Brainstorming a Next-Gen MMO

                                                      Brainstorming a Next-Gen MMO

The recent announcement that Blizzard is taking project Titan back to the drawing board comes with little surprise to anyone.  Over the past few years MMO’s have become a dying breed with each new release seemingly performing worst than the last.  They struggle to hold on to player subscriptions, quickly moving into mediocre F2P models just to generate a player base.  MMO gameplay has become routine and stale, compounding the problems generated by the “grind” model of design so prevalent within them.
Curious, and always up for trying my hand at design concepts, I've spent some time brainstorming what I believe to be some needed steps in creating a successful Next-Generation MMO.  There are four major issues to be looked at – Combat Design, the Grind, Endgame Content, and Social Aspects.  Aside from those, there are still many other design points to be looked at as well as the marketing issues.

Combat Design
In my mind, the most important aspect in any potential Next-Gen MMO will be the system of combat.  The vast majority of a player’s time in an MMO will be spent in combat.  It could be said that combat is the only portion of an MMO that is actual game-play, while everything else is just the game-experience.  Creating an engaging system that is both easy to learn, but difficult to master is going to be key for the future existence of MMOs.
Combat Design in MMOs is currently modeled after traditional turn-based RPG’s.  While nostalgic, this model has been in decline for years.  Compare the combat gameplay of all but the most recent Final Fantasy games to the Tales series, particularly the newer ones like Tales of Graces (if you've never played it, I highly recommend you check out the combat system design), and it’s easy to see which system is more engaging and full of potential.  While today’s MMOs have been changing and updating their combat systems as time goes by, the base system of design hasn't changed and that’s what needs to.  The days of auto-targeted, pre-programmed skill casting are long gone and while casting rotations, sub-routines, resource management, and dodging enemy spells have done a lot to make the combat more engaging, almost all of the current MMO’s combat can be boiled down and controlled by simple logic clauses and loops that could almost be executed more efficiently by a program than a person (Healbot anyone?).
So how do we create a more engaging combat system while still staying true to the RPG model?  The answer is quite simple, though the application of it is a little more difficult.  Rather than using the turn-based RPG model as the systems foundation, use a different foundation model and add the RPG elements to it.  Because news about Titan inspired me to work on this article and because I think it is also the right direction for a large-scale MMO to head, I will be using the Shooter system as the basis for my Next-Gen MMO combat design.

A  Brief Note
If you haven’t played Global Agenda or Smite by Hi-Rez Studios I suggest that you do so.  While not attempting to be MMORPGs, there are several gameplay elements within them that I believe are heading in the direction that a Next-Gen MMORPG should be.  I will stealing/adapting some of their designs as well as referencing them as an existing base example as I outline a conceptual combat system.

View Frame
A First-Person viewpoint is unlikely to be ideal for an MMORPG game.  Increasing the vision range and options a player has allows for more information to be given to and processed by a player, allowing for a greater range of informed choices.  On top of this, players enjoy seeing their character and the changes that new gear brings.  Using a Second-Person or Third-Person camera view is much more ideal.  This is already a common practice, but deserves to at least be noted.

Freedom of Movement
One of the most important aspects of a Shooter is a player’s freedom of movement and creating as much of a free range of movement for players will need to be the base of any Next-Gen MMO.  Movement is an extremely simple concept for players to understand while also potentially being one of the hardest to master as players discover the potential uses of it.  The wider the range of movement that players have, the more options open up for them.  Creating a free range of movement, as well as multiple ways for players to move within that free range allows players to choose, when and how to act preemptively or react to any situation.
A great showcase of the potential of movement can be seen in the comparison of Street Fighter to Smash Brother’s Melee made in this video, The Street Fighters Guide to Smash (http://crosscounter.tv/the-street-fighters-guide-to-smash/).  Make particular note of these time stamps.

1:45-3:30: Explains the difference between the Digital movement of Street Fighter and the Analog movement of Smash Brothers.  This is the difference between limited movement and free range of movement.
4:55-5:20: Show’s that the movement system allows movement in one direction while attacks in another.
8:25-9:30: Showcases various movement options other than Control Stick movement.
13:10-18:05: Displays advanced techniques of movement and character control, the options it opens up for offense and defense, as well as ways to counterattack this movement.

The greater the freedom of movement, and the greater the options of that movement (walk, jog, run, sprint, and dash for example), the more potential for control a player has over their character.  The more control a player has over their character, the more options for attack and defense, for preemptive action and reaction they have.  The more ways a player has to move, the more the need for a player to be able to read situations and react to them properly.  This raises the skill cap of a game that can be and is learned through playing and practicing rather than by researching technical information that much of the current MMO learning is about.

3D Combat
While not a requirement of a Next-Gen Combat system, it is a potential one.  A few, such as Aion, have tried unsuccessfully to incorporate all three dimensions into the combat systems of the game.  The major problem with this is that since MMO combat system are primarily devoid of aiming; the increase in movement range is mostly a gimmick, offering little to nothing in terms of practical use.  With the Shooter combat base though, 3D movement offers more directions in which to move, dodge, and aim.  While having constant 3D movement may require too many movement options to keep the system simple, a short burst full movement system can work extremely well.  Global Agenda is a great example of this.  The use of the short duration, recharging jetpacks allow for 3D movement and combat without it becoming overwhelming

Shooter Mechanics in an RPG Model
        While a Shooter base will be great for a Next-Gen MMO, not every mechanic of the genre is viable in an RPG context.  Mechanics such as precise hitboxes, headshots, or area specific damage will be more limiting to an RPG system than beneficial.  Movement, skill usage, dodging, and reactionary gameplay should be vastly more important than the need to hit small targets in precisely the right place.  So how do we chose what Shooter Mechanics and which RPG mechanics to use and when and how to combine them?

        Aiming
            Players would use a targeting receptacle like any normal shooter and would have to aim and fire at their targets (this would be a players auto or basic attack).  Enemies, and perhaps players, would not have precision hit-boxes however, but the hit-boxes would extend in a small area around the character model.  Any attacks that hit this area would be considered a hit.  For instance, shooting between the legs of a character model would still result in a hit.  This would make it so players would not have to focus to intensely at being 100% precise in their aiming, but rather that aiming at a target would be enough to deal damage.  This keeps the gameplay similar to the RPG "auto-targeting" while still retaining a good measure of the engaging and skillful play of managing movement with aiming.  In addition, with all the other elements that must be managed that come from MMORPG combat (skill use, resource management, group needs, etc.), not requiring precision aiming cuts down the required "player processing needs" to a manageable level.

    Vicinity Aiming
            Some skills and abilities in RPG's need to almost be guaranteed to hit their target; the best example of this is healing.  Players would throw a fit if heals could miss in MMOs.  In a Shooter Model however, its a little more difficult to make these things hit when you have to aim.  That's where Vicinity Aiming comes in.  Vicinity Aiming does not require you to actually hit your target, but to have aimed in an area near enough to the target to be considered accepted.  This adds at lot more leeway for extremely important things like healing, especially when movement is going to be a highly necessary part of combat.
Global Agenda is a great example of this with its Medic class.  When you are using your healing weapon, as long as you are aiming near to your target, you will auto-aim to hit it.  Additionally, the beam heal will stay on your target as long as you hold the fire button and are in range, allowing the player to further move and look around.

    Traditional MMORPG Targeting
         Traditional mob targeting would be less important with a Shooter model as the base design.  Floating hit-point boxes, or some other form of instant life recognition, would be used to inform the player on the fly about the current status of mobs.  On top of this your current target would show up in the traditional HUD targeted box with more detailed information.  Additionally, players should use (and be taught to use) focus target(s) to keep track of more important targets such as Bosses or CC targets.  Skills that do not need to be aimed should be able to easily be setup to fire at any of the specific focus targets or primary target.
For the most part, HUD targeting would be used primarily to keep track of important information about X target rather than as a means to target a mob with abilities.  A key press could also briefly highlight X target as a means to quickly find it in a hectic battle.

