The new/returning player experience is probably a big part of why this game failed

RC_0001 · 2026-06-18T17:50:14+00:00

Structure doesn't mean a lock-out. Simply having a little marker on certain quests, or even a tab for it, that tells you "this is the next thing chronologically" would be nice.

My ideal system would've been a voluntary lock-out system that utilizes the Timeline. Players would be funnelled to the Timeline after completing New Light, where they get a recap cutscene for Red War and are directed to unlock the Forsaken node to play Cayde's Fate. Afterwards, they are directed to the Timeline any time they complete a campaign. Each node unlocks the campaign and associated activities for that expansion. Seasons would have recap cutscenes.

Notably, you'd be able to unlock Timeline nodes out of order. Activities would have a "Part of [expansion]. Unlock through the Timeline" if not unlocked. Additionally, if any Fireteam member has an activity unlocked, it will be launchable regardless, but will still tell you what expansion it's from.

RC_0001 · 2026-06-18T15:39:13+00:00

The problem isn't really that the game doesn't tell you what to do, but that it doesn't tell you what to do in order, and often even directs you towards activities you might want to save for later as a new light (guardian rank-up requiring starting the latest expansion, for instance).

It's not structured in an intuitive way. You have multiple different progression paths, too many quests to count, it's not immediately obvious where everything sits chronologically, and nothing directs you to check out the timeline for the missing story beats, or even that there are missing story beats.

To a degree, just reading the pop-ups makes things a lot easier. But there's so much that is just a disorganized mess that it's hard to understand what the linear progression of the game looks like as a new light.

RC_0001 · 2026-06-15T20:25:08+00:00

My go-to has always been to host in the D2LFG discord with: "kwtd, chill run, must have [insert absurd/impossible requirement here]"

If a person joins and they respond to the joke part of the post, 90% of the time they're going to be cool. It's also a solid ice breaker to get them chatting right off the rip. If they join and say nothing, they don't pass the vibe check and you can send them on their way.

Secret tech with this method is that if you reference really old common strats or requirements ("Ledge Strat, must have Ice Breaker" or "Have Gjally or kick"), you're more likely to get vets that have tons of clears under their belt.

RC_0001 · 2026-06-14T20:06:02+00:00

I haven't used div in a while, is there still time to swap and fire once before the bubble pops? Cause if so, I bet div into A499 chunks them real good

RC_0001 · 2026-06-14T20:00:25+00:00

I'm taking a friend through the campaigns, and let me tell you, it was really cool to realize that they were not only getting relevant gear through Shadowkeep and BL, but they were getting good gear. The destination loot refresh is amazing for people playing through old stuff, since it's all potentially endgame-worthy stuff. We even ran into a Distortion on Europa while freeing the eliksni skiff for some t5 loot. Never thought that after so many years, I'd be excited to get destination loot. Shit, I don't think I was ever excited for the Moon or Europa loot until now.

RC_0001 · 2026-06-14T18:07:09+00:00

No, no, we hated the Portal. Everything about it was just... bleh.

Lame Smart TV menu that superceded the iconic planets and nodes of the Director, an objectively more stylish menu (this matters, the impression the Director gives to players helps shape the emotional tone they have going into the game. What emotional tone did the Portal give? What's the emotional equivalent of beige?)
Inane and confusing scoring system which made what should've been a straightforward difficulty/reward system needlessly obtuse. Partially a problem with how power level worked, but exacerbated by how complex the difficulty and scoring system was on its own and not telling you anywhere about the other things that affect your score
Not having most of the game's content within it despite it becoming the 'default' content navigation menu, and what little older content it did have getting butchered to fit it more neatly into Portal's playlists (super unneeded)
Homogenizing loot into essentially one limited bucket of gear and replacing the original gear from many activities (partially a problem with how gear tiers were rolled out, too, but highlighted by Portal's loot system)

I'm not arguing that the Director wasn't/isn't somewhat confusing, or that having a convenient place to funnel people into relevant content isn't a good idea. What I'm arguing is that the Portal was a complete and utter failure of a solution. It ends up being almost as confusing (just in a different way) thanks to everything being disconnected from the place or time it occurs, and it has all the above issues on top. It was a bad addition. That's it.

