Open letter to Marco and the community

Discuss Median XL!
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Taem
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Mnbowvice wrote:The mod is actively getting worse though, and the devs shut down discussions on how to improve it...


Geez, that's kind of exaggerating don't you think? They openly respond to criticism and have made changes specifically to address these issues. I mean shoot, I complain probably more than anyone, but I still love this MOD and I really don't think it's getting "worse". I think overall, it gets a little better each and every patch however I'm very vocal about the things I think could be brought back to make this mod perfect in my mind, but my vision is clearly not inline with the prevailing desires on these forums so I am a minority. I still express my opinions, but dude, this is a great MOD with an active community and active devs! What more could you want?
xm1
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Mnbowvice wrote:The mod is actively getting worse though, and the devs shut down discussions on how to improve it...

Oh come on, I think that if you respectfully state what you think should change and why. Then I'm sure the devs will think about. And juding by the amount of crying in parts of the forum, the discussions is absolutely not shut down.

Actually, let me try it right here and now.

I for one think that /players 8 should come back, and if it's too hard to balance the drops and things, then I think that maybe the drops should stay the same.
I enjoy median-xl p8 just for the challenge.
But from past experience, I'm sure the devs will make great choices.

As for balancing, that's something very different and can never be perfect. That's just how things work, no game is perfectly balanced. Not even chess :)
Anyways, stay healthy brothers and sister and keep farming dunc.
boozek
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Mnbowvice wrote:The mod is actively getting worse though, and the devs shut down discussions on how to improve it...


I think there should be some transparency in what is suggested what is in progress and what is in future plans and what is abandoned
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Imperius
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Mnbowvice wrote:The mod is actively getting worse though, and the devs shut down discussions on how to improve it...

I wont say getting worse but every patch is more of the same, just little changes here and there and thats why i dont play anymore right now, while they do make the mod better its not enough for me to come back, i got bored to death after literally thousands of dunc runs to get "nothing".
I know it takes lots of time and efforts to add lots of new stuff but i feel like theres not too much stuff in the last patches, i think that for people like me only waiting will make us come back, when theres enough changes/additions.
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mecheye
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Imperius wrote:I wont say getting worse but every patch is more of the same, just little changes here and there and thats why i dont play anymore right now, while they do make the mod better its not enough for me to come back, i got bored to death after literally thousands of dunc runs to get "nothing".
I know it takes lots of time and efforts to add lots of new stuff but i feel like theres not too much stuff in the last patches, i think that for people like me only waiting will make us come back, when theres enough changes/additions.


TL;DR - There is no good solution to this problem, and any solution that is implemented will likely piss a decent percentage of the community off

Median is in a weird situation. The took a game and did something rather incredible with it, though at the same time it become something completely different.

While there were MF runs in D2, the game was designed to be beatable via Solo Self-Found (SSF, aka Singleplayer), and once you beat Baal on Hell there really wasn't a need to farm the extra gear since there was no more content to beat. You could grind to 99 if you want but that's what ladder multiplayer was for. Blizzard did include some new Multiplayer-only content in the twilight patches long before the reboot such as the Diablo Clones but I still have no idea how any of that worked, and I never bothered to look it up because I didn't need to deal with it to kill Baal.

Median turned what was essentially an SSF game into one that is more reliant on multiplayer to be completed. Trading is encouraged since as your experiences (As well as my own so far) have shown, getting the gear your build needs to continue progression is often hampered by drop rates. Additionally, multiplayer cooperation is encouraged since some builds excel at certain aspects of the game more than others. Certain builds can even reduce the gear requirement for progress by requiring a smaller amount of end-game SSU's. And while this is not inherently a bad thing those builds might be seen as "overpowered" or "cheese" and thus should be nerfed,

Which leads me to another aspect of Median that anyone who posts here on the forums will quickly become aware of - The Median community is most definitely a "Git Gud" community. Anyone complaining about boss difficulty will most certainly invite some forum members to point out how much of a consolation-prize-demanding snowflake they are, and this will absolutely push some people away from the community as well as the MOD because... Its Diablo 2.

