Be honest, how many Bright Engrams have you paid for?

Haven't bought any yet, so far it feels like I've been earning them at a decent pace so I don't feel any compulsion to pay for them.

I saw that there was the introductory engram bundle you could buy for 900 and it looked like you could quite a lot from it. I went to see how much 900 silver would cost.

I'd have to buy 1000 silver for £8.39

Fuck that.

None and will not.

The thing is, she randomly sells items from her inventory every week for Bright Dust. You obtain Bright Dust from dismanteling items from Bright Engrams. I have 2000 Bright Dust at this point and the only thing I really want from her that I do not want to leave up to randomness is the armor set. She sells one piece every week for 800 Dust so I can just buy the entire armor set over time if it doesn't drop randomly (I have obtained two pieces randomly so far).

There really is no need to buy Bright Engrams with real money unless you want more than half her inventory. Which sounds to me like a decent system. If you want 'ALL' the cosmetics you'll have to pay some money. If you want some of them, you will just earn it by playing. I think I'm fine with that.

The results of this poll so far gives me hope in humanity =)

Yeah I seem to be earning them fast enough just playing normally. No real desire to buy any.

Same as the above folks, the pace is high enough to not buy them on top of how fast I'm getting them.

As someone who actually spent $ on Emotes in Destiny 1 and had zero issues with it, there is absolutely no reason to buy these at all in any way. I've gotten close to 100 at this point for free in just over 50 hours of play. Why in the world would I spend like $10 on like 5 of them. That's just dumb. I don't feel bad for anyone that spends money on this, and I don't see anything at all wrong with what is in the Eververse store right now and how they are doing it. If you ask me, if you spend a dime on it, you are a moron. Allow us to purchase specific things, that's a different question, those Exotic Emotes look pretty snazzy. But I've already obtained the Spicey Ramen one for free, so I'm more than happy to keep working on obtaining them completely for free. This system is pretty great.

@hestilllives19 said:

My respect for you just dropped about 50 points

But yeah I mean heck, if the system is not actually harmful who cares, let the people who have overflowing cash on their bank account spend as mush as they please, I sure wont.

None, and I don't think I will. I only considered getting that 900 silver one time bundle, but I haven't done it yet.

In my first free bright engrams, I got a shiny pink ship, a sparrow and some neat shaders (Monochrome and Dawn and Dusk) so I feel like I already won Destiny 2. I really don't need anything else.

@jadegl: Dawn and Dust is probably my favorite so far. She was selling it for Dust a while ago, so I blew what little I had and now my Warlock is all pink, plus a hand-cannon, sparrow and ship. Haven't had it drop again since though, annoyingly.

As for the thread, none so far. I originally thought of tossing $10 at it but that idea vanished almost immediately once I started getting them, and the way shaders work now turned me off of it as well. Also I've gotten like 4 ships and 5 sparrows - the first three I opened after hitting 20 gave me 4 Sparrows and 2 ships. One of the last few I opened gave me both an Exotic sparrow and ship, and somewhere along the way I got that black/red skin for Sunshot which looks rad as hell. So I'm pretty good.

Can someone explain what Bright Engrams are and how they work? Are they basically Engrams that you pay for in real money for a chance of an Exotic item?

Also does the Eververse sell any exclusive items or can you unlock everything simply by playing?

They are engrams that contain an assortment of cosmetic items (emotes, shaders, sparrows, ships, ghosts, 1 unique set of 10 power armor per class that must be infused with high level gear to be relevant). You can buy them with real money, but you get one for free every time you level up beyond level 20. Each character also gets a buff at the start of the week that makes your first 3 level ups go significantly faster.

I've been playing a ton since the game came out and I've gotten dozens of bright engrams without spending money. However, due to the weekly buff, even casual players can easily count on a minimum of 3 free bright engrams per week per character, probably more.

@dgtlty: Bright Engrams are part of the Eververse stuff which is the real money thing, but you get 3 of them for hitting level 20, and then each time you level up afterwards, you get another one. They drop the cosmetic stuff - shaders, ships, weapon skins, and Sparrows.

Edit: Forgot, also some armor pieces, emotes and Ghosts.

None. I have way more than enough of most of the shaders I want ( a lot of them are very similar anyway), I don't really care about the other cosmetic stuff. I have a really bad cranking dance animation that I've grown to hate-love and I dig my Sparrow. Not even sure what else I could get from that store; I suppose weapon, armor and mod drops? Whatevs, that's what playing the game is for. The allure to pay for those engrams is way, way less than card packs in sports games.

I grabbed the intro bundle but didn't realize how insanely fast you get bright engrams for free. Since they're so easy to come by I don't mind the micro transactions at all.

None and I don't plan too. I have 5 ships, 4 speeders and more shaders than I will use just from the ones I have been given by playing the game so no reason.

