Bounty changes to put the player back in control (Destiny)

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 20:21 (3700 days ago) @ Kahzgul
edited by General Vagueness, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 20:30

So my depressed thread below sparked a conversation which eventually landed on me listing out all of the things I feel like I *have* to do in order to improve my gear for the one thing that I *want* to do. And I realized that a lot of this is because of how bounties are doled out. You go to a board and see all of the bounties for the day. You can then accept or decline up to 10 of them. Maybe you also go to Eris and the Queen's representative. So that's 3 bounty boards in two different locations just to start your day, every day. 4 if Iron Banner is in season. If you're like me, you don't even bother with Eris because you don't really need the rep anymore, but I digress.

These bounties that you get are all over the place. Some are crucible, some are patrol, some are strikes, some are missions, some are weird special quest things and so forth. You pick up a bunch and then kind of map out "how do I do these the most efficient way possible," right?

No, I just play and they get finished when they get finished. The only exceptions I can think of is patrol mission and public event bounties, where I have to specifically seek something something out, and Eris and Petra's bounties, which are more specific and structured.

The result is that the game is telling you what to do. It encourages certain activities and behaviors, and greatly encourages you to spread yourself thin through many different modes of play. This isn't overtly harmful, but I still think this is a bad thing, in a subtle sort of way. The bounty system, as it stands today, is a subtle attack on player agency. It encourages you to do the things that the game is telling you to do, rather than rewarding you for doing what you want to do.

That's a matter of perspective, as noted above. If you take them as orders then they're orders. If you take them as "when you get done with this you'll get some rep" and just go about your play, it's different.

I think a shift in bounty philosophy would greatly improve the gameplay experience.

What if, when you logged in, there was no bounty board. You no longer had a bounty inventory, except for certain persistent things like quests and exotic bounties. Instead, when you're in orbit, the first thing you do is decide what you want to do. There's no "let me check the bounties" because they don't work that way. Okay, I'm going to Venus. As you fly to Venus, during the loading screen, several bounties show up. Venus bounties. Ones that can be completed in patrol or missions. Then you pick your patrol or your mission or your venus strike, and as that loads, further bounties are added to your inventory for that activity. The bounties now serve as a "bonus" reward for doing something (collect 200 sensor mites), as well as providing a new avenue for extra challenges (think bounty: Get 2 kills with a fusion rifle, 20 times, but it's only available during that strike... much more challenging). You were going to do the activity anyway, and now the bounties load in as you join it, complementing your gameplay and rewarding you for making your own choices.

If they did that some people would still see those as orders, and possibly worse since there would be no way to avoid them. That said, I wouldn't mind if they did that way, and I'd probably like it better, but even if it fixed the problem with them for you (and I'm not sure it would if it had been like that from the beginning), it wouldn't fix it for everyone.
I'm not sure about your explanation either, you don't fly in to a destination until after you pick your patrol or whatever.
Your idea of limiting some bounties to one strike or something similar isn't bad, but we already have bounties that are harder and more complicated than that and those apparently do nothing for you since you didn't mention them.

Player agency is pretty real in Destiny, but the bounty and reward system undermine it in a very soft, subtle way. This change would reinforce agency rather than work against it.

Now, I'm sure some will say that I can play however i want to right now. You're completely right. My point is that the game is encouraging me not to. The reward systems and bounties steer me towards activities I'm not really into and that reduces the overall fun of the game. Without changing anything else but how bounties are acquired, I think the game could be much more fun for all of us.

I disagree, because with this change there would be no escaping the bounty system, and you would see them not just when you get them, when you complete them, when you turn them in, and when you go to the inventory screen, but every time you load a different thing, and also still when you complete them presumably, and going by your other post also when you leave a destination and then even consider going back. I wouldn't mind it, you might not mind it, but I guarantee other people would find it to be pushing the bounties more and be put off by it. Again, I'd like it, I think it's a good idea, but it's not a real fix for this element you consider faulty.