Anton Sugar
Member
Kotaku article by Jason Schreier
Please read the article before posting--this isn't about not having access to TTK content, but rather, about losing content that was previously accessible to vanilla players.
TL;DR
Reddit put together a comprehensive list of everything that is locked out now:
This is just insanely frustrating and mind-boggling. I actually just re-bought Destiny (and TTK) last night after hearing all the praise and have yet to dive in, but it's practices exactly like this that made me sell my copy last year. When is Bungie going to stop making these stupid decisions? I had thought they put this kind of practice behind them with TTK.
Please read the article before posting--this isn't about not having access to TTK content, but rather, about losing content that was previously accessible to vanilla players.
Are you a Destiny player with no interest in buying The Taken King? You might want to find another game to play.
As it turns out, The Taken King doesnt just add a ton of excellent new stuff to Bungies ambitious MMO-shooterit also locks out much of the old content both in PVE and PVP. Vanilla Destiny players can still access all the original story missions and raids, but they cant do heroic strikes or nightfalls anymore. And because Bungie has totally revamped the way playlist strikes work, players without The Taken King can only run through the relatively useless level-20 Vanguard Legacy playlistsa big departure from the last incarnation of the game, which offered different tiers of playlists that anyone could access.
In the Crucible, while anyone with The Taken King installed can play through all the old modes and then some, vanilla players are stuck with three types of PVP playlists: Classic free-for-all, classic 3v3 (Skirmish/Salvage), and classic 6v6 (Clash/Control). If you dont have The Taken King but only want to play one of those 3v3 or 6v6 modes, your only option is to pick a playlist and bail every time you get the one you dont want.
Also, as you might expect, Destiny players who havent upgraded to Year Two cant get the new subclasses, shiny gear, and cool quests that ship with The Taken King, which runs for $40. Vanilla players are also stuck with the old level cap of 34.
On one hand, this feels like a no-duh move: Of course people are going to have to buy all the expansions to keep up with all the stuff that Destinys developers tweak and add every few months. And from what weve seen so far, The Taken King is well worth the asking price, even if previous DLC has been a bit lacking.
But for Destiny players who arent yet sure if they want to upgradeor cant afford it yetits something of a slap in the face to see half the old endgame content suddenly disappear. On September 14, anyone with a copy of Destiny could play a variety of crucible modes or take on the nightfall and weekly heroic strikes; as of September 15, they cant. Quite a few people arent pleased about that, and theyve taken to Reddit, forums, and Kotakus email inboxes to get out the message. (One Redditor has put together a good compilation of all the stuff thats locked out now.)
Bungies forums are full of Destiny players complaining about this problem in colorful ways.
Is this even legal? writes one player. Say you buy a couch for 100. After a year the company you bought it from comes to your door and asks you 40 dollars extra for the couch and if you buy it you get a nice pillow. You say you dont want to pay. They saw your couch in half and take one half with them... Thats how I feel about TTK so far.
I didnt buy the DLC for Elder Scrolls Online yet, and the total content that was taken away, or that I am locked out of as punishment is NOTHING, writes another player.
Of course, Destiny is very different than other MMOs in a lot of ways, and many of the changes brought with The Taken King are huge, much-needed fixes to problems the game has had since it first launched last September. But Bungie never warned anyone that theyd be locking old players out of so much of the game, which is one of the main reasons so many people are upset about this paywall.
Were dealing with growing pains, here. And the folks who didnt upgrade are hurting most of all.
TL;DR
Reddit put together a comprehensive list of everything that is locked out now:
But I decided to jump on anyways, today, and see what I could do without the expansion. What I found was not much at all.
- Daily, Weekly heroic and nightfall missions are all gated off. Now it's not to say that these won't cycle through to older missions, but bungie seems to have set the new game to 'only level 40' mode, so who's to say that next week won't be undying mind with a level 40 requirement slapped on it?
- All Vendor gear is now locked, old vendor gear is gone completely and I'd assume unobtainable. The only gear that you can buy is from your vanguard mentor- uncommons with few perks and only some with 170 defense ratings.
- The vanguard legacy playlist is a shadow of what the old vanguard strike playlists were, providing paltry rewards and seemingly no legendary gear- compared to what you could do two weeks ago.
- All "kill objective" missions while patrolling lead to Taken, who you are unable to kill due to the high level difference. This effectively renders them unbeatable unless you have a fire team member who owns the expansion.
- crucible now only lets you select between random 3v3 or 6v6 match types, which is paltry compared, again, to what you could do two weeks ago.
- Level select on missions is gone, you can only do the mission on the default difficulty- this devalues content even as there are legacy quests being re implemented to give gear with 2.0
- the wandering wolf packs are gone, along with being able to level up queens wrath (at least I haven't found any way besides grinding the story missions endlessly).
- Doesn't seem like there's a way to earn legendary marks, so you can't purchase planetary materials. Back to farming Venus for some more spirit bloom, then.
- all Eris bounties are gone, and her item selection has been culled (so that's what, half of the dark below?)
This is just insanely frustrating and mind-boggling. I actually just re-bought Destiny (and TTK) last night after hearing all the praise and have yet to dive in, but it's practices exactly like this that made me sell my copy last year. When is Bungie going to stop making these stupid decisions? I had thought they put this kind of practice behind them with TTK.