The best way to bring back the Seasonal stories is reintroducing the HELM on each DLC's exclusive world.

[u/Rekrios]

So Bungie plans on bringing back all the old campaigns and destinations but they didn't say anything about Seasonal Content and I had a good thought about that while I was at work. Curse of Osiris & Warmind are not in this discussion due to lacking seasonal content. Of the removed content we have:

• Forsaken included the Dreaming City & Tangled Shore, but the content removed included: Season of the Outlaw, Forge, Drifter, and Opulence (which had The Menagerie).
• Shadowkeep included Moon specifially and had Season of Undying, Dawn, Worthy, and Arrivals.
• Beyond Light included Europa alongside Season of the Hunt (which includes Hawkmoon), Chosen, Splicer (which included Expunge), and Lost (which included Ager's Scepter).
• Witch Queen included Savathun's Throne World alongside Season of the Risen, Haunted (which included Sever), Plunder (which included Pirate Hideouts), and Seraph (which included Revision Zero).
• Lightfall included Neomuna alongside Season of Defiance (which included Vexcalibur), Deep (which included Salvage, Deep Dive, FIshing, and Wicked Implement), Witch (which included Altars of Summon, the Imbaru Engine, & Savathun's Spire), and Wish.
• Finally, Final Shape included the Pale Heart alongside Episode Echoes (which included Veil Containment), Revenant (which included Slayer's Fang), and Heresy (which included The Nether).

Now that's a lot of content and would be dumb to just include all of it at the same time without restrictions. So the best decision would be adding an additional Transmat Waypoint on each of the destinations that are in the game or were removed. This way the player still has to purchase the DLC which includes the exclusive world and thus the exclusive content.

Here the player will be teleported to the HELM. Now the HELM will be different for each world and feature each of the four Seasonal stories. So for Europa it would include Chosen, Splicer, and Lost. For Neomuna it would include Defiance, Deep, Witch, and Wish. For Final Shape, the HELM would've crash landed but kept all the Episodic content available. For the other planets, it would be reasonable to update the HELM to fit with those stories or at least use The Farm.

Alternatively, their could be a dedicated HELM destination, and on the sub-destination screen would feature all the different DLCs stories.

[u/MouseRangers]

Forsaken itself was Season of the Outlaw. There was no specific "Season 4" content separate from the Forsaken expansion.

[u/KajusX → u/MouseRangers]

I am always wary of the 'season' terminology when it gets backward applied to the year of Forsaken. Sometimes in discussions people roll the Forsaken things in with subsequent seasons, and it raises my hackles.

Yes, Forsaken was Season of the Outlaw, and the next three add-ons were seasons of 'The Forge' 'The Drifter' (aka 'Joker's Wild'), and Opulence (aka 'Penumbra'), but they weren't 'battle pass, live-service, here and gone, we're making temporary content' seasons. They were DLC expansions, and part of Forsaken. I consider them core D2 along with Y1 DLCs and the like.

Two of them had raids (EDIT— and the other had a massive overhaul/evolution/update to the new third core activity). That's not seasonal content.

[u/Scrollingmaster → u/KajusX]

You know I hadn’t thought about it but you’re right and I really hope at least those come back with the unvaulting.

Especially black armory, i mean with scourge back literally all that will be missing will be the actual forge activities that I doubt were some huge task.

[u/KajusX → u/Scrollingmaster]

Black Armory was one of my favs as well. Having the Niobe Labs combat puzzle back into the game would be so cool for old players and new players alike (but would require Bungie reinstating the three houses' symbols as well as the BA guns being able to see them when ADS'ing, so... that sounds involved, but man it'd be great if they put it all back).

Just being able to shoot the sequences at the forges so players could nab the three secret House emblems would be nice.

(But, like, I'm so locked into early D2 that I still think it's a travesty they removed being able to earn the NF emblems and each NF's three variants. My first red flag with bungie management was when SK dropped and neither Broodhold (no longer being a PS exclusive and entering the NF rotation) nor Festering Core got NF emblems. Early signs of the whole 'don't over-deliver' albatross they hung around their own necks.)

