and Combat Efficiency, as we believe those stats are key to understanding how well you performed in each match.
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We have also added additional stats to the scoreboards of more modes, including Longest Chain (highest multikill medal) and Longest Streak.
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Competitive Changes
Points Rework
We have heard the feedback that point gains and losses in Competitive, along with the “expected rank” system, makes it feel like you have little agency over your climb, and what you need to do to succeed can be opaque and hard to understand. For Heresy, we have removed the expected rank system entirely and streamlined the point gains and losses. The removal of the expected rank system means you will no longer be boosted up to the rank the game believes you belong in. The only way to climb the ladder is going to be to win more than you lose at all ranks along the way, with some leeway based on personal performance. The new rules are as follows:
- Wins and losses – Add or remove a base value of 100 points.
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Performance bonus – Linked to Player Score and Efficiency.
- Above average performance gives you +1 to +10.
- Average performance gives you +0.
- Below average gives you -1 to -10.
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Contribution scalar – This scalar modifies the Performance Bonus and exists to reward players who had an outsized effect on their team. This is only a positive effect; the contribution scalar cannot ever negatively decrease your performance bonus below the -10 limit. This system can grant a bonus of up to +50 to either reduce the points lost on defeat or grant additional points for a win, and will be utilized in two circumstances:
- First, to help offset occurrences where some players contributed significantly more to the outcome of the game than others.
- Second, it can also be applied as quitter compensation when a player has left earlier in the match, but the remaining players continue to finish it out.
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Skill Modifier – Based on the opposing team’s average skill compared to your team’s average skill.
- Capped at -20 to +20, but based on current stats 97% of games will award between -10 and +10.
With this new system in place, we expect almost all games to finish with players rewarded with point values between 80 and 120 for wins, and -80 and -120 for losses, with an average at +/- 100. The range of points is as follows:
- Maximum Win Amount – 170 gained
- Minimum Win Amount – 70 gained
- Maximum Loss Amount – 130 lost
- Minimum Loss Amount – 30 lost ###Competitive Rewards
Let’s talk about the rewards coming to the Competitive playlist in Heresy.
New Weapons
To start, we’re very excited to introduce our second ever PR-55 Frame Pulse Rifle, Redrix’s Estoc.
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Redrix’s Estoc - Stasis PR-55 Frame Pulse Rifle
- Left Column: Encore, Lone Wolf, Perpetual Motion, Zen Moment, Offhand Strike, Rimestealer, Demolitionist
- Right Column: Desperate Measures, Sword Logic, Desperado, Headseeker, Rapid Hit, Kill Clip, Headstone
- Origin Trait: Stocks
New Emblems
Earning Ascendant III will grant you the “Winner’s Circle” emblem.
When Heresy: Act II goes live, we will be raising the maximum Rank Cap from 10000 to 15000, allowing players at max rank to climb to the new “Ascendant 0” division. Wins while in the Ascendant 0 rank will give you points progress (in the same manner as the Trials aesthetic rewards) towards earning the new “Darkest Night” emblem, and the higher your rank, the more points you get for wins.
Competitive Quality of Life Updates
We are making some changes to the existing Collision game mode to improve the game flow.
- New logic will prevent the next zone from spawning too near to the active zone.
- Contesting a zone will now flip it to neutral so neither team gains points, as opposed to the current behavior where the team that owns the zone continues to accrue points while it is in the contested state.
- The new zone will now show up 20 seconds before it opens, instead of 15 seconds, to give teams more time to move to the new area and contest the capture.
The quit protection timer has also been increased up to 90 seconds, to make sure that if a player is AFK at the beginning of the match and gets kicked, their teammates will still benefit from the loss forgiveness.
Slow Capture Collision
We are also introducing a new option called Slow Capture Collision, which will debut in Crucible Labs in Heresy: Act II, and will be live in Private Matches starting at the beginning of Heresy.
Slow Capture Collision is a twist on the existing Collision game mode where the zone takes much longer to capture, awards a single point, and then rotates locations. The first team to capture seven zones wins. Let us know what you think. If players prefer it, we can replace the existing version of Collision in Competitive.
Playlist Reorganization
Over the last year or so, we have been experimenting with various playlist configurations to offer as many different experiences as possible, with minimal splitting of the population. The solution we have settled on is to break our game modes up into three different categories – Core Game Modes, Quickplay Rotators, and Events. If you would like to refresh yourself on our various styles of matchmaking, please read this article.
Core Game Modes
Our base Crucible offerings, mostly unchanged from previous seasons.
