Localization is a task made even more difficult when working under the constraints of indie development. So how did the developers of Gone Home manage to localize the game for over ten languages with no budget? 

In this 2014 GDC talk, The Fullbright Company’s Johnnemann Nordhagen explains how Gone Home enabled, supported, and encouraged fan-made translations for the game.

Johnnemann also discusses the studio’s approach to asking the community for help, as well as providing what went right and what went wrong during the localization proccess. 

Developers interested in crowdsourcing localization for their games may appreciate that they can now watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.

Now available: Use Gold Points on digital games for the Nintendo Switch system

My Nintendo members can now redeem Gold Points for digital games and DLC for the Nintendo Switch™ system. It’s as easy as applying your points during the checkout process, whether you buy on the Nintendo website or Nintendo eShop on the system.

Ready to earn and redeem your Gold Points? Here’s how:

• Buy a qualifying digital game for Nintendo Switch, Wii U™, or Nintendo 3DS™ family systems, or a physical game for the Nintendo Switch system.
• Earn Gold Points based on the amount you pay (excluding any points or discounts used).
  * 5% for eligible digital purchases on Nintendo.com or Nintendo eShop (Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U)
  * 1% of the Nintendo eShop price for physical purchases (Nintendo Switch)
• • Redeem those points on your next eligible digital purchase (including games and DLC) for the Nintendo Switch system. Just look for the option to apply your points during checkout.

  That means that if you buy a $59.99 game on Nintendo eShop, you’ll earn 300 Gold Points. Those points can then be redeemed for $3 toward your next purchase…which will earn more Gold Points, according to the amount you paid (excluding any points or discounts used)!

  For more details, check out the new page about Gold Points.

  Not yet a member of My Nintendo? Sign up for free today with your Nintendo Account.

  Details:

  • Purchases of Nintendo 3DS or Wii U DLC do not qualify to earn Gold Points. Additionally, service items/tickets, in-game items or virtual currency do not qualify to earn Gold Points.
  • Gold Points can be used toward all eligible digital game and DLC purchases for the Nintendo Switch system, excluding automatic subscription renewals, service tickets and in-game items.
  • My Nintendo Gold Points expire after 12 months on the last day of the month in which they were earned. Visit My Nintendo Rewards Program Terms of Service for the full terms and conditions.

With the release of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on Windows 10, Xbox Wire goes back in time to help you discover the story behind a saga that became a legend. This article was authored by and originally appeared on Xbox Wire France.

The year is 1997. The Spice Girls have a top-selling album, France has yet to win the soccer World Cup, and Minitels are as popular as PCs. But all of this is about to change, as is the world of strategic videogames.

A small development studio decides to try and do something new with real-time strategy games (RTS). Tony Goodman and his colleagues at Ensemble Studios have an idea: to take the foundations of the genre made popular by Warcraft and Command and Conquer — the most famous of the harvest-build-conquer games – and apply them to a game about human history like Civilization.

And thus, Age of Empires was born. It was an ambitious game in isometric 2D that offered players the chance to guide one of twelve civilizations from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. In other words, players had to transform a tribe of hunter-gatherers into a great imperial force. Doing so would require managing their (non-renewable) resources, developing their technology, and building armies while also resisting opposing units – all in real time as opposed to taking turns like in other history-based games.

While there were several game modes available, players fondly remember experiencing history via RTS gameplay in several campaign scenarios. These campaigns covered four great civilizations: In the first, ancient Egypt, players had to help villagers on the banks of the Nile construct the great pyramids through twelve missions. The scene then changed to Mesopotamia, with eight scenarios inspired by the history of Babylon. The eight objectives of Ancient Greece went from founding the city of Athens to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. Finally, the eight missions of the Japanese campaign concentrated on the rise and fall of the Yamato Imperial Court.

In addition to campaigns, it was possible to play against the computer on randomly-generated maps or in a “death match.” Multiplayer via LAN or internet – one of the game’s strong points – could accommodate up to eight people simultaneously, and players really appreciated being able to create their own scenarios and share them with the community, especially as the editor was considered one of the best available at the time.

