As a seasoned D3 player, I was thrilled when you guys added new gameplay modes because I was sick and tired of the Campaign mode. Adventure mode was simply a godsend. Ever since you added it, I haven’t touched the Campaign mode.
However, now, after playing it for a while, the gameplay has gotten repetitive. While pondering about what exactly was bothering me about it, I realized a thing has been bothering me about D3 gameplay from the start - it is all about rushing through levels and doesn’t sufficiently reward exploration.
In D3, in both Campaign and Adventure mode, we are always concentrating on the task at hand and completing it as quickly as possible. In the Campaign mode, this task was to complete the storyline quests, and in Adventure mode we are either playing bounties or rifts. The former makes us run around trying to get the Horadric Cache asap. Where the latter is making us focus on killing as many elites as possible in as short of a time as possible.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Whenever I am playing D3 the players, including me, are always rushing to complete stuff without ever bothering to truly enjoy everything D3 has to offer. No one bothers to explore every corner of the map, click on every clickable object, or visit all the sub-areas that one can access within a certain area. I’ve been playing D3 since it first came out, and to this very day I’ve never been to all the sub-areas you can go nor did I ever participate in all of the little interesting events one can participate in.
Why? Because I know that it is more efficient to just do bounties or rifts as quickly as possible. So what if there is a resplendent chest or a goblin waiting somewhere that I skipped on exploring? There might be one, or there very well might not be one. And even if there is one, the thing you get out of it will rarely compare to the reward you get for completing the bounties and greater rifts.
So, as a lover of D3, I would like to ask of you guys to add a game mode where players like me can just chill, not rush, but slowly explore the world of D3, while being sufficiently rewarded for doing so.
Let’s call this game mode “Exploration mode”. (It doesn’t have to be a separate gameplay mode like Campaign or Adventure, you guys can just add it as another thing you can do in Adventure mode.)
You could offer many different things that the player can do in every area and award some kind of exploration currency for completing those tasks that can then be used/exchanged for something worthwhile and similar in value to a Horadric Cache or completing a Greater Rift.
Some of the things you can reward players for:
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Fully exploring the current map
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Killing 50% / 80% / all enemies on the current map
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Completing some / all of the events on the map
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Visiting some / all of the sub-areas in the current map
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Finding 50% / 80% / all of the hidden stashes of loot on the map
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Killing all (or specific) elites on the current map
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Find cleverly hidden stuff that has been specifically hidden for this mode
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You can even introduce specific events for this gameplay mode, such as some simple puzzles that give great rewards if the player solves them. Such as running into some statues and if the player figures out that they need to be rotated to face each other, he gets a good reward.
This new game mode would encourage a totally different kind of gameplay. It would encourage people to slowly kill the enemies, explore the map, look for the hidden stashes of loot and visit all the little sub-areas one can visit. It will allow the players to finally play D3 at a relaxed pace, without rushing through levels and missing most of the available content.
It will give D3 players an alternative style of play, a chance to rewind and relax, to just enjoy themselves without worrying about time efficiency. It will also bring a breath of fresh air into the current repetitive gameplay and make it harder for players to lose interest in playing D3.
