End of Ladder Season

[Raziel]

I wouldn't be surprised if there are only a few (dozen or so) games open per realm/game/subclass thingie.

Played Classic lately? :) I logged on and there was five games in the Hell list.

[NuurAbSaal]

Last time I logged on (Friday?) there were about 67,000 people playing D2 in Europe, channels are full of people, a gazillion games are open in Normal, Nightmare and Hell and if you are worried about too few players on any realm/any gametype, just make a game "fre itamz" and watch it max out in 2 seconds ;)


Greetings

Nuur

[NuurAbSaal]

Believe it or not, I KNOW I'll never see a "clean/legit" realm. But I can dream, can't I? :)

On the topic of Hellforge runs: You mean creating a character, getting it rushed to hell, doing the Meph Soulstone quest, muling off the rune(s?), deleting the char and starting over, right?! Calling this merely "boring" is an understamtement imho. Add in
/start Homer Simpson voice
BORING!
/end Homer Simpson voice
and you may have hit closer to home :lol:

But seriosly, that approach is way too tedious for me, I'll much rather have no runes and continue to whine, thank you :)

Your thought about the keeping of ladder rules cheered me up a bit.

oh, I almost forgot, wanna trade some stuff for runes? :D

(j. k. mods!)

Greetings

Nuur

EDIT: muling "of" the runes, suuuure Nuur :blink:

[channel1]

I've had a bit of a chance to consider, and I've realized that the new ladder will be a good thing, if one condition is met.

There should be NO benefit to playing characters on the new ladder, except for the ladder itself.

No new items, runewords, cube recipes, or whatever. Those were the features that gave me a reason to create characters on the old 1.10 ladder. I would never have enough time to play to ever hold a place on the ladder, so it has no value for me. Also, the way that I play is not appropriate for people who do want a place on the ladder, so I wouldn't want to play in games with the ladder-runners, and they wouldn't want to play with me.

The "feature" of a new, clean realm is not a benefit, it is a limitation. It just happens to be a limitation placed on everyone, so it brings the power-players and the cheaters down to the same level as everyone else. Even if the absence of cheat items makes the trading economy viable at first, the power-players will ruin it in short order for the casual player. And, that's assuming that there are never any cheats or exploits.

If Blizzard institutes the ladder reset in this way, I'll be happy to continue with my existing old 1.10 ladder characters. I sure hope that's what Blizzard has in mind.

-rcv-

[Valamyr]

It seems pretty obvious that season 2 will be a replay of season 1. While what happens to old ladder chars is still in the air, one thing seems certain: as of the "reset date", existing ladder characters will no longer get access to "ladder only" items (save obviously they ones they got so far), and only newly created ladder characters will.

So yes, to get the best stuff, they intend us to start fresh every few months. Not a bad thing i think, itll keep the game fresh.

[NuurAbSaal]

From the AS

Season 1 Ladder players are being moved into the same 1.10+ population that Non-Ladder players are in.

Season 1 players get to keep Ladder exclusive items when they are moved.

Season 2 is happening =]

There will be a server-side content update. This will only be for the new Ladder for Season 2.

We will be tracking every Player’s Ladder Standings throughout the new Season.

A special reward awaits...

looks like no "ladder features" for season 1 chars. Bad, imho, but certainly understandable.

Content update? Special reward (Baal walks the earth. He drops Über-Annihilus/Annihilus XP Professional) Great. Fix the bugs first, ok?! :angry:

hmpf

Nuur

[Brista]

I've had a bit of a chance to consider, and I've realized that the new ladder will be a good thing, if one condition is met.

There should be NO benefit to playing characters on the new ladder, except for the ladder itself.

Again I don't really get this

Your characters will be unchanged. The only downside of a new Ladder season will be a decrease in the influx of new people and that some veterans move

So what if there is a new runeword on some Realm where you don't play?

Just don't let it bother you :)

[Obi2Kenobi]

No, your characters won't remain unchanged. You'll face non-ladder difficulty monsters, and certain items will no longer drop, and you can no longer make new runewords.

[adeyke]

and you can no longer make new runewords.

There isn't such a thing as a ladder-only runeword. Unless you mean that the lack of high-rune-upgrade recipe is what will make it impossible.

We still don't know what changes Blizzard will bring with the new season. It's possible (though not guaranteed) they'll make some of the ladder-only items/recipes available to non-ladder characters.

[Obi2Kenobi]

Oops, I meant Horadric Cube formulae.

[Yogi_Baar]

We still don't know what changes Blizzard will bring with the new season.  It's possible (though not guaranteed) they'll make some of the ladder-only items/recipes available to non-ladder characters.

I think this AS quote kind of implies that there will definitely be new stuff for Ladder chars?

There will be a server-side content update. This will only be for the new Ladder for Season 2.

Would fixing the NM FE bug qualify as a server-side content update? What actually DOES qualify as server-side content? Anything MPQ related?

[edv]

There was a great suggestion to stop botting on the battle.net forums a while ago. You know when you register to a webmail/other service; usually the last thing to do is to enter a series of letters/numbers of a blurry image. I don't remember the name of this technique but anyway someone suggested a same kind of system for D2 game creation. Thinking it more closely, it could actually work without causing an annoyance to legit players, you'd only need to enter 1 or 2 characters. Bruteforcing is preventable by giving temporary bans for.. say.. 3 failures in a row. And as soon as someone bypasses the technique, Blizzard updates a different kind of image set server-side forcing the botters to start writing yet another algorithm.

As far as I can see, this would be a very efficient way to prevent botting. Now, will Blizzard implement it, that remains to be seen.

