Bungie Changes Destiny 2 XP System after Players Discover It Was Rigged

Megalith

Megalith

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Some players noticed that the longer they played Destiny 2, the slower they’d progress, despite the fact that they were repeating the same activities. The first time a player would earn 5,000 XP, they’d see a large chunk of their XP bar fill. The second or third (or fifteenth) time they earned the same number of XP, the bar would get a much smaller chunk.

The whole issue is a bigger deal than it might otherwise have been chiefly because of the way XP is tied in with Destiny 2’s Eververse microtransaction hub. Bungie could have had any number of reasons for designing the XP system the way they did, but many players were quick to ascribe the most obvious (and nefarious) reasoning: that Bungie wants players to feel like they’re making progress more slowly in order to encourage them to spend money to get Bright Engrams faster.
 
The first time a player would earn 5,000 XP, they’d see a large chunk of their XP bar fill. The second or third (or fifteenth) time they earned the same number of XP, the bar would get a much smaller chunk.
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I don't know how Destiny plays, but it sounds like the experience bar is simply not scaled in a linear fashion.

Or if the 5k XP is needed to completely fill the bar, after they fill it once it takes progressively more XP to level up?
 
Good thing those loot boxes are purely for comestic junk, or we might have some real outrage on our hands :eek:
 
This is how developers pad-out a game that is, otherwise, repetitive and short. Stripped down, limited titles like Destiny and Battlefront need stuff like this to slow peoples progress or else they will realize just how *little game* there actually is here.

There is, literally, almost nothing to do in games like Destiny or Battlefront .....the weapon selections are horrible, the maps are just arenas that are barren and lifeless, all the cool shit is off in the skybox as part of a map painting (want to find out what is up in those giant, ancient rockets in the Russian Cosmodrome..sorry, they're a painting, here, enjoy this barren open field with some gutted shipping containers instead. Enjoy this empty rocky canyon, or even better this empty rocky cave where the same 10 "wtf are these? Monsters? Wizards? ALiens?" creatures spawn.... Bungie and their leftover Halo assets for the one MEDIOCRE FPS they've been milking for, what, two decades?) *sigh*. If GTAV had tighter first-person shooting controls and mechanics, Destiny could basically be released as a free GTAOL mod.
 
HeadRusch said:
This is how developers pad-out a game that is, otherwise, repetitive and short. Stripped down, limited titles like Destiny and Battlefront need stuff like this to slow peoples progress or else they will realize just how *little game* there actually is here.

There is, literally, almost nothing to do in games like Destiny or Battlefront .....the weapon selections are horrible, the maps are just arenas that are barren and lifeless, all the cool shit is off in the skybox as part of a map painting (want to find out what is up in those giant, ancient rockets in the Russian Cosmodrome..sorry, they're a painting, here, enjoy this barren open field with some gutted shipping containers instead. Enjoy this empty rocky canyon, or even better this empty rocky cave where the same 10 "wtf are these? Monsters? Wizards? ALiens?" creatures spawn.... Bungie and their leftover Halo assets for the one MEDIOCRE FPS they've been milking for, what, two decades?) *sigh*. If GTAV had tighter first-person shooting controls and mechanics, Destiny could basically be released as a free GTAOL mod.
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Lol! It's not for everyone, that's for sure.
 
*shrug* I've gotten plenty of enjoyment out of Destiny 2, and I am not bothered by loot boxes AS LONG AS THEY ARE PURELY COSMETIC.
 
I don’t get why people enjoy destiny. Good to see someone exposing cheap developer tactics, though. I guess this is what you do when there isn’t enough content to keep people budy.
 
Eh? Diminishing returns on experience gains, say it isn’t so Batman! Yeah yeah blah blah bright engrams. I just assumed it was the case. I’m pretty sure it was the same way in destiny 1 though that was for notes of light but still we aren’t playing Final Fantasy 8 people.
 
Dudhunter said:
I don’t get why people enjoy destiny. Good to see someone exposing cheap developer tactics, though. I guess this is what you do when there isn’t enough content to keep people budy.
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The game has fun weapons and shooting mechanics, that’s why people play. The gear grind is fairly short and they acknowledge there isn’t a lot of content.

I’ve definitely gotten my money from the game, it doesn’t need to be endless (with no monthly fee) to keep me happy.
 
Destiny doesn't look fun. It looks like yet another grinding RPG, and I've had my fill of that years ago... Grinding is so boring, and really ruins RPGs for me. I've found Blizzard has been putting more and more effort into wows leveling, to make it way more entertaining, and not grindy.

