Original Post — Direct link

Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/50788


This week at Bungie, we look to Trials Freelance, fashion, and pumpkins.

Festival of the Lost is in full swing! If you haven’t donned a mask and earned some candy yet, get to it. Eva has goodie bags, Exotic cosmetics, and a refreshed collection of fun masks for you to earn over the course of the event. If you’re still on the hunt for a perfectly rolled Jurassic Green Pulse Rifle, join some friends to jam ‘em out!

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If you’re looking for a challenge outside of the Festival, we have a few options for you. Grandmaster Nightfall features Exodus Crash this week, sending shivers down the spines of many Guardians who’ve been with us since Destiny 2 launched all those years ago. The Comedian Shotgun and Shadow Price Auto Rifle are dropping from Nightfalls this week. If you’d like a shiny Adept version, Grandmaster is the difficulty for you. Shattered Realm and Astral Alignment can also be played at Legend difficulty to round out a few Triumphs for the Seasonal “Realmwalker” Seal. Sure, you can try to take on the challenge with smaller fireteams or even solo, but we highly recommend forming a fireteam before taking the plunge. 

This weekend will be host to a few things. We have our second Trials Labs offering at 10 AM Pacific tomorrow, and a few FotL-themed contests to kick off. 


Trials of Osiris: Freelancers Welcome 

In less than 24 hours, Saint-14 will be dabbling another Labs weekend for Trials of Osiris. For this round, we’ll be looking at Freelance. For those that don’t know, Freelance is a matchmaking node specifically for solo players; no premade fireteams may enter. While players continue to earn Trials reputation and even go for a Flawless run, this is a separate node that will be located directly above Trials of Osiris in the Director.  

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Now remember, if you're going in alone, watch your back. There’s no telling if your Freelance teammates will be looking out for you. Find a buddy, move together, and maybe your team will come out on top. 

Through this Freelance Labs weekend, Trials reputation will be doubled. If you’re rounding out your Trials specific armor collection or aiming for a good roll on any of the weapons that Trials has to offer, this is a great weekend to jam out some rep! Now remember, once you’ve completed a full card, even if you’ve lost a game or two, your post-game rewards are increased! Enhancement Prisms, Ascendant Shards, and Trials Engrams all have the chance to drop. Whether you want to Focus your engrams and roll a specific reward or just roll the dice , this is the best way to earn Trials loot. Armor drops also have higher chances for better stat rolls! 

This week also introduced a fresh set of Seasonal Challenges, including Trial by Firing Squad. To complete it, win 20 rounds over the course of the weekend and be rewarded with a Reed's Regret Linear Fusion Rifle, XP, and Bright Dust ! Once you’ve gotten your hands on Reed’s Regret, this also unlocks the ability to focus Trials Engrams for more rolls at Saint-14.

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Good luck this weekend. While there (thankfully) won’t be any spiders clouding your view, I’ve heard our setting this week is a little spooky. Be careful when you open doors. Could be a normal 1v1 engagement with an opponent, or you could find yourself staring a bullcharging Striker Titan in the face. Just the thought is terrifying to me! 


Costume Contest 

It wouldn’t be Festival of the Lost if we didn’t have a fashion show. Guardians have been donning masks while hunting for Spectral Pages and candy, but now it’s time to see who can cook up the best costumes. Interested? Here's the ground rules:

  • Get dressed up!

    • Masks, costumes, and badass armor combinations are welcome.
    • Creative use of settings, shaders, and vehicles get extra points.
    • Group shots are allowed. 
  • Post your submission to Twitter, Instagram, or our Community Creations portal with the hashtag #FOTLFashion2021. 

What’s up for grabs? Well, we thought it was about time to bring back a slick emblem that represents the pinnacle of fashion: Levante’s Prize. 

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We’ll be sharing winners through the end of October 31, 2021. We’re excited for you to trick and/or treat us with some awesome looks through the end of the month. 


Paint and Pumpkins 

In-game fashion isn’t the only show we’re putting on. How about an art show, too? Over the years, we've seen wonderful creations sprout up around Festival of the Lost. Some are created with pen and paper, others with some digital art programs that cook up amazingly spooky effects. Pens aren't your thing? Out of paper? No problem! Grab a pumpkin and something to carve it with. Here's what you'll need to do:

  • Make some art!

