EDIT: went back and finished reading. I like the idea of being able to reroll Vanguard/Crucible/Faction legendaries to the stat range and light level of previous raid gear. The only objection I have is that the currency for the upgrade should come from outside the raid. Because as discussed below, the majority of players don't have practical access to the raid. Perhaps a special PvE quest line? Like a more elaborate version of what we did for Eris Morn's gauntlets. And I agree with "no raid perks" as, outside of the heavy ammo bonus on boots, the perks really only apply to their respective raids and are irrelevant in PvP and general PvE.
I'll leave the rest for honesty's sake and because I feel it still speaks to the larger issues of leveling mechanics in this game.
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Honestly quit reading after "complete Crota's End to buy new gear." And (please don't take this personally because it isn't personal) here's why. Stay with me, I'm not trolling.
The majority of the player base doesn't/can't raid. Does. Not. Raid. However, Raiders are no doubt a very vocal subset on these forums. But these forums themselves likely only represent a small subset of the community. I see the same screen names over and over. And I doubt all Raiders post to the forums with any frequency. So Raiders on the forums are a vocal subset of a subset of a subset. And since Raiders probably have clans and friends lists consisting of mostly other Raiders, it gives many of them the illusion that Raiders are a large fraction of the community.
But they aren't. They're far more likely a small (but vocal) minority. Some quick and dirty math to follow.
The LFG tools no doubt help, but your solution would need the necessary co-requisite of allowing Raid matchmaking for previous raids when new DLC drops. Otherwise, your suggestion is going to prevent the majority of the community from progressing.
For your consideration, in October, 500K people had beaten the raid (according to Kotaku, I think it was). The year-end update said that the VoG had been beaten millions of times. [b]But[/b] it doesn't take 500K of people beating it once a week for two months to rack up those kinds of numbers. However, there's something like [i]10 million[/i] players. We'll even assume the number of people to beat a raid has doubled since TDB and pretend that there weren't any Christmas noobs skewing the numbers. So the percentage of the community that raids is with any frequency is about 10%. (1,000,000 / 10,000,000) It's likely less, and I'd be very surprised to see hard and verifiable numbers proving its more than 25% tops.
So just bear that in mind. If new DLC requires the completion of the previous raid to progress, then new DLC has to include matchmaking capability for the previous raid. Not the new raid - I'd never seriously suggest that - just the previous ones. Or 75% of the players will be pissed when they discover they can't progress. You won't necessarily see it on the forums, but they'll be all over it in the gaming media. There are a lot of highly anticipated games coming out. Destiny [i]cannot[/i] chance pissing off the majority of its player base.
You'd need raid matchmaking for each previous raid to make it work. Now if you're cool with that, I'm cool with your progression idea. But we both know Bungie will never allow raid matchmaking.
The core problem is the leveling mechanics themselves are unsound. Tying levels to gear quality, instead of the other way around has created complete reliance on RNG drops for top tier. You don't earn your level 32 in the raid. You earn your [i]chance at level 32.[/i] You only get what the RNGods damn well feel like giving you. Many are lucky, many are not. The forums show this.
My pet theory is that the light level cap bump should have been larger. The base level cap should have also been raised by the same amount. New VoG drops from hard mode should have taken you halfway to the new light level cap, or even max minus one, and old VoG gear should have been upgradable by some method. (Maybe a new item from the VoG lets you "reforge" them.)
New vendor gear, sold as true second tier, should have required a higher base level and commendations, and should taken you to within max minus one. Just like vendor gear did in the base game, but this way Raiders have a headstart on the max minus one as a sign of respect for their previous efforts. (The skip halfway up the new light level range in short order. Non-Raiders have to level up to "buy in.") New raid gear required to hit he new max, of course.
