Fundamentally, the idea of an archive hosting all available activities in a neat and orderly fashion is a great thing for an expansive game like destiny with so many activities to run. Yet somehow the portal is heavily disliked to the point it was the reason many people, that after the final shape had seen all they really needed to see, used it as their reason to fully quit the game and move on. So, what is the common feedback lines I see from people who dislike the portal: - ugly UI - convoluted UI - not rewarding enough - not everything is matchmade I want to attempt to make sense of these complaints to the best of my ability: 1. Ugly UI A rather subjective concern, but one common enough to where investigating whether this is a miss-association of a different complaint. From all I can gather, a lot of discourse surrounding this boils down to "I like circles better than squares" which may say something about the peoples association of the round activity node and Destiny's theme and definition, but isn't really something you can justify much with yet. However, when I later dive into the UI issues of the portal, it becomes easy to recognize, that circles aren't just preferred to squares arbitrarily. The circular node for the entire lifespan of Destiny has stood for a fast, seamless way into content, whereas the new portal square UI is only always associated with the convoluted UI problems later detailed. 2. Convoluted UI The concern is based around people disliking the menu as an interface, rather than a visual structure, meaning they dislike the behaviour required of them to successfully interact with it. What behaviours are those? 2.1. Loot selection A rather minor point in the current eco system, as the game is so flushed with weapon drops that have multiple perks per column that it isn't about finding a weapon to chase anymore, but even just a single instance of a drop to care about. The weapon roll chase has been effectively halted by the tiering system being so all encompassing, everyone can reach any possible active and future weapon chase within just a few hours of play time. 2.2 Difficulty selection. Given the maximum, or near maximum light most players are due to the cancelation of the power reset at, the standard difficulty for almost all players for any activity is always ultimate. A difficulty many do not enjoy as their default power fantasy playground. The fact this difficulty selection is layered behind a second, slow UI screen leads to people not using it to any degree of preference selection. The player has one main goal: Getting into the activity as fast as possible, again also making this second layer of UI unattractive. And as such consciously or subconsciously is aware that other players as well will not go through this step, increasing wait times. The fear of that creates a stressful decision pattern, every time an activity has been chosen. It may also be noted that while the weapon chase is completely dead, and the tiering system utterly dysfunctional, lower difficulties do not reward anywhere as appropriately for players from the powerful cap and above, as they did during the power climb. 3. The portal is not rewarding enough A at face value batshit insane statement, given the amount of high value drops given to the player even after what the games ranks an average performance. So, where is the real issue? 3.1 Games, unlimited games, but no games As far as I can tell, this issue again finds itself partially in the tiering system, and the commonality of tier 5 weapon drops. The problem with the system is its ability to not only quickly fulfill any current desire, but also its ability to shut down any possible future chase. Thereby removing any future possible extrinsic motivation to play something. This extrinsic motivation would usually be a vehicle to combat choice paralysis, making the player value one activity over another. The fact that the quickplay node is not well highlighted, or rewarding enough to even be considered for most who are at a higher power only adds onto that choice paralysis, as the option the player wants to choose, isn't even really offered to them. The loot economy of Destiny has a very precarious balance, where the switch between the current "too much" and the previous common complaint of "too little" is basically immediate. This used to be resolved via investment systems. Like raids only awarding 1 drop per encounter, an often deemed inappropriate amount. This was fixed through spoils of conquest and the end of activity vendor, giving the player the option to spend their additionally earned currency on drops of their choice. As well as through the infamous crafting system, giving leniency for the time required to get the preferred roll of a weapon. The crafting rabbithole I wish to evaluate on a different occasion. 3.2 The great collapse 3.2.1 Weapon variety A second unfortunate consequence of the Edge of Fate update to the tiering system was the abandonment of older weapons from legacy sources. Which before acted as a back up chase with a variety of weapons and arsenals. The legacy competitive focus gave a reason to play competitive to attain weapons the player values, even if the newest addition isn't their thing. Nightfall and Brave weaponry offered powerful arsenals no where else found in the game. With Brave weapons solely dropping from the onslaught activity also serving as a emotional anker for the Into the Light period of the game. As well as exotic missions from the past being primary acquisition methods to the weapons (and patterns) of that season. Something the portal should've expanded upon with the reintroduction of old seasonal activities, rather than remove said feature. 3.2.2 vendors The removal of the vendor reputation tracks, which not only again acted as a weight tipping the scale to combat indecisiveness but also acted as one of the most important parts of the day-to-day looter shooter loop. They acted as reference points for the players' investments. Reputation ranks were a raw number to orient yourself at, engrams and cyphers where the translation of that number into a valuable currency. Prestige acted as a long-term investment goal, slowly adding more perks onto focused weapons, reflecting long-term progression even in the easier parts of the game. Engrams were very common to where many might've taken them as a guaranteed thing, even to a point where they might as well not exist, but the existence of these engrams served as an additional safety net layer. In the current game, any focusable vanguard weapon is offered for 3 enhancement cores and 15k glimmer. A steep price for weapons with usually 12 perks per column and no prestige to increase the amount of perks per focus, especially considering these currencies are universally used throughout any vendor and any part of the game. Engrams served as a buffer to universal currencies, resources available anywhere, but not some that the player exactly wishes to actively farm. Unlike the engrams which's usage was limited by their source. Other scale tipping weights were for example the nightfall weapon rotation, double reward or double reputation weeks and vendor reward path progression, offering the player the opportunity to invest their current effort, into future desires by stocking up on resources. 4. Not everything is matchmade A common complaint is that while now a lot of activities have reentered the game and given a fresh loot pool, is that the casual player cannot make use of those activities as they cannot matchmade them with other people at whatever time they desire to play them, and do not wish to go through the steps of opening a LFG for an obscure activity, with maybe an obscure loadout, at a uncommon time at a uncommon difficulty. Which only is the second layer below the obvious layer of needing to use the LFG system, which is usually not accessed by any casual players for casual activities and play. Even though technically easy to access the UI is certainly not friendly, as it now presents with the pressure of choosing a group, and perform to not disappoint that group, as that group has a defined leader that can simply set you back more hurdles than you are willing to jump through again, simply for operating on a different ratio of efficiency to fun. For a quick conclusion I want to highlight the core issues I found from trying to evaluate this feedback: 1. Quickplay nodes basically do not exist 2. Higher activity difficulty should be an opt in, not an opt out. 3. There are too many steps and choices between opening the game and starting an activity 4. The -blam!- loot pools remove the core of the game, the loot chase, too fast 5. The removal of investment systems and safety nets has removed the feeling of passive progression (6. Turns out, circles are in fact better than squares.) The rest of this unfortunately gets cut by the Forumpost character limit, so the continuation will be a comment. Sorry.