Making a SSF (Solo Self Found) option shouldn’t be that difficult.
Simply add another option at character creation SSF check box.
Players cannot join your SSF games and vice versa.
At any time on the character select menu you can opt out of SSF.
You share the same stash as a non SSF.
Add an SSF flag to each item.
Any gem, legendary, set, rare item not found by an SSF character is darkened and cannot be accessed by an SSF character and vice versa.
Add a filter in solo leader boards to show SSF players only.
Add a separate Account mode value for Paragon/Gold/Shards/Mats/Cube etc.
Ultimately I don’t understand why this isn’t done. The amount of space this would add to your database would be so insignificant, as well as the work needed to code this.
Any time I see comments like this I kind of cringe. Unless you personally work on the D3 code and know exactly how “easy” it is to modify, and exactly what SSF would entail, it is not wise to assume.
They might eventually do it, who knows, but don’t pretend it is a couple lines of code someone can just do in an hour.
EDIT - There is another thread on this already that is active and addresses the “easy” fallacy.
I think about the amount of formula mathematics involved in the infinite combinations of rings on the ground affecting gear % for cd/dmg/proc’d conditions/passives/distance from targets and then instantly adjusting your damage output accordingly, and the concept of tagging items in stash to be locked or not starts to look easy. Also the concept of turning off the ability to group.
But having separate paragon/artisans/keys/craft materials/etc without being its own seprate game mode like HC vs SC, then it starts to get tricky…
What would SSF add into the game really? You’d still be competing with bots and at the cost of losing the only edge you have against them; group play experience boost. D3 is not even a competitive game where you make thousands of dollars just by playing it, you had to be a dedicated streamer to make any sum of meaningful money off from it like any other game. Why are you taking leaderboards any serious? Do you think SSF model will be free of cheaters?
Also I don’t get the stigma about paragon levels and group play, it’s a way of compensating and it meant to be that way for players to have an edge against botters. If you look at leaderboards those people are there because they push their limits, paragon levels are not the sole push power for them but dedication. Just because you have 7k plvl doesn’t mean you can tackle GR135+ with any character.
If you want SSF, also think of ways to distinguish it from the game we had; when you play solo you’re already doing the SSF. What about a trade system for anyone who doesn’t mind being placed at leader boards? Any trade curious peeps may relinquish any chance of participating in leaderboards so in the end you’d get what do you want as long as you keep playing solo.
If you wanna take Blizzard’s attention; go out there and create communities for SSF like leading streamers. Creating another mode for an old game engine at the cost of sacrificing any potential extra content may be too much.
Before SSF, I’d like them to add a proper PvP mode, address the engine issues, balance classes, fix build diversity and most effective strategy approaches. You’re asking for a memory waste for years.
As I said; go out there and create SSF communities to identify each other, as of now current game model don’t have anything that separates it from the said model.
I’m not here to convince you why you should play SSF or not, all I’m stating is how simple and what little resources it would take to accomplish it. Once again you don’t have to play this mode, but there are people that would. Also an independent stash per region / mode / season/ non season is not required. A new game mode is not required. Just a simple item/character flag and a few additional bytes of data for paragon,mats,gold etc.
I know I’m pulling straws here but if they accept and add SSF where you won’t need any sort of online feature; they know next step will be an offline mode which they won’t oblige. I doubt they’d ever go that extra mile to hear complaints again.
I didn’t get that part… So… Your SSF character won’t have a separate stash? Then… How is it SSF? You need extra stash space for separating your previous loot; it’ll be like a new mode. That’s why I tell you peeps; it’s no use.
They ought to separate it if they accept that model to apply and it will waste away memory space for nothing. Current model have stash space for non-season and season, when you add SSF to the equation it looks like; SSF non-season, SSF season, regular season and regular non-season characters will apply.
There should be strict limitations or SSF character should return to regular model at one point else servers won’t really do well with this.
What I’m proposing is about .001% of the work and headaches that an offline mode would take/create.
