This thread describes in my opinion one of the best solutions to the solo vs group bounty efficiency. However I’d like to discuss about potential alternatives and their pros and cons.
Options:
Eliminate split bounties. All players must complete all bounties. No passive rewards for zero contribution.
Scale bounty requirements by the number of players. Solo players do 1+boss per act, 2 players do 2+boss per act, etc. On paper still favors group play as they still do less bounties per player.
Inversely scale bounty mat rewards per cache by the number of players. 4 players get 22 mats per T16 cache, solo players get 4 times the amount. Group players are rewarded with more legendaries and other mats due to acquiring more caches.
Major issues with these options:
Group players will cause a massive uproar. The split bounties have been a thing for too long to just remove it.
Different bounties are unequal, players would always pick the easiest and quickest ones. This could potentially shift the balance too much in favor of solo play.
If the cache content isn’t determined on the moment the bounty run is turned in, group players could multiply their rewards by doing a massive amount of runs in a group and then open the caches while in solo.
How about just remove the bounties and all bounty mats for good from D3 so players only need FS to reforge since solo players hate group play so much?
Make all special legendary items can be dropped from all monsters. Oh wait, at this point, before the solo players complain that you can get GR key faster in the group, get rid of GR keystone too, so solo players won’t left behind.
With this, now everyone just needs to play GR to access everything. Fair and square.
I don’t hate group play. I just don’t see why group play should result in four times the rewards of solo play, for the same amount of time / effort input. My suggestion (it’s the one linked to in the opening post) was a way to try and address that massive disparity, thereby giving players the choice of whether to do stuff solo or in groups rather than, currently, the choice being between one set of caches versus four sets of caches for the same time spent.
Alternatively, they could have a multiplier bonus (up to four times) that you can build for each bounty act by killing monsters within the area of a bounty quest. This bonus isn’t shared among players in a group, and instead each player has their own individual multiplier. Not only would this help solo players, but it would help groups consisting of 2 or 3 players as well, as ideally solo players would receive 3-4 times more bounty mats as they normally kill the most monsters in bounties, while groups of 2 would likely receive 2-3 times more bounty mats, and groups of 3 would probably receive 2 times more bounty mats. Groups of 4 that optimize speed would only receive their usual amount of bounty mats, however due to the speed at which they can complete bounties, that would still be higher than solo players.
There are some issues with this idea, first public group players may suffer from efficiency as some players/bots would prioritize killing monsters as opposed to completing the bounty. Also, with the different type of bounties we have, players may not always get an adequate bonus as the monster density in some bounty quest areas can be rather low. Lastly, this method would require more work and effort on the developers part to implement than they care to give.
Teamwork is always rewarding. If the reward isn’t huge, why even bother to team up?
Public bounty is solo play, but you guys hate it.
So yes, just remove the bounty feature and GR keystones so you guys won’t get the feeling that you guys are at disadvantage for being anti-social. Let’s enjoy GR together as the only D3 endgame. Oh, wait, better reduce monster HP at GR by 75% too for the solo players, or else it would be too difficult for solo players to clear GR150 as fast as group play.
It’s OK, if reward for team is within reasonable limit. Split bounties reward is way beyond reasonable.
And no, split bounties is not solo play. If it was, the rewards should scale with effort put in by each player. In split bounties players put much, MUCH less effort in doing the bounties, thus the rewards should be much less accordingly for each player.
1 person doing it: 100 assignments need to be done.
2 people doing it: 50 assignments for each people.
3 people doing it: 33+ assignments for each people.
4 people doing it: 25 assignments for each people.
Reward: You can go back home earlier if your department finished the 100 assignments. Obviously, 1 person will have to work OT to get 100 assignments done while people with team will go home earlier.
Teamwork reward is always beyond reasonable or else why even have a team?
It is a solo play because you guys don’t need to interact with each other. Very good for anti-social people or people who don’t want to commit a friendship.
It doesn’t work like that. Tyrael wants people to clear 25 bounties and he doesn’t care how you guys did it.
I don’t have a problem with groups having an advantage over solo players. However, I don’t think that advantage should be as extreme as gaining quadruple the rewards.
The main idea behind my number 1 suggestion was ensure all players put in the same amount of effort. In split bounties when one players completes an act solo, all other players get also rewarded even though they put in zero effort to the completion of that act. That’s big problem with split bounties, rewarding for doing nothing.
That’s not how it works. When 4 people complete those 100 assignments, they get another 100 to do. By the same amount of time 1 person does 100 assignments, 4 people have done 400 yet each gets the reward for the total amount even though each did only quarter of the work.
Effort vs reward, not matter how you try to twist it, you still given proper justification for the solo vs group gap. Whether in solo or group, the reward for the effort put in should be equal.
100 assignments.
Completing each assignment rewards you with $10.
1 person doing it: 100 assignments need to be done. $1000 earned.
2 people doing it: 50 assignments need to be done each. $500 earned each.
3 people doing it: 33 assignments need to be done each. $330 earned each.
4 people doing it: 25 assignments need to be done each. $250 earned each.
That sounds fair, right? Everyone got paid for the work they did.
Except in Diablo III Bounties, the four people doing 25 assignments each all get paid $1000 each. This means if they actually do 100 assignments, they get paid $4000 each, compared to the solo guy that got paid $1000 for doing the same amount of assignments.
Would you be happy at work, doing an 8 hour shift, knowing that some of your colleagues could earn the same in 2 hours, or get paid four times your salary for doing the same shift you do?
Except in D3, Tyrael is willing to pay $1000 to anyone as long as you can clear his given tasks as fast as possible. It is never about money for Tyrael but about completion.
You are not going to ask Tyrael for $1000 when you only completed 10 tasks over 25 tasks and then telling him to cut you some slack because you work alone.
Or maybe everyone has the same salary range but you refused to ask them to help you either because you are anti-social or being prideful so you decide to do all tasks on your own and then complain that it is too much for you to handle alone.
Either way, the most easy solution for this solo vs group nonsense is to remove bounty and bounty mats and GR keys so you guys don’t feel left out.
True enough, the amount would be split among the people who completed the tasks (so 4 people would get $250 each). And if money isn’t the issue, why would Tyrael settle on getting only 4 people to help, instead of recruiting hordes of adventurers and having them assist, since that would be faster than 4 people, and Tyrael could then pay them each $1000.
Because he has money and wants to get the job done? Do you ever in the moment where you want to get things done asap instead of weighing the cost and time?
But seriously, blame the individual loot system if that bothering you that much.
If D3 is MMORPG, Tyrael will even pay 50 players $1000 for killing the raid boss.
I’d much rather hve a solution to equalize the bonus XP in Group v Solo as well as using LG’s ranked up in groups used in solo clears.
Those two issues far outweigh split bounties. As a mainly Solo player I rarely do bounties, good gear always comes from drops and the few instances I need to reforge I can do enough bounties but can’t compete on solo LB’s when group players with mass more Paragon even though we have played the same amount of time clear solo with that Paragon and LG’s far higher than what they have done in solo.
Yes.
Let’s say I have a job that would take 8 man-hours to complete.
I’m willing to pay people $25 an hour to do that job.
That means I’m willing to pay $200 to get it done.
If I pay one guy to do it, it takes 8 hours, and costs me $200.
If I pay four guys to do it, it takes 2 hours, and costs me $200.
Okay, so maybe I need it as a rush job, and I’m willing to pay a premium for that.
Do you think I should pay each of the four guys $200 each?
If I employed 480 guys, and they did a minute’s work each, they could be finished in one minute flat, but I’d be paying 480 * $200 = $96,000.
Why would I pay $96,000 for a job that’s worth $200?