Skills Usage: Skill Shots
Just like your normal attacks, based on a Shooter model the player would have to aim a majority of their skills.  In the MOBA genre, these are referred to as skill-shots.  Be it something players are used to like a lobbed grenade, or something more difficult to hit such as a curved attack with a cast time, making players have to actively aim their abilities adds to engaging gameplay.  Nothing would be made overly hard, but it would be a player skill that they could learn and improve, outside of just game stats.  A good example is the heal grenades in Global Agenda.  Like most grenades they have a small delay and do not blow up on contact.   If they or their allies are moving, they must time the explosion to where they will be.  Poor aiming or communication could result in a missed heal or buff.  The explosion radius is quite large, however, making sure that being in vicinity is enough, not requiring a precise hit.  This can be compared to skills like Healing Rain in World of Warcraft.

Skill Usage: Lock-on – Cast Time vs. No Cast Time
Some skills will be guaranteed to hit your target when cast, as long as a target is in your targeting receptacle at the time.  These skills can be considered to have locked-on to your target.  They may instantly hit or chase down the target until impact or timing out.  For instant cast abilities, this is simple, but some variation can be added when cast time becomes involved.  Skills could be required to start and/or end with the target under the players aiming receptacle or have been targeted for a duration of the cast time for the skill to have been considered locked-on.  Variation adds a learning cap and keeps gameplay changing and engaging.  However, you would have to make sure that any system used would not overly interfere with a players ability to move.

Skill Usage: Targeted Skills
It will probably be necessary (or to just add variety) to have some skills be easily cast on your focus target(s) without having to aim.  While potentially unnecessary, Crowd Control skills, buffs,  heals, debuffs, agro control, and more may need to be handled in this way.

All the RPG Rest
While the combat gameplay in this concept for a Next-Gen MMORPG will be majorly changing, the rest of the mechanics will be handled primarily how MMOs already handle them.  Stat calculations, status effects, damage and healing numbers; everything will be pretty standard to your normal RPG.

Combat Wrap-up
MMORPG combat has always been very stale and as the genre has become played through, the majority of combat has been boiled down to math formulas.  The recent rise of competitive gaming, e-sports, and the MOBA genre have players engaged in way in which this generation of MMORPGs have been unable to match.  I believe the problem can be fixed by changing the underlying Combat Model (Turn-based RPGs) into one that is more engaging and proactive in creating and recognizing player skill.  In this case, I have set the Shooter combat style as the base, upon which we would build RPG elements into.  In doing so, we can create combat gameplay that keeps players constantly active and recognizes player ability while still keeping true to what makes an MMORPG an MMORPG.

The Grind
The majority of players hate the grind that accompanies your average MMO.  It’s time consuming, highly repetitive, often times mindless, and worst of all rarely engaging.  A lot of this can be changed by creating an engaging and active combat system, but there are a few key points in the Grind itself to take a look at.

Leveling Up
The largest grind in an MMO and one that has a love/hate relationship with most players.  Finding that right balance between not long enough and too long is hard when the right duration could take days worth of time.  As the current MMOs have built up expansions, leveling up from 1 to the max can take 100+ hours.  Time however, is a number that can be altered and while finding the right amount is important, what is more important is the experience that players have during that time.  What if the leveling experience of an MMO was so good, that players would play it for the sake of that experience alone rather than simply to get through the leveling process?  That is what a Next-Gen MMO needs to do.

Game Within a Game
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic had a great idea for the leveling grind.  They turned the leveling experience of an MMO into a story driven experience.  While the story was enjoyable however, the leveling process was still very grindy.  Long pauses between the main story, non-engaging side quests, and a few planets that felt disconnected from your character’s main story broke the experience’s cohesion and the suspension of disbelief of the story.  Coupled with a players desire to quickly level, the story itself was often times skipped.
The SW:KotOR team is on the right track however.  A story driven leveling experience can very well be the key to turning a grind into a glorious experience.  It is a monumental task however.  Crafting a story that crosses a multitude of zones, takes multiple leveling paths into consideration, balances dungeon and pvp experience, incorporates race/class/gender, considers solo/group play, and deals with player interactions in an open world would be a work of art, a masterpiece of storytelling and game design.  Maybe even multiple masterpieces.  It is possible though and for a Next-Gen MMO to truly be Next-Gen, maybe even necessary.  I will only attempt to scratch the surface of a few potential ways that this can be accomplished and be as brief as possible.  The design of this task alone would take great work.

+ Voice Acting - The majority of the lore and story of an MMO is told through the quests.  The problem, however, is that more often than not the quests go unread, only the objective being noted.  The solution to this is easy, though potentially expensive.  All quests would need to be voice-acted and accessible to listen to while a player is on the move.  Think of Bioshock.  Players would pick up a recording and could listen to it as they continued to play the game.  The same should be done in any Next-Gen MMO.  It’s an unobtrusive solution that doesn't slowdown the leveling process while increasing the gameplay experience.
+ Phasing – World of Warcraft has been using it for the past few expansions and it is a great way to tell a story, have zone/world altering changes, and limit player interaction while still keeping to the traditional open world of MMOs.  Phasing could be used extensively in a Next-Gen MMO in the telling of the leveling up story.
+ Story Zones – Used in SW:KotOR, story zones are smaller phased areas that only a player and his party can be in.  You will never run into another PC while in these zones.  This allows for small controlled environments perfect for storytelling.
+ Dungeons – Harder to incorporate into a storyline are dungeons.  Generally they are not forced upon a player (though that doesn't mean they can’t be).  A lot will have to be taken into consideration on how they interact with the leveling experience.  They could be completely stand alone and have no interaction or they could be pointed to for side quests.  Player’s first time through (or when the story called for it) could also be accompanied by an NPC “pet” that only they can see, who talks to them much like a quest would.
+ Exp Issues – Through dungeons, running around, battlegrounds, and whatever other thing in X MMO gives exp, the level range of a player’s current story arc often gets surpassed.  This causes the story to hiccup or to be crafted in a way to allow hiccuping, both of which draw a player out of the experience.  There is no way to craft a leveling experience where the player is always the level of his current story position, however this issue can be circumvented.  Through the use of Phasing it would be possible to scale the level of the enemies to match the player.  Small level ranges would be used to determine what phase a player resides in, or possibly the whole zone would be a phase just for them (this kinda runs counter to MMO philosophy though).  While you should be the max level when the story ends, that doesn’t mean you can’t experience the story while at max level.  It could potentially be possible to level to max doing very little of the story, then going back and experiencing it scaled to you.
+ Group Play – When questing in “story” mode as a party, one player will be designated the “story leader.”  The story being told would be theirs alone, and would only progress for that player.  The only exception would be if both players were on the same arc (this might require the same race/class/gender too).  For the most party, anyone not the story leader would be watching in on the story.

Professions and Raid Preparation
Another grind, though smaller, is the one to level up professions.  SW:KotOR’s system of crew member gathering is a nice addition to the standard professions collection/leveling process.  Players can send idle crew on missions to gather materials or to craft items.  The same materials can also be gathered or crafted by the player in the world.  This created two ways in which a player could level their professions.  One happened as you played and the other way you could force it.  This extra option to the gather/craft grind cycle was a welcome addition to players, cutting out a players downtime, especially when it came to collecting materials in preparation for raids.  With this players, could essentially prep while running dungeons, competing in PvP, or simply lounging around.  This same concept should be present in a Next-Gen MMO.  Anything to cut down the grind, while still keeping as much of the MMO experience is a good thing.
Another interesting option for profession gathering could be in the building of your own personal home/farm/colony.  Much like the highly popular city management or farm management games that flood Facebook, an upgradable home area that produces materials for a player could be a workable idea.  It would just be another option for players to use and in no way a necessary one.  For instance, a fully upgraded “home” could provide you in a week, the materials necessary to craft enough items for an average raid schedule.

Gear Grinding
This is just part of what an MMO is about.  It’s expected and desired by players.  However we can improve the experience.  By improving the experience of the Endgame content we automatically improve the experience of gear grinding.  If Dungeons, PvP, Dailies, and Raids are all enjoyable experiences (more on that later), then gear grinding is more of a reward than a chore.