- Control – 6v6, Outlier Protection
- Competitive – 3v3, Rank Based
- Rumble – FFA, Open Skill
- Private Matches ###Quickplay Rotators
Moving forward we have split our Quickplay offerings up into three distinct nodes, all of which will rotate game modes weekly and utilize Open Skill matchmaking (CBMM). This will allow us to showcase more modes more often, without having to worry about certain modes only showing up once per season or not at all. These modes have been designed to rotate in such a manner that there is minimal overlap between them in terms of experiences, to avoid them cannibalizing each other for population.
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Quickplay – 6v6, Open Skill. Standard Destiny gameplay in a 6v6 environment.
- Clash, Supremacy, Zone Control, Rift, Relic
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Small Team Quickplay – Small teams (2v2, 3v3, 4v4), Open Skill. Standard Destiny gameplay in a small team environment.
- Doubles – 2v2 Clash
- Elimination Variants – 3v3 Elimination, Dominion, Countdown, Survival
- Competitive Respawn Variants – 3v3 Countdown Rush and Showdown, 4v4 Lockdown
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Modified Quickplay – Various team sizes (3v3, 4v4, 6v6), Open Skill. Exclusively modes where the sandbox has been altered in such a way that standard Destiny gameplay is not possible. We understand that Checkmate and Hardware have been very popular with some parts of the community, so we have added an extra variant for each to the rotation to allow them to show up more often.
- Checkmate Variants – 6v6 Control and 4v4 Throwback (Survival, Showdown, Countdown Rush)
- Hardware Variants – 6v6 Supremacy and 3v3 Hardcore (Elimination, Countdown, Dominion)
- Other Modifiers - 6v6 Momentum Control, Mayhem Clash, Scorched Clash ###Events
As we have already been doing with Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris, Events will now replace the most closely related existing node for the duration of their run. The biggest change for Heresy is that Iron Banner is reverting to being active for a single week at a time. We have also introduced a new Iron Banner Quickplay rotator option which will appear alongside Iron Banner Control, and Crucible Labs will no longer be a standalone playlist and will now appear in the weekly rotation of the corresponding Quickplay node that is most relevant.
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Iron Banner Control – 6v6, Outlier Protection, replaces Control.
- Both Iron Banner playlists will be active over the following dates:
- February 18 to 25
- April 1 to April 8
- April 29 to May 6
- Iron Banner Quickplay Rotator – 6v6, Open Skill, replaces Quickplay.
- Tribute, Fortress, Eruption
- Trials of Osiris – 3v3, Open Skill / Weekly Performance, replaces Small Team Quickplay.
- Dominion
- Guardian Games Quickplay – 6v6, Open Skill, Replaces Quickplay.
- Supremacy
- Crucible Labs – Various modes, Open Skill, replaces either Quickplay, Small Team Quickplay, or Modified Quickplay depending on what mode is being tested.
- Both Iron Banner playlists will be active over the following dates:
In Heresy we will have a total of six matchmade nodes active at any given time. Four of those will utilize Open Skill (CBMM) matchmaking, one will be Rank Based, and one will be Outlier Protection.
New Playlists
You have probably noticed we have a handful of new playlists shown in the bulleted list above, so let’s break them down:
Iron Banner Quickplay Rotator (6v6)
Based on player feedback, we have broken Iron Banner up into two playlists, each one replacing an existing node on the Crucible Director. Iron Banner Quickplay will be the new home for Eruption, Fortress, Tribute, and eventually Rift when it returns, and will feature the Open Skill Matchmaking system utilized by our other Quickplay playlists, instead of the Outlier Protection used for Control and Iron Banner Control. If you want to play some of the more “party” oriented IB modes and take things a little less seriously, this is the place for you. All standard IB rewards can be earned in this playlist, just like in IB Control.
Lockdown (4v4)
We have finally brought Lockdown back and reworked it to address the previous issues the gamemode faced (who else remembers endless games on Endless Vale?). Lockdown works like a round-based version of Zone Control, with the twist that capturing all three zones immediately wins the round for the team that can pull it off, regardless of the score at the time. High risk, high reward! If you don’t want to go for the power play, no problem. Hold two zones for longer than your opponent and you can accrue enough points to win by score instead!
Checkmate Throwback (4v4)
A new playlist that focuses on what used to be and may one day be again. Still the same Checkmate you know and love with greatly penalized ability cooldowns, the Special Ammo Meter (retuned to be closer to its OG values), and modified weapon damage, but this time with a focus on small team combat. Survival, Showdown, and Countdown Rush are all on rotation.
Hardware Hardcore (3v3)
Hardware has been popular enough that we wanted to bring it back more often, but with a different type of experience. If you have ever wondered what Trials would be like with no abilities, now is the time to see for yourself! Elimination, Dominion, and Countdown are on tap. No abilities, no respaw
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