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Destiny 2’s beta gave us all a chance to try out Bungie’s upcoming shooter. But while most people treat it like a free demo, it’s really there so the studio can test servers and other features. We get a freebie, they get tasty, tasty numbers to crunch.
Aaand player feedback. From the first console beta several things were quickly noted by players. Like Supers being slower to charge, the balance feeling off between PvE and PvP, and a set of turbines accidentally ending up as the hardest boss in the game.
Bungie’s Justin Truman explains that a large part of the beta is checking out technical stuff players will never really see. “Some of it is just raw technical data. So we’re scouting all sorts of logs, including finding out that people are having trouble connecting, and we want to rectify them before launch and make sure that our servers are going to be stable at scale.” Which is good to know, especially since Bungie has already talked about bringing Destiny 2’s release date forward to avoid the weekend, when servers traditionally melt.
But, while all that tech stuff is important, the studio is also keeping an eye on “the feedback people have playing the game.” Bungie has already addressed the monster turbines - the final game will only features one stack of blades. In addition, Bungies’ Deej mentions that, "there are a handful of tweaks in the PC beta that are specifically in response to the console beta that we were able to push in on time.”
Truman addresses one of the bigger issues people repeatedly mentioned: the fact that Destiny 2’s supers charge more slowly than before. “We found that people’s supers were charging a little slower than we thought and didn’t have as much power as they wanted,” he confirms, but also adds, “those were things we were already in the process of tweaking when the beta came out, but it was good to have reaffirmation we were heading in the right direction.” Deej also says that “the theories we have about our game are reinforced by community feedback, and a lot of those changes are going to be apparent in the PC beta that starts next week.”
As for the PvE/PvP differences some people felt in the beta, though, those might change less. “We do have changes between the two of them,” confirms Truman. “Supers will charge at slightly different rates, and the number of bullets it takes to kill a Guardian is different to the number of bullets it takes for a combatant.” However, he does say “it is really important to us that it’s one game with one character that you’re carrying between [PvE and PvP] and one set of muscle memory that you’re building.” The differences are about “[leaning] how to optimise for the Exotics that you’re carrying, the Supers that you’re using and the grenades. And then be able to use that muscle memory and those skills whether you’re playing a story mission, jumping into the raid or playing a nail-biting round of competitive PVP.”
Deej also confirms the idea that some changes are about being more aware of where you’re playing. “It’s important to us that a player’s understanding of their character is relevant to any task that they’re challenged with. I understand my guardian, I understand my abilities, I understand my weapon and I’m never going to be surprised the way those things operate when I’m faced with immense danger - whether that’s another player, or whether it’s a Strike boss that we’ve cultivated from scratch.”