[lfd]

There will be a server-side content update. [Arreat Summit]

...and screw all you single-players, because we don't care about you. You're stuck with the idiot bugs which make hardcore single player a lottery at best. Come and play on our ladder!

[Mer]

I wouldn't have expected to see the day that Lurkers bemoan another clean plate beginning. :P I'm totally bored with my stash of ladder chars as it is, and can't wait for the new start.

[Nicator]

Aye, ladder gaming is ruined due to bots/dupers/hackers. I believe that most legit players wanted to test their skills, under the same conditions, with each other; that's the point of having a ladder. Right now, all the problem is finding a game full of +90 chars and a good enigma/sorc teleporter. Then wait for the portal, wait some seconds to let someone else cross it -in case some dolls or gloams are awaiting-, cross it, find a good spot and survive -this usually isn't a big deal with level 44 BO-. Expect 60 to 90 seconds per run, and join the next "90upbaal112".

When ladder started we all had -and could!- play. Right now, some sassy trapper/hammerdin/(place the cheesy build you hate most here) will deal with Lister and family in 3 seconds.

The longer the season, the more people cheating. Just make it short; if there's no chance of dealing with bots/hacks/dupes, what the hell. They still need several weeks to ruin an economy.

One more thing: Blizzard, please, give some more experience to monsters in hell. It's ridiculous to get 10 points for killing a frenzytaur in act 5 :( See, I don't mind playing Baal runs, but I want to play some other areas as well, without feeling I mistakenly joined a Normal difficulty game.

[Caaroid]

without feeling I mistakenly joined a Normal difficulty game.

You'll see the difference when the bloody frenzytaurs rip you to shreds :)

[Nicator]

Not likely when a party sorc already gave me level 26 BO ;)

[CelticHound]

I see it as a fresh start for building empires. B)

...and screw all you single-players, because we don't care about you.  You're stuck with the idiot bugs which make hardcore single player a lottery at best.  Come and play on our ladder!

Fortunately for the single player, there's Nobbie.

Still, we don't know there won't be a 1.11 patch available with the new season.

Would fixing the NM FE bug qualify as a server-side content update? What actually DOES qualify as server-side content? Anything MPQ related?

Really it means anything that doesn't require a downloading a patch.

Things that would require a new patch include anything requiring new graphics or text strings. Even simple palette shifts for items have to be in the local MPQ. That implies no new items or affixes, sets, monster types without a patch. Also any changes to skills or affixes that get displayed on the character screen require a patch. (I think those display values are calculated locally.)

Fair game without a patch: Altering game mechanics that are handled server-side. Gamble items available and set/rare/unique chances. New cube recipes. Enabling runewords that already exist in the MPQs. Monster levels, life, damage & treasure classes. But there are limits - for example, they can only tweak Faster R/W and monster speed so much on the server before there needs to be a patch so the client can stay somewhat in synch with the server.

adeyke, can affix probability be different serverside, now? It used to be that an item's affixes were always decoded from the seeds, but that's not true anymore is it? Also what about vendor prices? Do those come from the server or are they calculated locally for display?

As a bottom line, though, if they add any new ladder only uniques, there will need to be a patch, which ought to include the existing 1.10 server-side fixes.

Nicator

Aye, ladder gaming is ruined due to bots/dupers/hackers.

Huh? I've encountered hardly any of that on USWest. But then I'm hardly ever in chat, and in my one visit to the 1.10 trade channels, all I did was swap an Ort rune for a Goldwrap. I think you only have yourself to blame - playing in random pubbies is equivalent to reading/posting in the b.net forums as opposed to the Lounge - only expect to do it for the amusement value and if you hook up with some good players, that's a bonus.

-- CH
(being an honourary variant scum has it's advantages)

(edit: fix typo and wrestle with this board's sucky handling of quote tags)

[Nicator]

Huh? I've encountered hardly any of that on USWest. But then I'm hardly ever in chat, and in my one visit to the 1.10 trade channels...

Is there any real difference between players at any realm? If a bot/hack works in East, I can't see why it can't work in (place the Realm here). Alas, there's no real need to be in a chat room; at least in USEast, right when I log in a bot is advertising a site. Besides it, just by watching several players using semi-transparent weapons and the well known botds' graphics, both on characters and mercs (I wouldn't mind if some party members found a zod, but when I count 12 botds in 7 players... well, no need to be a nuclear scientist to realize where they come from).

I think you only have yourself to blame - playing in random pubbies...

Actually I played often until someone found a way to dupe runes. By then, I reached #82 position in SC Ladder, using a zealot. Since then, I play only in clan games or mostly alone. At times I just joined a public game when I was really bored of playing alone and wanted more experience. After watching more enigmas and botds than players in the party, I just choosed not to play public anymore.

However, by doing so I just left any chances of reaching a higher position in the Ladder. Maybe I got the wrong idea that a Ladder Season is a competition, did I? ;)

[CelticHound]

However, by doing so I just left any chances of reaching a higher position in the Ladder. Maybe I got the wrong idea that a Ladder Season is a competition, did I? ;)

Okay, it's a competition then. A competition that measures what, though? Not skill. When I think of the most skillful players I know, I realize they won't ever be on the ladder. What then? Mostly hours of playtime. Luck with item drops. And a willingness to improve gear by paying cash or other means.

Given the nature of the game (and the preferred fan base), you know what to expect in the ladder competition. Just like someone who gets into competitive body building has to expect to come up against steroids, and someone who wants to make it in Hollywood has to expect to compromise whatever morals they have. It's up to you if you want to play that game.

I see a ladder season as a meta-game of building an empire for myself. (But then I also do reserts on my SP chars.)

-- CH