This is a terrible idea, never allow everyone to reach the maximum level in the game. The max level should be the same at launch as it will be after ALL expansions. Never increase the level cap with expansions, set a maximum level like 100 at launch and make most items wearable around level 75. This will make the additional power gained threw leveling the final 25 times about making your character stronger and finding better rolls on gear instead of just gear grind. The final 25 levels should be harder to attain and very rewarding to achieve. This game will be beaten to death after 2 weeks by most serious players with just a 40 level cap. Many will not bother buying an expansion that just artificially increases the level cap number which makes it have zero meaning if everyone gets to be max level.
Easy to learn, is beating the game hitting around level 75 unlocking top teir loot.
Difficult to master, is getting close to or reaching level cap which should be a rare feat few players can say they have done if it is truly difficult.
Please consider my observation on the current state of your character leveling system.
You have no idea how long or challenging each level will be. You realize they set the pace, right? They could make level 1 - 2 take a week of grinding if they wanted.
40 or 100, it’s an artificial cap. The speed is determined by their design goals.
Unfortunately, not having consequences on death makes it so that leveling is never difficult to master. Doing so the fastest possible way would be the only differentiation. I could always just stay in the easy area, invest more time, and eventually get there slower. Or I could take longer by trying to do so in an area that is beyond my capability to do at the time.
Call it max level 50 and we got a deal. 100 levels is to much. I agree that increasing level cap is inherently flawed game design. However, it is a suitable approach for the marketing aspects of companies providing entertainment as a business provides services for a fee. They had a system in everquest where the last levels needed something like triple the experience that the levels previously required. It had nothing to do with difficulty, everything to do with time investment. This is boring, it sucks. It is “busy chore work” grind and nothing else.
Easy to learn is starting the game and not being a lost child incapable of doing anything other than crying for attention due to being overwhelmed and simply not knowing what to do.
Difficult to master is acquiring game knowledge along the way and using that experience of game mechanics to your advantage later on down the road.
There’s a prediction that I found funny where I believe a D4 game developer said they would never sell power in D4. But it’s highly likely there’s going to be an expansion with higher level cap that you would need to purchase to have.
Brand New D4 Expansion!
New Zones! Gain new Skills and Powers! Increased level Cap! ONLY $14.99!
Buy It Now!
It’s a moot point when you consider they plan to have another leveling system after max level. Saying not everyone should reach max level is like saying not everyone should have access to the end game progression system.
I agree that NOT everyone should be at max level and it should take weeks (if not months) to get to that point. The difference between 85 and 100 (or 32-40) should be marginal. Also, paragons should never exist.
What? No one is saying that. You SHOULD be able to do endgame content with something like 80 lvl, while everything above that just makes it a little bit easier as the gear requirement should stay at around 80. If max level is 100 of course.
Everyone wins in this situation. Casuals can get to endgame and hardcore players can grind for months with that little bit of a progress feeling.
Expansions don’t necessarily need level cap limits raised. When the balance is preserved and the game design solid from the ground up, content alone sells itself. Creativity in what that content includes however would be quite a challenge without doing so in a way that requires level cap increasing.
I agree with Kasey here. While it is a fair point, it a moot point considering that they are indeed contemplating end game progression systems.
Paragons isn’t a “should never exist” system. It’s a “should never be infinite or trivialize all previous decisions” system. As long as it does that. Who cares? Let everyone be level 40 then have a really grindy paragon system that maxes at like 60.
Right, a purchasble expansion doesn’t need to have a level cap raised or increase a characters damage in any way. But if it did it would contridict what they said in a Q&A session somewhere. We just have to wait and see what happens lol.
The challenge should come from maximizing your build and being skillful; not from a boring endless grind for levels. I don’t get the pining for endless leveling systems that you cannot reach the cap. Endless leveling because you have infinite free time on your hands is dandy, until you no longer have infinite time on your hands and want to play the hard stuff as well.
Exclusivity should be in gear, and challenge, not time.
There is no difference in having a max level of 100 and a system where max level is 40 and a paragon system with max level of 60. Paragon systems allow you to reward differently for levels than what you got for the first 40 levels. The max level 40 probably came about because they want to balance the game around players having x amount of talent points. And then you have another grindy leveling system to for different rewards. This fixed all your concerns and there is no real reason to be against it if your only argument is that you don’t want everyone to be max level
Or a system with diminishing returns. One could essentially could gain infinitely some “points to spend” but investing in a single attribute would grant less and less extra benefit, down to nonexistent increases.
For example BL3 has Guardian Ranks. One can invest guardian tokens to various attributes essentially forever but diminishing returns hit quickly.
yeah so who cares if everyone is level 40 then??? I mean there is no reason to draw out the last few levels to make them “exclusive” and there is no need to make content beatable by most at a lower level and then making the higher levels “exclusive” to the ones that can play 18 hours a day. Everyone should be able to get to max level in a respectable amount of time. Then the more time you put in the more rewards in good gear you have. Leveling(or grinding) is easy in any game even D2 PoE or Everquest for that matter. It’s just a matter of how much time one has to devote to the grind.
Nah. I’m against anything infinite. It’s not just about the rewards. There needs to be a final sense of completion when it comes to leveling. I get why blizzard is trying to avoid that completion. They believe players will quit once they hit it. But let’s be honest. The only people hitting those extremely grindy goals aren’t the players that quit because of it. They simply move on to a new challenge as they are your “hardcore gamers”
Personally I think levels worked best in Diablo 2 (although it doesn’t necessarily have to be 99 levels, its the system not the numbers).
You could wear many of the items you wanted on 62.
Most items on 75 (some rare crafted might get as high as 89 iirc, but thats not even needed and more for perfectionists).
Many builds were finished somewhere between 75 and 85.
You could however push on to 99, which gave you a little extra power (however it really was a little bit, probably less than 1% of your total power), but was enormously time consuming and not for everyone.
So you can push on, but you don’t need to, no hard cap if you will likely hit unless you really want to.
Like… everyone engaged enough? Take vanilla D3 as an example. If you didn’t find anything, you basically wasted your time as you were at max level already.
What makes you think that “boring endless grind” doesn’t come together with maximizing your build? You don’t grind just for levels. You are farming items, gold, mats, boss-specific uniques etc. All of that is a part of the grind you apparently don’t like. Levels are just a cherry on top of that.