Activision long ago gave promise that Destiny was set to be a franchise that would stick around for a long time. More specifically, 10 years worth of support. Have actions been taken on this ambitious commitment? In short, yes.
There have been a total of three patches and several hot fixes towards Bungie’s new game within the first month alone. Bungie has been paying very close attention to the our feedback and fixed in-game exploits such as the infamous loot cave. The gist of most hot fixes have been minor improvements towards the client. For example, better connectivity towards Destiny‘s servers, change in respawn timers, loot drop changes, etc. Here’s a full list of hot fixes made in more detail:
Hot Fix 1
Hot Fix 2
Hot Fix 3
As far as actual patches to the game– required downloadable updates– Bungie has significantly changed the engram system for the better. Before, a legendary (purple) engram had a chance of being decrypted into less extraordinary gear. For example, a legendary engram had a chance of being decrypted into rare (blue) or uncommon (green) loot. The chances of legendary engrams are already scarce to begin with, then to make the player roll the dice again after finally obtaining a legendary engram seemed cruel.
With the most recent patch to Destiny, legendary engrams will now always produce a legendary quality item or higher. Other changes made in the patches have been minor, though. Here are the links to all patches in detail:
Patch 1.0.1
Patch 1.0.1.4
Patch 1.0.2
It seems that Bungie isn’t afraid to reverse some of their decisions made to the final product. From an MMO’s perspective, It’s good to see a game actually making significant changes to the gameplay from the user’s feedback this early on. Bungie has even announced more upcoming changes that are currently in development. Right now, players can only use voice communication with other players in the same party; no talking with strangers in matchmaking. Very silly. This is one of the few things that Bungie has mentioned that they’re going to change soon with a patch.
Here are some highlights from Destiny‘s Dev Notes:
For full details, here’s a link to Destiny’s Dev Notes.
Patch 2.38 was released in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn a couple of days ago (September 15th to be exact. I got the date wrong in my previous article– sorry about that!). So, what did Patch 2.38 bring us? Here are the Patch Notes if you haven’t checked them out yet. Alternatively, here’s a quick rundown of what new activities there are to do and what notable changes this patch brought us:
Here are some of new features you can take part in until Patch 2.4 comes out:
Hopefully that will keep you occupied until next patch.
If you’re keeping a close watch on the clock as the hours tick away until the beginning of ArcheAge‘s Head Start, you’ve likely noticed that the Trion team has been doing their best to keep fans current on all the updates being made to the game directly before launch.
This evening we were given one more important update in the form of a few Patch Notes. Among these additions are some pretty important ones regarding item drop rates and Archeum drop rates in particular. Here’s a full rundown:
ArcheAge Version 1.2 Build 4.8: Patch Notes
GAMEPLAY
* The drop rate of loot bags from monsters has significantly increased.
* The drop rate of Sunlight Archeum, Moonlight Archeum, and Starlight Archeum from loot bags has been greatly increased.
* The chance of equipment from loot bags has increased from monsters. These items can be salvaged to gain archeum.
* The Solid Shaft recipe is available again, allowing for the construction of fishing boats.
INTERFACE
* The Auction House can now be searched using German and French.
MARKETPLACE
* The Marketplace inventory has been reorganized in terms of Featured Items and categorization of consumables.
* The Additional Character Slot item has been added. Accounts may have a maximum of six character slots per region but a limit of four character slots per server.
* The Workman’s Compensation labor potion has been returned to 12-hour cooldown and price of 300 Credits.
* The Auction House License permitting non-Patrons to create Auction House listings has been added. It is not tradable.
OTHER
* The priority server login queue for Patrons is now even faster.
COMING SOON
* Cosmetic Costumes: A future build will remove the stats from all costumes that are obtained or crafted in-game, much like stats were removed from costumes on the Marketplace. Similar to the normalization of mount speeds, this change is to prevent power creep and stat inflation while also promoting costume choice and preventing “best” items to be wearing to maximize your character’s gameplay.
* Improved Anti-Spam: XLGAMES is delivering a way for us to integrate our internally-developed anti-spam technology which learns over time and then kills spam and spammers before you see either even once. Expect more details on this to be announced next week.
NOTES
* This patch is less than 200MB large from the Open Beta client (8.5GB large as a new installation) and is available for download now from Glyph. Note that Head Start begins September 12 at 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7).
Open Beta begins today for ArcheAge with 4.7’s Patch Notes going in early for everyone to update well in advance. See below for the patch notes.
On a more personal note, I’m still fondly recalling the end of ArcheAge Alpha last weekend, especially the small montage of bosses spawned in the most auspicious places. Cheers to everyone who knocked me around with their cars and the brilliant gift box wardrobe helm chuckles!
See you all in Open Beta which begins at 10am PDT!
In preparation for Guild Wars 2’s second anniversary, the Black Lion Trading Company is having a special 10-day sale with various discounted and limited-availability items from August 22nd-31st. Be sure to check out GuildWars2.com for details, as new deals will be added daily.
Read on for updates on the September 2014 Feature Pack.
If you’ve missed out on any of the updates, a full list of feature pack posts can be found here. The latest updates include new features surrounding commander tags and the upcoming WvW tournament.
