Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Diablo 3: Travis Day Speaks On Itemization

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

A new developer blog has appeared on the Diablo III community site authored by Game Designer Travis Day. In the blog, Day discusses upcoming changes and possible ideas for better itemization in Diablo III. For instance, Day talks about the conundrum between farming monsters vs farming the auction house.

There are a number of ideas for how to address this long term that don't include removing the auction house outright, and most of the ideas are centered around giving players more ways to find items they are excited about:


  • One idea that we have discussed is “targeted Legendaries,” where named NPCs have an increased chance of dropping specific legendary items. For example, The Butcher could have an increased chance of dropping The Butcher's Cleaver.

  • Another idea is that we introduce a system that will help alleviate some of the bad randomness players encounter by ensuring that at least some of the Rare and Legendary items you find will be something good for your class.

  • We've also discussed allowing bosses the first time you kill them in each difficulty to have a guaranteed chance to drop a Legendary.

Read the full post on the Diablo III community site.

image


¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


«1

Comments

  • PurutzilPurutzil Member UncommonPosts: 3,048

    The damage is already done. Changes really aren't likely to be enough to warrent a real spike in 'enjoyment' for the game. The only 'fix' really would be to take away the AH or make it far less viable and practically redo the entire item system... which won't happen since it would screw up the few players actually playing still.

  • mari3kmari3k Member Posts: 135
    Originally posted by Purutzil

    The damage is already done. Changes really aren't likely to be enough to warrent a real spike in 'enjoyment' for the game. The only 'fix' really would be to take away the AH or make it far less viable and practically redo the entire item system... which won't happen since it would screw up the few players actually playing still.

    True, PoE just destroyed D3 and splitt in the face of blizzards greed policy. Many of my friends are so upset about D3 that they refuse to buy SC2-HotS. 

    Step in the arena and break the wall down

  • adam_noxadam_nox Member UncommonPosts: 2,148
    They could fix it, but it would require changes to how important gear is, and particularly certain stats being much too important to seek any variety. Such as main stat, weap dam and allres.

    That and the patheticness of 99% of found rares
  • fivorothfivoroth Member UncommonPosts: 3,916

    Some of these potential changes sound interesting. Some of the things I really like:

    - Crafting being able to modify existing items

    - Legendary items being more powerful and finding ilvl 63 versions of all uniques and sets sound cool

    - Fewer number of rare items but more powerful

    - Identify all button!

     

    Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.

  • OzmodanOzmodan Member EpicPosts: 9,726
    Agree, I have not touched the game for months, probably won't even if they fix the itemization issues.  It really bugged me that, the legendaries were so extremely rare, never saw one drop.  Secondly when you kill a boss and he drops a rare item that is 10 or so levels under your character's it is extremely disappointing and this more often than not was the case with a drop.
  • SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
    Originally posted by fivoroth

    Some of these potential changes sound interesting. Some of the things I really like:

    - Crafting being able to modify existing items

    - Legendary items being more powerful and finding ilvl 63 versions of all uniques and sets sound cool

    - Fewer number of rare items but more powerful

    - Identify all button!

     

    I completely agree! :)

     

    On a personal side note: As for those refusing to buy Heart of the Swarm, that's just 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' and rather childish. To miss out on a potentially great game because knickers got twisted over another game's fetaures is just...goofy. :P


    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


  • BizkitNLBizkitNL Member RarePosts: 2,546
    Originally posted by mari3k
    Originally posted by Purutzil

    The damage is already done. Changes really aren't likely to be enough to warrent a real spike in 'enjoyment' for the game. The only 'fix' really would be to take away the AH or make it far less viable and practically redo the entire item system... which won't happen since it would screw up the few players actually playing still.

    True, PoE just destroyed D3 and splitt in the face of blizzards greed policy. Many of my friends are so upset about D3 that they refuse to buy SC2-HotS. 

    What dimension are you from, exactly?

    Oh, and your friends are toons if theyre passing on HotS. Really.

    10
  • expressoexpresso Member UncommonPosts: 2,218
    Originally posted by Purutzil

    The damage is already done. Changes really aren't likely to be enough to warrent a real spike in 'enjoyment' for the game. The only 'fix' really would be to take away the AH or make it far less viable and practically redo the entire item system... which won't happen since it would screw up the few players actually playing still.

