First and foremost, congratulations Mr. Parsons on your newest endeavor at Bungie! I for one want to warmly welcome you to the community with a fresh slate and state for the record that I have high hopes for you and what you could do to improve Destiny. Like many others, even those that have not played for some time yet still troll these forums, we want to see Destiny succeed. For many reasons it has been going downhill and rapidly at that. The lack of communication and seemingly stubborn attitude to stick with bad decisions with a dash of condescension sprinkled on top when we do get communication has lead to a very toxic environment.
To "cut to the chase" as it were, here is a list that is most likely not comprehensive, but rather a starting point, of things that should be changed asap:
[b]Etheric Light[/b] - I'm sure you know what Etheric Light was in House of Wolves, so I won't define that for you. I will explain though why it is important to make this effective like it was in HoW immediately. Note that you will hear some people deny they want this. Please be aware they are in the minority and either deleted their cool Y1 stuff or never had it to begin with and are simply jealous. I know that seems too simple of an explanation but sometimes the truth is just that simple. Others will claim they just "don't want everyone to use Y1 weapons and armor" which as anyone with common sense knows, that is more of a problem with that person and their personality than a game issue. Something that probably has haunted them for years if they have to control others in that fashion. As I’m sure you know, what someone uses in Destiny should be their choice and not matter to anyone else.
Anyway, enough on why those people are wrong and how there is no logic in their argument. I don’t want to waste your time in stating the obvious. The point is that Etheric Light made 100% of Destiny relevant. Any raid we wanted to run was relevant as was PoE since we could upgrade any weapons found in the “wild” to current standards. Let that sink in. 100% of your game, Destiny, was relevant! All weapons, all armor, all activities! I’m sure you can see how this is a good thing, you want people to play more, not less. As it stands now, only The Taken King is relevant as far as progression and end game play. Which would be fine if it was much larger or much better in all aspects than the previous combined playable game – which it falls very, very short of that goal.
[b]Pre-Taken King economies[/b] – Bring them back. All of them. One of the main problems in Destiny (especially at Taken King) was the constant reinventing of the wheel. Tweaks, changes and adjustments are fine. But almost every expansion, instead of being excited, most of us were filled with dread on what was going to totally be changed for no reason and probably for the worse. I won’t list every item, your devs have it on file, but pre TTK faction rep gains, mote and weapon parts drops, vanguard and crucible marks and many others. None of that was broken, no reason to “fix” it. Put it back to how it was. There is nothing definitively better for the players with this new system we have had since TTK.
[b]Stay the course[/b] – Once you have done the above 2 things, stop screwing with the game. Sit back, relax and rake in the cash. I have always said, HoW was the pinnacle of Destiny and many, many agree with me and this was mainly due to Etheric Light (seriously, get this back in asap). HoW is what convinced me to plop down my $80 for the CE edition of TTK despite Luke Smith (more on him later) and previous blunders and lies. Literally, all TTK needed to do coming off of HoW was this, add more enemies to shoot, add a new level cap, add new maps. That is it. Those 3 things and you would have been golden and Mr. Ryan would possibly still have his job. Instead, all of the negative things I mentioned earlier happened and here we are today.
[b]Stop screwing the players[/b] – Every expansion we lost game playability in terms of relevance and we lost gear. Let’s be clear, this is not an MMO and not an RPG and frankly not even close to either of those. This is a FPS and damn good one. Like any FPS, I expect to have my full arsenal until a sequel comes out. Year 2 is not Destiny 2 and therefore there is absolutely no reason that I nor any other player should be handcuffed in our gear selection simply because something is Y1 or Y2. If Destiny is going to be done in installments such as Destiny 1, 2, 3 etc, then there is no logical explanation to lose my gear while still in an instance of one of those installments. Even if you were not doing sequel installments and simply adding expansions every few months, the motto is to “become legend” if I remember correctly and to “play how I want to play”. Well, I have no way of doing that when you force your will upon me as a player. Until this becomes an actual MMO, we should have access to ALL of our gear AND it be relevant to the current game at any time. Stop taking our gear away every expansion and then re selling it to us.
[b]Communication[/b] – We need more of it and less condescension from Deej when it’s being delivered. We’ve also literally been lied to. Stop that. Frankly when I list a lot of these things, how Destiny still has players is almost mind boggling.
[b]Luke Smith [/b]– His job status is not my concern. However, if he is going to stay at Bungie, I would suggest a “come to Jesus” meeting with him and muzzle him too. If you think he is a good creative talent, fine, but give him his marching orders that he needs to do the above suggested items and be creative with those items in mind in the future.
[b]PvE[/b] – It needs to be focused on. Now. This is your core player base, address them.