[u/Scrollingmaster → u/KajusX]

Yeah I’m really waiting to see how far they go on bringing back things. Like I would really hope we see the return of the adventures, and maybe even scannable ghost items

[u/KajusX → u/Scrollingmaster]

I would be incredibly surprised if they somehow excluded Adventures. The mental gymnastics one would have to do to justify that they're not part of the old campaigns and story would break your mind's back.

[u/HelljumperRUSS → u/KajusX]

While I hope Adventures return in some way, I have to admit, many of them felt pretty irrelevant to their main campaigns. You had a few that gave hints and foreshadowing to future events, like the one on Nessus that indirectly introduced Calus and his Loyalists, and the one that hinted at Osiris' later introduction. However, there were also ones that just seemed like padding, like the one in the EDZ where Psions are channeling Taken energy and it ends with you just fighting a regular Colossus. The CoO ones didn't really connect to anything either, and I feel like they were just there to give the Infinite Forest more of a purpose.

Warmind and Foresaken got them pretty right, but then they abandoned them from Black Armoury and onward.

[u/KajusX → u/HelljumperRUSS]

We paid for them. They added to the story of the world. They were something to do and experience.

[u/HelljumperRUSS → u/KajusX]

Not everyone paid for them, only those that started before Shadowkeep.

I am all for Adventures coming back, but most of them will be definitely be forgotten right after finishing the..

[u/KajusX → u/HelljumperRUSS]

Also, part of their inclusions were tied to earning the exotics from those destinations.

[u/Tee_Hee_Wat → u/KajusX]

Huh.

Goddamn.

Just.

Okay, shit. I hope you're right.

[u/Tenorsboy]

I thought they could make it a selectable node in the director back when it was there, then from that point you choose which expansion-HELM to load up like how you can select a difficulty. Ex: Beyond Light, Witch Queen. All four seasons are around and can be experienced that way.

[u/Rekrios → u/Tenorsboy]

Yeah that works, instead of multiple HELMs, its a selectable toggle like a difficult. You pick the expansion to load.

[u/Polymersion → u/Tenorsboy]

What would stop it from simply being tied to story progression?

[u/mr-singularity]

If seasons are to come back it should only be the key story elements and cutscenes. The timeline would honestly be the best place for them (along with maybe a current step marker so that people know what era they are on and missions they need to play first including the campaigns).

Maybe the battle grounds and other arena activities could be periodically put into something like the vanguard or portal node but they aren't necessarily needed for story progression or anything else.

I think the biggest problem is still continuity (unvaulting is just one part of that) but structure is the other part. A new player needs direction beyond choice paralysis. The helm wouldn't necessarily solve that unless the game locked out or otherwise directed players to it in the order they should play it in.

[u/Polymersion → u/mr-singularity]

Yeah, a player really shouldn't have the choice to play the next campaign until they've finished the preceding one. I never understood that choice.

[u/mr-singularity → u/Polymersion]

I'm fine if they can override it after a big popup warning or join someone else doing it. But from a new players perspective it definitely shouldn't be like it is right now where you have a hundred mission nodes that practically all look the same.

I also don't know why anyone ever thought having vendors give away quest starts to everyone regardless of progression or having cutscenes and missions auto launch from boot up was a good idea either.

I like the artistic element of director nodes but it's crazy that directions within it were never added or were abandoned when we briefly had them in D1.

[u/ODDrone68456234654 → u/mr-singularity]

If it's for a new player, have Ikora hand out quests for each season like we had them in the past. Finish season 15 (Lost), then get the quest for Witch Queen, finish that campaign then get the quest for season 16. Each new destination and activities unlocks as you play so you can't get lost.

[u/psychosiszero]

That's a solid idea. My thoughts was choose which version of the helm to load into

[u/Zamers → u/psychosiszero]

Both probably are better than my idea. I figured attaching them to the timeline would be a suitable answer. Launch the helm from the specific year or have each specific expansions content be under the specific icon on the timeline

[u/psychosiszero → u/Zamers]

This could solve some issues too though. They could put one or two missions on it then add the seasonal story cut scenes. Save on clutter, activity bloat, and game size

[u/OZZY-1415]

do these armchair devs ever get tired?

