Softcore:
Softcore: No trading but increased drop rates.
Hardcore:
Hardcore: No trading but increased drop rates.
This solution keeps everyone happy, it’s the best middle ground for everyone.
You’ll still able to play with everyone in Hardcore or Softcore but you are completely unable to trade any items you find to another player and since loot is already personal, I don’t think this should be an issue to do.
Also, we can even have 4 separate leader boards so people can be competitive.
or just two playmodes, softcore & hardcore. And drop rates high enough to appease people who don’t want to trade but not so high to diminish the value so people who do trade can get that play experience. The problem is finding that balance. Which i hope they do.
Remember that they have stated D4 will have seasons, the length of those seasons is still up in the air but if you use D3 and PoE for example likely 3ish months per season. They have also stated that they want to shuffle the meta up from season to season. Great.
This means, with trading, the market is going to constantly be in flux and you’ll need to pay attention to what items are important season over season. Great for a trading community, that’s not a bad thing. I just hope that drops are either targetable or smart in some way. Perhaps various bosses that have higher chance to drop specific types of items so you can at least target slots or something for farming while having a low enough drop rate to allow a decent trading value for the traders.
I think trading can be great, IF done right. Blizzard is 1 win 1 loss in that respect (they did it well in D2 and did it poorly in D3… i won’t count D1 as that was just rampant with dupes and offline hacks) I hope they put another one in the win column.
I agree with having those 4 modes. Best, and only, way to make trading and non-trading be supported within the same game.
But people in trade-mode should preferably not be able to play with people in non-trade mode. Separate like SC and HC.
You should of course also not be able to share items between the modes on your own characters (so separate stashes).
Finding that balance is impossible imo. You are going to create a worse experience for one of the “groups”.
Increased droprates is quite the relative term. For this to work, both trade-mode and non-trade mode should be balanced around the same average gear acquisition speed - whatever that speed is (perfect balance is impossible of course, but as close as reasonably possible).
The goal is to make both modes equally difficult/grindy/whatever word you prefer. Trading will likely always have an edge, since you can target 100% exact stats when buying an item. But better balance of droprates can get them to be at least reasonable close.
Yeah, it has little to do with competition.
It is about whatever gameplay experience Blizzard makes the game for. If items are supposed to have one particular rarity (as in how long it takes to get items), then that is how the game is supposed to be (we can of course disagree with Blizzard on it but that is irrelevant for the topic of trading).
So make sure that both traders and non-traders get that same experience.
If you balance it only for traders, then non-traders find items too rarely. if you balance it for non-traders, then the market gets flooded items, making them have no value, and the players getting items too fast like in D3.
Separate game modes is as much a benefit for traders as non-traders. They dont risk that Blizzard balances the game for non-traders, leaving traders with a D3 experience of being fully geared within a day.
You need to stop thinking diablo 3 success was due to the game.
Diablo 3 sales success is due to these main reasons. The gaming world as vastly expanded, it was made on consoles and the biggest reason that should be number one.
It waa piggy backing off the massive success of Diablo 1 and 2.
But I don’t want to derail the thread over this. Respond if you wish, but l want to stay on topic.
the other ‘problem’ is seasons require a slightly faster gearing process(Either via trade, playing or both) because the lifespan is 3ish months, not the entire life of the game.
Yeah. I am not a big fan of seasons (at least not the short ones in D3 and PoE - the themes/patches for them are fine). Blizzard seems hell-bend on them, but I guess there is always hope for readjustment.
i really enjoy seasons. the initial 2-3 weeks every season is basically like a game launch, which is the best part of games in my opinion, as you’re playing fresh cahracters and gearing up. I enjoy the gearing process and usually plya seasons 3-4 weeks… build a nice character then bench the game until the following season. Keeps the game fresh and keeps me coming back every season.
Im personally not a fan either, but I can see why people like them.
I think the way poe does seasons is a good because they try new things, not all of them great, but at least they’re shaking things up and exploring new mechanics for ARPGS.
But I can also see why people wouldn’t like a new, entirely different mechanic every season but it’s good for the genre to explore new ideas. Even if they end up being bad ones in the end.