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#feedback

11/4/2014 1:28:48 AM
0

Letter to DeeJ/Bungie: Collected thoughts and a semi-realistic approach to suggesting how to improve the game

This is not mine, original link: http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2l5kt7/letter_to_deejbungie_collected_thoughts_and_a/ I see a lot of suggestion threads that, while sounding amazing (the Mercury one on the front page currently) aren't really feasible. Here's a more grounded approach to feedback. [b]Quality of Life[/b] I get that it seems like Bungie have been on the back foot in terms of this release (they've also got a bunch of open vacancies, including a lot of senior positions, but I'm not sure if that's an industry norm or not). I get that everyone on the team must be furiously working away on The Dark Below, on House of Wolves, on the next Iron Banner, and on many other things. However, I think some resources/manpower needs to be set aside for a few relatively simple fixes. [b]Audio Options and the option to skip cutscenes[/b] It's 2014. Come on guys. I honestly don't know how the game released without these 'features'. I'm no programmer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but these things couldn't be that hard to implement, epecially a skip cutscene option. [b]Upgrade trees redisplaying on retrieval from vault[/b] Yes, this is tiny, but again, surely this is as simple as flipping a switch with a few lines of code. Something about going in and out of the vault resets it. That can't be too hard to pinpoint. [b]Bigger changes[/b] These are things that are part of the bigger picture, but aren't suggestions for content down the road or anything. They're ways you could improve the content now. [b]Resource farming[/b] It's been said before, but since you claimed that the loot cave wasn't how you envisaged us playing Destiny, surely chest runs aren't what you wanted either. Mindless loops. I've found ways to enjoy grinding these mats. Put on a nice Spotify playlist, just on episodes of the Simpsons and away I go, but at that stage I'm not playing your game. I'm not enjoying your game. I'm working your game like a job, like something that I have to do before I can get back to playing the game for fun again. The game should always be fun. Running strikes to earn vanguard marks = good. I'm playing the game and at the same time, slowly earning resources to improve my character. Doing chest runs to earn mats = bad. I'm not playing your game. I'm doing a neccessary chore to improve me character. Suggestions: bump up the amount of resources nodes and chests give/decrease the amount it takes to upgrade a weapon. Have champion enemies (have a chance to) drop mats. Have them rewarded at the end of strike playlists and crucible (hell, have them dependant on player ranking. Top player gets 3 mats, 2nd and 3rd get 2 and the rest get 1, etc) If I could just play the game naturally, running strikes and patrol missions, picking up the occasional node if I spot it, perhaps ducking into an alcove for a sneaky chest, I would. That doesn't cut it at this point though. Playing like that, I won't have nearly enough mats. At this stage in the game, if a player wants to max weapons/gear, they've got to grind. What's the difference between loot cave for progression and circular runs? Both are fairly mindless. [b]Crucible revamp[/b] You are your own worst enemy here Bungie. You delivered unto us the Halo franchise and damn well set the bar for Multiplayer Matchmaking, and yet Destiny is so very lacklustre in terms of options and content (not to mention anyone who isn't coming at this game from a Halo background is likely a COD player, a franchise which also outperforms Destiny in terms of multiplayer options). You know what the players want, they want Halo. They want private matchmaking, they want custom matches. Yeah we live in an online world and everybody is connected yada yada age of the future, that's all great. If I want to get three friends over though and have a good time, Destiny offers me nothing. I'm taking that disc out and putting in any Halo or COD game. You don't want that. You don't want me to take out that disc because there's a chance I won't put it back in. Private matches, custom gametypes, more playlists (which is definitely coming I know): make it happen. [b]The Raid[/b] Its a great piece of content (when it works, I won't list all the glitches here, they're chronicled in depth elsewhere and I'm sure you've got people working on them), but damn is the RNG on the loot drops definitely driving players away. No, you shouldn't be fully geared after 1 (or even a dozen, neccessarily, raids), but you should feel like you're making progress. Instead, there is the chance for unlucky people to raid for months and never get the drop they want, and to be no closer to it than when they started. There have been numerous good suggestions. Raid marks, allowing you to work towards