GGG - I don't want Act 4 spoiled by EZ-mode Normal

Then people complain about how akward is GGG with design decisions.

God, how awful of an idea. The problem is that normal is easy, yet you want to screw all the people that won't stick until merciless soon (a.k.a.: almost all the playerbase).

If your problem is OP gem combos, push for balance, and stop asking for stupid ideas.

"

NeroNoah wrote:

If your problem is OP gem combos, push for balance, and stop asking for stupid ideas.

LOL, as if the "push for balance" is anything more than the latest merry-go-round of the meta-beta-circle jerk. I find it amusing that not a single one of the posters dismissing the idea of Act-progression in difficulty levels as "stupid" have come up with any actual reasons to support their opinions. In the face of this void, I will point out something else to consider:

Why do you think so many new players quit the game after completing Normal?

Maybe because they feel like there's nothing new to look forward to in Cruel?

will never happen but id personally like it

"

RogueMage wrote:

"

NeroNoah wrote:

If your problem is OP gem combos, push for balance, and stop asking for stupid ideas.

LOL, as if the "push for balance" is anything more than the latest merry-go-round of the meta-beta-circle jerk. I find it amusing that not a single one of the posters dismissing the idea of Act-progression in difficulty levels as "stupid" have come up with any actual reasons to support their opinions. In the face of this void, I will point out something else to consider:

Why do you think so many new players quit the game after completing Normal?

Maybe because they feel like there's nothing new to look forward to in Cruel?

If you are cynical there is no point in justifying my opinions anyway.

Reasons:

-It's inelegant storywise.
-Alineates most of the playerbase that don't rush to maps and merciless.
-There are less alienating solutions (making normal hard, avoiding imbalances).

Many players quit after Normal because they are casual, or they don't know the best is yet to come. And repeating the same difficulties is not that enticing. Your solution won't change any of those factors, and it will probably make people not try the game because of the akward gating of content.

Anyway, GGG and lots of players have more common sense that you. I'm out of this thread.

"

RogueMage wrote:

"

Cergic wrote:

This is a stupid idea, for so many reasons that...

...for some reason, are nowhere to be seen.

I find them rather obvious really:
1. People will think there are only two acts, they'll stop after normal and ragepost about how the game has fewer acts than it's supposed to and the whole thing is just a scam for money(doesn't matter that the game is free, they'll still say it and tell that to their friends).
2. Most players aren't aiming for an endgame build. They half ass their way through normal on whatever skill and class floats their boat and when they get to cruel they say "well that was that." Maybe they'll try again with a different char. They've been conditioned to believe there isn't really that much additional content after they beat the final boss. These players don't have the detrimental experience of going through normal with a "boring leveling build" so your notion of fun comes directly at their expense. There's more of them than you and yes they do spend money.
3. Playing through act 1 and act 2 twice in a row will be boring enough but by the time you hit act 3 a second time, you'll have played act 1 and act 2 three fucking times before you get a decent amount of variety. That's gone from the somewhat annoying grind we have now to an extremely annoying grind whereas act 4 could provide enough variety to make the grind less annoying than it is now if the progression is sufficiently smooth.
4. Most game reviewers would fall in category 1. They'd get completely slammed by review sites.
5. Charan hates it.

"

NeroNoah wrote:

Many players quit after Normal because they are casual, or they don't know the best is yet to come. And repeating the same difficulties is not that enticing. Your solution won't change any of those factors, and it will probably make people not try the game because of the awkward gating of content.

OK, so you agree that repeating the same difficulties is "not that enticing". As for "awkward gating of content", I think GGG's policy of forcing end-game players to replay mid-level content to farm Atziri shards satisfies that aspect of gameplay quite effectively, thank you.

But on one thing I agree, we could make my solution even more attractive to players who tend to quit after completing Normal. How about this:

Give each character a full respec after completing Normal and Cruel.

With this change, you get to tackle the game with a fresh take on your character build at the start of each difficulty. What better way to entice players to continue onward after completing each new difficulty? And it's not like this bonus would risk destabilizing game balance or anything. At this point, periodic full respecs have become a well-established part of the meta-game.

You don't understand really well the nature of the problem.

The problem is repetition. It will require something like adventure mode or putting half million acts first to be solved. Else it won't be atractive for people.

I don't like Cruel, but I kept going until maps. Merciless was fun, though. The difficulty spike was amusing.

"

CliveHowlitzer wrote:

I'd rather we just make normal mode challenging.

^

... Even though it may hamper with the games ability to keep new players throughout their first playthrough. The game has indeed proven in the past and present that it thrives on support from players for it's complexity and difficulty, it may prove to be a main boost for newcomers to keep playing ...

Normal is actually not THAT easy if you are comletely new to the game so why make it even harder for newcomers?

"

RogueMage wrote:

What's worse than being forced to play through all four Acts three times over?

Seeing your first experience of Act 4 spoiled by EZ-mode Normal.

Simple solution for you then. Before the patch goes live, get a few characters up to the end of Act 3 merciless and leave them at whatever level you think is appropriate(by then, the people with beta access should be able to tell you what level you would be at with normal progression at this point). Do NOT start running maps or further level your character beyond that point. As soon as the patch goes live, redo the passive tree on one of those characters and you should be able to jump right into merciless a4 on it.