Milestones have got to go.

Destiny has great merchandise, whoever is in charge of merchandise should get Luke Smith’s job.

Stopped reading at “penacal”

I don’t agree with everything you said but do feel exclusivity comes at a high price. As someone who has the pinnacle crucible weapons (except mountain top because I don’t care about it) and loves using them in pve - if I could I’d gladly put luna, nf, recluse etc in everyone’s reach. I think they look great, especially nf and are fun to just fire, even in pve. Genuinely makes me sad that many won’t get to experience using them. I think the reward for reaching max rank could be an exclusive skin or emblem etc as in many other games. Exclusivity just shrinks player base which is not beneficial to anybody in the long run.

Yes, I do. I despise D2 PvP and am terrible at it. Some people don't like the PvE side of things. I get that too. Why not provide parallel paths to PW's like LW, AoS, LH etc? Or truly equivalent weapons to chase doing things we actually like to do? I have most of the grindy (non-raid) PvE weapons and catalysts for ones I like, and didn't mind (much) putting in the time to get them. Others don't mind grinding headshot kills in Crucible but groan at having to get a ton of them in strikes. Neither player type is inferior, we are just different. Stop forcing people to play in ways they don't want. Oh wait, that's Job 1 at Bungle. Their stubbornness w/r/t the cores thing is Exhibit A.

Thank you dmg04 for detailing how vanilla D2 was changed due to player feedback. I, too, was quickly bored with the initial release of D2 after the honeymoon period was over. Now I have tons of stuff to do, some of which it I don't know if I will ever get to. This is a good thing. And please continue leaning into the lore. It makes the game much more immersive and mysterious. I'm even watching videos on You Tube about Destiny lore.

Cosmetic items should’ve never been reliant on RNG. I honestly am surprised at Bungie for how many in game systems and items they made dependent on RNG. It’s downright lazy. All cosmetics for titles should’ve been guaranteed drops, no excuses, since Forsaken dropped. Now 6 months after release, people still can’t achieve their titles. It’s not acceptable. Exotic duplicate protection was a lie.

Ive been thinking the same thing. what if this is some kind of big experiment just to see what people will tolerate.

Ada-1 Bounties offer getting a RANDOM weapon from certain loot pool with Random rolls, work out the percentages of getting what you want and the grind is less than 1% per bounty chance of getting close to what you wanted. Contrary to belief that % is persistent no matter how many times you do that bounty as the odds don’t change. Also those Bounties don’t include the Black Armory Year 1 upgraded weapons, they don’t include Gambit Prime Weapons, they don’t include raid weapons and the ‘destination’ is vague in what loot pools are included. The reason people grinded vault of glass wasn’t just Vex Mythoclast, it was also fun - I’ve not had fun with any of the new raids. Overly complicated, overly mechanized and horrible reliant on everyone staying alive. RNG is fine as long as there are ways to improve it, have use from the less than ideal drops (currently there isn’t as shards are useless and glimmer too) and maybe a way to increase/improve the stuff received. Crafting would be one way to make it at least worth getting non useful Legendaries as the components could be used to increase chance of getting what you wanted. (Buy/earn/unlock frame and then craft at banshee as many times as you like if you have materials) But it’s fine, let’s stick with very low rates as it’s all about the engagement - screw the fun, enjoyment and having a laugh as long as the customer is engaged it’s all good....

[quote]It's a difficult balancing act. When Destiny 2 first released, we received a lot of feedback that things were to easy to earn. Without random rolls, there was no reason to replay activities to re-earn rewards. Without RNG, things were missing the spark of Destiny 1. An example we'd see was players replaying Vault of Glass numerous times for the Mythoclast.[/quote] Except you didn't balance anything. All you did was abandon an unfinished system to cover up for a lack of depth in the loot pool. With the launch of D2 you added Adventures, more public events, lost sectors and heroic story missions. And rather than connect loot to those activities, you created a token system that basically trivialized any hunt for loot that may have been in the game. Strikes suffered the same fate, no unique loot. The reason D2 vanilla didn't work had nothing to do with random rolls. But that was the easier fix, as opposed to actually finishing the mod/masterwork system BEFORE releasing the game. Consider a full compliment of mods at D2 launch. Consider a fully realized masterwork system at D2 launch. Consider having to farm ACTIVITIES as opposed to tokens in order to get Uriels Gift, Better Devils, etc. Do you honestly think that if people were farming for a pinnacle(fixed roll) version of a weapon(think EP weapons) from day one of D2, that they are complaining about how "easy" it is? Or about wanting random rolls. Would anyone have liked the EP grind to end with a potentially random rolled shotty? After 30+ runs, you want that RNG? Direct and clear paths to rewards. THAT is what people want, that is what people like. Then you can put RNG in place based on the difficulty of the task. I was 100% against random rolls, right up until you added pinnacle weapons. Then the system made sense. I could, if I chose to, go after a fixed reward. with a chance of getting something equivalent or better while I did that grind. YES! That makes sense. Randomize the complete RNG drops, but use the activities in games to present challenges that allow players to go after guaranteed gear. EVERYONE wins. Set some gear(like the EP weapons, Braytech, Raid, Trials, Pinnacle crucible, Gambit, etc) aside as completely unique, so there is only one path to THAT weapon. No RNG, no rolls. But have the vast majority of the loot pool in both systems(RNG and fixed/pinnacle). Do this for armor as well. Give people a reason to do things week over week. Give the flashpoint special chances for fixed/pinnacle drops. That way, over time, people, all types of players, can EARN the gear they want AND have a chance at getting it randomly. THAT is balance. And frankly, that is how D2 should have been since day 1.

i've already been enjoying it for about five years. peace

Thanks mate. Love the game