This post is in reply to the earlier call for suggestions. I've played Destiny since the Destiny 1 Beta, and I've had a mixed relationship with the game in terms of joy and frustration. There are things that Destiny does incredibly well: beautiful art, great gunplay, fantastic lore (unfortunately hidden in the lore cards in D1, but now more in the game, thankfully), and interesting mechanics. There are some things that Destiny does less well (possibly devoting a little too much time to skyboxes instead of narrative, although, yes, those are some very nice skyboxes!). I don't expect anything to come from this thread, but what I hope is to start a conversation about how to best use the resources in Destiny to make Destiny the best game it can be. And that, right there, is the heart of my relationship with the game - Destiny as a world has immense potential, but I feel it's often fallen short of what it can achieve. I felt Taken King showed what Destiny 1 could become, and I feel Forsaken has absolutely succeeded in making more of the game with the resources already available in the game. I feel the level design and storytelling in Forsaken are the best we've seen yet from any version of Destiny, and I hope you keep putting time and energy into those areas. Having said that, here are a few observations about things I would enjoy in Destiny 3 (but are by no means things that everyone might enjoy). [u]General:[/u] [b]Matchmaking for Nightfall and Raids[/b]: someone else suggested making this a part of the social area in the Tower, and this would be a nice addition. [b]Keep the basic weapon archetypes[/b]: The Destiny 2 weapon archetypes are much more balanced than in Destiny 1. While there is always a "meta," I [i]generally [/i]find more variety in the weapons I can use and still be competitive in PVP. [u]More RPG Gameplay[/u] [b]Use class-abilities to solve puzzles and circumvent obstacles:[/b] I feel like you guys definitely understand FPS, but I'm not so sure about RPG. A long hallway of trip-mines? Let hunters stealth through laser beams. Collapsed passage or barred door? Let titans shoulder-smash their way through. Tehcno-magic runes require power? Let Warlocks use their rifts to power arcane devices or unlock mystic runes. [b]"Bonus" loot for solving puzzles[/b]: building on the previous idea, you don't need to make any of these puzzles mandatory. You can add hidden rooms, tapped passages, or arcane locks to any level. Solving puzzles can lead to golden chests, bonus loot, or helpful weapons or relics. None of these have to be mandatory, but again, the help guardians feel more alive in the world. [b]Environmental Interaction with Elemental Attacks:[/b] - Void Grenades - quenching environmental fire hazards or enemy AOE fire attacks - Void Melee - freeze or disrupt energized opponents - Arc Grenades - shend a shocking current through conductive environmental hazards; add confusion mechanical opponents or stun mechanical hazards - Arc Melee - energize environmental objects and make them volatile - Solar Grenades - ignite environmental objects; melt environmental obstacles - Solar Melee - melt frozen objects; ignite flammable objects [b]More Environmental Objects[/b]: make more shootable objects, and more objects that can be held and thrown: - Cabal fuel tanks (shootable or throwable) - Awoken Cryo tanks that freeze enemies (shootable or throwable) - Vex circuit blocks that discharge and stun (throwable or shootable) - Taken Dark Energy Crystals that slow enemies and suppress abilities (throwable or shootable) - Fallen [b]Different Kinds of Keys[/b] - Hive rune keys that match with specific locks (throwable and placeable) - Vex Circuit blocks that match specific parts of circuity (throwable and placeable) - Awoken glyphs that match specific parts of Awoken monuments (throwable and placeable) - Cabal Command Ciphers (throwable and placeable) [u]Other Gameplay Suggestions[/u] [b]Ladders and Doors:[/b] Let guardians be able to climb ladders and open/close doors. Give the game world more moving parts, and the game world will feel more alive. Just about every old-school FPS lets players climb up and down, and it adds more possibilities to level design. Can you imagine climbing up crumbling ruins in the EDZ? Or scaling sky-scraping radio towers in the Russian Cosmodrome? I can, and it would be amazing. Let players really get up in those skyboxes! [b]Breakable Glass:[/b] If there's a glass window in the game, make it breakable. Play Half-Life or Half-Life 2 to study how to make environments in linear missions feel more