Dear Diary,

Given how fast item supply grows with the bot farms (as well as advancing player knowledge for rushing + farming best practices), the current cadence of ladder resets feels too slow (at least for me).

Seasons probably need to be shortened. The vast majority of my D2R endorphin hits occur in the earlier phases of ladder- towards the beginning, where a sense of progress comes easily (with the occasional super-spikes for HR drops or the usual slate of ultra-rare high-priced items).


Each iteration of the multiplayer item economy itself feels like a single "game", in some ways.

I remember seeing games like League of Legends back when they first became popular (yes, including OG Warcraft 3 defense of the ancient custom maps)- to me, it felt as if the game designers understood that the item + player power scale ought to reset a bit quicker than the typical full-length RPG.


Feel good growing out of level 1, and feel good getting better and better loot, with meaningful step-wise increases where each major "step" comes with a mini-phase where you're awesome at first, then about even, then start sucking -- something D2 exemplifies through its itemization + combat skills whereas other games somehow magically keep "forgetting" this bit in terms of design.

Finally, feel good at the "finale" of the game- beat the toughest PvM content, or see how you ultimately perform PvP (aka arena stand-in). But then the game ends.


It needs to end, so we can start over, and re-enter that "feels like progress" phase.

I've also been thinking of games like Dark & Darker. I really enjoyed how it systematically provided an option to play zero-to-hero, so that you feel like you're progressing every single dive.


Perhaps some future D2R-2 (spiritual successor, whatever you want to call it) will be able to incorporate this design into the game somehow.
Think it'd be a lot of fun if teams of, say, 4 D2 characters could enter special instanced maps (or worlds, even) -- and all start with basic gear and play PvPvM. I think it can work with isometric ARPG's.

Sincerely,
Ladder reset, please.

At this point there is no reason to not reset ladder every 90 days, with the introduction of terror zones, mosaic, and other changes, there is zero reason for the ladder system to last any longer

I feel like 3 months is fair for reset

It should have always been 3 months MAX, but they don't really care and it won't change.

For me, the endorphin rush also only lasts 2 weeks. But I appeeciate the pauses in between resets. Dueing the long pauses between resets, I can enjoy other games or actually focus on my job IRL.

If they had make resets happen every month, I’m just going to get sick of the game faster since I’ll be doing the same thing over and over every month. Imo, three months is just right. I can see myself enjoying this game occasionally for a few more years.

If you feel the lack of challenge/progress, I reccomend:
1) speedruns where it is not the ingame char progress that you focus on but your own skills.
2) PvP for the same reason. But also the soughted after end-game items are much more expensive thus there’s always something to look for even with a bot dominated market. For e.g. I highly doubt bots are picking up blue magic items that can be gg.
3) solo self found. Then you can start a new char at any point during the season and not be influenced by the economy.

This post was edited by qbqbqbbqb on May 4 2024 06:11am

3 months feels about right

the rush only lasts like a week max, but 3 months is enough time for more casual players to hit 99 and gives more hardcore players downtime between ladders

Or adding a valid date to every item, say, 90 days from id'd or rune word'd?

3 Months would be better for sure. Some amount of downtime between each reset has to exist (as in, not every month) or I think less people will show up for each one (and that will compound on itself because then it's less fun for those that do)

Seasonal resets do seem like the best option, especially if they were timed to certain real life events for time off (right after christmas, near easter or something, around Labor day)

4 months is great IMO