D2R Single Player / Runeword Discussion

After playing the Beta, the game is great but not without it’s tweaks needed, hence the Beta. However, one simple thing that I believe absolutely needs to be included in the remaster is ALL RUNEWORDS allowed to be made in single player. I obviously understand when playing online why some are ladder only but when playing single player, you should have access to the full game experience as well. I can’t think of a reason not to have all runewords makeable in single player. Also, need to have the ability to use the /players function for scaling.

Thoughts?

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I’m in 100% agreement with rune words being accessible through all levels of play and should be because ladder play isn’t fun for everyone to play. The /players # function worked in SP/TCP play because the game itself was based on your computer not a server. unfortunately it will be harder to make work with it being only on battlenet and the ability to have players join and leave games easier than before.

There was an incentive for players to play ladder. That was the point. You make the item you want on ladder, and when the season ends, you get that “ladder only” item as a non ladder item… making it, potentially, more valuable.

These don’t sound like incentives Blizzard would be concerned about. I would think the only thing Blizzard would be concerned with is people using bnet, nothing more, hence the ladder only items, i.e., uniques and rune words. They did however unlock the ladder only uniques to single player.

That said, it would be wise for Blizzard to unlock ladder only rune words to single player simply because there is a current large single player base that doesn’t partake in ladder, and with the current retail game they can make ladder rune words. These players, thought they may try D2:R, they also may be inclined to return to D2(2000) simply because they no longer have access to ladder rune words while playing single player on bnet with D2:R

Except then those characters would need to be bound some how to single player only. And I doubt Blizzard will implement something like that. They still give advantages to ladder even in D3, so it’s not far off to assume that they will continue to do so, as ladder only items are part of what the purists are wanting.

That is what the current single player is. And the current single player game has ladder rune words without the use of 3rd party programs or servers.

But isn’t that an offline character only? I don’t think Blizzard is doing the “offline” thing any more.

They are, like D3 and SC2, you’ll just have to log in via bnet to access the game then disconnect from bnet.

Ah, yea… then it wouldn’t work, because the character data is probably going to be stored on Blizzard’s servers instead of locally. Helps prevent hacking and cheating… just a guess.

You’re right, also reason to give online single player access to ladder rune words. Everyone will be online, while a portion will only be playing single player.
That said, this was obviously written by Blizzard. See the eighth question.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/mr-llamas-new-survey/40790

If you’re on Bnet, then you’re not playing single-player even if you play alone. You’re ladder or non-ladder. If you want single player, then you will be playing offline in which case they have already said the ladder-only runewords are enabled and that the game will support single player offline.

All these responses and it’s like nobody has read anything and followed the game lol.

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The problem is they announced that non-ladder is now getting all ladder items and runewords.

This means that ladder is effectively a dead mode now simply because of how the game is balanced. Non-ladder games are literally balanced to be easier. The ai is slower and monsters have less defense and hp than ladder games and singleplayer. Singleplayer has the ladder difficulty adjustment so all ladder stuff on singleplayer makes sense.

There has been no indication that VV has standardized monster hp, defense, and ai adjustments across all types of servers. So, because non ladder games are literally easier and can have ladder gear and runewords, most people in our meta gaming culture will skip ladders as it’s less optimal to farm and the incentive to actually play the mode is no longer there (99% don’t care about the leaderboards).

GJ. This is what happens when you let the lowest common denominator have their way. On top of no tcp/ip Diablo 2 resurrected is already an inferior version of the game.

The game is not balanced differently in non-ladder vs ladder.

I have seen verification that ladder-only runewords will be available in single player, not non-ladder. Do you have a source for this?

edit: Just saw the blue post.

Yes it is. My god, not to take this out on you but jfc this was fairly common knowledge back in the day and no one seems to friggin remember.

It even says that ladder games (and singleplayer) is more difficult than non ladder. I can’t even link arreat summit here but it explains exactly this under basic/realm characters/ladder characters.

http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/basics/charactertypes.shtml

Ladder Games Have Increased Difficulty
Ladder Games offer a more challenging type of gameplay than players will find in Normal Games. Monster AI speeds have been increased. Reaction times increased for Ladder Nightmare and Hell games. Basically every monster acts like a super unique.

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I don’t understand it. The benefit to ladder is… to be on the ladder. Secondarily, it’s significantly harder to find the smiter with .08 duplicates and 45 life skillers, along with otherwise perfect gear in a PvP game. That last one is the only reason why I joined ladder back when it started.

Now that I will never be able to play like I used to, I don’t care all that much anymore… but some of that ladder-only stuff is just basic requirements. Sort of makes me feel like waiting until ladder is available before starting my first character so I can get the stuff and proceed to stay on nonladder for the rest of my characters’ lives.