(Helping GGG in) Creating a unique item: a breakdown of the breakdown

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Crevox wrote:

Critical chance is not a stat that's going to influence your base character power. You could get +5000% crit chance from that axe, but if it still does a small amount of damage, who cares? It adds some interesting synergies for sure, and that's the goal of a unique.

I think that you forget that a lot (if not all) spells can be cast using a non-wand or in this case that axe. So the fact that it doesn't do a lot of base damage doesnt mean that its not going to be used late game, it just means that it will be used primarily for casting
@lyralei

She dances a dance beneath the shade,
The twilight shroud her only blade,
Who now hears her feathersteps flowing?
Beneath the stars, the moondrops glowing.

is that the hint of your unique to come? Thats the only thing posted in the entire thread that I found.

so its some sort of sword (blade) and it probably gives you bonuses to evasion or dodge of some sort (shade, who now hears etc). I'm excited ;P

My lips are sealed :)

Very interesting and enjoyable read. I'm sad that there is so much... politics involved. I would have imagined that the *only* ways to get turned down would be these:

1. It's too powerful. I assumed this would be the biggest issue.
2. It's not technically doable.

Reading through these responses, it seems that GGG is much, MUCH more picky about how an item "feels" than I would have figured. Turning down ideas like not being affected by other auras because another person wants to do that? Why is that an issue? If I had paid $1,000 to have a helmet with "Other players' Auras don't affect you" and I got turned down for THAT reason, I'd demand a refund lol.

Not to be dramatic, but I feel that, whether or not you 'own' the item, being promised the ability to design a unique should come with very few strings attached. The obvious one is it needs to not ruin the game by being too amazing. But we all understand that. GGG have become too worried about the meta-game, nay, beyond that. I think they are too worried about each item being cool enough, even.

I'm sure many designers have seen their visions fulfilled, but in some of these cases, it almost seems like GGG has ideas of what they want to do for unique designs and are trying to shoehorn them into the supporter uniques to save time and effort. Two birds with one stone, and all that.

Knowing that I'm a very picky and hands-on type guy, I'm glad I didn't go through with buying a unique design pack, because it sounds like I would've been one of the people continually being baffled and frustrated with "No, sorry, because stupid reasons"

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andkamen wrote:

If you design a unique map, it can have a unique boss. And that boss can have a chance to drop said unique. It does require 2 unique "items" created though :P

That's actually a pretty cool idea adkamen! Particularly what with Lyralei being in RIP and all...

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Lyralei wrote:

If the game weren't so centralized around auras and IAS, then I'd imagine your unique would see a lot more love. I think its really cool and I must admit yours was partial inspiration to my unique (which, unfortunately that portion of the unique got dropped completely.).

NuclearRaven's unique falls under the same aura-stigma unfortunately.

Regarding your unique: I'd throw it on an Animate Guardian to proc the 40% burning damage multiplier for flameblast/detonate dead players. People look at things too one-dimensionally. They look at the DPS/IAS and instantly proclaim its shit.

Glad you liked it!

I'm using it for my Detonate Dead character now for the 25% chance to ignite to save on a gem slot. Did the calculations and think it's better than any rare for DD, but still is weaker than Doryani's Catalyst (another reason why I hate the Atziri uniques! Heh). I also have added cold damage linked (replacing chance to ignite gem slot) for the chill.

I also think that GGG's current meta doesn't support hybrid elemental (no support for EE attack builds in parties) and melee burn prolif builds what with the ignite nerf (which attack gems do not double dip on) so Dyadus is a little bit of a tulip in a contest of roses. Not too disturbed overall though. I just like having had something represent my kids in game.

I'm very much looking forward to yours! The flavour text is absolutely beautiful. A pity they removed the Dyadus-like component. Would you mind if I asked what it was that they removed?

Thanks :D I wrote that in maybe 10 minutes. Not too pleased with some of the wording but oh well.

Also what's all this about RIP? ಠ_ಠ

A very interesting read, i actually read every post in the thread so far.
I myself always wanted to make an unique for this game since i enjoy it and when i do start to work i hope to be able to support the game and make a unique one day.

However after reading the thread i feel like every idea i might have pitched would probably get shut down due to some reason. Some of the reasons for turning down ideas i read in this thread from GGG part were really not justified imo.

That being said i might support the game when i do start working because it's a good game, however i do not see myself ever going through the process of creating a unique after reading all this.

Thanks for everyone for sharing their experience and taking a part of their time to respond here, it's refreshing to hear about the experience of actual people who did create a unique rather than reading about it from GGG where it's all rainbow and sunshine.

Peace.

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Lyralei wrote:

Also what's all this about RIP? ಠ_ಠ

you mentioned that you'd like your item to be a boss drop. If you have 2 uniques left one can be a map related to the unique that want to be a boss drop.

