Rarity
If you ask any veteran Diablo player what their most memorable moment was from a past Diablo game, more often than not it will involve a story about the time when a certain rare item dropped for them. Whether that drop was a legendary (unique) item which was statistically next to impossible to find, a high rune needed to craft an amazing runeword, or even just a legendary item with perfect stats, the feeling was pretty much all the same (alright.. finding something like a Windforce, Zod rune, or Tyrael’s Might was a little different haha). Players could probably even go as far as recalling the time of day, act, zone, or monster that dropped that particular item, it was that memorable. How can we give this same nostalgia feeling back to the items in Diablo III?
Drop Rates
Drop rates have changed dramatically since release. I remember when the game was first launched I had almost leveled up two characters to max level before seeing my first legendary drop. I didn't really mind the low drop rates (even though the items were usually worse than rares), but it was a huge change compared to Diablo II where you couldn't finish the first Act on normal without seeing one drop. Where Diablo II had all items available in the hardest difficulty, Diablo III did things differently by splitting them up between four difficulties. This severely limited the amount of legendary items which could be found.
The good news is there is a change coming in loot 2.0 which which will make all legendary items available in every difficulty. I don't need to dive into all the details regarding this as many people are already aware of them, but what I want to talk about is the new possibilities this opens up. Possibilities in regards to drop rates. What I'd love to see now is the shift back to different drop rates inside each item type. I wouldn't mind the statistically impossible drops if it was offset by the fact that there were other, more common items available.
For example, let's take a look at legendary two-handed swords. Currently in patch 1.0.8 if we were to find a legendary two-handed sword in Inferno difficulty it would could only be one of 4 possibilities. With the new change that number will now increase to a possible 9, more than double the previous amount. We now have enough items in the same item type to afford to have substantially different drop rates.
(numbers are just for show)
The difficult part is balancing drop rates alongside the Auction House. In Diablo II the rarest item of them all, Tyrael's Might, had the highest chance to drop from the last boss in the game. Do you know what that drop rate was? A staggering 1:409,739 (0 Magic Find / 1 player game). Considering there was no Auction House available in Diablo II, even seeing one on another player was a feat of it's own. If Blizzard tried to make an item equivalent to that in Diablo III the drop rate would probably need to increase to something in the millions due to the Auction House.
Something could also be added to increase the excitement and also help people recognize the rarity of the item visually. Something as subtle as a different particle effect in the legendary's beam of light would go a long way to recognize when something truly special dropped. I don't know about you but if I saw an unidentified two-handed sword on the ground with a sparkling beam like The Grandfather's below I'd be jumping out of my seat in excitement.
[img]How cool would that be, especially for new players or the less informed to know how rare their drop was without running to the Auction House to check the prices. What do you think the order in rarity is of the legendary helms below?[/img]
n one of the recent developer interviews Travis day is heard saying that he wants to create items that will be remembered. He even goes on to compare the impact of the items he hopes to create to that of World of Warcraft's Legendary sword, Thunderfury. I just pray that the reason he's using Thunderfury as an example isn't just for the sole reason it was powerful but also that not everyone had one and that it took not just a lot of hard work to get but even just plain luck. It wouldn't have had near as much impact if everyone on the server was running around with it, people knew of you and your guild if you were lucky enough to receive one, that's the reason it was remembered.
While I'm on this topic I'm going to also going to mention my own opinion in regards to the transmogrification system which might be making it's way into Diablo III. Don't include legendary items. The unique models are just as much of the reason as the unique properties as to why they can be labeled as a legendary. Do what you want with rares, but please leave legendary items out of it. If you absolutely think legendary items need to be included than at least connect the ability to do so with only the items your character has personally identified, at least that would help keep the integrity of the rarest items.
So please Blizzard, I beg, move away from the only thing rare about an item being the combination of random properties to the actual item itself.
Rewarding the Hunt
At the heart of the Diablo series lies the single most important aspect of the game, the hunt for items. It's the search for rare items which makes us stay up all hours of the night killing demon after demon, hoping for that one special drop.
Since the introduction of the Auction House the hunt for items has changed, instead of hunting for items in the game world we're now instead supposed to hunt for deals on the Auction House. Players are rewarded more for sitting outside the game than actually killing monsters. The Auction House isn't going away, so how can we give incentive to those that actually play the game?
Recognition for Discovery
This idea I haven't seen pop up anywhere and I've had stuck in my head since my days of playing Diablo II and I think has a lot of merit as a feature in terms of both game play longevity and progression. The idea first came to me doing Act 3 Mephisto runs one night playing Diablo II a long time ago. As cheesy as it might be I used to keep a pen and paper at my desk to write down what unique items I'd find during my play session, something that I could not only use to brag about to my younger brother but also something I could use to record my own collection of items (pen and paper achievements...lol).