    I have never understood this whole "you have to use the RMH/AH to progress" - all the items on the RMAH/AH are found and put on there by players so if these players can do it with out all this AH gear why cant everyone else? no one wants to face a challenge it seems and just wants to buy their way through the content... yet complain because they cannot be bothered to farm the items, ARPG are all about the farming buying the top end gear gets you what? 

  • spawn12345spawn12345 Member UncommonPosts: 172

    LOL! took them only 1 year to realize this! its fucking incredible

    This is how it should have been on release! 

  • DauzqulDauzqul Member RarePosts: 1,982

    Too little too late, IMO. I'm just done with Blizzard. When a company gets too big, they are generally more concerned with profit as opposed to satisfaction. PoE made me realize this.

  • nbtscannbtscan Member UncommonPosts: 862
    • One idea that we have discussed is “targeted Legendaries,” where named NPCs have an increased chance of dropping specific legendary items. For example, The Butcher could have an increased chance of dropping The Butcher's Cleaver.
    • Another idea is that we introduce a system that will help alleviate some of the bad randomness players encounter by ensuring that at least some of the Rare and Legendary items you find will be something good for your class.
    I don't know why they didn't do this in the first place.  I remember getting the Unique Butcher's Cleaver in Diablo 1...from The Butcher.
     
    And it's such a <sarcasm> novel idea </sarcasm> for the game to drop gear that actually benefits your class.  I fired this up the other night after a long time of night playing after reading some of the changes (and for a lack of anything better to do) and it's amazing how much of the gear I salvage.  I got so irritated in the past when I saw class specific equipment drop with affixes for other classes.
     
    Who is Travis Day anyway?  I've never heard of him until now.  I ony used to hear stuff from the community reps and then Jay Wilson and Wyatt Cheng.
  • mackdawg19mackdawg19 Member UncommonPosts: 842
    My only problem with Diablo 3 is that when they implemented the AH, they should of put BoE on on rare items. Since they did not, the AH is basically turning into a glorified rental bank system. Eventually it will get to the point of having so many items that there will be no value and everything will be selling for minimum price if at all.
  • GravargGravarg Member UncommonPosts: 3,424
    Originally posted by mackdawg19
    My only problem with Diablo 3 is that when they implemented the AH, they should of put BoE on on rare items. Since they did not, the AH is basically turning into a glorified rental bank system. Eventually it will get to the point of having so many items that there will be no value and everything will be selling for minimum price if at all.

    It's already happening,  The prices of sets has dropped from like 10 million a few months ago to now you can get a decent set for around 2-3 million.  Which if you ask me isn't that bad.  With the prices of gold going down there's really no reason to spend in the RMAH side.  I have several items on the RMAH, two being a perfect Skorn and a full set of max str IK (if there is such a thing, they have high values in all the big things people want anyways).  They've been on there for awhile and they're cheap.  I haven't sold anything on the RMAH in months :(

     

    Edit: As for PoE, I don't think it's all that great.  Like 90% of the community is full of DDOSers, ninja looters, and scam artists.  If I want to play single player, then PoE is fine, but it's still rough and unpolished.

  • GhavriggGhavrigg Member RarePosts: 1,308
    I think they might actually be on the right track finally. It's incredibly late, but meh.
  • endgame1endgame1 Member Posts: 84
    Originally posted by expresso
    Originally posted by Purutzil

    The damage is already done. Changes really aren't likely to be enough to warrent a real spike in 'enjoyment' for the game. The only 'fix' really would be to take away the AH or make it far less viable and practically redo the entire item system... which won't happen since it would screw up the few players actually playing still.

    I have never understood this whole "you have to use the RMH/AH to progress" - all the items on the RMAH/AH are found and put on there by players so if these players can do it with out all this AH gear why cant everyone else? no one wants to face a challenge it seems and just wants to buy their way through the content... yet complain because they cannot be bothered to farm the items, ARPG are all about the farming buying the top end gear gets you what? 

    Not sure why you put "you have to use the RMAH/AH to progress" in quotation marks, when the guy you qouted never said that. In fact, looking through the comments, nobody here has said that. Maybe you're quoting your imaginary friend? That's definitely not the problem with D3 right now, inferno is currently so easy anyone can do it even in awful gear.

