Soft-cap on player count in Tower / instancing at incoming parties

Do you mean a party? Fireteams in the Tower are capped at 6, aren't they?

No, I do mean the game instance. The party can be 2 players, open to friends, but the tower instance they're in has 14 other players - making it full, and me unable to join.

I really have to play with some people because this is all going over my head, like conversations about this usually do.

I think I can explain!

You know how in Halo a multiplayer game can't have more than 16 people? Same with Destiny, except every single thing you do has a maximum number of people. The Tower can only hold 16. When you join the Tower you are, in effect, joining a non-combat multiplayer match much the same as a Crucible match or a multiplayer game in Halo. Sometimes your Tower "match" is empty except for you so 15 more people can join. Other times your Tower "match" might be completely full at 16 of 16 players. When that happens none of your friends can join you because the Tower can't hold more than 16 players.

Then, on top of that, your Fireteam can only be 6 people in the Tower or Raid. It can only be 3 in Patrol or normal missions and Strikes.

Soft-cap on player count in Tower / instancing at incoming parties

Do you mean a party? Fireteams in the Tower are capped at 6, aren't they?

No, I do mean the game instance. The party can be 2 players, open to friends, but the tower instance they're in has 14 other players - making it full, and me unable to join.

I really have to play with some people because this is all going over my head, like conversations about this usually do.

Visually Distinguish Majors in ways other than health-bar colour

I'm still not sure what you mean by Major and Minor.

Minors: Red health bar
Majors: Yellow health bar - more health, take less damage.

There is also the Ultra class: yellow health bar, but much bigger than other enemies. Sepiks Prime, Valus Ta'aurc, Fallen Walkers, Draksis, etc are all Ultra class.

oh, OK

Fuck that, I don't accept it. They should be regular rooms or at least have doors that close them off when not in use. Even failing that, I'd rather they break canon and/or make things too hard or easy than this lazy "they came from a dark room you can't enter" bullshit. They managed this fine in their previous games (not just Halo) and other games have managed it better than this for a long time; I would need an exceptionally good reason to excuse it.

It's a networking + pace of combat thing. Asychronous networking means fewer enemies can be in the world at any one time. So without making every enemy a bullet sponge, they need quick ways to introduce re-inforcements. Dropships work in some places, teleporting works for Vex, but they need more than that for the rest of the game.

The monster closets are a little crude, but they work.

The enemies you called Ultras and enemies between what you called Majors and Ultras (for example Fallen Captains) all seem to be able to teleport, and the Hive and Fallen teleport dropships (or maybe the Fallen just cloak them or something? the Hive definitely teleport them though), and as you said the Vex of all ranks teleport, so at the very least I fail to see the necessity at the level we see them at, they're everywhere, but I'm leaning towards more than that, I think they should've used these approaches and similar ones if they couldn't just make actual, go-to-able rooms.

Show how we got our cool stuff

I think that's going against what they want, which is for players to care enough to tell people or ask people where they got stuff.

So when people do ask, the answer is going to sometimes be: "ummm, can't remember." That's no good.

Well that's the thing, isn't it, if that's the case then they didn't do a good job of making it memorable, which A) would mean admitting a flaw in the execution of a relatively important design goal (which I'd love to see happen, but it's unlikely) and B) is not easy to fix. Telling people where something came from doesn't do any good if they don't think that's worth noting or it doesn't bring up an actual story in their mind. Regardless, if I was having that problem, my first thought would be to write it down or type it up, not ask for an in-game reminder.

At the start of missions, we need to be thrown into fights sometimes (e.g. Silent Cartographer). We need more missions where we're just left on the world to do whatever we want (dropping back to a 'patrol'-like state),

more missions like that? I don't remember any being like that

Slip of the finger.

or have to clear up enemies and collect some object that was protected by the boss.

eh, it can be tedious to track down the one low-level enemy that's off in a corner somewhere, and it can be (very) frustrating to beat the boss and then still die

Super-easy to fix: killing the boss lifts the 'darkness zone'. You can then still die to minions and respawn and finish them off/ do whatever else the mission requires.