Closing the Grind Story
The grind will always be prevalent in MMORPGs.  It’s part of what makes them an MMORPG and without it, it becomes a different type of game.  There are things we can do to make the grind an enjoyable experience.  A well crafted world and story, told through the clever use of design mechanics can potentially turn the question “Have you made it to max level yet?” into “Have you played through the story yet?”  By making the leveling experience engaging and entertaining, almost like a game within a game, we can hide the grind behind a pleasurable journey.
The same goes for the other grind aspects of an MMO, by changing the experience that surrounds them; we remove the feeling that they are a grind.  Providing multiple ways to accomplish a single task keeps things fresh while providing rewards not connected to the grind we can change the focus to something more enjoyable.

Social Aspects
The social aspects of a Next-Gen MMO can be boiled into one phrase, “Get players in touch and playing together.”  WoW has gone leaps ahead of the rest of the MMOs out there when it comes to this.  The LFG system is a great example of this.  It gets players into raids and in their desired roles as quickly as can be.  Simple and convenient systems such as this will be paramount to the success of any Next-Gen MMO.  The better these systems work, the quicker players can get into the multiplayer/social/driving aspects of MMOs.

+ Dungeon/Raid Groups – WoW already has a great system in place, just steal it and improve upon it.  Ban lists, player notes/commendations, performance ratings, item level parameters, and more options can be added or removed by players to increase/decrease their wait time and improve their experience.
+ Finding a Guild – A good system needs to be in place for advertising and finding a guild.  Options for guild leaders to display needs, requirements, play times, and guild purpose will be needed.  Those looking for a Guild should be able to search using a large variety of filters to match them to the right group of players.
+ Finding a Service – Say you want an enchantment but no one you know has the specific one you want.  You could pull up a list of services offered, type in the enchant name, and a list would show you players who have that enchantment and whether they are offline or online.  Now you’re connected to what you are looking for.  Players could also advertise a little bit on their “service” profile to easier communicate things like price or availability.  Players could also opt out of being found this way, choosing not to appear on the list when searched.  Services could extend past crafting to also offer more mercenary things like tanking/healing a dungeon or raid, raid leading, gathering materials, joining a PvP group, or anything else players could potentially think of.
+ Class Roles – Not actually a system of use, but rather a class design aspect.  The roles that each class can play are as much a social issue as what role you play is a personal one.  If every class had the ability to perform the standard 3 roles, Tank/Heal/DPS, then everyone would have the option to perform one of the lesser played roles.  This could potentially reduce queue time problems in the LFG systems.  An easy way to accomplish this is to provide 4 (or more) specializations for each class, one spec for each role and then a 4th spec in X role.  This would still create class uniqueness while providing more role options.

Get Connected
A huge appeal of MMOs is playing and connecting with others.  The more ways we can connect players and the easier it is to use the systems that connect them and get them playing, the better.  Driving players to interact and form friendships will increase both the longevity and the enjoyment of the game.

Endgame Content
A big problem with endgame content in current MMOs is replay-ability.  Once you have your gear, there’s no incentive (unless the gameplay is just plain fun) of replaying the endgame content.  Dungeons in particular lose their appeal once raids become an option for players.  A Next-Gen MMORPG needs ways to combat this problem and provide replay options that players would like to engage in, primarily when it comes to dungeons.  I’ll only briefly touch on a few potentials here.  In my next article “Creating Competitive PvE” I’ll be taking a deeper look at how to provide replay incentives for the endgame content of MMORPGs both in a competitive and non-competitive way.
+ Challenges – Small changes to existing dungeons that make them harder or put special conditions on accomplishing them.  Offers a new way to experience something you've played through multiple times.  Could be time trials, harder enemies, more enemies, player debuffs, death limits, etc.  Quick and easy to create, as their balance does not need to be precise (too hard might be a good thing) and its just tweaking existing content.
+ Records – A simple way to allow players to challenge themselves in something they have already completed.  Examples include time taken, damage dealt, damage taken, death counters, time spent out of combat (longest combo), etc.  Players can attempt to beat a personal best or the top records could be shown publicly for them to try to overcome.
+ Mercenary Runs – For players who do not need gear from a dungeon.  They can opt out of gear rolls, instead earning extra gold for participating; a way to encourage more people joining the queue, particularly the underrepresented roles.
+ Raid Downtime – As raids are the primary endgame of MMORPGs, a Next-Gen game might consider changing the way raid downtime works.  Aside from freely resetting the raids, or putting them on shorter cooldowns, raids could be reset by either the weekly (timed) reset or reset once a player has completed the raid.  Quicker raid resets could potentially change the whole feel of MMORPG endgame and research/testing would have to be done to reach the right balance point

Closing Downtime
The primary endgame of MMORPG’s are raids.  Raids however, have a lot of downtime and while removing or lessening that downtime is an option, it may not be the best one.  Creating additional incentive outside of loot for players to engage in the endgame options is a great way to fill that downtime and create “more” endgame content for little cost.  Getting players to compete against each other or themselves for records provides a more intangible incentive that can always be improved upon.

A Marketing Note
Most current MMOs are having a hard time keeping player subscriptions and the majority has switched to F2P models that are generally very frustrating and play on inconveniences and limitations to the player.  Micro-transactions are becoming a huge staple of sustained income for online games.  In the article linked below, I propose a F2P micro-transaction model to replace subscription fees, as well as providing additional sources of income.
MMO-RPG’s – An F2P Renting Model Idea
(http://snowspotsgamedesign.blogspot.com/2013/02/mmo-rpgs-f2p-renting-model-idea.html)

Closing
MMORPG’s are a dying breed searching for a breath of fresh life.  Many games have attempted to become the Next-Gen MMO, but they have all fallen short.  With the redesign announcement of Project Titan made by Blizzard we know that even they recognize the genre needs to change.  I propose that by re-looking at the base design model of the combat system is the first place to start.  If an engaging and skillful combat system can be built, then many of the rest of an MMOs design challenges will become easier.  After revamping combat, dealing with the grind, particularly by creating a masterful leveling experience, and increasing endgame replay-ability is next.  Once the game is set, systems for enhancing the social aspects of an MMO need to be put into place and streamlined.  These four things are an absolute necessity for creating the Next-Gen MMORPG.

Torchlight 2: A Design Review

Torchlight 2: A Design Review

Opening Notes: Who Did What Right

            For the most part of this review I will be going over and talking about a few of the gameplay aspects of Torchlight 2.  I will attempt to point out what works, what doesn’t, and what could have been done better.  In doing such, I will also spend a small amount of time comparing then to the game design aspects of Diablo 3, as I feel this is useful and inevitable.

Characters and Skills: All Sales Final

            They say there are only 20 original ideas and that all others are variations or combinations of those.  Torchlight 2 is no different.  It has four of your basic RPG classes (Warrior, Mage, Archer, Paladin) but, they have been done in gratifyingly creative ways.  If you really get down to it, the classes in TC2 are very similar to these iconic RPG classes, but each one has their own flair that brings enough character to them that they almost feel original, even if intellectually you see that they aren’t.  In essence, that’s what is important.  If you can make someone feel that you have created something different, unique, and fun, that’s how people will view it, regardless of the underlying truths.

While Torchlight 2 has succeeded in bringing a solid amount of character to their classes (mostly through style, art, and animation), the class designs from a gameplay standpoint feel flawed, lackluster, and in my opinion, outdated (though it is a classic model).  This is where I feel that Torchlight 2 has the vast majority if not all of its flaws.

No Respeccing – I know that some people, especially those of the old Diablo 2 crowd, like this, but I for one do not.  I feel that not being able to respec your character’s stats and skills is just a cheap way to create longevity in a game.  Players invest ten’s of hours into their character as they play through the game, but if they end up finding out they made a mistake, or they can no longer progress because of their choices 30 levels ago or so, it’s just frustrating.  Yes, there is something to be said for creating the “perfect” character, but there are ways to create this feeling outside of anything permanent.  Your choices should matter, but they should not be permanently limiting, causing you to have to invest another huge chunk of time just to fix it.

Point holding – For those who don’t know, point holding is when you choose to not spend your skill points upon level up, instead waiting a few levels (sometimes 30+ levels) to spend them.  Because the system is built without respeccing, and with the later available skills stronger than the early ones, players will often hold onto their skill points instead of spending them.  While this is a player choice, the system encourages is.  It is quite possible, and often done, that a player will hold several or even tens of skill points throughout the early levels waiting to get the stronger ones.  Gameplay throughout these lower levels becomes vastly boring.  Instead of feeling a sense of increased growth and power, players deal with a sense of weakness and lack of abilities for a large part of the game content, sometimes all the way until the endgame.  This style of character building does not create enjoyable or intuitive play.

