This feels off. With your proposal, getting to max level is then purely XP.

It looks like Bungie is taking motes of light in a different direction to with reforging. It makes sense then to make motes the material to power reforging.

Mote of Light

Motes of light are a yellow (exotic) material. This is perhaps the most radical departure and would also remove motes of light from the currency list and making it only a material. Since high level armor already has a light level, motes of light would be used to advance this light level. After fully upgrading a piece of level 20 armor, it could be infused with motes of light. Each mote would increase the light level to a (current) cap of 30 while also increasing the armor value. This has the benefit of opening up more ways to reach level 30 and introduces more armor variance at a high level. It also future proofs armor against higher light level caps, by allowing exotics and raid armor to go beyond +30 light through the infusion of motes of light. Motes of light would still be gained through experience after level 20, but by making it a yellow, it would be a much more rare find in loot tables, meaning the ordinary way of gain them is through plenty of play and spending them is a big deal.

This feels off. With your proposal, getting to max level is then purely XP. Except it is double-invested in armour pieces: once from earning general XP to get Motes, once from earning XP while wearing the armour piece to unlock the upgrade slots.

It just feels like an unnecessary step at that point.

Back in the early days of Destiny (feels like a long time ago, doesn't it?) I used to gather materials exactly as Claude described: I'd be exploring, helping other players, doing public events, grabbing ghosts/materials as I find them. But that all ended at level 20.

These days it's more like "It's 4am and I finally unlocked the next defense upgrade on this stupid helmet but I need 14 fucking spirit blooms first and I can't sleep until I find them OH GOD".

... maybe I'm the one with the problem ;)

lol - no judgement here. ;)

I'm not saying this isn't a reasonable viewpoint. I'm simply trying to provide a counterpoint; I'd be unhappy if Bungie decided that the ONLY way you could do resource gathering was of the style being promoted in this thread.

Not currently; materials and loot are generated individually to limit how rivalrous play gets in public areas.

Not true, dude. I was tag-teaming with another DBOer to find resources in an area. 2 sets of eyes can check caves twice as fast.

Done the same thing with randoms too: find a chest, wave to them, point at the chest, they come running over, pick it up and give me a wave in return.

There can be some competition for kills if you're doing bounties, but you don't end up with areas farmed out of upgrade materials.

That's because they respawn...

EDIT: at least on PS4. I can't imagine why it'd be different on any other platform though.

For me the choke point is XP because I don't do Crucible;

Bounties get you crazy exp on your guns. Just do the Vanguard ones.

These days it's more like "It's 4am and I finally unlocked the next defense upgrade on this stupid helmet but I need 14 fucking spirit blooms first and I can't sleep until I find them OH GOD".

... maybe I'm the one with the problem ;)

Look at all the Helium...what are you going to do with all that Helium?

Read aloud an entire novel in a squeaky voice?

-- Steve'll have to pace himself; don't want to pass out from hypoxia part way through chapter 2.

Besides, it doesn't seem like Bungie wants us farming. They have been removing any "loot caves" people find because they want us out there doing guardian things. Wouldn't it be better to be accumulating planet material as you play and only going out of your way when you spend it at a fast rate?

Curiously, that's exactly how I play.

Seems to work out alright for me as-is.

-- Steve may pick which planet to patrol according to the material he's running low-ish on, but materials don't dominate his game play.

Look at all the Helium...what are you going to do with all that Helium?

You have 44 Spirit bloom. That won't even fully upgrade a legendary or exotic weapon. In fact that's a little over halfway.

Correct. I also don't have enough surplus XP to fully upgrade my Truth... yet. I'm not even at the halfway point; indeed I'm a bit further ahead on Spirit Bloom right now than I am on XP. So when I start running down on Bloom I'll start doing more patrols (and public events) on Venus; by that time my XP should have ranked the weapon up enough to actually need the additional materials.

Your 61 helium is 3 shy of a fully upgrade for one gun.

Actually it's 61 in excess of my last full upgrade; none of the weapons or armour I am levelling at the moment require it.

It's going to take you a long time. If you are okay with that, you are a better man than I.

For me the choke point is XP because I don't do Crucible; I just don't find it fun, so I don't play it. Maybe it's more of an issue if you play a lot of multiplayer, but I'm not experiencing pain points from gathering materials.

-- Steve's wondering if, should this be the case, a simpler solution would be to include material drops as rewards in multiplayer.

It looks like the difference is that I gain experience and level up gear through crucible play and that leaves me short on materials.

Seems to work out alright for me as-is.

-- Steve may pick which planet to patrol according to the material he's running low-ish on, but materials don't dominate his game play.

