Hey Team and Beautiful Community, I am simply posting some feedback based on lengthy discussions with some peers. My peer group and I come from various backgrounds that are connected in a large way. [b]Those Backgrounds:[/b] [spoiler]We have a writer, working on screenplays. A level designer, with few credits since family life has become a priority. A programmer who went into business and communications. A streamer who is actively working on a disc world chronicles campaign set in 5E. Our collective passion is gaming, but we take the most pleasure in our tabletop sessions. We love FFG's Star Wars RPG with it's narrative, think on the fly system. We stick to the tried and true 5E, PF and occasional custom game built from the ground up. Soon we will explore Trudvang, another narrative based, focus on the player game type. For game design credentials, we've all had our hands in UE, Unity, GMP, Hero, and anything that the studios gave us to play with. [/spoiler] [b]The Progression of the Universe:[/b] [spoiler]While I feel that the Bungie team hit a lot of the right notes, and stumbled on many as well in their pursuit to make the best possible game in this new frontier model, the one thing that has felt lacking for us was that large sense of progression and impact. The story is the same, between D1 and D2, in that everything was lost and we needed to take it back. In both games, we do just that. But where is the outcome from that? If we took back earth and drove the hive off the moon, why are we only rebuilding after the Cabal come and knock down our wall? The opening to the game was beautiful, it reminded me of who my allies were in game and was cool, because these were my actual friends along side me. This doesnt take away from the fact that what I did, had no impact on our universe at all. I don't get to see us rebuilding on the moon or mars, I dont see or hear reference on how things are going within the dreadnaught or what is up with the labs on Venus. All places we fought hard to reclaim, laying siege to and annihilating the enemies that occupied those territories. We discussed how demonstrations of player contribution build a sense of connection and belonging, within the universe, which I feel Bungie was trying to do with makig us fight for our light. [/spoiler] [b]The Grimoire:[/b] [spoiler]This is a pretty quick one! I think the miscommunication on this is no ones fault. It's easy to interpret that lore should be in game as it is presented now. Instead of the blending we were looking for. The grimoire needed to be a book within the game, with all lore entries placed within, instead of the app. While keeping in line with the story cutscenes and direction brought in. The lore community is an amazing one, where scholarly debates regarding your beautiful universe took place. People would references pages and argue their interpretations. [/spoiler] [b]The gear:[/b] [spoiler]The diversity of gear isnt bad, the game feels like its all about collecting those sets and I feel that is a good part of the experience. The problem is, these sets are static, which isnt bad at all. It just limits player individuality and build. The solution to this seems simple: New thematic gear in each strike + difficulty increase + season.[/spoiler] [b]This bleeds into another problem, the player diversity:[/b] [Spoiler]A big struggle with games like this is tied to the alpha build which is strictly meta. This is a game breaking problem, not just mechanically, but mentally. Some players do it to have an edge over others, some do it because its the only viable option to play the game and the last chunk is from players who cant be bothered to figure out how they want to play, so they mimic success. That problem then trickles up to devs in data collection. It highlights that players dont use certain functions or builds, making it not important to focus on in development or sequels. When under used features are removed, we get watered down or simplified builds based on the above parameters. Then players lose their individual identities that they never explored. This isnt a dev problem, they work with the raw data that players produce through gameplay. But, it is up to the devs to find a solution, which is to make all builds and build combinations viable for the diverse player population. A nearly impossible task.[/spoiler] [b]The social hubs need to be in the patrol maps:[/b] [spoiler]The new quest system is a step in the right direction, having the social hubs in the patrol zone increase a sense of presence and territorial importance. It also reduces that transport to location loading until you need to leave the planet. New seasonal quests with cool gear rewards would be impressive and give us a reason to visit each world every season. This should have players return for seasonal spikes which helps the continual players out in bursts. [/spoiler] [b]Those Lost sectors:[/b] [spoiler]We honestly thought they would be on world strikes that would be hidden on each planet. That's our own fault for being psycho-hyped.[/spoiler] More to come...