You know, that could actually be cool, maybe they could even do that places besides the end of a level-- I was thinking the other day about how it's weird a lot of areas are darkness zones until I go open a door, and then they become normal zones.

A little more gradual come-down from the highs of the boss fights sometimes, rather than the vertical cliff it is currently.

eh, I think that would make it feel less climactic

Yes, and the final frame of A New Hope should have been the Death-Star exploding. 3:42 and cut straight to credits.

/sarc

There's already 30 seconds where you don't have to do anything, with half that or more not having dialogue or anything going on in it.

• Saved Films
  
• Creative screenshot features

or, you know, any screenshot features

PS4 has screenshotting built-in. I'm talking about fly-cam, FOV, depth of field, tilt/roll, exposure et al.

That's one console out of four, though. I welcome your features, I'm just saying for most of us the first step would be having a screenshot feature, period.

[*]Bosses shouldn't be immune on their introduction - see also: Valus Ta'aurc's showboating

I don't know, again, I thought that was kind of standard boss procedure; am I wrong?

Sepiks Prime is Okay because you can actually see there is a shield around him and it gives you time to move around and get established in the area as you kill the minions. But all the others are just annoying.

It's also worth noting that Riksis, the Devil Archon in Restoration in Old Russia, IS NOT immunue to damage as he crawls out of the pipe.

hmm

Soft-cap on player count in Tower / instancing at incoming parties

Do you mean a party? Fireteams in the Tower are capped at 6, aren't they?

No, I do mean the game instance. The party can be 2 players, open to friends, but the tower instance they're in has 14 other players - making it full, and me unable to join.

Visually Distinguish Majors in ways other than health-bar colour

I'm still not sure what you mean by Major and Minor.

Minors: Red health bar
Majors: Yellow health bar - more health, take less damage.

There is also the Ultra class: yellow health bar, but much bigger than other enemies. Sepiks Prime, Valus Ta'aurc, Fallen Walkers, Draksis, etc are all Ultra class.

Fuck that, I don't accept it. They should be regular rooms or at least have doors that close them off when not in use. Even failing that, I'd rather they break canon and/or make things too hard or easy than this lazy "they came from a dark room you can't enter" bullshit. They managed this fine in their previous games (not just Halo) and other games have managed it better than this for a long time; I would need an exceptionally good reason to excuse it.

It's a networking + pace of combat thing. Asychronous networking means fewer enemies can be in the world at any one time. So without making every enemy a bullet sponge, they need quick ways to introduce re-inforcements. Dropships work in some places, teleporting works for Vex, but they need more than that for the rest of the game.

The monster closets are a little crude, but they work.

Show how we got our cool stuff

I think that's going against what they want, which is for players to care enough to tell people or ask people where they got stuff.

So when people do ask, the answer is going to sometimes be: "ummm, can't remember." That's no good.

At the start of missions, we need to be thrown into fights sometimes (e.g. Silent Cartographer). We need more missions where we're just left on the world to do whatever we want (dropping back to a 'patrol'-like state),

more missions like that? I don't remember any being like that

Slip of the finger.

or have to clear up enemies and collect some object that was protected by the boss.

eh, it can be tedious to track down the one low-level enemy that's off in a corner somewhere, and it can be (very) frustrating to beat the boss and then still die

Super-easy to fix: killing the boss lifts the 'darkness zone'. You can then still die to minions and respawn and finish them off/ do whatever else the mission requires.

A little more gradual come-down from the highs of the boss fights sometimes, rather than the vertical cliff it is currently.

eh, I think that would make it feel less climactic

Yes, and the final frame of A New Hope should have been the Death-Star exploding. 3:42 and cut straight to credits.

/sarc

• Saved Films
  
• Creative screenshot features

or, you know, any screenshot features

PS4 has screenshotting built-in. I'm talking about fly-cam, FOV, depth of field, tilt/roll, exposure et al.

[*]Bosses shouldn't be immune on their introduction - see also: Valus Ta'aurc's showboating

I don't know, again, I thought that was kind of standard boss procedure; am I wrong?

