As the title suggests i think the best thing for the longevity and replayability of a theoretical ARPG D4 would be a map editor. Death match arenas, hero/tower defenses, boss rushes, anything you can imagine could be possible as it was in WC3 and SC2. Blizzard might even be able to capitalize off an intetesting map as it failed to do with DOTA. Just an idea.
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That won’t happen.
Blizzard would be too worried that other people would do a far better job than them. And the base game would become an afterthought.
That certainly would’ve become the case with D3. Who would need 20-30 patches or even a Classic Team when we have modders to fix everything and make everything 100 times better?
I agree 100%. Gaming evolved mostly due to the fan ideas. An editor of some kind will serve for massive amounts of new gameplay styles.
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Most of the time I spent on warcraft 3, was done via world editor. So if Diablo ever got something of similar mechanics, I could definitely see myself spending a great deal of time on it.
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Off topic: Man when did you put this avatar on? In the last few days?
Next generation Never Winter Nights - Would be fun to build and download other folks adventures!
I remeber when starcraft and warcraft had map editors. What happpened to them?
It will never happen due to the fact that it being a multiplayer game with a ladder system the developers would be worried about people making maps to make farming, leveling, and whatever else easier. Also as mentioned they’re probably worried about modders doing a better job than them which is a very solid reason as there are groups of people out there that a very talented that have made mods for certain games that blow the core game out of the water.
Probably a couple dozen more reasons, but those are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.
I mean, Im not sure ladder is a good reason not to include a map editor. You could have a system where you copy a character over to the custom map side and keep the ladder and standard multiplayer “pure.”
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This is easily avoided, honestly.
If it’s a map where you can import a character, you receive no EXP or loot.
If it’s a map where everyone has to start fresh/the same and the character isn’t saved at the end, then anything goes.
User generated content has otherwise been an untapped market in gaming, where I would also have no problem with Blizzard adopting certain ideas players find enjoyable. The main benefits involve giving players something to do during lulls in patch cycles, while the more creative players can tell their own stories or create challenges you wouldn’t normally face.
Of course, I also worry that the pride argument is valid and why we haven’t seen the offline mode patch for D3 yet. The players can and will make improvements that Blizzard was either hesitant to do or hadn’t thought of.
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The splitting might also cause a rift in the player base, especially if a group of very talented modders start working over the game to the point that there is a massive gap between modded and the vanilla game. That would in turn most likely put a large amount of pressure on Blizzard to play catch up with the modders while also ensuring everything remains balanced according to them. The modders would most likely be constantly way ahead of Blizzard if they were to try and play catch up, as they may have a lot more free time, and also either work for free or have donations. That does not take into account the hundreds, if not thousands of mods that would be on the market.
And my ultimate thought? Too bad.
Chasing metrics isn’t the be all, end all. If people are having fun with your game, even if it means third party tweaking is involved, then take it as a win. If one sincerely feels pressured by outside developers, then it’s also a testament they need to both hire better people and revise their development policies if gaps are too great.
Personally, I’m aware that if D3 did have offline/mod support, we’d pretty much have two different styles of modded D3 that would follow. You’d have those that take what currently exists and tweak/improve. You’d then have those who would try to reinvent the wheel with a more D2-like experience. Neither is technically the better path, but it nonetheless gives players an outlet for their preferred style.
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I am just throwing out reasons that Blizzard would use to say, petty or otherwise, no to modding. Also I am sure they have a bit of a bruised ego at how–correct me if I am wrong–MOBAs rose from Warcraft 3 modding, then having their own MOBA take a hit on the market that rose from one of their own games. It’s a stretch, and a childish reason, but it might have some merit to it.
If they go through with allowing a map editor I’ll be surprised to say the least, or even allow modding to begin with.
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While to me, part of the appeal of the Diablo games was the game randomly generated levels and gear, you gotta admit having a detailed editor like Neverwinter Nights had would be a grand addition, as it would allows players to create new adventures.
You could make it so loot is still randomly decided and ladder characters can’t make use of player generated content to avoid the potential farming issues for gear and XP.
These kinds of tools can prolong the life of a game greatly. I know groups of people online that still actively create modules for Neverwinter nights, and it was released what? 19 years ago? I know of groups of people that still edit Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight as it’s a crazy easy game to mod in an unbelivable amount of ways to do all kinds of things the original developers never dreamed of doing.
Embrace the players’ creativity and your game basically sells itself. Hell, Skyrim still sells a huge amount due to how easy it is to mod.
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as the title suggests… is directly related to the thread starter… brain fart.
booo!
This is always the first thing I think of anytime I see someone talking about custom maps/mods.
DotA, is still one if the most popular games out there.
I definitely think they take this into consideration. They might even look at it as an insult.
In D3 we literally have 20 difficulty levels and an entire ranking system that is based on stratification of difficulty (Greater Rifts), which has 150 levels.