Precipice of Destiny

It's been 330 versions since we last spoke (since I posted a blog). I would argue that I was letting my work speak for itself–and it does so eloquently–but it was actually just a matter of executive dysfunction.

So, let's touch on some highlights from the past few months...

General UI improvements

Braytech is praised for being a unified, polished, app-like experience, which exemplifies the game's own UI language. I've made additions and modifications to further replicate the game's systems, modifying them where appropriate for a better touch and pointer experience for a web app. That's a lot of words.

There're two core examples of this: scroll displays and the little pagination dashes/nipples.

1. The little touches I've added for scrolling content are subtle but they're what bring it over the edge. For example, border lines appear when content is obscured. Scrolling the content renders a top border.

2. Unlike Destiny the game, you can touch the nipple you want to jump to, and where appropriate, touch gestures are supported for flicking through.

(Inline videos aren't supported by Patreon lol - check out the videos on the Braytech blog)

Operations view and Waypoint

With the release of Edge of Fate aka Precipice of Destiny, the Weeklies view became very irrelevant with its current offering. Weeklies was the first thing a user would see when they opened Braytech, so Weeklies V2 needed to be pretty good, and because I love drama, I obviously needed to rename it.

Enter Operations: I always wanted Weeklies to be more dynamic and more contextual to player state. Operations nears those goals by displaying more relevant content in addition to aspirational content such as raids. That sounded so Bungie designer 😳

Borrowing design cues from phone widgets, merging them with Destiny, I had an interesting idea: based on availability and different states, dynamically prioritise which "tiles" to display.

For example, the first tile rotates between The Sieve, Xûr, and Trials of Osiris. For the first few hours of the weekend, Xûr takes priority. When Xûr is off and about or The Sieve will soon be or is available to play, The Sieve is displayed. I hope that functionality like this will help make Operations more useful than "just a default page."

After Edge of Fate settled in and I had had time to get my bearings, I started work on a long-discussed feature, Waypoint.

The goal of Waypoint is to display relevant objectives which may supplement your current objectives or offer a suggestion for what to do next.

Building a feature like this is difficult for a variety of reasons including large quantities of data which generally aren't connected in any useful way, maintainability, and intelligence.

So, I needed to make sure it was scriptable. This mostly solves maintainability, without which, the feature wouldn't be long-lived. But I also wanted to ensure I could add custom rules, where relevant.

In its current state, I wouldn't describe it as "intelligent," however as a player who has a great deal of progression, it's hard to evaluate if it's more valuable to a newer player than it is I, someone who has played a lot.

From the screenshot, you can see that it's floated a Guardian Rank objective to the top and noted that I require a specific light level (manually curated data) to complete it. It then suggests I complete a triumph to complete a title, followed by some almost-unlocked patterns.

Who knows where this feature could go.

Added Explorer feature

A tree view-style UI to explorer and compare Collections and Triumphs between players.

There isn't much to say here which isn't already said by the product itself. It's really cool.

Roundup

Finally, the stragglers.

• Added Collectible favourites feature

• Added various new filters to Character view

• Added support for the new item icon format and holofoil styling

• Added support for new types of notifications

• Extended Triumphs details dialog functionality to include Bungie friends

• Moved error boundaries deeper

• Replaced recharts with d3

A specific note on changes to error boundaries: I'm sorry it didn't occur to me to make this change earlier, but I've finally placed some added error boundaries deeper in the app's React tree. All this means is that if an unexpected error happens (which I didn't account for), no longer will the app crash and no longer will you need to reload the whole darn thing. This is a great improvement!

State of the Game

I've thought about describing my thoughts and feelings surrounding Edge of Fate up until this point, but honestly, writing all of this thus far has taken the wind out of my sails. I'll say this: players expect too much for so little money.

For all their faults, Bungie still do a good job even on their worst day. It's incredibly challenging to have perspective on building something like Destiny, regardless of one's profession.

However, as someone who does build something, I regularly spend hours on seemingly innocuous changes which sometimes are never visible to the end user. It takes hours not because I lack skill or efficiency, but simply because these things sometimes do just take hours. It can be incredibly rewarding but sometimes just as disheartening.

Now apply this example, and more, to something as gargantuan as a "AAA" game with a "live service" model.

Reddit and Twitter spread sadness, and the hyperbolic chamber is always chambering. Some types of creators thrive on sensationalism.

I really enjoyed Fate's campaign, and while the grind is grindy, I've endured a steady climb through portal activities and the events (I'm enjoying the new events model a lot). I completed the campaign alone on Legend, then with friends on Fabled, and finally, Mythic with various folks from LFG, and it was a very pleasant experience (albeit long)! This week's "major update" in "Ash and Iron" hasn't meant much to me, but I have enjoyed the Reclaim activity.

The grind isn't nearly as severe or upsetting as the internet say it is unless you insist on reaching 450 in the first week of release. I've just crested 350 at a sustainable and healthy pace. It's important to do life and go outside. Do not play the same activity 999 times.

For all its woes, I am enjoying the live game. I just wish they could slip in the new Iron Banner set in time for next week's event.

Out of Office

I wasn't available to build Braytech etc. for the past week for various reasons including the sudden and unexpected hospitalisation of my mum. Long story short, she lost a gun wound's amount of blood, and it was extremely frightening for a few days, but she is now well on the mend. The worst part was that I wasn't able to tend to her as I was away from home. It really wrecks you. Thank you for your well wishes.

More generally speaking, thank you to you all for supporting me in building Braytech. I could not have made it so far without my subscribers, my supporters. More than ever, I'm very proud of what I've been able to build, especially the finer UI improvements of recent!

Til next time