This week at Bungie, Titan domination continues.

Guardian Games continues into its second week and, after a good showing by Hunters on Day 1, it’s been all Titans all day every day. The book readers haven’t scored a win yet, but are optimistic they can rally.

After Day 1, we saw a lot of players asking about score weighting since the results seemed to play out like the population of classes predicted. Since Titans have been relentlessly destroying the other classes, we have seen players asking if there may be some other issue going on. As a Hunter, I too am in disbelief as I watch our flag try to bury itself into the ground. We’ve been double checking behind the scenes and digging into the data to get a better picture of what’s going on. Here is Senior Designer Peter Sarrett to share some of our findings.

Peter Sarrett: When we first started planning Guardian Games, we knew there were more Hunters than other classes in the population and we’d have to do something to account for that so that the competition would be fair. “Fair” can mean different things. Our goal was that each class should have an equal chance to win regardless of its size, and that participating in the event should never hurt your team.

That last part is important, because it ruled out the simplest approach of basing results on the average contribution per class. While this would effectively normalize the classes based on how many people participate, it would also create a situation where participating at anything but a maximal level could actually HARM your team by bringing its average down. Dipping your toe into the event by depositing a single bronze medal per day would be worse for your team than just staying home.

So instead of normalizing based on participating players, we decided to normalize based on the pool of potential players. For each class, we counted every character who played at least one activity over the 30 days prior to the event and then divided that result by the total across all three classes. The result is the scaling factor that we apply to each medal deposited. This method means that medals from Warlocks and Titans count more, counteracting Hunters’ population advantage, and ensures that even a minimal level of participation helps your team. The more members of your class that show up to play, the better your class will do. It also means we don’t have to worry about players creating tons of dummy alt accounts once the event begins to try to tank a team’s chances.

On Day 1 of the event, Hunters won not because there are more of them, but because a greater percentage of them showed up and contributed. On Day 2 Titans arrived and began outperforming the Hunters. Warlocks are, no doubt, considering all the angles and planning for the right moment to strike.

This graph shows how many of each class actually participated, relative to how many characters each class had active during the prior 30 days of the event beginning. You can see the tight correlation between more bodies in the game and the outcome of the competition:



But that’s not the whole story. Titans haven’t just been overwhelming the competition with a flood of muscle mass. They’ve also been out-depositing the other classes on an individual basis. On average, each Titan has contributed more medals to their cause than each Hunter or Warlock. This was even true on Day 1 but, on that day, there were enough Hunters participating that they made up in bodies what they lacked in output.



So we can see that Titans are outperforming on two fronts: a higher percentage of their ranks are showing up to participate, and when they do, each of them is depositing more medals than their competitors. If Hunters or Warlocks up their game and get more of their compatriots to pitch in, there’s still time to steal the momentum.

We’ve seen the reports of shenanigans with players finding glitches to turn in more medals, or even be dedicated enough to delete characters to be able to put in extra medals for their team. We dug into the data to see if this was something to be concerned about and found neither case was having any impact on the results.

It’s also worth mentioning how the flags in the Tower work. At the start of the day, all the teams are even and so the flags begin at the midpoint of their poles. This represents equilibrium, where all teams have an even 33.33 percent of all accumulated points for the day. As medals get deposited and teams move away from equilibrium, the flags adjust. We expected that teams would stay fairly close to each other, and that all the action would occur in a narrow band around the equilibrium point. If a team ever pulls 5 percent ahead (with a total of 38.33 percent or more of all points), their flag will hit the top of their pole. Likewise, a team dropping 5 percent behind (at 28.33 percent or less) will hit the bottom of their pole. If a team goes beyond these values, their flag will just stay pegged at the top or bottom until the values come back into that +/- 5 percent window.

We don’t plan on making any changes that will affect the results in any way. Our goal has always been to create a competition that is decided by how much each class engages with the event, and not which class has the largest roster. Titans are currently engaging the most, but we will see if they keep it up.

Check out the full TWAB for more information on future changes to Bounties and our Seasonal Model as well as an update on charity initiatives.

This week at Bungie, the Guardian Games have begun.

Hunters, Titans, and that floaty class are facing off against each other in a friendly competition. We kicked off the event with a dev insight showing some of us at Bungie sharing our thoughts on who is going to win.



Sure, there’s some light-hearted ribbing going on, but at the end of the day we’re all Guardians. Still though, the winners get to flex their class item in everyone’s faces, so get out there and represent your team.

Hunters won the first day, but Titans rose to the occasion to claim day two. It’s still far from over. One thing we haven’t told you yet is that during the final week of the event, every day’s victory will count for double points. So if any class is holding a fairly significant lead and thinks they can sit back and relax, they better keep on pushing or another class could pull off a comeback.

Before we move on to the rest of the TWAB, Production Director Justin Truman would like to speak on the current state of the game and our plans going forward.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Justin Truman: Hey everyone,

If you’re like me, you’re playing a lot more video games now than you did last month. In these uncertain times, we want Destiny to be a satisfying escape rather than a frustrating grind.

There’s been a growing list of concerns with the game lately: Trials, the rise in cheaters, our new Seasonal model, the balance between rewards you earn vs. items you buy. We’ve been closely watching and discussing each of these topics as we read your feedback. When our community managers relay that everyone at Bungie is listening, I assure you, we are.

We’re also working hard from our homes, trying to address and improve each of these areas for future releases. Nothing in Destiny is as easy as flipping a switch, and everything’s gotten trickier while working remotely. But as Destiny players ourselves, we struggle with the same issues you do, and we want to fix them as quickly as we can.

