I also like the way you describe allowing items to be transferred out of the ladder if people want to sell them. I think it's important that an idea not undercut the RMAH totally, since like it or not, it's a significant part of Blizzard's business.
Indeed. Hate it or love it, the RMAH isn't going anywhere & needs to be considered & worked into any ladder system. This solution caters to both those who hate it & those who love it.
I've edited original post to include the full writeup rather than just a link.
Very interested in any opinions yay or nay. I'm struggling to find any problems with it really but it's possible that I'm slightly biased. I've played this game a lot. Let's just say more than most. I still love the game & want to see it improved & for me personally this is a system which would keep me happily grinding for years to come.
I would be interested to hear any opinions on this idea. If there is anyone that doesn't like it, please do say why, as I'm struggling to find any real downsides to it personally but I'm possibly biased.
MOTIVATION
I think we can almost unanimously agree; the main problem with the balance of reward in the game is just how difficult & unlikely it is to find an upgrade whilst actually farming. The auction house & the lack of a gear sink inevitably leads to everyone being pretty decked out in very nice gear thus making the drops we actually see seem so underwhelming. It is just how Wyatt Cheng described it in the devloper interviews before 1.0.3. Now with the release of 1.0.5 imminent & the massive boost this will bring to average drop quality, it's clear that in a month or two once the market fills in a bit, we're all going to find outselves that bit further along that power curve, & inevitably back where drops are as frustrating as they are now. Now this new place on the curve is obtained by virtue of the fact that basically every single item being farmed by players will be rolling lvl63 affixes. Once the new gear settles in & everyone has some tasty upgrades, there's not a lot further to go on that power curve within the current ruleset. Essentially the game will be changed to one where people are looking for perfect or near perfect rolls on their items & letting out sighs of frustration when their newly id'd 100str 200vit armor 60ar 2socket pants don't have 150+str, 250+vit & 70+ar instead. None of us want to be in this position, but it's going to happen at some point.
We all want to find nice loot. We all want to find regular upgrades. We don't want to have to rely on the auction house. Though some people would like to be able to use it every now & then to purchase something nice & to trade good items safely & efficiently. For this to be a reality there needs to be a ladder system introduced. Of course the trouble with going down this path is the time; & money for some, that is invested in their current characters. I think it goes without saying that a complete reset it out of the question. This is how I think they can make it work. And be totally awesome at the same time.
MEAT
Everything that we have now; our characters, loot, gold, paragon xp, this all stays & is completely persistent. Will just call this non-ladder for now. Then on certain dates & for a set length of time (somewhere between 3-6 months long I would think), a new season of diablo 3 would begin. It's completely seperate from non-ladder. Completely optional. If you opt in, you start with nothing & go from there.
Now hear me out on this one. Every single item dropped in the season is bind on account within the season. You cannot trade items or gold within the season. There is no auction house within the season. There is no way to pay to win within the season. You get powerful by playing the game & getting drops. However. Any item you find within the season can be transferred to non-ladder. If you find a near perfect roll, & want to send it out to one of your persistent non-ladder characters, you can. If you find a great item & want to sell it for cash on the rmah in non-ladder, you can. But it's a one way transfer; the item is removed from the season completely. Also if you find a class specific item thats very good but not very good in the saturated non-ladder market, well, with monster power, together with seasons running several months, leveling alts will be quick & easy to do within the season. At the end of the season, all experience earned within the season is doubled (perhaps tripled) & can be spent upgrading the lvl/paragon lvl of your non-ladder characters. This gives incentive to participating in the season without losing xp grinding time on your persistent non-ladder characters. At the end of the season, there is a elimination style pvp tournament. All characters. All self farmed. Going head to head. In an arena. And you get some sweet non-ladder loot for getting some kills. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to run deep in one of these tournaments.
I know a lot of people won't like the bind on account drops. But I really think it's the essential ingredient to making these seasons really great & giving diablo a very long life indeed. As soon you introduce trade & the ability to transfer gold between characters into the equation, bots will join the party, people resort to the auction house, drops seem subjectively crappy again, the economy gets tanked and you want to spew at the guy who owned you in the end of season pvp tournament with his credit card gear.
In my mind, this is the solution. It must be. With new seasons every few months, drops will always be meaningful. The constant inevitable frustration with the quality of drops compared to current gear is removed while playing the season. All the while, your non-ladder characters will be gaining xp pushing them closer to 100 & helping towards making mf on gear obselete in non-ladder. New players will be able to compete. Gold rich players keep their non-ladder wealth. People can still rmah away if they please. And for the vast majority of us, we just get to kill a bunch on monsters while getting a steady stream of upgrades.
Would anyone not want to play these things?!?