If you play seasonal the SSF character will see everything the Non SSF character sees regarding your stash. The only difference is you can’t move or pickup any seasonal item with your SSF character and vice versa. These items will be shaded darker so you’ll know which are for SSF and not.
So each of these pairs would share the same stash.
Then stash will never be enough and you won’t be able to play the classes you want at both sides without deleting characters or sparing the other half for the other mode. When you find a kicking Primal item with a character a few of your characters that may benefit it will be off the list because they’re not the same type out of 2-4 (whatever, there’s hardcore and softcore also) character types.
That’s the cost of separating leaderboards and still having bots while losing group play to surpass them at plvl. It’d be a demanding effort for a skeleton crew to keep SSF leaderboards clear of botters when Blizzard only bans them by the end of season. They know what they’re getting into and yes, they’re lazy and short on resources.
It’s really quite difficult for us to estimate how difficult or easy (or feasible at all) it is to implement an SSF mode. That being said, the first thing we need to do is to create the urge - show Blizzard that SSF is something the community wants. We’ve had an SSF league for a the last five seasons, but it has almost been forgotten. Let’s reinvigorate this effort! I made a post about it, Garfm is the main organizer for Season 18 and has setup a Discord and the Google doc with all the info. More about it in the other thread - I can’t post the link because of a lack of permissions, sorry, but maybe someone else can plug it
As for the discussion about “does SSF make sense or not” - for the longest time I thought it would not make sense, or would hurt group play, but let’s be honest - there are people who switch between SSF and group from season to season in D3, and PoE is a great example where both modes - SSF and trade - co-exist peacefully together.
I don’t think stash space would be as big a deal as you think. Maybe to only those people who really play a lot of groups and play every character. For those kinds of people I doubt SSF is really for them anyways. Most people playing SSF will only play SSF. But those who play both I don’t see how it would drastically change that much. Also I’m sure they would give you the option to opt out of SSF. As well as change SSF item to non SSF.
Are you saying the current leaderboards are free of bots?
No. But I also say you’re pretty willing to give away the only benefit over bots that is group play, which grants players an edge at the paragon lvl race. Which is weird.
To keep those SSF leaderboards free of bots, Blizzard ought to run banwaves often with a small crew, while all they wanna do is keeping focus on WoW. Since you gave away the only benefit for legit players, bots will stack up at SSF leaderboards in mere days and you can NEVER catch them.
No matter how high Blizzard may put the experience boost, it’s no avail. For SSF there should be some sort of experience decay on exceeding any certain play time for you to have any hope to catch up to the bots.
In case you don’t care about leaderboards, why do you want SSF at the first place? System conflicts within’ itself and it’s hard to distinguish or separate it from the current model as of right now. If you want real SSF, emphasis on trade capabilities of regular players first. SSF offers nothing new.
Why not? Because the same people would still be here complaining about the same things, other players with an unfair advantage over them, it would honestly solve nothing.
You do realize most high group runners bot too right? I’m not saying botting isn’t a problem, I’m just saying that’s a bad reason to not have SSF. Yeah sure there might be bots but honestly I’m not so sure bot users would find SSF that appealing. SSF Bots will also not have 150 gems and 140+ augments so there’s that. They will not get free bounty bot mats anymore. It will be pretty obvious who is botting by checking hours played and at least you won’t have to compete against players with gems and augs 30-40 levels higher.
Also a personal question; how many of your stash tabs are empty at non-season right now? Or let’s say, how many of your stash tabs were empty when you finished Season 17?
Not like whining of thousands of people sound like lullaby to developers. They ought to run banwaves way more often on a game that they can not monetize. That’s not how high quality video game development companies work at all, they offer services for profits. They can not slide their resources, budget and money between different development teams.
That’s a good point, I’m with you there. That’s why I always advocated regulations on friend invites to slow down botters. Alas it still doesn’t mean they can not bot on their main account to farm those.
Yeah and someone, sometime has to ban them. Regularly to the point of being obvious. Since they won’t be going a long way by botting solo, their recovery on leaderboards will be rather short as well.