Despite all these new features, the game’s publisher Microsoft was cautious about the success of this new concept, expecting around 400,000 copies to be sold over the game’s lifespan. To everyone’s surprise, success was immediate. Upon its release in October 1997 in North America, followed by the rest of the world in February 1998, Age of Empires was a critical and commercial success, with one magazine calling it “Microsoft’s greatest masterpiece”. On GameRankings, the game earned an overall score of 87%. AoE quickly became the top-selling game not only in France, but also the USA, United Kingdom, and Germany, with over 3 million copies sold in three years, making it one of the ten biggest hits of 1998. To this day, Age of Empires remains one of the top-selling franchises – reaching over $1 billion in sales along with Halo, Gears of War and Minecraft. Age of Empires left a lasting impression on the world of RTS games, so much so that it encouraged numerous other licenses such as Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and Cossacks to follow the same format. It also made Microsoft one of the biggest names in videogames.

The Beginning of a New Era

After the Rise of Rome expansion set in Ancient Rome, Ensemble Studios released Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings on September 30, 1999. This too was an instant success with Microsoft announcing sales of over two million copies in just three months, and AoK stayed in the Top 20 sales for over two-and-a-half years. The game even surpassed its predecessor on GameRankings with a score of 92%.

For many players, this new episode remains the most popular of the entire saga. Critics loved the choice of era — the Middle Ages — and the numerous improvements to the game system. The animations had been reworked and improved as well as the sound effects – one of the series’ strong points – remained just as realistic.

Age of Empires II had a second lease of life in 2013, when an HD remake was published on Steam, together with three new extensions, and the episode continues to be successful to this day: more than 5 million copies of Age of Empires II: HD Edition have now been sold on Steam, and there are still around 400,000 active players!

A Temporary Change of Scenery

But let’s go back to the beginning of the century. In 2001, Microsoft was preparing to launch the first Xbox. To reinforce its gaming division, the company bought Ensemble Studios to demonstrate its investment into game development, and in 2002 released Age of Mythology, which experimented with the now-classic Age formula by moving away from actual historical events to concentrate on Greek, Egyptian, and Nordic folklore – allowing fantastical units like cyclopses, mummies and frost giants to fight alongside archers and cavalry. The gameplay innovation and 3D game engine delighted players and specialists, so much so that over a million copies were sold in less than four months.

In 2005, Ensemble Studios returned to its favorite theme: history. Situated in the colonial era between 1492 and 1850, Age of Empires III invited us to discover the New World by establishing a colony in one of eight civilizations. Once again, the game was warmly received and praised for its incredible graphics, great sound effects, and multiplayer mode directly integrated with the interface. The game was also a commercial success, with over two million copies sold in two years. Age III received two extensions: The WarChiefs in 2006 and The Asian Dynasties in 2007 as well as an HD re-release on Steam in 2012. This sold 2.4 million copies and still has nearly 100,000 active players today.

Posterity

In 20 years of existence, the Age of Empires series has taken nearly 30 million players through seven centuries of history. Today, the first game is getting a welcome new lease on life with Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. This new version contains not only all the original game content, but also lots of new features. The most noticeable improvements are the graphics and animation, both of which have been entirely remastered for 4K displays on modern devices. The gameplay has been modernized – for example, there are several levels of zoom and a new interface – and the content hasn’t been forgotten either, with completely revised rhythm and narration, new options to share and find custom scenarios and campaigns built with the scenario editor, brand new competitive modes and, of course, lots of multiplayer options. Even the soundtrack, which was celebrated 20 years ago for the historical research that went into it, has been re-orchestrated and expanded. To top all of this, those nostalgic for the original can choose ‘classic’ mode, allowing them to relive the experience exactly as it was imagined twenty years ago.

And this is just the beginning. At gamescom 2017, Microsoft announced they were working on definitive editions of Age of Empires II and III as well as the eagerly-awaited Age of Empires IV developed by Relic Entertainment.

Loveshack Entertainment has released a new trailer to announce FRAMED Collection for Nintendo Switch – a compilation of the studio’s noir-puzzle games FRAMED and FRAMED 2.

Featuring some very hands-on gameplay mechanics and clever narrative puzzles in a noir-themed aesthetic, the FRAMED series has players rearranging the panels of an animated comic book to alter the order of events, changing the outcome from disaster to success.

The game’s style reminds us of Gorogoa – a title released on Switch towards the end of last year that utilised a similar panel-moving mechanic to great effect.

