Bungie rolled out a Destiny 2 development roadmap at the end of January that laid out its plans for the future of the game through the beginning of season 3, set to arrive in May. Today it posted a slightly modified version of that map, which has a few of the upcoming features, including unique Nightfall rewards and changes to Exotic weapon and armor balance, pushed farther back in the schedule.
Nightfall rewards, which were supposed to arrive in the 1.1.3 update on February 27, are now slated for 1.1.4 on March 27, along with a reduction in repeat Exotic drops and a companion vendor viewing option (woo hoo, I guess). The Exotic sandbox changes, originally set for 1.1.4 in March (and which we wrote about here, have slipped to the 1.2.0 update, which will also kick off season 3, in May.
Improvements to the gear mods system has suffered the biggest hit: Originally set to roll out in May, they are now off the calendar entirely, although game director Christopher Barrett said they're still planned; information about when they'll be available will be released in the future.
"With today’s update we’ve moved a few items out to later releases—this is because we are trying to ensure each feature we add hits a sufficiently high quality bar," Barrett said. "So while we really wanted to get Nightfall Strike Unique Weapons into your hands next week to coincide with Nightfall Scoring, it’s more important that each of those rewards live up to the difficulty it will take to earn them. They have to be super cool, so we’re giving the artists extra time to make sure they are."
It's disappointing, particularly seeing the much-needed changes to mods pushed off the calendar, but it's not entirely surprising: Bungie warned in the initial roadmap release that those features were "stretch goals" that could end up being delayed. And quite frankly, I'd rather wait for Bungie to get it right than endure the spectacle of a rushed effort followed by rationalizations and clean-up.
One new feature that will arrive on time is the Prestige Nightfall Challenge Cards, which were announced a couple of weeks ago: They'll be included in the 1.1.3 update coming on February 27. And there's some good news for fans of the Crucible, too: The 1.1.4 update in March will also see the return of Rumble, a six-player free-for-all mode from Destiny 1. It will be added to the new rotating weekly Crucible playlist alongside 6v6 Iron Banner and Mayhem.