@onarum: I mean, I spent at least 2366 hours in Destiny 1 (according to TimeWastedonDestiny) over 3 years. I bought $20 worth of Silver 1 time and bought 4 Emotes over that time period. Considering I spent $165 on the actual game that brings my total expense on Destiny to only $185 over 3 years. That is roughly 7.8 cents per hour spent. I more than got my money's worth out of Destiny 1. I feel like every Uncharted I've ever bought and especially The Last of Us was worth every penny, and those translated to about $8 per hour soo... I understand some people are just generally grossed out by the concept of microtransactions in full price games, but as someone who played a lot of Destiny, those Emotes actually made the experience so much better, so I have no problems with the fact that I "threw money at the screen" (probably the worst and most controversial thing Luke Smith has said while working on Destiny). It was worth it to me.

What I did have a problem with, and didn't buy was the roulette mystery boxes. Ones that were RNG based to get cool things like the Skull Mask (only obtainable by actually spending money), Firewolf Mask (only obtainable by spending actual money), or the Ghost Ghost (extremely low RNG chance without spending money) for the Halloween Events. Those things are the ones they seem Gross to me and I hope that stuff never returns. This, the ability to easily obtain any of the Real Money items for free, I have no issue with. But gate that off with cool things to only real money, and do not allow us to purchase specific "cool items" for a guaranteed price like the Emotes were, that is what I personally take issue with.

For Reference.

@capum15: Yeah I only have 3 of Dawn and Dust, so that's being saved for the future, or until they change how shaders work (if they do, I hope they do).

My ship came with the Nebula Rose shader on it, so it looks shiny and pink/purple as fuuuuuuuudge and I love it.

@hestilllives19: Yeah I'm just kidding of course :P

It does gross me out the notion of micro-transaction in full priced games, but in this case it's more of total indifference instead of hatred towards it, being someone that never ever cared about cosmetic anything.

So as long as they keep it strictly cosmetic for the most part and attainable by just playing the game I'm totally fine with it (not that it matters whether I'm fine with it or not)

Ultimately each person will spend their hard earned money any way they damn well please of course, if only trying to not support some egregious things devs will sometimes do, which is not the case here it seems.

I bought a couple to see what was up, and then upon realizing that there isn't much to gain from it, continued playing the game without giving it another thought.

@jadegl: Yeah I hope they change shaders as well. It seems like the majority of the community doesn't like it at all, so hopefully they do (a Guild Wars 2-like system would be rad). I wish I had saved at least one Dawn shader but I couldn't help myself make everything match. I think I had two Nebula Rose ones though and they're also really good. I can't remember what I used one on, either some exotic chest piece or the exotic ship, but it looked really nice, and I'm keeping the other one just in-case.

@capum15: I've said it a few times, they just need to bring back the Guardian Outfitter, Eva Levante, from Destiny 1 and allow her to sell Shaders you've already unlocked for Glimmer. This would solve the entire problem. It would also be cool if she had 4-5 each week to sell in case you didn't own them.

@hestilllives19: While that would be better, it wouldn't really solve the "problem". The issue I see is people just want it to be like 1, where you could swap out shaders on the fly for free, instead of having to luck into 5+ of them (or if Eva came back, buy 5+ of them) and then also pay to apply them, and then do that all over again if you want to change it up. It's just a lot of unnecessary and limiting steps compared to how it was.

@capum15: I think it works with their idea of wanting to allow players to select an idividual Shader for each item though. "Fashion Destiny" is a big draw for a lot of people, there is an actual entire subreddit devoted to it. So I understand where they were going with the concept. It's also likely something they couldn't really walk back even if they wanted to since it's engrained in how Destiny 2's Shader system works. So honestly, the Eva solution is about as good as we will get, and it's likely something they will add in time considering both the backlash, availability in the social space for her, and the fact that she was already mentioned to still be around during one of the Adventures (I'm pretty sure on that anyways).

None, and I don't plan on it.

So far with the free ones I've gotten the Salty emote and an exotic sparrow with a crazy phoenix-like trail. The way it is now's fine by me.

@hestilllives19: The individual shader thing is why I'd love a more Guild Wars 2 like system. You have to find/buy the shader/dye, but then you have it on the account and can put it on whatever. But yeah, I'm not sure how they'll go about the whole thing. If not going permanent/free to apply, doing the Eva thing would be something at least, and glimmer hasn't really been an issue. Almost drowning in the stuff.

If they just kept the original mechanic but separated it into the individual pieces, I don't think anyone would've been negative.

Slightly back on topic, I'm kinda...not disappointed, but it's weird - literally 4 of the 5 ships I've gotten from Bright Engrams have been almost exactly the same design. They're all that weird bulbous/rounded U-shape type, but all of them have different names. The only stand-out difference was the exotic one has these neat little glowing snowflake-like patterns on it, but that's it.

I bought the $5 one and bought two with silver you get from that. Because I was curious about the uproar of the mods being a micro-transaction. I bought two and got one free. I didn't get a single legendary mod. I don't get why people are upset about it. Also because I have 30 of them in my inventory from just playing.

None and I don't intend to. You can get them by simply playing the game so why should I pay. I don't want all cosmetics and I'm happy with what I get by simply actually playing the game.

People are upset because they like to jump to conclusions and they hate facts that don't align with their emotions.