Lack of experimentation – Once again, because of the lack of respeccing, there is a severe lack of experimentation of builds and skills.  To create an optimal, or even an on par character, you have to have your build planned from the start, or at least continue to invest in skills that you’ve already invested in.  If you pick up a skill, but down the line feel that its usefulness is subpar to another skill and so you will no longer use that skill, you have still permanently lost the points from your original skill.  On top of that, skills in Torchlight 2 evolve, gaining new abilities or changes to their effects at certain skill levels, however, by the time you reach these levels, it is already too late to undo your choices.  It is literally impossible to experiment with different builds and skill choices in Torchlight 2 without creating entirely new characters and investing many hours into them.

Not intuitive/Lack of Synergy – It might be just me, but I don’t feel that the class skill sets are intuitive as a whole.  Each individual skill is easy to use and different ways to use them do come intuitively, but how the skills work together as a whole is not as intuitive.  In truth, aside from the passives, they might not even work together.  It seems that the skills were designed individually rather than being designed to work together as a whole.  It seems the best path is to pick one or two main skills, then use the rest of your points to pick up use and forget spells/passives.  Too many skills are spammable, and the few cooldown based abilities are either very mechanical or use and forget.  There are very few, if any, reactionary skills in Torchlight 2.  Unlike in Diablo 3, where you create a build in which all 6 skills are used in synergy with each other, and used often, Torchlight 2 feels like you really only need/have 1 skill that gets any use.

Pointless Skill Leveling – In Torchlight 2, each skill has 15 levels, each point you put into a skill increases its effectiveness.  However, this is a exercise in futility.  Experienced players will always max a skill that they pick up (with some very rare exceptions) for they know that it is better to have 1 or two fully powered skills than 7 or 8 weak ones.  This causes TC2’s skill leveling system to be futile.  If the best path (often even as much as the only viable path) is to max out your skills, your points lose their value.  You might as well just have the skills level as you do and create a point system that creates meaningful choices with less points and at less intervals.  As it stands, the choices you make for your skills aren’t all that meaningful on their own, but add up over the levels.  For example, tossing a point into X skill causes it to do 2% more damage per level.  That’s not much at all, not really worthy of a skill point, but 15 levels for 30% damage is.  Player’s make the choice of what to max, not how many points to put in each skill.  In essence, while you have over 100 skill point choices, you really only have about 5 or 10 meaningful choices.

No Skill Trees – If I remember correctly, this was a last minute decision by the design team, so they get a little bit of slack for that.  I’m not really sure if I agree with it though.  While it’s neat to be able to pick anything you want, not having any form of control or buildup, not having pick up earlier skills to reach the later ones, really makes having a level requirement on any of the skills pointless as well as detrimental to gameplay.  If there is no need to build up to something, then there should be no need to have to wait several levels to invest in it.  The level requirements without a skill tree are another contributor to point holding and discourages players from playing as they level, but rather playing towards an end goal.

Creating Useless Loot: As a small note, a permanent and locked in system such as this ends up causing a lot of loot found by a player to become useless to a player.  Certain builds revolve around one type of weapon or certain stats, and with no way for you to change your original path, your gameplay cannot flow with what you find.

In summary, the system that Torchlight 2 has created falls back into the old Diablo 2 mindset.  Your choices are permanent and there is no forgiveness for mistakes.  Not only is this frustrating to players, and vastly time consuming to perfectionists, but it also constrains experimentation rather than encouraging it.  While the skills themselves are neat and fun to use, as a whole package there is a lot left to be desired.  One or two skills make up your entire arsenal, while anything else just seems almost useless, just extra flair rather than synergizing together and becoming an integral part of your build.  The skill leveling design is superfluous with only 1 out of 15 (maybe 1 out of 5 in some cases) leveling choices actually being meaningful.  This hampers the casual players, while being unfulfilling to the hardcore ones.  Because the skills do not synergize well and boils town to spamming one or two of them and your basic attacks, a very large portion of being good at the game doesn’t even involve playing the game, but rather researching optimal stat/skill builds in relation to items available at the very end of the game.  Everything about the class design points to the endgame with seemingly little consideration for the beginning of the game, or rather even the first play through which ends roughly at level 40+.  It’s a classic system, but it’s a flawed one.

Loot: My Shinies

            Torchlight 2 handles loot superbly.  As you play, you constantly feel like you are finding items.  Uncommons and rares drop at a solid rate from everything around you.  Chests, rocks, normal mobs and the like all drop good quality items at a solid rate.  Each new item feels like it could be an upgrade when it drops.  This is how drops should feel.  On top of that, TC2 added in a fourth level of gear as opposed to Diablo 3’s three tiers.  Unique item’s, TC2 come at a slow but decent rate and they come at a low level.  Just from clearing Act I you are guaranteed 1 from each of the two bosses (as well as from every boss in each Act) and are highly likely to find 2-4 additional uniques through the Act.  People like to feel that they have found something special even before the endgame.  The uniques in TC2 fit this perfectly.  They are few enough in between to feel rare, but not so far apart that the odds of finding one feel astronomical.  Once the endgame is reached, the final tier of items begins to show up, legendaries, and the odds of finding one are sufficiently low, however, because of uniques and their frequency, it still feels like you are finding useful items, even while you search for those rare, optimal legendaries.

Difficulties: It’s My Choice?

            Being able to choose your own difficulty allows players to play and progress at their own pace.  In most cases, this is a good thing and it works well for Torchlight 2.  TC2 however, doesn’t have to deal with the competitive spirit of players.  Being the underdog and not being held to a certain level of competition among players, TC2 is allowed to follow this route, with very few players feeling cheated because of difficulties, or that other players are cheating for being at a lower one.  It’s an easier place to be in terms of design.
            Having said that, I think the difficulty of Torchlight 2 is very solid.  I mostly played on the Elite and Hardcore settings.  I found the difficulty of this to be very fair.  It required you to pay attention, be careful, and go at a slower pace.  Rushing forward or taking needless damage could get you killed, but you are punished and killed by a single mistake, rather by many mistakes at once (there are some exceptions).  Elite feels very playable, with a decent, if not actually hard challenge that is not excruciatingly frustrating like Diablo 3’s Inferno.

Endgame Content: Again and Again and Again

            Torchlight 2 has two things going for it when it comes to endgame content that set it far apart from Diablo 3.  When it comes to an action RPG based so much around the content after the game itself is important, having the right things to make your endgame content enjoyable is essential.

            The Mapworks: Welcome to Torchlight 2’s challenge mode.  This is essentially an area of limitless possibility. The Mapworks allows you to “warp” into new and old dungeons of varying levels and gives those dungeons unique modifiers.  Things like the player gains 25% life steal while the enemies have a 50% chance to poison and burn.  The Mapworks is a place where old content is recycled in new ways with new, if not always engaging, elements to overcome.  With The Mapworks not only is old content recycled, but new content can be easily created and added to the game to challenge players as well as refresh their gameplay.  In short, The Mapworks helps keep things different.  I will say though, that the full potential of The Mapworks is lost because of the TC2 Skill System.  Being unable to redesign and experiment, content designers are unable to create new “maps” that encourage player to try to things, or to build a dungeon based on a certain playstyle, seeing if players can figure out and execute the right strategies.

            Enjoyable and Rewarding Exploration:  Torchlight 2 has many good reasons for you to explore all of the areas of any given map as well as open/break every object possible.  Aside from the plentiful drop rate from just normal mobs, there are several elements in each map that encourage exploration.  Each map has its own quests, several dungeons offering rewards outside of killing mobs, phase beast challenge zones, a key to a Golden Chest, various event objects, and champion packs.  Beyond that, you never know when opening a rock will yield a shower of gold and gems, or even a unique item (the chance is pretty decent), not just a few coins.  Chests offer up good bounties, with 2-3 uncommons or rares in each of the middle tier chests.  Mimics and chests trap also keep things interesting, taking a little bit of the monotony away from opening them.  NPC’s that offer a variety of enchantment services better than what you can find in towns also frequent the games zones.  All these things make exploring TC2’s maps enjoyable as well as rewarding.  In a game where you will be repeating content countless times, it’s a great idea to discourage creating farming routes while encouraging exploration and actually playing the game. 