Sepiks Prime is Okay because you can actually see there is a shield around him and it gives you time to move around and get established in the area as you kill the minions. But all the others are just annoying.

It's also worth noting that Riksis, the Devil Archon in Restoration in Old Russia, IS NOT immunue to damage as he crawls out of the pipe.

I'm still not sure what you mean by Major and Minor.

"Majors" as in enemies with yellow health bars.

In Game

[*]never kick out of menus (ever - let me die in menu if I stay there after spawn and take hits)

I want a sort of, not opposite necessarily, like a corollary to this-- I'll go into the menu to change something while I'm dead during a strike or in the Crucible and because everything takes so long to show up I'll respawn or get revived and not realize it until I'm getting shot, and by the time I either make the change or give up and just exit I'm usually close to dead or dead, again, already. I really, really, really want them to make things show up very quickly all the time, and until (or unless) that happens, I want a very clear indicator of when I've respawned, and I would probably be OK with just getting kicked out of the menu when it happens.

[*]waste bin to retrieve accidental deletions

eh, that's why you have to hold a button to dismantle or discard things, and if they had that people would use it as extended storage and then mismanage it and lose things and be mad about that

[*]customize character appearance/gender after creation + more options

Now Hiring
Do you have what it takes to make the people who keep the City safe look great? Well then you're in luck, the Tower Barber Shop has an opening. Please direct all queries and resumes to Cayde-6, Hall of the Vanguard, Guardian Tower.

[*]ship/weapon shaders with shader preview: before buying

very much yes

[*]could ship buying preview show travel animation? how resource heavy is it? - let you see ship in the context that it is normally seen in
[/list]

I wont mention chat options until after update.

yeah, I'm waiting and hoping too

Soft-cap on player count in Tower / instancing at incoming parties
The Tower is a cool place to hang out: you can actually do stuff there like oggle that weapon you can't afford and... dance. But frequently I've been invited to groups there and can't join because the player count is maxed out at 16. Does it really need to be so hard-and-fast? Perhaps it could it take a few more players but only by invite. Or perhaps it could split tower instances if too many players join one.

Do you mean a party? Fireteams in the Tower are capped at 6, aren't they?

More diverse Ultra behaviours
Ultras are usually just enormous, shieldless, slow versions of other enemies, with an AOE ground-stomp attack. It's a little boring. I hope they mix it up more. The Psion Flayers on Dust Palace were good: you had to separate them, get shields down and team up against them. You could even blow them off the edge! More skilled, high-risk stuff you can do to speed it along would be great. I'm slowing finding that a lot of the smaller enemies I used to be afraid of have such high-risk, high-rewards maneouvres you can do: ever run straight at a Cabal Phalanx? I have. Run right past that SOB, spin and shotgun them in the back.

More of that is (almost) always welcome.

Also, AOE ground-stomps really put a dampener on, say, jumping on their head and unloading a shotgun into it. Valus Ta'aurc sent me splattering against a wall once when I tried. Simultaneously hilarious and depressing.

I don't like that they shut down a lot of close-range opportunities like that, but I feel like they wouldn't if they didn't have to to keep the challenge up.

Visually Distinguish Majors in ways other than health-bar colour
I can't tell what is a Major and what is a Minor just by looking at them from afar - or is that just me? This becomes a problem when you try to go fast, hard, up close with shotguns or far away with snipers. You can line up a shot expecting the enemy to go down instantly and then they barely even flinch because they're a Major.

I'm still not sure what you mean by Major and Minor.

Wider, weirder monster closets
I guess I have to accept these and that I can't shoot into them

Fuck that, I don't accept it. They should be regular rooms or at least have doors that close them off when not in use. Even failing that, I'd rather they break canon and/or make things too hard or easy than this lazy "they came from a dark room you can't enter" bullshit. They managed this fine in their previous games (not just Halo) and other games have managed it better than this for a long time; I would need an exceptionally good reason to excuse it.

but I don't think they really all need to be the same exact doorway shape. Shanks could come out of vents, surely? I noticed some Hive in the Sword of Crota mission coming out of 'pools of darkness' or whatever. That was different. More of that.