FRAMED and FRAMED 2 have racked up various awards between them from their mobile releases, and a move to the Switch could well be a perfect fit for handheld gameplay. This collection is scheduled to release this spring.

Do you like the look of this one? Let us know down below.

7.10:
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* Enabled Dark Willow in Captain’s Mode

* Bounty Rune base gold bounty increased from 50 to 60 (affects runes after the first one)
* Bounty Rune no longer gives XP. Previously gave 0 at the start and increased by 7 per minute.
* Tome of Knowledge XP bonus increased from 500 to 700

* Melee Creeps gold bounty reduced by 1 (reduced from 41 to 40)

* Randoming now gives a Faerie Fire instead of a branch
* Bonus hero count increased from 10 to 12

* Aeon Disk: Cooldown reduced from 100 to 90

* Boots of Speed: Cost increased from 400 to 500
* Boots of Speed: Movement bonus increased from 40 to 50
* Phase Boots: Movement bonus increased from 45 to 50
* Power Treads: Movement bonus increased from 45 to 50

* Animal Courier: Flying Courier movement speed increased from 450 to 460

* Monkey King Bar: Added a sound effect for successful procs

* Soul Ring: Health cost increased from 150 to 170

* Abaddon: Level 15 Talent increased from +50 Mist Coil Heal/Damage to +60
* Abaddon: Level 20 Talent increased from +15% Cooldown Reduction to +20%
* Abaddon: Level 25 Talent reduced from +250 Aphotic Shield Health to +225

* Alchemist: Level 20 Talent increased from +25% Cleave to +30%

* Ancient Apparition: Level 15 Talent increased from -1.5s Ice Vortex Cooldown to -2.5s
* Ancient Apparition: Level 25 Talent changed from 4 Charges of Cold Feet to 900 AoE Cold Feet

* Anti-Mage: Level 10 Talent changed from +175 Health to +10 Strength
* Anti-Mage: Level 15 Talent changed from -2s Blink Cooldown to +400 Blink Cast Range
* Anti-Mage: Level 20 Talent increased from +300 Blink Cast Range to -2.5s Blink Cooldown

* Arc Warden: Level 10 Talent changed from +5 Armor to 8% Cooldown Reduction
* Arc Warden: Level 15 Talent increased from +2s Flux Duration to +3s
* Arc Warden: Level 20 Talent increased from +100 Attack Range to +125
* Arc Warden: Level 20 Talent changed from +10% Cooldown Reduction to -1.5s Spark Wraith Cooldown

* Axe: Level 15 Talent increased from +30 Movement Speed to +40

* Bloodseeker: Bloodrage now heals you for 50% of its value if you do not get the last hit but are within 300 AoE of a dying hero.

* Centaur Warrunner: Level 20 Talent increased from +250 Double Edge Damage to +300

* Clinkz: Strafe projectile dodge count increased from 3 to 4
* Clinkz: Level 15 Talent increased from +15% Evasion to +20%

* Crystal Maiden: Level 10 Talent increased from +200 Health to +250
* Crystal Maiden: Level 15 Talent increased from +90 Gold/Min to +120

* Dark Seer: Level 20 Talent increased from +300 AoE Surge to +400

* Dazzle: Base movement speed increased from 305 to 310
* Dazzle: Level 20 Talent increased from +30 Poison Touch DPS to +45

* Doom: Base Intelligence increased by 2
* Doom: Level 10 Talent changed from +25 Movement Speed to +16% Scorched Earth Movement Speed

* Dragon Knight: Agility gain reduced from 2.2 to 2.0
* Dragon Knight: Level 10 Talent changed from +30 Attack Speed to -20% Breathe Fire Damage Reduction

* Drow Ranger: Level 15 Talent increased from +400 Gust Distance/Knockback to +550
* Drow Ranger: Level 20 Talent increased from +2s Gust Duration to +3s

* Ember Spirit: Sleight of Fist bonus hero damage increased from 25/50/75/100 to 30/60/90/120

* Enchantress: Nature’s Attendants manacost increased from 125 to 140

* Gyrocopter: Improved visual effect for Flak Cannon projectiles
* Gyrocopter: Homing Missile bounty increased from 25 to 50
* Gyrocopter: Homing Missile cooldown increased from 20/17/14/11 to 26/21/16/11

