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Bungie To Implement “Mercy Rule” In Destiny’s Crucible

Ben-Dutka 4 Comments

When I was in Little League, I always liked the Mercy Rule. Whether we Mercied another team or we were the team that got Mercied, it meant I got to go home earlier. …as you can see, I wasn't terribly competitive, even when I was batting clean-up.

But I bet you thought you'd never see a Mercy Rule for an online multiplayer shooter.

The Destiny 2.0 patch is coming out next week in preparation of the massive expansion, The Taken King . But it's also adding what developer Bungie calls a Mercy Rule for the multiplayer mode, Crucible. Senior designer Andrew Weldon explains the addition , basically saying that once a match reaches a point where it's no longer fun, it's over.

" When the Mercy Rule hits, Shaxx will call out the end of the match. We immediately disable join in progress to prevent any additional players from joining the game (if anyone has dropped already) and reset the game clock to :10 seconds. After those 10 seconds, the match will end normally. All players will receive their end of match rewards and return to matchmaking. "

The Mercy Rule lands with the patch on September 8 and will be enabled for all team playlists except Elimination and Trials of Osiris. Weldon added that Bungie would continue to listen to player feedback and if the Mercy Rule needs to be altered in the future, they'd consider it:

"The 2.0 Mercy Rule check is a very simple query that is good at identifying games that get out of hand early, but not necessarily games that pull away late. You may in some cases still find yourself in games where you feel like it should have triggered. We will, as always, continue monitoring our UR data as well as player feedback to determine how we can continue to improve it and make it more accurate in the future."

This new rule is designed specifically to "improve the quality of life for players caught on the receiving end of a massive blowout," which is a nice thought. There's nothing more frustrating than feeling hopeless because your team is a waste of space and everything is going wrong. On the flip side, Bungie still wishes to reward those who did the Mercy-ing (after all, it means you performed better), so they get a "new gold tier medal called 'No Mercy.'"

See? Good news for all.

Related Game(s): Destiny

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Bungie: The Taken King’s $40 Price Tag Is More Than Justified

John-Shepard 44 Comments

It's a very common question: Is a piece of downloadable content worth the money?

And when an expansion costs $40, as is the case with the upcoming Destiny DLC The Taken King, it's an even bigger concern, so Bungie community manager Eric "Urk" Osborne addressed this topic in a recent IGN podcast .

In response to the fact that the last two expansions cost $20 each, Osborne says the included content justifies the price tag:

"You've got a full campaign, [and] I think people are going to enjoy the cinematics, the characters, the missions. We're taking you to the Dreadnaught, to Phobos, up into colony ships. Nathan Fillion [Firefly, Halo 3: ODST] is talking to you, Lance Reddick [The Wire] is talking to you, it's good stuff.

I don't have any trouble saying that The Taken King is well more than twice as much content as the Dark Below. The story's great, there's seven Crucible multiplayer maps, there's three brand-new Strikes, and they're the best Strikes we've delivered to date… "

He went on to mention the Dreadnaught, which Bungie recently revealed as a huge new location, along with three revised Strikes. We will also get weapon balancing and all told, the developer claims this is kinda like buying a whole new game .

The Taken King launches on September 15; are you considering that cool PlayStation 4 bundle ?

Related Game(s): Destiny

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Bungie Details Dreadnaught, The Taken King’s New Location

John-Shepard 6 Comments

Welcome to the Dreadnaught.

This is the new massive location you'll be able to explore when The Taken King expansion lands for Destiny on September 15.

And in developer Bungie's Weekly Update , they detail the Dreadnaught and offer several amazing screenshots. This is the flagship of the Taken, the new enemy class featured in the add-on, and it's also a stolen Hive tombship. The idea was to create a large and captivating new space for the players. Said Senior Artist Andrew Hopps:

"It was important to us that you would feel the scale as you moved through the hulls of the Dreadnaught, never sure about what to expect as large spaces condensed to claustrophobic tunnels before revealing entirely new areas of the ship.

A sense of wonder about the unknown is what drove a lot of the spatial design. It was an incredibly fun challenge… to capture the idea of this unfathomable threat, a monstrous spaceship captained by the Taken King, yet filled with vast caverns and unknown passages. I can't wait for players to explore and discover all of its secrets."

As you might expect, there will be plenty of missions and activities when you're on board the Dreadnaught. Designer Ben Wommack added that they've "created a suite of new mechanics and woven them into the Patrol mode" (which will be available on the Taken's huge ship). Expect fresh Bounties and Public Events as well. Yep, this really does sound like part of a truly gigantic expansion !

If you haven't yet tried Destiny , perhaps this PlayStation 4 bundle , featuring The Taken King expansion, will entice you.

Related Game(s): Destiny

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