Diablo III to Get Ladder Seasons, Tiered Rifts in Next Patch

[Steven Bogos]

Diablo III to Get Ladder Seasons, Tiered Rifts in Next Patch

The PS4 of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls will contain everything up to patch 2.0.4 at launch.

Diablo fans who are getting bored with all the Shacknews [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132588-Diablo-III-Dev-Adventure-Mode-is-Worth-The-40-Price-Tag], various members of the Diablo III team talked about their plans for the future, and some upcoming features for patch 2.1 - including ladder seasons and "tiered" rifts.

Ladder seasons will work similarly to how they did in Diablo II - players start with a brand new character without access to any of the gold or items they have collected on their primary account, and try to get as far through the game as possible in a single season, and rise to the top of the global leaderboards. After the season ends, all of your progress - your experience, your items, your gold, etc. - will be rolled back onto your primary account.

Blizzard also plans to add some power, season-specific legendary items to further entice players to give the system a try. "The goal is the fresh-start feeling - so many changes and tweaks have happened since the launch of Diablo III - it is really energizing and fun to recreate that 'first-moment-in-a-new-game' feeling," said Production Director John Hight.

The second major new addition is "Tiered Rifts". Players familar with Diablo III's current endgame are no doubt aware of "Nephalem Rifts" - powerful, randomly generated dungeons found in Adventure mode that have an increased chance for legendary drops. Tiered Rifts add to that concept by allowing players to jump to a second, more powerful inception-style "rift within a rift" if they finish fast enough. "For example, if you finished a Tiered Rift in just a few minutes, you'd get to jump ahead to a much harder rift."

And for those of you PlayStation 4 gamers who are still patiently waiting for Reaper of Souls to release on the platform, Hight says that the PS4 version will include all the updates to Diablo III up to patch 2.0.4 (the current live build of the game).

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to endlessly farming blood shards only to have Kadala laugh at me when I beg her for a Starmetal Kukuri.

Source: Shacknews [http://www.shacknews.com/article/84210/diablo-3-dev-team-discusses-reaper-of-souls-and-answers]

Permalink

 

[BanicRhys]

Have they completely overhauled the PC version's file and server structure so I can play while on the bus?

No?

Then these great changes are like ash in my mouth. Especially the tiered rifts, I hate those most of all because I have most certainly not spent dozens of hours doing Nephalem rifts already.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Have they completely overhauled the PC version's file and server structure so I can play while on the bus?

No?

Then these great changes are like ash in my mouth. Especially the tiered rifts, I hate those most of all because I have most certainly not spent dozens of hours doing Nephalem rifts already.

Jeeze that didn't take long. Are you people constantly waiting for any D3 post to pop up to whinge about it not having an offline mode ASAP?

 

[Dumb_Joe]

Awesome!!! New things in the game are always welcome. I can't wait to try those tiered rifts they are talking about and who know I might even give ladders a go.

 

[BanicRhys]

Jeeze that didn't take long. Are you people constantly waiting for any D3 post to pop up to whinge about it not having an offline mode ASAP?

Yes, complaining about the issues of a two year old game is the only way I can get an erection anymore.

(We're both being sarcastic, right?)

 

[Ferisar]

Until I can't play this game on my calculator it isn't worth my time. Ladders? How about staircases. Get original Blizzard.

But uh, yeah. I'll be checking this out once it goes. Interested if it'll keep me invested x)

 

[vun]

Hopefully the new rifts will drop more legendaries/souls so I can waste even more gold and mats on bad rerolls!

 

[RA92]

Jeeze that didn't take long. Are you people constantly waiting for any D3 post to pop up to whinge about it not having an offline mode ASAP?

When even the most console-oriented multiplatform developers end up making games whose best versions are on PC, it's baffling how such a dominant PC developer as Blizzard in charge of one of the most popular franchises on PC end up delivering a game whose definitive version is... on a console. For fuck all reason.