* Invoker: Level 10 Talent from +0.3s Tornado Lift Time to +0.5s
* Invoker: Level 15 Talent from +1.5s Cold Snap Duration to +2.5s
* Invoker: Cataclysm Sunstrikes spawn distance is now slightly closer to each target (from 175-250 distance away to 160-220)

* Io: Tether duration increased from 12 to 14

* Jakiro: Level 10 Talent increased from +25% XP to +30%
* Jakiro: Level 15 Talent increased from +250 Attack Range to +300

* Kunkka: Tidebringer damage increased from 25/45/65/85 to 25/50/75/100

* Leshrac: Lightning Storm manacost rescaled from 90/100/110/120 to 75/90/105/120

* Lich: Level 25 Talent from Attacks Apply 30% MS and AS Slow to 40%

* Lina: Level 10 Talent increased from +100 Cast Range to +125
* Lina: Level 10 Talent increased from +25 Damage to +30
* Lina: Level 15 Talent increased from +300 Health to +350
* Lina: Level 20 Talent increased from +10% Spell Amplification to +12%

* Lion: Mana Drain slow increased from 14/16/18/20 to 16/19/22/25%
* Lion: Level 10 Talent increased from +75 Damage to +90
* Lion: Level 15 Talent increased from +90 Gold/Min to +120

* Lone Druid: Spirit Bear health regeneration increased from 4/5/6/7 to 5/6/7/8
* Lone Druid: Level 15 Talent increased from -8s Savage Roar Cooldown to -12s

* Luna: Level 15 Talent from -3s Lucent Beam Cooldown to -4s

* Lycan: Base damage reduced by 3

* Magnus: Base strength increased by 1
* Magnus: Level 25 Talent increased from +0.75s Reverse Polarity to +1s

* Mirana: Starfall manacost from 100/120/140/160 to 80/105/130/155
* Mirana: Level 25 Talent increased from -70 Moonlight Shadow Cooldown to -80

* Monkey King: Base damage increased by 2
* Monkey King: Fixed Mischief not showing the right particles for the first bounty rune
* Monkey King: Level 10 Talent increased from +150 Tree Dance Vision AoE to +300
* Monkey King: Level 15 Talent increased from +300 Tree Dance Cast Range to +600
* Monkey King: Level 20 Talent increased from +300 Primal Spring Damage to +400

* Morphling: Morph can now be toggled to go back and forth from the original target until the duration runs out. Has a 1 second toggle cooldown.

* Naga Siren: Sleep buff linger time reduced from 0.5 to 0.4
* Naga Siren: Song of the Siren manacost increased from 100 to 100/150/200

* Nature’s Prophet: Wraith of Nature cooldown reduced from 70/65/60 to 60
* Nature’s Prophet: Level 10 Talent increased from +30 Movement Speed to +40
* Nature’s Prophet: Level 15 Talent increased from +8 Armor to +10

* Necrophos: Level 15 Talent changed from +30 Movement Speed to +16% Ghost Shroud Slow
* Necrophos: Level 15 Talent changed from +300 Health to +40 Death Pulse Heal

* Ogre Magi: Level 20 Talent increased from +30 Strength to +40

* Omniknight: Purification cooldown increased from 11/10/9/8 to 11

* Oracle: Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.7
* Oracle: Intelligence growth increased from 2.9 to 3.2

* Outworld Devourer: Astral Imprisonment manacost increased from 120/140/160/180 to 140/160/180/200
* Outworld Devourer: Level 10 Talent increased from +200 Health to +250

* Phantom Assassin: Stifiling Dagger Talent now has a 300 cast range buffer for the secondary target

* Phantom Lancer: Level 25 Talent increased from -5s Doppelganger Cooldown to -7s

* Phoenix: Level 15 Talent changed from +40% XP Gain to +500 Health
* Phoenix: Level 20 Talent increased from +1s Supernova Stun Duration to +1.25s

* Pudge: Rot slow reduced from 20/24/28/32% to 17/22/27/32%

* Razor: Static Link manacost increased from 50 to 65

* Riki: Level 15 Talent increased from -5s Smokescreen Cooldown to -7s

* Rubick: Level 15 Talent increased from -35 Fade Bolt Hero Attack to -45

* Shadow Demon: Level 10 Talent increased from +25% XP Gain to 30%
* Shadow Demon: Level 25 Talent changed from +5s Disruption Banish Duration to 2 Charges of Disruption

