If you just relax and stop focusing so much on grinding, there's actually quite a bit of exploration to be had on Patrol. I was google searching for public events and came across a pretty nice website called destinypublicevents.com and if you feel like testing your luck to get ascendant materials after you've done your first daily one (which always yields ascendant materials from the postmaster) you can pretty much go balls-to-the-walls explorer mode while keeping track of where the next event should be. I even found a dead ghost and a couple chests in the Mothyards, which I always glaze over while on missions speeding by on my Sparrow, and the Shipyards which I haven't barely even been in since the Beta. Don't get me wrong though. I really wish there were some sort of UI guide giving you a general idea when and where you can find events, especially since they are almost completely useless after you've done the ritualistic daily event to farm ascendant materials (I got two events in a row that did not reward me with anything so I took a break.) I also wish there was MUCH more of this type of exploration in the game, as well as a different type of gameplay other than "horde mode!!1!!11!!!" At least give us the bloody option to change the level difficulty. The Moon does appear to be much more linear with not as much room to wander off and explore as much as Earth... but Mars and Venus I think have a few areas off the beaten path. I found a dead ghost on top of a dead tree half buried in red sand on Mars, that you really wouldn't have found if you weren't jumping around checking everything thoroughly like I was. I am also not so disillusioned as to think this exploration mode can even compare to other games. Destiny does still really feel incomplete and annoying to me as a RPG.