Diablo 4 - My suggestions
Posted by: Bugman
Diablo 4 is still a couple of years away but I've played Diablo 3 to death and have some suggestions.
Solo Self-found mode
OK, so it seems clear that Blizzard loves multiplayer. A huge reason for this is that it encourages players to draft their friends, which results in more sales. So it wasn’t surprising that at Blizzcon 2019 Blizzard stated they weren’t going to include Solo Self-found mode due to their focus on multiplayer.
But SSF is not inherently anti-multiplayer. In fact, it’s another form of highly-competitive multiplayer: SSF players very much compete with their friends, they just can’t lean on them for trading and group play. The even playing field of SSF encourages racing and other fun season activities, and these all deepen the game. For this reason, SSF would be a great addition to Diablo 4.
Blizzard likes to pretend that Path of Exile doesn’t exist, but it would do well to note that SSF is very popular in PoE. A well-implemented SSF season system would take some of the wind out of PoE’s sails.
It’s not just me that wants this. There is support for SSF from streamers (see The New Meta podcast, for example), and many Diablo 3 players already play a self-imposed SSF at least some of the time (Leviathan, Bluddshed). Imagine how much better it would be if SSF was enforced in the client and players could race against each other in limited seasons!
Limited Seasons
Blizzard have already confirmed that seasons will be returning in Diablo 4. Seasonal play is great fun, and I think it should be extended to allow for Limited Seasons. These could be run ad-hoc by Blizzard, and have constraints. Maybe a weekend-long race, hardcore-only, for example. Rewards could be say a unique portrait frame for completing the Diablo 4 equivalent of a Greater Rift 100 by the end of the weekend (which might be more of a challenge in D4 than in D3!). It’s not an expensive investment to come up with a new piece of art, but bragging rights in a game like this are a valid form of currency.
Some players will hate me for suggesting this, but what about a Champions Season? Players pay a small fee to enter (or make it free, with a buyable cosmetic they can unlock). All who enter get some kind of cosmetic reward, but the first 10 to finish get a Champions reward. This kind of time-limited activity would be a great way to keep the community hyped! These very short seasons make for great stories in the community, and have the advantage of reducing the impact of bots on competitive play (since bots can grind xp pretty much 24/7, competition in longer seasons is more affected by bots).
Leaderboards
At Blizzcon 2019, stating that only a small percentage of players accessed leaderboards regularly, Blizzard indicated that leaderboards would not be returning in Diablo 4. I hope Blizzard reconsiders this idea.
Now, I understand the approach Blizzard is taking here: they see the low numbers of players who use leaderboards, and weigh that against the cost of developing this feature. It’s not worth it, right? Not enough players care about leaderboards, right?
Wrong. The most engaged players do care, and they are highly influential. Leaderboards are a great way for good players to compete with each other season after season, always pushing for higher placement. Many of these players are streamers. Leaderboards contribute to these players staying active in Diablo 3.
Sure, there are some issues with Diablo 3 leaderboards that have made them less relevant to some players. One issue is the presence of bots. Another is that the leaderboards don’t distinguish between builds. Yet another is that without SSF, it’s always going to be players who grind massive amounts of xp through group meta greater rifts, or, worse, botting.
So why not try to fix these issues and make leaderboards better? Here are some ideas:
Banwave on bot accounts once a week for the first 2 months of each season. This cuts the presence of bots from the leaderboards, and might in the long term discourage botting.
Implement better structure on leaderboards so they can be filtered by class and by gear. This doesn’t have to be every piece, and it might be just showing which set bonuses are active. So for example Demon Hunter might include Legacy of Dreams, the sets, and Endless Walk as canned filters, but the header of the leaderboard might allow choosing filters ad-hoc. This kind of change would allow for more deep competition: what if I want to play Firebird? I’d never get on the overall Wizard leaderboard, but I might be the best Firebird player. Why not allow this kind of build diversity? The builds are in the game, let us use them!
Of course, the leaderboards should also distinguish between Hardcore, Standard, Hardcore SSF, and Standard SSF for every season.
My background: I played Diablo 1 on launch way back at the dawn of time. I’ve been playing Diablo 3 on and off since launch, but I've played every season in the last couple of years.