Destiny To Introduce New PvP Rules, “Freelance” Playlists, & Network Improvements In February

A few major updates are in store for Destiny‘s PvP crowd when the game’s next big patch arrives later this month, alongside the upcoming Crimson Days special event.

Affecting all Guardians in any 3v3 game mode, including Skirmish, Salvage, Elimination, and Trials, is a new change the Crucible team is making to Special Ammo (ammo for weapons like Snipers, Shotguns, Fusion Rifles, etc.).

According to Senior Designer Derek Carroll in Bungie’s latest weekly address, “after the [February] update, players will start certain matches without Special Ammo. Once the match has begun, those green Special crates will behave in the same ways you’re used to (although you may be looking for them a bit more).”

As for the reasoning, Caroll says that “the PvP team wanted to increase the use of Primary weapons, especially at match-start. Sniper rifles and shotguns, in particular, inspire great happiness or sadness depending on which end of the weapon you find yourself. We wanted to somewhat delay that gratification (and sadification).”

Gametypes with more players are being left alone as they “are generally less sensitive to initial conditions, which gives us more freedom to have Special Weapons going from the beginning,” Caroll continued. “Smaller gametypes like Skirmish are a bit more hardcore, with more weight applied to each player in the match, so we felt we could try pushing Primary weapons for those initial engagements.”

It’s a pretty interesting tweak, especially this late in the game. We want to know whether you think it’s for the better or not, so hit us up in the comments if you’re a regular Crucible-goer.

Meanwhile, players that typically enter the Crucible as a solo Guardian will be jazzed to hear about the studio’s new playlist ideas: Freelance 6v6 and Freelance 3v3.

“Freelance 6v6 and Freelance 3v3 are mixed-mode playlists that are only accessible by solo players – no Fireteams allowed,” Designer Jeremiah “Jerpie” Pieschl explains. They’ll be available “sporadically on the weekly rotators in your Director,” and are a place where “both teams will be on equal ground, though an advantage can be gained by opening a voice channel to Team Chat.”

Modes inside Freelance 6v6 include a mix of Clash, Control, and Rift, while Freelance 3v3 modes are comprised of Elimination, Salvage, and Skirmish.

Lastly, Bungie addressed some of the other things the studio is doing to further improve PvP lag. In addition to some of the work done with the new matchmaking settings, Networking Engineer Paul Lewellen says a new system will be put in place this February whose goal “is to give you a better experience in the Crucible when there are Internet problems outside of your control.”

“If your connection is good, a typical Destiny PvP match should feel like your best ones do now,” Lewellen says. “Obviously things won’t always be perfect, but we think you’ll notice a positive difference pretty quickly. Your weapons will feel a bit more reliable, your kills will feel a bit snappier, and players with poor connections should be less frustrating to fight.”

“If your connection is bad, we’ll be giving you even more reasons to improve it. Expect to lose fights a lot more often, even if you think you shot first or escaped behind cover in time. Things will get much better once you fix your connection, but at least you’ll receive fewer angry messages in the meantime.”

We all know about the guy that takes 10 headshots to kill or 20 melee strikes to put down, *if* he or she doesn’t get you first. Hopefully this month’s update will make PvP-ing a little more fun and fair for everyone.

What are your thoughts on some of the changes Bungie has planned for Destiny this month?

 

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