When i first saw all the cube recipes myself i admit i was suspicious too.
However, in practice i noticed that i spend a lot of time playing actively as a result of easier gearing, as you described it. Rather than doing runs for hours/ days on end with my brain set to standby, I am always trying to improve how my gear/ skills work together in town, and testing it out in rifts. Maybe a slightly different build only works with immaculate micro and I'm excited to practice. And grifts allow for benchmarking progress.
Im really proud or how much Blizzard has evolved their game. Even if it was painful slow to change at many times.
I don't get all the hub-bub about this anyway. It's a phoney contest.
Here's how ladder rankings work;
1) If you have a job, you lose.
2) See rule 1
3) See rule 2
Ok fair enough. I work 10-12 hours a day and I don't pretend I have an honest shot at topping the ladder. But this is true for any competitive game (SC2, CS Go, LoL, Dota 2 etc), so it makes for a poor excuse to not care, especially when you want to contribute to a community that is bigger than yourself as an individual. When a ladder/ranking system is compromised, it's compromised on all levels, not just top. And anyone has a right to complain constructively about it. I don't think we should crucify people who take advantage of poor game designs (unless the user agreement has a specific clause against this). This just speaks to an imperfect product.
On the other hand, to say that Blizzard can create patches for free is ignorant. Nothing is free in a business. Who knows what the trade offs are for them putting more people or hours into patching this game that doesn't really bring them any money in.
The way I see it, there is more than one aspect to this. People need to stop taking shots at each other and Blizzard, and rally around being as articulately constructive as possible.
First off, I want to establish that free time to many consumers is important and has value. No further explanation req'd.
This season sucks butts. And, honestly the next season will probably be similar. In the bigger picture though, future seasons will be better as a result of this season. At least, I think so.
What I want to know is, if Blizzard anticipated that players find extreme exploits and "work-arounds" to playing the game as intended (which any responsible designer should have), why aren't initial seasons shorter? Plenty of players probably stopped taking this season seriously (if they even participated after hearing about the 1.5 hour ding to 70), and are just waiting for the next season to roll around.
Do you think Seasons should be shorter just for now, until we have a more stable system to compete in? If yes, what time frame would be appropriate?
Would a Rollback be the most consumer friendly approach? Does it matter enough what this season's outcome is to warrant that?
I find this question most interesting: should an "exploit"/game design flaw be left in the game until the end of season to allow all players a chance to be on equal terms, provided it doesn't make the game unplayable?
Should everyone just continue to "take one for the team" and ride it out for entire quarters at a time (keeping in mind that time has value)?
Exploiting players capitalize on these exploits way more when the bridges they got to cross were burned behind them, so to speak. They're actually being rewarded at this point. Long seasons are pointless at this stage, because I already know that the exploiters won. I don't need to wait 3 whole months to figure that out. (Edit: I would point out out for clarity that leaving exploits in game would mean that Paragon Experience carried over to non season would have to be adjusted to avoid PLVL 9000+ players by the end of the year. Fair enough...)
I speak for myself when I say that I would have an easier time shrugging off a crappy exploit knowing that the next season is already right around the corner.
It would be interesting if combinations of different gems in items with more than one socket created different affixes as well. This topic definitely needs A LOT of thought put into it. Currently when I compare gems, it's always an obvious decision what to pick because everything else just... ermm... sucks?
Has anyone ever gotten a useful item reward from a quest?
Even leveling up my base level these items aren't even close to good. Not even good sell or salvage value. Usually just blue trash.
I don't care about getting good loot from quests or anything. But maybe a free equipment repair instead. Or a one time +10% durability buff on items. Currently this just feels like an afterthought, and is a tiny nuisance.
Many other regular... casual players find 3+ legs/hour (by luck of the draw) by doing rifts as you say you do. So is it really thaaat much of an issue? I doubt it.
And besides, Blizz balanced it out by raising drop chances by a fraction of a fraction of a percent in the same hotfix. Lol jk. Just taking a stab at Blizz. I was just bewildered by how little that 25 percent increase amounted to be.
So either better tool tips so we can understand our skills, or a combat log so we can interpret for ourselves. I really dislike the combat log idea. I'm definitely in favor of better tool tips or a short and comprehensive skills manual type of deal that I can open up in game.
It would be silly that their main addition to the endgame be equaled or trumped in reward by a few chests. Not only that, but there's more longevity for player base retention as a whole when the game play is more dynamic than running the best box in the game over and over.
I like knowing that the game I play rewards those who actually play. It gives the game validity. And if that's not the game's headed then that's fine, since ideal game design is subjective. But that's not what I want out of my game, so I would probably stop playing. And so would others.
I quit Vanilla because AH took away any sense of accomplishment I got from loot farming for sub par upgrades. No harm done.
I'm guessing its a symptom of a balancing act between providing players with statistics to go off of and just letting players choose their build based on what feels best in game.
