Discussion - Single player - Demonized, but better?

A quick intro, this is my second full season playing Median XL and this is the first season I've played Single Player. Last season on TSW I completed most content as Holy Melee, with the exceptions being the endgame fights that were a struggle for the spec such as Samael, Uldy and the T15 rift(s). I don't have a whole lot of time to play so I couldn't be bothered collecting a caster set to finish the content. This is my old armory: https://tsw.vn.cz/acc/char.php?name=Seraphicide

I made the change for a few main reasons:

1) I play melee exclusively and there's some lag and hitbox issues that are eliminated with SP play (monsters killing you from half a screen away, difficulty connecting with a monster that's moving, de-sync from FRW, connection timeouts during critical moments, etc.)

2) I spent way too time trading. I spent way more time trading than playing, the power creep of better gear is addicting but ultimately it was starting to feel like it was turning into a pay to win sort of game. It felt like the TG is king on TSW (things like stacking UMO honorifics and in-demand SSU gear for FotM builds while everyone else is basically forced to craft until mid-late season).

3) I rarely played in multiplayer games. Nobody chats, everyone runs in separate directions. You're pretty much playing a SP game with trading. Most of the builds are showcased on the forums and discord anyway, so why deal with all of this? I work long hours so I have pretty much 0 chance at being the first at anything in an ARPG.

So, off I went to try a season in SP with the newly buffed Unholy Melee spec.

Everything is as I thought it might be so far. All the lag frustrations associated with melee are gone. Not once have I wondered: "what the hell just killed me?"

Specific items are hard to find, you have to rely on shrine crafts more. You can't just get what you need from an auction. This is a good thing though! More time is spent actually playing.

What I've noticed since I started farming Duncraig and Fautz: drops are much better. Not sure if this is a bug or a way to balance the lack of trade or if i'm just extremely lucky combined with MF and the better farming ability of UHM vs Holy Melee, but it's a lot of fun. Here's a quick rundown of some drops from farming Duncraig and Fautz from 120-131

-Azurewrath
-Probably half of the SSU's in the game

Last season with more time spent farming I had found maybe 10 SSUs and pretty much every SU, but nothing else worth mentioning.

The reason for this thread is to get some discussion rolling with the only downside I've stumbled across, which is a social one:

The optics of playing SP.

Whenever the topic is brought up, folks in discord and the forums seem to be discounting literally anything that is done in SP. Discussing a build? LOL SP. Find something cool? LOL SP. Find a way to get past a difficult boss? LOL SP. No /time, no discussion. You're instantly viewed as some retard who's probably cheating using duped and hacked items.

This seems ironic to me, because if you have a pile of TG on TSW you can literally buy characters and do anything in the game.

So, it seems a little absurd to me to demonize all of the SP player base because a minority of users use hacked items and tools to cheese the game, while at the same time a minority of TSW players have the resources to purchase literal god-status in the game.

It's pretty much the same thing at a fundamental level. Accomplishments are written off because the players did not earn their way. SP can easily be hacked, and TSW in-game power can straight up purchased. Seems a little silly to me to demonize one group and not the other.

Diablo 2 still has a pretty active single player community. Speed running, legit magic finding. The integrity is mostly kept in-check by streaming. It would be cool to see this adopted for MXL. Maybe the devs could build a save game verification tool, maybe tie that to a forum badge or something.

Anyway, would love to hear peoples thoughts on this

I feel you on the TG part.
I'd honestly reset TG every season and make charms untradable. This way everyone starts off at the same place and nobody can start a monopoly of difficult-to get-charms on day2. I mean, i understand some ubers are some kind of annoying, but what's the point of skipping content and just buying the reward? What's the difference here between cheating and paying?
Also from a gameplay standpoint is a suicide: who's gonna ever complete Ureh if a good +2 charm can be easily bought off the market in some hours?
This way nobody improves, and the good players will always be the richest because of mass charm farming and input/constant demand on the market.
Maybe this could help in prolonging a bit the life of the ladder.

