By now most Destiny players have already created a list of major changes they’d like to see made in order to keep them invested in the franchise’s future. But with one more Destiny expansion (that's officially announced, anyway) - House of Wolves - still on the schedule, there are ways Bungie can improve their first release with minimal effort.
We’re not talking about adding more story or changing/adding missions, but rather our focus is on the little changes that Bungie could introduce; things that would make House of Wolves feel like a decent step in the right direction. And so without further ado, here are the 5 Easy Things Destiny Can Improve With 'House of Wolves'.
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1. Increase Caps (Glimmer, Vault Space, Marks)
While Bungie has scraped by on artificially implemented caps, it’s about time they finally remove them. From Vanguard/Crucible marks to glimmer and vault space, nearly everything in Destiny has an inherent limit that keeps players from playing too much and forces them to return the next week. However, now that Destiny is no longer in its honeymoon stage, we feel it’s time to increase those caps and let players work towards whatever rewards they want. If someone is dedicated enough that they want to earn the 150 marks to buy a weapon, let them. Similarly, if players want to farm glimmer to stock up on heavy ammo synthesis, let them do that as well.
Beyond all that, we want to see an increase in vault space. Vault space is key for players who run multiple characters, as it lets them share their most prized weapons. For some, the allotted slots are fine, but eventually it piles up. It gets to the point that players need to store weapons on certain characters to keep their vault open, leading to frustration and misplaced weapons later on. Vault space is the cap increase we want to see the most, more than glimmer or Marks, but we'll take them all.
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2. General Fixes for Old Bugs
While few could argue that Bungie has been diligent with their patch and hot fix releases, most would debate whether the changes have all been welcome. Strangely, though, when Bungie does release a patch they seem to focus on the of-the-moment problems or bugs, skipping the ones gamers have been asking them to fix for weeks - or months. The glitch that removes a portion of heavy ammo on death when wearing specific armor, for example, has been a known, and hugely frustrating problem, but Bungie has yet to address it. Crota’s End has also been getting a lot of attention as of late, but Vault of Glass still has plenty of bugs.
If House of Wolves included a major patch in addition to its new content, it might actually prove to the Destiny fan base that their complaints are not just being heard, but are steering Bungie’s actions. Sure, the most recent content is the most important, but that’s no excuse for neglecting older problems.
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3. No More Currencies!
With the introduction of Radiant Shards, Radiant Energy, Exotic Shards, Vanguard Commendations, and Crucible Commendations, Bungie took an already bloated economy and made it downright convoluted. It needs to stop. New currencies do not give players new ways to experience the game; they simply create artificial ramps that stop players from progressing at a certain pace, while at the same time, making older content somewhat obsolete.
Radiant materials kept dedicated players from reaching level 32 too quickly, and Exotic Shards kept players from upgrading their exotics all at once. But eventually players will hit a breaking point, at which point the currencies become useless (one example: once you hit level 32, Radiant Shards will start to pile up just as much alongside Ascendant Shards).
It’s time to cut the Destiny economy off as it is, and simply let players do what they want with the items they have earned. However, if Bungie wants to give us reasons to use these items... that would be even better. Our biggest fear? That House of Wolves will introduce more ramps to prevent players from getting what they want at their own pace. And after six months of dedicated playing, that’s the last thing players are looking for.
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4. Better Bounties
Kill 10 Hive Majors. Kill 100 enemies without dying. Kill Telethor in the “Chamber of Night” mission on Heroic. There is not a single bounty in Destiny that the average dedicated player has not done more than a dozen times, and we’d like to see that change. With the introduction of Eris for The Dark Below, we saw a few new bounty types enter the fray, but most of them weren't all that different from the existing ones.
For House of Wolves, why not bring in bounties that actually require a little more action or effort (and don’t quickly become old hat)? A larger variety and randomization would also be nice, but the main goal is to keep daily bounties from feeling tedious and, just maybe, feel a little more like an actual quest. Bungie could take a page from their Urn bounty, which included multiple steps and eventually culminated in a unique mission. Let's hope it's a direction they'll stick to.
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5. More Customization Options
While Destiny’s initial promise of unique handcrafted loot never came to bear, we never expected the game to become this generic. Nearly every player runs around with a specific set of gear of weapons (with some variation), meaning the only real way to differentiate oneself is with a shader. However, with so few options on that front, it’s still hard to feel like an individual among the masses.
To combat this, we’d like to see customization options extend much further than they currently do: ship shaders, weapon shaders, armor modifiers – anything that makes our character look slightly different from the next would be a welcome addition. That way, when a player looks at another player’s gear they can actually have the "Where did you get that?" conversations that have long been a trademark of the MMO space, and seems to be what Bungie originally envisioned. As it stands now, we know where everyone got that Ice Breaker, or that shader - the same place we did.
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Honorable Mention: Diverse Locations
This is a bonus suggestion since it obviously requires more work, but it would be amazing to see House of Wolves introduce new locations into the game. The Dark Below introduced new environments, but the differences between those DLC locales and the main game's were slight. We want to travel to areas that feel unlike anything seen in the game thus far, not just a slightly different version of the same landscape we’ve seen a dozen times already. It might be a lot to ask for new planets at this point, but any change of scenery would go a long way towards freshening up Destiny.
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In the end this wish list may fall on deaf ears, but it’s worth putting forth if only for Destiny 2’s success. Even so, we kept these changes simple and realistic in the hopes that there might be a chance Bungie would implement them. However, if Destiny is to become the major franchise Activision hopes it will, bigger changes will need to happen.
What are some changes you’d like to see Bungie make with the House of Wolves expansion? What would increase your interest in the game?
Destiny – House of Wolves is rumored to launch in March 2015 for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.