0.10.8 Information and Race Updates

I am very pleased with how the Merciless/Map changes in 0.10.8 have worked out. People keep suggesting we're caving to the masses, but these changes are motivated by our internal testing and design philosophies that we have been following since we started the project.

A large part of any decision we make is asking ourselves what we would want as players. We're in a unique position where we can make the decisions that are best for the game without being held back by some parent company or oppressive publisher. I am very confident that these changes will result in a big improvement in the areas that we felt were problematic. If they don't, we can undo them very easily. Even if it wasn't a beta test, I'd be happy to undo any change that didn't work out.

Having Merciless Act Three pitched at higher levels does make it harder to progress through it in one sitting. You do have to repeat areas. It is an intentional part of the design that there comes a point (in the higher difficulties) where the game is too hard for your character and you have to improve it by gaining new items before you can progress. I completely agree that there's substantial work that can be done to make earlier areas feel a little less grindy.

Another thing to note is that these area levels are mostly just a standin for Act 3X. Once we introduce new areas like the Gardens and the Sceptre of God, further level adjustments will be necessary. Act Four will cause even more rebalancing of levels, though that's a problem for 2014.

Many people have commented that the presence of level 66-68 areas makes the lower maps unnecessary. Level 66 maps are still the only way into higher maps and are just as challenging as they always were. It's just that there are now more places to play if you don't want to start maps.

We were sorely missing repeatable end-game boss runs. It was a major oversight to launch Open Beta with Piety runs as lacklustre as they were. These changes make her a lot more rewarding. It's a lot of fun to do Merciless Piety runs and actually have a chance at decent items and experience.

Maps are still necessary for top-tier items and the best shot at 90+ experience gain. We are not afraid of adding other things for players to do in their 70s and 80s, and will continue to add more interesting goals over time. These are just a set of easy ones that we know we can fit into the 0.10.8 patch and have done very well in our testing so far.

We do greatly appreciate the feedback. I'm not trying to argue against it - it has influenced many of our decisions. Our design discussions take place with forum posts open that we quote and reference as we work out our plans.

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Moosifer wrote:

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Chris wrote:

I'd be happy to undo any change that didn't work out.

Chaos res?

Can you privately forward me some reading on feedback related to that? It honestly isn't on my radar of potentially problematic changes.

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FenerStyler wrote:

Hmm.. actually nothing new, I see no changes to end game maps ..
Interested on minimap change a bit, but that was it =(

I hope patches get better like the first ones where you could see so many new things..

These aren't the full patch notes - they're just some changes that we wanted to discuss so that you can see some of what's coming up in the next week.

For example, new uniques!