    • Whether it be a pumpkin carving, a digital painting, or something hand crafted to show your skills – it's all welcome! 
  • Post your submission to Twitter, Instagram, or our Community Creations portal with the hashtag #FOTLArtShow2021.

Just like our costume contest, we’ll be sharing winners through the end of October 31, 2021. If your work is shared, we have the following emblem for you to enjoy: Chromatic Intention. 

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Having trouble getting started? We’ve cooked up a fresh collection of pumpkin stencils for you to enjoy! Back in 2018, we put out a collection of Destiny 2 themed stencils for players to use. We thought it was about time to spruce up the offerings! 

2021 Festival of the Lost Pumpkin Stencils

Witch Queen

Bungie Shield

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Follow the link for a few nice surprises...

Our Community and Social teams tried their best to carve up a few example pumpkins as well. Don't judge them too harshly. We were hired for our memes, not our carving skills!

Bug Out

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The Crow

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Hey, wait a second, we already posted this!

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Now remember, it’s not about the emblem. It’s about having fun. Right? Show us what you’ve got. 


Creepy Crawlies 

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Earlier today, we deployed a hotfix to smash some bugs (did you know that spiders aren’t bugs?). If you missed the patch notes, check them out! Player Support has a quick update to cover issues we’re still tracking, and some other need to know information! 

This is their report. 

HOTFIX 3.3.1.1 IS LIVE 

Earlier today, we released Hotfix 3.3.0.3. This hotfix resolved several issues including:  

  • The Prophecy Ghost Shell now takes shaders as intended. 
  • In The Corrupted strike, Sedia’s shield no longer regenerates at an unusually high speed. 

XBOX vs. MICROSOFT STORE SILVER CLARIFICATION 

Last week, Destiny 2 launched on the Microsoft Store for PC. Players on Xbox can use the same Microsoft Account they use on Xbox to log into the Microsoft Store on any Windows PC to play Destiny 2 with their characters. 

Due to the Microsoft website selling products for both the Xbox and Windows PC version of Destiny 2, players should carefully verify they’re buying Silver for the correct platform. We are working with Microsoft to make these names and descriptions clearer for everyone. If players purchase Silver from Microsoft’s website for the wrong platform, they will need to log into that platform to obtain the Silver. The same applies for emote bundles, but players will also have to visit Master Rahool in the Tower on that platform to obtain the emote. 

In the meantime, the Silver pages show what platform the Silver is for and players can also distinguish the Silver with the following information: 

Silver bundles, such as the Season of the Lost Silver Bundle and Throne of Atheon Emote Bundle, are also platform specific. 

KNOWN ISSUES 

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum.  

  • The eyes on the Skerren Corvus Mask no longer glow. 
  • The One Punch finisher no longer makes sound when the finisher is executed. 
  • Some players may appear as invisible or visually loading for extended periods of time. 
  • The German name for Heir Apparent is inaccurately translated. 
  • The Surplus and Overflow perks are translated to the same word in German. 
  • Scorn Snipers are unintentionally draining energy from Titans’ Banner Shields in PvE activities.   

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum


Arachnophobia 

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I’ve always had problems with spiders. Little jumping spiders aren’t so bad. Those are actually cute. Everything else though? Yeah, burn the house down. Move to a different state. Never set foot in Australia. I want nothing to do with these little buggers and they seem to find me, no matter where I hide. Heck, even the TWAB header for this week has been haunting my dreams.

If you have a distaste for spiders, I highly recommend avoiding the first selection this week. 

Movie of the Week: As Seen on TikTok 

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Movie of the Week: Somebody’s Watching Me 

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If you're aiming for a MOTW emblem, make sure to include #MOTW in the title of your creation when uploading. We scour our Community Creations page daily, so there's always a chance your content will catch our eyes!


Days Growing Darker 

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Here in the states, autumn is in full effect. Leaves are falling. Rain has come. Spiders are invading apartment buildings and houses. Our days are slowly transitioning into nothing but shadow and dust beneath blankets of thick clouds and cold winds. While many in the Pacific Northwest love this time of year, it can be a bit dreary. Although I must admit, it is perfect for a spooky season. This week, we’ve seen some artists among the community leaning into these themes. Join us in celebrating their work! 