    The problem is that there isn't any item sink, and you've got people that have played thousands of hours, and other people running 10+ bots 24/7, so the games economy is absolutely flooded with items. This has driven prices way down on absolutely everything other than the absolute best gear. So, before you would ever find a certain upgrade via playing, you will see dozens of analogous items on the AH for next to nothing. Even the big ticket items that cost billions of gold, you're much more likely to be able to save up that much gold and just buy one before you can find one with nice stats. The AH has become the de facto place to get all your gear upgrades, and Travis or another dev admitted that for many players ALL the gear they have equipped is from the AH. This essentially completely defeats the purpose of playing, and D3 really isn't an addictive loot hunt game at this point, it's much more of just a gold grind.

    If you think people are complaining because "they cannot be bothered to farm the items", you must be extremely obtuse. That's the entire problem; people want to farm for their items, but you will see those items on the auction house for affordable amounts of gold WAY before you could ever farm them. You could be one of those "self found" players and not use the AH, but it's pretty obvious that the game's itemization is designed with trading in mind, so you end up with an awfully gimp character that way. All the self found players have markedly less powerful gear than everyone else, and ARPG's are all about having powerful characters. Unfortunately, the AH has become the absolute best way to get a powerful character, to the point where it completely dominates D3's end game. 

     
  • Teh_AxiTeh_Axi Member UncommonPosts: 380
    Well at least they got someone that actually seems to have a clue working on the game, now they just need to figure out a way to fix their stupid ass storyline.
  • BurntvetBurntvet Member RarePosts: 3,465
    Originally posted by SBFord

    Originally posted by fivoroth
    Some of these potential changes sound interesting. Some of the things I really like: - Crafting being able to modify existing items - Legendary items being more powerful and finding ilvl 63 versions of all uniques and sets sound cool - Fewer number of rare items but more powerful - Identify all button!  

    I completely agree! :)

     

    On a personal side note: As for those refusing to buy Heart of the Swarm, that's just 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' and rather childish. To miss out on a potentially great game because knickers got twisted over another game's fetaures is just...goofy. :P

     

    More like cutting off your wallet to spite a company that cashed in on D2's good name and delivered mediocrity. And as an added bonus, we get to cut off the nose of your paid advertiser, to spite the spate of MMORPG.com writers that hype everything.
  • vgamervgamer Member Posts: 195
    Originally posted by SBFord
    Originally posted by fivoroth

    Some of these potential changes sound interesting. Some of the things I really like:

    - Crafting being able to modify existing items

    - Legendary items being more powerful and finding ilvl 63 versions of all uniques and sets sound cool

    - Fewer number of rare items but more powerful

    - Identify all button!

     

    I completely agree! :)

     

    On a personal side note: As for those refusing to buy Heart of the Swarm, that's just 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' and rather childish. To miss out on a potentially great game because knickers got twisted over another game's fetaures is just...goofy. :P

    Risking a ban here...

     

    I think people who won't buy HotS because of the marvelous masterpiece called diablo 3 would actually be a mature thing to do. Why would you support companies that spit in the face of long time fans for a quick cash grab? Why would you go for a short term temptation only to get your hopes crushed when HotS fails to live up to the expectation? I mean, you guys get your games for free so you can review them.

     

    We however have to pay hardearned dollars. So is it that childish to demand value for money and boycot if it turns out to be a cashgrab

  • GoldenArrowGoldenArrow Member UncommonPosts: 1,186

    If a company crushes your dreams of a good sequel to D2 the least you can do is not buy their games anymore.

    Voting with your money is exactly the only thing you could possibly do.

  • TalonsinTalonsin Member EpicPosts: 3,619
    Originally posted by SBFord  

    On a personal side note: As for those refusing to buy Heart of the Swarm, that's just 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' and rather childish. To miss out on a potentially great game because knickers got twisted over another game's fetaures is just...goofy. :P

    I disagree on that point Susie.  Many gamers already purchased D3 so there is no way to voice their dissatifaction to Blizzard in a way that will make Blizzard take notice.  A bit of whining on the gaming forums really had no impact on Blizzards wallet, they already made their money from D3.  On the other hand, players now have a way to voice concerns to Blizzard with the way they have been handling their games lately.  I think staging a 2 week delay before buying HotS after release would be a perfect message to send to Blizzard that players are watching and any more crap like D3 will hurt future sales.

