Destiny
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The release date for the “House of Wolves” update is a crucial point for “Destiny” players. It not only signals the next content expansion for the title, but also serves as the mark around which they could expect the latest 1.1.2 update to drop.

Community manager DeeJ puts the spotlight on the Live Team as a way to tease the features coming with the “Destiny” 1.1.2 update. In the latest blog post, design lead M.E. Chung revealed how the team decides which improvements and features to add in the updates.

One thing that factors in quite a lot in the update is the community feedback. Bungie has made it clear that it always listens to its players. But there are also voices from other places, such as acquaintances from Bungie and beyond, as well as the report from the research team. The latter takes into consideration how the players spend their time in the game, and on which features the attention is currently most focused on.

“The goal is to figure out what will result in the best experiences and make the most players happy,” said Chung in the blog. “We need to pick improvements that we can design, build, test and release with quality in a given timeframe.”

Even with all of these in mind, there is still a process behind the selection and development of new features for upcoming updates. According to Chung, it starts with a list of changes that the team brainstorms on. Not everything on the list will get pushed through, as the team need to consider the timeframe, the standards and the scope of the job to be delivered.

Chung gives one infamous example, which is the loss of heavy ammo on death. This bug has been one of the features that fans were requesting most for a fix. However, given that it was caused by the interplay of the systems, it took a lot of tries to get a fix that would not result in more bugs. There was a fix released, which came with the recent 1.1.1 update.

DeeJ did not provide concrete details on what exactly will be coming with the “Destiny” 1.1.2 update. But the Live Team has hinted on the features that it is currently looking into. Currently, there are five features listed as priority features for 1.1.2:

- There may be more Vault Space, considering that Bungie has promised more gear coming.

- The team is targeted Raid Fixes to deal with the bugs in Atheon and Crota.

- PVP Ammunition may provide a new way of changing the flow of a battle.

- The team is looking further into why people quit missions and why there are some missions that are more successfully completed than others.

- More options for audio and visual

Apart from hints, DeeJ did not mention any other specifics or even a release date for the 1.1.2 update. He did confirm that it will debut before the “House of Wolves” expansion arrives.

Talking about the “House of Wolves” DLC, Gamingbolt got in touch with Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter to talk about his thoughts on the expansion. Pachter revealed that he had talked with Activision, publisher for “Destiny,” and learned that the goal was to keep the revenues flat every year until “Destiny 2” arrives.

According to the source, this means more map packs and level increases. Pachter also speculates that the next big content drop will be similar to how “World of WarCraft” delivers expansions. This means double than the usual $20-priced expansions, and a predicted 10-level cap change.

Pachter mentioned that while “Destiny” may not be Activision’s next “Call of Duty” franchise, the original plan of making it a sustainable game is something that may the developer may be looking into. From Pachter’s point of view, the expected release of expansion will be three more for the year, with two $20-worth of expansions and one major $40-expansion.

Bungie has not confirmed any of these details, so take this with a grain of salt. For the most part, the developer has been keeping a transparent approach to its updates, so players can expect more to come with “House of Wolves” and the “Destiny” 1.1.2 update.

"Destiny" updates (Credit: YouTube/Arekkz Gaming)

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