For the past month, we the players of Destiny have had to deal with the changes going on with the game, which is to be expected with anything that has even a hint of RPG elements, balance and changes always happen. My hope in doing this is to get my opinion and what seems to be the vast opinions of others out there in order to save this game before it destroys itself. I can only hope someone on the Bungie team takes the time to look this over.
[b]1. You need to stop nerfing every little thing[/b]
I understand that the loot cave wasn’t the vision you had for the game, and I’m happy that with its nerf that Strikes were improved upon and the Cryptarch was vastly improved. That doesn’t mean that every spawn point in the Cosmodrome needs to be taken down. To be fair I don’t even know where the Rocket Yard is and at the same time I’m not sure if I should care. If it was being farmed that badly I think it would be apparent and this is my first time ever really hearing about it. You made an RPG FPS with an upgrade system that requires certain things, this is going to cause people to farm. If you nerf every farming method you are only going to drive players away with the difficulty. This also goes for the Templar nerf. Yea, I’m going to bring that up again. Just because players aren't playing the way you want doesn't mean you change it. We aren't your puppets, we are your customers and your community. If you punish the community for being innovative, you ruin your own game.
[b]2. The Majority isn’t always right.[/b]
This is something I’ve noticed with any form of feedback system. The people who complain the most aren’t the ones playing the game all the time. The people who are playing the game aren’t spending time on the forums complaining about it, but are actually enjoying it. There are millions of players, you cannot expect them all to be voiced in such a simple fashion. You also cannot expect all of the people to feel the same just because you see a majority of the people on the forums doing so. People will always have a complaint about a game, it’s because we are opinionated creatures. Don’t try and make something that everyone will agree on, it’s not possible.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you shouldn’t take their feedback into consideration. All I’m saying is that you should take it in with a grain of salt, and not as an absolute as it seems to have been done.
[b]3. Transparency is key[/b]
You have a player base that is still trying to figure out the damage system. Players are wanting answers on why the story was changed so much as compared to the Pre-alpha demos shown. Just what was changed from the Beta? You are doing a great job on trying to improve the game but you still aren’t answering the community’s questions. If you keep this up you’re only going to hurt the game more. If you were serious about this idea of a 10 year platform, now is the time to prove it. Let your players know what is up about the past and what is being done to change it.
Now these three things are important. The rest of this post is based on constructive criticism that I personally have for the game that could help improve it. Obviously people are more than welcome to disagree but here we go.
1. It’s time we get some back story and I don’t mean DLC. Why was the Ghost looking for us specifically? There seems to be something special about our Ghost in particular, so much so that the Speaker says “I hope it has made the right choice”. I’m sure this is talked about in the Grimiore but I feel like it’s a story element we need to see in the coming updates.
2. DLC needs to bring us a higher level cap. You want people to keep playing then give us something to reach for. Level 30 is indeed a challenge for some, but for those who have reached it it’s time for something more. Maybe a 5 level in-crease with each DLC to a maximum of 100. Think of it like WoW if that helps a little bit.
3. Speaking of DLC, a 3rd subclass for each class should be apparent. Destiny has done a lot in terms of 3, so I’d hope it would continue this by adding the final elemental damage to each class. A few teammates and I were talking about it, and the idea of a “Shield Bearer” class for the Titan came to mind with its super summoning something like the Relic and possibly doing something like Bladedancer but a little less… spammy. This of course being the Solar equivalent. The Void sub-class for the Hunter could be a true stealth class where the super either gives it something like a constant recovering armor or give it the reverse of Bladedancer where it’s active camo until you come close to an opponent to strike. I’m not really sure on what could it could be, and I’m clueless on a Warlock one, but I’m sure you guys can come up with something Lore friendly.
4. Level should actually matter. If I’m level 28 and during a spinmetal run in the Cosmodrome, I should be able to one hit anything that spawns with ease minus Public Events. The fact that I have to two hit a level 6 Vandal is pretty silly considering that it’s outclassed. It would make it feel like the leveling system matters more than it does. I understand that anything above your level takes less damage, but that should also mean lower level is going to take overkill.