The idea would be to connect a bonus, most likely in the form of small stat increases, to the discovery of items. It's such a simple idea and one I feel would change the game for the better. In the example below I used the achievement layout to showcase the idea.
Notice how I used the word "identify"? This would be such a simple way to ensure that people couldn't just buy every single item off the AH to reap all of the benefits, players would now rewarded for playing the game not the Auction House. The bonus wouldn't have to be huge, just a little something to be recognized for the effort (or luck) put in to obtaining items. Sure someone could buy or trade for unidentified items outside the AH but it would be much harder to do, especially if they adjusted the drop rates accordingly.
So maybe you're rocking a Maximus and you find a Warmonger, wouldn't it be cool if by just finding a weapon of the same type you just increased your two-handed sword damage by 1%. Better yet, if the bonuses were account wide similar to achievements, you could find something on your Barbarian that could potentially give a small boost to another class. I think this idea is great in terms of progressing your character as you play the game. As another added bonus for identifying an item, and if the transmogrification feature existed (which I hope it never does) would be to allow that item's model to be applied to another item of the same type.
This next addition is for all you lore junkies and collectors out there. With being a game designed completely around cool items why don't we know more about the history of them? There's an entire in-game journal which for the most part is completely ignored. Why not make a section for all the cool items we find?
I don't know about you but there's so many items like the Grandfather that I'd like to know more about. I'm sure the writers at Blizzard could throw us a bone, the Diablo story is rich with lore.
Magic Find
Ah, the stat everyone loves and hates at the same time. Just like it was in Diablo II, Magic Find is a very valuable stat. So much that people were actually switching to an entirely different gear set just to boost it as high as possible before landing the killing blow on elites and champions. Blizzard's fix, the addition of Paragon levels to slowly make the need for Magic Find on items obsolete as a player progressed to level 100. Sure this was a great bonus to have and fixed the need to swap gear but it also created an entirely new problem, punishment to play anything other than your character with the highest Paragon.
Something that struck me by surprise is a recent quote taken from the recent Blizzard Developer Interview with Diablofans:
Цитат:
Originally Posted by Travis Day
We've definitely talked about things like taking Paragon and decoupling it from your character specifically and making it something that is more account-over working. So that any time you invest in the game is rewarded and you don’t feel like we’re taking anything away from you if you want to try new characters or try out different play styles within the game.
We've definitely talked about things like taking Paragon and decoupling it from your character specifically and making it something that is more account-over working. So that any time you invest in the game is rewarded and you don’t feel like we’re taking anything away from you if you want to try new characters or try out different play styles within the game.
I used to think the same way as Travis, I've always wanted to try out some other classes other than my barbarian but there was something always holding me back, something called Paragon levels. Was it the slight boost in primary stats stopping me from switching to a different character? Nope, it was the thought of all the loot I would be missing out on if I didn't have my valuable Magic Find which Paragon levels granted me. I would easily trade 300 of my primary stat to jump on a different character for a night, but when it came down to missing out on the potential for loot, nope not a chance.
I think it would be completely wrong of Blizzard to make Paragon levels account wide. Paragon is meant to provide players who've reached level 60 an extended progression system, don't shorten that to 1/5th of the time needed by requiring only one character to reach Paragon 100. Instead, bare with me on this one, why don't we remove Magic Find from items and Paragon levels. Wow, do you feel that? That's called freedom, the freedom to play any character you want now and not have to sacrifice loot.
So, if we no longer get our beloved Magic Find from either items nor Paragon levels where do we get it now? Well, what if we moved it all into Nephalem Valor and tried something like this:
Remove the NV cap size of 5
Cap Magic Find at 500% for every character
Award different values of Magic Find per stack of NV depending on the Monster Power
Earn NV at any level, not just at level 60
Lose a stack of NV for every death
De-emphasize the need for Magic Find in general
It might look something like this:
Simple changes right? But lets look at what issues we may have just solved:
Rewards players for playing at a higher Monster Power (reach MF cap faster)
Rewards players for staying in one game and playing through all acts
Lower level characters have the same chance at finding legendary items
No longer punished for playing low Paragon characters (No MF)
Stops high MP leachers (if they keep dying it's not worth it)
Might help somewhat to combat bots
Players shouldn't need to get to max MF to find good items, sure it should help but not as much as it does currently.
Overall I think this is the right direction for the game and should solve many of the problems we face right now in regards to Magic Find and the hunt for items. It's tough to think that such an iconic stat in the Diablo series has become more of a burden more than something fun, but that's where we're at. I'll leave you with a fun item I came up with to tie along with the changes to Nephalem Valor that I just proposed, enjoy.
(the new "Magic Find"?)
Темата беше редактирана от vaskobgn на 23/07/2013 - 08:22ч.
