Answering questions today were these fine gentlemen:
Lars Bakken (aka Thug Larz), Crucible Design Lead
Derek Carroll (aka mantis), Senior Crucible Designer
Leif Johansen (aka DeadAlive23) Senior Crucible Designer
Josh Hamrick (aka iamtylerdurden), Senior Sandbox Designer
Jon Weisnewski (aka Newsk), Sandbox Designer
For those of you who weren't able to keep up with the action, or simply want a convenient way to see some of the questions, I put together this recap. I did my best to find all of the questions that were answered and eliminated the duplicate (and a few other "meh" questions). I've left all of the Developer's answers in tact but have shortened most of the questions (some of them quite substantially) for clarity sake. I have removed the names of those who asked the questions for privacy sake. If a question below has more than one answer its because it was asked several times and answered by different developers.
GENERAL
What information has a
greater impact upon how you decide to tweak the weapon stats? In game
telemetry or player feedback? PvE or PvP?
All of the above. We honestly take a good look at what is happening
in both places... What data shows but also what the "word on the street"
is. If we feel like we should take action, we then work on a solution
that hopefully does the right things in both PvE and PvP. I think the
recent Shotgun changes are a good example of this. - Josh Hamrick
The reward system is pretty flawed. Especially the nightfall rewards. Is there any plan to tweak the reward system in favor of player performance?
Sadly I am
but a luckless Sandbox Designer surrounded by Crucible designers and
don't have any real feedback for this other than that we also play every
single night. I run nightfall and weeklys and raids every week and we
share the same feedback with the Investment team on a regular basis. I
know those guys are keeping their eyes on things just like we have been
with Sandbox tweaks. - Josh Hamrick
Why can't PvE and PvP be separated for Weapon buffs/nerfs/in general?
The goal in Destiny is to allow you to make a character and have that
character transcend all activities and modes. We want you to play a
little bit of everything, find your favorite toys and be able to use
those toys, as is, all over the game.
We also want to make sure that Destiny always feels like Destiny regardless of the mode that you prefer to play in. We want PvP players to be able to have real conversations with their PvE player friends about the various items in the game.
As with the Shotgun change this week, we do make changes where we feel like they will make a significant impact and modify where the game isn't playing as desired. - Josh Hamrick
GUNS and PERKS
Most of the time, it was done in an
effort to try and make sure that the game wouldn't be totally broken.
We have an amazing test team, but we never really know how things are
going to get combined and used until we give it over to you guys. Many
of those things will change with time as we work to further refine and
polish the game. - Josh Hamrick
On 4th Horsemen...
Sage literally just walked into the room to alert us that we have found that the 4th Horseman's files were overwritten during their integration into the patch... What that means to you is that we playtested the proper things, but an issue occurred before the weapon made it out of the building and the stats HAVE been incorrectly modified.
We will work on getting the weapon restored to its former glory ASAP.
Apologies all around and thank you for drawing our attention to the issue! - Josh Hamrick
Why does No Land Beyond kinda suck?
No Land Beyond was built with a very specific play style in mind: Fast sniping, run and gun, quick scope precision shots at close range. It is primarily a PVP play style, and we wanted to give players who like this style a weapon that suits their skillset.
Admittedly, the weapon is not very forgiving to players who aren't already acclimated to playing like this. They'll probably die, a lot, trying to get consistent headshots in the crucible. Dying over and over isn't fun.
The question we need to ask in future exotic weapon patches is how much more accessible we want this weapon to be. Did we go too far in creating a niche weapon that only a few people enjoy? If we did, is that OK? Can we make it easier to use? If we did, would that turn The Crucible into a non stop No Land Beyond headshot murder fest? At surface level there are definitely things we can do to make NLB better (you have some great suggestions), but we also need to consider the wake that could incur if everyone had a super sweet one shot kill weapon in their primary slot in The Crucible.
We will definitely continue to listen to feedback and when it comes time to do another exotic weapon update, I'm sure we'll look closely at No Land Beyond. - Jon Weisnewski
We also want to make sure that Destiny always feels like Destiny regardless of the mode that you prefer to play in. We want PvP players to be able to have real conversations with their PvE player friends about the various items in the game.
