Season One and Race feedback

I did two races.

Both times the lag and desynch was so bad I got killed by white mobs very early on. The gameplay was so much worse than regular (non-race) play that I just gave up, and have no real intention of trying again.

B.

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Invalesco wrote:

Perpetus should be given the chance to spawn near the ledge more often, to make city of sarn farming more challenging.

More LMP dogs in docks please!

I don't think zone balancing should be done with races in mind just we don't want class & skills balances be done with races ONLY in mind.

As it stands act 3 is already in a bad place when it comes to 'farmable' zones compared to both act 1 (ledge/coves) and act 2 (western/fellshrine) in normal gameplay. There is probably an imbalance in docks which should be fixed, due to the density of blue packs compared to the rest of the zones and their position.

I would agree with changes to it if it's only for race, but seems just like a temporary solution. IMO the solution to 'fixing' the non-choice races (get to a zone and farm like a boss) is both messing with duration of races (2:30h, for example), and messing with the rules and rng.



It would be cool if we could have progression races, I think the problem of someone running ahead in party places could be solved by adding more rares with 'slow aura' and GMP near entrance and exit of each exit (don't know if GGG has this control over the zone generation though, don't think so). But mostly by adding rules like 'clear all the mobs in this zone except 5 before progressing' (the exception trims out bad luck when clearing zones) and each check would be per party member. It can be done already as it's done in fetid pool by adding that exception.

I think everybody agrees that progression is in general more fun than farming, also more risky and resulting in more deaths, which overall is better for the competition, but the risk/reward of choosing progressing over farming is also higher.


On other note, it would be nice if in season 2 we have more alternative types since the beginning, instead of the normal format.

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radiatoren wrote:

Just some general feedback:
Invalesco has a lot of good points, but with players killing Vaal with 1:35 minutes left in a 3 hour solo race, I do not see 2 hour solo as being that bad. Also, there seems to be a possibility for reaching the Ledge cruel in 3 hour races and still do well.

the only problem is that some classes kill vaal faster than others. In 2 hour solos, you wouldn't get witches bothering to progress at all, for instance

i think races in OB are just extremely bad designed.



there are way too much of it. its no "event" anymore. its just some regular thing.
100% non-special.


i played 2 or 3 races at the beginning of the season and after that not one again.
it just feels more rewarding playing the normal leagues.
the thrill is gone.


currently there are about 500 or 600 characters(not players) per race...
the first race had nearly 5000 characters.


considering that the "pros" (or addicted ones, @500), that are currently left, very often create a second character for skillgems (while this behaviour isnt that common for casual players (@5000)) , the numbers look even worse.


well and i dont start talking about the "rewards"...

I won't consider even trying another race until (in descending order of importance):

1) Desync issues are fixed
2) Rewards are vastly more interesting, both for individual races and for the season
3) The schedule includes more 1- and 2-hour solo races

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Qarl wrote:

A couple of things we know we want to do:

- tailor the rewards for each race type
- more race types
- Cutthroat!

Sounds good.

Invalesco covered most of what I had in mind.

edit I'd like to see extended duration race leagues, perhaps a month or the same length as each racing season, that could fulfill the desire many have for ladder resets.

My feedback after many races:

*I love solo races, prefer more of these and less party-party-party everywhere.

*One week solo (no trading) would be awesome. Please make this sooner than later.

*I miss 2 hours solo races. Boring second half of the season because no more 2 hours solos races, only 3-4, they are too long for many of us. I think 1 and 2 hours races (solo and party) are the better.

*I loved the different specific races (lethal, multi, etc).

*Turbo is unplayable because of desync, specially in Brutus. Its like a Lottery. I am not playing any turbo anymore, only if 1 hour and keep farming ledge. That is because of desync. Its a pity, because turbo is real real fun. But desync make this unplayable, or at least not enjoyable. Not for me. I move from turbo until desync is fixed.


*Please dont make highly overpowered rewards. I think the system is nice as it is, with low level items, and races mostly for fun. Even if no rewards at all, I think this is real fun.

And its all, I guess.


PS: a couple suggestions:

*Remove the control-click for new passive, omg. Just remove the confirm thing in races.
*You can make crematorium needed before docks somehow (or any other lateral quest, like solaris). This way people won't go straight to docks and farm all day.



