Having spent a good number of hours on the beta, here are the few areas that I felt were lacking, and a few suggestions for what might prop up the experience a bit.

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Game world entry and exit.
I love what Bungie has done with the load screen, and have always wondered why companies still insist on showing me a load bar and a black screen. Still, the entry and exit into the world is abrupt and closer to The Matrix than to a human that must travel by ship. I don't know the best way to solve this, but I'd love to see entry into the world be by ship, or drop pod. This would serve two purposes:
1. Create a more seamless world entry for both the player and those watching/waiting for the player.
2. Allows anyone already in the world that is paying attention to know there are Guardians inbound.

#2 is some of the most Matrix like stuff in the game. To be looking at an open field, blink, and suddenly there are Guardians there. All my mind can think is "Oh look, players loaded the game". I'd much rather think "Oh look, Guardians are inbound to my neck of the woods"

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Public Events feel like the participation list is fixed before it begins.

Let me explain this point by telling a story of my favorite Destiny moment to date.
A public event starts, and me and one other Guardians are going at one of the walkers. We've been at this thing for 30-40 seconds, and I'm thinking we can't take it in time. Suddenly, Two rockets hit the side of the beast almost simultaneously. I look in the direction of the rockets and, in a way I couldn't have scripted better, two Guardians come bounding off a small cliff and heading right for us, with a third one just in front of them on a Sparrow.

What made that moment awesome stemmed from two things I believe
1. We were losing, and more Guardians entered combat "just in time".
2. I was able to notice and see help coming before it really arrived.

The key to #1 is actually that Guardians arrived late. In my experience Guardians joining in mid event happened maybe one in 20 events. There were usually 3-6 Guardians in a space, and while all of them knew an event was happening, all of them made a choice to participate well before it had actually started. Something I wished for in a number of events, and I thought would solve this is:

Allow Guardians to call for help.
I don't know what the range of that help call is, or what it looks like, but maybe it varies based on players in your instance of the world. If you allow a Guardian to call for help you get a couple things:

A) You'd only receive that backup if you felt you needed it (or wanted it). Otherwise other players would stay as clueless about public events as they currently are. Or stay as apathetic as they currently are.
B) When you called for help, you'd be unlikely to receive that help until you had been fighting for a bit, due to the travel time required by those that respond to the call.

While my second desire listed above is harder to pull off and not as worth pursuing, maybe it can go with my request to make it less Matrix like. Allow Guardians to drop ship in to the event. If they must come by foot or Sparrow, then perhaps allow people to respond to the call for help with an Affirmative. Those that call for help may even get a distance count down until help arrives.

Now imagine this:
You start fighting, you start losing. You're in over your head. You signal for help, and a Guardian someplace responds to the call letting you know he's on the way. You keep fighting, and then suddenly reinforcements arrive, and you watch as Guardians join the fight.

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I had a few more topics to hit but I also only intended on writing a paragraph per thought. Whoops.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Do you feel the game is lacking in the areas I described and could use some sort of game mechanic change? Or what do you think of the game mechanic change I suggest? I realize Bungie isn't likely (or at this point in dev capable) of doing much, but I like sounding off ideas about design and human interaction :)

#2 is some of the most Matrix like stuff in the game. To be looking at an open field, blink, and suddenly there are Guardians there. All my mind can think is "Oh look, players loaded the game". I'd much rather think "Oh look, Guardians are inbound to my neck of the woods"

This.

IIRC, it was heavily implied we would get ships passing overhead every time a Guardian joined your world, but I didn't pick any in the Beta.

I assumed that players blinking into existence was for the beta only, and that in the shipping game we would experience what Joe Staten showed at E3 - watch a friend's ship fly in, and she trans-mats to the ground beneath the ship.

#2 is some of the most Matrix like stuff in the game. To be looking at an open field, blink, and suddenly there are Guardians there. All my mind can think is "Oh look, players loaded the game". I'd much rather think "Oh look, Guardians are inbound to my neck of the woods"

They showed this happen in early videos. I don't know why it was removed. Maybe it was just a Beta thing...

Allow Guardians to call for help.
I don't know what the range of that help call is, or what it looks like, but maybe it varies based on players in your instance of the world. If you allow a Guardian to call for help you get a couple things:

One thing that bothered me in the Beta was that you can't mark a spot, effectively setting up a beacon. In Warframe, this is delegated to the left D-pad button. It's simple, efficient, and always available. Down on D-pad brings up a radial menu for your inventory, which would have been a great way for Bungie to delegate the gestures and dance button, instead of mapping them to the D-pad, and making the "point" only a marginally useful tool.

A) You'd only receive that backup if you felt you needed it (or wanted it). Otherwise other players would stay as clueless about public events as they currently are. Or stay as apathetic as they currently are.

Warframe has a multi-tiered chat system that lets you talk to your squad, your Clan, or any alliance that your Clan is involved with in-game:

If you find yourself alone in a game, you can call for help from any of the other two options. It would be great if Destiny had this option, and the ability to have the clan option open would help alleviate the "no raid matchmaking" issue in two ways:

1. You wouldn't have to depend on your closest friends to be online, and it would add extra value to the Clan system.
2. You are tackling the tougher challenges with people that you and/or your friends know, but that you may not know very well. This could help make or improve friendships and social circles, also adding value to the clan system.

B) When you called for help, you'd be unlikely to receive that help until you had been fighting for a bit, due to the travel time required by those that respond to the call.

While my second desire listed above is harder to pull off and not as worth pursuing, maybe it can go with my request to make it less Matrix like. Allow Guardians to drop ship in to the event. If they must come by foot or Sparrow, then perhaps allow people to respond to the call for help with an Affirmative. Those that call for help may even get a distance count down until help arrives.

