I’ve written in the past about how this development team has this tendency of not being able to find that middle ground when it comes to notion of rewards. And given all of cumulative issues that has plagued the base game, you would think that they would not be making the same mistakes again in Reaper of Souls.
I’ve linked enough of my postings from the time that Reaper of Souls was announced until beta hit where I had this rather hopeful feeling that they had indeed learned from the past, and were going to make the game play generally fun and rewarding.
Bzzt…. the latest beta/PTR patches have shown they are making the exact same mistakes all over again. This team has clearly proven without a doubt that they do not understand the whole effort/reward ratio (which is why I constantly refer back to the talk given by Bill Roper). That entire philosophical understanding is completely lost with this development team; it’s something that is either intrinsic or isn’t. Too many liked to lay the blame on the previous game director; the problem is more ingrained with certain key developers on the Diablo III team.
In vanilla, the quality of drops were terrible as were the original drop rate quantity. As written ad-nauseum before, the poor itemization system is what it is and would require a wholesale revamping of the core game systems (something they had a chance to do and should’ve done given how current gear is mostly obsoleted anyway); but when you tie an uninspiring itemization system to lack luster drop/rewards, there isn’t going to be that dopamine fix/pleasure center being triggered in the brain that keeps one playing the game for that reason. People end up playing more with the “hope springs eternal” mindset only to be further disappointed/disgruntled in the process. It’s one of the biggest reasons why many stopped playing and/or began playing less and less as time passed.
In a hack and slash game like this, part of the entire progression/reward feedback loop is tied heavily into these drops. The phrase “carrot on a stick” might seem cliche, but in games of this particular genre, it’s an integral part of the experience which can make a game addictive from a reward/challenge/effort point of view. Diablo III on the other hand had this sort of sado-masochistic thing going on because the game play experience became uninspiring/unrewarding as many par-took in other aspects of the game (like playing the auction house instead where it was profitable).
And that was one of the key rationales for the removal of the auction house; because it detracted from the whole point of killing monsters for our loot. It also short circuited the reward/upgrade loop. And along with the removal of the auction houses came the premise of soul binding items in order to restrict the trading of the best items in the game. Many interpreted this to mean that the developers would be cranking up the drop rates of said items because they’d be soul bound except for a very short/restrictive trading window.
Myself, I always felt that the acquisition of rewards has to be derived naturally; not like a loot pinata nor like how it was when Diablo III first came out. What I’m getting at is there should be some middle ground utilizing a formula/algorithm that has to take into account many different factors so that it doesn’t feel contrived. Yet, you don’t want an RNG type situation where someone just has the ultimate bad luck, and sees no rewards for their efforts. Unfortunately, this development team seems to only know the two opposite ends of the extreme. And when it comes to the aspects of rewards, they have a tendency of being very stingy (look at Paragon traits for example, the experience/gold rewards one currently receives in the live version of the game, the small percentage gains for each tier of gem, etc). Again, it’s an exhibited tendency of not being able to find a natural way to reward players for their efforts. I already mentioned before about the issues with Paragon 2.0 and how progression would end up feeling non-existent (but is actually worse since XP gains in Reaper of Souls is actually worse compared to live).
Loot 2.0 was supposed to address one of the major shortcomings of the game. It sounded and looked good in various presentations. Myself, I continued to withhold actual judgement until all of the key systems were actually testable; thus once F&F dropped, it all did look decent and promising (and this was knowing that drop rates were overtuned). But like so many other things, when it looks too good/fun, the developers knee jerk reaction is to take those numbers down to the exact opposite end of the spectrum. Here’s the thing; these folks are designing these systems and should have a much better grasp on the math as to what constitutes a middle ground. But as displayed throughout vanilla (release through 1.0.8), it hasn’t been an easy task for them.
