I have zero memory of getting the sleeper simulant. I had a lot of fun getting Outbreak Prime with Zero yelling numbers at us, but I feel no attachment to it. I don't remember how I got my glowy fishbowl helmet on my Warlock in Destiny 2, but I do know it's one of my first exotics and I'm slowly becoming attached to it. You want to know the guns I remember getting most vividly?

My Gyllenhaal from Ir Yut, finally.

Probablylast's Gyllenhaal from us cheesing the Abyss chest. It's also where I got my Dragon's Breath, which I love.

My Field Scout Vanquisher, which we got after a particularly rough nightfall on my hunter.

Bluerunner's Fatebringer, which he got after forever.

My Field Scout Zombie Apocalypse from a crucible game where I had 20 kills.

My Light/BEWARE or whatever that thing was called from loot caving.

The thing about the missions for guns and loot is everyone has the same story. You know it's coming. No flashpoint memory is saved. There's no "holy crap a goddamn Icebreaker!" There is a "well, I've gotta go look at chests on Venus and I'll get this Super Good Advice machine." This kept me from really forming any attachment to my gear from TTK, with the exception of my Suros DIS 47 scout rifle with appended mag.

I heard that these could roll with full auto. So, I picked up the gunsmith thingies for the Suros scout rifles and waited, and waited, and waited. Sometimes a decent roll would show up. No, that's not right. Eventually, the perfect roll happened. Full auto, appended mag, the right sights, the balance perk, I just about ruined my pants. And I used it constantly. I never knew if it was going to show up, but I knew what I was hoping for, and one day when I got it, I used it literally for the next year and a half until Destiny 2 came out.

That's one I remember. That's one for which I feel something. Not the stupid black hammer quest I had to grind through with Chappy 15 times. The one that just popped up.

Even in Destiny 1, most of the exotic weapon "quests" were still just doing generic stuff like running around in patrol or whatever. The Black Spindle special mission though? That was awesome, if perhaps a touch too challenging. I'd love if there were more things like that but at different challenge levels. Secrets for people to find that result in a special reward. I'd love if each lost sector included a specific, legendary tier loot item to give us reasons to explore them all instead of just getting materials to bring back to each planetary vendor (maybe also include those materials, I can always shard a duplicate for gunsmith parts). That would give players a defined way to get specific loot. Sure, it's not a unique, individual story but it still gives you a way to tell people where you found your favorite gear so they can find it too. If lost sectors weren't just displayed on the map you could even just tell them it came from somewhere in the EDZ or whatever and let them discover it on their own.

I remember black hammer. I also remember the struggle for Thorn. The random drops fade from memory. Yes even Gjallarhorn fades from memory.

While I like destination armor, there needs to be more forging/building and customization of it.

Instead of vendors flat out giving you armor pieces in exchange for currency, I'd like to see you gather parts from around the region, and be able to forge those into armor with perks and stats that you want, but with the appearance of that regions set. Perhaps with slight embellishments based on the materials used.

While this doesn't solve the "i grinded x strikes and x chests etc" problem, I don't think that is solvable currently. The game has a limited number of activities, and you will always be driven to play those activities.

I can see some vendors selling complete sets, but again they shouldn't randomly give you parts you should be able to get the set in stages as you turn in cash. At higher rep levels you should be able to get more customized gear. Rep levels would be part grind, but also a level up quest at certain points. Something unique to each faction.

So players who don't want to grind gear can just play the game and buy specific items from vendors, but players who really want to get specific combinations can forge very specific guns.

The main issue is as usual balance. Bungie doens't make all combinations of frame and perks available, so they don't test all variations. This is why we have such a range value in perks all through D1 and D2. Using the above system will inevitably have the internet putting out a metric tonne of bad youtube videos about which guns are perfect for any activity.

The other problem is the loot-splosion issue. People don't feel as rewarded when they don't get stuff from activities that they can use immediately. It would be like finishing a strike and getting a bunch of tokens and some weapons parts...hmmm, perhaps this isn't much of an issue after all. Leave raids and To9 to dump gear, and convert the rest of the game over?

Honestly, while I'm completely fine with the animal that Destiny is (though I haven't played in a while and still have to finish CoO) and I'm willing to defend that, I don't think my personal valuation goes that way.

I remember how I got some things, not some others. The Quest Exotics in D1 and D2, of course; and I won't forget that time I got Gjallarhorn after Hard Mode Ir Yut, just because of how much the forum made it matter. I remember grinding Vanguard Marks in the first week of the game for ever just to pick up the vendor stock Doctor Nope. I forget how I got Zombie Apocalypse, mainly because I didn't realize how much I liked it for a long time.

Now, some of the quests, I liked. I have fond memories of Super Good Advice's, even though it was generic tasks, just because of the flavor; the mission to get Drang was fun, even though I don't like sidearms or hand cannons that much, but the bit in pursuit of Sturm was eh; getting MIDA with the Mini-Tool was fun, though, just because it gave an excuse to do a stupid silly thing I normally wouldn't do.

But grind can be frustrating, and the funny thing is, a quest to do something is still grind. Whether it's good grind or bad grind is in the eye of the player, and blah blah stuff everyone's been over. I don't really mind grind much, but lately I haven't had the time for it.

So, with this mess of a preamble ramble aside, I may as well get to my personal opinion. I don't really think either random drops or missions to get specific gear are the ideal, nor is any specific tuning of the mixture; what I think would be best is to just have all the loot already unlocked. You can use whatever. Maybe there are modes where you have to build an inventory, like in a linear campaign, or just have some modes where you pick your inventory from everything. You could have each gun have a customizable set of perks- possibly limited, to lessen the god rolls problem.

Make it a game I want to keep playing because I think it's fun- have fancy cosmetics to chase if it's really that important, but embrace the fact that it's already a sandbox.

No idea if this would lead to a more or less homogenous metagame, but I've never cared about metagames. I won't pretend this idea is actually definitely a good one; I don't really know enough to make that kind of judgement. It's just what I would like.