PC gamers (at least those who bother) should never stop mocking D3, in the same vein as DNF, Colonial Marines, Daikatana and whatever F2P C&C bullshit EA last cooked up.

 

[black_knight1337]

Isn't this old news? They announced all of these features back at the RoS launch event. Either way I'm excited for them, going to be good to have some competition in the game. Hopefully the leaderboard system will be pretty robust.

When even the most console-oriented multiplatform developers end up making games whose best versions are on PC, it's baffling how such a dominant PC developer as Blizzard in charge of one of the most popular franchises on PC end up delivering a game whose definitive version is... on a console. For fuck all reason.

Wait what? Since when has PC been getting mostly good ports? Outside of a few devs their mostly shonky. And how is the console version of D3 better? Fair enough if you prefer the control scheme but in everything else the PC version is well out in front.

 

[RA92]

When even the most console-oriented multiplatform developers end up making games whose best versions are on PC, it's baffling how such a dominant PC developer as Blizzard in charge of one of the most popular franchises on PC end up delivering a game whose definitive version is... on a console. For fuck all reason.

Wait what? Since when has PC been getting mostly good ports? Outside of a few devs their mostly shonky. And how is the console version of D3 better? Fair enough if you prefer the control scheme but in everything else the PC version is well out in front.

People forget to mention that bad PC ports (at least recent ones) are also usually games that suck (in terms of performance) on the consoles as well. GTA IV and DS suffered in terms of performance on both PCs and consoles.

As for D3, I meant that Blizzard flat out denied that an offline version of the game is possible, and then makes the PS4 version offline.

 

[black_knight1337]

People forget to mention that bad PC ports (at least recent ones) are also usually games that suck (in terms of performance) on the consoles as well. GTA IV and DS suffered in terms of performance on both PCs and consoles.

As for D3, I meant that Blizzard flat out denied that an offline version of the game is possible, and then makes the PS4 version offline.

The difference with GTA IV was that it ran reasonably on consoles. Sure it was a bit iffy but it worked. On PC it STILL runs very poorly and for me personally, it's completely unplayable despite having a rig that runs recent games on max (or close to it) at ~60fps. It's not even the performance problems though, it's the console focused design which brings us terrible UIs (Skyrim) and terrible control schemes (Dark Souls).

Source? I know they've said a number of times that there won't be an offline version for PC but I've never seen they say outright that it isn't possible. That hardly makes the console version superior anyway. The servers haven't had any major issues for a long time (0 downtime for RoS launch), the PC version stays in front in the development cycle (PS4 version is only 2.0.4) and has more features (clans & communities).

 

[Aeshi]

When even the most console-oriented multiplatform developers end up making games whose best versions are on PC, it's baffling how such a dominant PC developer as Blizzard in charge of one of the most popular franchises on PC end up delivering a game whose definitive version is... on a console. For fuck all reason.

And how is the console version of D3 better? Fair enough if you prefer the control scheme but in everything else the PC version is well out in front.

Because the Console version free you from the Horrors of... HAVING TO READ THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS!!!

I mean sure the PC version gets all the patches, new features, realistically obtainable good loot and other good stuff way in advance, but who cares about things like that?

 

[Ninmecu]

Source? I know they've said a number of times that there won't be an offline version for PC but I've never seen they say outright that it isn't possible. That hardly makes the console version superior anyway. The servers haven't had any major issues for a long time (0 downtime for RoS launch), the PC version stays in front in the development cycle (PS4 version is only 2.0.4) and has more features (clans & communities).

Don't have the direct source, but many of the issues currently with the bloated legendary drop system are being looked at or "fixed" (read sort of.). If a friend finds a legendary drop, all of his friends get an increased chance at a legendary or a chance at also getting said legendary. Amongst a few other features that would be a marked improvement over PC


OT: ummm, yay? Fix the initial problem of rift density, the fact that the progress meter only shows a % while being hovered over and they STILL can't make the bar's fill animation actually match the % of progress.