TG represents real money. No one is going to refund donations at reset. You can't get rid of the compensation due somebody for donating real money.

phantomyyz wrote:You're pretty much playing a SP game with trading.

Beatiful, isn't it :coolstorybob:

On a more serious note youve pretty much hit the nail on the head. The cognitive dissonance seems to be a real thing. On the one side Diablo 2 is one the easiest games to cheat in sp. On the other side using TG amassed from a previous season to instantly buy best gear at the start of a new one takes about as much effort. These things are not directly comparable - you need TG in the first place, but yeah.

I personally prefer single player.

I don’t have as much time to play as I’d like to. We all have lives, some more busy than others. I came to the following conclusion. I don’t play enough to see all the content within one season. I enjoy sitting down comfortably playing this with a good glass of whisky on Friday nights. So basically I have 3-4 hours a week.

Playing ladder with people would be great, but I reached mid game ubers when people started to quit and wait for next season. Non-ladder was next to empty, barely found any games and people were mostly experimenting builds. It felt like playing alone.

So I went back to singleplayer. No lag, no char resetting. We had PlugY which I solemnly miss. No logging in to anything. This is just the way things are for me. And I love it.

I prefer Single Player too.

Doesn't single player naturally have better drops to compensate

I've also recently made the switch to playing in Single Player mode.

For me, there's just not enough of a meaningful multiplayer component to the game to justify all of the problems caused by latency and server instability. I play necromancer builds 80% of the time and Bend the Shadows feels infinitely better offline.

Johnny Impak wrote:I personally prefer single player.

I don’t have as much time to play as I’d like to. We all have lives, some more busy than others. I came to the following conclusion. I don’t play enough to see all the content within one season. I enjoy sitting down comfortably playing this with a good glass of whisky on Friday nights. So basically I have 3-4 hours a week.

Playing ladder with people would be great, but I reached mid game ubers when people started to quit and wait for next season. Non-ladder was next to empty, barely found any games and people were mostly experimenting builds. It felt like playing alone.

So I went back to singleplayer. No lag, no char resetting. We had PlugY which I solemnly miss. No logging in to anything. This is just the way things are for me. And I love it.

This.

Also the lack of Plugy is the reason i stopped playing for a while. It takes forever to find and transfer the specific item i want from one char to another. Its easy when you have 1-2 characters for each item type (su, set etc) but when you have 5-6....you transfer items most of the time instead of playing the game.

Bardamu wrote:I feel you on the TG part.
I'd honestly reset TG every season and make charms untradable. This way everyone starts off at the same place and nobody can start a monopoly of difficult-to get-charms on day2. I mean, i understand some ubers are some kind of annoying, but what's the point of skipping content and just buying the reward? What's the difference here between cheating and paying?
Also from a gameplay standpoint is a suicide: who's gonna ever complete Ureh if a good +2 charm can be easily bought off the market in some hours?
This way nobody improves, and the good players will always be the richest because of mass charm farming and input/constant demand on the market.
Maybe this could help in prolonging a bit the life of the ladder.

How are these actions preventing you from doing exactly what you wish to do in this game atmosphere? How does a Ureh +2 charm acquisition that someone else makes affect your game in any possible way? it doesn't diminish your accomplishment, nor does it prevent you from getting said charm on your own merit.

I don't understand why TG matters. It can be utilized/ignored completely and it won't change what you wish to do in this game. TG benefit is that it keeps the trading community active. Some people find enjoyment in being able to find a beast item, sell it and essentially trade that for the item they are looking for.

The spirit of Diablo is that you were never intended to find everything you wanted on your own, but to work as a community to swap gear around.

Regarding single player - I don't think there's anything wrong with it, nor do I discount people who choose to play SP only. There's nothing that would fundamentally make your game any less valuable than a multiplayer game, as far as builds or playstyles go. You just don't have the benefit of trading as much, as the online servers - but I have seen some single player trades go up, from time to time.

You do what you find is most valued for your fun-factor, and there's nothing wrong with your choice, as long as you enjoy it!