     

    On a side note, I purchased both D3 and SC2 and was not thrilled with either of them. I dont hate Blizzard and I'm not mad at them but I wont be purchasing HotS since it just isnt my cup of tea.  Not because I am sending a message of any kind.

    "Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game."  - SEANMCAD

  • VidirVidir Member UncommonPosts: 963

    Well what ever enybody feels about this game, it is a game that I like asnd the reason why i like it is becouse you allways have the change to find this uber item.

    Many years ago I started playing Asherons Call, for me it was something very different from all other games I ever played.But eventually I began to understand the game and the reward for killing mobs. In that game item roll on killing mobs depended on induvidiall roll every time notthing to do with how many beople in the group that killed it nor the name of the mob. Only thing high level named mobs gave was more loot.

    I am not comparing D3 with AC but the loot system is similar, you dont find the sword with the name Grand doughter or something and it allways has the same stats, In both AC and D3 items roll with individual stats every time and that I think is cool.

    Wish more games had this kind of loot system, bet more people would like to join the games , those games that have some content also.

  • sibs4455sibs4455 Member UncommonPosts: 369

    I agree with the posters that state that this update is to late, gamers have moved on. I will get my arpg fix with hc PoE, which in my opinion is a far better game than D3.

     

    Do Blizzard actually make decent games now anyway? the last couple of games they have released have been really poor.

  • AsamofAsamof Member UncommonPosts: 824
    Originally posted by vgamer
    Originally posted by SBFord
    Originally posted by fivoroth

    Some of these potential changes sound interesting. Some of the things I really like:

    - Crafting being able to modify existing items

    - Legendary items being more powerful and finding ilvl 63 versions of all uniques and sets sound cool

    - Fewer number of rare items but more powerful

    - Identify all button!

     

    I completely agree! :)

     

    On a personal side note: As for those refusing to buy Heart of the Swarm, that's just 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' and rather childish. To miss out on a potentially great game because knickers got twisted over another game's fetaures is just...goofy. :P

    Risking a ban here...

     

    I think people who won't buy HotS because of the marvelous masterpiece called diablo 3 would actually be a mature thing to do. Why would you support companies that spit in the face of long time fans for a quick cash grab? Why would you go for a short term temptation only to get your hopes crushed when HotS fails to live up to the expectation? I mean, you guys get your games for free so you can review them.

     

    We however have to pay hardearned dollars. So is it that childish to demand value for money and boycot if it turns out to be a cashgrab

    it is because you're basing the merits of one game off of another game that's handled by a completely different development team

    not to say that blizzards overall game design phillosophy isn't starting to really stink lately, but wait until HotS releases and judge it for yourself

    also LOL at gameboycotting. really put a dent into MW2 right? or the fact that D3 still sold millions of more copies after the EXTREMELY negative reception on release

  • StonesDKStonesDK Member UncommonPosts: 1,805

    More talk

     

    I don't know about any of you but I'm tired of Blizz talk. I've heard it throughout the whole development of Diablo 3 how hacking and duping won't be a problem compared to D2 which used ancient tech to how wonderful the new classes would be, to the constant revamping of tier systems etc. etc. etc.

     

    In 5 to 10 years this might actually be a good game?

  • HcRpgerHcRpger Member Posts: 31

    I do agree, it is too little too late.

    I haven't played D3 for months now, I gave it a decent shot, 3 months(ish), but that was it.

    Trying to fix it now, well, it just doesn't work anymore, plus, items (and the abysmal drop rates) weren't even the only problems or dodgy design decisions in the game.

    If they haven't, which I don't think they have (or never will), changed the skills system for example,  fixing the items, isn't going to do much good, because I for one, absolutely hated it and did hate, even before the game launched.

    Nah, I might go back to D3 in about few years, but for now, no chance.

     

    What comes to people saying about SC2 and HotS, I definitely won't be buying that one.

    D3 was crap and massive disappointment, and so was SC2, so I'm most certainly not going to waste anymore money with these two franchises, nor Blizzard in general.

    SC2 was linear run-in-the-tube with no replay value. Having just one playable race was utter rubbish as well, and I certainly won't buy a new game to get another race.

Sign In or Register to comment.