I’ve said before, in a perfect Hypothetical D3, I’d like to see both Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 in a single, unified game. Yes, it’s wholly hypothetical, and with the caveat that it’s a perfect world and they’d be able to bring it over perfectly. I’m not implying it’s realistic. [b][u]TL/DR at the bottom, but I do think yall should give it a read[/u][/b] That aside, what would be interesting is how Bungie could manage the “New Light tutorial” and how players approach the game and leveling up. So, at the Beginning of the Game, you’re given a choice of what Subclass you want to start with. Warlocks are Sunblade (Sunsinger Dawnblade) and Voidwalkers. Titans are Strikers and Warden (Defender Sentinel). Hunters are Gunslingers and Arcdancers (Worst name. Arcstaff and Bladedancer) Anywho, You choose one of these Subclasses, and you enter into D1 Vanilla. The mission quest should be designed to be Linear now. Character Levels don’t exist, and rather Power Levels are the measure by which to describe your power and what END GAME content you participate in. The first mission focuses on introducing all the basic crap. Your Jump, Grenade, Melee, and primary/secondary. The second mission focuses on your Super and Heavy. From there, you’d play through the campaign as usual, without the ability to skip over missions like you use to be able to do inside of D1. Yes, Vanilla D1 had a host of Non Linear side missions when it was trying to be more similar to an MMO, as opposed to an RPG, but that served to confuse little ol 10 year old me when I first played it. By the time you enter that final stretch of the Vanilla Campaign (let’s call it the “Dying Heart campaign”), you should have a mostly complete Subclass of your choice. The Post Campaign should give you a couple fragments or pieces of the Subclass you don’t quite have yet. Then roles around House of Wolves and Dark Below. How do they tie in? They don’t. The point of both campaigns should be to get you into playing Crotas End. Here is where I explain the Power Level system. So, as you play the game, you’re going to be gaining Power with each bit of new gear. To keep the story linear when you enter that middle phase, where you just completed the campaign, but have yet to touch the post campaign of the Raid, the next DLC will be locked behind a power level you should not have reached by the end of the campaign. Rather, you’ll receive a new mission. While the post campaign is dedicated to finishing out your subclass kit, the Raid will be dedicated to leveling you up to the minimum level to access the next Campaign. Upon completion of the Raid for the first time, up Quest completion, you will receive a set of Armor and Weapons from the raid itself that will be on Level for the start of the next Campaign. Both House of Wolves and Dark Below will act as one Campaign for this. This of course would tie into the new armor system in which the “Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, Shiny” tiers of loot would replace the tiered “1 through 5” legendaries we now have with some caveats. All weapons would have now a base “Rare” version of themselves with the exception of Exotic Quest commons (Husk of the Pit, Khvostov, Travelers Chosen, etc). These Rares would act as our now base legendaries. Common would have worse stats and access to only one perk. Uncommons would have slightly better stats and an origin trait, and access to multiple barrels, stocks, and scopes dependent on whether the weapon comes with scopes or barrels. Rares would have both perks and the base stats. Legendary weapons would have all of this, plus Masterwork, plus a chance to role multiple perks per column (up to three but that’s incredibly rare) and for some perks to randomly have Enhanced States. Finally, your Shiny/Mythic tier. It wouldn’t exist as a standalone tier in spite of “being tier 5”, but its premise would be all the cosmetic stuff, plus all perks are automatically enhanced. To keep a bit of RNG, the amount of perks per column would still be slightly random, but with increased odds. Anywho, this would apply to raids to an extent, with you having a Rare, Legendary, and Shiny tier of loot. Armor with the Shiny tier specifically don’t receive any major benefit, but will have ornaments like the Raid Ornaments back in D1 that will massively change the appearance of the Armor. Taken King is where things get a bit more interesting. This time, you don’t get a choice in what subclass you pursue. You’re locked into the Taken King Subclasses. Stormcaller, SunBreaker, Nightstalker. After the