1.0.3 Coming Changes

[Trevan]

4) Gambling - so long as there's stuff worth gambling for. It mostly worked in D2, pre-expansion. Although it still wasn't good enough, as gold was almost never used as player currency.

I feel the need to mention that crafting is essentially gambling.

Gambling that is more limited by the materials required than by gold, and therefore not a very good gold sink.

I disagree. Materials encourage auction house usage, which encourage eating a 15% auction house sell penalty.

Honestly, gambling would have the same problem that crafting now has. Why gamble/craft when you can more easily (and for probably less money) buy the item you want off the auction hall? That, in my opinion, is the key problem behind the gambling/crafting mechanic. Gambling would be as unused as crafting is now.

I'm not trying to be some super negative "nothing will work!" person, but I think making crafting far more enticing would help as a goldsink more than just adding gambling would.

[Roland]

I'm not trying to be some super negative "nothing will work!" person, but I think making crafting far more enticing would help as a goldsink more than just adding gambling would.

This.

Personally, I think fixing the drops in Inferno would go a long way to accomplishing that (as well as dropping Blacksmith costs SLIGHTLY at the higher levels), such that:

Act I Inferno = 59 - 60
Act II = 60 - 61
Act III = 60 - 62
Act IV = 60 - 63

I don't want level 63 items dropping in Act I Inferno. I want to have to work my way through each Act in order to progress. That way I have to *gasp* progress through the game, in order to progress my character! What a concept! I'd love to use the Blacksmith more (aside from the fact that I don't have a plan for a Bow, and to buy one off the AH costs ~180k right now - not to mention the Bows themselves will probably cost 100k to craft if they're anything like Sources). It's just far more economical to farm the gold and buy off the AH than it is to craft, though. Farming Act I will net you a fair amount of gold, but level 60 drops are few and far between making crafting materials scarce. Combine that with high gold costs on the "gamble" of getting something worthwhile and it literally discourages anything but using the AH.

[MongoJerry]

Honestly, gambling would have the same problem that crafting now has. Why gamble/craft when you can more easily (and for probably less money) buy the item you want off the auction hall? That, in my opinion, is the key problem behind the gambling/crafting mechanic. Gambling would be as unused as crafting is now.

I'm not trying to be some super negative "nothing will work!" person, but I think making crafting far more enticing would help as a goldsink more than just adding gambling would.

Agreed on the need to make crafting a better option rather than add pure gambling. However, when one asks why would someone craft items instead of buying something off the auction house, one needs to consider the case after the RMAH comes into play and when the game economy gets settled in with a large population of players able to farm the later acts of Inferno. In that case, how do you give yourself a chance to get the very best items in the game. Assuming that some of the crafting items can give you the best items in the game (with very lucky rolls), that might be the only way you can get one other than by buying one the RMAH, which a lot of players won't want to do. Conversely, how do you find a top item that you can sell on the RMAH for real money? Craft as many items as you can and hope you can hit the jackpot. And all the while, the crafting goldsink will be sucking up gold and items turned into crafting materials.

Of course, this means that crafting recipes need to be able to create items that have the potential to be that good.

[ViralSpiral]

I wonder if the proper option with crafting isn't to categorise it like it was done in D2 - hitpower, aside from gloves, didn't produce very good crafts, but the concepts of "caster", "melee offence" (blood) and "general defence" (safety) might improve the system a bit.

[Elric of Grans]

If crafting is cheap (materials, not gold), then it becomes more appealing. If you can buy the perfect bow for, say, 3 million, but can craft many for the same price, both options are viable. Many will HAVE to have the perfect item NOW, whereas others will find crafting their own almost-perfect bow more rewarding. A little tweaking to the affix list could help too, ensuring certain classes of items are more likely to have certain modifiers from certain levels, and perhaps removing the trash ones (eg Thorns).

[FireIceTalon]

The gold sink will NOT fix the inflation, and will almost certainly be completely ineffective - mark my words. The fact of the matter is, you can put all the gold sinks in the world there, and the people who control the games economy laugh, and laugh, and laugh some more, because there is no "regulation" on what they can charge. Do you really honestly believe gold sinks are going to deter, much less fix inflation? Lets get serious here, it aint gonna happen.

