An idea I’ve been mulling over with the introduction of War Plans is what I call the Season of Seasons. I think War Plans offers a great area that can be expanded as the game continues to grow and develop. Given that idea and how we’ve seen small hints of previous seasons returning as nodes on these activity trees, I believe it might be a good time to see more integrations of past seasons along with the incorporation and update of existing content to provide an extended experience, using previously successful seasons to create a mega season.
First, I want to review previous seasons exclusive content to setup my thesis on implementation (note: the items listed here are where I participated in a season; so far I’ve skipped three whole seasons).
- Season 2 – Vampire Seasons. Vampire Zones that provided special mobs, blood altars and the introduction of a special boss. Rewards included special Vampiric Powers, many of which were incorporated into Season 3 through legendary Aspects. Vampiric Powers were applied by using three types of pacts while the Vampiric Powers themselves could be upgraded by the Pact currency. A total of five Powers could be applied.
- Season 3 – Season of the Construct. Arcane Tremors were special zones containing specialized beast that rewarded Shattered Stones and Pearls of Warding. Vaults provided a special dungeon type of challenge with two difficult bosses that randomly appeared (including the Butcher) while traps thwarted players. An end room containing various dangers upon completion would lead to a massive treasure room. Main seasonal reward was a special companion/pet that had its own upgrade system. In addition, a very special end game dungeon provided a high level boss that could drop special unique Governing and Tuning Stones for your Construct pet.
- Season 6 – Hatred Rising. The biggest seasonal aspect here was introducing the Realmwalker. Upon killing the Realmwalker a portal to dungeon called the Seething Realm would open. Completing the Seething Realm provided a currency called Seething Opals that bolstered rewards (most of the season was geared towards the Vessel of Hatred expansion, which made the season specific content lighter)
- Season 7 – Season of Witchcraft. To me Season 7 probably was the largest pure season based of content released. Headhunt zones were dotted the open world with a large pool of new Whisper quests. The seasonal powers were five equip-able Witchcraft Powers that could be upgraded from Restless Rot found by killing Headrotten. In addition, Occult Gems can be crafted that contain resistance and armor in addition to more powers. These gems are meant to further work with the Witchcraft powers. Lastly, a special dungeon called a Rootholds that have Headrotten bosses that provide materials for the Occult Gems.
- Season 8 – Season of Belial’s Return – Mostly was a rework for end game bosses as well as the introduction of Belial. The season borrowed power were acquired after players killed major bosses (including world bosses). This was another season I skipped.
- Season 9 – Sins of the Horadrim – Mostly, Nightmare Dungeons were revamped with the introduction of Escalating Nightmare Dungeons. Borrowed powers were Horadric Spells that could be leveled up and fell into three categories. Along with these were three new gems called Horadric Gems that were similar to Occult Gems.
- Season 10 – Season of Infernal Chaos – The biggest updates were to Infernal Hordes with the introduction of the new Bartuc boss as well as the idea of Chaos Waves. Chaos Waves were also introduced in Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons. Currently, Chaos Waves continue to exist in Infernal Hordes and Helltides (via a node on the activity tree). They’re only missing from Nightmare Dungeons. The chief reward here was the introduction of Chaos Armor, which was maxed out a powerful version of a unique piece of gear but can be found on nontraditional slots. Also, Chaos Perks were given some of which ended up getting converted in direct skill upgrades.
- Season 11 – Season of Divine Intervention – Mostly, monsters received a giant update, especially rares and elites by adding a larger pool of affixes. Also, we saw the return of the revamped Capstone Dungeons as part of the new Season Rank system, which replaced the older Season Journey. Main power change Sanctification.
- Season 12 – Season of Slaughter – Short season that introduced the Killstreak system from Diablo 3. Bloodied Items and a few new Uniques where the Uniques are now a permanent part of the game. Also, there was a novelty of becoming the Butcher temporarily. I believe there was a special dungeon too.