As with the Shotgun change this week, we do make changes where we feel like they will make a significant impact and modify where the game isn't playing as desired. - Josh Hamrick
GUNS and PERKS
Why do some armor/gun perks stack while others do not?
On 4th Horsemen...
Sage literally just walked into the room to alert us that we have found that the 4th Horseman's files were overwritten during their integration into the patch... What that means to you is that we playtested the proper things, but an issue occurred before the weapon made it out of the building and the stats HAVE been incorrectly modified.
We will work on getting the weapon restored to its former glory ASAP.
Apologies all around and thank you for drawing our attention to the issue! - Josh Hamrick
Why does No Land Beyond kinda suck?
No Land Beyond was built with a very specific play style in mind: Fast sniping, run and gun, quick scope precision shots at close range. It is primarily a PVP play style, and we wanted to give players who like this style a weapon that suits their skillset.
Admittedly, the weapon is not very forgiving to players who aren't already acclimated to playing like this. They'll probably die, a lot, trying to get consistent headshots in the crucible. Dying over and over isn't fun.
The question we need to ask in future exotic weapon patches is how much more accessible we want this weapon to be. Did we go too far in creating a niche weapon that only a few people enjoy? If we did, is that OK? Can we make it easier to use? If we did, would that turn The Crucible into a non stop No Land Beyond headshot murder fest? At surface level there are definitely things we can do to make NLB better (you have some great suggestions), but we also need to consider the wake that could incur if everyone had a super sweet one shot kill weapon in their primary slot in The Crucible.
We will definitely continue to listen to feedback and when it comes time to do another exotic weapon update, I'm sure we'll look closely at No Land Beyond. - Jon Weisnewski
CLASSES
What was the inspiration behind the development of the Warlock skill trees?
The goal was to always make the Titan feel like a soldier, the Hunter to feel like a lucky survivalist and the Warlock... well he/she was always a magic user. On top of that, they were intended to both feel like a magic cannon and a rule breaker. While the Hunter is my personal favorite and was a bit custom built for my personal playstyle ;-), I love the way the Warlock plays. - Josh Hamrick
I think Blink makes Shotguns overpowered in PvP. What's the sandbox team's thoughts on Blink Shotgun? I would go more in depth, but I'm driving down the interstate. :)
Eyes on the road! Oprah would be quite angry with you.
The way weapons and abilities collide with other weapons and abilities is always being looked at. Blink is sweet. Shotguns are sweet. Together they are super sweet. We know this. This play style helped us settle on shotgun range values for the 1.1.1 patch. And I should be clear that I'm NOT saying "1.1.1 shotguns make blink & shotgun more balanced". :) But I do think the range change helps in this case.
Blink is also not necessarily an easy play style out of the box. People who are good at it, are GOOD AT IT, and are probably just as lethal with other non-blink movement modes.
We will definitely continue to monitor this, and any other interesting power spikes that come from weapon and ability combinations. - Jon Weisnewski
Eyes on the road! Oprah would be quite angry with you.
The way weapons and abilities collide with other weapons and abilities is always being looked at. Blink is sweet. Shotguns are sweet. Together they are super sweet. We know this. This play style helped us settle on shotgun range values for the 1.1.1 patch. And I should be clear that I'm NOT saying "1.1.1 shotguns make blink & shotgun more balanced". :) But I do think the range change helps in this case.
Blink is also not necessarily an easy play style out of the box. People who are good at it, are GOOD AT IT, and are probably just as lethal with other non-blink movement modes.
We will definitely continue to monitor this, and any other interesting power spikes that come from weapon and ability combinations. - Jon Weisnewski
Why does Shoulder Charge one-hit but Throwing Knife does not?
TK has a longer range and keeps you out of harms way. Also, SC is a bonus and is not the Titan's melee upgrade. - Josh Hamrick
Why is Bladedancer such a terrible Orb producer?
We turn all sorts of knobs to properly (or so we try) balance each class
and super. Orb production is one of those knobs. Bladedancer has
other PvE benefits besides producing Orbs that the other supers don't
have. - Josh Hamrick
What inspired each individual subclass super?
The Titan was intended to be a hard hitting soldier, the Hunter a lucky survivalist and the Warlock was a glass cannon magic user. Now some of this evolved through playtesting and feedback, but that was the idea. - Josh Hamrick
Did you design supers to fill a specific role, such as Healer or Tank?