Also since there are a few dieternals in your guild you might find someone who wants to make a map and maybe its theme is appropriate for the boss to drop your item.


I'm just brainstorming possible ways for you to get a non chanceable, non recipe obtainable unique. Its is a pretty hard to achieve/expensive way to go about it and GGG might still say no, but it might just be possible.

I think $1000 seems extremely low for creating an in game item. It probably made sense early on but at some point it should be made at a much higher amount, like $10,000+. If they estimate their time even at a somewhat low $100/hr thats not a lot of back and forth and design/programming time. I'm sure if you actually calculate it they probably spend 40hrs+ per item when you add it all up.

I understand that they have to create uniques anyways so they can factor in that time but the time to correspond with someone over a long haul with a seemingly endless line of people to create uniques that by the time they are finished will be obsolete seems rather maddening.

They should have the design your unique program at a much higher level and have a dedicated in house staff that only handles those items. That way there are less items to create, more money per item so they level out, and individual attention they are completed in a timely fashion.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

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LimitedRooster wrote:

Can totally understand not being satisfied with your purchase if they won't allow something as innocuous level based affixes.

In the general case, we consider level-based affixes to be about as far from innocuous as possible. We have a general rule against them, for good reasons, which we are specifically and explicitly allowing ourselves to break in a specific case, under certain specific conditions, while being aware of the consequences, and still keeping the general rule in effect for regular items.

While I can appreciate how that would seem disappointing to someone who tried to get such affixes on a supporter item and was told "no", we have specific reasons for that being against the rules, and we also have the flexibility to allow ourselves to break our rules if we have to when appropriate - this isn't just us randomly changing our mind.

Charan gives an excellent example why spending money on unique item design is a waste.

Basically you tell people giving an idea of an item to fuck off because of ingame economy and give them YOUR ideas.
Or in my words you offer a service you don't finish.

With proper warnings you would have made far less money by designing uniques.

GGGs ideal game is an economy based game, where uniques are replaced by magic items within 5-6 levels unless they are top tier.
Other players remember games such as D2.
Pre Lod D2 didn't had that many affixes and most uniques had a general purpose
D2 Lod added many uniques so items don't become useless after 5 levels. Such as 0,5 Max Dmg or Life per level

Maybe I should remind you that Skullers Ire is an unique 100% designed by a player.


If I had to design an unique it would be for a craftbased game and for a tradebased game.
Example an item inspired by Sceptre of Might in BG2.

An unique having an unique basetype let's call it Metamorphosis Stone.(only 1 can be used at a time)
Now here comes the big idea. The idea behind the item would be "Design a Designed Unique"

If you use alts on it you change the base item.
Transmutes, Augs, Regal, Exalts, Scraps, Fuses, Chroms, Alch, Chance work the same way as on whites.
Eternals and Vaal Orbs don't work.
Mirrors would mirror the stats instead of creating a Mirrored/Cycled version.
Such as Life becomes Mana, ES becomes Armor and Armor Evasion.

Scourings reset to a Stone again reduce the item level by 1.
GCPs add another form of quality to create a chance not to reduce the Item on scouring
Divines add an itemlevel with certain chance
Vendor+Regrets allows to roll higher baseitems.

By rerolling the basetype you allow all mods by item level again including unique ones.

This item is extremly powerful,flexible and a currency sink.
It has a lot of use especially on lower levels because you could just take the stone and turn it into a slot you actually are looking for.

But would I want it in the regular game? No! Because this would be the biggest RMT issue.
I would only want to see it in a League without Trade or in a League where currency drop rates are much higher(but there are also like 3000 item mods)

So if you offer somebody the ability to create an unique and don't want to see it on a GGG League then allow it on custom leagues which end up in Void league once ended.

If somebody wants a weapon doing 1 billion damage create it but tell the player that it can only be enabled in custom leagues.

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Hilbert wrote:

With proper warnings you would have made far less money by designing uniques.

I think about this a lot and I basically disagree. For many of us, supporting at that level wasn't purely motivated by the item design. This is why quite a few custom uniques are basically 'GGG' designed. Hell, there's a Ruler out there who didn't even do a monster. He just wanted to support at that level.

Unfortunately, this is a case of hindsight. GGG didn't 'conceal' from us the fine print regarding item balance -- they simply didn't see it coming. The degradation of service and the constriction of X factors I detailed in my OP, from the joy that was creating Tipua Kaikohuru to the hellish wrestling-with-angels that is Unleashed, makes this fairly clear.

I do not believe that they'd have made less money if they'd been more 'open' because they were as open as they could be at the time. The game was simpler, things were much more 'potential' rather than 'actual'. I consider myself supremely blessed to have gotten in so early and to have made an item precisely as I wanted, before things got too muddy and bogged down. Before the machine went from a fun, occasionally cunning mouse trap to a mind-boggling Rube Goldberg epitomising the Butterfly Effect.