interactive. [b]Breakable Lighting[/b] Let us shoot out some lights! If there’s a big glare from something in our faces, let us take it out. [b]Wall-Clinging and Wall-Jumping: [/b]A simple wall-cling and wall-jump would be awesome. I'd love to see this in in the level design and gameplay. Again, give the guardians more ways to interact in the game world. I'd love to wall-jump my way up Vex architecture, or vault over Cabal to take the high ground. [b]Flashlights[/b] if only there were some robotic assistant we could summon to help us illuminate difficult to see areas of the game, especially when looking for area chests or other hidden secrets. Ultimately, use all the tools at your disposal to make fun, interesting interactions in your game world, and players will keep playing no matter what. [u]Enemy Factions[/u] [b]The Cabal: [/b]The Cabal need help. They just don’t feel like an army of galactic conquerors. They need more menace. The need more coordination. The need shields that don’t explode when you shoot them right in the center. [b]Fix the Phalanx Shields: [/b]Give the poor Phalanx units shields that actually work. Take out the diamond-shaped target in the middle and give them shields that don’t explode when you shoot them. The current phalanx shield design is basically the exact opposite of what a shield should do when you shoot it. I actually feel sorry for the Phalanx troops: they have the worst military hardware suppliers in the galaxy. Give them a normal shield and let players figure out how to get around it. You don’t need every experience to be “how can I move through this level in a completely linear fashion?” Create three different behaviors: (1) let the phalanx stand still and provide cover; (2) let the phalanx advance on the player and provide cover support for other troops; (3) let phalanx troops band together to create a shield wall or a “turtle.” Fighting a cabal shield-turtle would be amazing. [b]More Turrets and Armaments:[/b] Let the cabal deploy turrets in gameplay. The addition of Scorpio Turrets to Gambit are a good start. Crate Cabal Engineers who carry turrets and place them in the level or on the battlefield. [b]Play Division[/b] See how the Last Man Battalion makes a military-style enemy faction that is both challenging to fight and rewarding to defeat. [b]Gunboats: [/b]Why don’t we get to fight the gunboats as actual enemies? Make a giant gunboat boss somewhere! [b]The Fallen:[/b] [b]Better Design: [/b]I feel you missed an opportunity to make the Fallen more unique. They have four arms, right? Why are they mutilating their dregs? Aside: I know the answer is in the lore! But seriously, why don’t some of the fallen wield both firearms and melee weapons? Why limit them to one or the other? Make them more interesting! [b]Scavenger Units[/b] Also, the fallen are scavengers. Why aren’t they stealing ammo off the field? Why not let fallen units steal glimmer from players, and then players regain the glimmer when they defeat the foe? [b]Fallen Traps: [/b]the fallen are survivors. Why do they have traps in only some locations? Make a fallen unit that has the ability to use traps: stun-grenades, flash-bangs, trip-lasers, bouncing grenades, etc. Why not give all fallen one unique “trap” ability? [b]VEX:[/b] [b]Make the Vex AI more like an AI “hive-mind.” [/b]They assimilate everything, right? Why not build on this idea that lesser vex become stronger when together? Create a unit called the Vex Builder or Vex Converter. Let them build shield walls for other vex. But then when several Vex Builders are in close proximity, let them combine together to make a bigger, stronger Vex! [b]More laser traps. [/b]These started appearing in Destiny 2. Make vex laser traps a regular part of navigating Vex levels. It adds a fun platforming elements to the generally straightforward level design. [b]Vex puzzles. [/b]Like, more Vex puzzles of every kind. Jumping puzzles, locking mechanism puzzles, portal puzzles. You name it. Puzzles galore! [b]Taken:[/b] I think the Taken may be the most well-designed enemies in the game. The taken all have fun, interesting gameplay dynamics. Every single taken enemy does something in addition to simply shooting the players. Use this same approach for every other faction and enemy design in the game, but make the abilities consistent with the themes of the enemy factions (Cabal = military; Fallen = scavengers; etc.). That’s all for now, but I want to post more on things that I think are being done well – because there ARE things being done well, and I hope Bungie continues to do them!