Those mostly cover the major seasons. I skipped out on S1, S4 and S5. S1 was skipped because I think most people generally agreed it was the lowest point in Diablo 4’s history. S4/5 were more core system revamps while the season specific concept of Mind Cages were provided. If I’m not mistaken, Mind Cages show up as part of a node on the Helltide activity tree (I have yet to encounter one of these). With these seasons provided, I think we can attempt to classify the type of content they might belong to within the War Plan activity tree.
Dungeons – S3 (Vaults), S6 (Seething Realms), S7 (Rootholds), S12 (don’t know the specific name)
Whisper Activities – S2, S3, S6, S7
Bosses – S3 (special dungeon boss with the unique construct stones), S8
Helltides, the Pit and Undercity Runs are excluded for obvious reasons. But the other pieces of content mostly point to areas that could receive special points on the activity trees these may fall under. I have to double check but Rootholds might still exist in under Whispers but I’m not entirely sure. In general, Whisper Activities are the main candidates where we might be able to reintegrate some of this content. Alternatively, I want to suggest a new tree called the Seasonal Tree.
The Seasonal Tree Concept/Proposal
The Seasonal Tree would take offer a few key paths that allow the player to choose past season content that not only re-enables that type of content but the powers as well. Players can choose say three types of paths with some modifiers for those past seasons. But only three types of seasons can be selected. For instance, a player can mix and match Season 7 with Season 3 and Season 6, giving the player Realmwalkers, Rootholds/Headrots and Vaults along with Witchcraft Powers, the Construct and Seething Opals. A season like 8 might augment boss powers further to provide the boss borrowed powers (either that or make it a node on the Boss tree). Seasons with extra items like S7 and S9 might have some sort of penalty to offset the power gains. Lighter seasons like S6 might be considered minor nodes. Since we have a massive power increase from the new Torments, the allowance of previous borrowed powers are things that I don’t see will tip the balance too badly in any direction. Also, players can respec their trees, level.up other powers and flesh out their trees in experimenting with whatever season fits their build better. Alternatively, some of these past seasons might fit better on other trees like Helltides or Boss trees (as in the case of S8).
But consider this idea. Imagine S10 where Sorcerers received Mana Shield as a perk. Taking something like that would help boost up lower performing builds like Hydra. The penalty in that situation mostly is not having as much content to work with. However, a very intense power and content heavy season like 7 might have fewer nodes due to the number of powers made available. And by allowing the players to respec these trees, they can experience any past season to determine which powers best suit their style and build, which really creates a high ceiling in terms of build and combination potential as well as allowing players to alternate their game play. For instance, imagine a Companion Druid build that chooses the S3 Construct to get another bonus to their summons damage from the Shepherd aspect. Or Spiritborn might use S10’s Chaos Armor to diversify how they gear.
For me at least, having a concept like the Seasonal Tree would be really exciting and prolong my game play in being able to re-experience all old content but at the same time choosing the path in mixing and matching powers and content with the latest stuff. Beyond the borrowed power interface changes, the updates needed for older values that no longer align as neatly with the latest changes to the core game and how these abilities will play alongside the newer systems, the idea of a more complex, customizable seasonal system would be fun and something that I think most players will find engaging.
Lastly, I would have the Seasonal Tree be connected with its own version of Whispers and utilize mostly the open world outside of Helltides to allow players other areas to explore and handle Whisper related content. That should help bring back to life non-Helltide zones and spread the players into more areas.
Adding Activities to War Plans
I touched briefly on my ideas for adding activities to War Plans. I think I want to formalize more activities beyond the concept of a seasonal tree activity.
- Legion Events – The changes I think that are necessary to incorporate Legion Events into War Plan activities are providing players with a way to activate them rather than waiting for the countdown timer. Like the Blood Maiden, I think there needs to be a special currency to invoke a Legion. Then the Legion Event would have its own skill tree and will utilize the player’s tree who invokes the event. I think these events should be considered a first class type of activity and enhanced through its own activity tree. Imagine upgrading these Legion events with environmental effects, portal with bosses and more elites and goblin popping up. They could be very intense for a multiplayer type of activity.