Game Mechanics: How Things Work

            Torchlight 2 has refined most of the action RPG genre’s mechanics.  Status effects are unique, useful, and wide spread.  Basic attacks from weapons are all different (from single target to splash, to spread) and the attacks themselves are useful, which is good cause a lot if not most of your attacks are going to be basic ones.  There is a lot going on in the game mechanics that keep things fresh.  Various elemental damages that each have their own special status effect.  A galore of weapon and armor enhancements that include anything from the basic +damage modifiers to status effects or spell casts on proc.  None of it is overwhelming though.  You don’t need to have one or the other, and the basic ones are easy to understand while the more proc related enchantments are nice flair and perhaps really useful.  All but one thing of the game’s mechanics is well done and refined, as step from previous installations of the genre.
            The one mechanic that I feel is out of place, is that of non-normalized armor and damage.  Percentage based reductions make sense.  It keeps a player from reaching the point of being both untouchable, and being unable to touch the enemies.  It’s a design choice more than anything, but it’s one that allows things to get out of hand and places a much higher emphasis on slow weapons than it does on fast.  Take two weapons for example; weapon A does 100 damage 10 times per second and weapon B does 1,000 damage one time per second.  They both do 1,000 damage per second to targets without armor, but against a target with 50 armor, the A would only do 500 damage per second while B would do 950, a very significant difference.  On a normalized scale, the armor would provide a % reduction rather than a flat reduction, causing both weapons to do the same damager per second.  Normalized mechanics allow strength and weakness to progress at a steady pace, where as non-normalized mechanics cause cliffs and plateau in damage as well as proc rates.  Normally, this ends up causing certain weapons and builds to vastly outshine others, limiting a player’s viable choices.

A Few Small Things: Because Even Small Details Matter

            Just  a few small things I wanted to point out, cause even the small things can make a big difference.

            Scrolls – Not too much to say here, just that there’s really no need for them.  Just another item to pick up and take space (though that’s not an issue).  No real reason to have them, and a small nuisance when you don’t.  Go the Diablo 3 way, just remove them, but leave their functions.

            Quest NPC’s Issue – Clicking on them doesn’t pause the game and brings up a window that covers half your screen.  I’ve died by accidentally clicking on these guys, or clicking on them when nothing was around, only to have something appear and kill me before I can see it.  Simple enough to fix.

            Modding – A great way to extend the life of a game and another way for the community to get involved.  I’m not sure how this effects the safety of the game in terms of loot generation or hacking though.  I haven’t tried it, but I could see it causing easy access to levels and loot that if the game had a competitive edge to it, would cause problems.  Perhaps you have to make a character specifically for modded games.  I’m not sure, but it is a benefit when competitive spirit is not an issue.  TC2 should find a lot of extended life out of this.

            Offline vs. Online – Another good addition to Torchlight 2, but at the same time, not a safe one.  It’s a lot easier for hacking and cheating to be done in an offline environment than an online one.  I think it’s a luxury that TC2 has to be able to have an offline mode that Diablo 3 does not have.

What TC2 Doesn’t Have to Deal With: Perks of the Underdog

            There are 3 very big factors that Torchlight 2 does not have to deal with when designing their game.  I feel it’s only fair to make some mention of them, as they are things that Diablo 3 designers have had to deal with and understand throughout the whole process.

            Security – Torchlight 2 doesn’t have to deal with a much security issues as Diablo 3 does.  If TC2 gets hacked and people start to duplicate items, or give their character stats and skills they shouldn’t have, it’s not going to be that big of a deal.  Sure, the team will attempt and work out a solution for it, but it’s not going to a scandalous event like it would in D3.  TC2 can afford a few security breaches in the game and because of such are able to build in things like modding and an offline mode into their design.

            Competition – Such a huge aspect of Diablo 3 that Torchlight 2 does not have to deal with.  D3 designers could not make a game that was simply enjoyable, but had to make one that was as balanced and fair as could possibly be.  People progressed and competed on a global scale and any advantage that a class was found to have caused resentment and a sense of unfair play that should have been caught and tested from the developers at the start.  It takes an extra level of effort to create designs that are unique, varied, enjoyable, and fair.

            Game Longevity – Diablo 3 is/was expected to last years and years.  I expect, as do many others, that people will be playing Diablo 3 for the next 5-10 years as they did Diablo 2.  This is the mindset that the developers had to create D3 with.  Torchlight 2 developers did not have this need.  I’m sure they wanted to and have tried to, maybe successfully, but it was not a requirement of their build.  This allows them to focus more on the short term enjoyment than the long term.

Lack of Innovation: Tried, True, Safe

            Torchlight 2 has refined and improved on the vast majority of action RPG elements.  The varied combat mechanics, elements providing status effects, pet shopping, environments to explore that are enjoyable, and more that I’ve listed.  Their skill system, while still flawed in my opinion, has made some improvements to the old model, but it still is an old model.  While TC2 has done these things well, even admirably in some areas, the game really has no innovation.  It uses a tried and true formula and doesn’t seek to branch out from it.  The game offer’s nothing new, just and updated experience.  Simply put, it TC2 feels like an updated version of Diablo 2, rather than something new and exciting in its own right.  If you liked D2’s style, you’ll love TC2, but for me, the gameplay got boring before the end, becoming very repetitive and without need for reactionary gameplay.  Boiling it down, it’s a game I’ve played before without having played it.  I’m a little saddened by this.  What TC2’s design team has done to update the genre is amazing, I wish they would have tried to innovate it as well.  I hope that in the next installment they do.

In Closing

            Torchlight 2 is a top quality game.  It stands alongside Diablo 3 and holds its own.  In fact, it does a lot of things better than Diablo 3 itself does.  I’d go far as to say that TC2 beats Diablo in every category except for character design, however, in a game in which character design is so important, this is a big down fall.  Torchlight 2’s gameplay is fun, repeatable, and continually enjoyable, however its characters quickly become boring.  Diablo 3 has the opposite problem.  It’s class design is amazing.  It pushes the boundaries of the genre and shows an immense amount of innovation and design creativity, but they failed on the basics and the game isn’t enjoyable.  Both of these flaws are deadly and hurt their respective games dearly.  If you’re looking for a short term, experience at a casual pace, I’d recommend TC2 over D3, but if you’re looking for something longer lasting, with deeper character design and more potential, I’d recommend Diablo 3, in about a year or two that is.

            If you take anything away from this article, I hope it’s this.  Torchlight 2 does all the basics right.  The designer’s have improved upon a huge host of the action RPG genre’s features.  However, they played it safe, choosing only to update, not to innovate.  If you don’t innovate, you will never be head of the pack, only the followers.       

Designing Endgame Content in the Diablo Universe - Part 2 of 2

Designing Endgame Content in the Diablo Universe

            In this post, I will first be taking a look at what is considered to be endgame content by the majority of Diablo players versus what the developers have seemingly designed as Diabo 3's current endgame content, and why the two do not coiencede with eachother.  After that I will dicussing various game design factors that are limiting to the end game content and then moving on to design choices that promote end game content and the longevity of Diablo 3.  Finally I will be speculating on redesigning Diablo 3's end content and showing ways in which future content could be created without negatively influencing any current or future content.

Diablo Fan's Endgame Content - It's Over Nine Thousand!!!!!!

            For the majority of Diablo players and for 99.9% of the diehard fans the endgame content of any Diablo game is not defeating the hardest boss, or clearing the story on the hardest difficulty.  The endgame goal of players is all about the power, the gear, creating the strongest, most perfect character possible and resting smugly knowing that yours is better than everyone else's.  That drive to perfection, to create the ultimate min/maxed character is what kept Diablo 2 alive for years and years.  It’s what kept players farming for endless hours and it is what made that farming fun.  Getting that peice of gear that was even just +1 stat closer to perfection made all the difference in the world to hardcore Diablo players while getting a legendary at all was what caused the more casual crowd to get excited.  Gear, was the true endgame content for Diablo players.