I wish more RPG developers did the same...
 
BloodyIron said:
Destiny doesn't look fun. It looks like yet another grinding RPG, and I've had my fill of that years ago... Grinding is so boring, and really ruins RPGs for me. I've found Blizzard has been putting more and more effort into wows leveling, to make it way more entertaining, and not grindy.

I wish more RPG developers did the same...
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While destiny 2 has some grinding, at least at this point, it's not near as bad as most. I don't know if you have played the game or not, but things like exotics stay with you and all your guys. Don't have the inventory, grind it to dust. Need it on another guy, make it. Then combine it with a higher class item to make it relevant. Destiny 2 is made for the non-grind. If anything, it doesn't have enough end game content. I didn't think I would enjoy the game, but ended up liking it (my brother purchased it for me). Also, stuff like this annoys me.
 
thecold said:
While destiny 2 has some grinding, at least at this point, it's not near as bad as most. I don't know if you have played the game or not, but things like exotics stay with you and all your guys. Don't have the inventory, grind it to dust. Need it on another guy, make it. Then combine it with a higher class item to make it relevant. Destiny 2 is made for the non-grind. If anything, it doesn't have enough end game content. I didn't think I would enjoy the game, but ended up liking it (my brother purchased it for me). Also, stuff like this annoys me.
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I think part of the problem is that people think it is an MMORPG. It really isn't. It's a shooter with some online aspects, and you can play with your friends.

It gets put into the same pot as something like WoW, but it is really a different animal.
 
PhaseNoise said:
I think part of the problem is that people think it is an MMORPG. It really isn't. It's a shooter with some online aspects, and you can play with your friends.

It gets put into the same pot as something like WoW, but it is really a different animal.
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Yar, I think it's more akin to something like Phantasy Star Online.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I don't know how Destiny plays, but it sounds like the experience bar is simply not scaled in a linear fashion.

Or if the 5k XP is needed to completely fill the bar, after they fill it once it takes progressively more XP to level up?
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They throttle based on the activity but I know what you're saying. Rainbow Six Siege used to have some funky stuff with their XP bars that made it seem you were always on the cusp of a rank-up that took longer and longer to arrive. It was a lot like those reviews you see with graphs that start at 140 FPS (or something) and compare 160 to 150 with the latter being half as long. In this case, though, they were literally just giving you a percentage depending on how fast and how often you could cycle an event.
 
Destiny 2 came free with my video cards. I can't say that i enjoy it much, id put borderlands above this game for sure.
 
bugleyman said:
*shrug* I've gotten plenty of enjoyment out of Destiny 2, and I am not bothered by loot boxes AS LONG AS THEY ARE PURELY COSMETIC.
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It's so ironic to me when people take this stance on game content. "I don't care about cosmetics"? It's the same as saying "I don'T care about graphics at all" We might as well play with no skins and every texture in the game world would be a microtransaction. It's a slippery slope. We shouldn't give an inch. Microtransactions should be a no-no regardless if it affects gameplay or not. And in fact many times cosmetic mods do affect gameplay, for example if you buy a skin that is better camouflaged than the default one, then you're already getting an advantage despite it only being cosmetic.

And besides it kills the game anyway. When someone used to come around at a high level and a great kit, it meant something. Now it can be any rich kid who spent his dad's credit card on lootboxes. It's meaningless to achieve anyhing in games where you can substitute skill and gameplay with money.

Not to mention when they deliberately slow down regular progress in the game to the point of it being a repetitive grindfest just to make you fed up and give in to buying progress instead of attaining it.
 
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EA's sim city for the android did the same thing. no surprise. Get them addicted by making it semi easy in the beginning then make it impossible later on to advance without buying.

Didn't do any of these big gaming companies any good as I spent zip on them in the long run. I did support small ones.

Now if a company pulled that crap after I paid $60 or more for entry, I would raise hell. You can't deny a person the ability to complete the game without additional cash. That's akin to bait and switch.
 
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I am assuming this is a new thing for console gamers? Diminishing returns has always been a thing especially in online gaming.
 
M76 said:
It's so ironic to me when people take this stance on game content. "I don't care about cosmetics"? It's the same as saying "I don'T care about graphics at all" We might as well play with no skins and every texture in the game world would be a microtransaction. It's a slippery slope. We shouldn't give an inch. Microtransactions should be a no-no regardless if it affects gameplay or not. And in fact many times cosmetic mods do affect gameplay, for example if you buy a skin that is better camouflaged than the default one, then you're already getting an advantage despite it only being cosmetic.