Aside: perhaps the 'shroud of darkness' in monster closets would only offer damage reduction, rather than full immunity. If you're playing aggressively they can almost get stuck in there and it's annoying not to be able to do anything to them.

Show how we got our cool stuff
Exotics, Legendary (and maybe even all stuff) should tell you how and when you got them, cus it's really hard to remember on your own. E.g. Praedyth's Revenge - found in the Vault of Glass after defeating REDACTED on 2014/09/XX, along with players Victor, Whiskey, X-Ray, Yankee and Zulu. Legends need to be recorded otherwise everyone forgets.

I think that's going against what they want, which is for players to care enough to tell people or ask people where they got stuff.

More vehicles and more vehicle sections
Vehicles are awesome, fun and a nice change of pace. But we didn't really get to use them much. A couple of times in campaign and a couple of times in strikes that always felt confined and cut short. They need to use these more, IMO.

I was surprised they didn't have a flying vehicle, or a proper tank, or anything with a passenger seat.

Mixed up beginning and ends of missions
One of the big complaints others have had. Too many missions start in the exact same spot after the exact same loading screen, and have you driving through the exact same spaces as you've literally just played. Then too many missions end with fights against Ultras where when they die, everyone else disappears or drops dead - which is weird.

I thought that was semi-standard boss behavior.

They feel a little cookie-cutter, formulaic, cut-and-paste. Which is a let-down when what comes in the middle is generally excellent.

At the start of missions, we need to be thrown into fights sometimes (e.g. Silent Cartographer). We need more missions where we're just left on the world to do whatever we want (dropping back to a 'patrol'-like state),

more missions like that? I don't remember any being like that

or have to clear up enemies and collect some object that was protected by the boss.

eh, it can be tedious to track down the one low-level enemy that's off in a corner somewhere, and it can be (very) frustrating to beat the boss and then still die

A little more gradual come-down from the highs of the boss fights sometimes, rather than the vertical cliff it is currently.

eh, I think that would make it feel less climactic

Moar stats
The PGCR kept on b.net doesn't even replicate the content of the one in game (which aren't even extensive). I hope it's just a work-in-progress thing and the data is there somewhere.

Aside: 'Sparrow Splatters' stat needs to be a thing

I agree

Switching sub-class options should take away some charge
If you're willing to go back-and-forth into your character screen, you can kinda cheese it to minimise cooldown and maximise power. For example, you can armour your Bladedancer to completely shirk Strength, then pick 'Fast Twitch' which gives you a 5 second cooldown on Blink Strike. Then as soon as it's charged, switch to the option that gives you extra-backstab damage or camo after hits. It's weird to even entertain that the idea that the optimal/easiest way to play is to break the flow of combat so much.

Does that really have that much of an effect?

Put more weights on RNGesus
Stuff like bias against picking strikes/maps we've played recently in MM. Or, if we got Shards from a Raid chest recently, prioritise armour in the next one. Or, if we already have 3 million Queen's Guard Helmets, a higher chance at the Sniper or the ship in Queens' Wrath missions. Right now it seems totally random and that's just absurd: with so many players, someone, somewhere, is going to have a string of obscenely bad luck on all these dice rolls. Individual player experience needs to be actively managed a little more.

I just played... I don't know, close to 10 Crucible matches, in three or four different playlists, and Firebase Delphi came up at least 5 times. Here, I'll check the stats... yep, five times, in a row even. I'd prefer to have some choice in the map, but failing that, yeah, it should make sure the above doesn't happen.

'nuff said hopes:

• Saved Films
  
• Creative screenshot features

or, you know, any screenshot features

[*]In-game clan-members presence info

I'm still nonplussed about this not being in the game-- what was the point?

[*]Firefight
[*]AI friendlies on some missions

I just had an idea: what about some reprogrammed Shanks?