What Seems to Be Diablo 3's Endgame Content - Moar Numbers = Moar Content

            Currently in Diablo 3, it seems that the developers have intened for Inferno difficulty to be the endgame content of the game.  At a single player pace, the difficulty of it lends itself to taking the average player weeks, maybe even months of farming to make it through a few hours worth of content.   The developers want you to be playing their game for a long period of time to be able to see all of the work and content (beautiful content in my opinion) that they have dedicated so much of their time to and to enjoy your time spent doing so.  In the case of Diablo 3, their solution to this was the Inferno difficulty and they tuned the numbers (and only the numbers) as such to be the endgame content of their game, lasting for a long while.

Player Desires Conflictig with Designer's Goals - PvD

            From the designer stand point, the endgame begins when players hit level 60 and the endgame content is Inferno.  From the player standpoint, the endgame begins when they are able to start making thier character as powerful as can be and the content for that is gear, specifically the being able to obtain the best gear possible.  See the conflict?  The game designers want players to beat something while players want to be able to create something. There is nothing wrong with different goals; sometimes they even happen to fall in sync with each other creating a better experience all around, so what went wrong with Diablo 3?  The difficulty of Inferno has actually barred players from reaching their goal.  The design goal of the developers has prevented players from being able to accomplish there desires.  It is this brick wall dropped in front of players that is at the core of their displeasure.  Not only has Inferno blocked players, but it has forced them onto paths that few enjoy, compounding their frustration.

Patch 1.03 - Bandaid Fixes

            As the new patch is scheduled to be coming out soon, I'd like to take a few moments and sidetrack to go over a couple of the changes.  One change that I highly approve of is champion packs guarenteed to drop a rare with full Nephalim Valor stacks.  Rares are simply more exciting than blues and there is no guarentee they will be any good.  Even if Blizzard were to lower the chance for great modifiers on them, the overall player experience would still improve.  Finding a rare and the possibilities when identify them tickles the players pleasure senses way more than blue quality of loot does and I feel that this is a very positive change.

            The next two changes I will discuss feel as if a bandaid is placed on the problems rather than actually being addressed.  The first of these, the lowering of health and damage of Inferno monsters is a step in the right direction.  The tuning of Inferno is siply way too high and the numbers, without a doubt, need to be lowered.  However, I call this a bandaid fix because it does not addressed the underlying problems of Inferno, that, while the numbers make it difficult, Inferno is very boring and lacks challenge.  The last change, changing the item level drop rates so that Act III/IV gear can drop in Act I and more often in Act II, is a huge step in the wrong direction to me.  It promotes the idea that overgearing the content is the way to go and that it was never intended to be beaten with gear relavent to the content.  Also, while it does allow players to reach their goal of obtaining the best gear possible, it feels cheapened when it is avaiable at such an early act, almost of if it’s being handed out.  It also removes alot of the need players feel to progress through Inferno difficulty.  It is much easier and much more efficient to farm Act I than it  is to try to progress through Act II and beyond, and without incentive, players will endlessly farm Act I until they overgear the rest of the Acts and are able to completely stomp it.

Creating Enjoyable End Game Content - I'm Not Addicted, I Can Quit Anytime

            In any game, the main focus is (or at least should be) creating enjoyable content for players.  In an online game, the focus will shift slightly putting more of an emphasis on creating enjoyable end game content.  Designers accomplish this by first deciding on a goal for their players then move on to determine the ways players will go about this.  With games that are sequels however (especially online games), the players already have their own goals for the game in mind and expect them to be the same as the previous game.  When designers change this goal in between games, it forces players not only to understand a new goal, but to throw away the goals that had been solidifying in their minds for years.  While it is possible that a game could be designed so well that the change comes as a welcome shock, more often than not this is not the case.  Unfortunately, this is the camp that Diablo 3 has fallen into.

            So how do you create enjoyable end game content for Diablo 3?  First you have to understand the goals of the players who have been playing and in love with Diablo 2 for years and years.  Then designers must decided if this goal should remain the same or if a new goal should take over, in the case of Diablo, the goal in the player mindset is so strong and in this case so enjoyable to players, that it should have been left untouched.  Once designers understand the goal their game should be aiming for, the questions become what works and what does not work in creating a postive, enjoyable experience as players progress to this goal.

            From this point on I will begin to talk specifically about Diablo 3 and its elements.  First about what elements are limiting the end game, then what elements need to be limited, and finally how positive end game content can be created.

Story Limitations - One Beautiful World Thrown Out the Door

            On most players first time through Diablo they will sit and listen to the story.  Each new quest, cutscene, and bit of diablogue pulls them deeper into the world and by the end of normal they are happy with the experience they were a part of.  After that first time through though, the story ceases to become important having turned simply into people to click and and esc buttons to press.  The story has become irrelavent to the game and in essence needs to be thrown in the trash and pushed out of developer’s minds.  Sticking to the flow the story has set out, can cause potential design paths for the end game to be ignored.

            *Quick note, story progression is fine for Normal through Hell, but I feel that in Inferno it should have been removed.

Limiting the Difficulty - Fences, Walls, and Gates, Oh My!

            Most players enjoy a difficult game and don't think much of easy ones.  In fact one of the major things players asked for was for the difficulty of Diablo to be significantly increased.  However, the difficulty of Inferno took things a bit too far.  Suddenly the difficulty of Diablo 3 had become a wall, blocking players from their goal, and nobody likes running into a brick wall.  In Diablo 3, difficulty must be designed in a way that is challenging and fun to the player while still allowing steady progression at a decent pace toward their ultimate goal.  It cannot be designed in such a way to halt progress; therefore limits must be placed on how "tough" monsters can actually be designed to be

Limiting the Auction House - The Gear that Keeps on Giving

            Diablo 3 is the type of game that lends itself to having an auction house, however when left unchecked (as it currently is) things will get out of control.  At the moment it is quite possible that the save peice of gear has been bought and sold on the auction house over 100 times.  Gear is constantly being bough, used, and resold.  This recycling of gear needs to be stopped.  The auction house is becoming flooded by powerful items that will never dissappear and there is no system in place to keep this in check.  Without some kind of limiting control the auction house will quickly get out of control, holding ever growing quantities of every item possible.  As the auction house grows and grows the value of the endgame gear and thereby the endgame content will continue to diminish.  Something has to change.  Honestly, I think it will talk several steps each new one's effects evaluated before a solid solution surfaces, but I think that a good first step is to make anything bought off the auction house bound to your account.  This would make purchases more meaningful and cause each one to effectively remove that item from the market permantly, reducing flooding.

Redesigning Inferno - We Can Rebuild It, We Have the Technology

            In my previous post (link at bottom) I spent a decent portion of time talking about the current difficulty of Inferno and its flaws.  To recap, Inferno is barring the way to the player's goals for Diablo 3's endgame.  The difficulty is purely in numbers, creating walls that do not provide any challenge, only frustration.  This has caused players to be forced to farm the lower tiers of gear, something that is considered by most players to be work and not play.  For the next several sections I will be taking a look at how to redesign Inferno in such a way that it is fun, challengeing, and fresh.

Creating an Enjoyable Challenge - Working Up a Sweat

                        For the past 3 difficulties and last 60 levels, players have worked their way through Diablo 3's Acts.  The content has been seen multiple times and very little of it has changed.  However, players were accompanied by a sense of ever increasing strength and a constant stream of new variations of skills to play with.  So while the content stayed the same, players were kept entertained and this made the process enjoyable.  At the end of Hell, the path to level 60 had been reached and the prospect of Inferno loomed before them.  This is a grand milestone, the start of the real game for most players and it should be treated at such.  Inferno should redefine the game experience that players had currently been having.  No longer entertained by leveling up while moving through old content, the gameplay and content must change, giving players a variety of options to keep things feeling fresh and providing a level of difficulty that challenges players to find ways to overcome and deal with without feeling shoved against a wall.  Players should be able to work at and think through the challenges, like solving a puzzle and not feel that they are trying to beat a brick wall with a stick, making no progress at all.  Players need things to learn.