first mission of the Campaign, you’ll have unlocked the quest to begin unlocking this Subclass. Eventually, you’ll happen upon the last mission, and it’ll lock you into whatever the classes subclass is, but upon completion, you’ll should notice that instead of two separate Subclass tabs, you’ll have only the one. Yes, the game will inherently be designed with “Prismatic in mind” but don’t worry, I have a plan for Final Shape that’ll be revealed circa Beyond Light. This means, if you were a Warlock who chose Sunblade, you can now use both Solar and Arc together. Electrostatic Mind + Heat Rises. Touch of Flame + Ionic Sentry. Yada yada. Aside from that, the initial Subclass unlock will only give you a base kit, and all the extra stuff like some of the aspects, fragments, and abilities will be locked to the Taken King Campaign and the Post Campaign. If you don’t complete this quest first, you’ll still be rewarded with them, just not able to use them until you “Unlock the Subclass”. Rise of Iron plays out much the same as previously described, Then comes Red War. It plays out the same. The tower is Nuked and your Vault is destroyed. You lose your light, and along with it, access to both the Subclasses you had just been using in unison. When you eventually make it out of the city and to the Dark Forest, you’ll unlock the last Light Subclass you had yet to use. If you were a Titan who’d chosen Striker, it would be Warden. If you were a Hunter who chose Gunslinger, it would be Arcdancer (I hate that name). Throughout this campaign, you’ll unlock all the abilities to go with it, get new weapons, etc etc, but you won’t have access to all the old stuff. If it was in your inventory upon your fall, it will be locked and unable to be equipped. It won’t be until after you defeat Ghual that you will once again gain access to your old vault and all the coinciding gear that you had previously earned. There will be a post campaign mission where you treck back into the Dark Forest and reunlock the rest of your subclasses you had previously earned, letting you use Void, Arc, and Solar side by side. The next few campaigns play out the same as described above, maybe you get a new ability here or there when introduced, like in Forsaken, till eventually we get to Beyond Light. It plays out the same as usual, except this time you notice you’re unable to use Stasis abilities with your Light Abilities. This trend will continue come Lightfall and Strand, though you can use Strand and Stasis together. It isn’t until Final Shape where you unlock Prismatic (Which canonically, was only Transcendence given guardians could use both Dark and Light abilities together, just not combined) where your Darkness and you Light Subclasses can finally be used together. You also get access to Transcendence, but this time, it isn’t a singular grenade. Rather, you get to chose between a transcendent Grenade or a transcendent Melee, and what it does or what it is will be based upon you Aspects. If you slot melee and have an Arc and Stasis aspect equipped on warlock, you might shoot a bolt of lightning that jolts all nearby combatants, chaining from one another, before then freezing them. If you pick Stasis and Strand on a Titan with Grenade slotted, you create a web on the ground that will freeze enemies who walk into it, unraveling them, before eventually shattering them. Similarly, your Transcendence Bar will fill up based upon what Aspects are equipped. If you have two darkness aspects equipped, darkness damage is what it’ll take to fill it up, but Stasjs and Strand will be more effective on their sections of the bar. What if I equip two Stasis Aspects? Well, this’ll give you access to one big Stasis attack, similar to your Super, but not quite as dangerous. If it’s Hunter and they slotted grenade, they get an uber massive duskfield (i mean MASSIVE. Larger than a titan bubble big) And… that’s sort of it. I still haven’t figured how to tackle Seasonal Content and -blam!-, and this sure as shootin doesn’t include the endgame in spite of discussions about Raids and tiered loot and the crap, but it is what it is. [b][u]TL/DR[/u][/b] make the campaigns linear, split up when and wear we earn the subclasses like in Final Shape. Put both Light and Darkness subclasses in an early version of Prismatic till they combine together to make true Prismatic. Tiered loot becomes Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, Shiny. Try and get people into raids by restricting Power levels and having the raid drop on level gear that will give you instant access to the next Expansion.