A former developer and lead designer of Diablo 3 is having a lot of fun with Anthem. That’s why he is now giving tips and advice to solve some of the problems. The reaction from fans and Bioware itself is positive.
Who is he? The developer’s name is Travis Day and he was one of the lead developers and designers on Diablo 3. However, he no longer works for Blizzard.
Day has a lot of experience with loot and reward systems, difficulty levels, and the right balance of stats. Accordingly, his tips are extensive, which he published in the Anthem subreddit.
What he advises the developers of Bioware
“Dead” inscriptions need to go: The problem with the inscriptions, or equipment properties, has been known for some time and is also a topic in the community.
According to Day, the problem is not that some are rather suboptimal. Rather, it is the affixes that make no sense at all and are completely useless.
Therefore, Travis suggests limiting the possible number of affixes depending on the item to a specific selection that still fits the gear piece.
Strongholds need to be adjusted: Day also criticizes the three strongholds available in the endgame.
Currently, their differences in terms of duration and difficulty are too great, yet the reward is always the same.
His suggestion: either adjust the difficulty or increase the reward for the tougher strongholds like the Heart of Rage.
Risk of fatigue: The aforementioned problem inevitably leads to players always taking “the path of least resistance” and repeatedly running the shortest stronghold.
Sooner or later, players will lose motivation to play strongholds altogether.
Players should be able to farm specifically: What is already possible in parts, Day wishes to have better implemented.
Already, players can earn abilities in strongholds and components through legendary contracts. However, these are only available once per day, per faction.
Day suggests expanding this and also introducing a method for farming weapons. Ideally, there should be a reliable method for each type of gear.
Difficulty levels need fine-tuning: For Day, the differences (especially at the Master Ranks) are too great. As an example, he cites the jump from Master 1 to 2.
A good challenge is important, but the difference between “This is easy” and “this is hard and not worth the time and energy” means players prefer to farm on lower difficulty levels. One solution would be the introduction of further intermediate levels.
Day himself claims to have a lot of fun with Anthem and enjoys the game. That’s why he wants to help solve the problems with this feedback and his experience.
He hopes that “his tips are helpful and can help make Anthem a stronger game over time.”
The response to his tips has been quite significant. The community is reacting extremely positively to his post, which now has over 7000 upvotes.
The community and Bioware are pleased with the suggestions
This is how the community reacts to Day’s tips: Day is no stranger in the industry and among Diablo fans. For many Diablo 3 players, he is one of the developers who has kept the game alive.
Day is largely responsible for many changes that have greatly improved Diablo 3 for numerous fans. Some of these go in a similar direction to what he now proposes for Anthem. They include:
- rare items that could only have the main stat of the respective played class
- affixes were divided into primary and secondary
- a new feature that binds legendary items only to the account and not to the respective character
In addition, Day is also responsible for the Loot 2.0 system, which has a good reputation in the community.
That’s why many fans believe that Bioware should take these tips very seriously, like Tylorw09: “Wait, so this guy designed Loot 2.0 for Diablo 3? If so, I really hope that Bioware looks into this.”
Others go even further and demand his hiring to improve Anthem.
Bioware also responds: Camden Hardy, Development Manager of Anthem, has also responded to Travis Day’s post:
Hey Travis, thank you for taking the time to write this feedback. I really appreciate this unique insight. I have already forwarded it – just in case others on the team haven’t seen it yet. I love your work, I’m a big fan.
Camden Hardy, Reddit.com
Thus, Day seems to have achieved his goal, and his feedback has reached the developer team.
What will be implemented from this and how long it will take is currently unknown. However, some of these problems have already been noted by Bioware and are frequently criticized by fans.
Therefore, the chances could be good that at least part of this will be addressed.
The immediate plans of Bioware for March will be revealed in a roadmap:
