I am posting here to state how I think destiny could be improved, and to see how the community thinks it can improve. [u]a compact list is at the bottom[/u] For me improvements can be sectioned into a three main categories, Community Care; specifically taking care of players who've paid for content that is going to be free, Inventory and Shader adjustment; making inventory less of a hassle for players, and Game Play and Content adjustment; to make the game easier to play for a wider audience of people. There are a lot of other changes that can be made outside of these categories but these are the ones that I've seen people actively complain about or straight up stop playing over, in my admittedly limited time playing. [b] Community Care[/b] [b] Taking care of people who pay for expansions[/b] Unlike other MMOs that tend to make expansions cheaper as time goes on, Destiny has chosen to make their expansions free, and is now moving to vault at least expansions that at one point players had to pay for. I know at least one person who stopped playing destiny because they were frustrated that expansions they paid for were made free. I don't actually disagree with making war mind and curse of Osiris free, but when you are about to vault an expansion or make an expansion free that was paid for, some reward should be given to those players who paid for it, namely a small discount on the next expansion to come out, somewhere between 3-7%, should be given just as a small thank you for supporting the game. At the very least, a special thank you item like a shader, or emblem, or a bit of bright dust ought to be given to players when an expansion they paid for is made free. [b]Inventory and Shaders[/b] [b]Shaders[/b] Though a transmog system is supposedly in the works, shaders are and will remain a large part of aesthetic customization. As such some attention ought to be given to them, and there are two main changes that could and should be implemented. One that I think a lot of people support is to add an 'apply-to-all' button on shaders that would allow players to shade their entire armor more easily. The other is to make shaders non-consumable, treating them sort of like emblems are treated now. These are really just quality of life changes since it's not only annoying to have to shade all your armor individually but also because clearing shaders out of your inventory when they stack as consumables can take a while, and having them be consumable doesn't seem to be anyone's favorite part of the game [b]Inventory[/b] This one isn't as big a problem for me personally but I know a few people who've played destiny since day one, who constantly bemoan the amount of time they have to spend managing inventory and deciding which rolls and weapons they want to throw away vs. which ones they want to keep. I've heard a few solutions and there are three that should be considered: a favorite system for rolls on weapons and armor, expansion of available vault space per player, and having vault space group automatically into weapons and armors. My personal preference among these is the favorite system for weapons and armor, in which players are allowed a limited number of slots in which they can save their favorite rolls on pieces of weapons and armor, rolls that have been favorited can then be pulled from collections with all their stats the same as if you had stored them in the vault. This also provides a way to reward players who buy expansions and season passes by providing more of these favorite slots as rewards on a season pass or as bonuses when you buy an expansion. Another system would be just to add more vault slots season after season so, players who've played the longest can keep some of their favorite items and not have to get rid of as much. The third option is pretty self explanatory, and is not a complete solution in itself as it just help players find items but doesn't make it easier for players to store more. [b]Game play and Content[/b] [b]Narrowness[/b] When I talk to players, who started the game but after like 45 hours or something decided to stop playing or decided they wouldn't want to buy any expansions, one of their biggest complaints is that they feel like the game is too narrow in terms of how you can level and what you can do. There are a few ways to fix this issue but my two favorites are, adding more side activities like sparrow racing or more clan building activities, or adding a skill/ profession system that would allow players to gather and craft like those that are found in many other MMORPGs. The first solution helps get away from having to grind activities like crucible, gambit, and strikes as much since it would add or un-vault some entirely different activities that appeal to players who like the hardcore PVP and PVE stuff less. On top of that adding some more depth to what clans can do and what players can collect for their clan would give clans a little more uniqueness and give some motivations for clans to be less isolated from each other, something like the guardian games but for clans would be kind of fun especially if some clan only public events were added that could only be attended with your clan or if your clan achieved a specific triumph together. Just to give a respite from the long grinding that people have to do, often by themselves, and give some side activities that can give less combat oriented rewards. The second solution is one that, a lot of MMOs use since a side skills or crafting system that allows players to do things like fish, cook, craft armor, and scavenge for materials helps make a game more immersive and provides a chance for players to get good loot without having to stay in PVP and PVE all the time. Both of these really just provide ways to break up the goal oriented grinding and create a more immersive world for people who are just as into the RPG as the MMO. [b] The Grind[/b] I haven't been playing destiny as long as some, maybe even as long as most, but you don't have to be playing much longer than a few weeks to realize how much grind is involved in destiny. A lot of MMOs involve grinding but, the grind in D2 is a lot longer for a lot less reward than most other games. A lot of players find this getting the best of them, and the way to fix it is to break up the amount of one activity a player needs to do for quests and to obtain items, or make the rewards for really long grinds a little more rewarding. I've read a few posts that say that they feel like the grind just gets to be too much for too little and most of those players are people who've played this game much longer than I have. [b]Lore[/b] I've seen a lot of people make reference to this, and that it’s something destiny is severely inadequate in when compared to other MMOs, which is lore. At this point destiny is nearly a six year old game franchise and we have just now gotten to the main adversary of the traveler. If that wasn't a little weird on its own we also have very little info on what the traveler is. The lore of destiny needs to take a front seat to make the game world feel a little more fleshed out and to make the grind a little more interesting, cause right now it's hard to find lore and even when you have all of it, it’s hard to piece together. [b]Questing[/b] A solution that would both help make lore easier to follow and obtain as well as help break up the grind, is to make questing a bigger part of the game from start to finish. As it is now once you hit the soft cap you basically are forced into completing bounties and meet what are essentially quotas each week in Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit. Toward the later game the motivation to complete quests essentially disappears, and the amount of time you end up spending on destination just slowly evaporates, which is a shame because questing allows players to really pick and choose what they want to do, while also getting sorely needed lore, having the ability to choose to do a bounty grind or a grind high level quests on a destination makes the game feel more open world and lets players who don't like PVP or Strikes to get some more levels. Introducing other kinds of quests like scavenger hunts and puzzle quests that take place on destinations also helps differentiate time spent in game which makes the entire process less grueling. So the bullet points of what should be added are as follows: [b]1.[/b] add a system to reward players who've bought expansions when you plan to make a DLC free or vault it for good this can be done through: [u]a.[/u] Giving players a small discount of 3-7% when they buy the newest DLC if they paid for a DLC that is now being made free or is being vaulted. [u]b.[/u] Giving players a small thank you item like bright dust or a special shader or something. [b]2.[/b] Amend the shader system to make it easier to color armor and to rotate shaders this can be achieved by: [u]a.[/u] Giving shaders an 'apply-to-all' button that would allow players to apply one shader to their entire armor set. [u]b.[/u] Making shaders non-consumable such that they only stack to one making it easy to dispose of and rotate shaders without clogging up ones inventory. [b] 3.[/b] Ease inventory management for players, this is can be achieved by: [u]a.[/u] Use of a favorite system that would allow players to select specific rolls of weapons/armor [u]b.[/u] Adding more vault space. [u]c.[/u] Adding tools that help automatically group things within a vault. [b]4.[/b] Break up hard core grinding and improving quality of life, by: [u]a.[/u] Reducing narrowness by adding more side activities [u]b.[/u] Improving open world feel by adding a skills or professions system [u]c.[/u] Adding more lore and lore based activities [u]e.[/u]Making quests a bigger part of leveling from start to finish, which should give an option for leveling that reduces grinding and gives an opportunity to infuse more lore into play.