(Go here for the "too long didn't read" abridged cliffnotes:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35341560&postcount=7177 )
In this post I'm going to lay out a plan for an improved rune system that keeps the pros of both the old and new system, as well as eliminates as much of the cons as possible.
Old System
PRO: Character progression tied to loot drops in a way that is separate and unique from gear
PRO: All possible builds and rune combinations are possible at level 30
PRO: Rune strength progresses as you do, so there is a big impact in a players mind as he compares his level 10 wizard who only shot out 2 magic missiles at one time vs his fully leveled level 60 wizard, who can shoot out 8 magic missiles at once. Dynamism! Character progression!
con: Inventory bloat
con: 7 rune levels means that each rune level doesn't pack much of a punch relative to the one before it.
con: Keeping track of all the runes for all your characters would be a horror of micromanagement.
Current System (As of beta patch 13)
PRO: Runes impact a player more, since there's only one level.
PRO: You get to unlock something every time you level up, all the way to level 60 (carrot/stick).
con: Character progression relies on unlocking new skill runes (which you might not even want) rather than increasing the power of a particular skill rune that you are interested in. Unlocking additional skill runes for a skill doesn't necessarily make you stronger if you aren't going to use it anyway. Leveling up should be associated with increasing a characters power.
con: Certain builds will not be testable until a player reaches level 55+, when the last skill runes are unlocked.
con: No dynamic rune levels. Once you unlock a rune, that rune effect is going to look the same for the rest of your life. You can't make it any better looking.
con: A player's skill advancement will be exactly the same as another player's play experience from level 1-60 because skill progression is on rails and is already decided beforehand. Player is robbed of the freedom to choose his own path.
Design conflicts: While the new system is supposed to be easier for casual players, if they ever want to experience every possible build, they are forced to level all the way into late Hell difficulty (which isn't casual-friendly. Nor should it be. But if you want Hand of Ytar, the only way you're ever gonna see it is if you level your monk to 51, putting you right in Hell).
QUICK SOLUTION:
There's
one thing you can do that pretty much solves the biggest problem with the new system:
Instead of unlocking a particular, specific, predetermined skill rune upon level up, give the player the choice to unlock whichever rune he wants. This puts control back in the hands of the player and gives him a say in his own character progression, as it should be. There is no penalty for "choosing wrong", because eventually you will have unlocked all the runes anyway. Each player can tailor his level 1-60 play experience to his own unique preferences.
If the devs are really that strapped for time, just implement that one simple change and call it a day.
However, in my opinion, the ability to itemize runes under the old system adds a lot of depth to the gameplay,
especially since Diablo is at its core a loot-whore game. Itemized runes add more things for a player to find, trade, and sell. More things to buy and sell will of course mean more activity for the auction house,
and more money in Blizzard's pockets. It also presents players with an alternate means to strengthen their character that is related to loot drops but is not beholden to gear. This would give Diablo III that unique flavor that separates it from other RPGs. Without itemized and levelable runes, the skill system just seems pretty generic.
So, how do we itemize the rune system again without it turning into the micromanagement nightmare of the old system? Like this:
- 4 levels of runes(normal, nightmare, hell, and inferno) instead of 7.
- Runes are not class-specific and skill-specific.
- Runes are consumable and permanently unlock the ability to choose to use that skill rune for your character's skill upon use, like a stat scroll.
- Runes are stackable.
- Runes are stored in a separate inventory that is shared amongst all your characters, like gold.
- Since they are not class and skill specific, and since there are only 4 levels of power, there are only 20 unique runes in the entire game, not 3000.
At the end of the day, if a min/max hardcore player wants to have all level 4 runes available to choose for all his skills, he will have had to consume (20 x 5 x 4) = 400 runes over the course of his lifetime. That's a lot of runes to have to find/barter/buy. A normal player might be content to only have the 6 skills he uses most at level 4 (6 x 5 x 4 = 120), which is still perfectly attainable.
Having runes be consumable gets rid of a lot of the micromanagement problems. Instead of having to fumble around for the right runes to slot, you just eat it once. Set it and forget it. Once you consume a rune for a particular skill, you always have that rune available to choose from.
That pretty much eliminates or heavily mitigates all the problems of the old system, so how do we incorporate the structure of the new system as well as keeping the carrot/stick of being able to unlock something every level up?
Leveling from 1-60 gives us 59 level ups, or opportunities to unlock something. We will need more than 59 items since sometimes more than one thing unlocks at the same time.
For starters, each class has about 23 skills and 17 passives, so that's 40 items right there. There are 5 unlockable active skill slots as well as 3 unlockable passive skill slots, so that brings us to 48 items.
What other things can we unlock without having to resort to creating more skill and passives? This is where my idea of the hybrid of the old solution with the new solution comes into play.
Start with the base system as outlined above in my "QUICK SOLUTION".
A player learns a skill. 5 levels later, he can choose any level 1 rune from his "rune bag" to activate that rune for that skill. 5 levels after that, he can choose another level 1 rune from his "rune bag" to activate a second rune for that skill. He then has 2 skill runes to choose from. 5 levels later, he can pick a third rune from his "rune bag" to activate a third skill rune to choose from.
