I have now played the game to a large extent, having a level 27 Warlock and a mid-leveled Hunter, and I can say that I can, with fair accuracy, make some statements about the game. The only thing I have not yet participated in is the raid, because I've not bothered to find a group yet. This is going to be a long thread, and I am open to input and criticism, so long as it is productive. [b]The goal is for Bungie to read and consider my input.[/b] I consider myself to be a game balance aficionado, and I very much enjoy tweaking smaller aspects of a game, because the smaller interlocking parts are what truly make the experience great. [b]DO NOT GET ME WRONG:[/b] I am [i]thoroughly [/i]enjoying this game. I just want to provide my input and ideas as to what would make the experience [i]better.[/i] But I digress.. [u]ON TO THE CONTENT[/u] [u] [b]User Interface[/b][/u] -Weapons currently have [i]hidden [/i]archtypes, I would like for them to be [i]visible[/i]. For example, I can get two identical Galahad-E Auto-Rifles, and they will vary slightly on the stats page (stability, impact, reload, etc.). It does not tell you however which type of Galahad-E you have obtained, so you don't know if you should spend effort searching for that perfect gun or not. Add this archetype somewhere inside of the weapon talent screen, with more detailed specifications on mouseover. -Keep the experience bar on the screen at level 20 and beyond. There was a mote of light xp-progress bar in the game pre-release, and I would personally like it back very much. It did not detract from the visuals whatsoever, and was a nice easy to see meter for your next mote. I blame Stosh of course, even though he could not have possibly played a hand in this skulduggery. -Add total glimmer next to or nearby the +glimmer that appears on your screen, for those of us that are trying to gather specific amounts. Also increase the cap. 25,000 is not a lot, particularly if you like dumping it into leveling up our good friend Rahool. [u][b]Equipment and Weapon Balance[/b][/u] -The "One exotic" rule. It makes sense for armor, but NOT for weapons. I can only have one weapon out at any given time anyway, why would I be limited in this way? I have to be completely honest, limiting players in this way DETRACTS from the fun of the game, which is largely the giant treasure hunt that it becomes. I have Gjallarhorn and more recently, Thorn. I will likely never use Gjallarhorn again, because why would I use my exotic slot on a weapon that will scarcely see use, when I can have a primary exotic getting action constantly. PLEASE change this. This is one of my largest gripes about the current endgame. I feel like I wasted 17 strange coins on the Gjallarhorn. I should not feel like obtaining an Exotic piece of equipment was a waste of my time. -Auto Rifles still need nerfing. They were nerfed previously but in the wrong way unfortunately. They did not need a fire rate or accuracy nerf, they needed an IMPACT nerf. Auto Rifles are absolutely dominating PvP currently, and it's exceedingly difficult to outpace one, even with an exotic like Thorn or Bad Juju. The DPS is unstoppable, it's like taking a cheese-grater to the face. God save your soul if you face against the Suros Regime, because you're just paste. -Scout Rifles need either an impact buff, a critical multiplier buff, an aim-assist buff, or a fire rate buff...or all of the above. Compared to the other weapons available their Damage-per-second is miserable. I have seen virtually none of these outside of strikes and patrols. -Pulse Rifles need a magazine size buff. Considering the amount of shots that inevitably go off the mark and either don't crit or don't hit at all the damage per magazine is rather low. I would also make the hip fire accuracy very high for pulse rifles. It seems like the niche the weapon should play to should be a scout rifle that can hold it's own in CQB. -Handcannons are fine. I think they're about where they need to be. The only thing I might change is a slight buff to stability and fire rate. Many people will disagree with me, but handcannons reward skill with an extreme prejudice, buffing them is very dangerous. I am already capable of doing very well in both PvE and PvP with my Thorn and I have scarcely leveled it up at all...and I'm not particularly great at Destiny PvP yet. (1.3 to 2.0 kd most games) -Shotguns are fine where they are. Many want a nerf, but the problem isn't so much the shotgun as how the shotguns are being used. Shoot + melee has always been a combo in Bungie shooters. If you don't want to get wrecked by a shotgun, don't get close to someone holding one. It's really that simple. Plan your engagements around your weapon's strengths and you'll no longer get wrecked 24/7. -Fusion rifles need....something. They're exceedingly good weapons...if