Yes, using the ideas above we built supers for each
class and then designed builds around those supers. Again this is
something that drastically evolved with playtesting and feedback. Some
super made it straight through from day one and others were the
replacement of a replacement of another that didn't work out as well. - Josh Hamrick
If possible, any hints on the possible 3rd subclass?
I don't currently have anything to say about that =). - Josh Hamrick
Why did you make it so each class is missing a specific damage when it
comes to subclasses?
The better to tease you with, my dear... - Josh Hamrick
CRUCIBLE
Any chance the larger maps (Bastion and First Light) will be put back into normal rotation, even at a lower rate?
There's always a chance we bring them back in at a low rate, especially now that we have better control over maps getting repeated. It's something we're always talking about. - Lars Bakken
There's always a chance we bring them back in at a low rate, especially now that we have better control over maps getting repeated. It's something we're always talking about. - Lars Bakken
Why are the crucible rewards so scarce, given at random to the players
(seemingly always the worst player), and are more often than not very
low quality or of no use?
Crucible rewards are on the low side for sure, an issue we intend to address in a future update.
The rewards are random to encourage everyone in the game to play it to completion, rather than only the "winners" staying. - Derek Carroll
Crucible rewards are on the low side for sure, an issue we intend to address in a future update.
The rewards are random to encourage everyone in the game to play it to completion, rather than only the "winners" staying. - Derek Carroll
Why did you choose to limit special ammo to the degree in which you did? Why not more or less?
We're always evaluating the Ammo economy. This was our first stab at it, but we're never done.
I'm really happy with the Heavy change, especially in 6v6 games where it could last much too long. We want it to be short, bursty, and this change should make that better. - Lars Bakken
Any plans to move the zones around in Control? Or is spawn flipping to get that precious C point a part of your game design?
We're always looking at heatmaps and other data to make adjustments to maps! Personally, I really like the Shores of Time layout for Control, but Destiny allows us to make changes like those if we find something out-of-place. - Derek Carroll
Will there be any new Crucible game types besides Inferno coming in the future?
Inferno is the next one up, but it is far from the last. :) - Lars Bakken
YES!
For Destiny's launch, we focused on delivering a small set of solid gametypes that we believed in. Stay tuned. - Derek Carroll
Will the Inferno game mode be permanent? I think I would play more Crucible if it were permanent instead of every now and again. It's a great idea and I think inferno will attract many more players.
You haven't played it yet, so your confidence is inspiring. :)
There's always a possibility that it could be permanent, depending on how you all react to it. We want to stay fluid, and keep the option open. - Lars Bakken
I'm really happy with the Heavy change, especially in 6v6 games where it could last much too long. We want it to be short, bursty, and this change should make that better. - Lars Bakken
Any plans to move the zones around in Control? Or is spawn flipping to get that precious C point a part of your game design?
We're always looking at heatmaps and other data to make adjustments to maps! Personally, I really like the Shores of Time layout for Control, but Destiny allows us to make changes like those if we find something out-of-place. - Derek Carroll
Will there be any new Crucible game types besides Inferno coming in the future?
Inferno is the next one up, but it is far from the last. :) - Lars Bakken
YES!
For Destiny's launch, we focused on delivering a small set of solid gametypes that we believed in. Stay tuned. - Derek Carroll
Will the Inferno game mode be permanent? I think I would play more Crucible if it were permanent instead of every now and again. It's a great idea and I think inferno will attract many more players.
You haven't played it yet, so your confidence is inspiring. :)
There's always a possibility that it could be permanent, depending on how you all react to it. We want to stay fluid, and keep the option open. - Lars Bakken
Thanks for the feedback. The advantage of debuting
modes like Inferno in the rotating playlists are, among other reasons,
the bigger the population, the better the match-making. Having mode
variants leave and come back from time to time raises the overall
quality of the experience for everybody. If we see big enough consistent
numbers of players over a long enough time line, that opens the
conversation of finding a more permanent home for mods like these. In
the future, we want a healthy ecosystem of modes that balances playlist
quantity with quality, as it gives us the most room to make new, awesome
stuff. But, community feedback on what modes & variants you want to
see in Destiny will always be super helpful to us. - Leif Johansen
In PvP, the Vex Mythoclast was a disaster, but nerfing it caused issues for PvE players. Have you considered outlawing specific weapons in certain activities?