[b]PvP[/b] – I for one want to use my PvE found weapons and armor and play against other players. That makes Destiny unique. The problem is you have people more worried about their K/D than the game itself. Simple solution (easier said than done I’m sure but should be doable) make a K/D play list that is for the people who care about that and they get a set load out so no one can cry something is OP. Create a playlist for those of us that want to use our PvE weapons in a PvP format but not track our K/D permanently. Just tell us our K/D that match or something. I feel like this would appease both sides and stop the nerfs. Which speaking of………
[b]Nerfs[/b] – Stop doing them. A sum total of 0 weapons in this game have ever been “game breaking” and only a few were OP and even then they were only OP in a PvP sense. Make those separate PvP environments I mentioned and PvE weapons should be good as is. Many need to be buffed and fixed from the previous year or nerfs. Good luck with that code. Destiny has literally become an internet meme for pock faced children crying for nerfs. That’s an embarrassment. Bring respect back to your game, show some back bone, stop the nerfs.
[b]Matchmaking[/b] – We need it in game, not through LFG. However you want to figure that out, fine but make it in game.
[b]Nighfalls and Weekly Heroic Strikes[/b] – Bring them back to how they were in Y1 and leave them alone.
[b]Xur[/b] – Make him relevant again somehow. I don’t even think noobs use him and I only use him for heavy ammo. He’s a non-factor in Y2. I get that some of that is due to a lot of Exotics in Y2 are acquired through quests (which I like personally) so he can’t really sell them, but something needs to be changed here.
[b]Leveling system[/b] – Scrap the light level system asap. Go back to just normalized number leveling like we had in Y1. If you keep light leveling, you need to standardize what you get in the raids. Normal should drop nothing but 310, hard nothing but 320. No ifs ands or buts. If you run hard raid, you should only get hard raid drops. Moldering shards should not be your only reward if you get anything at all. Take a cue from games like Borderlands and Diablo and spray me in the face with multiple high level loot sometimes. Not all the time but sometimes at least.
[b]Smart loot[/b] – Loot should only be dropping at or above my current light.
I’m sure there is much more that we could add to the list and I encourage people to add to this post. But this should serve as a starting point. I’m a Day 1 player of Destiny and have logged many hours into this game. On reset days (Tuesdays) I used to race home, made sure nothing was on my schedule and would run through 3 nightfalls and 3 weekly heroic strikes on my 3 characters and then do some raids. All in one night and it was a blast. I stayed up way too late on work nights but I felt like a teenager again and it was awesome. I would play almost every day for a minimum of 3+ hours a day and could not get enough. Now, I barely log in and am unhappy when I do a lot of the times. There is nothing that presses me to get on at a certain time or spend hours in this game. You see what I am getting at here I assume?
That’s it for now I guess. Good luck to you and I look forward to seeing what’s to come. If this somehow made it to your desk and is more than just an exercise in futility for me, I want to thank you for taking the time to read it.
[b]EDIT:[/b] I'm not active on Reddit (surprisingly) but Bungie seems to LOVE Reddit and other sites. I would encourage someone to re post this message and the post link on those sites as well. As much attention as we can draw to this list, the better. More discussion will hopefully move the needle with the goal being Mr. Parsons actually seeing this.
Thanks for the bumps so far! We've got it trending for now.
English
#feedback
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Bump!
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Great post. Thank you for writing this.
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Awesome post Sir!!!!
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2 RepliesI thought you said *educated* suggestions
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4 RepliesEdited by gallp13: 1/29/2016 12:19:38 AMMost of your feedback is saying; 1. Listen to me 2. I am right 3. Everyone else is an idiot It's unwise to put much stock in folks who start their posts with in effect "I am from the industry so what I am saying is right". That stuff always throws up a red flag. Better to let your good ideas do the talking instead of self praise. It's a pity one of your ideas makes sense.
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Good post!
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booms
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1 ReplyWhenever I hear "The Industry" I think porn. Anyone else?
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Great post. My list would look a tad different, but you nailed the most important things.
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I can stand behind a good bit of this.
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Great post. I agree with the majority of what was written. Well done.
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Would like to see a Blue bump this post.
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I can honestly say that I agree with your post in its entirety. Every point is spot on. Some may disagree with parts of it, but most will admit that the majority of it is exactly what must be done to save this game. I only wish you were the one calling the shots at Bungie and not the buffoons who are currently in charge. Thank you for your commentary.
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Great suggestions. As a day 1 player whom left this game after 1500+ hours at September i want to highlight one main thing to Mr. Parsons. Your job is not easy because gaining trust back is the hardest thing to do. But you have a good chance because despite us being extremely critical , we love this game. The reason we are negative is all on Bungie. You now have chance to do many improvements. if needed take your time because Destiny 2 is either going to nail the issues or Destiny will die with it. Last year Destiny didn't had a competition but more co-op games are coming to scenes. I sincerely wish you luck Mr Parsons and hope you'll succeed in your position. Take the list and nail them Mr Parsons
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If only he would read this. Probably blocked by Luke Smith.
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Oh so much bump. I will be bumping his for a few days.
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But Ghorn was a little Op lol
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11 RepliesNo etheric light for year 1 to be brought to year 2, I broke my VoC addiction and I do not want to relapse. Year 1 primaries were God-like and should never come back.
