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In Destiny 2, shaders are now one-time use. (And yes, tied to microtransactions.)

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ZeoVGM

Banned
With all of the fantastic QoL changes to Destiny 2, it's quite shocking to see them take such a large step back with this to the point where it feels very anti-player.

In Destiny 2, you can now apply shaders to everything: individual pieces of armor, weapons, Ghosts, ships, sparrows. This is especially fantastic for armor as you can now mix and match shaders, creating an interesting and more unique look than in Destiny 1.

The problem is that they are now consumables. If you attach it to a piece of armor and then switch to another, you lose it. While shaders seem to drop in multiples, that doesn't change the issue.

The entire point of allowing the player to now use shaders on multiple pieces is to let them play around with their design. You can't very well do that if you're worried about losing a shader just to try on another and see how it looks with others.

And yes, there are at least 20 shaders that will drop from the new Bright Engrams -- something you can purchase with real money. You can also get a Bright Engram each time you "level up" once you hit the max level of 20.

They introduced the ability to customize yourself more and then drastically limited the player's ability to actually play around with them. There are now two large threads on the Destiny Reddit front page regarding it as well.

I honestly can't believe this system made it into the final game. It makes no sense at all.

Destiny 2 is amazing. I love it. But it needs to be said that this is a very poor design choice and and it needs to be changed. Shaders should work as they Destiny 1: you collect them once, you have them for good. Except now you can equip them to everything, allowing players the ability to play around with their look to their heart's content.

That's rewarding and fun. Having players worry about experimenting with their character's design because they might lose a rare shader and need to get it again? That's very much not fun.

EDIT: I should add that while I do mention in the OP that some are tied to microtransactions, the main issue here is that the shaders are one-time use consumables. Please keep that in mind when discussing the issue.
 

Raven117

Gold Member
I know this is important to lots of people, but for me...if this is the major gripe coming out of launch, then Bungie just hit a homerun.
 

Jira

Member
If they want to keep the system they have, they should make the shaders permanent unlocks with a currency you spend to use them. It's commonplace in some B2P games where you can earn said currency in the game or buy in a cash shop. No one will deny what they're going for here, but it can work out with a bit better implementation.
 

enkaisu

Banned
This is legitimately one of the most frustrating things about the game. I loved hunting for and collecting shaders, I'd often swap them out, and now I can't.
 

FelipeMGM

Member
In D1 I used to like having a bunch of different shaders

but with the time I got so many that they became more of a burden clogging up my post office and even though they made it simpler to delete them and get it back from the collection, I stopped caring by the end

so yeah this is kinda shitty, but I dont think I care that much so they wont get a dime from me anyway
 
I mean, what doesn't make sense? Bright Engrams are the equivalent of Overwatches lootboxes, which means they need a constant supply of items for it. If you could get everything easily, then the concept really wouldn't work. Small filler items need to go hand in hand with the bigger drops.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
Can you not preview them before using them?

You can but it shows you it on your entire armor. You can't preview it with other shaders on different pieces of armor.

I know this is important to lots of people, but for me...if this is the major gripe coming out of launch, then Bungie just hit a homerun.

Right but this is a pretty big gripe. Customization of your character is one of the main goals of the game.
 

Ravelle

Member
Dyes are consumables in any other MMO as well, they're ink pots you use on your armor to give them a color. It's actually crazy shaders are forever usable.

I can understand why it bothers people coming from 1 though, I hope this will change in the future if there's enough buzz about it.
 
So shaders are the new Chroma?

At least you can apply them to individual pieces of armor now. Considering how many Chroma I had in my vault I'm not all that concerned about some shaders being in packages that you still get for free.
 
You can but it shows you it on your entire armor. You can't preview it with other shaders on different pieces of armor.



Right but this is a pretty big gripe. Customization of your character is one of the main goals of the game.

Still, if you're able to preview it then I don't see this as an issue tbh.
 