[*]More/deeper interaction with all those characters in the tower
[*]See if our weapons are reloaded without having to switch to them

eh, this only caught me surprise a few times and I always felt it was my fault for not remembering

[*]More feedback on trying to fire an empty weapon

this never caught me by surprise, and in fact I very rarely completely run out of ammo

[*]Titans' Shoulder Charge screen effect not being blinding in dark places
[*]No invisible walls - real walls are best walls

preach it brother

[*]Sparrow racing

mite b cool

[*]Bosses shouldn't be immune on their introduction - see also: Valus Ta'aurc's showboating

I don't know, again, I thought that was kind of standard boss procedure; am I wrong?

[*]Firefight
[/list]

TL/DR: Destiny is awesome but could be more awesomer. I am genius; do as I say. Please? You already have my money? Ooh... bollocks. Doesn't matter, had fun anyway.

Or, if it happens that there IS actually some technical reason why it's 100% impossible to do that, just re-open the menu if I had it open previously.

I dunno, it just seems like one of those two options ought to be possible. The one thing I'm 100% sure of is that each time I load a Vanguard playlist strike or a Queen's wrath mission, I'm racing the clock trying to discern which strike/mission it is from the intro dialogue, and then swapping gear in the 5 seconds between that and getting kicked from the menu, and I don't like having so little time to do it.

You get to USE the menu during a LOAD screen. How awesome is that? Can we pause for a second and reflect on the awesomeness? I'd bet there is something going on behind the scenes that prevents the screen from staying open during the final load. In those same moments you also can't open the screen, so it's not simply a trigger that hits the "back button" for you, the menu is actually inaccessible.

But there is also a moment about the time your ships dips into the planet/wormhole that pulls you out, but you can literally hop back in the very next frame. That's just odd.

I do agree with you when you praise the fact that we can do all sorts of menu stuff during the load screen, though. That is so smart yet so simple. Well done, Bungie.

Put more weights on RNGesus
Stuff like bias against picking strikes/maps we've played recently in MM. Or, if we got Shards from a Raid chest recently, prioritise armour in the next one. Or, if we already have 3 million Queen's Guard Helmets, a higher chance at the Sniper or the ship in Queens' Wrath missions. Right now it seems totally random and that's just absurd: with so many players, someone, somewhere, is going to have a string of obscenely bad luck on all these dice rolls. Individual player experience needs to be actively managed a little more.

This is one of my pet peeves, specifically when playing the strike playlist. I tried it for the first time last week, and got matched with some guys that were pretty good and fun to play with. We did the Vex strike, and after we finished stuck around for the next strike. Of course we got plopped down in the exact same strike, and the other two guys immediately quit. I backed out and tried again, got matched with new players, and groaned when the same loading voiceover started again. I felt bad, but I just couldn't do it twice in a row, so I left. There really should be some mechanism preventing repeat missions (it happened constantly in the Queen's Missions as well). There are more than 3 strikes, no one should have to play the same one they just played over again.

Here's a couple more bounties I would like:
- Speed run: Complete ___ strike in under ___ minutes.
- Sparrow racer: Complete ___ laps of waypoints on ___ in under ___ minutes. This would be like Halo's race but around the open areas on each planet, like Steppes to Forgotten Shore and back, or through all areas on the Moon's surface.

[*]never kick out of menus (ever - let me die in menu if I stay there after spawn and take hits)

Yes. Before I said I have no complaints about the interface, but this is one of them. Let me open the menu at any time. Do not drop me out of the menu unless I dismiss it. The only way out of the menu should be by player action. This is really simple, and why Bungie even thought it was cool to allow the game to pull us out of the menu is silly, especially, when it drops you out, but lets you open it right back up a few seconds later.

I want a true "bounty". Similar to the VIP patrol missions, but with no waypoints telling me where my target is. Just "Find ___ on Venus and take him out". Then have the target spawn in a random location on the planet and let me hunt him down.

Yeah, I mean they could have had their investment system designer sitting down and designing hundreds of little mini story missions that could be used for bounties, and rolled these into the lore or back/side story.

Wider, weirder monster closets

Those blind caves could have cracks in their ceilings that enemies drop from to explain(ish) how non teleporters got there. Like those Flood vents in the rooms in AoTCR and TB.

Aside: perhaps the 'shroud of darkness' in monster closets would only offer damage reduction, rather than full immunity. If you're playing aggressively they can almost get stuck in there and it's annoying not to be able to do anything to them.

