Bungie has been releasing heavy-hitting blog entries on a daily basis leading up to the Lightfall expansion, discussing new content, huge changes to how classes function, outlining the environment players will encounter, and more. We recently saw the new Strand subclass, as well as changes to abilities, build creation, and Supers.
The team dropped two more bombs in the newest This Week at Bungie post: an update of the crafting system and a brief but comprehensive discussion on latency (lag). The crafting upgrades represent a substantial change in the game. Resonant Elements, the existing crafting currency, will be completely abolished. Crafting and upgrading weapons will employ currencies “such as Glimmer, Enhancement Cores, and so on [that] replace the current Element prices.”
In other words, the race for Ascendant Shards, Enhancement Prisms, and other endgame materials is likely to heat up even more, with yet another system fighting for what is, for the majority of players, a very restricted resource. Bungie claims that Resonant and Harmonic Alloy, obtained from disassembling Legendary and Raid weapons, will still be usable but will be reworked throughout the Lightfall year.
Bungie is aware of large lag spikes that lead players to walk into walls, take a half-dozen headshots, teleport, not receive damage, and other annoyances. Bungie diagnosed the problem as a setup issue with the Steam Datagram Relay (SDR). The SDR is supposed to aid deliver high-quality connections between Destiny 2 players, but some of the newer relays were not correctly set, resulting in latency spikes during peak hours. While the update does not cure everything, the team is still trying to resolve any lag-related issues.
The TWAB also discussed upcoming visual upgrades, such as adding strand colour to subclass-specific armor and Finisher glows, as well as a host of weapon and armor perk updates to work with Strand.
We also learnt who won the Festival of the Lost insect armor contest, with Team Spider winning by a wide majority. Bungie also published a brief comment on their mistaken posting of AI art, stating that while they do not intend to intentionally post it again, identifying it is tough, and they will be selective in selecting Art of the Week winners.