It would be cool to have a log, but its effect might not be as good, y'know. That's just what I'm guessing. I'm sure Blizz uses these logs when balancing.
I think people should be able to play it safe and still be able to productively progress their characters, no matter how far they've already come. Especially if they enjoy a bit of HC from time to time. It would suck butt if you were brickwalled from progressing unless you upped the difficulty to T 4-6. You'd hit a lag spike and you'd know you're auto-dead.
At the end of the day I get what I wanted out of my 40 bucks. There's no reason why someone else shouldn't get what they want out of their money, even if it's something different. It doesn't bother me none.
And the coolest shiz drops in Torment anyway. So I don't know what you want.
And as long as people speak out against the actual problems at hand, we can productively provide input to make the game better. But asserting that "people who farm areas of high exp yield are punishing everyone else" does little. If anything it makes the community come off as unintelligible. And when yields ARE put into tolerance as you suggested,the actual issue of crazy disproportionate experience yields goes forgotten in a heart beat when suddenly people's runs net them less and they come here to complain.
It's kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't, you see. That's whats boggles my brain.
Well unfortunately, Diablo 3 isn't a game with homogeneous game and experience content. You can't expect every area, with every variance in mob density to give you the same experience. It's idealism at best. UNLESS, that is exactly what you want. An exp bar that goes up at a fixed rate as you play, no matter where or what you are doing... c'mon listen to yourselves.
But anyone with half a brain knows that Blizzard isn't aiming for absolute equity. They're aiming for relative parity. Some variance is not only expected, but tolerated, because complete equity is just impossible with a game this large with so many variables as it pertains to farming. How could you ever really "balance" the Desolate Sands versus the Festering Woods versus The Silver Spire 1/2? It's pretty silly to suggest that since they can't be 100% balanced that we should have to tolerate OBVIOUS outliers like CotA, Mira, and Cursed Chest runs where people were gaining far more XP/hr than everyone in the community knew they should be gaining.
Correct. And while I am not in favor of this "obvious outlier" like CotA, the burden of responsibility for this "exploit" falls on Blizzard, not the few players that took advantage of what was, in a way, offered to them.
What I hear a lot here is the complaint that the few people who did run CotA days on end ruined it for those that didn't, because the playing field wasn't even. This is the assessment I have an issue with. If anyone has the responsibility for this, it's Blizzard.
The flip side of the coin is that when Blizz fixes CotA and similar areas, they will be replaced by the next best thing. And the whole thing starts over again. And honestly, there is a good chance that RoS will come with areas that are more "efficient" than CotA. So the complaining is really irrelevant.
And in my opinion, Blizz didn't fix the problems to level the playing field as far as leveling goes. They're trying to make more content viable so that more content gets screen time, which increases the longevity of this game for casual players who would otherwise get bored of running one path and switch to different games. In short, to make it more fun in the long run. You know how Blizz does everything for the casual players. But that's a whole different topic.
Well unfortunately, Diablo 3 isn't a game with homogeneous game and experience content. You can't expect every area, with every variance in mob density to give you the same experience. It's idealism at best. UNLESS, that is exactly what you want. An exp bar that goes up at a fixed rate as you play, no matter where or what you are doing... c'mon listen to yourselves.
It's an inherent trait of rpgs with experience based leveling systems to have a "most efficient" path. Add to that, that many players play for their own reason, be it for gear or p lvls, and then finally you reach the conclusion: You can't complain about players playing the game that was put in front of them.
If you feel "punished" because you think in terms of leveling speed benchmarks and you're NOT going the most efficient route (which I respect), you can't complain about not being the fastest (no, sir). And this utter BS about people who don't run Cota now feeling punished because in the 15 minutes they spend in that area in one of their full game play through, they get a little less exp, is just that: utter BS.
People always find something to gripe about. Just sayin'.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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When i first saw all the cube recipes myself i admit i was suspicious too.
However, in practice i noticed that i spend a lot of time playing actively as a result of easier gearing, as you described it. Rather than doing runs for hours/ days on end with my brain set to standby, I am always trying to improve how my gear/ skills work together in town, and testing it out in rifts. Maybe a slightly different build only works with immaculate micro and I'm excited to practice. And grifts allow for benchmarking progress.
Im really proud or how much Blizzard has evolved their game. Even if it was painful slow to change at many times.
On the other hand, to say that Blizzard can create patches for free is ignorant. Nothing is free in a business. Who knows what the trade offs are for them putting more people or hours into patching this game that doesn't really bring them any money in.
The way I see it, there is more than one aspect to this. People need to stop taking shots at each other and Blizzard, and rally around being as articulately constructive as possible.
This season sucks butts. And, honestly the next season will probably be similar. In the bigger picture though, future seasons will be better as a result of this season. At least, I think so.