Real world example:
In the beta test, once you get to level 13 as a wizard, you have enhanced magic missile and split magic missile at your disposal. But what if you didn't want either of them? What if you would have preferred piercing missile instead? Too bad, the skill progression is already predetermined for you. Under my system, you're free to activate piercing missile at level 6 as the first unlockable skill rune if you want to.
Hypothetical scenario:
Barbarian unlocks "Call of the Ancients" skill at level 25. At level 30 he unlocks the ability to activate a rune for that skill so he decides to consume an Obsidian rune. At level 35, he unlocks the ability to activate a second rune for that skill. His use of the Obsidian "Call of the Ancients" was very effective, but he's curious and wants to see what the other rune effects do, so he decides to consume an Alabaster rune. He tries it for 10 minutes, but decides he likes the Obsidian flavor better, so he switches back to Obsidian. At level 40, he unlocks the ability to activate a third rune, so he tries out Indigo. He might as well consume it since he as a ton of level 1 runes just from his run through of normal mode. He sees that he prefers Indigo, so he leaves it active. At level 45...etc.
OK, moving on. So remember we have 4 levels of rune strength. Level 1 runes drop on Normal mode. Level 2 runes drop no earlier than Nightmare. Level 3 runes drop no earlier than Hell. Level 4 runes only drop on Inferno.
I've described how each individual skill rune is unlocked within a single skill, and now I will describe how rune
levels are unlocked.
We have 3 categories of skills (e.g. Hatred Generator, Hatred Spender, Discipline). At predetermined levels, a character is given the choice to upgrade a particular skill category so that he can begin to consume level 2 runes for those skills:
Start of Nightmare
level 30 - unlock "level 2" runes for one skill category of your choice
level 35 - unlock "level 2" runes for one skill category of your choice
level 40 - unlock "level 2" runes for one skill category of your choice
Start of Hell
level 50 - unlock "level 3" runes for one skill category of your choice
level 53 - unlock "level 3" runes for one skill category of your choice
level 56 - unlock "level 3" runes for one skill category of your choice
Start of Inferno
level 60 - unlock "level 4" runes for all skill categories
This system allows for more carrot/stick unlocks on level up, but also forces the player into a choice: which category of skill is most important to him that he wishes to level it up first? A wizard whose gameplay revolves primarily around spamming Signature Spells would probably opt to choose to first unlock level 2 Signature Spells at level 30. Another Wizard whose gameplay revolves more around high damage, hard-hitting Offensive Spells might opt instead to unlock level 2 Offensive Spells at level 30. Forcing players to make this choice makes them feel in control of their character development and makes them actually
think about their playstyle and what aspects of it are most important to them. Such critical thinking is not present at all under the current system of predestined skill rune upgrades.
Requirements to use level 1-3 runes: Unlock that level of runes for the skill category of the skill you want to use, and consume the corresponding skill rune.
Requirements to use level 4 runes: Be level 60, and levels 1, 2, and 3 are all already activated.
What this means is, if I want to use a level 3 rune, and have already unlocked the capability to do so, I can use it without having activated level 1 or 2 beforehand. However, if I want to use the level 4 version, I would also need to consume the level 1 and 2 runes first before I can consume the level 4 rune. In other words, if I'm a level 60 character who had a very static build from level 1-60 (I never used the anything else besides the same 6 skills that I planned out beforehand) and is in possession of a bunch of level 3 runes, I can consume them to try out the level 3 rune effects without having to first consume the level 1 and level 2 versions first.
Hypothetical scenario:
Level 60 Witch Doctor is playing Inferno mode, and obtains a level 3 Obsidian rune and a level 4 Obsidian rune. He's pretty satisfied with his current build at the moment. However, he never really bothered to try out "Mass Confusion". He used it a couple times when he first got it, of course, and played around with all its rune level 1 variants (because level 1 runes are common to find in Normal difficulty), but he never really bothered to level it up with level 2-4 runes. He now decides to see what Obsidian "Mass Confusion" is like at a higher level. He consumes the level 3 Obsidian rune that he just found and plays around with the skill. He likes it. He decides to incorporate that skill into his regular playstyle. Although he has one, he can't just consume a level 4 Obsidian rune just yet to power up "Mass Confusion". He has only consumed level 1, and level 3 Obsidian runes for "Mass Confusion" and you need to have unlocked all previous levels before you can unlock level 4.
Why? Having this requirement for level 4 runes forces the player to value level 2 runes more and it also lengthens the road for character completion for min/max players. More casual players who are satisfied with level 3 runes won't really care either way.
Conclusion:
Mainly, the system I propose serves to combine the best features of the itemization with a structured leveling system that has relevance from the whole gamut of levels 1-60. Furthermore, it provides avenues of character progression that go beyond level 60, since once you hit level 60 you still need to obtain level 4 runes to attain maximum power.
Most importantly, though, it gives the player the freedom to choose. Without the freedom to choose, the player does not personalize his character since he doesn't really have much of a say in the direction of the character's growth. With the current "predestined skills" system, the freedom of choice doesn't come until level 60, when the last skill rune is unlocked. Only then do you have all the skill rune combinations freely available to pick and choose to your liking. Hell difficulty is not the time to be testing out new builds for your character.
