Destiny 2 Seasonal Artifact Mod Complaints Acknowledged By Bungie

Bungie, the developer of Destiny 2, has acknowledged the criticisms of the Seasonal Artifact and its mods. The Artifact is a regular feature in Destiny 2, and a new one is issued to players with each new season of content in the live service game.

As experience is earned in Destiny 2, the player can unlock special mods for the Seasonal Artifact, which are then reset with each new season. Each Artifact can hold 12 mods. However, there are 5 tiers of mods containing 5 mods each, meaning players are limited to less than half of the mods that are available each season. Some players find this needlessly limiting; they’d like to see the Artifact system overhauled as much as their fellow Destiny 2 fans want the Champion reworked. There are ways to purge the Artifact and try out new mods, but it requires an in-game resource called Glimmer.

In an interview with PC Gamer, game director Joe Blackburn spoke on the inability to install all 25 mods, explaining that this was initially done to reduce complexity. Whether this complexity was referring to players getting overwhelmed or overworking the game itself (or both) is unclear. Blackburn also specified that Bungie wanted to make use of Glimmer, which is why the team used the resource as the cost for resetting the Artifact. Now that the development team has seen how people play the game, it’s hoping to change the mechanic in the future. “We see a bunch of stuff on the Artifact and we’re like: ‘Yep, we know we need to make it better,'” Blackburn said. The team recently reworked Destiny 2‘s Trials of Osiris, another oft-maligned feature.

Tim Clark of PC Gamer remarked that other ways the Artifact might become overpowered have been dealt with previously. He specifically mentions that some mods can only be installed on certain armor classes. Additionally, Clark points out that each mod has an energy cost associated with it, which, in his opinion, “lock[s players] out [of] broken combos.” Bungie is also not afraid to ban certain weapons, like disabling the Dancing Shoes in Destiny 2‘s PVP mode. Limiting the player to a mere 12 mods could dampen player enjoyment, he argues. This is a sentiment that Blackburn seemingly agrees with.

It’s currently unknown when the Seasonal Artifact might be reworked. The latest season has promised to rework another system that fans have complained about by introducing changes to Destiny 2‘s notorious Transmog mechanic. It’s possible the Artifact will see its full potential unlocked then. Regardless of when the changes are made, the interview is an acknowledgment from Bungie that the game is flawed, and that the developers are aware of the problems the community has with it. Most importantly, it looks like they are working to improve and follow through with the fanbase’s suggestions.

Destiny 2 is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

Source: PC Gamer

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