What I want to know is, if Blizzard anticipated that players find extreme exploits and "work-arounds" to playing the game as intended (which any responsible designer should have), why aren't initial seasons shorter? Plenty of players probably stopped taking this season seriously (if they even participated after hearing about the 1.5 hour ding to 70), and are just waiting for the next season to roll around.
- Do you think Seasons should be shorter just for now, until we have a more stable system to compete in? If yes, what time frame would be appropriate?
- Would a Rollback be the most consumer friendly approach? Does it matter enough what this season's outcome is to warrant that?
- I find this question most interesting: should an "exploit"/game design flaw be left in the game until the end of season to allow all players a chance to be on equal terms, provided it doesn't make the game unplayable?
- Should everyone just continue to "take one for the team" and ride it out for entire quarters at a time (keeping in mind that time has value)?
Exploiting players capitalize on these exploits way more when the bridges they got to cross were burned behind them, so to speak. They're actually being rewarded at this point. Long seasons are pointless at this stage, because I already know that the exploiters won. I don't need to wait 3 whole months to figure that out. (Edit: I would point out out for clarity that leaving exploits in game would mean that Paragon Experience carried over to non season would have to be adjusted to avoid PLVL 9000+ players by the end of the year. Fair enough...)I speak for myself when I say that I would have an easier time shrugging off a crappy exploit knowing that the next season is already right around the corner.
Ideas?
Even leveling up my base level these items aren't even close to good. Not even good sell or salvage value. Usually just blue trash.
I don't care about getting good loot from quests or anything. But maybe a free equipment repair instead. Or a one time +10% durability buff on items. Currently this just feels like an afterthought, and is a tiny nuisance.
Ain't nothing cool 'bout that.
Thoughts?
Many other regular... casual players find 3+ legs/hour (by luck of the draw) by doing rifts as you say you do. So is it really thaaat much of an issue? I doubt it.
And besides, Blizz balanced it out by raising drop chances by a fraction of a fraction of a percent in the same hotfix. Lol jk. Just taking a stab at Blizz. I was just bewildered by how little that 25 percent increase amounted to be.
I like knowing that the game I play rewards those who actually play. It gives the game validity. And if that's not the game's headed then that's fine, since ideal game design is subjective. But that's not what I want out of my game, so I would probably stop playing. And so would others.
I quit Vanilla because AH took away any sense of accomplishment I got from loot farming for sub par upgrades. No harm done.
It would be cool to have a log, but its effect might not be as good, y'know. That's just what I'm guessing. I'm sure Blizz uses these logs when balancing.
I think people should be able to play it safe and still be able to productively progress their characters, no matter how far they've already come. Especially if they enjoy a bit of HC from time to time. It would suck butt if you were brickwalled from progressing unless you upped the difficulty to T 4-6. You'd hit a lag spike and you'd know you're auto-dead.
At the end of the day I get what I wanted out of my 40 bucks. There's no reason why someone else shouldn't get what they want out of their money, even if it's something different. It doesn't bother me none.
And the coolest shiz drops in Torment anyway. So I don't know what you want.
And as long as people speak out against the actual problems at hand, we can productively provide input to make the game better. But asserting that "people who farm areas of high exp yield are punishing everyone else" does little. If anything it makes the community come off as unintelligible. And when yields ARE put into tolerance as you suggested,the actual issue of crazy disproportionate experience yields goes forgotten in a heart beat when suddenly people's runs net them less and they come here to complain.
It's kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't, you see. That's whats boggles my brain.
What I hear a lot here is the complaint that the few people who did run CotA days on end ruined it for those that didn't, because the playing field wasn't even. This is the assessment I have an issue with. If anyone has the responsibility for this, it's Blizzard.
The flip side of the coin is that when Blizz fixes CotA and similar areas, they will be replaced by the next best thing. And the whole thing starts over again. And honestly, there is a good chance that RoS will come with areas that are more "efficient" than CotA. So the complaining is really irrelevant.
And in my opinion, Blizz didn't fix the problems to level the playing field as far as leveling goes. They're trying to make more content viable so that more content gets screen time, which increases the longevity of this game for casual players who would otherwise get bored of running one path and switch to different games. In short, to make it more fun in the long run. You know how Blizz does everything for the casual players.
It's an inherent trait of rpgs with experience based leveling systems to have a "most efficient" path. Add to that, that many players play for their own reason, be it for gear or p lvls, and then finally you reach the conclusion: You can't complain about players playing the game that was put in front of them.
If you feel "punished" because you think in terms of leveling speed benchmarks and you're NOT going the most efficient route (which I respect), you can't complain about not being the fastest (no, sir). And this utter BS about people who don't run Cota now feeling punished because in the 15 minutes they spend in that area in one of their full game play through, they get a little less exp, is just that: utter BS.
People always find something to gripe about. Just sayin'.