* Shadow Fiend: Shadow Raze damage increase per stack reduced from 80 to 50/60/70/80

* Skywrath Mage: Level 15 Talent increased from -6s Ancient Seal Cooldown to -8s

* Slardar: Level 10 Talent increased from +20 to +25 Damage

* Slark: Level 10 Talent increased from +8 Strength to +10

* Spectre: Level 25 Talent increased from +20% Haunt Illusion Damage to +40%

* Sven: Level 15 Talent changed from +30 Damage to Storm Hammer Dispels Enemies
* Sven: Level 20 Talent changed from Storm Hammer Dispels Enemies to -5s Storm Hammer Cooldown
* Sven: Level 25 Talent changed from -9s Storm Hammer Cooldown to +0.75s Storm Hammer Stun Duration

* Terrorblade: Base HP regen reduced from 3.25 to 3.0
* Terrorblade: Reflection no longer reduces attack speed

* Tinker: Laser Scepter bounce radius reduced from 650 to 400
* Tinker: Laser manacost increased from 95/120/145/170 to 110/130/150/170
* Tinker: Level 20 Talent from +100 Damage to +10 Armor

* Tiny: Tree Grab cooldown increased from 18/16/14/12 to 24/20/16/12

* Treant Protector: Level 10 Talent changed from +35% XP Gain to +2 Living Armor Block Instances
* Treant Protector: Level 15 Talent improved from 3s Tree Respawn Time to 2s
* Treant Protector: Level 25 Talent changed from +6 Living Armor Block Instances to 700 AoE Living Armor (heroes and buildings)

* Troll Warlord: Level 10 Talent increased from +200 Health to +250
* Troll Warlord: Level 15 Talent increased from +50 Whirling Axes Damage to +75

* Undying: Level 10 Talent increased from +100 Cast Range to +150
* Undying: Level 15 Talent increased from +20 Decay Duration to +30
* Undying: Level 20 Talent increased from +3 Tombstone Attacks to +4

* Ursa: Fury Swipes Roshan duration increased from 6 to 10

* Venomancer: Level 15 Talent increased from +150 Cast Range to +200
* Venomancer: Level 20 Talent increased from +6s Poison Nova Duration to +7s
* Venomancer: Level 25 Talent increased from +600 Poison Nova AoE to +800

* Visage: Soul Assumption Talent now has a 300 cast range buffer for the secondary targets
* Visage: Added secondary ability on Visage to make the nearest Familiar land each time it is clicked.

* Warlock: Level 10 Talent increased from +125 Cast Range to +150
* Warlock: Level 15 Talent increased from +40% XP Gain to +60%
* Warlock: Level 20 Talent increased from +250 Shadow Word AoE to +300

* Weaver: Level 10 Talent increased from +25% XP Gain to +35%

* Windranger: Shackleshot Manacost reduced from 90/100/110/120 to 70/85/100/115
* Windranger: Level 20 Talent increased from +0.5s Shackleshot Duration to +1s

* Winter Wyvern: Arctic Burn manacost reduced from 120/110/100/90 to 90
* Winter Wyvern: Level 10 Talent increased from +50 Damage to +60

* Wraith King: Level 15 Talent changed from +5 Max Skeletons to +25 Skeletons Attack Damage
* Wraith King: Level 20 Talent changed from +30 Skeletons Attack Damage to 2x Skeletons Spawned

* Zeus: Level 25 Talent increased from +200 Cast Range to +275

Every day is a snapshot day if you try hard enough. We’re travelling to GDC soon so we’re going to try to push out as many snapshots this week as we can.

A full changelog for the Snapshot can be found on Minecraft.net.

• Added buried treasure
• Added tropical fish
• Added underwater ambience sounds
• Added ability to put markers on maps
• Added coral plants
• Changed phantom model and texture
• Changes to phantom behaviour
• Changed coral texture
• Underwater visibility now changes per biome

BURIED TREASURE

We found this cool stuff! Let’s hide it.

• Can be found… somewhere?
• Maps found in Underwater Ruins can lead you to them
• Will contain a very cool treasure… which isn’t added yet

TROPICAL FISH

We found nemo! And all his friends!

