An open letter to casuals asking to dumb down the game or make rare items more common

+1


Items are already far too easy to acquire with almost no time invested. The last thing we need is for gear progression to get any faster than it already is. As for the argument that "casuals want to do the fun stuff too"... you can. It will just take you longer.

makes sense OP. What is Chris' take on this?

-1. The game is doing pretty well atm. We could have some difficulty adjustment, however, that would require a buff to life builds, since some of us casuals choose to play that way.

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Docbp87 wrote:

+1


Items are already far too easy to acquire with almost no time invested. The last thing we need is for gear progression to get any faster than it already is. As for the argument that "casuals want to do the fun stuff too"... you can. It will just take you longer.

...which gates the filthy plebeian casuals you guys hate so much from doing The Fun Stuff during a challenge league, where the majority of the game spends its time and all the cool Fun Stuff tends to be in the first place.

There's not really any argument for this that doesn't amount to "I don't want people playing the way they want to play unless they can sink a few thousand hours into the game first". Sure, I get the whole conomic argument folks pretend to give a crap about, the idea of wanting chase unique drops to mean something, but is there a particular reason build-enabling items shouldn't trend more towards the middle level of rarity? Things like Disfavor or Starforge are endgame upgrades, not Fun Stuff makers; those are your chase rewards for being more awesome than everyone else. Those and GG mirror-quality rares.

The fact that certain build types are gated behind a twenty-exalt buy-in price stinks. Chase items should be the finishing touches for existing builds more than "you can only possibly do this thing because you've obtained a massively expensive item." Taste of hate is a perfect example - no build requires Taste to be functional and allow the doing of Fun Stuff, but there's a whole lot of builds out there that end up a lot better off if they have a Taste available.

The widest number of possible build archetypes and ideas should be achievable by the game's general population, not just the top tenth-of-a-percent guys who're sitting on five Mirrors by the end of a league's opening weekend. If that means adjusting drop rates for things like Shavronne's Wrappings to make them not insanely ridiculous for players who might want to try interesting low-life builds, or whether it means introducing less chase-y versions of such items that are less potent but more available in order to actually add progression to the game, then those are what it means.

Getting a build that isn't garbage-tier Flameblast up and running enough to get solidly into mapping should be something any player with a modicum of time and knowledge can aspire to. Finishing that build, getting it perfectly optimized and tricked out and kitted up with perfect specs and gear, should be the thing that takes dedication. Not "Can I even do this in the first place, or do I just do Flameblast again for the thirtieth time because I have no money and no way to make money because I'm not a streamer? q_q"

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Perq wrote:

Please stop.

If you have less time to play, expect to get fewer items or be lower level.

Ps. Yes, that is my letter. Because quite frankly this is how simple this issue is. .-.

If it affects player retention, you can bet GGG will look into it.

Since launch, player numbers declined (look at steam charts). It wasn't until perandus that player numbers grew. Now, not only do we have tier 1 uniques dropping like candy, we've got a new league with discontinued legacy uniques.

Safe to say, making items more common, "dumbing down the game", is good for player numbers.

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SarahAustin wrote:

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Druga1757 wrote:

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Perq wrote:

Please stop.

If you have less time to play, expect to get fewer items or be lower level.

Ps. Yes, that is my letter. Because quite frankly this is how simple this issue is. .-.

If it affects player retention, you can bet GGG will look into it.

Since launch, player numbers declined (look at steam charts). It wasn't until perandus that player numbers grew. Now, not only do we have tier 1 uniques dropping like candy, we've got a new league with discontinued legacy uniques.

Safe to say, making items more common, "dumbing down the game", is good for player numbers.

Dropping like candies? What are you on?

A bunch were nerfed, ofc, like mjolner, but it's vastly more common. Shavs, much more common (and cheaper). I think the only ultra rare expensive items left are headhunter and skyforths? And most importantly those two aren't build enabling uniques.

The first league I took part in was 1.1, I was still a poor ignorant scrub and was always proud to reach cruel.

I remember finding out about Facebreakers and how awesome it would be kill stuff with your fists. At the time they were 20c, an exalt was 30c. That said I wanted to experience the badassery of punching things so hard they exploded so I saved up my little curency drops and eventual some one bro dealed me a 600% facebreakers for half an exalt (not sarcasm). After that I went from a poor ignorant scrub to an ignorant scrub. It was like I was playing an entirely new game. This new game was fun and bold and awesome and I remember the joy of getting over the pay wall.

Present day in my old age I grown out of being an ignorant scrub into a healthy adult scrub but I still have a special place in my heart for low life wanders. Back when I was freaking out about 600% facebreakers the most op build was low life wanders, it cost well over 100 exalt and made all content a joke. The fact that such powerful expensive things existed probably drove me more than just having things handed to me.

I support things being unreachable by normal people.

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Perq wrote:

Please stop.

If you have less time to play, expect to get fewer items or be lower level.

Ps. Yes, that is my letter. Because quite frankly this is how simple this issue is. .-.

No, it is not. I've been advocating for a long time to make acquiring items easier, but the game itself harder (and not through untelegraphed one-shots). Make skill matter more than playtime.

But yeah, maybe that is too complex.

Difficulty and rng rarity aren't the same thing and shouldn't be.

The game should be hard if you've played a lot and hard if you've played a little. The new players with empty stashes are playing an objectively much harder game than anyone that hands down leveling uniques and then respecs into their build at 70+, but they are not rewarded for it.

I echo the statements that the Fun Stuff (build-enabling items) need to not be rare. If the thing you want to do is an XYZ build*, you should be able to farm into that build using the beginnings of that build and mapping. It's shitty to tell people to make something else to farm for the thing that they want to make.

That being said, if it's not build-enabling, I don't give that much of a fuck. Have big number items, but make sure that you can unlock them while wearing small number variants.

The reliquary items are a great example of something that is and should be rare. They're trophies. The keys should be common enough that the average player gets to see one or two before the league ends, and since they're ~exalt rarity, that seems right.