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3 RepliesI honestly just don't think their Tiger server can handle all the content all at the same time. In that case, I don't believe the ceo can do anything about it. The amount of band aid changes to this game is just to many to go back and will take too long to correct or change. And as I've said before, anyone that has worked in a toxic work environment knows how rough it is. You can see it in how those who do speak pubically sound offensive. I'm not surprised at all this guy stepped in. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he's interim until they find a new ceo. And that maybe a board requirement. I'll also say, I'm going to get kinda pissed if all the year 1 stuff becomes relevant after ive deleted so many of my favorites or reupgraded exotics. I guess we will find out soon enough
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3 RepliesSomething that would expand the game for EVERYONE and allow them to truly play the game as they wish is direct mote of light infusion rather than infusion with weapons/armor. If they did this, anyone could hit the cap with enough time/effort, regardless of whether you are a solo player or a team-focused player; regardless if you are PVP focused or PVE focused. So long as you are earning experience, you will generate motes of light, and you can keep progressing your light level. By the way, did I also mention that this will make bounties relevant again? I mean who actually does bounties anymore? Nobody does! And it may wreck things in the short term because people have such a huge stock of motes left over from Y1, but it is also a system that can be perpetuated into future content, and there can always be a mote exchange week or a mote wipe where people can cash them in or lose them. And having tons of motes is not necessarily a bad thing! It means we can level up multiple weapons and armor to max, creating more gear diversity... Secondly, I second your request to change Nightfall and Heroic strikes back to Y1; but I would take that even further. Restore the entire strike playlist to how it was in Y1. I can't select the difficulty on any strike if I decide to do a particular strike. I have to play the particular strike on its set level. In Y1, I could just adjust it to max difficulty if I wanted, or if I needed to run it quickly to complete a major-kill bounty, I just turned it down low and ran through it. Thirdly, elemental primaries. They must return. Some say they don't want it and that they don't make a difference but these people lie. I use my Y1 elemental primaries in the nightfall all the time. Even though I am 20 light levels lower, I do 500 MORE damage per shot with the Y1 elemental primary weapon. That is a big difference. Outside the nightfall? - they may have more of an argument but EVEN IF their argument holds true that outside the nightfall, elemental primaries don't make a difference - then why remove them in the first place? They "weren't making a difference" either way, so why take them away? The simple truth is that they actually DO make a difference. They're one of the many things that made us feel powerful in Y1, and after 100's of hours of grinding, we should be able to get that feeling back again! Finally, the lack of ELITE level weaponry in this game makes it boring. Sure G-horn MAY have been slightly OP in PVE (I completely disagree), but who cares? bosses, dregs, etc. They don't cry when you hit them repeatedly with a G-horn. Nerfing all the elite weapons because elitism in LFG forums? Guess what - people are STILL elitist in LFG, they just have different requirements now. Bring back the elite weapons. Buff Sleeper Simulant, or bring back G-horn and Icebreaker to Y2, only remove their nerfs and restore them back to their Y1 glory days. Make White Nail on Black Spindle as it used to be on the Black Hammer. Give us weapons that excite us in PVE, and we will keep playing no matter what. I promise you that!
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2 RepliesMy gosh I've missed actual constructive posts. [quote][b]Pre-Taken King economies[/b] – Bring them back. All of them. One of the main problems in Destiny (especially at Taken King) was the constant reinventing of the wheel. Tweaks, changes and adjustments are fine. But almost every expansion, instead of being excited, most of us were filled with dread on what was going to totally be changed for no reason and probably for the worse. I won’t list every item, your devs have it on file, but pre TTK faction rep gains, mote and weapon parts drops, [u]vanguard and crucible marks[/u] and many others. None of that was broken, no reason to “fix” it. Put it back to how it was. There is nothing definitively better for the players with this new system we have had since TTK.[/quote] I'd just like to state [u]my opinion[/u] on Marks. I think Legendary Marks are an improvement to Vanguard and Crucible Marks overall, the fact you can earn "unlimited" amounts in a week is better, there was no need for a cap. Bringing back both of these currencies would be great, but the cap should't come back, and the way you earn them should be improved. I love this post though. "Bump".
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2 RepliesThis post is FANTASTIC. You have captured every single reason that I loved Year 1 and have soured on Year 2. I have completely stopped playing Destiny. I troll this Forum hoping to see posts just like this and hoping that some day Bungie will fix many of their mistakes in the transition from Year 1 to Year 2. If it doesn't happen I will be permanently out of Destiny and I think many others will be too.
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1 Reply[quote]The point is that Etheric Light made 100% of Destiny relevant. Any raid we wanted to run was relevant as was PoE since we could upgrade any weapons found in the “wild” to current standards. Let that sink in. 100% of your game, Destiny, was relevant! All weapons, all armor, all activities![/quote] THIS. I seriously don't understand why they thought making [i]their own content[/i] irrelevant was a smart move. Even most people that don't care about Y1 seem to agree that it didn't make sense!
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2 RepliesEdited by Bump: 1/28/2016 9:47:36 PMLe bump. (Actually, light levels should stay. Removing them would be a very long process and probably isn't worth it
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24 Replies[quote]PvE – It needs to be focused on. Now. This is your core player base, address them.[/quote] What was the majority of content improvements in TDB, HoW, and TTK? Yeah, PvE content. Stop being a bitch.