Yeh.

Matchmake directly into high-level strikes of your choice
When selecting a particular Strike from the Director, I wish we had the option to matchmake into high-level versions directly. The low-level ones aren't particularly challenging when 20+ with legendaries and exotics, and going into the Vanguard playlists is a bit pot-luck. It'd be nice to have the challenge we want, on the level we want. If it rewarded less than the Vanguard playlists since you'll know exactly what's coming, that'd be totally fine.

And let us select modifiers

Show how we got our cool stuff

If you can't remember then it wasn't such an amzing story. I remember all my jammy acquisitions ;-)

Mixed up beginning and ends of missions

Made it very easy to know exactly where to go to and how to get there with just a glimpse of a chest location. I'm generally not good at remembering direction but I'm usually good in Destiny.

At the start of missions, we need to be thrown into fights sometimes (e.g. Silent Cartographer). We need more missions where we're just left on the world to do whatever we want (dropping back to a 'patrol'-like state), or have to clear up enemies and collect some object that was protected by the boss. A little more gradual come-down from the highs of the boss fights sometimes, rather than the vertical cliff it is currently.

Yes, and some quiet time would be nice.

Moar stats
The PGCR kept on b.net doesn't even replicate the content of the one in game (which aren't even extensive). I hope it's just a work-in-progress thing and the data is there somewhere.

Aside: 'Sparrow Splatters' stat needs to be a thing

And death by warsat should be a medal.

A sure way to get the exact Legendary we want
With the exact scopes, upgrades and options from the pool of ones that are already available in the randomised drops. The Legendaries available from the store are nice, but so many of them aren't really exactly what I want. They don't fit how I play or could ever conceive of playing. Armour pieces from the stores don't match the weapon type properly, that sort of thing.

I don't want to reach a point where the only way I can progress in optimisation is to completely rely on RNGesus to drop Legendaries with just the right upgrade options. Even if the road is made long and difficult, a definite way to get there would be nice.

Yep

Switching sub-class options should take away some charge
If you're willing to go back-and-forth into your character screen, you can kinda cheese it to minimise cooldown and maximise power. For example, you can armour your Bladedancer to completely shirk Strength, then pick 'Fast Twitch' which gives you a 5 second cooldown on Blink Strike. Then as soon as it's charged, switch to the option that gives you extra-backstab damage or camo after hits. It's weird to even entertain that the idea that the optimal/easiest way to play is to break the flow of combat so much.

???

Put more weights on RNGesus
Stuff like bias against picking strikes/maps we've played recently in MM. Or, if we got Shards from a Raid chest recently, prioritise armour in the next one. Or, if we already have 3 million Queen's Guard Helmets, a higher chance at the Sniper or the ship in Queens' Wrath missions. Right now it seems totally random and that's just absurd: with so many players, someone, somewhere, is going to have a string of obscenely bad luck on all these dice rolls. Individual player experience needs to be actively managed a little more.

Yes

More/deeper interaction with all those characters in the tower

Mass Effect conversation wheel for the win

Bosses shouldn't be immune on their introduction

yep

Titans' Shoulder Charge screen effect not being blinding in dark places

First time I encountered it I thought it was some form of long distance, Psion, mental attack. I thought they were trying to disorient me.

• buy stuff using game currency (great when not at home when Xur turns up)
  
• select weapons and armour then press doit button and it just happens in game
  
• armour/weapon/subclass sets for quick switches - plus (1?) auto ammo-synth if not already cooling down - create and name them out of game - ability to select them in game by list of names - they can even be created in game by choosing what you want and clicking a create set button, type in name and bob is your uncle - click (X) to pick and hold([]) to delete

In Game

• never kick out of menus (ever - let me die in menu if I stay there after spawn and take hits)
  
• waste bin to retrieve accidental deletions
  
• customize character appearance/gender after creation + more options
  
• ship/weapon shaders with shader preview: before buying
  
• could ship buying preview show travel animation? how resource heavy is it? - let you see ship in the context that it is normally seen in

I wont mention chat options until after update.