Difficulty Levels in 3.0.0

"

Wispo wrote:

Player lvl 50? All mobs lvl 50. Level up to 51? All mobs become 51, too. And so on

They won't do that, cause Diablo does that :-)

X

"

xyllywyt wrote:

Does this mean the 10% XP penalty will be reduced too ?

10% at lvl 60 is relatively easy to get back; 10% at level 89, is a lot of maps. That for me is the biggest disincentive to playing higher levels. It alters the gameplay. EG: you only take on bosses at the next tier of maps after you've gone up a level and are at low XP, so being knocked back to 0 XP doesn't hurt (as much).

perhaps scaling the penalty too will help ?


X

PS: Don't say "well don't die", cause not all of us a excellent top tier players.

Would hurt the game a lot, - Blizzard did it with D3 and what happened? People could'nt care less about defensive mechanics and those are a huge part of poes character developement. It would change much more than people expect.

What would this mean for characters sitting in standard?

Would there have to be a "forced reset" in order to deallocate the passives? Would characters have to "complete" Act 5 in order to get the other rewards, etc?

I hope that there is a new degree of difficulty so we give something between Cruel and Merciless that would be great

As a player who didn't so much quit as go on a semi-permanent hiatus, the main reason I haven't played much in a couple of years is that playing through the same content 3+ times every 4-month league was just way too much repetition of the same content. I'm very excited to see the removal of Cruel difficulty. I'm going to play another league once 3.0 lands and see how I like it.

Because of the nature of leagues, I think it's especially important to reduce repetition of the same content. Just an idea to consider:

Consider replacing the map gen / monsters while retaining the same quest/story for the second difficulty's 5 acts. This could arguably work extremely well in parallel with the 10-act plan, as the area, map, and enemy mixes could be balanced, improved on, and incorporated in future acts, using existing quest content as a placeholder while this content is fully balanced. This would greatly reduce player burnout, allow Chris and the team to balance, improve, and get feedback on any map-gen / monster mixes for new acts before they are officially released, and greatly reduce wasted development effort that comes from replacing any placeholder system with the 10-act system.

Anyway, great game, I have a lot of faith in Chris. Cheers.

"

neltisen wrote:

Is cruel removal confirmed? There could be a different approach for reaching 10-act length, mainly reducing content in lower difficulties and adding more acts in higher ones, meaning you finish act1 3 times, but act 5 only once on highest diff.

I'm one of the (seems like many) folks who have never finished Cruel because there was nothing new, just bigger numbers, after finishing the story once.

While rebalancing things so you only have to go through twice to get to the endgame is an OK idea, I *really like* neltisen's suggestion. Bigger numbers don't incent me. Harder for harder's sake doesn't either (Given that Act 4 does several things to make playstyles that were viable before stop working, I dread what Act 5 might do). But actually earning more story each time would be real incentive.

If I'd never seen Act 4, and could only reach it on Cruel or Merciless, I'd have finished Cruel the first time I started playing. As it is, this my third time to pick up the game is likely to be the first time I finish Cruel.

(As an aside, why am I sticking with it this time? Probably most importantly, all the stuff that has been added since Warbands makes it very unlikely that any given map will end up vanilla/boring - there's always an essence tableau or a prophecied encounter or a Vaal area or something to spice it up.)

I would rather have a longer playing game, then one that can be finished in only a few days.

Makes sense.
If im not mistaken PoE has plans for 10 acts (not sure about the corrent numbers).
So the endgoal would be: ONE difficulty across a massive amount of content aka story mode and then the end-game.

"

monkuar wrote:

"

Orca_Orcinus wrote:

Repeating content is just bad design and is indicative of a group of individuals incapable of elucidating a fully-fleshed out background story, and reeks of amateurism.

By this logic, Diablo 2 was made by a bunch of morons because of 3 difficulty types.

Srry, but if a game has lore and a story, it's part of the aRPG experience. That's how the aRPG founding fathers made it, and Chris and GGG will continue that legacy.

Long live David Brevik!

There have been lots of good ideas about how to set up five acts with two run throughs. I guess I’ll add mine to the mix.

Goals:
1. Reduce repetition
2. Increase interest in doing all the content
3. Make Normal relevant to later game play

Currently, each act has x number of locations that the story flows through and for each play through, they are the same. How about expanding the locations/quests/tasks in Act 1 & 2 of normal and shortening/streamling the locations/quests in acts 3-5? Then in the Merciless play through, the reverse happens. The content of Acts 1 & 2 is reduced and that of Acts 3-5 is expanded. This accomplishes several things. Acts 1-2 of Normal provide a wide foundation for both new players and new leagues, but then allow a faster transition to Merciless. In Merciless we would get to “race” through the early game and then get brand new content for the final push into end game maps etc.

The added content for Merciless could come from story line enhancements for Act 4 or maps that appear like vaal areas from time to time. for example, killing Voll in the Dried Lake might open a passage to a map some percentage of the time. Expanded content in late Merciless could even allow for multiple paths through Acts 4 & 5 and different starting points in the Atlas. Those different starting points could then affect which maps dropped at what rates.

Within a wider base for Acts 1 & 2 of Normal, you could have quests, treasures, keys, parts, or pieces that can be collected for use in Merciless Acts 4 & 5 and mapping. For example, have a high probability prophecy in early normal that launches a quest for keys or map pieces. Once the prophecy appears for a character, it won’t appear again. If a player collects all the parts before reaching, say Act 4, then in Merciless the parts can be assembled for access to a map or area that holds valuable rewards appropriate to their higher level and late game content and needs. If you miss it in Normal, it is not available in Merciless,

Normal could even have different Masters than can be leveled quickly and easily, but still offer valuable benefit. Such a Master could then "introduce" your character to a Forsaken Masters later and have the leveling points transfer.

You already have lots of great existing pieces in your tool box: quests, strong boxes, Vaal side areas, masters, prophecies, maps, and a back story. Lay out those items differently for Normal vs Merciless so that going through the game twice provides two different experiences.

Thanks.