And besides it kills the game anyway. When someone used to come around at a high level and a great kit, it meant something. Now it can be any rich kid who spent his dad's credit card on lootboxes. It's meaningless to achieve anyhing in games where you can substitute skill and gameplay with money.

Not to mention when they deliberately slow down regular progress in the game to the point of it being a repetitive grindfest just to make you fed up and give in to buying progress instead of attaining it.
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First of all, nothing in your post has anything to do with irony, Alanis.

Second, as for "killing the game," appearance means squat. What matters in Destiny 2 PVE -- other than skill -- is the quality of your gear, which loot boxes do not contribute to at all. Nor do the lootbox "skins" help in PVP...if anything, they're stupidly flashy and therefore a competitive DISadvantage. This is in stark contrast to to games where microtransactions actually provide a competitive benefit.

Finally, diminishing returns have been part of every level-based game since, well, forever. And again, we're talking about purely cosmetic items.

I appreciate that you seem to find the very concept of microtransactions offensive -- hell, I don't like them -- but by claiming cosmetic loot boxes are the same as pay-to-win, you're comparing apples to oranges.
 
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I don't really care if they allow people to buy stuff which doesn't matter to save time grinding it- I mean, whatever. If you have some bucks and want to get a pink spaceship, more power to you.

But this factor which kicks in pretty much caps what you can obtain from actually playing the game, and with no indication in the game other than the bar is just not moving. It says you got 3000 XP and on Tuesday, that really moves the bar. After a few hours of play a week, it doesn't budge. Still says 3000 xp.

At least they should accurately report what you're getting so you know "okay, the game is punishing me for playing now, I should switch to a different character or game".
 
bugleyman said:
First of all, nothing in your post has anything to do with irony, Alanis.

Second, as for "killing the game," appearance means squat. What matters in Destiny 2 PVE -- other than skill -- is the quality of your gear, which loot boxes do not contribute to at all. Nor do the lootbox "skins" help in PVP...if anything, they're stupidly flashy and therefore a competitive DISadvantage. This is in stark contrast to to games where microtransactions actually provide a competitive benefit.

Finally, diminishing returns have been part of every level-based game since, well, forever. And again, we're talking about purely cosmetic items.

I appreciate that you seem to find the very concept of microtransactions offensive -- hell, I don't like them -- but by claiming cosmetic loot boxes are the same as pay-to-win, you're comparing apples to oranges.
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I explained why a cosmetic item can be an advantage, I didn't say it is always an advantage. And yes I was talking about microtransactions in general not specifically in destiny 2.

I admit ironic was a poor choice of words it will be ironic however when it comes back to bite us in the ass. And I mean if we let any microtransaction slide now, who know how far they will escalate it, where is the end? You might not care about specific cosmetic items, but that doesn't make this OK by any measure.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I don't know how Destiny plays, but it sounds like the experience bar is simply not scaled in a linear fashion.

Or if the 5k XP is needed to completely fill the bar, after they fill it once it takes progressively more XP to level up?
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Nope, nothing to do with the XP bar. It's simply your XP is worth more or less, depending on what you're doing.

"Currently, XP will scale up when playing longer or fixed duration activities like Crucible competitive multiplayer matches and the Leviathan Raid, and XP will scale down when playing activities that can be quickly, repeatedly chained, like grinding Public Events. We are not happy with the results, and we’ve heard the same from the community.Effective immediately, we are deactivating this system."
 
krotch said:
Nope, nothing to do with the XP bar. It's simply your XP is worth more or less, depending on what you're doing.
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... Which is counter intuitive. Would be a lot better to just award more/less points in this case.
And then perhaps also require additional points earned to reach the "next level".
 
And this is why I did not get Destiny 2...had enough of the Destiny one screwin from the devs!
 
Olle P said:
... Which is counter intuitive. Would be a lot better to just award more/less points in this case.
And then perhaps also require additional points earned to reach the "next level".
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That's essentially what they do in RPGs and MMORPGs. The wheel has already been invented, just follow it instead of coming up with stupid retarded ideas. Well, it's Bungie and I already notice how stupid it was in Destiny 1 and obviously, Destiny 2 didn't change it.

Well, was bound to be a stupid idea, when you have a super low character level cap, then introduce levels based off your equipment instead.
 
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