Many were expecting the next patch (the one currently deployed) to at least somewhat bring the drop rate of legendary items closer to what it will be in release. Instead, it has remained the same with the drop rates for legendary items that have more powerful properties, being lowered. The rationale for that was due to being able to gamble blood shards with a NPC with a chance at getting a legendary item (lower tiered versions and not the most powerful ones mind you). So much for all of that hype about game/build changing legendary items when they are still going to be mindblowingly slow to acquire. That has an effect on other systems like crafting and enchanting (like say if you need Forgotten Souls which is the new legendary material from salvaging). IMHO, gambling should not be a substitute for actual legendary drops; it should be complementary and shouldn’t even affect the drop rate period (quality or quantity) since it’s just repeating the mistake made with how the auction houses had an impact on the entire RNG/quality level of drops.
This stinginess with these game/build changing items and soul binding, is not going to be a good mix and will probably be one of the biggest howls of derision that they will be seeing from the community if the game goes live with its current atrocious drop rates (both quality and quantity). For folks who were expecting soul binding to lead to a higher drop rate for such items, prepare to be disappointed unless the developers change their mind (and if anything, will likely permanently damage any remaining good will that anyone has for the franchise who has kept an open mind up to this point – I know for myself, I’ve given Diablo III a chance including the expansion where I got off the fence back around October 2013 as I figured I might as well see the entire series through – but if they botch this 1st expansion badly, thats going to be a wrap for me).
Another issue was the split farming that has been going on; where it is generally more rewarding for all 4 players in a co-op game to run their own individual bounties as a means to maximize the experience and loot. This completely negates the team-play aspect of the game where everyone is supposed to bring something different to the table. Maximum rewards in co-op should only be awarded if everyone is playing together within the same zone. Likewise with the restrictive window on trading, what co-op play is going to begin promoting is more like classes playing together (for obvious reasons). The social aspects of the game is entirely schizophrenic in this regards because it doesn’t promote team play. Yet, one of the front facing adamant reasons for not having an offline mode for the PC version is the game was built around the social experience. Unfortunately, Battle.net 2.0 is a piss pour of an excuse of a social platform due to its design which is why both Diablo III and StarCraft II suffer from the ghost town effect (WoW’s persistent world manages to hide Battle.net 2.0’s social deficiencies). Yes, I know it looks better than “there is no offline mode since we are concerned about piracy”.
Now something else I’ve mentioned in the past is about how this development team sometimes has these very hypocritical design philosophies. The above is no different because ever since Reaper of Souls was announced, the premise of loot 2.0 was getting epic loot by killing monsters. Unfortunately, the well dries up again once a player hits the point where rares no longer provide upgrades. And with the lower legendary drop rates, it’s back to famine again just like how it was in vanilla (lesson not learned). And because of the issues with how Rifts are not rewarding enough (shards are no longer awarded as part of the reward) for the effort, players are just going to run bounties at lower levels (since above expert difficulty, the amount of shards one receives remains constant), and then use those shards to gamble for a chance at a legendary item from an NPC (so much for getting loot from killing monsters).
Also noticed I mentioned reward for the effort. This is a key point that is totally lost on this development team. They seem to be on an all out war for making Diablo III (vanilla plus RoS) as un-fun and un-rewarding as possible. And this is the exact opposite of my own expectations which up until closed beta, I was extremely optimistic about. Now, with only around 2 months left towards release, all I (and many others) are seeing is a repeat of vanilla. And it’s pretty sad when you have a bunch of folks stating the exact same issue with the game play feeling generally un-rewarding and un-fun.
The CM’s themselves can only try to be as diplomatic as possible on that front (thanking us for our feedback) since only the developers have the power to invoke the needed changes in the code. Actions speak louder than words though and this latest patch is meh on all fronts in terms of not even addressing the rewards aspects. It’s like these developers don’t even play their own game to see the problems that so many others see (either that, or they are just masochistic to begin with and enjoy that type of unrewarding play). Yes I know this is beta, but when many who are play testing are finding the drops underwhelming, where is the communication regarding why they are keeping the drop rates tuned this low. You would think they would want to crank it up (and dropping more of those legendary items that haven’t been tested extensively yet).
