After reading through the latest round of multiplayer announcements, how do you plan to optimize the the system to your advantage?
I’m not talking about cheats, hacks or exploits, but legal behavior which the devs might not have thought about. What kinds of experiments are you planning to run? What game systems will you be poking at and how? What are some questions you have about what a party can do with 4 players running around that 1 player can’t do on their own?
No design survives contact with the players, and I’m hoping that this thread can raise awareness about some of the bizarre lengths players might go to in order to level or loot more efficiently.
Experiment 1:
We know that the more enemies that are killed in an echo, the more loot the echo chest grants. Is the bonus applied to the entire party no matter who killed the enemies? If it is, should we split the party up within an echo, have 3 members kill as many monsters as possible while heading in a separate direction, and have the 4th race straight to the goal to close the echo?
If the kill bonus is on a per-player basis, does that mean fast-moving AOE builds will be granted 90% of the bonus loot and anyone else gets comparatively little? This might feel bad in a pickup group with strangers. “Hey! Don’t hog all the enemies!”
Experiment 2:
Players may share any loot that drops with members that were in the party at the time the loot drops. Does this include purchased items? Can 3 members give all of their junk uniques/exalts to a 4th, have them sell stuff to become very rich, and then stay behind in town and have them gamble until they get a unique that someone else in the party needs while the other 3 are off running echoes?
Experiment 3:
We know that bazaar shops will be randomized to discourage external trading. Are the bazaar shops being displayed unique to the player or does the entire party see the same collection of bazaar shops? How often do they refresh? Can I refresh the shops if I log out and log back in, hunting for an item with specific properties? Does that mean I can hop in Discord with buddies, each sign in as we all look for a specific bazaar item a party member needs, and then have the group join a person’s party when they find the bazaar item so that someone else can purchase it?
Multiplayer info links:
July 2021 Dev Update
Multiplayer FAQ
Multiplayer Progress for July 2021