Bungie reveals Destiny 2 gameplay changes for PC beta
The console beta helped a lot, it seems.
Bungie has outlined some of the gameplay changes it's made to Destiny 2 based on feedback from the recent console beta - changes that will make it into the upcoming PC beta, which kicks off on 28th August.
Let's start with the infinite super glitch, which we reported on back in July. That's been fixed.
Speaking of supers, Bungie has reduced the time it takes to charge one of the things. "This was a big change that came directly from your feedback during the console beta," sandbox designer Josh Hamrick said in post on Bungie.net. "We agree it was taking a bit too long to cook up a Super."
This was one of my chief complaints with the console beta, so it's great to see Bungie react.
Moving on, Bungie's fixed the Warlock glide glitch ("this bug was awesome... so awesome it hurt us a little bit to kill it"), and the infinite grenades glitch.
PC beta players will also find warlocks now have the same melee range as all the other classes. "Our PC friends will get a chance to experience a world with consistent base melee ranges," Hamrick said. "So will the rest of you, when the game launches."
Bungie had already signalled plans to increase grenade damage in PvE (thank god!), but in the weekly update it went into more detail:
"Increased damage helps grenades feel as powerful as they should facing hordes of alien combatants and, more specifically, makes the longer cooldowns more palatable," Hamrick said.
"We want abilities to be slightly more rare, but worth it. In the console beta, the 'worth it' part wasn't quite there yet."
And there's more on the tweak to increase power ammo (the new name for heavy ammo) drops in PvE:
"The PC beta has been updated with our new values and will provide much more power ammo in PvE than what was found before. Power ammo can also be directly farmed from all Yellow Bar Combatants. Go big, Guardians!"
Earlier this month it emerged several popular game capture programs would not work with Destiny 2 on PC. As you'd expect, the news was met with concern from some streamers.
This week, Bungie said Destiny 2 on PC will include an in-game FPS counter and the ability to set an upper-FPS limit (via a config file).
The focus of the restrictions, it seems, are overlays.
"Players may stream Destiny 2 PC using supported modes within the streaming software (e.g. OBS, XSplit, etc)," Bungie said. "Communication applications such as Discord and Mumble will work normally except for the overlay of their UI in the game."
The idea is to prevent third-party applications from inserting code into the Destiny 2 game client. Some of the methods these applications use to add features, Bungie stressed, are the same as those used by hackers and cheaters to mess with other players.
"As a part of our security efforts, we have designed Destiny 2 for PC to resist all attempts from external applications to insert code into the game client," Bungie said.
"It is a high priority for us to ensure that Destiny 2 is a safe and fair experience for all players, on all platforms. We remain committed to creating a positive and fair in-game experience in all of our products, and believe that this is a necessary measure in bringing you a great gaming experience in Destiny 2 on PC."