...And for GOD SAKES give us targeted farming. I've posted on the official forums why 1,000 hours is ridiculous and what a normal human brain can accomplish in that amount of time, it was largely ignored of course because TL;DR, but I digress. I still don't understand why higher tiers of torment offer no additional reward. You play on Normal until you can farm Torment difficulty, then you get to stick around in t1 and have access to EVERYTHING. To make matters worse, the legendaries that drop in Normal can be just as powerful as those in Max level(T6). It's not even the way you might be thinking, where "Oh well, yeah, in an rng game it makes sense that lower difficulties occasionally have items that can roll as well as the max difficulty setting to allow for progression." The issue with that is, Item X of rare quality can roll 4 primary stats and 2 secondary stats, the main stat rolls (Int/vit/str/dex) can roll up to 415, All resistance can roll up to 90 and bonus armor can roll up to 500. Regardless of the difficulty it falls on, you're not MORE or LESS likely to get a perfect roll on a higher or lower difficulty. The legendary item of that same slot can roll a minimum of 415/90/500 and a maximum of 500/100/750, also, regardless of difficulty.


god damn I'm bitter.

 

[RA92]

It's not even the performance problems though, it's the console focused design which brings us terrible UIs (Skyrim) and terrible control schemes (Dark Souls).

Source? I know they've said a number of times that there won't be an offline version for PC but I've never seen they say outright that it isn't possible.

Dark Souls' core design depended upon analog controls (weight of the armor slowing down turning rate, for instance) so that's more forgivable, and Skyrim at least provides mod support so whatever that's shit can be fixed anyway. Diablo 3 can't have mods or offline capabilities because the devs insisted the auction house is so crucial to the gameplay... only to launch the PS4 version without any of the faff and dropping the auction house anyway 'cause it's shit. Now they don't even have an excuse for that always-online DRM.

What if it was EA pulling this shit? Did anyone cut them any slack for SimCity 2013 or Spore?

 

[BanicRhys]

Dark Souls' core design depended upon analog controls (weight of the armor slowing down turning rate, for instance) so that's more forgivable, and Skyrim at least provides mod support so whatever that's shit can be fixed anyway. Diablo 3 can't have mods or offline capabilities because the devs insisted the auction house is so crucial to the gameplay... only to launch the PS4 version without any of the faff and dropping the auction house anyway 'cause it's shit. Now they don't even have an excuse for that always-online DRM.

What if it was EA pulling this shit? Did anyone cut them any slack for SimCity 2013 or Spore?

Except Blizzard actually had a reasonable justification for their DRM. Any kind of offline mode would have destroyed both auction houses because of all the hacked items people would have been able to create and sell (no one's arguing that the AH wasn't a shitty idea when put into practice, but at the time, Blizzard wanted to implement it).

I'm sure Blizzard are working on the offline mode, but given the way that the game files have been set up, said mode will probably require just as much work, if not more (because they'll need to guarantee that existing account data is transferred flawlessly), than the console ports.

 

[shintakie10]

Dark Souls' core design depended upon analog controls (weight of the armor slowing down turning rate, for instance) so that's more forgivable, and Skyrim at least provides mod support so whatever that's shit can be fixed anyway. Diablo 3 can't have mods or offline capabilities because the devs insisted the auction house is so crucial to the gameplay... only to launch the PS4 version without any of the faff and dropping the auction house anyway 'cause it's shit. Now they don't even have an excuse for that always-online DRM.

What if it was EA pulling this shit? Did anyone cut them any slack for SimCity 2013 or Spore?

Except Blizzard actually had a reasonable justification for their DRM. Any kind of offline mode would have destroyed both auction houses because of all the hacked items people would have been able to create and sell (no one's arguing that the AH wasn't a shitty idea when put into practice, but at the time, Blizzard wanted to implement it).

I'm sure Blizzard are working on the offline mode, but given the way that the game files have been set up, said mode will probably require just as much work, if not more (because they'll need to guarantee that existing account data is transferred flawlessly), than the console ports.