Let's go blizzard. Get to work.
*cross posted to reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/11jmef/ladders_seasons_the_future_of_diablo_3/
0
Indeed. Hate it or love it, the RMAH isn't going anywhere & needs to be considered & worked into any ladder system. This solution caters to both those who hate it & those who love it.
I've edited original post to include the full writeup rather than just a link.
Very interested in any opinions yay or nay. I'm struggling to find any problems with it really but it's possible that I'm slightly biased. I've played this game a lot. Let's just say more than most. I still love the game & want to see it improved & for me personally this is a system which would keep me happily grinding for years to come.
0
MOTIVATION
I think we can almost unanimously agree; the main problem with the balance of reward in the game is just how difficult & unlikely it is to find an upgrade whilst actually farming. The auction house & the lack of a gear sink inevitably leads to everyone being pretty decked out in very nice gear thus making the drops we actually see seem so underwhelming. It is just how Wyatt Cheng described it in the devloper interviews before 1.0.3. Now with the release of 1.0.5 imminent & the massive boost this will bring to average drop quality, it's clear that in a month or two once the market fills in a bit, we're all going to find outselves that bit further along that power curve, & inevitably back where drops are as frustrating as they are now. Now this new place on the curve is obtained by virtue of the fact that basically every single item being farmed by players will be rolling lvl63 affixes. Once the new gear settles in & everyone has some tasty upgrades, there's not a lot further to go on that power curve within the current ruleset. Essentially the game will be changed to one where people are looking for perfect or near perfect rolls on their items & letting out sighs of frustration when their newly id'd 100str 200vit armor 60ar 2socket pants don't have 150+str, 250+vit & 70+ar instead. None of us want to be in this position, but it's going to happen at some point.
We all want to find nice loot. We all want to find regular upgrades. We don't want to have to rely on the auction house. Though some people would like to be able to use it every now & then to purchase something nice & to trade good items safely & efficiently. For this to be a reality there needs to be a ladder system introduced. Of course the trouble with going down this path is the time; & money for some, that is invested in their current characters. I think it goes without saying that a complete reset it out of the question. This is how I think they can make it work. And be totally awesome at the same time.
MEAT
Everything that we have now; our characters, loot, gold, paragon xp, this all stays & is completely persistent. Will just call this non-ladder for now. Then on certain dates & for a set length of time (somewhere between 3-6 months long I would think), a new season of diablo 3 would begin. It's completely seperate from non-ladder. Completely optional. If you opt in, you start with nothing & go from there.
Now hear me out on this one. Every single item dropped in the season is bind on account within the season. You cannot trade items or gold within the season. There is no auction house within the season. There is no way to pay to win within the season. You get powerful by playing the game & getting drops. However. Any item you find within the season can be transferred to non-ladder. If you find a near perfect roll, & want to send it out to one of your persistent non-ladder characters, you can. If you find a great item & want to sell it for cash on the rmah in non-ladder, you can. But it's a one way transfer; the item is removed from the season completely. Also if you find a class specific item thats very good but not very good in the saturated non-ladder market, well, with monster power, together with seasons running several months, leveling alts will be quick & easy to do within the season. At the end of the season, all experience earned within the season is doubled (perhaps tripled) & can be spent upgrading the lvl/paragon lvl of your non-ladder characters. This gives incentive to participating in the season without losing xp grinding time on your persistent non-ladder characters. At the end of the season, there is a elimination style pvp tournament. All characters. All self farmed. Going head to head. In an arena. And you get some sweet non-ladder loot for getting some kills. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to run deep in one of these tournaments.
I know a lot of people won't like the bind on account drops. But I really think it's the essential ingredient to making these seasons really great & giving diablo a very long life indeed. As soon you introduce trade & the ability to transfer gold between characters into the equation, bots will join the party, people resort to the auction house, drops seem subjectively crappy again, the economy gets tanked and you want to spew at the guy who owned you in the end of season pvp tournament with his credit card gear.
In my mind, this is the solution. It must be. With new seasons every few months, drops will always be meaningful. The constant inevitable frustration with the quality of drops compared to current gear is removed while playing the season. All the while, your non-ladder characters will be gaining xp pushing them closer to 100 & helping towards making mf on gear obselete in non-ladder. New players will be able to compete. Gold rich players keep their non-ladder wealth. People can still rmah away if they please. And for the vast majority of us, we just get to kill a bunch on monsters while getting a steady stream of upgrades.
Would anyone not want to play these things?!?
Let's go blizzard. Get to work.
*cross posted to reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/11jmef/ladders_seasons_the_future_of_diablo_3/
0
reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/11jmef/ladders_seasons_the_future_of_diablo_3