If they want to keep the system they have, they should make the shaders permanent unlocks with a currency you spend to use them. It's commonplace in some B2P games where you can earn said currency in the game or buy in a cash shop. No one will deny what they're going for here, but it can work out with a bit better implementation.

I'd be cool with this. And I'd actually prefer it rather than having to juggle a bunch of shaders in the hilariously limited vault space we're given (in D1 at least).
 

forrest

formerly nacire
Definitely won't be a popular change. I think I was more shocked to see that character customization didn't getting any changes.
 

eizarus

Banned
Dyes are consumables in any other MMO as well, they're ink pots you use on your armor to give them a color. It's actually crazy shaders are forever usable.

I get what you're saying but Destiny 1 let you hold onto shaders forever. Having said that, most of those shaders were nasty full armour shaders so I don't mind being able to individually change the colour of gear at the cost of it being consumable.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
So shaders are the new Chroma?

At least you can apply them to individual pieces of armor now. Considering how many Chroma I had in my vault I'm not all that concerned about some shaders being in packages that you still get for free.

Right.

I thought Chroma was neat but it would have been better if, once you used a color, you permanently had it as an option on that piece of armor. You would then collect all the colors so you can easily cycle through.

That being said, Chroma was a minor thing on a small number of weapons and armor. This is the entire customization feature of the game.
 

Aselith

Member
I mean, what doesn't make sense? Bright Engrams are the equivalent of Overwatches lootboxes, which means they need a constant supply of items for it. If you could get everything easily, then the concept really wouldn't work. Small filler items need to go hand in hand with the bigger drops.

...that shaders used to be reusable and now are not...
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
I mean, it's basically them printing money. If it's just cosmetics then i'm not too bothered usually. Just feels harsh that they are regressing from the first game with this move.
 

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
They charge for something that was in the original and people still defend it lol
 
Right.

I thought Chroma was neat but it would have been better if, once you used a color, you permanently had it as an option on that piece of armor. You would then collect all the colors so you can easily cycle through.

That being said, Chroma was a minor thing on a small number of weapons and armor. This is the entire customization feature of the game.

Okay but you're talking about some shaders that are only available from bright engrams, something that you also get for free at what seems like a decent drop rate. In addition to all the shaders that will still drop normally.

In the first game there were more than a handful of shaders you could only get from the Eververse, and only if you got lucky in the random drop table and were able to collect all of the armor sets from packages.

This doesn't seem any worse than that.
 
Guild Wars 2 has account wide dyes that can be applied to each piece of armor for any of your characters.

A completely different game mind you but, it does make this sound a little lame with them being consumables. Perhaps that spoiled me.
 

spad3

Member
"Let's add more UNIQUE content!"

"Nah let's reuse a bunch of guns from the first game, 99% of the same assets, and fuck it, let's take away some shit and make it more frustrating"

DESTINY 2
 

Magwik

Banned
"Let's add more UNIQUE content!"

"Nah let's reuse a bunch of guns from the first game, 99% of the same assets, and fuck it, let's take away some shit and make it more frustrating"

DESTINY 2
"Let's post a bunch of false shit to pass myself off as the smart person in the room"
SHIT POSTING
 

Skatterd

Member
I think the problem is they didn't work this way before, and in retrospect that makes it shitty. If they had always been this way no one would have batted an eye.

That said, I'll wait to see the drop rate before I reserve judgement, but my first impression is it seems unnecessarily annoying.
 

TheXbox

Member
You can have paid DLC or you can have microtransactions. You can't have both.

I mean, they WILL, but they shouldn't.
 
Is there a way to preview how a shader will look before using it?

You can have paid DLC or you can have microtransactions. You can't have both.

I mean, they WILL, but they shouldn't.

I'm not super against this in-game DLC stuff personally, but I wish this weren't the case. If stuff like this meant expansions were free, I feel like opinions would be a bit different.
 
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