Agreed, very little seems exclusive to the various modes aside from armor anymore. However, the blame can be placed as much on players as it can be on Bungie since players complain they have to play modes they don't want to in order to earn specific gear.

[quote]However, the blame can be placed as much on players as it can be on Bungie since players complain they have to play modes they don't want to in order to earn specific gear.[/quote] I mean this was highly dependant and was mostly limited to Trials and Raids. But currently you can lose in Trials and get essentially Adept tier loot LMAO, and DP requires tons of feats active to perhaps maybe get a T5. But it still applies even now with crucible, trials, iron banner and raid specific loot. But the Portal's issue is that its stripped away that loot pool variety from the different base level activities. Ironically in the chase to make every activity matter in the portal Bungie has made none of the activities matter.

".....mostly limited to...." doesn't mean [i]exclusively[/i] limited to. I get it, I'm considered a "Bungie Shill" and card-carrying member of the BDF but sooner or later players will have accept some culpability in the state of things no matter how taboo it might be. As far as the Portal is concerned, what would you recommend (aside from the obvious "Get rid of it") in order to make it more...... [i]palatable[/i] to players since it gives them what they asked for? Player agency, I believe is the most accurate phrase. I'm asking honestly, not trying to be a wise*ss.

[quote]".....mostly limited to...." doesn't mean exclusively limited to. I get it, I'm considered a "Bungie Shill" and card-carrying member of the BDF but sooner or later players will have accept some culpability in the state of things no matter how taboo it might be.[/quote] Complaints about getting loot were pretty much tied to endgame premade team content and PvP. Outside of a few outliers that probably complained about an activity being boring or w/e. I don't think I've really seen people complain about doing something like The Nether for Heresy loot for example. [quote]As far as the Portal is concerned, what would you recommend (aside from the obvious "Get rid of it") in order to make it more...... palatable to players since it gives them what they asked for? Player agency, I believe is the most accurate phrase. I'm asking honestly, not trying to be a wise*ss.[/quote] GeT rId oF It! lol nah, seriously though I don't think the portal itself is really salvagable not without some huge changes that are already served by the director. I would just want activities to be consolidated into playlists and challenge customisation to just be removed with activity completion mattering. I would essentially bolt the Ops buttons onto the director on a quick access bar similar to D1, and that would be "the portal". Though I would change the ops categories so you have Solo Ops, Vanguard Ops, Seasonal Ops, Pinnacle Ops and Crucible(though its on the director already so could be optional). Solo Ops - Just solo ops how it is now however minus challenge customisation runs would just be selected difficulty and would randomise banes on each run with daily rotating modifiers. Vanguards Ops - Strikes/Battlegrounds playlist and a featured Onslaught map for 30 or 50 wave selection. - Unique vanguard loot like before, Conquests would give guranteed Holofoils and Onslaught 50 wave would have a chance to drop them at 30 and 40 with a guaranteed at 50. Seasonal Ops - Latest seasonal activity I.E. Reclaim, 1 featured legacy 3 player seasonal activity and then 1 featured legacy 6 player seasonal activity. - 6 unique guns from latest seasonal activity only and a daily rotating seasonal loot pool on the 3 and 6 player activities that also rotate daily or weekly. Pinnacle Ops - Latest Exotic Mission, 2 rotating featured exotic missions and quick buttons for the weekly featured raids and dungeons. I'd say to get rid of the tiered weapon system entirely and put that extra stuff on the enhancement system and holofoils would be the way to get enhanced origin traits and magazine slots from the hardest level or longest activities. It would be less "agency" I guess but you'd have a little bit more choice in different activity types and reasons to engage with them. Right now why play a 15 minute strike over a 6 minute cabal's watch if the only difference is activity length with rewards being the exact same? You might just play it for fun but depends on if you are trying to level up or acquire specific item you'll always tend to go for the fastest time to reward option. Most players are also currently locked into just playing the currently matchmake-able activities and the others essentially don't exist. The only way to give more agency in that regard would be to make the activities in Fireteam Ops and Pinnacle Ops way easier to solo.(I know its doable solo for most of them but generally they are balanced around 3 players.) Essentially just turning the game into a solo looter shooter which would be lame af. Extra: I don't think the bane system has been used to its full potential either, there should be for example loot goblin banes that when killed spit out related rewards for the activity giving you a nice bonus occasionally.

I have to say, I like this. I think the hype on holofoils is silly but that's only a personal preference because I don't much care for the look of them. Otherwise, it seems very well thought out to me.

I think Holofoils should essentially be Adept weapons with the extra things like an enhanced origin trait and mod slot. Currently its just "Ooo shiny skin". Also, I preferred when Holofoils/Adepts and stuff were rare drops or came from hard activities, I think Heresy was the best middle ground we got between Normal/Adept/Shiny. But yeah the current portal gives you TONS of agency in what you play and do but the reasons for doing so are basically non-existent. Though for a lot of players the activities that aren't matchmade could basically not even be there and it wouldn't make a difference to them. If Holofoils were rare drops and were essentially the T5s and the portal had rotating loot pools on activities ala Division 2 that could probably solve the issue, but currently you get to 500 and now everything is T5 and anything T4 and below is an instant dismantle. That and rare drop Holofoils are for some bizzare reason only on time limited FOMO events that last like 1-2 weeks and so farming for them is just not reasonable.

Please, go back and read what you've posted, see if you can recognize the problems Bungie is up against, then consider where you've fallen into the same trap they have repeatedly.