Blizzard Talks About New Diablo III Loot System

Diablo III lead content designer Kevin Martens recently spoke with PC Gamer about the revamped loot system heading our way in a patch to be released just before the Reaper of Souls launch. He said the goal is to pull players out of the Auction Houses and into the streets and corridors to rob the barrels and dig through entrails for gold and goodies.

He told the magazine that while trading is a perfectly legitimate way to obtain items like weapons and armor, the game was designed for adventuring first. Yet somehow, by the endgame, players are instead heading into the Auction Houses first, and then playing the game. As we've reported in the past, some players spend most of their Diablo III time selling and buying items to make a buck instead of hacking the monsters.

"It is fun to go buy something instantly, the instant gratification feel, that sugar high," he said. "However it’s not the core fantasy, it’s not the most fun and by the endgame, for a variety of reasons, they tend to check the auction house first and play the game second."

Thus the new loot, enchanting and crafting systems have set out to hack "the legs out from the Auction Houses ", to make it unnecessary to enter the Houses to a certain extent. To help keep players out in the field, Loot 2.0 will use a smart drop system that dumps items tuned to the player's character. The team is also loading up the system with more Legendaries with extra effects, and a new artisan called the Mystic that will let players transmute items.

Additionally, the team is working on a new Loot Run mode that will randomly generate a new 15 to 20 minute dungeon for hunting treasure without repeating the same locations. "So we say ‘Oh, you want efficiency? How about efficiency, like Loot Runs, how about you definitely get the best gear from there. Mathematically, that’s the best.’ Then they can stop doing that Alkaizer run in act three that everyone does," Martens added.

Lead writer Brian Kindregan pointed out that fans should be playing the game to have fun and to discover new loot. If they can't find a specific item, then they can craft it. If they can't craft it, then they should head into the Auction Houses. That said, the Diablo III team has no plans to completely eliminate the Auction Houses.

“Trading’s not invalid, it’s just that it's been skewed so if you’re a character who’s spending money maybe you’re getting eighty percent of your gear from the Auction House, and 20 percent in game," Martens said. "It should be the reverse at best. It’s more fun to kill monsters. It’s the same thing I said about Loot Runs. If you want the best gear, let’s put it in a place in-game where you’re killing monsters."

For more information about Reaper of Souls, head here.

  • jimmysmitty
    It's a lot of talk but they have been pretty mum on the details with their site. No new info has popped up at all as to an estimated time frame of when.

    We haven't had any news of a patch since the last one hit earlier this year.
    Reply
  • bebangs
    Ow you want loot? f*&k efficiency and statistics. Use real money and search the auction house. $1 = 50million gold.

    You could get all the best items in the game using real money!!! Beat that!

    and oh i forget, did i mention you could earn money from Diablo 3 Auction house? Snipe the cheap items from auction house, sell them for profit.
    Reply
  • mjcpoquiz
    Blizzard advertisement of AH.
    Reply
  • nevilence
    there isnt a way to recover from the RMAH, the game is ruined by it, yer you can choose not to use it sure. Sucks though if you wanna play with other peeps and they are all rocking insane gear, makes things fucking boring for you when everything is dead and you are just chasing the blood bath
    Reply
  • mesab66
    Auction house + game = auction house.

    Separate those two and then, you have a game!
    Reply
  • aggroboy
    With existing items obsoleted by new expansion levels, they can start over.
    Reply
  • maxiim
    Who cares about this...seriously? Another garbage ploy to get bots and gold farmers back to a game that barely lasted a years time, and lost half its population in the first couple of months....Blizzard needs to move on to something better and new
    Reply
  • The_Trutherizer
    Diablo 3 and other RPGs with similar business models have ruined the genre for me. I used to be what you would call an avid RPG enthusiast. Now I approach every title with ingame purchases or real money trading with weary suspicion. There's only a few rare gems out there where AAA titles can actually still call themselves games.

    Thanks Blizzard.

    And it's definitely the same with first person titles. It used to be fun. You could copy maps designed by players for players between your friends and just explore. Now you are faced with the ever increasingly popular model where a game is launched for $60 with very little content and a week or two later the map expansion packs start hitting the shelves at up to $15 a pop.

    As far as I am concerned it may very well be very successful business models, but it's not progress for gamers. It's just all about cash flow. And the parents of children who are under actual social pressure to have this stuff are the hardest hit.

    Note that almost all the post release development for Diablo 3 focused around the AH and balances to the gameplay to ensure the AH is viable. Sickening.
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    Obviously when you work for soemthing for a long time, the gratification is longer and also the time you feel good about it. But if you get things instantly, the gratification vanishes almost as fast as it came.
    This is a natural human concept, and by making a game where you can buy things, they shortened its life span to make sure they dont have to keep the servers running.

    However, they underestimated how fast their custoemers would get bored, and the expansion is coming to a game with too little potencial customers.
    And this is why they are planing to change the game, to try to make it "interesting" again.

    I wonder I people will fall for it. I certainly did not buy this game myself, after I heard about the auction house. Lets see if Blizzard gets a slap in their wallet for this.
    After all, its the only thing they understand.
    Reply
  • nexians
    D3 Loot drop was horrible for every character, so much dependency on the auction house, and for a few people living in other countries it was not possible to buy gold either, considering the price for exorbitant Legendary Items and some countries not having access to Gold House :(. This was hell for a player considering the amount of gold dropped. I mean I had a character done 262 hrs!!! Still couldn't get some legendary items, whereas some players in other countries just bought them off and had immense access to power at lower levels!!!
    Reply