Here’s what I think D4 could do to PERMANENTLY (yes, permanently) stay on top (on all the lists/ladders/critiques, e.t.c.)
1 - Add new surprise (or more specifically surprise-creation) feature in game, and then a chance for that surprise to give a very unique (borderline unrepeatable) reward, i.e.
2 - Add loot pieces that will individualize everyone’s experience playing the game (as opposed to feeling the exact same others are doing - both in experience and rewards)
That’s it, that’s the “secret sauce”
No more running in circles or climbing a mountain over and over, don’t create “farmable” stuff, create a surprise, or surprise-creating feature (much akin to the challenge of a Harbinger in LE)
Here’s a concrete example:
Step 1 - there’s a small chance that an elite will gain extra augmentation (faster cast speed, faster movement and attack, greater AoE on all attacks, corrupted hit, attacks enchanted with X element, e.t.c.). Step 1.1 - add a small chance that an already augmented monster can have an additional/extra skill to cast
Step 2 - those augmented elites/monsters have a decent chance but not always to drop a different type of loot (Skill Orb - not always but decent amount, say 15-30% a certain Skill Orb will drop) - a socket that can be “attached” to a Skill
The other type of augmentation from above (monster casting a certain skill) drops a separate type of Skill Orb which increases the level of that particular skill that that exact monster used by some amount
Skill sockets (i.e. Skill Orbs) are quite random and different people will prefer them for a different skill/purpose
Noone will face the same monsters (meaning not everyone is gonna get the same skill-enhancing Skill Orb). Additionally even more so => chances are people won’t use same Skill Orbs on the same skill often either
Skill Orbs allow people to experiment with all kinds of (incremental) augmentations to their skills, some examples:
- Target skill does 33% extra damage vs Elites and is 25% wider but costs 50% more (target skill must be AoE)
- Target skill costs 20% more resource but gains 10% increased lucky hit (baseline). If it’s a basic skill gain up to 15% chance to execute (Elites can be execute only if injured)
- Target skill gains 50% increased damage but gains a CD increase of 4 seconds
- Target skill has it’s CD reduced on Overpower hits by 2 seconds
- Target skill has a 30% chance to multicast 3 times but has CD increased by 4 seconds
e.t.c.
The other equation is to redo NMDs (instead of increment XP gain on a Glyph, make Glyphs drop with a predefined level on them as a loot drop)
The reason why do this is again similar/simple = it individualizes gains for individual people (one person gains one glyph from a NMD, another gains others), but ALSO replaces an “assignment” i.e. “chore” into a challenging run (can also make requirement for monsters to be X levels higher than the player if they wanna gain X level Glyph for example)
Another “small” change - personally would recommend for NMDs to have monster-only augmentations, and the spatial augmentations/hazards (Stormbane, Null Zone, e.t.c.) to be transferred to the infernal hordes (can use for lvl9 and 10 later for example)
So overall the steps/approach ?
Step 1 - include/implement surprise & surprise-creation feature
Step 2 - that specific feature (which is expected to not happen often but still be there) has a chance to drop something that has very low chance to drop on another player but more importantly - allows immediate and maximum flexibility for the player to try out overall
Can redo/rebalance later, the important part is surprises and individualization of experience (this allows a person’s 3rd/4th/whatever login to have a chance to feel drastically different than the previous ones they did before)
