Actually, they should remove Inferno and change Hell to "Inferno" (difficulty-wsie). Normal and Nightmare should allow you to reach level 60 (1-30 and 30-60). It would make leveling a little less tedious since the last 10 levels were extremely slow.
Allow Normal and Nightmare to potentially drop high-end items so people won't feel like they are wasting their time... well, at very least, it would help a little.
Allowing end game items to potentially drop in a new consolidated NM-Hell probably would help a lot. I always thought Jay's model of having end game items only being able to be dropped in inferno really made people feel like they had to play inferno rather than it just have been a harder difficulty just for kicks or people who wanted to "challenge" themselves.
At the very least the removing of Hell would help a lot, though I think if they are to release these changes with expansion they might as well just remove both NM and Hell altogether (assuming there will be at least one new act added to the game). and make it so the first playthrough will be from 1-60 on normal and then followed by inferno (but inferno would be more open or perhaps have randomized acts/levels as opposed to the current linear story mode.
Here is a reply from Wyatt to Flux, when asked about the possibility of removing the Hell difficulty, so that you have some context and insight.
Wyatt Cheng: A related question to that is, 1-30 the first time through normal is interesting, maybe the first time because of the story. maybe the 2nd time through it’s a different class and you’re doing different skills. Maybe the pacing feels right. maybe it’s even interesting further down since the challenge holds up and your loot/reward acquisition rate stays high and feels right.
But then kind of like what you’re saying, I don’t know if it’s specifically NM and Hell that’s the issue. More that you really want to get to Inferno and you’ve got a long road ahead of you and it’s very predictable and very much the same. Another question for us to ask ourselves is, what makes the destination so much more interesting than the journey? Can we make the journey appealing as well? If not, then maybe we should just move the destination closer.
I don't think itemization or improved character skills alone would improve the tedious feeling of going through NM and Hell, there definitely needs to be quite a lot of changes to the journey (NM, HELL specifically).
Perhaps we are looking at it wrong, Inferno is not the destination but only another step in our journey.
Our destination is more like reaching Paragon 100 and doing other stuff afterwards like PvP, possibly achievements for some people if they can make them more meaningful like from Mr. Monstrocity's Loot 2.0 suggestions.
To that end, I personally think it would better if they just consolidated Normal, NM, and Hell into the 1-60 framework, I think Diablo historically has been always been about end game (other that low level dueling and at least in D2). For example, all the available skills you can have are unlocked once you reached level 30, and that is accomplished just a little while afterwards past entry into NM as I recall (correct me if I'm wrong).
I think another two issues in regards to the early/mid-game issue is that the story is just too tied into the game and the linearity of the maps.
Even though D2 essentially only had large square regions of maps randomized in one of several directions it still felt more "open" than the current D3. I think if anything besides itemization and skill improvements they should really consider reworking a lot of the maps similar to what D2 and Grim Dawn are doing with map randomization, and also generally create a free roam mode detached from the story.
I know there are a ton of other issues and more specific detail to go into but this is at least a start.
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Allowing end game items to potentially drop in a new consolidated NM-Hell probably would help a lot. I always thought Jay's model of having end game items only being able to be dropped in inferno really made people feel like they had to play inferno rather than it just have been a harder difficulty just for kicks or people who wanted to "challenge" themselves.
At the very least the removing of Hell would help a lot, though I think if they are to release these changes with expansion they might as well just remove both NM and Hell altogether (assuming there will be at least one new act added to the game). and make it so the first playthrough will be from 1-60 on normal and then followed by inferno (but inferno would be more open or perhaps have randomized acts/levels as opposed to the current linear story mode.
I don't think itemization or improved character skills alone would improve the tedious feeling of going through NM and Hell, there definitely needs to be quite a lot of changes to the journey (NM, HELL specifically).
Perhaps we are looking at it wrong, Inferno is not the destination but only another step in our journey.
Our destination is more like reaching Paragon 100 and doing other stuff afterwards like PvP, possibly achievements for some people if they can make them more meaningful like from Mr. Monstrocity's Loot 2.0 suggestions.
To that end, I personally think it would better if they just consolidated Normal, NM, and Hell into the 1-60 framework, I think Diablo historically has been always been about end game (other that low level dueling and at least in D2). For example, all the available skills you can have are unlocked once you reached level 30, and that is accomplished just a little while afterwards past entry into NM as I recall (correct me if I'm wrong).
I think another two issues in regards to the early/mid-game issue is that the story is just too tied into the game and the linearity of the maps.
Even though D2 essentially only had large square regions of maps randomized in one of several directions it still felt more "open" than the current D3. I think if anything besides itemization and skill improvements they should really consider reworking a lot of the maps similar to what D2 and Grim Dawn are doing with map randomization, and also generally create a free roam mode detached from the story.
I know there are a ton of other issues and more specific detail to go into but this is at least a start.