This one is tough (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, November 14, 2022, 20:52 (743 days ago) @ cheapLEY

I'm not sure that single 'secret' missions really accomplish what secrets are intended to do: Make the game feel bigger and more expansive by letting you know there's more to it than meets the eye.

Traditionally you'd have tiers of secrets. Some are easy to find, others tougher, and several very hard. Critically, the easy ones lead you to realize that there's more to the game than it seems. And there are many. The game is full of them. They can range from neat little bonuses, to more substantial things.

Also critical is that they not be tracked or labeled. There must be no expectation that the player will find any of them. Doing so immediately turns them into a checklist, explicitly letting players know everything there is to find, which is the opposite of what is described above. It'll be perfunctory, with players just following guides to get the achievement. No sense of mystery or wonder.

Where would a secret mission with a gun as reward fall here? Closer to the latter scenario I think. Everyone will simply look it up on /r/DestinyTheGame. It might as well just be a regular mission.

Only a few can have the awesome moment of discovery before the secret is simply known to all. Information travels too quickly these days.