Future 2 gamers are satisfied the sport is secretly ripping them off. Whereas on its face an epic area opera about humanity confronting cosmic evil in a post-apocalyptic future, Bungie’s sci-fi shooter can also be a Pokémon-style collectathon the place as an alternative of cute magical creatures, gamers seize uncommon, ornate, and highly effective weapons. The sport’s newest “weightgate” controversy is a unusually compelling conspiracy principle proposing that sure perfect weapon variants are dropping at a lot decrease charges than junk ones, and it’s reigniting outdated debates about Future 2‘s loot system and whether or not it’s truly enjoyable or not.
When you’re an everyday participant you may most likely guess that I’m speaking about perk combos and god rolls, however if you happen to’re not, it’s essential to know a factor or two concerning the fundamentals on the coronary heart of Future 2‘s loot chase. Most weapons you may get within the sport drop with two random perks which do every part from enhance reload velocity to extra fascinating stuff like add elemental explosions to precision hits.
Some perk combos are thought-about a lot, significantly better than others based mostly on their synergy with the weapon’s underlying stats and the broader meta governing character builds at any given cut-off date. These combos are referred to as god rolls they usually resolve whether or not the Legendary drop you simply discovered is value protecting or junk that must be instantly destroyed. In principle, perk combos must be utterly random, offering an equal probability of getting a god roll as every other doable permutation. However a brand new conspiracy says that’s not truly the way it works, and gamers assume they’ve the maths to show it.
On the coronary heart of this scandal, which Future aficionado Paul Tassi at Forbes is calling doubtlessly the most important within the sport’s historical past, is a brand new grenade launcher referred to as VS Chill Inhibitor. It was simply added to the sport in Episode: Revenant, the second content material replace since The Remaining Form growth in June, as one of many legendary drops within the new Vesper’s Host dungeon. The god roll perks are Envious Arsenal and Bait and Swap, which reload the weapon from reserves and enhance harm, respectively. Each are activated by doing harm with different weapons, making it a straightforward to make use of however extremely efficient risk.
However gamers have been farming the primary encounter within the Vesper’s Host dungeon advert nauseum and struggling to attain this explicit god roll greater than seemingly every other in latest reminiscence. Theories instantly emerged shortly after the dungeon went dwell that there should be some kind of bug on Bungie’s finish that’s unintentionally making the god roll for VS Chill Inhibitor shockingly uncommon. One participant’s knowledge testing this speculation blew up over the weekend, a lot in order that Bungie determined to reply immediately.
“Hey all, we had a dialog with our Sandbox people this morning about this,” the Future workforce Twitter account wrote on October 21. “There isn’t any perk weighting lively for any legendary weapon perks in Future 2. We’ve added perk attunement for Unique Class Gadgets in a latest replace, however that’s a unique system.” It appeared like an open-and-shut case, with the denial leaving no wiggle room for alternate interpretations or theories. Days later, nonetheless, gamers have continued working the numbers and are discovering Bungie’s refutation even tougher to imagine.
Right here’s the crux of the conspiracy as its taken form this week, as articulated by T1Vendetta. It’s not that Bungie is deliberately making essentially the most fascinating god rolls for weapons tougher to get than different perk combos, however relatively that its RNG code is randomly favoring some combos over others. Particularly, there’s an concept that perks that are listed additional away from each other within the tables for Bungie’s API for Future 2 are much less prone to seem collectively, whereas these nearer in proximity drop collectively way more regularly. So whereas these disparities are literally taking place on a regular basis, gamers solely discover them when a weapon’s god roll occurs to mix two perks which are unusually distant from each other within the desk.
An evaluation by YouTuber Skarrow9 walks gamers by means of the idea in additional element and showcases anecdotal participant knowledge and crowdsourced analysis to again it up. There’s a rising suspicion locally that that is truly as a consequence of a bug relationship again to the discharge of The Remaining Form, as evidenced by the bizarre perk distribution drop charges for a grenade launcher reissued in that growth referred to as Truthteller. “At this level, it might appear there’s no malice being directed at or from Bungie on this, however the knowledge is there,” wrote a participant on the subreddit in one of many many fashionable threads discussing the difficulty. “Whether or not it’s a bug or difficulty with how perks are generated, we simply need solutions or additional investigation.”