• They come in many colours!
• They come in many patterns!
• Like other fish, you can catch them up in a bucket
• You can find them in warm and lukewarm oceans

MAP MARKERS

You are here. Or there. I’m not sure, it’s somewhere here.

• Right click on a banner with a map to add it to the map
• Right click on the same banner again to remove it
• That map will show the colour of the banner at that spot
• Named banners will show their name on the map too
• If a banner is destroyed, it’ll disappear when you get close and are holding the map

PHANTOM

“Less derpy” – Jeb

• Now despawn during the day
• No longer spawn in The End
• They have a new model! And texture! Pretty neat.

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 1.13 will have a lot of experimental snapshots that may break everything and smell funny. This may be one of those snapshots. This is what happens when Mojang are changing all the things! 

Share your thoughts on how 1.13 is shaping up in the comments below!

This week at Bungie, we witnessed New Monarchy continue their dynasty. 

New Monarchy is celebrating in the Tower this week. They won their third Faction Rallies event in a row—the three-peat is real. Future War Cult remains winless, but they did narrowly edge out Dead Orbit for the second place slot.

Future War Cult will get another shot at getting their first win when the factions return to the Tower to compete again. Will Dead Orbit return to glory? Or will New Monarchy continue their dominance with a fourth straight win? 

You will decide. 

Fe Banner

After the faction leaders pack up to leave the Tower, Saladin will be passing them in the Hanger as he makes his return. It’s time to relight the burning shield and prepare to battle your fellow Guardians.

Begins: Tuesday, March 6

Ends: Tuesday, March 13

The game is Clash!

Lord Saladin will have three featured weapons available for you to obtain directly from him. Here are his offerings: 

If you weren’t able to finish off the challenges required to unlock all of your ornaments during the last event, your progress will carry over. So start punching everyone you see to earn that chest ornament! 

Changes are coming to Iron Banner and the Crucible. We’ll give you more specifics very soon…

The Aforementioned Future Crucible Plans

…Very soon, as in this section. The Crucible team has been working hard on a few updates to Guardian vs. Guardian action that the team plans to deliver in Update 1.1.4. We invited PvP Design Lead Derek Carroll to drop some knowledge on what they have in store for us. 

Derek: The PvP team has been on fire these past few weeks, filling Update 1.1.4 with as much awesomeness as we can. Our beloved Test team is right there with us in the labs as we put the new content through its paces.

Some highlights:

Iron Banner will channel that old-school Crucible in the style of the Iron Lords. We’ve made a number of tweaks to the gameplay besides increasing team sizes to 6v6:

• Match time limit is 12 minutes 
• Score limit is 125 points
• Respawn time is 7 seconds
• All control zones start off neutral
• Control zones take slightly longer to capture by default
• Additional Guardians (max of 3) in a zone increases capture speed
• Guardians participating in a capture get more Super energy

Rumble will make its triumphant return, with no excuses, no complications, and absolutely no points for “assists”. You get a single point when you get a kill, just like in the golden age of video games. Oh, and this time, we increased the player count to eight.

Mayhem is still Mayhem.

These three modes will share a central location on the Crucible Director page, and rotate weekly to keep things fresh.  This Weekly Featured playlist will be home to gametypes that don’t necessarily fit into the existing Quickplay or Competitive playlists.

The Mode Formerly Known as “Doubles” is in its chrysalis, making a slow transition from what you played during Crimson Days to become a beautiful butterfly.  We love the way it played in Crimson Days, but felt like we could take it further and give it more polish and flexibility.  Once we lock that down, we’ll release it into the Weekly Featured rotating playlist with the other fun stuff. For now, we are unsure of a release date, but we’ll add it the Road Map when we are more certain of when it will land.

There are, of course, other cool features coming in 1.1.4 that will make everyone’s lives better (unless they’re habitual quitters), and we’ll be sure to talk more about them as launch day approaches. 

Dev Team: Nightfall emblem variants have a chance to drop from Nightfall completions. It’s not related to challenges, and it’s not a guaranteed drop. For each variant, the chance increases from 0% to as high as 50% at specific score thresholds per variant. Currently, those thresholds are as follows:

Tier 1: 20k

Tier 2: 40k

Tier 3: 60k

Tier 4: 80k

Dev Team: We’re planning to adjust the score thresholds as we come to better understand what the community considers an impressive high score, and we don’t currently have a great way to display dynamic settings like that. Every week that a Nightfall returns, we may increase the Aura threshold based on community high scores from the previous week that Nightfall was active. We’ll do that based on some percentile of the community, potentially the top 10%. The current 60k threshold is based on internal playtests—we expect the community to be better than us, so it should be expected that threshold will increase the next time “Tree of Probabilities” comes around.