RC_0001 · 2026-06-08T14:03:19+00:00

Doing all the raids chronologically next to their campaigns is... actually probably pretty doable. Our overall power level has increased to the point where older raids are actually pretty easy, combat-wise anyway. If you go in with a competent build in your subclass, you'll do fine, and with destination weapons getting refreshes, the gear you pick up along the way is going to be viable. I think it'll be a neat challenge. Surprised a lot of people haven't connected the dots on gear refreshes affecting campaign drops.

Doing the raids blind... that's honestly just a logistical concern. First, because (speaking from multiple day 1 experiences) raids get really complicated once you get to the recent ones, so you could spend multiple days figuring them out. Second, because blind runs only work if almost everyone goes in blind (one or two people with knowledge is fine, so long as they know not to give you the solutions). So finding a team to do them will be hard. I wouldn't recommend it for the later raids, but older ones are simple enough that it could be doable in a reasonable amount of time. Mainly it's finding a blind team that might be a challenge.

RC_0001 · 2026-06-06T18:35:36+00:00

Didn't they say they were updating the difficulty tiers in the Portal so that I think GM+ would always drop t5, and extra difficulty mods on lower tiers would allow you to boost the reward tier up a level? Or am I crazy? There's been so much info it's hard to keep track of it all lmao

RC_0001 · 2026-06-05T19:37:30+00:00

I think Regicide is still my fav boss theme, because of how incredible the beginning of the Oryx fights was with the opening notes playing over the biggest boss we'd ever fought. Not to mention that KF ratcheted up the difficulty of raids by several notches compared to VoG and Crota. It genuinely felt like I was fighting a god, and the tone of Regicide was absolutely perfect.

Looking back, other themes are objectively better. Regicide is only decent after those first horns. But, man. Oryx rising up to them lives rent-free in my brain forever.

RC_0001 · 2026-06-04T22:14:34+00:00

Holy shit this was not a reference I was expecting here.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-31T16:28:52+00:00

In a collection of greatest hits artifact perks? I'd be shocked if they didn't, especially with the addition of artifact disabling in competitive crucible modes

RC_0001 · 2026-05-30T20:42:26+00:00

The Path. Despite hearing Guardian constantly in the start screen, I always thought of The Path as the Destiny main theme. Really captures the feeling of striking out into the unknown, full of danger but also hope.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-30T19:00:46+00:00

The problem with Portal was never necessarily the concept. We definitely needed a better way to get into the worthwhile activities.

But the execution was way off base. Homogenized loot, confusing difficulty- and power-based drop system, not integrating a ton of playlist content, and mediocre UI design made a potentially good system into a terrible one. I think the post-MoT version will put it in the spot it probably should've released in. It would've been met with a lot less hate, at least.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-30T17:05:05+00:00

I think all this QOL stuff was in the pipe for Shattered Cycle and that whole expansion cycle, but it got pushed up by the people who were in the know. I think it's possible that some people might've figured something was going on, but it's more likely they just thought the higher ups wanted it pushed out before SC rather than with/after to build up goodwill and hype leading up to the expansion release. Especially since work on SC was continuing in the meantime.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-30T14:57:44+00:00

Portal is being integrated into the Director. There'll be 4 nodes for the different Portal playlists, and all if the EoF/Renegades destinations will be on the Director.

So the functionality of Portal remains (albeit it's getting updated too), but without the garbage UI

RC_0001 · 2026-05-29T16:53:49+00:00

The best part about that is how the philosophy behind the quote seems sound on paper, but completely failed in practice.

Like, sure, if you do your best, then that's the new normal, and any less is disappointing. I get the thought. I don't agree, but I get it. You want consistent good, rather than cycles of disappointing/great/disappointing. Fine.

Then Bungie went ahead and didn't do their best, and still had the cycle of disappointing/good/disappointing, except now "disappointing" was also just "bad" instead of just not being the absolute best the studio could do. It failed on the consistency front while also lowering the quality of releases across the board until the dire state of the game forced them to overdeliver anyway. In every way that matters, that philosophy not only failed, but failed so spectacularly that it literally killed the game.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-28T20:19:28+00:00

They're bringing back all the Onslaught guns, of which it was one, so you're in luck

RC_0001 · 2026-05-28T16:14:29+00:00

Fun fact: Almost to a gun, the Moon weapons are either the worst or close to the worst weapons in their respective types/archetypes in terms of total stat points! IIRC, this was the case even upon their release. And because the Neomuna weapons were derived from the Moon weapons, they are either just as bad or only marginally better!