I'd argue that the gold auction house was a wonderful idea that only failed because the RMAH existed which jacked the prices of gold up so high as to be unobtainable for the vast majority of players.

Having to play on somethin other than Inferno pre RoS patch was a gigantic sad because the gameplay just felt off with monsters havin 1 less ability. Bein able to quickly and easily get geared to just barely squeak by in Inferno MP0-1 made the game actually fun.

Its less of an issue now since T1 mobs don't gain extra abilities like Inferno mobs did pre RoS, but there's still a feeling of not really playing the game to its potential if I'm stuck playing at Master. If the gold auction house still existed, I'd be able to supplement my gear with a couple of cheap rares that could get some of my weaker characters ready for Torment.

 

[black_knight1337]

Don't have the direct source, but many of the issues currently with the bloated legendary drop system are being looked at or "fixed" (read sort of.). If a friend finds a legendary drop, all of his friends get an increased chance at a legendary or a chance at also getting said legendary. Amongst a few other features that would be a marked improvement over PC

The source I was looking for was to back up his claim that Blizz said an offline mode was impossible to make. But I know what you mean. You get a legendary and along with it get a gift box to give to a friend so they 'share your drop' or something. Wouldn't be a fan of that if it came to PC as well, drop rates are already on the high end of the scale and a system like that effectively doubles that.

...And for GOD SAKES give us targeted farming. I've posted on the official forums why 1,000 hours is ridiculous and what a normal human brain can accomplish in that amount of time, it was largely ignored of course because TL;DR, but I digress.

ARPGs are meant to be games you play for a long time so 1,000 hours to be covered with BiS gear isn't unreasonable. That being said, the current drop rates make that much much shorter. Split farming normal bounties gets you into Torment very quickly and then doing Torment rifts will get you into high end gear in no time. 2-300 hours at most and you should be covered in BiS gear.

I still don't understand why higher tiers of torment offer no additional reward

They do. Higher Torment levels give you a big boost to xp gain and gold find along with a multiplicative 15% boost to legendary drop rates. Combine that with the double legendaries in rifts and T6 gives close to 3 times the boost compared to T1. Higher Torment levels also give you a boost to the drop rate of the Uber keys and mats, along with the legendary crafting materials. And in the near future will also be giving more legendaries from Bounties and more Blood Shards from Rift Guardians.

Dark Souls' core design depended upon analog controls (weight of the armor slowing down turning rate, for instance) so that's more forgivable, and Skyrim at least provides mod support so whatever that's shit can be fixed anyway. Diablo 3 can't have mods or offline capabilities because the devs insisted the auction house is so crucial to the gameplay... only to launch the PS4 version without any of the faff and dropping the auction house anyway 'cause it's shit. Now they don't even have an excuse for that always-online DRM.

What if it was EA pulling this shit? Did anyone cut them any slack for SimCity 2013 or Spore?

Which is a big part of the problem. Devs give us lazy ports and people defend them because of modding. The point is we shouldn't need to mod anything, it should be done right out of the box.

Creating a hack free multiplayer environment isn't a reason to have always-online DRM? Creating an environment where a lot of exploits and bugs can be removed seamlessly? Of course the main one originally was the Auction House purely because of the laws involved with it but there's still reasons for it there. And anyway, with the way the service is now, it makes Steam look bad even on a bad day.

There's a difference between designing a game to be always online and making a single player game and just tacking on an always online requirement. Diablo 3 is the former, Sim City is the latter.

And I'm not going to say anymore on the always-online stuff. The same thing happens in every Diablo 3 thread and it never gets anywhere so there really isn't a point.

 

[Ninmecu]

Don't have the direct source, but many of the issues currently with the bloated legendary drop system are being looked at or "fixed" (read sort of.). If a friend finds a legendary drop, all of his friends get an increased chance at a legendary or a chance at also getting said legendary. Amongst a few other features that would be a marked improvement over PC

The source I was looking for was to back up his claim that Blizz said an offline mode was impossible to make. But I know what you mean. You get a legendary and along with it get a gift box to give to a friend so they 'share your drop' or something. Wouldn't be a fan of that if it came to PC as well, drop rates are already on the high end of the scale and a system like that effectively doubles that.