One of the big bets we made with Destiny was having a unified player inventory across all activities. I wouldn't want to add a bunch of rules for weapons you can/can't use under certain circumstances, and we spent a lot of time making sure weapons behave the way we expect them to. The Vex Mythoclast is the outlier of all outliers, so congrats to those players who have earned it (though I'll stick with Thorn, thanks). - Derek Carroll
How does supporting Destiny's PvP differ from Halo's?
In some ways it's similar (adding new playlists, updating map glitches, adjusting spawns), but there are some pretty big differences too. The biggest being that in Destiny we have an ever evolving game, which means we can continually change all sorts of things. You've already seen all the stuff we added/changed in a patch, just look at 1.1.1 to see.
As far as the Design process, we have some pretty interesting challenges in Destiny that we never had before. Namely that you bring your character everywhere with you. - Lars Bakken
In some ways it's similar (adding new playlists, updating map glitches, adjusting spawns), but there are some pretty big differences too. The biggest being that in Destiny we have an ever evolving game, which means we can continually change all sorts of things. You've already seen all the stuff we added/changed in a patch, just look at 1.1.1 to see.
As far as the Design process, we have some pretty interesting challenges in Destiny that we never had before. Namely that you bring your character everywhere with you. - Lars Bakken
I would like to know the developer's take on ranks in Crucible. Perhaps inferno could evolve to be the ranked playlist? Is this even a topic of discussion? Why or why not?
We didn't do ranks in the Crucible right out of the gate for a number of reasons, but they could make an appearance someday. Inferno playlists will add some cool variety, but I don't think they are "the way" to play Destiny. - Derek Carroll
How does Bungie feel about the current class balance in PvP? Do any supers lead the pack as far as kills per match? Do you guys feel like you'll take another pass at it, or that it is fine as is?
Great questions.
We're pretty happy with the overall balance in PvP, and we can say that because we have a metric ton of data on it. It's actually really close across the board, much closer than we would have thought.
Having said that, I imagine at some point we'll take a pass at it again, but you never know what the future may bring. - Lars Bakken
Will we ever see the introduction of pure objective based game modes, such as Domination, Assault, or CTF?
Maybe someday!
The real answer is that our initial collection of gametypes were designed to promote teamwork without putting undue pressure on any one player. There's no way for one player to "lose the game" instantly the way a bad flag-runner can in CTF. As Destiny evolves, we will add more complexity/variety in our gametypes as we see fit. - Derek Carroll
Iron Banner
With the tweaks to level differences, is the gametype working as intended?
Yeah, it's pretty close at this point. 2.0 update to the Power Differences really helped. We're never done tweaking though. - Lars Bakken
Will the map list be refined in the future?
Yeah, we meant to have 3 more maps in the last one, but the 1.1.1 patch came out just a little too late. Expect Asylum, Anomaly, and Burning Shrine to join the playlist for the next go round. - Lars Bakken
Will we ever see Iron Banner applied to more than just Control?
That's something we're talking about internally. - Lars Bakken
How many motes of light have been spent reforging weapons?
Don't know the numbers, but I bet DeeJ could dig them up. - Lars Bakken
Awesome change to the headshot bounty - big thank you to whoever made that change.
I'll let them know. :) - Lars Bakken
Miscellaneous
Does Bungie actually care?
Yes, we care. We can't listen/respond to everyone, and we certainly can't make everyone happy.
We try to make a bunch of people happy, and I think we're doing pretty well on that score. - Derek Carroll
I know this is for the Devs, but DeeJ, is your name supposed to be pronounced D-J or just similar to siege but with a D?
It's actually pronounced "Bob". Freaked me out too. - Josh Hamrick
I'll let them know. :) - Lars Bakken
Miscellaneous
Does Bungie actually care?
Yes, we care. We can't listen/respond to everyone, and we certainly can't make everyone happy.
We try to make a bunch of people happy, and I think we're doing pretty well on that score. - Derek Carroll
I know this is for the Devs, but DeeJ, is your name supposed to be pronounced D-J or just similar to siege but with a D?
It's actually pronounced "Bob". Freaked me out too. - Josh Hamrick