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This idea isn't really meant to be solely on it's own, but to show that it is possible to make older content viable while adding onto the game. I should have stated earlier that this would probably be part in a series of ideas, but first I wanted to make the effort to show that it is possible with what's currently available, even if it's a small percentage of people who would be up to the challenge. If people want to take the risk, I have no problem with raid matchmaking, although making a LFG Tower would be a better idea just so you could take to the people you are considering taking into the raid. Up the server to hold more then 16 people (like maybe 32) and you have the ability to form raid groups before going into the raid. This way you see the level and gear of the person you're about to take into the raid. I've said on a different topic that level and gear mean nothing when looking for skill, but it's the best we can really do with what has been made available through the game. However, I'm not forbidding people from playing the new DLC with this system. You can do the raid, as Crota was possible to do with 30's and if you were doing that you probably beat the previous raid on hard regardless. The missions don't require you to beat the raid as they wouldn't require you to be the max level -1. This also gives people choice of the gear they want. You could add the possibility of exchanging vanguard marks for raid marks, but it would have to be a considerable amount of marks to do so to keep the system balanced, and as said before to use the upgrade system you have to clear the raid. I understand that alone could cause problems with people looking to be carried, but seeing as right now I'm going with 3 other people to beat Crota in a 4 man cell, it wouldn't be impossible to carry two people just to be helpful. Unless they seriously plan on adding newer difficulties to past raids, which we haven't seen confirmed or even looked at, I wouldn't rely on that being a future possibility. I would rather try a system like this so people don't feel as screwed when it comes to the next DLC as a lot of people did this time.
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Edited by Silvurphlame: 1/16/2015 11:28:35 AMA think a LFG Tower would work as well. I'd support just about any in-game function. I mostly just don't think you should have to go outside of the game to fully experience the game. It's the same core issue that aggravates me about their use of Grimoire cards instead of actually storytelling. It's just lazy. And while the story mission base difficulties didn't require anything greater than the old cap of 29, the Daily and Weekly Heroics, let alone the Nightfall, are set to 30 at the highest tier. You'd need vendor gear to equal VoG level at any rate. And I imagine the extra wiggle room of being one level above that difficulty is intended as an anti-frustration feature. This isn't Ninja Gaiden or anything like that: I think Bungie meant it to be accessible and "winnable" regardless of player skill. They presumably don't want and shouldn't want, to lock the majority of players out of further progression. Beating the raid should largely be considered its own reward, if we're to consider it the pinnacle content. Had Bungie not made player level dependent on gear quality - or had they made VoG boostable to 31 - I don't think people would have felt nearly as insulted. I think the level cap raise, like several things in this first installment unfortunately, was not handled well; not thought out well. (On a side note, I think people get a little over competitive with video games. They're meant as entertainment after all, not as "serious business.") But I digress… Again, I think the real issue is Destiny's oddball leveling mechanics.
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Destiny has almost no real level system, as past level 20 it's all gear, which is why the only solution I could come up with without redoing the entire game completely was to come up with this idea of a tiered system based on the raid. For players who can't or choose not to do the raid Bungie could then open up the option of trading so that they could get the gear. Marks would have to be made trade-able but since it would be expected that glimmer would also be trade-able I see no real issue with that. The raids themselves, though, are part of the game as they do have to do with the lore presented within the game. It's not so much going out of the way that it's hard for people to get the group going to do it, which is why a LFG Tower could help solve this problem, even if it only puts a dent in it.
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Edited by Silvurphlame: 1/17/2015 6:24:54 AMThey can't do anything significant regarding the level system itself without an overhaul. It's fundamentally flawed. Wasn't it LotRO that finally had to kill it's gear-based progression system? And Destiny has set itself on that same path. A tower based LFG would help, but at that point they should just stop taking half measures and implement raid matchmaking for all previous raids, or maybe just the normal modes. Leave hard mode and raid weapons as trophies for those who have solid fire teams. No matter what, successfully fixing the leveling system to both respect Raiders and not lock out non-Raiders from further progression is going require concessions and major changes. I don't think there's anything to be done for the current game. Despite wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, I more and more think that both DLCs were already all but finished by launch and held back for DLC. The story missions of TDB seem to much like pieces missing from the base game, instead of continuation of the Hive story arc. I'm riding this out until HoW because I have the season pass. After that, I don't know. If the price isn't too much on the true expansion coming out in the fall, I might check it out, but I don't feel it's likely. There will be new games out by then. I've still got a couple last-gen games I haven't finished. I won't buy "Destiny 2" unless there are some major improvements. I can say that much. This game, for me, is a "B." Solid shooting, and great audiovisual, but lacking in substance. A series has to be a solid "A" for me to keep me coming back. I'm picky like that. But fun discussing the character progressions mechanics with you either way.