No longer will you have to drop a whopping 100 gold on a commander tag, as they are going account bound next month. The price will be increased to 300 gold for a tag, but you’ll now be able to access it on any characters you have on your account. Commander tags are also being sold in purple.
Ok, maybe not. But they’ve added a nice customization feature that will allow you to toggle your tag between blue, yellow, red and purple.
There is no additional cost for existing commanders, so players that already have a tag on one or more characters will be grandfathered into this without having to shell out the additional gold.
Starting September 12th, there will also be a WvW tournament. There will be some changes, including the lack of posttransfer lockouts and the addition of reward structure. Read here for more details.
Happy gaming!
== FEATURES ==
3.0 PRELUDE: MADNESS WAKES STORY QUESTS
Cyril Kalmar and Kira Thanos have been dreaming darkly in the city of Tempest Bay. Help them put these Dark Dreams to rest…
NEW DUNGEON: NIGHTMARE COAST
The Infinity Gate has been set adrift by a sinister force has sailed across the world to Fortune’s Shore with an army of fanatic cultists called themselves the Dream Coven in tow. The city defenses have fallen and now the clock is ticking as the cultists begin a ritual to open a portal to another world. Will the ascended be able to thwart this diabolical plot or will a new age of darkness descend upon Telara? Join together with four other brave Telarans and find out!
The Nightmare Coast is a new 5 man dungeon for players at level 60 that offers powerful new items, quests, challenging new encounters and the answers to the mystery of the Sinister Presence. The entrance can be found in Shimmersand near Fortune’s Shore.
In this issue of Patch Notes we discuss the recent changes to League of Legends with its addition of jungle timers, the effects on the meta, and the common bugs that have sprung up as a result of this controversial implementation.
“We want League to be all about the smart decisions you make in the moment and how you make plays around those moments, rather than how well you can track certain timers. There’s definitely skill in memorizing information, but our philosophy on gameplay clarity is making sure that skillful decisions can be made with the right information and that players are fighting each other, not the system.
The information you get through clearing an objective is important stuff you’ve already earned, so we wanted to clarify that through jungle timers. It’s also worth mentioning that jungle timers aren’t adding new information that hasn’t been there before, as they follow the same rules as minimap icons.”
== FEATURES ==
FOUR NEW SOULS
Available at the RIFT Store, these souls will allow Warriors and Rogues to heal, Mages to tank, and Clerics new avenues of support! Whether you want to play Oracle or Arbiter, Liberator or Physician, these new souls allow an almost infinite number of new build possibilities!
NEW QUESTS
All new multi-chapter Soul Quests (available to everyone) will explore the lore behind the origin of these new souls.
UI UPGRADES
All sorts of quality of life upgrades are coming to a UI near you! Crafting, Quests, Macros, Wardrobe, and Achievement Tracking U.I.s have all been improved for RIFT 2.7. We’re also adding all new text color options, to grant you full control over how text displays.
…AND MORE!
More Tier 3 raids, the Blighted Antechamber warfront, the Hellbugs return, a unicorn celebration and Summerfest are all in the cards!
As of Wednesday night, 2.6 caused a major issue with in-game chat services and mail services. The latest update can be found on the official forums here.
== FEATURES ==
New Trade Skill: Dream Weaver
Craft keys for 15 new Dimensions plus all kinds of visual effects for your favorite retreats. Enjoy waterfalls, sparkles, smoke, object-free lighting, weather-blockers, and more!
Unstable Artifacts Sets … and Rewards
Go nuts with artifacts you’ve collected from unstable zone events across Telara. Rewards include dual-function items – use them to add flair to your Dimensions or trigger fun effects in the world at-large – plus new Planar Squirrel mounts!
Bounty System
Collect new artifacts as you hunt down a huge range of villains and planespawn, troublemakers and beasts. Complete sets to earn Bounty Hunter Achievements granting titles, animal calls, Dimension trophies, cloaks, and access to a vendor selling remarkable new potions.
Prelude: Air Saga Storyline
Embark on a multi-phase Air Saga that opens the door to an earlier age. At launch, you’ll relive the story lines leading up to Exodus of the Storm Queen. Then, in evolving phases over the weeks to come, you’ll track Crucia to Dusken and discover where her journey ends. In true flashback fashion, you’ll earn “Watcher” and “of the Icewatch” titles, a Storm Griffon companion pet, and Storm Legion Armor wardrobe pieces!
== PROMOTION ==
A new Frosty Budgie mount can be acquired from Limited Edition: Budgie Troves, available on the Rift Store and by completing the new achievement Chicken Run!
A new Ashen Budgie mount can also be purchased with Bird Seed, which is obtained from the Limited Edition: Budgie Trove and by completing new daily quests in Silverwood (Guardian Only), Freemarch (Defiant Only), Pelladane, and Cape Jule.
Note: This event runs from 8:15am server time on February 5th and ends at 8:15am server time on February 12th.
Known Issue: The “Chicken Run” achievement does not show up, however, it can still be earned. Complete all of the Budgie races for the Planar Research Institute in (Silverwood or Freemarch, faction depending), Pelladane, and Cape Jule to receive a Limited Edition: Budgie Trove.