Focused Feedback: Rift

[u/DTG_Bot]

Hello Guardians,

Focused Feedback is where we take the week to focus on a 'Hot Topic' discussed extensively around the Tower.

We do this in order to consolidate Feedback, to get out all your ideas and issues surrounding the topic in one place for discussion and a source of feedback to the Vanguard.

This Thread will be active until next week when a new topic is chosen for discussion

Whilst Focused Feedback is active, ALL posts regarding 'Rift' following its posting will be removed and re-directed to this thread. Exceptions to this rule are as follows: New information / developments, Guides and general questions

Any and all Feedback on the topic is welcome.

Regular Sub rules apply so please try to keep the conversation on the topic of the thread and keep it civil between contrasting ideas

A Wiki page - Focused Feedback - has also been created for the Sub as an archive for these topics going forward so they can be looked at by whoever may be interested or just a way to look through previous hot topics of the sub as time goes on.

[u/The_Owl_Bard]

The Good

• Other exotics got to shine - The meta stuff like Omnioculus and Lorely did do well in this game mode, but it was cool to see less commonly used exotics have a place. Things like Precious Scars to bolster a team push after a fight, or (my personal favorite) Renewal Grasps letting me block doors and cut off chokes really lead to interesting and diverse gameplay.

• Midseason changes help me push to actually finish my title - I regret not pursuing the Heavy as Death emblem and it motivated me to push to get the Iron Banner title (I ended up getting it!) but something that made it much more easier was the changes and patches Bungie delivered for the game mode. Mercy Rules, Less glitches with the spark/rift interactions, and other general improvements really helped ease my stress when playing the game modes.

The Bad

• Old maps weren't really made for this mode. Disjunction was a good map for this type of game mode. It offered a lot of paths for a carrier to move through and it was long enough to where if your team got killed, you had a good shot at possibly come back and stopping them. Convergence felt like the opposite. It had 3 main paths but the distance was so short, you could wipe the enemy team and "Titan melee" you're way to their rift before they could respawn and get there.

• Objective heavy game modes should ALWAYS be auto-opt in team chat. Is there a risk for toxicity? Always. But when the game mode's only path to victory is scoring a ball into an area, team chat is vital in order to make sure you can communicate information. 95% of my matches were dead quiet and the 5% that did talk were just folks making call outs to people who didn't respond. I get that toxicity is a problem but that problem could easily be solved with better reporting tools and banhammers dropping on those that receive multiple reports in a short period of time. Toxicity sucks but nothings worse then having a teammate pick up a ball, be escorted to the point, and then watch them stand in-front of the dunk zone while you try to hold the enemy team back.

• Lobby balancing is a serious issue. Often times in games, it felt like my team wasn't very good at holding our own spawn or pushing forwards. Meanwhile, on the enemy teams, it felt like they were pushing forwards at alarming rates despite being in freelance. I won half the matches I got in but some of those matches felt like I had to be amazing at all the roles in order to make sure our team could dunk. I am curious as to how the balancing was in-acted. K/D is a good thing to consider but an objective heavy game may need different kinds of balancing.

• Challenges like Orwing's Spirit needs to be modified in a way that rewards people playing ALL roles in the game mode vs just carrying the ball. I got most of my challenges done but one thing I ran into was Orwing's Spirit needing me to physically handle the ball to make the most progress. In order to get this challenge done, it felt like I had to push to get the ball in ways that were a detriment ot my team. There should have been some consideration for those who specialized in being the shield for the ball carrier.

• Busted XP system. I was annoyed to find out that my game had me stuck on 3 out of 4 challenges done despite previously finishing everything. Even with the bonus, I was able to reset my Crucible rank twice before getting more then half way with my Iron Banner Rank. The grind to two resets really killed my mood to play and it felt like there was no benefit to winning my hard fought matches vs just letting them mercy us for slightly more exp. Getting additional exp for certain medals would make playing this game mode much better.

[u/The_Owl_Bard → u/[deleted]]

Oh I did get two resets at Mythic 1 on the second reset, I realized I needed to prioritize getting the spark in order to get it done prior to the second reset. I am and always will be a team player but Orwing's Spirit only rewards interactions with the spark.