Given D3 did it how many years ago, can it be called revolutionary?
I didnât write even a word about D3, just something LIKE Adventure mode. And I proposed pass Campaign just once on every single Cycle, it will be easier for starting on our alt chars within one Cycle. Anyway I believe EHG give us good and sense way for that aspect of game.
OkâŚ
Not for me. What I actually want is the opposite of what you want. 1) seasons as everyone is doing it now (a test bed for new systems and a place to have leaderboards that I donât care about), and 2) I want LE to do something new with standard, ideally some sort of builder system where I take resources acquired in the season and build a massive palace to my awesomeness.
Or something even more complex and crazy, each season is a distinct âworldâ with the new systems and a few unique resources (that I play to bring back to my main standard base). I can return to those worlds only with characters that played in those worlds, and I need to create new seasonal characters to get new resources.
I think three month cycles follow by a month of downtime to work in standard, and only three cycles a year to give them more time to work on the new systems for the upcoming cycles. I think four cycles a year with no lag between cycles forces less ambitious systems.
Mostly, I dislike abandoning my seasonal characters and want their to be a reason to play in standard. But there may be something wrong with me.
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That would kinda fit in with the time travel/many worlds thing LE already going on. I can already see how streamers would react, given how some of them reacted to the factions reveal.
It could be some thoroughly fucked up timey-wimey shenanigans. More persistent rule/content sets than temporary seasons.
The whole bring resources to legacy and build stuff with it has been suggested before (by you, I imagine?). I donât like it for 2 reasons:
1- I donât want to build stuff in an ARPG. Thatâs a different kind of game and I basically avoid all of those mobile builders.
2- If you bring stuff from cycles to legacy, then you have an advantage over people that only play legacy and donât want to engage in cycles. Unless you can trade for those materials, or you implement them in legacy once the season is over, so regular legacy players can have access to it.
3- If what you build gives you bonuses (I believe you suggested that last time) then you will soon get a huge discrepancy in power between legacy players and new cycle players, since these donât have access to the buildings.
Iâm all for something unique in legacy, just like Iâm all for something unique in cycles. But I really, really donât want a resource management/builder game into my ARPG.
However, if you make it a separate optional endgame mechanic, Iâm all for it. In that mechanic you can harvest resources, build stuff to get bigger boosts, build more stuff, etc. As long as I can avoid it without missing out (other than maybe missing out on some exclusive uniques), much like I avoid delve in PoE, I think itâs a good idea, in these terms.
Building shit definitely isnât for everyone, especially in an ARPG, I get that. Mostly I like new systems in seasons (for reasons mentioned), but I also occasionally want a reason to return to standard/eternal. Base building is just the idea that popped into my head. If they come up with different reason to play in standard, thatâs cool. The thing about standard is that my characters are max level already (unless itâs D4 and I canât bring myself to play more than a couple days because the fucking itemization is so terrible).
I kind of liked what Torchlight 3(?) did (build a base that lets you do stuff), and Wolcen did, with building up the city. It would differentiate why you were playing in seasons (level your toon) versus standard/eternal (level your base). Both would require playing the ARPG.
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Yeah, I get that. And, as I said, I wouldnât be opposed to that if it were an optional endgame mechanic that I donât need to engage and not really miss out on anything, like PoEâs delve, which I also hate and thus avoid without having to miss out on anything.
I think it can be fun when you pick mechanics from other games and incorporate them into the game, like PoE did with the Ancients league with the auto-battler. But to me, personally, only if they are optional or limited to a cycle. I wouldnât enjoy it if it became core and you had to do that, especially since I wonât be joining cycles anytime soon.
The lack of purpose behind the whole ârestartâ kind of gives me the olâ Diablo 2 vibes, I think that with ARPGs out these days, having a seasonal theme is kind of important. 1.0 kind of gives them a pass at not releasing seasonal content, but if cycles are just restarts for the sake of restarts then I donât get the point of making a new character.
The first couple of cycles will be like that because theyâre still adding stuff they consider core to the game. The missing masteries will come with 1.0, along with skill trees and factions. But there are masteries still missing skills, which I would presume would be one of the next things to add, so that wouldnât make sense to add just for cycles.
But Mike has said that theyâre studying ways to make cycles more interesting eventually, with exclusive content/rewards or something. It just wonât happen with the first cycles.
Also, as a sidenote, while D2 didnât offer new mechanics for seasons, you did have important runewords that only worked on ladder, so there was a reason other than fresh start to join new seasons.
As a counterpoint I intend to delete my stash to start fresh.
People who advocate who for refresh of the inventory/economy really have no clue on long term planning.
Imagine returning after a year. Jump straight into a level 100, with maxed out min max perfect gear. What now? Run around killing mobs without picking up loot because already min maxed?
I already want to delete my stash because of this. Iâve been on and off LE long enough that my stash is full. I now make an alt and just cobble all the random gear and uniques Iâve accumulated, may craft something with the gazzilion runes Iâve already picked up.
You donât actually need to delete your stash. You can join the cycle, which will make you start fresh, and both solo character found and solo account modes will be available, which will also make you start fresh. In fact, solo character found will always make you start fresh.
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It has always struck me as very strange that a game developer felt it was cost-effective to properly develop (and balance) decent content that has a lifespan of only 3 months and then was gone forever. That seems like a very inefficient and wasteful way to go about things.
Justy to add 2 cents to this⌠I am possibly the most anti-cycle player on the planet. I like long-term attachment to my chars and I like the full use of my hard-earned 50+ stash tabs of nice stuff when I level new chars. In short, I will never, ever play transient content like a season or cycles (e.g. I played PoE for 5 years and never once touched a season).
That said, if there was a reason to play a cycle that would in some way improve my legacy experience or my legacy chars, I might actually go there. Just saying.
I see no problem hereâŚ
- Cycle and legacy chars will never meet, hence, so what if there is a power gap?
- Legacy chars should be far more powerful than cycle chars. Thatâs the whole point. They have been min-maxed to hell and have huge stashes full of good equipment to utilize.
I have 3500 hours in this game. As a result I have many âmin-maxedâ level 95+ chars, and yet these are NOWHERE near perfect gear.
The concept of coming back to a level 100 who is so well geared there is nowhere to go is non-existent. (Even if it were the case, start a new Alt in standard if you want, right?)
Either way, the endgame systems scale infinitely in difficulty, so there no such concept of a char having been taken âas far as possibleâ.
There has been a lot of discussion in chat recently about why even start a cycle char etc, and the most common reply I see is for the leader board. This is puzzling. Isnât it the case thatâŚ
Getting onto the leader board requires you play endless Arena.
No one (except me!!) even plays Arena, as it is generally disliked.
Someone explain this to me.
I think they donât understand their audience if they think that a leaderboard is why people play ladder⌠lol.
People hop on ladder for a fresh start and the seasonal themes are a huge incentive too to shake things up.
I think you missed the bit where I mentioned that the leaderboard was the most common reason given to play seasons, according to general in-game chat - the players. Shrug.
From my experience since D2, players will join a new cycle/season/league/whatever mostly for exclusive content/rewards. Even in D2, most players joined because the best runewords were ladder only.
After that, there is a reasonable portion of the playerbase that enjoys the fresh start.
From my experience, leaderboards are only sought after by less than 1% of players. The vast majority doesnât even check them out.
Cycles will eventually get some exclusive content/incentives/whatever. But first they need to add the rest of the core stuff into the game, like missing skills, which make no sense being season exclusive.
100%.
As I said, just reporting what I heard repeatedly in chat. Leader board leader board leader board.