Art of the Week: Howl in the Night 

  • Aaaah Fin

music: BLITZ UNION - Plastic#Destiny2 #Destinythegame #Destiny2Art pic.twitter.com/8HYAt8rNr3

— .:estranoh:. (@BlueEstra) October 16, 2021  

Art of the Week: Fallens First Festival 

"A knife would help."

Zion-3 and Kixx are partaking in an ancient Festival of the Lost tradition...

-#destiny #destiny2 #destinyart #Destiny2Art #DestinyTober2021 #destinytober pic.twitter.com/Z5wrGKbq1k

— Reid Wooten (@axelander_art) October 19, 2021

Cheers to those featured this week! If you've got some creepy, spooky, or otherwise autumnal Destiny art to share with us, make sure to tag it with #Destiny2Art, #DestinyArt, or #Destinytober.


Soon (Tee Em) 

The team has been hard at work over the last few months planning some special things for the 30th Anniversary release. Not just in content, but also some quality-of-life updates. Cozmo and I have been responding to a few questions here and there about bug fixes, like a pass on Dunemarchers chain lightning, some aim-assist tuning on Vex Mythoclast (which will help keep the weapon viable in PvE while addressing some PvP concerns), and even a fix for those pesky "Valor Overflowing" screens that occasionally pop up in the middle of your Crucible matches. Our upcoming patch is more than just bug fixes, though. The team was able to squeeze in a little time for other bits of Exotic weapon tuning as they transition to fully focus on The Witch Queen. 

Now, don't get me wrong - this isn't a full Season’s worth of buffs, but a handful of fun things to give some Exotics a fighting chance in a given Guardian’s loadout. I've heard whispers of a few changes that have already got me thinking about switching things up. I’ve also seen a few previews of upcoming Exotic ornaments that I just need to get my hands on. 

The end of November/early December is the target for the full writeup from our Sandbox centric teams, so stay tuned! Until then, we’ve got spiders to dodge and pumpkins to carve. 

Cheers, 

-dmg04

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over 2 years ago - /u/dmg04 - Direct link

Originally posted by truthswans

/u/dmg04 From the 9/23 TWAB you all said you were looking at deeper matchmaking changes to get rid of the flawless pool and you'd have more info mid/late October. Since that info didn't make it into this TWAB, is it scheduled for next week or do you have a better date on when we'll know more about the state of the Flawless pool and the matchmaking changes?

We are working on some deeper matchmaking solutions which we hope lets us remove the flawless pool. Look out for more info in mid/late October.

EDIT: DMG responded to Ms5000watts on Twitter asking a similar question: https://twitter.com/A_dmg04/status/1451305845191426081?s=20

Yep. Flawless pool continues to start on Sunday at reset.

Matchmaking changes are planned for a future hotfix. Once we have more info, we'll let y'all know!

Looking like it could be in the TWAB next week, but I can't make the promise just yet.

Stay tuned!

over 2 years ago - /u/dmg04 - Direct link

Originally posted by LovelyJoey21605

Ayy! Nice update on Trials!

I particularily love how you completely avoid talking about numbers now that they've dropped from 748 490 to 479 558, according to https://destinytrialsreport.com/weeksThat's a whopping 35.9% player dropp-off in just 6 played weeks of trials!

I also notice how you're now NOT mentioning anything about the ratio of "un-competitive" matches. Is that because they've gone WAY the f**k up, since high skilled players are still farming low-skilled players despite the laughably-easy-to-circumvent flawless pool?

Incase you haven't noticed, I'm salty that your rework of Trials completely misses the mark.I had fun in Trials a couple of weeks ago, and now it's starting to become the unplayable 0-5 stompfest that (almost) everyone hated in previous seasons.

Why even bother with a rework, if you refuse to make matches actually playable for the average player? I WANT this game-mode to be good, but this 'ain't it.

P.S. I know I'll get downvoted the f**k out of for this, I don't care.

