Your point, though, is well taken, I just don't think it can be addressed the way you suggest. Perhaps the way to handle it would have been to structure it so each patrol destination had a public area that was inaccessible until the required activities were cleared-- the idea being that humanity is fighting to establish various beachheads in anticipation of a coming conflict, rather than trying to end said conflict.

I like this idea. I'm also wondering about an alternative idea where Bungie does what they've been doing with some of the quests that have been popping up throughout Taken King. After Oryx is defeated, maybe some quests turn to clearing areas. The next thing you know, certain areas open up where we begin establishing colonies or something (that maybe turn into hub locations like the Reef and Tower, but with less grindy mechanics attached to them?) that both need defending (public events like in the Patrol space of the Dreadnaught) as well as more fun or interesting exploration tasks that open up areas that maybe we weren't able to get to previously. I'm sure Bungie could come up with all sorts of fun and innovative things to explore and do. A type of Skyrim or Mass Effect approach, maybe.

- No text -

It's interesting, because as far as we know right now Oryx was Destiny's original and ultimate big bad... and we just destroyed him! There are other threats, of course. Oryx's remaining sisters, the Cabal, the Vex, The Nine, Rasputin, perhaps even a long lost Fallen house. Oh, and The Darkness (THE DARKNESS!). We could just face each of these in turn as we add more planets and locations to the Director, and can't imagine that The Traveler won't wake up or get shot down at some point in the next nine years.

Bungie's talked a lot about planting seeds, and I think now is a great time to begin planting seeds for the Light, the Traveler, and the Speaker. A build up and investment in the player's caring for these things would add volumes to whatever impact might be felt whenever the Traveler does finally become more involved in this story. If handled properly, it could even add more emotion to enemy and boss encounters depending upon what unspeakable and horrible things we've seen happen that need to be avenged, protected, allied with, etc.

But then part of me wonder if Destiny couldn't evolve over time. What if its scope could expand first to encompass all of our solar system and then many solar systems? What if it became a little less Halo and a little more Mass Effect? Traveling from planet to planet, system to system, to under take missions and dynamically push back or be pushed back by enemy forces. My visions is almost certainly larger than what Bungie wants to do, but if the planets in our solar system were allowed to progress forward in the story and new locations were added outside our solar system one destination at a time (just one important Cabal planet with one major expansion. Then later a single Vex destination deep within a cluster of Vex systems a year later, etc) it could create the illusion of size without needed to go bonkers making too many new destination planets.

Or maybe they'll just add a massive amount of multiplayer space combat and we'll all be happy. :p

Bigger is definitely better in this instance. We know from the Grimoire just how expansive the Destiny in-game universe is. We know the Traveler and Darkness have come from somewhere "beyond" potentially this solar system. We know that the Hive or Taken or even the Cabal potentially exist elsewhere in the galaxy. Opening it up in some way could be huge. What if the key to solving a lot of our problems requires us to go elsewhere? Like you said about Mass Effect, in ME2 when we ended up warping into the center of the galaxy to take the fight to the Collectors, it was just insane. And there was a baby human Reaper being built? It was mind blowing. Imagine the surprises and twists and actual plot progression, characterization, and universe building that could take place both within and beyond our solar system in this universe.

If we start to understand the motivations of the Light and the Traveler, it can open up more distinct motivations for our enemies in the game. This opens up the possibility of going well beyond whatever we've seen so far in-system and potentially outside of it. I think you're spot on about how this would really open up a world of possibilities if Bungie were to do it.

I think there is plenty of untapped potential right here in our own solar system. Even earth. Going outside our solar system is great too, but I'm more interested in seeing places like Chicago or Europa, perhaps other regions or mars, venus, or mercury.

I think putting focus on the Speaker and the Traveler is a mistake. It would be better to open the city with a large amount of NPCs. The NPCs can humanize the world, make us care by allowing us to care about the survivors struggling to live beneath the light of the Traveler.

These are the people who struggled through the wilderness, avoiding intermittent Fallen raids, hive attacks and worse, all to escape the destruction of their entire world to one spot with a nearly dead savior. In theory, we as guardians died either assisting them, or in last stands protecting them from the fires of the cataclysm that made this world.

This also allows us to preserve the mystery of the Speaker and the Traveler. The NPCs don't know the whole truth, but they may have pieces of it. They could give us leads, hints, and other reasons to go out and explore aside from the usual promise of loot. They could be the tool to prove Osiris wrong, that guardians aren't just tools designed to do whatever someone with a floating icon above their head wants.

This may conflict with the story Bungie is trying to tell… I thought that way as well, but there's a random person in the tower who one said to me something along the lines of "Most people in the city think Guardians are just a Myth". How could they think that? The relationship between the Traveler, city, and remaining humans is VERY different if you take that statement into account.

I agree that the tower feels 'small'. That same amount of geometry, but with stretches of the city off in the distance would sell size much better.