Destiny's final event, Age of Triumph is on the way, promising a new record book, altered raids, Triumphs and more. We spoke to Bungie community man DeeJ to find out more about the game's last hurrah before Destiny 2.
What's Destiny's Age of Triumph all about, DeeJ?
"We want to create a final event, like a parade, a victory lap. Our goal is to create a culmination of three years of adventure, to celebrate the community that has gathered and to give them a curtain call. The race is over, they’ve knocked down every combatant, and while they stand on the precipice of a new adventure that will take them to new worlds to tell new stories, we’d like to take account of the wonderful experiences we’ve shared with them and the awesome things they’ve done."
Age of Triumph's 13 page record book sounds... busy?
"When they crack open that record book, they’re going to find thirteen pages of accomplishments. It’s similar to Moments of Triumph, only it covers an entire age. There will be accolades and accomplishments for every type of player – if they’ve been a hardcore Ranger, if they have been a Warrior in the Crucible, if they’ve been a Hunter, a Titan, a Warlock, if they’ve been a collector, if they’ve been a master of the co-operative activities like Strikes or Prison of Elders – no matter what Destiny has meant to you, Age of Triumph will be an opportunity for you to illustrate to yourself and to the people you know in the game [and] friends that you’ve made – it’ll be a chance for you to celebrate and to show off the Guardian that you have become over three years."
But DeeJ? What about the raids?
"We've taken every single raid and brought them up to parity with The Wrath of the Machine. So players who have enjoyed playing the Vault of Glass or Crota's End or King’s Fall will find that they all play at 390 Light – they all have Challenge Modes now and they all will drop armour and weapons like the Vault of Glass or Crota's End rewards, that they can add to their inventory, that are part of the current sandbox. They are powerful in ways that will make people be able to use them in Iron Banner or in other raids."
Why focus on the Vault of Glass at the end?
"The Vault of Glass was a defining moment for Destiny, it was sort of an origin story for a new breed of gamer – the Destiny Raider - so we are sending them back into the Vault of Glass and they’re going to find Challenge Modes similar to the modes that they undertook in Kings Fall or Wrath of the Machine.
I talked to Joe Blackburn, the senior raid designer on Wrath of the Machine, and he joined Bungie after these raids had launched, and one of the things that he was interested to do was to create a “Director’s Cut” if you will of some of the original raids.
The Vault of Glass is not going to be exactly the same experience players remember, there are going to be some surprises – there are going to be interesting roadblocks that they are going to get to decipher and overcome all over again. At the same time these are not completely redesigned Raids. You will be facing the same opponents in the same environments under the same circumstances. We wanted to create experiences that were true to the original moments, without doing something crazy like sending siva infested Devil-Splicers into the Vault of Glass. When you delve into the depths of the Vault of Glass all over again, you’re still going to find time travelling robots and you’re still going to discover the same intrigue and mystery that you found the first time you did that, but there will be some surprises and some new riddles to mark that action."
What about Destiny's new Weekly Rituals?
"There’s going to be a whole new set of weekly rituals – when you look at your Director, there are always featured activities in the lower left hand corner of the main view. We’re creating a new suite of those. There will be weekly featured activities in the Crucible. In Strikes, we’re doing some subtle things to change up the way that the Nightfalls work – we’ll talk about that in the second stream. Prison of Elders and even all four raids will be part of a weekly ritual that can help any character reach the top of your Light Scale, to reach maximum Light, to become a Guardian with 400 Light.
And you're changing Destiny's ornament system, yeah?
"We have a new Weapon Ornament system for the raid gear that will make it look just a little bit more badass, and we gave you just a glimpse of that in the announcement we made last Friday, where you can see that Hunter having a moment of respite in the Vault of Glass and there's that prosthetic leg. That’s part of the new Ornament System – raid armour ornaments will drop in the raids where you earned them, and it’s just one more opportunity for Guardians to decorate themselves and strut their stuff in the Tower literally with trophies they can wear to say 'I have mastered every challenge that Bungie has thrown at me.'”
How are Destiny's weapons changing in Age of Triumph?
"There will be armour and weapons that will drop. I’m looking forward to the third stream to show some of the new art for the different weapons – that Mythic class is going to be extra shiny and always badass, and the community was extremely excited to see Fatebringer again in the trailer. Now these weapons have always been the big boys on the block in terms of power and perks and the way they enable a Guardian to fight. So as these weapons become a part of the sandbox again, our team has to give that some consideration. We want to bring these weapons back but we don’t want to destroy the balance that players enjoy when they battle each other."
