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In preparation for Destiny 2: beyond the light and the expansions to follow, Bungie is making some changes and improvements to the engine that powers Destiny 2.
Engineering Director David Aldridge described the changes in a recent blog post. “When Destiny 2 launched three years ago, we had no idea that in 2020 we would announce a new trilogy of expansions (among other 2020 surprises we did not anticipate),” he says. “At the time, we thought the Destiny 2 arc would look a lot more like Destiny 1: a couple of expansions and then a sequel.
“We learned many lessons from the transition to Destiny 2 and from shipping Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Forsaken, the Year 2 seasons, and Shadowkeep,” Aldridge continues. “When we evaluated those lessons, we decided not to pursue a Destiny 3, but to reinvest everything in Destiny 2 and do everything possible. To support that strategy, we have made several investments in technology to help us sustainably evolve the game in the coming years, and some of those investments are coming to Beyond Light. “
These “investments” will target a few areas, at least in Beyond Light: how missions are written and designed, how patches are prepared and delivered, how the Guardian character creator works, and how some ancient destinations are illuminated.
First, missions. Simply put, the way the game executes missions is changing, and the new method “will give designers options to create newer mission mechanics.” Beyond Light will put it to the test, and Bungie will build on this method in the future. It just so happens that this change is the one that will cause the new Prophecy dungeon to be temporarily removed. However, the prophecy will return, and on the bright side, this new method will allow fire crews to come together face to face in social spaces, allowing players to instantly bond with other Tower attendees for joyous cooperation. .
Meanwhile, Destiny 2’s patching methods have been refined to make it easier to insert fixes to the live game. As a result of this change, all of Destiny 2 will need to be redownloaded when Beyond Light is released. The good news is that the game’s install size will be 30-40% smaller based on Aldridge’s estimate, and to help offset the heavy download, Bungie will open preload 10 hours before Beyond Light’s release. By speeding up patches, Bungie also hopes to better respond to seasonal feedback (and avoid repeat errors) in the future.
“Historically, each of our seasons has had to dig into production before the previous season’s release, which prevents us from reacting to the learnings from the previous season,” says Aldridge. “These technological improvements should give us 1 to 2 more weeks of flexibility on a seasonal scale, helping us turn more quickly in some cases.”
Visually, the most notable changes will be the adjustments to the game’s character creator and the lighting of the destination. The new creator should allow “more player customization options in the future”, but in the short term, it may make your character’s face look slightly different (assuming you have headsets disabled in social spaces). It’s unclear when players will have the option to edit their character’s face and potentially incorporate these new customization options, but even if that becomes feasible, it likely won’t be an option this November.
The lighting changes, on the other hand, only apply to EDZ and Nessus for now. They’re basically being updated to align with the rest of the lighting in the game, so EDZ and Nessus should look prettier in November. We will be spending most of our time in Europe this winter, but hey, you can’t argue with better lighting.
Speaking of Europe, the latest trailer for Beyond Light show some new enemies under the ice.