buying the gear, is my favourite. Another is that Atheon is guaranteed to drop a piece of raid gear (I'd make it so that this only works if the game detects the player has every other checkpoint completed for that week, no joining someones elses game at the end for easy loot), but you could still be unlucky for months at a time and not get the piece you need. Raid marks is elegant. It allows for the RNG to equalise players, extend game time, slow down progress, yada yada; while still providing a safety net that means players don't feel like they're wasting their time, that they are slowly moving towards better gear and a higher level (and that's half the reason anyone plays this sort of game). Other odds and ends: Vanity items should have a cap, or should break down into something useful. I prefer the cap system. If the game detects you have chatterwhite in your inventory, it takes Chatterwhite out of the loot table. Same goes for the sparrow and the ships. If you want them again for some reason (give to an alt being the only thing I can think of) then you just store them in your vault and boom, back on the loot table. This doesn't seem like it would be too hard to implement. [b]On Cheese[/b] Players are always going to find the path of least resistance. Normally its expected that the devs fix such 'cheeses', the players find another, back and forth the circle of gamer life goes. However, given the current state of the Atheon fight, I'd leave well enough alone until you get the bugs under control. It sends a bad message when you spare the time/resources to fix a cheese strat, while leaving the fight riddled with bugs. Yes, patching the cheese is probably a lot easier than fixing the bugs, but if thats the logic you're using to determine where manpower gets spent, than surely we should have skippable cutscenes by now, no? Do yourselves a PR favour here, leave the cheese alone until you iron out all the bugs. Then patch out the cheese and make the newly buffed Mythoclast another item, the Mythoclast 2.0 (with a bitching new skin), now better than ever! Now players who previously only cheesed to get their Mythoclast will have a reason to go back and earn the new weapon. [b]The Future[/b] I'm sure you're mad at work on House of Wolves, but if House of Wolves is a mirror of The Dark Below in terms of content, you might need a little more than that to ensure this 10 year plan. [b]World Altering Events[/b] These are great for making the universe feel real and lived in and getting players to feel like its worth it to regularly visit the world of Destiny. These are the type of things that should be rolled out on a (bi) monthly basis. After the release of the Dark Below, sensing the weakness of the Hive (and the Vex still recovering from what happened at the Black Garden/Guardians assaulting the Vault of Glass) the Cabal strike, launching an offensive on the moon. A new area is added to the moon, which features a recently built Cabal outpost. Cabal units now roam the moon, fighting with Hive and Vandal alike. Now, the new area featuring the Cabal outpost is mostly wishful thinking, that's a lot of work considering you're working on House of Wolves, but adding Cabal units to the moon for a month, having one area that they've claimed with some Cabal barriers, landed ships, banners, etc. A month long event where the Speaker decides these Cabal need to pushed back, because if they take over the moon, then the next target is Earth. For this month, killing Cabal units on the moon earns you rep with someone, and at the end of the month there are one off shaders/sparrows/emblems/maybe one weapon or piece of gear that is visually unique available to purchase for those who participated. Surely that's doable? Right? That's the sort of thing that will make this game worth playing for years. That's the sort of thing that'll keep players buying your DLC and sequels. [b]Final notes[/b] I play a lot of Destiny. There are parts I love, and there are other parts that I hate myself for playing, and other parts that make me question the sanity of those who designed it. The weirdest thing for me is that you weren't all alone in making this game. Sure the hybrid design is still relatively new (Borderlands is the closest thing, but Destiny is different enought that I feel comparisons of "Borderlands did x better" are unfair), but the genres that made up the hybrid aren't. This game is essentially just Halo meets Diablo (with a bit of WoW tossed in), and yet it feels like a step back from each of them (jack of all trades...). WoW has been a behemoth for how long now? They're unbelievable refined. So many quality of life issues could have been solved by just looking at what WoW has done. It's late and I'm tired of typing and I'm sure I've forgotten some things but here we are. Really I wish that I could be a part of Bungie... maybe I should apply for one of those jobs?

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