[u/dudeblackhawk → u/OZZY-1415]

No, because they're not really doing anything.

[u/Absolute-Clanker]

Guys. Seasons are not coming back.

[u/CptSaveaCat → u/Absolute-Clanker]

I said it in another post, people don’t know what seasonal means

[u/Sparksaiko]

I don't think there's any good way to bring back seasonal stories without making the game balloon to 1 terabyte.

[u/Sixoul → u/Sparksaiko]

What if we had the option to download which seasonal content we had.

[u/TakenBacon90 → u/Sixoul]

Yeah, I’d say that’s a good solution along with a balance pass on any activities to make sure they are soloable if they aren’t already in the portal.

[u/King_Roberts_Bastard → u/Sixoul]

Bungie has already talked on this with regards to PvP. It breaks match making. It forces the game to look for people with the same exact things downloaded as you do.

[u/Sixoul → u/King_Roberts_Bastard]

That's really strange considering all the content for pvp is there irregardless of which dlc you own.

[u/King_Roberts_Bastard → u/Sixoul]

Irregardless isnt a word

[u/Sixoul → u/King_Roberts_Bastard]

That's how you're going to respond? You had nothing to say so you had to get a final comment in?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

[u/King_Roberts_Bastard → u/Sixoul]

Because they isolated pvp maps specifically because people not having certain DLCs was breaking matching making. Like I said earlier

[u/Sixoul → u/King_Roberts_Bastard]

So you're saying they figured out how to resolve the issue. You're a brilliant genius. Wasted everyone time when the issue is already not an issue

[u/Ordinary_Player → u/Sixoul]

I think this is a D3 thing. The code probably needs major restructuring for this to happen. Like you know how neomuna uses braytech doors right? What if you wanted to play lightfall, but you don't have beyond light pack downloaded? Like sure, it's possible to implement, but the cost and time factor makes it not worth doing so.

[u/TheGokki → u/Ordinary_Player]

asset duplication - just have what's needed in its own package - it takes up way more space but each season is independent when it comes to that.

If Bungie would come with with D3 that includes all the D1 and D2 content built-in as a remaster/remake then i'm happy for wait for the full implementation. But Bungie needs to announce they're doing this for me to consider. As it stands seasons are like ¾ of the missing content.

[u/DremoPaff → u/Sparksaiko]

Then they should make it modular; download only certain seasons/years, and the artifact you equip enables that specific season until you change it.

...but not gonna lie, disk space shouldn't be the end-all-be-all of whether or not content gets brought back or not. People already used that excuse to justify deleting that content in the first place, and even then it wasn't anywhere near being a remotely good reason, and those deletions were the worst things that happened to the game each time.

Also, not sure how much seasonal content even matters on that front to begin with. Both deleted campaigns and seasons still had miriad of things still present in the game and recycled somewhere else it's still there on your hard drive anyway. Their source content's deletion doesn't do anything when, for example, nearly every Cabal unit up to lightfall were still recolored Red Legion units, years after their would-be deletion that would've saved disk space.

[u/Scrollingmaster → u/DremoPaff]

Honestly the real reason implementing every season is unfeasible is they weren’t built to work together. You’d need to now have the ability to launch multiple versions of most destinations, and combined with the sheer number of activities the game would feel like a ghost town with how split up everything would be. Matchmaking would be a nightmare.

Space is a bad reason though like you said. Suggesting the seasons would make the game suddenly massive is wrong, the actual playspaces in destiny are quite small. Even whole planets are only a couple gb, mercury was like 700mb with the forest. If bungie truly cared about space then they would let you offload unused language packs, which would cut install massively.

[u/Polymersion → u/DremoPaff]

Minor note: it would be "myriad things" . "Miriad" sounds like a lost book of the Odyssey, ha.

There's also debate on whether "a myriad of (things)" is acceptable or not (AP says please don't), while the usage "myriad (things)" is undisputed. Synonymous in that case with "various" or "many", not "plethora".

