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Edited by StarsKri: 1/16/2015 10:02:38 AM
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Upgrade Paths - How to Keep Old Content Relevant

EDIT: Before reading, keep in mind that this idea may seem like it would close off a lot of people from progression. This wouldn't stand on it's own and would require Bungie to implement other ideas, such as in-game matchmaking or lobbies to find Raid groups, to make the progression process easier. This idea is mainly to show how a system like this can be used to make real progression points, as well as bring some more variety to the game equipment wise. We all remember when "The Dark Below" came out and how a lot of people realized that VoG had become rather useless as there was purchasable level 31 Gear. It came to my attention that Bungie hadn't thought about an actual path to leveling up, so this is what I have to propose to you. For the next DLC, make it so you need to beat Crota's End on hard to purchase the next level of Vanguard Gear. Now before you rage, hear me out. Right now Destiny has no path in terms of raising to the top, and is actually making the path to higher levels shorter and shorter, to the point that you can be level 30 with a Vanguard/Crucible rare drop so long as you get level 2 Vanguard or Crucible and buy an exotic, which isn't that difficult. This undercuts Vault of Glass as a requirement for level 30. Now imagine if you had to beat VoG on Hard to get that level 31 gear. There is a sense of achievement and accomplishment knowing that even if the RNG screwed you over, you made it to the next "phase" of the game. With Crota dropping the helm, there isn't much of a reason for a lot of us to do Hard Crota's End. Personally, the only thing I really need is the Nechrochasm, and that's only for the Grimoire score. It would be interesting if completing this task earned me access to whatever new light level gear House of Wolves brings out. What's more, you could also include marks for the next idea. Someone on the forums brought up this idea, and if you see this please take credit as I don't remember your name. The idea was called "Upgrade to the Raid", which upgraded any legendary gear to light 36. This would allow people to have the unique look that Bungie wanted people to have. This could be done by either adding the ability to the Gunsmith, or by adding a new NPC called the Armor-smith. Turn in 10 marks (say you get 2 for each Hard raid completion, 1 mark for normal), and you can re-roll one piece of legendary gear to the raid light level. This breaths in new life to VoG, keeps Crota's End relevant, and gives you more to expand on. This also allows older Vanguard/Crucible/Faction gear use-able but now you always have what you need. Now this wouldn't add the Raid exclusive perks - so no Swordbearer's Touch to your Dead Orbit boots, but you'd still be able to be level 32+ and look how you want. "But then won't people skip the old raid and just upgrade to the newest one?" This can be avoided by making it so that to get the next light level for House of Wolves, you need to beat the House of Wolves raid prior to being able to upgrade to that light level. If you were to add the newer NPC, their shop could have things such as "Crota Upgrade", "Wolves Upgrade", etc. which unlock as you beat each raid. You wouldn't have to rely on RNG as much, get to look how you want, and still be able to enjoy the newer, more difficult content. Bungie, I don't know how often you look at Reddit or your own Forums, but this is something you should consider if you really want this to be an adventure that last 10 years. Right now you are making older content pointless, which is taking away from what you've created. Think of this idea like your quest system - you need to to complete each step in order to move on. Notes: - With the re-rolled gear, it may be smart to make them take the Radiant Materials as this gives them more reason. But I'd like to hear other's feedback on this.

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  • Edited by Silvurphlame: 1/16/2015 5:06:47 AM
    EDIT: went back and finished reading. I like the idea of being able to reroll Vanguard/Crucible/Faction legendaries to the stat range and light level of previous raid gear. The only objection I have is that the currency for the upgrade should come from outside the raid. Because as discussed below, the majority of players don't have practical access to the raid. Perhaps a special PvE quest line? Like a more elaborate version of what we did for Eris Morn's gauntlets. And I agree with "no raid perks" as, outside of the heavy ammo bonus on boots, the perks really only apply to their respective raids and are irrelevant in PvP and general PvE. I'll leave the rest for honesty's sake and because I feel it still speaks to the larger issues of leveling mechanics in this game. - - - - - - - - - - Honestly quit reading after "complete Crota's End to buy new gear." And (please don't take this personally because it isn't personal) here's why. Stay with me, I'm not trolling. The majority of the player base doesn't/can't raid. Does. Not. Raid. However, Raiders are no doubt a very vocal subset on these forums. But these forums themselves likely only represent a small subset of the community. I see the same screen names over and over. And I doubt all Raiders post to the forums with any frequency. So Raiders on the forums are a vocal subset of a subset of a subset. And since Raiders probably have clans and friends lists consisting of mostly other Raiders, it gives many of them the illusion that Raiders are a large fraction of the community. But they aren't. They're far more likely a small (but vocal) minority. Some quick and dirty math to follow. The LFG tools no doubt help, but your solution would need the necessary co-requisite of allowing Raid matchmaking for previous raids when new DLC drops. Otherwise, your suggestion is going to prevent the majority of the community from progressing. For your consideration, in October, 500K people had beaten the raid (according to Kotaku, I think it was). The year-end update said that the VoG had been beaten millions of times. [b]But[/b] it doesn't take 500K of people beating it once a week for two months to rack up those kinds of numbers. However, there's something like [i]10 million[/i] players. We'll even assume the number of people to beat a raid has doubled since TDB and pretend that there weren't any Christmas noobs skewing the numbers. So the percentage of the community that raids is with any frequency is about 10%. (1,000,000 / 10,000,000) It's likely less, and I'd be very surprised to see hard and verifiable numbers proving its more than 25% tops. So just bear that in mind. If new DLC requires the completion of the previous raid to progress, then new DLC has to include matchmaking capability for the previous raid. Not the new raid - I'd never seriously suggest that - just the previous ones. Or 75% of the players will be pissed when they discover they can't progress. You won't necessarily see it on the forums, but they'll be all over it in the gaming media. There are a lot of highly anticipated games coming out. Destiny [i]cannot[/i] chance pissing off the majority of its player base. You'd need raid matchmaking for each previous raid to make it work. Now if you're cool with that, I'm cool with your progression idea. But we both know Bungie will never allow raid matchmaking. The core problem is the leveling mechanics themselves are unsound. Tying levels to gear quality, instead of the other way around has created complete reliance on RNG drops for top tier. You don't earn your level 32 in the raid. You earn your [i]chance at level 32.[/i] You only get what the RNGods damn well feel like giving you. Many are lucky, many are not. The forums show this. My pet theory is that the light level cap bump should have been larger. The base level cap should have also been raised by the same amount. New VoG drops from hard mode should have taken you halfway to the new light level cap, or even max minus one, and old VoG gear should have been upgradable by some method. (Maybe a new item from the VoG lets you "reforge" them.) New vendor gear, sold as true second tier, should have required a higher base level and commendations, and should taken you to within max minus one. Just like vendor gear did in the base game, but this way Raiders have a headstart on the max minus one as a sign of respect for their previous efforts. (The skip halfway up the new light level range in short order. Non-Raiders have to level up to "buy in.") New raid gear required to hit he new max, of course.

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