The Episode/Act mannequin of Future 2 has generated some quantity of controversy as skeptics (like myself) say it depends an excessive amount of on timegating content material and rewards. However now that idea is taking part in itself out in an particularly annoying approach.
This was due to clarification by Bungie on this week’s patch that stated gamers weren’t supposed to have the ability to progress their season cross rank past 100 in Act 1, which ends in two weeks. Proper now, there are 50 extra ranges unlocked in Act 2, and 50 extra in Act 3. Nonetheless, even with XP good points after degree 100 which means considerably much less, you may nonetheless progress to 105, 115, nevertheless far you went given how a lot you performed. The thought was then that you’d be capable to insta-claim loads of rewards when the subsequent Act unlocked, even when it’s form of a loopy grind to try to try this now. Although you could get there via loads of incidental play.
However this transformation means XP good points when you hit 100 imply…nothing. You solely get Vivid Engrams after that, simply essentially the most ineffective factor in Future 2 the place I’ve gotten a handful of significant rewards from these in seven full years of taking part in this sport.
The habits this XP leveling idea cuts off now’s that in concept, gamers ought to now be saving each bounties they full and never claiming weekly challenges they full till the subsequent Act drops. Bounty hoarding between seasons is a typical follow to get a head begin, however now for season cross development (which incorporates precious issues just like the Purple Loss of life catalyst), it’s a must to do that two instances inside a season, or else you’re simply burning that XP exterior of progress towards minor energy good points.
I perceive that Bungie desires to avoid wasting issues for brand new content material drops in Acts. New missions, new loot, new actions. However timegating the battle cross and creating very bizarre participant habits like not claiming a dozen or extra challenges throughout three weeks looks like an unintended impact of this method. I actually don’t seen a difficulty with letting gamers grind via a 200 tier battle cross at their very own tempo. There’s nothing in there that requires this type of timegating apart from just a few thriller slots that positive, may very well be revealed later.
Whereas timegating missions and loot might be not going to alter, this looks as if a simple repair, and this in some way made an already bizarre timegating state of affairs with these rewards even worse, not that 4x the XP requirement to degree was good earlier than both. We’ll see in the event that they make any additional changes to this both subsequent Act or subsequent Episode.
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Decide up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller collection and The Earthborn Trilogy.