[The ultimate fix] How to balance single player vs multiple players

Hello,

I don't know if this idea has ever crossed your minds, you devs. And i don't know if you ever discussed it in the office.

Everybody knows that 100% of top ladder players do maps only in groups. That's is correct in short term leagues.

My idea is to consider giving a player the ability to hit his ally in party. So whenever you cast a GMP freezing pulse you may hit foes for 25K dmg and your friend for only a small% of HIS life/ES.

Why can you hit your friend? Because you become little by little a rogue exile.
Why do you become a rogue exile? Because of corruption.
Where is corruption? It's in your flesh.
Flesh? Yes your tree, your DNA.
Ehh.. how? With jewels.
Corrupted jewels.

Why would anyone choose using corrupted jewels and lose the stability they had with their 6-players group spamming skills doing all maps with ease?
Because corrupted jewels would give you awesome aptitudes.


Edit: The idea came from this discussion

the reason people group for super endgame is xp efficiency -- there isn't a huge imbalance so far as gameplay goes. pretty much anyone past lvl 90 can solo those maps, but at a cost of say 2ex/map it's simply more efficient to do rotations, which would reduce 2ex/map to 1/4ex per map average.

the only way to compensate for this would be to significantly reduce group xp, which isn't going to happen.

"

tsftd wrote:

the reason people group for super endgame is xp efficiency -- there isn't a huge imbalance so far as gameplay goes. pretty much anyone past lvl 90 can solo those maps, but at a cost of say 2ex/map it's simply more efficient to do rotations, which would reduce 2ex/map to 1/4ex per map average.

the only way to compensate for this would be to significantly reduce group xp, which isn't going to happen.

Isn't that a huge amount of exalts?

So the balance would be giving single players the ability to get +% (dropings maps) while preventing partying.
Same scheme:
Why can you hit your friend? Because you become little by little a rogue exile.
Why do you become a rogue exile? Because of corruption.
Where...
...
...Because corrupted jewels would give you extra ++% map drops.

Setting aside that this largely breaks the current mapping system/economy, the fact is that for high-level (super endgame) map groups, 2ex is not even approaching a huge amount. I don't keep up on current high-end map prices, but I'm pretty sure that a white 78 is still 1-2 exalts.

And because white maps are so rare/expensive, people drop a huge amount of currency into them, as well as mods. Again, I don't keep up, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone running 78 maps for xp dropped an ex on rolling it (on average) and a further ex for Zana's Beyond mod. From what I understand, people generally roll a minimum of packsize and beyond for super high-level maps to sustain the pool.

Granted, increasing droprate based inversely on party size would theoretically reduce this somewhat, but at that point you're significantly changing the game and its balance to cater to a small segment of the population, and (whether we like it or not) GGG clearly intended this to be a game aimed at partying. Plus the fact that there's no real reason that we need this rebalancing, unless you're someone who insists on soloing to lvl 100 for some reason.

As for the corruption->rogue exile idea, it sounds interesting, but could you explain what you actually mean by it in terms of mechanics?

I seldom downright disagree with new ideas, but this is such an instance.

The ability to damage party members will be abused. Bored a__holes with high level characters with insane DPS and corrupted jewels will join lower level public parties and ruin the game for everyone else. No thanks.

"

tsftd wrote:

the reason people group for super endgame is xp efficiency -- there isn't a huge imbalance so far as gameplay goes. pretty much anyone past lvl 90 can solo those maps, but at a cost of say 2ex/map it's simply more efficient to do rotations, which would reduce 2ex/map to 1/4ex per map average.

the only way to compensate for this would be to significantly reduce group xp, which isn't going to happen.

you could add aura stacking, monsters dispersing damage between several chars instead of focusing one and that monsters dont double their stats with each player making the clear speed a bit faster.


not sure about aoe damaging allys, with all the aoe the game has that could be a disaster but i would not mind if solo play had some advanatge.

"

wookie919 wrote:

I seldom downright disagree with new ideas, but this is such an instance.

The ability to damage party members will be abused. Bored a__holes with high level characters with insane DPS and corrupted jewels will join lower level public parties and ruin the game for everyone else. No thanks.

As i said , they will only be able to hit you for a small % of your char's life. High level chars do the same.
Only a char with a very high attack speed could potentially deal to you a great amount of dmg.
We can prevent dmg being dealt after 50% hp or es is lost. having only 50% of your health is already a bid deal. So choose wisely wether you want to party or solo.

@caboom: it would be also interesting if we had ghosts friends(unknown exiles/computer controlled allies) all the time:
monsters dispersing damage between several char/aura stacking/..

"

tsftd wrote:

Setting aside that this largely breaks the current mapping system/economy, the fact is that for high-level (super endgame) map groups, 2ex is not even approaching a huge amount. I don't keep up on current high-end map prices, but I'm pretty sure that a white 78 is still 1-2 exalts.

Are you sure? consider rolling Tens of maps a day vs doing it alone. How is the currency lost rate?

"

tsftd wrote:

Granted, increasing droprate based inversely on party size would theoretically reduce this somewhat, but at that point you're significantly changing the game and its balance to cater to a small segment of the population, and (whether we like it or not) GGG clearly intended this to be a game aimed at partying. Plus the fact that there's no real reason that we need this rebalancing, unless you're someone who insists on soloing to lvl 100 for some reason.

The thing is the small segment of population is probably those who party. IMO

"

tsftd wrote:

As for the corruption->rogue exile idea, it sounds interesting, but could you explain what you actually mean by it in terms of mechanics?

Just being able to hit allies.


"In the Anarchy League, the corruption of Wraeclast has spread to the minds of many exiles, turning them against one another. As you journey through the world, you will occasionally run into these exiles - deadly computer controlled enemies who use the skills and items available to player characters. If you manage to kill one, they drop a lot of items including a magic or above for each equippable slot. "