You have 44 Spirit bloom. That won't even fully upgrade a legendary or exotic weapon. In fact that's a little over halfway. Your 61 helium is 3 shy of a fully upgrade for one gun. It's going to take you a long time. If you are okay with that, you are a better man than I.

The LAST thing I want is to be alone and move as quickly as possible.

I can understand this, but a lot of us feel the opposite: the resource collection and patrol missions are not fun, and are just a chore to get over with to get to where we want to be. That's why we rush through them and try to find the most efficient way.

Out of curiosity how many characters do you have and what levels are they? I want to understand how you arrived at those totals and what sort of equipment upgrade scheme you are following.

Total of 3 characters; my primary is a Hunter (29), my first alt is a Warlock (24, most of the post-20 levelling from hand-me-down gear), my second alt is a Titan (9) that I haven't played much.

My usual play routine is about 2hrs a night with my primary; do the daily story at max (2 Ascendant), then a patrol somewhere for materials and to get into a public event (1 Ascendant if we can Gold star it), then whatever time's left doing strikes in the Vanguard Tiger list.

On weekends I try to partner up with DBOers to do the Nightfall strike with my primary. If I feel like playing much beyond that, I run an alt.

Not a lot of cross-character transfer of material; only now that I've maxxed the Hunter's armour am I regularly transferring out Shards which I'm using to upgrade the Warlock's armour, and right now the advancement choke point for my Warlock is earning XP to unlock the upgrades.

-- Steve's not grinding, if by "grinding" one means playing un-fun bits of a game repeatedly to advance within it.

Besides, it doesn't seem like Bungie wants us farming. They have been removing any "loot caves" people find because they want us out there doing guardian things. Wouldn't it be better to be accumulating planet material as you play and only going out of your way when you spend it at a fast rate?

Curiously, that's exactly how I play.

Seems to work out alright for me as-is.

-- Steve may pick which planet to patrol according to the material he's running low-ish on, but materials don't dominate his game play.

Other players in the area gathering resources and chests means you have a harder time.

This is one of the problems I have with planet-specific resources. If you need something you want to be all alone and move quickly as possible. You actually don't care about anything on the planet, you just want to resource. So why not make it more generic and allow you to collect material during normal play.

As a matter of fact, that's EXACTLY how I collect material; I patrol on the planet of choice, fulfilling missions and stocking my coffers with whatever the planet-specific resource is. Sometimes I even add in exploration for dead ghosts.

I jump in when folks are fighting, I occasionally race randoms on Sparrows.

The LAST thing I want is to be alone and move as quickly as possible.

Good farming routes rely on both chest and material spawns to be effective. If chests are taken out of the equation through competition, gaining 16 materials to level up becomes quite time consuming. There are maybe 3-5 material spawns in a location. To then gain those 16 you need to explore 1/2 to 2/3 of a planet.

Besides, it doesn't seem like Bungie wants us farming. They have been removing any "loot caves" people find because they want us out there doing guardian things. Wouldn't it be better to be accumulating planet material as you play and only going out of your way when you spend it at a fast rate?

1- Planet materials feel like they should really be uncommon. Also, I feel they should still be kept separate, but perhaps allowed to be traded for other planet materials (at a minor loss?).

I made weapon and armor parts uncommon because they can be found by dismantling any weapon or armor and are needed for upgrading rare gear. Planet material I made rare because you have to seek them out and you need them for upgrading legendary or exotic weapons.

2- Marks also feel like they shouldn't be at the rare level, but should be an uncommon currency, but I could be persuaded.

I went back and forth on this one and landed at rare because they are used to purchase legendary items. Just like strange coins, which I propose to be a legendary currency, purchases exotic items. Basically you get to trade up when spending these things.

My major complaint would have to be with the planet materials. I don't love the suggestion, but I can't put my finger on why.

If you reach any conclusions, I'd love to hear them.

I would also like to explore the idea of Motes of light being used for upgrading light level, but I don't really have time at present to ponder & respond with an intelligent response.

Mote of light are probably the most interesting thing to me. One thought I had, that might be worth exploring, is to make them like glimmer. Motes would be both a currency and a material. So the player would be forced to decide whether they want to buy special gear or infuse light into existing gear.

Nice, I really like like the consolidated screen. My only question is if there's room to make the text large enough to be read on poorer quality TV screens.

Perhaps. The good news is that everything is color coded and categorized, so that part can remain small. You just need to the numbers to be large enough.

Right, because when you visit a planet to farm materials, you want to interact with random players. Not. In fact, it's the opposite. Other players in the area gathering resources and chests means you have a harder time.

Not currently; materials and loot are generated individually to limit how rivalrous play gets in public areas. There can be some competition for kills if you're doing bounties, but you don't end up with areas farmed out of upgrade materials.

-- Steve rather likes that aspect of Destiny's design.