A few things:

  1. It's expected that the Trials population decrease week over week. The team is doing work to see what can be done to reduce the decline (or even increase population on occasion), but right now we're in a period of trying new things. Between the rework to rewards and Trials Labs every few weekends, we're getting a ton of great data to inform potential changes to the mode in the future. We want Trials to be the best it can be, as we want Destiny to be the best it can be. There will still be bumps. There will be hiccups. We're excited about the knowledge we're gaining and what could come about in the future.
  2. Flawless pool will be enabled on Sunday. The team is cooking up changes for Trials matchmaking, and we'll provide additional information when we have it. I mentioned in another comment, it's looking like we may have it for the TWAB next week, but can't make the promise just yet.
  3. In terms of "uncompetitive matches", team is investigating. As we introduce more Labs weekends and address feedback from previous, we're still digging through the data. In terms of "players are resetting at 6 wins", it seems that a miniscule population of players is actually doing this in practice. Yes, it's an issue that needs to be addressed, but it's not burning down the playlist to the extent that some are stating.

Thanks for continuing to shoot feedback our way and the discussion you have with other players. While we can't reply to every single subject in every single TWAB (seriously, we can't have 20k word TWAB's every week to cover every corner of Destiny), these are conversations that we're having in meetings pretty frequently. I've said a few times on this sub - some changes take a while to implement. While matchmaking will come about in a hotfix, other larger changes to the mode may not come for a few months. As we get closer to those patches, though, we'll be sure to sound off on the what's and why's.

over 2 years ago - /u/dmg04 - Direct link

Originally posted by ninth_reddit_account

Hi /u/dmg04 /u/Cozmo23 - Since Beyond Light a whole bunch of stat trackers/Metrics have been broken. I haven't seen it in any known issues lists, in any of the TWABs, or any acknowledgement on the forums. It sucks to miss out on 12 months of data on these stat trackers, and I would hate to miss out on more.

For example, Stormcaller defeats, Dawnblade defeats, Voidwalker defeats, and Motes Banked metrics have not had their values increase since Beyond Light came out last November, and I've definitely been playing on those subclasses!

I have a bunch of screenshots of stat trackers before a match, the Gambit PGCR, and then after to show that they aren't updating. Additionally, I've been taking a snapshot of these metrics through the API once a minute for the past month 🙂 and they haven't changed once. Shadebinder kills works as expected. Please let me know if there's anything else I can provide to help out.

Is the team aware they're broken, and do they have plans to fix them? ✌️

Hey, thanks for the info! Question, have you posted a thread on the Help forums of Bungie.net? With Destiny accounts linked, this gives the team extra info for investigation and such.

over 2 years ago - /u/dmg04 - Direct link

Originally posted by SneednFeeder

fighting lion

Got in touch with the team, here's some info straight from their keyboards:

Fighting Lion wasn't a specific problem before we reworked the weapon, but given increasing frustration with breech grenade launchers in crucible it seemed like a misstep to say "we hear you" and "here's an infinite ammo version of that thing you're frustrated about" in the same patch

It has become clear through hands on, feedback, and backend data that the full nerf isn't needed, so we're adjusting it in the 30th Anniversary patch

Note: This is not a full rollback - there's still a difference between "almost infinite ammo" and "actually infinite ammo" in how weapons are used, so we want to make sure we don't create a monster.

Here's a quick patchnote preview for December:

  • Removed the multi-hit requirement for the reload speed buff
  • Increased the buff to the reload stat
  • i.e. reload will still be slow if you miss, but if you land any damage Fighting Lion will reload faster than it did before the nerf
over 2 years ago - /u/dmg04 - Direct link

Originally posted by WACK-A-n00b

Hey, can you please look at reworking trials ranks?

If a "scrub" plays 10 games of trials a week and cant get 7 wins, they get:

4 engrams the first week, 2 the next and then 1 or 0 every week until reset.

That may be why trials seemed so popular in the first week: loot WAS raining. After the first couple weeks, for the players that need the rank engrams the most, it becomes unreasonably difficult to get loot.

I suggest for, trials only (if you want to keep others the same), the ranks be set to 625 points per rank. That means anyone playing ~7 games should get SOMETHING the week they play.

Team is looking at rep gains. Don't have any specifics, but it's a topic of conversation!

Once we have more info, we'll let you know.