the enemy doesn't strafe. It seems like even a slight amount of strafe will cause the shots to visually connect and yet deal no damage, or the damage numbers will be inexplicably cut down to 40s. I'd buff stability and range. Charge rate and impact are fine. -Snipers are flawlessly balanced, truly job well done. I have nothing to say. -Rockets are good in PvE, but in PvP they seem extremely buggy. Just today, I physically connected a rocket to a titan's jaw, only to have him rush through, take no damage, and one shot me with an overloaded shoulder charge. He teabagged me, thinking that I missed my rocket and that he'd just gotten a clutch kill. Obviously I was furious. I'm not sure what causes this, but it seems that very frequently in PvP rockets will go off virtually on top of enemies and yet behave as though they were far away. -Machine Guns are pretty good where they are, although I feel like there are far too many of the fast-firing MGs and nowhere near enough of the slower ones, but I'll get into that type of thing when I discuss loot next. [u][b]The Loot System[/b][/u] Whew okay I've got a [i]LOT[/i] to say about this. -Engrams should ALWAYS decode to the quality of the sphere. Reduce the drop rate of purple and blue engrams relative to the decode rate, and make it such that none of us have to suffer the 60+% chance that our legendary engrams turn into blues and then into weapon parts. It's brutal. Also, why on Earth did I get the Dead Orbit legendary bond from an engram? The first legendary I got was something I could have simply purchased for 2500 glimmer with no prerequisites. Yuck. -Engrams need to be gotten LESS from killing enemies. The following are how engrams SHOULD be obtained. 1: completing a patrol mission should award FAR MORE than just miserable amounts of rep. Add engram drops to patrol completions. And I don't mean green armor and weapon drops, I mean actual encrypted loot. 2: strike [i]bosses [/i]such as the Devil Walker or Phogoth should have a high chance of dropping a blue or better engram. 3: 1-2 Engrams should be awarded on a 100% chance for completing heroic story missions, and the likelihood of blue or purple engrams should increase as mission level does. There is currently NO REASON to turn the difficulty past the first heroic setting, under ANY circumstance. 4: Completing a public event should award the player with engrams in addition to the what, 75 glimmer or so you get? If you don't get lucky and obtain rare upgrade materials a public event was literally a waste of time. 5: Engrams should also appear in chests with greater frequency. I opened roughly 100 chests on the moon yesterday while farming xp for a mote I needed, and got one chest that happened to have a blue engram inside of it. This was well over 2 hours of farming. -At high levels, green engram drops should have a chance of being encoded, and not just equipment. Why do you ask? Cryptarch reputation, a small chance for strange coins and motes of light, and generally mixing it up. I'm growing very tired of seeing the words "Axiom Coven" every time I pick something up. -Add a NEW type of Engram (I would call it something like "Golden Age Memorabilia") that can decode into reputation gain for a random faction, glimmer, or even strange coins, bounty tokens, and motes. Mix it up a bit. Adding variety to loot is NEVER a bad thing. [u][b]Currencies and Bounties[/b][/u] -Add the ability to purchase additional daily bounties with glimmer or location-specific resources such as spinmetal. I think it should be easier to gain reputation with many factions. Currently it's brutally slow, [i]especially [/i]crucible reputation, given some of the immensely luck-based bounties...10 fusion rifle sprees anyone? [b]#gotnovabombedeverytime[/b] -Add longer, more difficult bounties. My legendary thorn bounty was a blast. I had a great time doing the questline and especially enjoying the challenge that soloing the level 26 'epic' strike provided. Add bounties such as "Kill 500 enemies in Old Russia with handcannons" or, "Kill 250 players with sniper rifles" that reward rare upgrade materials on completion. This could even tie in to an ability to purchase bounties. -The material turn-ins are TERRIBLE. Just...YUCK. For 50 spinmetal, relic iron, helium filaments, or spirit bloom you only get 25 reputation, a modest amount of exp, and 250 glimmer. WHAT EVEN. This needs to be buffed to shit and back. Add engram drops, buff reputation gain to 75 or even 100, and even then it would need something. 50 is a TON of material! Both of my exotic weapons COMBINED don't need 50 resources to skill up! [u][b]Subclass Balance[/b][/u] It would seem that I've run out of characters for my post! :( Depending on how this thread goes I might make another, likely equally large post and link to it here later. Thank you for reading!