You have an annoying habit of attempting to rebut someone's post with absolutely NO logical or rational statements. If you remove currency from the economy, inflation will at LEAST slow down or, depending on the magnitude of gold sinks, reverse. I somehow have the feeling that you aren't a capitalist ( ) but the basics hold true here: if someone is charging so much for an item that no one can afford it, it won't sell and the seller will be forced to lower their prices. It's a really simple system. Changes will take a little while to shake through the system and let everything settle out but the ridiculous prices WILL come down.

You talk about regulating prices a lot but have yet to actually propose even the basic outline of how to implement such a system. Have you even thought about how one would go about it? My guess is no.

Blizz WANTS it to be this way though - they want people to be forced to use the AH, because it will increase their profit margins. Inferno drops and difficulty are systematically in place as they are to reduce your farming rate, both for gold and items, so you will eventually - yes, you guessed it - be forced to use the RMAH. If you want better items and to beat Inferno at least.

So no, I am quite rational and logical here, because I see the system for what it really is. I'm sorry if you dont.

Gold sinks will change the system very little if at all. Are the super expensive items selling in the AH currently? Probably not - but that doesn't mean prices are going to come down. The only people buying stuff in the millions are other wealthy players. Adding gold sinks will do nothing but make the poor players even poorer - while having virtually no effect on the rich ones. The whole system is one giant monopoly.

And yes, I'm about as Capitalist as Hitler was a human rights activist. Oh wait....

[Elric of Grans]

Blizzard's intentds to (a) improve Inferno difficulty drops, (b) reduce the player costs of crafting, and © reduce the difficulty of Inferno difficulty in the next patch. How do you explain this if their intention is to force players to use the Auction House? They do not NEED to force players: most will do it anyway. We saw it in Diablo and Diablo II. Even if a player gets fantastic drops, they still want to trade for PERFECT ones. I once saw someone abandon an Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac that dropped in a session of Diablo because the stats were not perfect; my Rogue obtained a seriously kick-arse ring in the same game.

[FireIceTalon]

Was the stats on that ring like 33/17 or something, hehe? Cause I'd give such a ring away also, considering I have been lucky enough over the years to find several near perfect ones (and finally, after 12+ years playing, I found a perfect amulet version a few months ago while playing my purist). But if it had super nice stats, meaning RA is 35%+ and 19 or 20 to all attributes, would probably mean he has quite a few with uber stats already, as no one in their right mind would give such an item away for free otherwise.

They brought Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac back as a Legendary for D3 if I'm not mistaken. Would have liked to seen Dragons Ring of the Zodiac come back also, since I always liked those better than Obsidian anyway.

[Quark]

Re: crafting. People making craft items in another forum have noted that they always seem to have high rolls on stats. Their affix list might be heavily compressed compared to normal drops. If true, and not just random chance, this would make it less off a gamble - instead of needed good mods and good rolls, now you just need good mods.

[ima_nerd]

Blizz WANTS it to be this way though - they want people to be forced to use the AH, because it will increase their profit margins. Inferno drops and difficulty are systematically in place as they are to reduce your farming rate, both for gold and items, so you will eventually - yes, you guessed it - be forced to use the RMAH. If you want better items and to beat Inferno at least.

So no, I am quite rational and logical here, because I see the system for what it really is. I'm sorry if you dont.

I'm not quite ready to bust out the tin foil hat yet, sorry. Too many people have already had success in Inferno LESS THAN A MONTH after release. I haven't even made it to Hell yet but I fully expect even that to make me cry and gnash my teeth all while cursing Blizzard. Then I'll calm down and methodically progress like others have already done.

Gold sinks will change the system very little if at all. Are the super expensive items selling in the AH currently? Probably not - but that doesn't mean prices are going to come down. The only people buying stuff in the millions are other wealthy players. Adding gold sinks will do nothing but make the poor players even poorer - while having virtually no effect on the rich ones. The whole system is one giant monopoly.

