I hate beating a dead horse here however instead of complaining I am hoping to provide some constructive criticism in the hopes Bungie looks at this from a different angle. I have played since D1 and I honestly get what you were trying to achieve with enhancement cores and an making an economy. However what you are currently doing by not adjusting what you have put in place is cause friction against the basic concept of your game at its core which is playing it , character progression and player choice. Season of the Drifter just launched, and I just cannot get excited to level. I have played Anthem and Division 2 beta and games can be different not trying to say that they should copy each other but I bring them up to make a point. Both of those games gave me little to no resistance to level my character in fact it felt like it was encouraging me to level. I cannot get over the feeling of leveling is more of a chore than enjoyment in D2 currently because of systems put in place.
Gambit Prime (the pinnacle event of this season) encourages acquiring gear sets however they are given to you at lower levels ie I have to infuse them to keep up to level and enjoy the new content. The way Bungie has it currently either I infuse or wear the gear that drops but then why am I chasing armor sets if not to wear them? Then your next argument is to go farm cores from Spider but then I won’t be playing the new content. I just want to play your game Bungie and level my character. I like leveling in games like these in fact that is why I play them, but you are making it so difficult to want to play. This also makes it that much harder for us to level alt characters because the number of cores to burn per character which makes it even more frustrating to level alts. You have class restrictions on our armor for infusion on top of enhancement core cost. I just don't want to level alt characters at this point simply because I must do something outside of the basic ritual to earn cores. It feels very similar to running around the Moon and Venus in D1 to level our vanilla characters with materials.
To break this down, currently you have two levels of currency to infuse anything which are legendary shards and enhancement cores.
- Legendary Shards were put in first so lets focus on those since they worked and nobody resisted them once put in place. Legendary Shards is a currency that is obtainable by doing a simple task just playing the game and getting loot. This requirement for infusion was never offensive because the more you played the game the more of the currency you had. It was also less offensive because it did not mess with another important aspect of the game to the community "player agency". By this I mean the player never felt they were forced to wear something they never wanted to or equip a weapon they never wanted to.
- Now lets focus on enhancement cores. They literally are doing the opposite of legendary shards. You have to go out of your way to earn them and cannot simple play the game to get them. Everything you add into the game should complement an everyday task of a player logging in and playing the content be it daily or weekly milestones. Simple solution would be to guarantee at least 1 enhancement core with every legendary dismantle this would allow player to just play the game naturally and not have to go out of their way to earn the currency. However the problem I see with this is what is the point when this is exactly like Legendary Shards why have two currencies to infuse something when they drop the same and act the same?
What I suspect Bungie wants from enhancement cores (just my opinion):
- Create artificial meaningful choices by leveling.
- Force players to use other weapons they would not normally.
- Force players to equip armor they would no normally.
- Create a sense of an in game economy with a rare resource.
With armor in D2 being underwhelming and stats really do not matter that much choices do not matter. (Sidebar: I am not trying to be rude however when and if D3 happens I hope armor gets an overhaul it just does not matter much more than light level and they should have more meaningful stats for the player) This is also a problem because Bungie seems to fight us on the most important thing with a shared world game like this our Guardian is just that "Our Guardian" not yours. We should have the freedom of choice to wear and use what we want not what “you want” to force us to try out. Other players in the game are what that is for your community will talk and spread the word let that happen do not force it hell I would argue it is half the fun.
My biggest take away is right now it is not FUN to play Destiny 2 because of these road blocks this is just a major one and there are others, but I wanted to focus on cores. I hope Bungie will listen.
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I agree. There's too much time wasted, gathering the different currencies, rather than just keeping the game simple.
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You're right. I can't get myself to dedicate any length of time to any activity because of the voice in the back of my head saying "this isn't on the chores list. This isn't advancing my character." and I end up only doing required activities to get powerfuls because that's literally all that matters. I only patrol the Tsngled Shore because that's the only place I get reliably get the cores I need for infusion; anywhere else, even the Dreaming City, falls under "waste of time". I'm discouraged from doing anything in the game because the only way I advance is by following the chores list Bungie sets out for me. I'm being led by the nose and I hate every second of it. I want my player agency back.
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Totally agree with everything. Great post. I only play Destiny, and I’m getting ready to switch, I don’t want to, I love the game. However between leveling and the redundancy of exotics I’m open to something new.