And my hardest suggestion:

*If you die in a race, you can not make another character from this account. Banned for this regular race. Races are not hardcore sometimes because of this, specially in party. Because you can risk a lot (early), die, and then make new char (if early in the race) get tps from friends and come back. No fun. Specially in one week race.

For me, it must be: you die, you are over.

My #1 request would be more rewards based on progression. The rewards right now force me to race myself rather than other players.

I'm not normally very pessimistic, but I don't even look at the "first to kill/clear ____" goals. They reward 1 player out of a thousand, and I'm pretty sure I won't be that guy. In fact, if Hillock doesn't drop a great item or two, I'm certain I won't be that guy.

The "Stay alive and reach level __" goals are attainable and realistic, so I focus my efforts there, and as a result it feels like there's not much to do.

Unrelated, but if you could have races start on arbitrary maps (story or map content) with some amount of pre-distributed skill points, all would be forgiven!

i got the medicine chest 3 times in a row and could have gotten it 5 times if the coral ring had shown up in nessa's shop on the 4th race :D.

Problem is that the incentive is not there. You only go for it if you are sure to get it or at least have a very high chance to.

If the goal of race rewards is to promote different styles of playing then the incentives should be inclusive and not exclusive. this does not stop you from further rewarding the best.

as it is right now you get punished indirectly if you try to risk going to a side area late as you wont make as high a level (opportunity costs).

i also feel that the rewards of races should be greatly increased but the influence on the leagues should be minimized at the same time.

reward sink league of its own with it's own maps and characters and such independent from normal hc or sc.

the main problem i see from ggg's side is them trying too hard to prevent overrewarding players. this tends to lead to dissatisfaction as it happened in season one. ( i can not get myself to racing anymore because there is no incentive at all and i lose out on grind on my main chars).

this overrewardiung could of course lead to a too quickly created saturation effect but if the influence is isolated it would be great to have at least some bits of feelings to have made the jackpot.

it's like on magic online where you get a starter pack with really expensive cards that can only be used in fun duels but not in any form of competitive gaming. the reward can be really high if the player is made to realize that the reward is very narrow.

narrow rewards :
-items with duration ('this lionseye's glare will disappear in 2 days')
-characters with duration in isolated leauges
-one time items (exclusive maps)
-currency with bind on pickup ('this exalted orb cannot be dropped or traded')
-convenience rewards without too much use ('this * will level your default character to level 28' <- create a low level pvp char, 'your next death will not result in loss of experience' )
- 'mirror of etupz/Dominion/KrippIsFat'. copy a character of your choice and be able to play a mirrored character for a short amount of time. This would be highly fun and rewarding and also help experiencing characters yet to be created on one's own.

Overall, I really enjoyed the races and the general format. The one hour races are the ones I liked the best, because I could spend a short amount of time and get 3 points without much trouble. The main thing that would encourage people like me(Who are very slow-paced, cautious, patient, hardcore players, and not gifted with competitive racing abilities) to do more of the longer races would be more random rewards. As it is, it feels good when I find an alchemy orb, or a gemcutter's prism, or whatever else that will carry over to hardcore, but it's nothing that I couldn't find, just playing in regular hardcore. I would love it if there were some sort of "spot prizes" like the way reaching certain levels worked in the closed beta. For instance maybe the "first person to xxxxx" objectives would still be there and the fastest person to do each one would still get a guaranteed reward, but everyone else who completed that objective at any point during the race would be entered into a random pool where one(or 5, or 10, or whatever) of them would also get 2 points(or some other number.) I would feel more like doing the races if it were like that, and I could go along and get a little reward for reaching some low level threshold, but then be excited to know that maybe because of the objectives I had gone out of my way to complete I might win the roll of the dice and get extras.(I still think the people who are good at racing should be rewarded more greatly and consistently for their talents)

Another idea to go along with that, is that in the 1 week races the current special artwork uniques that are the season's tier rewards have a chance of actually dropping. Sort of like "Ladder only items" in Diablo 2.(I'm also not against the idea of having some items that will only drop when enabled in a current race season.) It could be a very small chance like: "If an Atziri's Buckler is rolled as a drop during the one week race there is a 1% chance that it will have the special artwork." I just enjoy things that are less linear and guaranteed, and more luck and fun surprises, and I think these two ideas can coexist these ways. Alternately there could be a one month ladder that goes throughout the entire season with these drops enabled, and one would have the choice of either playing and farming a lot here with a chance to get a lucky drop, but very few or no points, or competing in shorter races and racking up points for guaranteed rewards.