5. Separate PvP and PvE in all future balance updates. I don’t think the AI is going to cry about getting killed faster by the Mythoclast than anything else. This will keep people happy on both ends to a point. Speaking of the Mythoclast…
6. 34% on the Mythoclast? You seriously want to reduce its damage by a third?... I can see a quarter maybe, but it wasn’t all that overpowered. To all those who are going to say “Yes it is you’re just a noob”, while not all my K/Ds are the best, I’ve played matches with a Mythoclast on the other team and still done well above a 1.0 K/D and my team still won. You can beat the gun just like you can beat SUROS Regime. If the Mythoclast is going to get nerfed then you need to take into consideration the SUROS which is running rampant in PvP as well.
7. Xur could be cool and sell that legendary upgrade material. Most people who already have their exotic gear and load out set have little to no use buying anything with their strange coins. Making it 2-3 coins per 1 material isn’t game breaking and it gives higher level players a reason to keep grinding those coins. Yes I know you can do lvl 28 daily and stuff like that, but it’s an idea.
8. Speaking of selling stuff, the gun parts used to list the gunsmith as someone who sold them. Why not give the poor fool some business for the lower levels and let him sell them for like, 150-250 glimmer each. You could even have the Vangaurd mentors sell their respective upgrade material. Again, just a thought.
9. Give Factions more. How about a special ship or a sparrow? How about both? Armor Shaders would be good as well for the specific factions and would make it more appealing. Other people could probably give you lists upon lists of things but those are my examples. Oh and Ghost shells, because that just sounds fun.
10. How about some new Lore specific strikes? Or let’s add another Raid? How about making a raid on Mercury so you have an excuse to release it? Let’s be honest, it’d be a lot of fun.
11. It’s time you either fix the bounty system or add the special crucible types to the playlist. I always assumed that you were testing out game type ideas to add them in the future. Lately I haven’t felt like that is the truth so this is my moment to say this to you. Either do that, or remove those bounties from the list. Scavenge isn’t even available half the time, don’t let it take up one of my possible bounties.
12. Let’s talk special events like Iron Banner. I think it’s cool that you want to do all these types of things, but if you are going to do “drops”, make it so we don’t get them over and over without even a tiny bit of hope of seeing the others. I cannot hold all the Timur’s Lash that I got, but I never saw the ship drop in a week of grinding Iron Banner. That should tell you something (it’s to balance out the drop system).
13. To piggy back on that last one, there have been numerous ideas for balancing the drop system to reward players who actually play well. It’s annoying being the highest scorer in the game, be on the losing team, and see nothing given and yet someone with a .4 gets a legend drop. Personally I kind of just shrugged it off since I’ve been there but I know there are players who always do well who don’t get the rewards you would expect someone to get. Like add an engram drop for those who get a 1.5 K/D or higher. Again, just ideas.
14. Grimoire in the game! Either make a way to make the cards readable or use the Lore elements and release new missions. There are games like this that just release new missions for free and on a weekly basis. Not everything has to be DLC. You keep saying Destiny is about improving on the standard, well here is another chance to do just that.
15. Make clans matter! There is no way we can do anything with our clan if we don't jump onto this site and try to talk with them. If I'm in a clan I should see who is online without having to add them. I should then be able to send them a message on the respective console, make a fire team, and go from there. If you want a clan system, then make it an actual system.
Again, these are all ideas and I’m certainly not speaking for everyone with this. The thing is we need to start aiming at things to really improve the game that we want, and not childish things like “Omg I can’t beat this guy cuz of this gun nerf it Bungie!” It’s time to make this game what we wanted it to be and make sure Bungie knows exactly what we, the players, want. Not the complainers with nothing to back it up, but the people who truly care about the game.
Please forgive any grammar / spelling errors if you find them.
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The only way to reverse the change is to use the same tactic as the people calling for nerfs. Everyone in opposition to the changes needs to voice their opinion - flood the forum with their call for repeal! We must ignore those who would call us "whiners" and "noobs", ignore their name calling and overall toxicity! We can change it back if we voice it loud enough! Show Bungie the error of ways!