I haven't paid anything for Bright Engrams and I have more Legendary mods than I know what to do with. I have finished almost everything in Destiny 2 at this point and have top quality gear. Yes, I am a dedicated player, but this thing is supposed to last two to three months. I got there in two weeks without paying anything. If you are an average player, you don't have to pay a dime, only if you want cosmetic items and only if you want them faster.

What's your in-game time, estimated? I'm still on fence about getting it (PC).

@ethanielrain: Probably something like 150 hours.

None, you get so many free ones there really isn't much point spending money on them.

If I hadn't already paid $60 for the game, and it was free to play, I probably would spend a little on them, just to support the game. But they already got my money!

I will say that shaders being a consumable item is kind of shitty. But other than that...I'm not really seeing an issue with how this game gates access to its cosmetic items. Maybe I'm more tolerant of this stuff because I've played a bunch of MMOs and free-to-play games, but you get bright engrams pretty regularly (playing a few hours a day should be enough to level up once). I've also been lucky so far, getting a Sparrow, a legendary ship, and a large shipment of bright dust.

18 so far. Probably more later. Because I felt like it. And I can afford it. And you're not my real dad so bite me.

..... I bought the $20 DLC package thing on like day 3.....
I Regret it.

I have no self control...

Spicy Ramen and the supposed AD chicken dance still elude me, so maybe?

Looking at the poll results, that looks like a typical f2p whale response rate

Wait, I actually bought the $99 "digital deluxe" version. I guess technically I did pay for some. I honestly didn't even look to see what it came with. I'm just a sucker for those "exclusive" weapons and shit.

I had a code for $20 in store credit so I used that for some. I won't pay real money for them and since its pretty easy to get 2-4 (at least) every week I don't think there will be a need to ever give them real money.

The Bright Emblem Warlock gear is ugly as heeeeelll (although, unfortunately, almost all warlock gear in D2 is ugly as hell compared to the D1 gear), so why would I spend money on it. Additionally, I don't want to fund what they've done to shaders.

I spent 5 dollars. Didn't get much.

I would be into a market where you buy specific items. I work 60hrs a week and have kids. It would be a time saver.

But I hate, hate random loot crates, engrams, scratch lotto cards whatever. If I'm paying real money I want the good stuff not a chance for good stuff.

My first exotic engrams dropped in game just messing around. It was the fighting lion. What a piece of garbage. The game is already random drops, some of which are terrible.

Don't pay for them.

I'm not opposed to systems like these, they can definitely be done in a way where everyone wins. If your game is fun, if there is an ingame means of slowly acquiring the currency, if its unessential cosmetic items, all of these funnel into something harmless that might actually generate more content in the perfect world because the devs have additional return on their product.

If its a pay to win, or pay to bypass boring as fuck game play then that's where this system becomes an absolute atrocity and probably one of the worst trends in modern gaming.

Mass Effect 3 is a great example of in-game transactions that only enhance the experience, not detract from it. How many additional years of content came out of that game based solely on those ammo crates?

So far Destiny hasnt been offensive... their launch value in D1 one is another story but I'm willing to look passed that this time around. I think the content in their coming xpacs will illustrate what we're in for.

Zero and I have no intention of ever doing so. I got the only two things from the first bright engram I obtained, the spicy ramen emote and a good sparrow. Also since I can just earn them by playing the game I will just do that, there isn't anything in those things that I'm dying to have that I need to spend money on.

I don't ever intend to buy them, I'm a bit bummed I probably won't get enough bright dust this week to buy the Sunshot decoration though.

None, and to claim otherwise is irresponsible speculation. Do you have any evidence that the ME3 multiplayer loot boxes financed any of the single player story DLC? Because I have a counterexample where it hasn't: Mass Effect: Andromeda. Those loot boxes are still live in that game, but fuck us single players. Damn it, Bioware.

Did he say it funded the single player portion of the game? I think he said it enchanced the experience, by that he meant the multiplayer. I agree with him. I know the whole loot boxes in Mass Effect is hated around these parts, but I honestly feel that people jumped to conclusions. That game was 100% playable without paying any money at all and you earned loot crates at a rate of one per match. It was completely fair. You never needed anything in them either, it was just stuff you wanted. And you earned it all at a steady pace, just not instantaneously.

Also, it resulted in six free multiplayer updates that added more species and classes, more abilities (some of which were later used in the single player) and more weapons. Whenever a piece of content came out, I had enough credits to buy a ton of crates and get a lot of good stuff for free.

@zevvion: Yeah, I probably overreacted a tad. Most of my hate for the ME3 multiplayer comes from being forced to engage with it at launch due to how much Galactic Readiness was needed pre-Extended Cut. To be fair, though, that multiplayer is not why the bulk of players come to Mass Effect (or Dragon Age for that matter; Inquisition did the same thing), and it's not what Bioware is known for and built up a fanbase on. Nobody likes that feeling of getting dumped for the new hotness.

However many you get with $5 worth of silver, I don't remember if that is 4 or 5? I did it cause I wanted to see what I would get in it. I didn't get anything remotely good. Totally not worth it