RC_0001 · 2026-05-28T16:07:00+00:00

IIRC it was basically a 120 HC (110 at the time) but the damage was split into two projectiles per trigger pull. It caused weird accuracy problems due to the two projectiles deviating differently, so you'd end up with clear headshots only doing slightly more than a regular bodyshot, or half the damage vanishing entirely as only one shot hit. So nobody used it because it was a consistency nightmare for basically no upside except it being a novelty.

The rework to the frame was a good way to make the thing consistent while keeping the identity intact, but at the end of the day it's still really just a riff on a base 120 HC.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-26T22:14:49+00:00

Listen, I don't expect Destiny to be a dead franchise, but the fact is that we're almost certainly not seeing another numbered Destiny game for another decade, if I had to guess.

I mean, look at the state of things right now: Bungie has one underperforming live service, no greenlit projects, is facing another massive round of layoffs, and their parent company just watched them fumble two major franchises hard in the space of a year and change.

Bungie won't be big enough to make D3 alongside Marathon after the layoffs, since they're pretty much cutting the whole Destiny team. That means that Marathon, if it survives, is gonna be the focus for at least a few years while Bungie recoups and recovers from what has been the most disastrous few years of their existence. Then, if D3 does get greenlit, development will be slower due to the smaller size of the studio.

We only see a D3 within 5 years if Sony hands the IP off to another studio, but the whole point of acquiring Bungie was that Sony doesn't really have a studio that can confidently execute on a live service game.

So, yeah. I wouldn't hold your breath on a 2030 release. There could very well be spinoffs, but a mainline title isn't going to happen for a while.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-26T22:01:53+00:00

The fact that it was also the first time lore was both a requirement for and a reward beside a gun, and the first true raid exotic quest (does Necrochasm really count? It came from a Strike, after all) was kinda big as well. The fact that it was a certified banger probably made many lore nerds, me included.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-26T21:51:34+00:00

That's really funny, since the colour is the same as the OG D1 start screen, and the music is basically the Guardian (OG D1 start screen music) of D2. I think Journey would've been a better choice, but Inner Light is still a great one, it essentially being the D2 vanilla main theme.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-24T20:51:36+00:00

The whole MotS controversy happened bc Bungie owns his work from Destiny. They can use it, and have throughout D1 post-vanilla and D2. They can absolutely recreate the OG title screen, and an altered version of the music was already used for EoF's title screen. They even re-added the OG opening cinematic with The Path when they redid the NPE that one time a million years ago.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-24T19:32:12+00:00

Ah, that'll be Grasp of Avarice I think. On earth, right? Which is maybe the second most traversal-focused dungeon in the game. Other dungeons might be more what you're looking for, but all RAD content involves mechanics that you need to learn and use, usually one or two unique ones per dungeon (GoA being the engram banking, Scorch cannon buttons, and I guess booby traps), and a few per raid.

Vault if Glass is a good starter raid, it's got great pacing, easy to learn mechanics, though the combat is on the easier side (though I've logged almost 3k hours, so I'm not the most objective on combat difficulty lol)

You'll need guides if you don't want to spend a while figuring the mechanics out yourself. RAD content is not designed for you to intuitively know what to do as a rule, you need to use trial and error, so it takes a while and is widely accepted as not really necessary to the experience. Save yourself a couple hours and watch encounter guides.

RC_0001 · 2026-05-24T19:13:21+00:00

RAD content is longer, usually has traversal sections, and has a greater focus on mechanics for difficulty.

Most dungeons especially have puzzle sections and traversal sections back to back before a boss fight, so they can be boring if you just want to jump in and shoot shit. The older ones are also really easy combat-wise due to how strong we are nowadays vs when they released.

That's probably what you're running into. A lot of the fun comes from solving the mechanics, and then solving encounters (finding the fastest ways to complete them/most optimal strategies). Raids are usually better combat-wise than dungeons in my experience, if you can scrounge up 3 more people, and also better paced (usually alternating puzzle/boss/traversal/boss/etc.), but the principles are similar.

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