            Dealing with Numbers - What I Learned from Sesame Street

                        We all learned our numbers in grade school, 2 is bigger than 1, 5 than 10, 9374202384 than 25, and applying that knowledge to games is childs play.  Bigger numbers beat smaller numbers.  When it comes to difficulty, difficulty by numbers is extremly boring and provides no challenge to players.  Challenge and enjoyment comes when we are able to use smaller numbers to overcome larger ones.  Yes there needs to be a threshold, you shouldn't be able to clear content in all white level 20 gear, but it should not be so high that you can't make do with what gear you've picked up along the way.  Allowing players to overcome challenges by learning them, or by coming up with creative solutions is what appeals to players about diffculty.  Using there brain to come up with techniques to overcome whats been put in their way.  Lack of gear should almost never limit progression, but rather an abudance of gear should create ease of play.

                        In Diablo 3 there are some types of number difficulty that players find appropriate and add to the user experience and there are some types that players hate and should almost never happen.  Getting one-shot is an example of this.  Diablo 3 should have abilities that kill players in a single hit, but how that is done is very important.  Nobody wants to be killed by a small handful of white damage from generic auto attacks, let alone be killed in a single one of these hits, there is nothing fun or exciting about it.  On the flip side, players do enjoy when there are elements that can and will kill them in a single hit.  A few examples, Dark Berserker's charge up swing, arcane orbs, or Mallet Lords, all of these are acceptable forms of being one-shot in players’ minds.  They are very dodgeable attacks and abilities and getting hit by them is silly.  When modifiers come into play though (in this case especially waller, jailer, and vortex) these things that were once easy to handle, all of a sudden become a challenge.  A well timed vortex into a charge swing will end your life so will over estimating your time to get away from an arcane orb and then getting jailed next to it.  These things can surprise the player and even after experiencing a time or two and figuring out ways to prevent it from happening or to get out of them when they do, they still force players to stay on their toes and watch out for them.  When you start to add more than one type of this challenge to a fight for players to deal as well as the constant threat of taking too many normal hits that wittle down their health, things become hectic in a good way and the player is forced to grow and become better at the game to overcome them.  This provides a positve user experience.

                        So what kind of numbers provide for a solid and reasonable challenge?  The answer is all kinds!  First off, ping-ponging health is bad.  Taking hits should decrease health at a steady rate while healing should raise health at a slow one.  Getting hit by 1 or 2 hits should be able to be countered by healing, but allowing yourself to get hit constantly should begin to wear down you health, steadily bringing you closer and closer to death.  Your health versus monster damage should be crafted in such a way that the scare of a quick death from regular hits should never be there, but neither should you be able to ignore them.

                        The next teir of numbers should be those that are dangerous yet mostly avoidable.  A good example of this is the wasps in Act 2, it’s easy to dodge the slow moving bullets they fire, but when the screen becomes cluttered by them and other ablities come into play, the odds of dodgeing every one of them becomes quite low.  These bullets should be a significantly higher danger to you than a generic hit, but they should not massively chunk your health pool or kill you outright.  Getting hit by 1, 2, or even 3 shouldn't end the fight for you, but it should set you back in a way that you have to work to recover from it over a decent amount of time (say multiple uses of a CD healing ability).  Taking a few tics of plauged, a tic of desecrator, or a few hits of electrified are also good examples of this.

                        The last tier of numbers is those that are outright deadly to you.  They are numbers that should be extreme, maybe even to the point that no amount of gear would let you get hit by them.  These are the one-shot abilities or one-two combos such as jailer desecrator.  They keep players on their toes and keep up a constant level of excitement.  These types of numbers should always revolve around a player’s ability to easily avoid them and ways other than the abilties themselves should be found to increase the likelyhood of a player getting hit by them.

                        Creating numbers in this way does two things for a player.  The first thing it does is give players something to overcome, and allows them to learn how to.  The challenges are something players have to figure out how to deal with, be it through a careful eye or the use of an ability to negate or escape the danger.  Multiple levels of danger give them multiple things to deal with, and give them priorities on what to avoid.  They have to make choices on what is an acceptable risk or on what damage to take if things become unavoidable.  There is a costant, yet not overwhelming stream of information that players must process, and this keeps things exciting.

                        The second thing that these numbers do is give the player choices.  There is an absolutely amazing and beautiful amount of choice in class customization in Diablo 3 and by giving players some leeway in the numbers department; it allows them to pick a playstyle that suits them.  Maybe they want to go deeply into something heal based that and allows them survive more mistakes over time.  They could also decide to go the glass cannon build hoping to be able to defeat the enemies before they end up makeing 1 too many mistakes.  Perpahps they choose to go defensive so that they can surive making too many mistakes at once.  Kiting, close range, AoE, minion, cooldown, mobility, all kinds of builds begin to become viable and players have the freedom to choose how they want to play their character, even if it is not the most efficient way.

            Champion Challenges - And the Die Roll Says

                        Champion modifications are most likely Diablo 3's best way of creating a challenging experience.  Based on what you get they can be frustrating, easy, or downright impossible and this is a great thing.  It adds spice and variety to the gameplay and creates a heap of new situations for players to learn and overcome.  I also believe that there is no need for every combination to be balanced.  It's a good thing when the die rolls in your favor and you get an easy champ pack, and it’s just as good as well as flavorful when a pack's abilties work so well together to make it almost impossible, it gives players a goal for gear to overcome without forcing them to face that challenge.

                        The one problem with champion modifications in Inferno is that simply increasing the number champions can have from 3 to 4 is not enough (often times one of those modifications is ignorable anyways).  Inferno needs to offer something new that wasn't shown in the previous difficulties.  Players need a new challenge.  I believe that Inferno should have made the player face a larger variety of modifications; new ones should have been introduced.  Rather than cluttering things here, I will put an appendix at the end of my post where I will put ideas for new champion modifications that could be added to the Inferno difficulty

                        *As a last note, I feel that ALL unique (purple) enemies should be treated as champion packs in terms of number of abilities and randomness of them.

            Boss Battles - Dragon's Should be Epic

                        One of the most dissapointing things to me in Inferno was the bosses.  They didn't change one bit.  I went into the King Leoric fight eyes peeled, waiting for some new mechanic to appear and add new challenge to the fight.  Instead all I got was the same fight I had done many times before.  When the same thing happened on the Butcher I realized they weren't going to change and let my hope die.  It made me sad.

                        These are bosses in the hardest difficult in Di-freaking-ablo.  They should be epic!  They should challenge players.  Offer them a new challenge that causes them to come up with new strategies to defeat them.  The first time I fight any boss (not just the Act end ones) on Inferno difficulty I should not feel that they are easier than any champion pack I have faced, let alone many many times easier.  There needs to more.  There needs to be new.  Inferno bosses need to change.

            Tiered Multi-Act Progression - I Can Travel in Nine Dimensions

                        I don't remember why now but until a few weeks before Diablo 3's release, I believed that in Inferno difficulty all Acts would be set to the same difficulty.  Maybe it’s because I explained how I felt and still feel Diablo 3's final difficulty shoud work to a friend and they told me that was Blizzard's plan already and I believed him.  Whatever the reason, it did not turn out the way I had hoped so let me explain the way I envisioned the Acts would work Inferno.

                        Upon reaching Inferno, the progression by story design should have been thrown out of the window.  Players have gone through it several times already.  They have also reached the level cap so there is no longer a need for monsters level to increase with you over a controlled span of time and area of play.  With these things able to be tossed aside, designers have the opportunity to rework the progression flow of Inferno specifically for max level characters.  While there are many possiblities for this, one of the best designs (and how I would redesign Inferno) is what I like to call, Tiered Multi-Act Progression.

                        Considering how the Acts are designed, upon reaching Inferno players would be allowed to choose to progress through any Act.  The mobs in each Act would start at level 61 and as players progressed through the Act, most likely after each boss, the monster level would grow.  Not only would this give players the freedom of choice, but if they ever got stuck they would have the option to try to progress through a different Act rather than beat their heads against the only progression route avaiable to them.  Even once players had "beaten" the game, designing Inferno this way would seem to create more endgame content because players would have more than one Act choice to farm from.

                        *This design would also allow for more varied farming options like the one decribed in the Rewards for Exploration and Completion Section.

