In the first of many new “Director’s Cut” blog updates from the frontlines of Destiny 2’s development, Director Luke Smith shared today a brief glimpse at the future of objective tracking. Seen below, the new screen replaces the current Pursuits tab by dividing the player’s various objectives into Quests and Bounties, rather than dumping them all into one big bucket, as with the existing system. Smith says to expect the new system “this fall,” alongside a hotkey to access it directly.
“The initial set of changes to the Pursuits tray earlier this year did a few things beyond upsetting muscle memory,” Smith said. “It certainly didn’t get as far as the team wanted in its initial release and it also didn’t feel like an improvement over what previously existed.”
Prior to implementing the Pursuits tab, quests and bounties were held in the player’s inventory screen, which was a single button press away from the main character screen. Destiny 2 players spend a lot of time on the character screen, so it made sense that quests and bounties (which also need frequent visits from the player) would be placed in close proximity. It was a bit ugly to look at, since it was just a big, unsorted bucket of task icons, but at least it was a convenient big, unsorted bucket of task icons.
When the new Pursuits system went live, that bucket was removed from the player’s inventory and placed inside the Director, which is a separate set of menus primarily focused on navigation and multiplayer. If I open the Director, tab over to the Pursuits bucket, and decide to work on a bounty that requires Void damage final blows, I then have to exit the Director system entirely and enter the character screen to equip my Void weapons. And, if I’m working on multiple bounties at once and need to double check a requirement, I then need to get back into the Director and tab over to the bucket to see what I need.
What used to take a single button press left or right from the character screen now takes more time, more button presses, and more trips through irrelevant screens to accomplish the same task of looking at a big, unruly, jumbled pile of icons that wasn’t great to begin with.
Smith goes on to describe Destiny 2‘s UI team as “crestfallen” at Reddit’s overwhelmingly negative response to the Pursuits tab, back when it first hit the scene. “This team wanted make something sweet, exceed your expectations, and meet their own expectations. None of those things happened,” Smith said.
Development of the Pursuits tab was designed to be an iterative update process that gradually improved the system over time, with Smith likening it to the remodeling process for a house. “It felt like we started to redecorate your house but we didn’t finish it,” Smith said. “I think we’ve got to do a better job ensuring that while we’re remodeling your house, the potential of the renovation is clearer either in the game or via some communication here on the site.”