Going off on a tangent, I don’t mind developers having overinflated egos and chips on their shoulders. But there is a time when that arrogance can be detrimental especially when you’ve been proven wrong on numerous occasions in the past. Reaper of Souls has a ton of outstanding issues (no need for me to list them as anyone can head over to the official forums and read a couple of topics about them) that at this juncture of the beta, likely won’t be resolved by it’s March 25th release date. So I’m already expecting a half-baked release which will take months for even a fraction of them to be resolved. If that sounds familiar, I believe that is a hallmark of the Diablo III team overseeing the desktop version. Thus I believe I can say this with near certainty now -> OPUD (over promise, under deliver).
Adventure mode has so much lost potential because of the way bounties and rifts have been implemented. We’re basically led on a leash to each bounty (I understand since without something like this, players would be complaining about having to run all over the world to find them). But since it has been implemented this way, there is virtually no incentives for players to explore the areas outside of these particular bounty zones. What a complete waste of the entire open world concept.
The system used for legendary crafting is meant to help fill that void since key crafting material (specific to a particular plan) can only be acquired from certain bosses (subject to a lot of RNG though when it comes to the drop rate) as well as the need for the appropriate high level white items. So it is only during those times when players will divert their attention for the bounty/rift runs (though with the way rifts are currently unrewarding, players may just end up focusing on running bounties until the development team knee jerks on this, and makes everything in the game unrewarding to do – this again is contrary to all of that hype about how great the rewards were going to be with rifts).
With regards to the latter (finding white items), it seems to make such white items important/usable again but it is only an illusion. Aside from common debris, once one has salvaged a large amount of whites, the only time we’ll be looking for specific types is for legendary crafting. Like everything else though, that search of finding the appropriate ones (and will often times require several of that same item type) will be subject to RNG. And once you do get all of the materials, your crafting will also be subjected to RNG; which from testing, shows a high propensity of items that are complete crap. It’s sort of like those folks who have done thousands of uber runs and have never crafted a decent Hellfire ring. There’s a lot of effort involved, but the reward ratio for all of that time spent is virtually nill when the resulting product is crap. This is not rewarding players for their efforts (see the Bill Roper video I posted before); this is more like sado-masochistic punishment where you get the hamster running on a wheel, ever hopeful of being able to get to that tiny morsel. This is another signature hallmark of this Diablo III development team; where they have utterly zero clue on the whole carrot on a stick cliche. The way I’ve put it in the past remains the same; with this team, there is no carrot, and the stick is broken.
From our (player point of view), it may seem like a no-brainer when it comes to systems that can increase the potential longevity of a title. Developers on the other hand can get caught in the paralysis of analysis conundrum especially when iterating designs/functionality. In trying to juggle many different objectives, some of these solutions may make sense from their perspective. The problem with trying to artificially extend the life of a game by drastically lowering the drop rates of the best items, is that this genre is about the whole cycle of killing monsters to collect better loot (and repeating that). Within this simple concept is the feeling of progression and acquiring those coveted items. If only one such item out of an entire set takes 500+ hours to acquire though, a vast majority of those who do play the game but don’t have plenty of hours to spare, won’t even bother. It’s like in D2, very few actually found a Tyrael’s Might, but if they really wanted one, they could trade for one (note: to be clear, I’ve been ambivalent with regards to both trading and Bind on Account).
Without an auction house and soul binding in full play, it’s no longer an easy acquisition either. This will have the exact opposite effect where some players will just stop playing and have an even more solidified perception about the game being unrewarding (and where Loot 2.0 will be seen as being one huge deception). Likewise, this isn’t advocating a loot pinata effect either. As mentioned, I’m more about the middle ground in terms of finding a balance. And especially with soul binding, there really shouldn’t be an excuse for a famine sort of drop/crafting rate. But this again is this development teams modus operandi, where they have obviously NOT learned from the past, and are making these exact same mistakes again with Reaper of Souls, and will likely do a marvelous job at killing off this franchise on their own. The clock is ticking and you folks really don’t have much to get your shit together.
