This is one of those sets of changes that is multi-layered, and on the one hand might be entirely inobtrusive, but on the other is, IMO, decidedly alarming.
What's happening is multi-layered. The basics, as I understand them - please correct me if I got something wrong.
- A new type of shader called chroma, which adds glowing highlights to armor, and for the first time, also to weapons is added to Destiny. They are entirely cosmetic, but also really cool looking.
- A new line of other cosmetics, and Taken gear, are added to the game.
- Sterling Treasure Boxes - loot bags - are added. These are similar to what we've seen in past events, but are now a core part of the game. Everyone gets one for free every week. And then two more per week can be earned from activities (one PvE, one PvP), for a total of three. These same boxes are for sale for real money.
- The light level on the armor in the 3, basically the lowest it can get in the game and still have any value.
- Almost everything in the boxes can be earned outside of them. Almost.
That's the nuts and bolts of it and on its face is not too obtrusive. But the some details really matter:
- The new chroma shader can only be acquired from the boxes, and they are one of many types of items in them, so they are not guaranteed.
- Chroma is a consumable applied to one item at a time, not an item you apply to whatever items you have equipped like a shader. You're going to need a lot of it.
- When changing colors with chroma, you re-roll to a different color, consuming chroma along the way. You don't pick what color you want, you burn the consumable until you get the color you want. This led to a funny moment on the reveal stream yesterday when someone wanted to show a different color on a gun and we hear him clicking over and over and OVER to roll to that color. [At least, this is how I think it works. They kind of glossed it over in the stream.]
- Since players are throttled to three boxes per week, this will be in short supply. Thus, the real money boxes.
- There is no direct way to either earn or purchase chroma. It's all RNG from the boxes.
- For the first time, armor is available for sale outside of a temporary event (they introduced this idea with the racing event). This is presumably softened by them being only light level 3. However...
[*]The infusion upgrade system is updated to be a 1:1 trade. So you can take a 300 item, infuse it into that leverl 3 armor you just got, and now it's level 300. That puts the lie to the notion that they might as well be cosmetic since they are so low level.
There's a lot in here that bothers me. The introduction of chroma is really cool - it genuinely looks great, and being able to customize guns is awesome. But it's limited to a random grab bag, with a chance to earn it, and it's throttled three per week, or you can buy more chances. And it's a consumable. And you can't pick your color, you burn it until you get the color you want. Without the F2P hooks, it just would have been a shader you apply, with a set color, to the weapons you have equipped. Done.
A lot of work went into getting this F2P hook into the game. So instead of a great new customization option, we now have a really awful, unfriendly series of mechanics to either limit what you can get, or have to spend money for a
chance to get it. This is unquestionably intrusive to the game. Because while one box per week is free, and chroma itself is cosmetic, we can also earn them from PvE and PvP activities - and then have to deal with the other aspects of it which are there to encourage real money purchases (consumable, random rolls). This is F2P impacting the loot aspect of the game. That's not good.
You can hand wave this away as saying it's all cosmetic. And that's true. But cosmetic loot has been a big part of the game from day 1 - shaders, ships, emblems, even one set of armor over another with similar perks. So this is very much impacting a core part of the loot game.
It's great that the light level infusion system is now 1:1. It's disappointing that the only reason they did that is to make the Treasure Boxes have more appeal, so the low level armor can become useful instantly.
It's also very supportive of the slippery slope argument many have been making, which has had a lot of us hardcore Destiny fans very worried. The first entry into this space was purely cosmetic (the excellent and fun Festival of the Lost). Every update since then has moved the line, and now we're here. I have no confidence the line is going stay here.
That makes it worse, not better, since you can't even buy them directly, if that's what you are after. They put up this random aspect of it so they can say they're not selling armor directly but...they are still selling armor.
