Bungie has detailed several new features and gameplay changes that will be added to via the upcoming 1.1.2 patch.
Key among them is a new approach to ammo drops in the Crucible multiplayer mode. Speaking on the , Crucible designer Kevin Yanes said that Special and Heavy ammo drops will be more limited resources to help balance matches.
“Special Ammo will spawn less frequently, it will take longer to pick up, there will be less crates located on the map, and the bricks you find will provide you with less ammo,” he explained.
For Heavy ammo, players will no longer have the option to camp near supplies and retrieve them when necessary. Instead, Heavy ammo will despawn if not picked up within a period of time.
“The main thing we wanted to prevent in terms of Heavy Ammo was players trying to buffer their supply by sitting within range of a brick without picking it up,” Yanes added.
“This hurts your ability to anticipate when heavy ammo would be in play during a match. By introducing despawn conditions, we’re ensuring that players will have to acquire ammo when it becomes available, or risk losing it all together.”
Meanwhile, the update will also include a safeguard that is hoped will prevent players from accidentally deleting their hard-earned items and weapons. With the new update, players can “lock” their items by highlighting them and pressing the right thumb-stick.
“One recurring story we keep seeing involves Legendary and Exotic gear getting accidentally dismantled by errant pets and over-enthusiastic children,” said UI engineer Daniel Hanson.
“We decided to empower players to protect their precious gear with Item Locking.”
Along with the Crucible changes and Item Lock feature, Bungie is also introducing more ways for players to express themselves. With the 1.1.2 update, players will now be free to wear any of their helmets in the Tower social space.
Artist Andrew Davis explains: "The design team came to us wondering if we could give players the option to show off their sweet helmets while running around the Tower. We all agreed that it’s important to give players every opportunity to show off the cool gear they’ve earned. It turned out to be a fairly quick UI task to turn helmets on in the Tower. Our engineers banged out the code for it in short order. All we had to do was figure out where to put the menu option. A number of locations in the UI were discussed. Character screen? Details screen? We decided that the Settings menu was the most obvious and easiest place to control this new feature.”
Bungie has yet to share a release date for the 1.1.2 update, but says it will be able to share the information “very soon.”
The developer will also announce the release date for 's next expansion----later in April.