            Completely Random Enemies - Hey, You Weren't There Before

                        The title of this section really says it all.  Each zone in Inferno should be populated by a random set of enemies rather than the same ones all the time.  This would add an element of unpredicability that generates excitement in players and keeps them on their toes.  It adds variety, challenge, and freshness to Infero by creating moster set combinations that were not possible before and are new to deal with.  These are good things that add spice to the endgame content of Diablo 3.

            Inferno Redesign Summarized - TLDR

                        While difficulty is a good thing, it needs to be done in such a way as to not brick wall player progression, especially when a player’s true goal begins when progression ends.  A difficulty purely because of numbers is frustrating as well as boring and farming for gear that is not top-tier is more work than play so the difficulty of Inferno must be one of skill.  It must require players to think, to react, and challenge the player to overcome it, not their gear.  In the Diablo universe, gear must also be strong so whatever challenge created gear must allow you to overcome with greater ease.  Variety must be added to Inferno.  New champion modifications and random enemy sets populating zones instead of set ones would spice Inferno up and keep things feeling fresh and exciting.  Boss fights should be epic and so new mechanics should be introduced to them.  And last but not least, the choice on how to progress and through what should be given to the player, allowing them more choices and a tiered multi-act progression system works perfectly for this.

Creating Varied Endgame Content - You Mean I Can do Two Things?

            To begin to create endgame content for Diablo 3 we must first understand what the endgame goal of players is.  We already know this to be creating the ultimate character through gear and we know that the primary method of accomplishing this is farming (and that is what it should be Diablo games).  Knowing this, the question designers should ask themselves is this.  How to best make farming enjoyable?  In what ways can they design multple farming paths, multiple styles of farming, and a varitey of play experience while farming?  Figuring out multiple ways to answer this question will give players the ability to choose how to farm, and will keep a certain level of unpredictability, freshness, and excitement to a process that will be repeated thousands of times over by the average Diablo 3 player.

            Positive Incentives - Because Good is Always Better than Bad

                        When farming, players tend to gravitate towards the easiest and most efficient paths possible.  Case and point for this was ash pot farming in Act I, treasure goblin farming in Act II, and Resplendent Chest farming in Act III.  Though these things did need to be nerfed (not killing mobs should never been more rewarding than killing them), positive incentives should be given to players to encourage various ways of farming.  Nephalim Valor is a good example of this.  It discourages the old Diablo 2 magic find runs against a single mob and promotes the creation of paths leading up to boss kills through postive benefits and without nerfing the effciency of those mf runs.  Positive incentives like this open up more options and push players to involve themselves in more of Diablo 3's content.  I believe that more incentives could be created, turning even more of Diablo 3's content into endgame content.

            Rewards for Exploration and Completion - Discovering Vast New Lands

                        The immensity of Diablo 3's content is a beautiful thing.  There are still dungeons and events that I have not seen.  Npc's that I have not met.  There is so much out there for players to discover, but players will only encounter it when they decide to take a break from farming and endgame content.  I feel however, that it could be made to be part of it.  By creating a positive incentive for players to spend time exploring zones and finding all they have to offer, the endgame content of Diablo 3 could improve.  Another option of play and farming can be made.

                        Currently, the rewards for completeing events or exploring dungeons versus the time put into them are often just not worth it.  So what can we design that would give players more incentive to seek them out?  I believe the answer is fairly simple.  Every zone is spawned with X amount of champions, events, treasure goblins, and resplendent chests.

If we tallied up a zone, we would get the total number of "exploration items" and could use that number as a way to track a players completion of a zone.  Upon fully completing a zone, players would be able to recieve a blue quality item of their slot choice (maybe not weapons).  Upon completeing a defined section of an Act, or perhaps just a percentage of the whole Act, players would recieve a rare quality item of their slot choice.  The item level chances would be determined by what section of an Act you completed, or by what percentage mark of the Act you had reached.  This would open up a new type of farming, one where you can "hunt" to fill a specific equipment slot.  I believe that this bonus would encourage players to seek out and experience the immense amount of content put into Diablo 3 while still keeping things in the endgame mindset.  The incentive is not so high as to force out normal farming, but specific enough to catch the eye of players who know exactly what they want.

Preventing Farming Paths While Keeping Them Predictable - I Know It's a Box, but Whats Inside It?

                        Endgame content of a game getting static is not a good thing.  Creating ways for it to stay feeling fresh while keeping a certain level of predictability should be the goal.  Earlier in the Inferno section I mentioned that mob sets in zones should be completely random and this section is mostly about the same idea.  By allowing mobs to be randomized for zones and by creating a greater range of possible spawn points for champion packs, we accomplish the goal of preventing set in stone farm paths.  However, as a balance, players should be able to predict how many champion packs they are going to find in a zone (I believe it’s currently 2 - 3 in any zone).  By not knowing what they will find in terms of enemies, but knowing what they will find in terms of rewards in each zone, things are feeling fresh and new longer without having a negative impact on predicability.  As an added bonus, players would not restrict themeselves to X zone each run, but would feel able to choose any zone to do their farming in (yay for more player choice).

            Extreme Drop Chances - Unlimitted Power!

                        Gear is the primary source of endgame content for Diablo 3 as well as its longevity, so what better way to increase this than to add items beyond item level 63.  By throwing in some level 64 or 65 legendaries (and only legendaries in my opinion), and giving them extremely low drop chances, players would always have something to shoot for.  The thrill of just possibly finding them would drive players and the excitement of actually seeing one would be unmatched.  Players know that it is highely unlikely they will ever reach the absolute max potential of thier characters, but just that chance of getting that amazing item is enough to enthrall them.

            Perfectly Rolled Gear - Just One More Point Please!

                        This actually already exists in Diablo 3, but I felt I should just make a quick note of its postive impact.  The ability to find perfectly rolled gear (legendaries with max stats) comes with all the benefits listed in the above section.  It’s a great system and should continue to be used.

Challenges and Challenge Difficulties - Time for the Bonus Round

            Aside from just endgame content, bonus content is a good way to be able to add new content without causing a negative impact on existing content.  A good exmaple of bonus content is pretty much the current design of Inferno.  A difficulty where the numbers are tuned extremely high and progression through it is block frequently by things like gear checks.  However, this content would not drop loot; instead its purpose would be the challenge of completeing.  Perhaps maybe adding a set, one time, powerful, bound to account or character reward for completing it.  This difficulty could up hair-pulling hard because with no loot, it would not be considered a block to player's goals, only an extra challenge for players to tackle if they chose to.  There could even be several extra levels of difficulty as time goes on and players gear improves.  Other forms of bonus content could also be designed.  Special zones, be it serious or easter egg in nature.  Boss challenges (imagine fighting "Ultra Diablo" or multiple bosses at once) or survival modes could also be added as bonus content.  There are infinite ways to create content, and an easy way to keep it from negatively impacting current content is by offering it as a bonus with little or no reward save for the challenge itself.

In Closing – Yay, He’s Done Talking

            Once again my post has run very long, but I hope that you’ve enjoyed the read.  My goal was to provide some (preferably correct) insight into player’s goals and how to design content with them in mind.  I hope that I have accomplished this, provided food for thought, and come up with a few things that players would enjoy seeing.  If you read it all, I really thank you for your time!

Appendix A - Champion Modifications

            Strong – Makes normal attacks of monsters stronger.

            Blasting – Occasionally fires a medium speed projectile in the direction the mob is facing.  1 Shot for champions, 3 bullet spread shot for elites.

            Duelist – Upon entering combat with mob, creates a 100yd by 100yd arena, locking the player in with the pack.  (No way out but to kill or be killed)

            Erupting – Across a very large area centering on the monster, the ground will flash for a few seconds revealing a handful of safe zones.  After the time period ends, the ground will erupt for massive damage, forcing the player to reach one of the safe zones before it goes off.

            Pulsing – The champion will periodically pulse for low, unavoidable damage.

            Shifting – Periodically the mob will change its elemental weakness (denoted by color of the mob).  The mob will gain high resistances to anything other than this element but will also take increased damage from this element.  When hitting the champion, it will cause them to drop an orb (somewhat like health globes) that will temporarily change all damage you deal to that type.

            Rending – Getting hit by normal attacks from enemies with this modification will cause a stacking DoT to be placed on players.  As the damage grows, it will eventually become impossible to ignore, even deadly forcing players to back off for a bit and let it fall off.