Destiny's The Dark Below expansion added hours of content to the game, but also introduced new complications. Bungie will try to avoid the same mistakes with the upcoming House of Wolves expansion, according to recent comments.
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Studio employee Luke Smith took to NeoGAF this weekend to explain the team's plans for House of Wolves, and outline what they've learned from the mistakes of the past. Some of the changes reset progression for high-level players, punishing the more dedicated portion of the fan base with the new systems.
"Nothing specific to announce at this time, but the mistakes we made with the DLC1 reward economy will not be repeated. Mistakes like vendor gear invalidating the effort of VOG Raiders, and upgrading an Exotic resetting its talents. Our philosophy about rewards/loot continue to evolve as we see how players play and react.
"We will continue to improve acquisition stories and frequency (My understanding of the perception is that Crota's End drop rates are much improved vs. Vault of Glass: footnote below), lessen the grind and get players to the fun parts of their arsenal faster."
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While that might sound rather meaningless to non-players, Destiny enthusiasts will find that heartening. Comments like these don't represent sure things--developers have said one thing and delivered another before--but signify a direction Bungie will hopefully follow. Smith expressed further regret about how the game's new Shard system was implemented:
"The part where this didn't work as well as we'd hoped is with the Shard economy. Shards are a are a barrier between you and equipping a sweet new piece of gear. We want fewer barriers to equipping upgrades. The shard economies erect these barriers between players and the new piece of gear they just got.
"We're not intending to adjust the shard economy for this Tier -- we don't want to invalidate player effort (again). But removing the barrier between that new drop you're excited to get and actually being able to equip it as a member of your arsenal are something we will do going forward."
This all sounds positive--lets hope the team follows through. Destiny will be reliant on its expansions going forward, and Bungie would do best not to irritate the dedicated community.