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Bungie Working To Clean Up Destiny’s Online Community With Tactical Bans
Recently, Destiny received an update that adds matchmaking to weekly strikes. While that helps a number of players, it also compounds a problem found in the strike playlists: players idling (and ruining the experience for the rest of the fireteam).
Why might someone simply idle while the other players take on the strike’s challenges? Loot of course, the ill-gotten, unearned kind. The same thing happens in PvP, unfortunately.
In this weeks’ update, Bungie announced the first wave of temporary bans. The restrictions only apply to the activities in which the players were abusing the game, and only hit a small number of idlers.
“There is no way you will accidentally be flagged under this policy unless you are a truly dedicated idler, someone who has really gone out their way to repeatedly cheat their teammates,” says user research lead John Hopson.
If you encounter players taking advantage of the system (by idling or otherwise), Bungie recommends that you use the reporting system. The developer says that data makes a difference.
Also in the weekly update, Bungie announced that the two Mars strikes (Dust Palace and Cerberus Vae III) are getting difficulty adjustments. They are the longest and most challenging of the strikes in disproportion to the others.
Valus Ta’Aurc (the Cerberus Vae III boss) will have his shields (correction: health) reduced by one-third. The Psion Flayers at the end of the Dust Palace will each have their shields reduced by 15 percent. These changes were determined after a number of playtests and are intended to align the challenge more closely with the other strikes. These changes will hit in a few weeks.
[Source: Bungie]
Our Take
I’ve not run into idlers, but knowing how important teamwork is for strikes, I can imagine how frustrating it is. I’m excited about the upcoming changes to the two Mars strikes, too. Those are my least favorite largely because of how long they take to complete.
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