[b]Foreword[/b] Before I get started these are just suggestions for ideas, by no means would I expect to see all of this content added to the game. This is just a brainstorming exercise and community discussion topic. These ideas are in no particular order nor are they completely thought out. I am not very well versed in the lore of the game and would love to hear more lore based ideas from you all. Constructive criticism is more than welcome but keep it civil! Thanks! -RyantheWit [b]Brainstorming Topics[/b] [i]-MMO Feature Focus -Player Housing -Crafting -Player Trading -Civil War Storyline -Customization -MOBA Style Crucible Match[/i] [b]Focus More on the MMO[/b] Destiny is an FPS/MMO while not the first of its kind it has definitely had the success it deserves. Lately I have seen a lot of complaints from the community surrounding the lack of content as well as old obsolete content that needs to be updated. I think these claims are definitely justified from Year 1 players. Admittedly I didn’t really get into Destiny until the launch of The Taken King (TTK) so I have not hit that wall yet. I have spent the majority of my gaming life playing Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMO’s) and I believe that while Bungie has done well with the FPS aspect, as well as making it more MMO like with the Kings Fall raid, they could still make it more MMO focused. I believe that if they focused more efforts on the MMO aspect of the game they would have a happier player base and curb some of the boredom of veteran and hardcore players while retaining, and bringing in, casual new players as well. [b]Player Housing[/b] A lot of successful MMO’s have had this feature to varying degrees and my mind immediately goes back to Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online. While these are not the only games that have done it right they are what I have experienced. Player housing gives your community something to spend their free time on. Whether this is accomplished with crafting, item drops, questing, faction items, or micro transactions players have something to focus on in between content. It also provides the community with bragging rights and customization. Looking through the reddit forums I believe /u/MetalBeerSolid did a perfect job with this idea. I couldn’t possibly imagine adding anything to this post so here it is. https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/3y8q3t/new_silvercontent_idea_concept_art_album_inside/ Summary: Allowing players to customize and move about their ship while allowing other fireteam members to see their friends work gives the community more customization and content to work towards. PS. Bungie seriously needs to hire MetalBeerSolid! [b]Crafting[/b] The staple of every MMO…IMO. Whether you like farming for resources or crafting if you have ever played an MMO you have benefited from it in one way or another. The gear made from crafting allows players to specialize and take part in their gear and armor. This can also lead to more community interaction with others through player trading, something the community has been asking for. Star Wars Galaxies, again, did this perfectly. The unique crafting system they implemented encouraged players to try different resources in order to make stronger items. One way of doing this is dropping special raid and public boss specific resource drops to be used in experimental crafting. While this still relies on RNG, the dreaded function of all MMO’s, it gives the player more of a hand in their own results. When you don’t get a drop you want from a boss you have to wait until next week, being able to go out and farm (or set up farming while you are away from your game) provides players with something to work on, gear wise, until the raid next week hopefully resulting in better gear and a better chance to bring down that next boss encounter. [b]Player Trading and Auction Houses[/b] Encouraging players to interact with each other and putting commerce into the hands of the players gives them more of a role in their own involvement in game. It is important to give players the ability to control their gear and income in multiple ways. One of the better ways to do this is with a player run economy. This is tough to accomplish and we have seen it get out of control in multiple games with currency values dropping and item prices skyrocketing. Nice part is, glimmer is already capped at a reasonable ceiling. Keep the glimmer cap where it is and nothing can cost more than that, keeping items at a reasonable range in theory. [b]Storyline: Civil War - Faction Emphasis[/b] Personally I would like to see the factions put to more use. Currently they are outdated, and almost useless short of a handful of weapons. There is a bit of lore surrounding the three factions implemented and I believe it is time for them to squabble, and by squabble I mean kill each other. I have read that there was a lot of faction pride and loyalty when it originally came out and I would like to see that happen again. This would also open up pvp sandbox areas, with the looming promise from Bungie for new planets I would like to see at least one being fought over for control of its resources. I find it hard to believe that New Monarchy, Future War Cult, and Dead Orbit all get along fairly well with only The Vanguard as the intermediary. This would provide new events, crucible missions, and player involvement. As one faction pulls ahead of another in points or ownership on a new planet they will gain control of the planet giving access to unique resources, vendors, and bounties. Keeping this world as open PvP will be tricky especially with people just sniping everyone they see across the map. One solution to this could be a new solar system, each small planet could allow up to 40 players each. Control of a planet would shift every 24-48 hours allowing players to actually make use of their efforts and cash in on the rewards, during this time the planet would function as a PVE zone only allowing people of that faction. This would also allow other factions to rally in the meantime to take it back. Providing a new solar system with multiple planets would give each faction the opportunity to own something every few days. The battles would last 24 hours with planets alternating times allowing players from all time zones to participate at some point while emphasizing the turmoil between factions. I think it would be crucial to either not allow players to switch factions or make it very difficult to switch. The ability to change your faction on a whim would create too much unbalance. Each character you have could still belong to a different faction giving you the choice to fight for your faction or simply take advantage of the hard work of others providing you switch characters. This makes it still accessible to players who otherwise might not have been able to use it. While you may feel loyalty to a faction on one character, you may feel differently on another. It also works in Bungie’s favor because you are then using multiple characters all of which progress differently. [b]Customization[/b] Everyone wants their character to look unique, when you like how you look you tend to play more. Being able to have a separate character page in addition to your current gear where you can chose what armor is displayed seems to be the easiest way to accomplish this. By giving players the chance to change how they look they tend to seek out specific looks and pieces in game in order to change their appearance. Crafting also ties into this providing an easier method for obtaining a specific look through player trading. In addition to armor and weapons, player made emblems and items should be encouraged. Allow the community to submit artwork for emblems, armor, weapons, ships, and sparrows. Hiring a team to sort through all of the submitted community items would be a nightmare however I believe Bungie either has the resources to do this or could enlist the help of community volunteers in order to sift through the submissions. Requiring submissions to meet specific settings would help streamline the process and filter out some of the ideas. I believe SOE and other companies have already adopted this idea. It also gives players something to be proud of and make money off of the other members in the community through transactions. [b]MOBA Style Crucible[/b] While I have never played Smite, I have played various other MOBA’s. I believe a tower defense/pve/pvp style MOBA match is possible. Using the mobs already in game as cannon fodder in addition to destructible orbs (towers) would make this possible. Players could start with basic gear and purchase new gear as they get kills just like a standard MOBA. Choose your subclass prior to entering the match would give it a much more unique style of play and give you the standard lane/support/jungle etc. This would require the making of new subclass skill trees for this specific game type, this would be the biggest hurdle. [b]Conclusion[/b] Again these are just a few ideas that I had, most are not anything new or original in thought but would help enhance the MMO aspect of the game or introducing new playstyles to an ever evolving gaming market. I believe some if not all of these ideas would help to keep players engaged and happy in some way. I would love to hear some of your thoughts on these ideas or your own. I know I only provided a rough outline of each but I think it would be interesting to entertain some new ideas and solutions to the current state of the game.