Dev Team: The removal of the base modifiers from Nightfall is because we want to emphasize core combat in this initial release and let the community define the meta for a high-scoring Nightfall run. We can certainly revisit the modifiers in the future—they’re not dead and buried. Open to player feedback.

Note: We are currently investigating an issue where Heroic Mercury Adventure modifiers are not appearing for some players. This was not intentional, and we’ll update you on the status of the issue when we have more information.

John: Hello, I’m the Raids Test Lead for Destiny 2. I understand how frustrating it can be when players frequently encounter an issue in our raids. Nobody takes it more to heart than the Test team. Creating complex encounters that function as expected is the pinnacle of what the Raid team strives for in every release. 

Our Raid team is made up of team members from all disciplines, and when an issue can be identified and fixed by scripting (what we call a content fix), we can make that fix without pulling too many resources from what we want to share with players next. When an issue needs to be fixed by an engineer (what we call a code fix), a solution becomes much more difficult to find, as it touches all systems within Destiny 2—not just a specific activity.

The issue where players do not respawn in the “Leviathan” raid is a memory issue due to the size and complexity of the activity, and it will require a code fix. It is caused when a fireteam splits up across large distances while others remain back and swap out their gear. This has seemed to be occurring more often in recent weeks because we have updated our loot tables in order to make the “Leviathan” raid a more rewarding experience, with more incentives to return to. We are still investigating a code fix for the problem. 

In the meantime, you can avoid this issue by sticking together as a team while trying out your sweet new loot. We realize that this is not an acceptable fix, but we wanted to give you info on how you can try to mitigate the issue while we work on it. If you do happen to hit this issue even following those steps, then reequipping the armor set you had when you spawned into the activity may return your Guardian to action.

Known Knowns

New updates sometimes introduce new issues. Destiny Player Support is currently tracking a few that popped up after this week’s update.

This is their report.

Update 1.1.3 Known Issues

The following issues have been identified since the release of Destiny Update 1.1.3:

• Mercury Heroic Adventures
• • Modifiers are currently not available for some players on Mercury Heroic adventures. We are currently investigating this issue and targeting resolution in Destiny Update 1.1.4.
• Destination Emblem Statistics
• • The EDZ destination emblem currently only displays 38 of the 41 total Ghost scannables after they have been found.
  • Ghost Scannables Found statistics do not update until a player returns to orbit, or until a player unequips and reequips the emblem.
• Prestige Challenge Card Score Multipliers
• • We have identified an issue where score multipliers present on Challenge Cards do not update properly when players are selecting Singe modifiers. As we investigate this issue, players may work around this issue by toggling the Power Handicap up or down.

If you encounter any issues when playing Destiny 2, please post a report to the #Help forum detailing your experience.

Movie Magic

Do you like it better when dmg04 oversees Movie of the Week? Do I look like I care? Get back in there!

Moving on. If you aren’t familiar with how MOTW works, here is the gist of it. Every week, you can submit videos to the Creations page. We pick a few of our favorites, and the winners get an emblem. If you want to be one of said winners, submit your video. Make sure you list everyone who works on it in the description of the video, so we know who to send emblems to.

Now, without further ado, here are this week’s winners:

Movie of the Week: The Farm Piano Cover

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Honorable mention: Fat Stacks

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I don’t know about you, but I still have some challenges to complete in Iron Banner. I’ve been looking forward to Saladin’s return to unlock some of those sweet, sweet ornaments.

Time flies. It’s already March, and 1.1.4 will be deployed before the end of the month. We’ll be talking more about it soon. We’ll also keep you up to date on the roadmap and other upcoming changes further down the line. 

Apparently, I’ve been summoned to court next week. No, I’m not in any trouble. I have to do my civic duty as a juror. Point is, dmg04 will be writing your TWAB next week. Feel free to fill up his mentions with what you think he should write about.

See you in the Iron Banner. 

<3 Cozmo