Now imagine this:
You start fighting, you start losing. You're in over your head. You signal for help, and a Guardian someplace responds to the call letting you know he's on the way. You keep fighting, and then suddenly reinforcements arrive, and you watch as Guardians join the fight.

I whipped up a mock-up to give an idea of how Bungie could improve the D-pad functions to improve on each area that you've discussed. Simply clicking the D-pad in any direction could function much like it currently does, but holding it down in any direction could bring up a radial menu, so that new players could still communicate with the ease of the current system, while more advanced folks would have greater tools already at their disposal, allowing for greater communication without the need for voice chat:

POINT: Default Action: Points, D-Pad: UP

• Waypoint- Sets a waypoint wherever you are pointing. Infinite uses, no-brainer, should have been in the game. If used while aiming at a loot chest, it can place a unique icon on your fireteam's screen, leading them to the loot. As seen in this image:
  
  
• Mark Friendly- Sometimes when you're in the tower, someone asks who sells what, or where a good deal is. This option could mark whichever friendly the player is looking at, while a pop-up would appear on the hud for others in your fireteam, showing who was being marked, and who marked them in the quick feed. Also very useful in combat, in case you see a distant guardian who might need help, and you want to let your teammates know.
  
• Enemy Units- You could use this to mark a specific enemy/patrol for your team. In the mock-up, you can see that a teammate marked an enemy, and if it was marked by someone in your fireteam, a pop-up could show up on the player screen, telling you the enemy type and level.
  
• Fireteam- This could alert your existing fireteam that you need assistance, placing a waypoint on you in case of emergencies.
  
• Countdown- A very useful tool in Portal 2, sometimes coordination is needed. Tired of running out into combat and nobody provides cover fire? This could put a three second countdown over your head that any player could see.

COMMAND: Default Action: Wave/Salute (if aimed at player), Wait (When not aiming at player). D-Pad: RIGHT

• Move Up- Signals to move forward. Sometimes you want to hang back and snipe, but other players just hang back waiting for you to make a move. You can give them the go-ahead, letting them know that you're providing cover fire.
  
• Long-Range- Request sniping on target. If your secondary is a shotgun, and you don't want to expose yourself to sniper fire, you can let a teammate know that you need ranged attacks.
  
• Stealth- Requests quiet approach. If you're low on ammo and would prefer to avoid a fight, you can prep your team for a less gung-ho approach.
  
• Flank Right- Signals to move right.
  
• Flank Left- Signals to move Left.
  
• Wait- Signals your team to hold up. Maybe you want to wait for reinforcements to arrive, or for an enemy to get out of cover before you want people opening fire.
  
• Wave- Maybe you just want to wave at the traveler...

SOCIAL: Default Action: Dance 1 (If set as favorite). D-Pad: LEFT

• Dance 1- Default Dance.
  
• Dance 2- If earned/bought, Alternate Dance.
  
• Dance sync- Sync up your dance moves with nearest player, if both have the same dance unlocked. Can you reach a Thriller-level of coordination?
  
• Extend hand- In case you want to shake hands with another guardian. Maybe in the midst of multiplayer, a moment of shining coordination and teamwork nets you an awesome play/kill. Want to risk cementing that with a shake to really stick it to the other team? Social level: Godly.
  
• Salute- Had a great time with some players, but you have to log off, or they're continuing with their own quest? Give them a farewell salute.
  
• Call for Help- Sends out a pulse requesting assistance from nearby guardians who are not in your fireteam. People know you need help. How many will come, and will they arrive in time? Hold on, Guardian!

REST: Default Action: Sit (Weapon holstered) D-Pad: DOWN

• Sit (Weapon holstered)- Current sitting posture, simple, quick.
  
• Take a knee (Weapon holstered)- Maybe a player wants to let teammates know that he's going AFK for a moment, or a hunter wants to reflect for a moment after a kill.
  
• Standing idle- Could immediately trigger idle animation. Weapon resting on shoulder, guardian adjusting armor, stretching, etc.
  
• Sit (Examining weapon)- For the gun enthusiasts.
  
• Meditate- Warlocks gotta be one with the universe...
  
• Firt-Person- Cuts to first-person view of current rest animation, letting player move their head around.

In order to avoid abuse, the gestures could be on an increasing cool-down, limiting the spammed use of non-essential gestures. That way people will have to think before they decide to start breaking into random point/dance-sessions.

While the PS4's swipe gestures would have been great ways to further increase the options available to the player (maybe even as another radial screen for inventory items), the inability to implement this into the other versions makes an addition like this unlikely...

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I had a few more topics to hit but I also only intended on writing a paragraph per thought. Whoops.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Do you feel the game is lacking in the areas I described and could use some sort of game mechanic change? Or what do you think of the game mechanic change I suggest? I realize Bungie isn't likely (or at this point in dev capable) of doing much, but I like sounding off ideas about design and human interaction :)

The more I can say to people without talking to them, the better.

I've certainly wanted both a hello wave and a thank you gesture. My Titan had his nice salute, my other Titan has a dignified bow, but my hunter just goes "HI GUYS!!!1!!" to everybody after they help me defend a warsat or kill a Spider Tank. :/ A more useful point / mark would be useful too :)

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Btw, Korny, that is pretty much hundreds (hyperbole) of times more complex than what we have. While I very much liked it, I doubt Bungie has both the time and the artistic will to do it at this point.

Btw, Korny, that is pretty much hundreds (hyperbole) of times more complex than what we have. While I very much liked it, I doubt Bungie has both the time and the artistic will to do it at this point.

I would be happy if pointing placed a waypoint where I pointed for my fireteam to see, and waving placed a waypoint on me that my fireteam could see. That alone would make those way more useful for people with no mics.

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