- World Boss Events – Another obvious choice that deserves having its own activity tree. As I mentioned, World Bosses need a major change using the Azmodan modal from S11 where players can summon each World Boss from an altar. In addition, the season perks (as they altered the name) allowed players to modify the content such as adding falling meteorites during world boss fights. By introducing an activity tree for World Bosses, we can continue to use the Season Perk idea from S11 and extend it.
- Strongholds – I keep harping on the revamping of Strongholds. I honestly have no idea what the original intent for Strongholds was supposed to be. Right now, Strongholds are an impediment for accessing dungeons, waypoints and Legion events. Once you complete them on a character, these spots open up but must be repeated on new characters for a season. Most people at this stage want Strongholds to be account wide for completion, at least during a season. For myself, the real issues for Strongholds is that the content itself doesn’t feel attached to anything and occasional has bugs that prevent people from completing a Stronghold (such as activated encounters that don’t get tripped properly to start the next action). Originally, one of the points of Strongholds was to provide slightly more challenging content by increasing the difficulty level in having a slightly higher monster level than the player’s actual level. That system has been deprecated by all the changes in various system to the point where Strongholds are more of an annoyance than anything useful beyond early easy guaranteed levels. Even Tempering recipes hardly drop. Worse yet the expansion added new Strongholds. The encounters are okay-ish, but seem more annoying to do. At some point though, the developers will need to update the content to be more relevant rather than an open world, albeit instanced mini dungeon. I think some of the problems can be mitigated by removing the locked content (like portals and Dungeon access) but turn these spots into rare activities associated to a Whisper. Along with that, I would make Strongholds more flavorful by having their own activity tree to enhance the encounters. In that manner, the bare minimum of keeping Strongholds somewhat relevant can be done without changing the existing content too much.
- Side Quests, Gathering and Item Hunts – I really wish they hadn’t added anymore blue quests in the expansion but they did. The problem I have with them in general is that they reset each season but have almost no incentive to do. The only way dedicated blue quest could be modified is through connecting them once again to a region’s reputation and specialized vendors to provide useful rewards. That was my original idea. The other method would be to generate a ton of daily quests with the added hook of having an activity tree to change the style of quests. I know Legion for WoW had a reasonably robust daily quest system so that could be an area that the developers could look to for inspiration in making daily quests a thing. Also, I would like to update the idea of mining and herbs where certain vendors might request players travel around the open world to farm nodes. I do wish that the Alchemist will some day become useful again but not in the way they were being used with buffs that needed to get reloaded on a timer. Lastly, I would love to see specific item hunt type of quests that provide a new reward system in trading certain items for random upgrades. So rather than shredding all your inventory after an activity, you might be forced to use your Loot Filter to ensure that certain items are picked up and retained for this style of a quest. I like this idea as a new form of content since it doesn’t involve a stupid timer and still provides some sort of reward system that alters how one treats their inventory.
Final Thoughts
I’m really pushing for the idea of recycling more older seasons by moving them into their own activity trees where a player has the ability to activate a few seasons at a time while receiving their benefits. I think that mechanism would be a huge win in increasing the available content and giving the players some agency in how they want to use it to build out their characters and freshen up their activities. Also, I really hope at minimal world bosses and legion events become integrated into the War Plans activities by removing them as timed events, giving them special trees and having them activated by special currencies. Then Strongholds should get a pass at some point. In this case, I offered one easier implementation that I think will satisfy players without a complete overhaul for the existing Strongholds but freshening them up enough to make them worth doing by including them in an activity tree and converting their accomplishment into a periodic Whisper. Lastly, to finish off the old content examination, I want to have another look at the idea of quests (non-campaign), farming nodes and a new activity type I call item hunts (treasure hunts?) to further broaden the various types of content a player can participate in to keep their interest up while giving solid reasons in updating.
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