I have this thing about my characters in Destiny. In my mind, my 3 guardians are a team. Maybe its because they all share a common inventory, or because they're all lined up on the screen when I sign in to Destiny. Over the course of playing Destiny, they will never exist in the same place together. But in my mind they make up an elite unit together.

With all this going on in my imagination, something has always bothered my about knowing that my alternate characters are just sitting there, in stasis, waiting for me to take them out into the field. We put so much time and energy into creating these characters; it feels like a waste to have at least 2 of them on the bench at all times. So once again, my imagination steps in. I pretend my alternate characters are off on missions of their own, fighting their own battles until I take control of them again.

What if this was actually possible? What if there was a way for our alternate characters to be put to use, even when we're not controlling them?

If anyone here has played Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag, you probably already know where I'm going with this. If not, I'll fill you in. Over the course of the game, you acquired ships that were added to your fleet. This fleet was part of a minigame that could be accessed from within the main game, or via the Black Flag mobile app. You would send these ships out on missions to earn rewards. Each ship's statistics determine the likelihood of successfully completing any given mission. Once a ship is sent of a mission, it is unavailable for other activities until that mission is complete. The higher-difficulty missions offer higher rewards, but require better ships and more time to complete.

Ok, now that we're all caught up on Black Flag's "Fleet" mini game, let's think about how something similar could perhaps be included in Destiny. I'd love to see a mini game that allows us to send our guardians out on simulated missions for small-to-moderate rewards. Here's how I see it:

When you launch the mini game, you're presented with a map similar to the Director map in the main game. For the sake of this example, let's say the map is exactly the same. You use the map to select a mission and difficulty level. Once you've selected a mission, you choose which of your guardians to send to complete it. You equip your guardian(s) with actual weapons and armor from your in-game inventory. Then, based on your guardian's level, armor, weaponry, and the difficulty of the mission you've selected, you are given a "likelihood of successful completion" rating. For example, a success rating of 50% means your guardian stands a 50/50 chance of completing the selected mission with the gear he/she currently has equipped. If your guardian succeeds, you get the rewards for completion. If your guardian fails, you don't lose anything (perhaps there could be a cost involved for running the more challenging missions, like small amounts of glimmer or materials. That way there would be more potential risk).

The more difficult missions would yield better rewards, but take longer to complete. This is where things balance out: if I send my Titan off on a mini-game mission, he's unavailable for me to play with until the mission is done (or I could cancel the mission to have him return to the tower, forfeiting any rewards). So an easy mission might take 15 minutes, and award 100 glimmer on completion. The most challenging missions could reward engrams or strange coins, or lots of glimmer, but take 24 hours to complete.

This is where things start to get fun. Let's say you're allowed to send multiple guardians out on missions together at the same time (like virtual "co-op"). My hunter might have a 40% chance of completing a difficult mission solo, but if I send my Titan with her their odds of success could jump to 90%. You can also team up with other players. If I want to send my Warlock on a particularly difficult mission, I could invite Cyber and Cody to each send one of their guardians to complete the mission together. There could be success-rate bonuses for sending combinations of character classes out together. There could even be mini-game equivalents to the weekly heroic and nightfall strikes, with burn modifiers and everything. So if I send my Hunter on a mini-game mission with Fatebringer equipped, she'll stand a better chance of succeeding. But I'd have to live without my Fatebringer until she gets back.

Best of all, this minigame could be accessed from within Destiny, or via the mobile app. It would give us a way to engage with the game and universe while we're away from our consoles, and it would give us a way to make our alternate characters feel productive and useful even when we aren't controlling them.

What do you guys think? Am I totally nuts?