But fixing these issues isn’t good enough if we keep you in the dark the whole time, so we’re going to try something a little different. Every week for the rest of this Season, we’ll have updates from different members on the dev team covering the most important topics in Destiny right now, and what we’re planning to do about them.

Today we’re going to discuss Trials and our war against cheaters.

Next week we’ll be diving deep on our Seasonal model, and how we plan to improve it in the future as well as some info on bounties and our plans involving their evolution.

We have plans for future editions of the TWAB, but we also want to hear from you. What are other topics you want to make sure we discuss in the coming weeks?

Like you, we love Destiny and the community that makes it as special as it is. For a bunch of us, Destiny represents more than a decade of our lives, and we’re never going to stop trying to make it better – even if we have to do that from our beds and couches in this unprecedented time. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks.

Stay safe out there, Guardians.

Check out the full TWAB for the details on Trials of Osiris changes, war on cheating, and more.

This week at Bungie, the final bunker opened.

A third and final Seraph Bunker has opened on Io. The new Bunker points players to partake in the Seraph Tower event and new Legendary Lost Sectors on the Jovian moon. Guardians also made a new discovery in the bunker about Rasputin’s efforts to track our enemies.

We’re one month into Season of the Worthy and we’re not done yet. Grandmaster Ordeal is only a few weeks away, but before we share more on that, let’s talk about a new charity initiative coming up next week.

As the world responds to the outbreak of COVID-19, many of us have been urged by our local governments to stay home. Containing the spread of the virus is one of the best things we can do to protect our fellow humans. If you’re a gamer, you’ve been training for this moment for your whole life. If you possess the heart of a Guardian, however, you might be wrestling with the urge to do more!

This is the question we’ve been asking ourselves at Bungie:

Is there something more we can do to help the real-world heroes who are confronting this crisis head on?

We’ve arrived at an answer that we think is very exciting. We’d like to share it with you – and even welcome you to join us in helping to make the world a better place. On Monday, you’re invited to join us in our game rooms to talk about it.

Bungie’s COVID-19 Fundraiser
http://www.twitch.tv/bungie
Monday, April 13
10:00 AM Pacific

Players of Bungie games have never backed down from a fight. We’ve banded together to support the survivors of floods, earthquakes, and wildfires. You may even have a memento to commemorate the role you played in some of those initiatives. On this occasion, when it seems like the world needs help more than ever, we have an emblem to mark the Guardians in our community who choose to throw their lot in with our efforts.



On Monday, we’ll reveal how you can earn this emblem to display proudly in game. We’ll talk about this charitable call to action, who will benefit, and the impact that we will have together.

Join us for the conversation. Join us to make a difference.




In a few weeks, we’ll debut a new difficulty selection for The Ordeal called Grandmaster. It will test your fireteam’s coordination, communication, builds, and skill like no other activity in Destiny to date.
 
Here’s a look at a few of the goals we had when approaching Grandmaster after we saw how the rest of The Ordeal was received:

• Grandmaster should build on Master difficulty, but be significantly more challenging.
  
• Once you reach a certain bar, the challenge should be found completely in perfecting your builds, communication, and execution.
  
• The primary rewards should be doled out on initial completion.
  
• Completion should be the primary metric for success, rather than score or time or another in-activity metric like ‘killing all Champions’
  
• Grandmaster should stress the top end of build crafting.
  
• Grandmaster should be watchable.

 
To attempt Grandmaster, you will need to be Power Level 1025 which is 15 Power above the Pinnacle cap but will be 25 Power below the activity which will be set at a Power Level of 1050. We’re also going to have something similar to the Contest mode we introduced for Crown of Sorrow. You will gain no extra advantage for being higher than 1025. We wanted to require a mixture of pinnacle rewards and artifact power to get you prepared for this, but not make you feel like you had to put in a ton of extra hours over-leveling the activity.

We’re introducing some new modifiers along with some familiar ones, including Extinguish (if your team wipes, it sends you back to orbit) and Limited Revives (you start with a small pool of shared team revives and you get more every time you kill a Champion). We don’t want to spoil everything, so there are a few other wrinkles we’ll let you discover when it goes live.

Does this sound like a worthy challenge so far? We hope it does, and as a reward, you’ll have increased chances of being awarded Exotic armor and Masterworking materials. But the main draw of the mode is the new Seal and title available for beating each of the Grandmaster Ordeal Strikes once during the Season: Conqueror. We want this to be one the most challenging titles to get, but we want it to be approachable for anyone to try who puts in the time and dedication with their team during a given Season.

Grandmaster Ordeal will begin on April 21.

Hit the jump for more.

This week at Bungie, we look towards Io.

So, you’re a few weeks into your seasonal journey. You’ve cleared the EDZ Bunker of Fallen, and have been taking the Hive to task on the Moon. You’ve reclaimed The Fourth Horseman, and maybe even completed its catalyst. So, what’s next?



Tuesday, the final Seraph bunker will open on Io. New Seraph weapons and seasonal mods enter the mix, giving you more options to build your monster-killing machine. Later in the month, Guardian Games will kick off some good old-fashioned Guardian rivalry, accompanied by the Grandmaster Nightfall difficulty.

This week, we’ll be parsing through some feedback we’ve been seeing since the season launched, a quick Game Security update, and discussing next steps for emblem stat trackers.

Hit the jump for more.