But despite how toxic the community can be they aren't wrong about "Gitting Gud"

Just having the correct gear won't guarantee you will defeat a boss. There is a certain level of practice, coordination, and definitely patience that is required for the high-level content. Skill Switching, for example, is a LOT more important in this game that it was for the OG Diablo. Even for the "lazy summoner" Pokemancer build I am currently playing where I literally sit there and do nothing, there is still a number of things that I have to keep track of such as resummoning the meat shields, making sure the Veil King doesn't die, teleporting out of danger, teleporting INTO danger so my summons actually attack the damn boss, etc. This leads to a more active level of play that is a defining mechanic of modern games of a similar genre like D3 and PoE, and Median does a wonderful job emulating this through a game that originally required none of it.
However there is one thing missing from this equation - D3 and PoE allow the use of hotkeys. The player can bind skills to a hotkey and cast it instantly when that hotkey is pressed. While this can (Sort of?) be done for Median it involves 3rd party programs and is widely considered to be "cheating".

All of this being said, what exactly is Median, What is it trying to achieve, and what kind of players is the game trying to attract?

The answer may have changed over time from what it originally was, but from my perspective is it a game where Multiplayer is the main focus of gameplay and development. And while there is a viable SSF scene (As in, the devs haven't completely disabled Single Player yet) those who play SSF will be unable to complete or experience all the game has to offer unless they possess a lot of time, luck, or skill.

So... what can be done to change this? Unfortunately, with how hardcore the community is about preserving the difficulty as well as the lack of separation between Single Player and Multiplayer any changes done to help SSF will undoubtedly piss a lot of people off.
One option that nobody will ever go for is to introduce a method to create SU/SSU's through a multi-step crafting process involving rare components. The process will have to consume roughly just as much time as the devs would expect the player to spend farming the item normally in order to preserve the level of difficult they desire, however the key difference is that obtaining individual pieces will help provide the player a sense of progression and accomplishment that simply killing monsters all day would not.
Mnbowvice
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mecheye wrote:One option that nobody will ever go for is to introduce a method to create SU/SSU's through a multi-step crafting process involving rare components. The process will have to consume roughly just as much time as the devs would expect the player to spend farming the item normally in order to preserve the level of difficult they desire, however the key difference is that obtaining individual pieces will help provide the player a sense of progression and accomplishment that simply killing monsters all day would not.


This would be amazing, minus the extreme time investment. The seasons are 3 months long, I imagine most people don't play more than a few weeks. This is a problem poe has, there's no reason to extend the grind time artificially in a temporary and non competitive environment. Deterministic crafting would be amazing though, getting your full tu setup feels really good then the gearing falls off a cliff.
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iwansquall
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welcome back

i dont know if i can remember you or not, but seeing those people name which you specifically thanks to, kinda make nostalgia came back strong.

only thing i can suggest, is to play current median until maybe scosglen maybe. I feel game have been more streamline / easier than previous median version, at least to me since i have been skipping median sigma for years. I get bored the moment i need to grind in fauzt non stop for gear upgrade though.

current median is no longer for me, since it will be multiplayer / longevity focused thus it will balanced with multiplayer + trading in mind. it even nerfed single player experience .... because people cheat.
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RequiemLux
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xm1 wrote:
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On behalf of the whole team, we appreciate your kind words and are happy you're enjoying the mod ^^

mecheye wrote:However there is one thing missing from this equation - D3 and PoE allow the use of hotkeys. The player can bind skills to a hotkey and cast it instantly when that hotkey is pressed. While this can (Sort of?) be done for Median it involves 3rd party programs and is widely considered to be "cheating".


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Inno86
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RequiemLux wrote:
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Amazing!!!
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mecheye
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RequiemLux wrote: (...)


Look at that timing! Well done!