There are already some gamers making an attempt to sleuth out how a bug like this may sneak into the sport with out Bungie detecting it, with one guess being that it’s as a consequence of a hidden bias someplace in nonetheless the RNG is programmed for perk drops for the time being. Bungie hasn’t weighed again in to make clear if the group remains to be tilting at windmills or there actually is a few deeper downside at work that’s protecting gamers from getting the god roll they need. Regardless of the precise reality of the matter seems to be, the complete ordeal has gamers grappling with a a lot bigger query: was Future’s loot chase ever truly good?
The sport has at all times tried to stroll a tightrope between giving gamers what they need when they need it and making them grind for it till they get fortunate. Making loot simple and easy to realize would defeat the aim of the sport, however sooner or later an excessive amount of busy work and RNG could make the entire thing really feel extra like working a slot machine than truly having enjoyable. These trade-offs, and the way efficiently Bungie is balancing them, have been on the forefront this month, particularly as a result of weapon crafting was semi-retired.
That system used to work as a supply of bad-luck safety that ultimately let gamers forge the precise god roll they wished whether or not it ever dropped or not. It was a double-edged sword, nonetheless, as a result of it additionally made precise god rolls redundant when gamers did occur upon them. As an alternative of grinding to unlock crafting patterns to make their most popular gun, gamers at the moment are simply again to toiling away in the identical actions again and again ready to get fortunate. As somebody who returned to the Future 2 loot mines this month, it undoubtedly sucks.
“The benefit of weapon crafting will at all times be superior to grinding weapons mindlessly,” reads one put up that not too long ago gained numerous consideration on the subreddit. Consumer lordofabyss principally argues that managing a number of rolls throughout dozens of weapons since you don’t know which one may unexpectedly grow to be a part of the long run meta is a ache and a multitude. It’s additionally a drag for individuals who don’t, for no matter motive, ever truly get the god roll they have been chasing. One other large thread factors out that, no matter crafting, the general stage of rewards for tougher actions in Future 2 really feel needlessly stingy. There’s nothing worse than working dungeon or raid encounters for an hour and getting nothing helpful.
One dialog on Twitter put these long-standing points with Future 2 within the context of MMOs extra typically, which Bungie’s sport has slowly grow to be through the years. “RNG is RNG,” tweeted CammyCakesYT. “No matter if there may be an unknown underlying bug…Future 2 grind feels dangerous in comparison with different video games bc it has at all times been lacking: Participant buying and selling, Crafting system for advanced modifications, Cosmetics to make use of spare forex on.” With out diving deep into the weeds of Future 2‘s loot chase in comparison with these in video games like Remaining Fantasy XIV, Diablo IV, or Warframe, one factor it’s clearly affected by for the time being is the truth that god rolls are basically the solely factor to chase proper now.
Possibly that can change with subsequent yr’s formidable Codename: Frontier plans, which Bungie has mentioned will borrow from metroidvanias and roguelikes to construction content material in ways in which doubtlessly feels extra contemporary and satisfying. For now, bugged god rolls or not, the state of Future 2 is feeling a bit shallow. The brand new dungeon is superb and the potion-based tonic system this Episode is a extremely cool thought, however the underlying grind holding it altogether is feeling weaker than it has in a very long time.
Replace 10/24/2024 7:20 p.m. ET: Bungie has responded to the Future 2 group’s ongoing discussions round alleged perk weighting and confirms it’s going to renewing it’s personal investigation. It undoubtedly feels like there could be greater than a kernel of reality within the “weightgate” conspiracy principle in any case.
“Whereas we now have confirmed that there is no such thing as a intentional perk weighting on weapons inside our content material setup, we at the moment are investigating a possible difficulty inside our code for a way RNG perks are generated,” the event workforce tweeted. “Many due to all gamers who’ve been contributing to knowledge assortment throughout the group. This knowledge has been monumentally useful with our investigation, and we’re at present engaged on inside simulations to verify your findings.”