And yes, I'm about as Capitalist as Hitler was a human rights activist. Oh wait....

So now I'm supposed to believe there's a secret society of wealthy players that somehow accrue massive wealth without incurring any of the gameplay gold penalties other players experience? Of course, if they're not selling items at those ridiculous prices to anyone outside of their club, how are they accruing the wealth again? And if they are selling those items to players outside the club... then that means it's possible to make that much money effectively?

I think your theory is starting to take on water. Better bail faster, bud.

[Elric of Grans]

Now that I have seen Inferno, I think people have over-reacted. Yeah, hard as nails, but it is obvious you just need to catch up on gear.

[Lissa]

Now that I have seen Inferno, I think people have over-reacted. Yeah, hard as nails, but it is obvious you just need to catch up on gear.

You've only seen Act 1, it's a whole different ballgame when you get to Act 2.

You also probably haven't tried it with 3 or 4 player games.

[ViralSpiral]

Elric's pretty good. I think I've stated this once or twice. I expect A2 to give him a kick from what I've head, but nothing he won't get back up from.

[FireIceTalon]

Blizz WANTS it to be this way though - they want people to be forced to use the AH, because it will increase their profit margins. Inferno drops and difficulty are systematically in place as they are to reduce your farming rate, both for gold and items, so you will eventually - yes, you guessed it - be forced to use the RMAH. If you want better items and to beat Inferno at least.

So no, I am quite rational and logical here, because I see the system for what it really is. I'm sorry if you dont.

I'm not quite ready to bust out the tin foil hat yet, sorry. Too many people have already had success in Inferno LESS THAN A MONTH after release. I haven't even made it to Hell yet but I fully expect even that to make me cry and gnash my teeth all while cursing Blizzard. Then I'll calm down and methodically progress like others have already done.

Gold sinks will change the system very little if at all. Are the super expensive items selling in the AH currently? Probably not - but that doesn't mean prices are going to come down. The only people buying stuff in the millions are other wealthy players. Adding gold sinks will do nothing but make the poor players even poorer - while having virtually no effect on the rich ones. The whole system is one giant monopoly.

And yes, I'm about as Capitalist as Hitler was a human rights activist. Oh wait....

So now I'm supposed to believe there's a secret society of wealthy players that somehow accrue massive wealth without incurring any of the gameplay gold penalties other players experience? Of course, if they're not selling items at those ridiculous prices to anyone outside of their club, how are they accruing the wealth again? And if they are selling those items to players outside the club... then that means it's possible to make that much money effectively?

I think your theory is starting to take on water. Better bail faster, bud.

According to the last report from Blizzard, less than 2% of the entire D3 population has even unlocked Inferno, much less actually beat it. Might want to re-think that statement that "too many people have been successful in Inferno"......

The wealth was pre accrued: Most of the "wealthy" players were those who ran through the game early on that took advantage of chest exploits and skill bugs before the nerfs came. To not believe there is a tiny % of the D3 population that did this early on and thus now control the AH economy is not only naive, but flat out incorrect. This has all been long confirmed - and the current conditions are really self evidence of this.

[BellaStrega]

One of the things about a virtual economy is that you get to mint your own currency. While not exploiting is slower than those who choose to exploit, there are still ways to make a lot of gold. I basically screw around all day in-game, and I usually have about 200,000-500,000 gold coming in before I blow it on whatever strikes me (today it was radiant square amethysts), or set it aside to save up for gear upgrades.

I'm obviously not a wealthy player, but without really trying I can still make up to half a million gold a day. If I actually focused on it, I could probably push that into the millions, per day. And if I wasn't such an impulse spender, I could save it up for the gear that would get me into act II. No one can stop me or anyone else from doing these things. Just because other people have more gold doesn't prevent you from finding a way to get as much as you want. And in the process of getting as much as you want, you might find drops that you can sell for a fairly good price on the AH.

[Quark]

The no damage increase for coop has been hotfixed in, as well as some farming nerfs.