...And for GOD SAKES give us targeted farming. I've posted on the official forums why 1,000 hours is ridiculous and what a normal human brain can accomplish in that amount of time, it was largely ignored of course because TL;DR, but I digress.

ARPGs are meant to be games you play for a long time so 1,000 hours to be covered with BiS gear isn't unreasonable. That being said, the current drop rates make that much much shorter. Split farming normal bounties gets you into Torment very quickly and then doing Torment rifts will get you into high end gear in no time. 2-300 hours at most and you should be covered in BiS gear.

I still don't understand why higher tiers of torment offer no additional reward

They do. Higher Torment levels give you a big boost to xp gain and gold find along with a multiplicative 15% boost to legendary drop rates. Combine that with the double legendaries in rifts and T6 gives close to 3 times the boost compared to T1. Higher Torment levels also give you a boost to the drop rate of the Uber keys and mats, along with the legendary crafting materials. And in the near future will also be giving more legendaries from Bounties and more Blood Shards from Rift Guardians.

ARPG's are meant to be something you enjoy for a long period of time, yes. However, the difference between a good one and a bad one, is that the good ones give you targetable farming locations for items. As it stands 300 hours won't guarantee you BiS, hell, 4,000 hours won't guarantee it. I've gotten a small number of set items, to compound matters, some were copies of ones I already had, they all rolled shit. That's not a good system. A system were the rarest drops can drop with ANY stats does not make a good game, my barbarians belt rolled for a wizard, while it dropped on a barbarian. Both of my Royal Ring of Grandeurs rolled +int, on a barbarian.

More exp from higher torments is not worth the effort it takes to get up there and efficiently farm it. Nor does the increased legendary drop since there's no difference in the quality of the items dropped in normal or T6, that is an inherent flaw in the design.

As for rifts dropping double legendaries, I'd have to call bullshit, granted it's only anecdotal evidence since it's only from my own point of view, but I frequently go through 4-5 t3 rifts without seeing a legendary drop. I can go for more than an hour without seeing one, only to get a two handed weapon, or a forgotten soul off of a rift boss. That is not good design.

And before someone goes "Oh well you're just a casual who just wants the op BiS stuff without putting in the work" blah blah fucking blah, the game is ENTIRELY rng based. I got my Thunderfury from a god damned clay pot. A Thunderfury, blessed blade of the windseeker, a weapon that has legendary status in another game(WoW) isn't found on a challenging rare elite, or named mob that can only be summoned ala-Hellfire ring, was found in a pot. There's no rhyme or reason, there's no end game, there's no reason to go after the end gear, well, gear, because it's completely randomized. You could literally go your entire career playing for thousands of hours and NEVER see the item you want, never mind rolling well enough to be worth the effort. There are serious, indefensible flaws with the game.

I love ARPG's, I can't stand ARPG'S that use "Oh it's loot randomization lol" as a defense.

 

[RA92]

Which is a big part of the problem. Devs give us lazy ports and people defend them because of modding. The point is we shouldn't need to mod anything, it should be done right out of the box.


You must have a very short memory. Diablo 3 didn't work right out of the box.

Remember?

http://www.entertainmentbuddha.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ac695dbf6cff.jpg

And unlike other offline games, modders couldn't fix that shit.

Not to forget the loot system was so grindy that Blizzard has been working on rehauling it 2 years after release (even after having close to a decade to work on this game). That was the point of Loot 2.0, right?

That doesn't sound like something working out of the box.



Creating a hack free multiplayer environment isn't a reason to have always-online DRM? Creating an environment where a lot of exploits and bugs can be removed seamlessly?

Do you mean co-op, or the <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133265-Diablo-III-Arena-Style-PvP-May-Never-Happen>PvP that was promised for years but might never happen?

 

[Kyber]

Any news on will they bring RoS to Xbox360?