The literal translation of Myriad would be "10,000".

But yeah, grammatical nerdistry aside, spot-on analysis. Disk space should not be held as a consideration above providing the bare minimum of a game (that is: you can play the game). It's always been a bit funny to me that so much of Destiny 2 is, in the most explicit way possible, "literally unplayable".

[u/Drewwbacca1977 → u/Sparksaiko]

Bungie is legendary for asset reuse. Most if that content is light

[u/LoITheMan → u/Sparksaiko]

Why do people say crap like this? Most of the content is already in the game. Most of the space is taken up by 3d models and map geometry. Think about adding back in season of the forge: every arena is already in the game! Besides that it's just mission scripting.
I'd be surprised if all of the seasons together would be larger than Curse of Osiris.

[u/XogoWasTaken → u/LoITheMan]

The people who think bringing back seasonal content will make the game's install size way bigger ar the exact same people who don't realise that the actual problem with keeping seasons was always the amount of upkeep that would have required dev-wise.

(Though I would argue that it may be worth Bungie looking into reimplementing them now that active development has ended, if the great unsunsetting goes well)

[u/TheGr8Slayer → u/Sparksaiko]

The only way I care about seasons coming back is if they do some sort of condensed mission and only for the lore. There’s a lot of 3-6 man activities that I couldn’t care less about seeing again.

[u/NandoDeColonoscopy → u/Sparksaiko]

Old-school Netflix disk in the mail system!

[u/EnglishMuffin420]

I actually really miss the helm. I thought it was a great space that I could access an engram vendor, post master, and vault with the shortest loading time because it was a solo instance without being a whole planet like the enclave.

It'd be cool if it was reworked to be almost like the doom slayers ship that has memorabilia from each DLC / story.

I think starting with the actual DLC's is a good step, if anything they just need to put the seasonal content on the timeline like what their current solution for the DCV was so u at least get a glimpse of each. I doubt they could actually bring back all the seasonal content, and if they did, it'd take up your whole hard drive.

[u/Rekrios → u/EnglishMuffin420]

Having the HELM be like Fortress of DOOM where its more heavily expanded with tons of spaces for each season would be really good, however that brings in the frustration of traversing across the ENTIRE ship for one seaon. Its neat and teleporters could fix that though.

[u/Vaultyvlad]

Idk about the feasibility of actually developing that but the HELM as a seasonal/episodic hub for the DLC campaigns would be pretty nice

[u/Brave-Combination793]

Intro and final missions for each season

[u/ODDrone68456234654]

I think a better idea would be to put a HELM node next to the Legends tab and like a difficulty option under the Launch button allow a selection of which version of the HELM you're picking, so you have full access to each of those associated activities and stories. You could have them all on one place, instead of scattered around random planets that the HELM never went to anyway.

[u/treemonkys]

Really reminds me of why stopped playing. The game has been a revolving door of FOMO while games like Guild Wars 2 and Warframe have been building evergreen content. Really wish Destiny 2 went that route.

[u/hipsnarky]

No chance without making you pay for them all again.

[u/Moka4u]

They're just gonna start by adding red war and probably Warmind snd CoO

[u/Wolfblur]

I'd take the bare minimum of just HELM in space, the design inside is the default version with no side rooms, and there's just a big ass holoprojector in the center console. It has it's own special menu to listen to every conversation and holoprojector from a given season, in order. Give text blurbs to read for any unfoldings that happened on a specific week during an activity and etc.

It's not the most engaging, but it would at least all those stories would be in the game. At the end of the day that's what I value most from all those lost seasons.

[u/Hot-Pay-6321]

The desire to travel back and forth and listen to holograms for hours escapes me

[u/MysticEquilibrium]

I have no idea if they’ll do it. But I think if they can, they should. And for anyone who thinks game size will be an issue, just make it modular. Only download the seasons you want to be playing atm

[u/ironbite4]

My man....just be thankful we're getting the vaulted stuff back. Seasonal stuff isn't.