Game needs QoL improvements 😡

General Discussion
41

I do agree on the character limit. I think that would alleviate a lot of the concerns expressed in this thread.

Though I may remind you all that D2 had a 8 character limit. This too lead to people owning multiple copies of d2. I personally probably have four sets of cd keys from back in the day. (Although this was really due to the cd key label fading on the cd case more than anything)

However this doesn’t account for the fact that back then you could just sit there and spam random characters into the cd key line and eventually you’d have the game.

The problem is that these small QoL updates seem to soften people’s memories of how it used to be. They gave you what we asked for. You don’t need to make mule accounts anymore. The way it is now would have blown our minds 20 years ago. Now that it’s that way and people are used to it they complain for more. If the devs bow to this ideal where does it stop? This situation doesn’t concern itself with the “I wants” and “I wishes” it’s to make a 20 year old game play in a more modern setting. That said if they go too far off from the mark then people are gonna be mad.

I honestly think that the mule accounts and xfering items was part of the game. Remember when you had no friends online and needed to xfer? You found a random public game and dropped it somewhere on the ground and hoped it wasn’t discovered. In my opinion that too was part of the original charm of d2. It was these kinds of things that present challenges that were and still are unique to diablo 2

Altogether I would say screw the QoL crap. You could give me a version of the game from 10 years ago, take the graphical upgrades away and all I care about still is more content. I would gladly pay for an expansion to this 20 year old game if it gave me more and new places to explore and ultimately learn to exploit for gains.

42

The thing that bothers me the most about the character limit cap is that we know character save files are roughly 8kb for single player. Granted the size in a DB is more since databases cost a lot more than this for faster access etc. BUT giving the devs credit for upping the 8 character limit to 20 slots (20 years later) isn’t a fair comparison that accounts for the drastic reduction in cost of storage.

An Amazon S3 bucket costs $0.023 per GB of storage. I’m not saying this is the ideal solution, but it is totally possible to store backup data or off season characters in slower S3 storage. I’m not going to bother to math out what 8kb into $0.023 per GB works out to, but hopefully we can all agree it’s basically ZERO DOLLARS.

I admit fully it is dev time, and it is not an instant transfer between S3 and whatever DB implementation they are using, but something like a backup store of characters could work. I’m just a random guy on the internet though (with 20+ years of dev experience). I’m not a cutting edge team of developers with millions of dollars backing them or anything… I’ll stop there.

1 Like
43

I don’t think terror zones will bring me back to season 2. If anything they gave me a way to hit 99 on my non ladder toons.

Without new runewords that are comparable in end game or without any real QoL, and no addition to character slots, season 2 will release super stale.

I’d legit delete my two mules and make a new ladder character if I could stack items or have a currency tab. Such a no brainer.

44

Arguing against game improvement because of how things were in the past doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I get that people like what they like and that will be different for everyone. So instead it makes more sense to argue for QoL improvements to be optional.

Additionally, I agree with the idea of community input driving improvements rather than specific community figures.

I like the idea of terror zones but I don’t like how they operate at this point in time. I feel like terror zones should be portal zones that can be opened either by a shrine, gathering and cubing items or by slaying a specific super unique.

I think the a5 portals should have done this. They should have been massive zones with an incredible amount of monsters that only a party of 4 or more could handle. The infrastructure is already there for this, they just never executed. So while I like the terror zones, I dont understand why they don’t just improve zones that already exist.

As for any further QoL improvements, add whatever you want just make them or most of them OPTIONAL. This will please the most people as everyone seems to have a different idea about how the game should work, myself included.

I dont like stacking gems and runes, that seems cheesy to me so maybe add gem bags and rune boxes.

Not 100% certain about a currency tab. But being able to buy gold bars to store more currency would be nice.

The biggest improvement id like to see though is a ui update or tweak. I used to be able to press the s button and click between skills on the fly in the original. While you can still do that in d2r, Ive noticed that it dosn’t always work as I have to click several times to select a skill in many instances. I know about hot keys buy after years of doing it the way I described its more comfortable and im pretty proficient at it.

Again, personal preference. So the take away from my banter is dont make or not make improvements based on the past or some person who has a yt show. Make quality improvements the COMMUNITY as a whole is asking for. But make them optional if possible so people have the choice whether to remain nostalgic or go to their niche when configuring their experience.

Ultimately, I think the games versatility is in its items. The skills currently are finite. That leaves gear as the saving grace for extending gameplay and keeping things interesting. More emphasis should be placed on season GEAR in general not JUST season runewords. The more different gear the more different builds. The more different builds the more replayability and reason for people to get back into season play. And I dunno maybe offer a godly item for reaching 99 first.

45

No: it did not lead to people “owning multiple copies.”

With a single purchased CD-key there was an unlimited number of Bnet accounts that could be created, and thus infinite characters to use for mules.

People only bought more copies of the game after being banned for duping SoJs or later for running bots. Hence, the one large “rust storm” (deleting dupes) or ban wave per year as opposed to constant bans. Blizzard just wanted the botters to buy another copy :moneybag: :moneybag: :moneybag:, not necessarily to stop cheating :man_facepalming:.

47

Correct, but in your stash - not in your inventory. There is a big difference :slight_smile:

48

I say everyone who wants to keep complaining go play another game. They wont listen, have never listened and complaining will do nothing about it. You want them to listen? Do so by boycotting the game and force the issue. As long as you keep logging in everyday it will stay the same. Money talks. And thats it. If the player base gets low than changes have to be made to attract more players. Blizzard doesnt care about games with no subscription. It took how many years to make d3 better ? I know i quit long before it happened. Words mean nothing if there isn’t money involved.

49

:face_holding_back_tears:

50

This is a no brainer.

51

I think you hit the nail on the head. I was sadden with the news about TZ, as that is not what I was hoping the big news was.

I personally don’t care about racing to level 99, never have and want to move away from anything that has to do with old D2 LOD and what its stood for. That game is old and preserved.

The way I see it is, I would rather farm for items that I can trade for liquid currency and then use those funds to buy the items I want. I simply don’t have the time or the patience to level to level 99. In fact, for some of us, reaching level 99 has a negative connotation to it. Is that person botting, are they abusing a system, there are no tangible rewards etc.

Even level 85 for me is not beneficial. I just get to level 75 to equip my Torch and anni and start farming my optimized routes. Trade my valuables early in the season and buy them back on the cheap later on.

I would have preferred a QOL change to my gaming experience via optional loot filter UI and supporting one of this game’s current end game activities (crafting) by allowing us to stack materials for long session gambling.

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52

Thank you sir Shawmeck! :saluting_face:

I was as well when I first read the PTR. I don’t know what it was about it, but it seemed very underwhelming. Though after experiencing them in the PTR, I really enjoy the atmosphere they add to the game (with the sound and screen shake). Now when I log into regular D2R, it feels like something is missing. I’m looking forward to reading the next update to TZ. If they can truly make it a unique experience, I think we can all adapt and enjoy them.

Agreed, it’s possible the average D2 player wants nothing to do with the 99 race. That’s why I suggested they add some channel rewards, add some real incentives. On the pre-launch thread I even suggested that they could give Natalya’s cape to top Assassin players.

If they just add TZ and say “now race!”, there’s a very good chance no ones going to bother with it still and just use the mode for MFing and that’s that.

I think they should bring a few more people on the team and just do this for 2.5. They would see the biggest return in players for a ladder season.

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53

Again, it’s not any more an illusion than anything else in the game whatsoever. It’s only an illusion to the extent the game itself is an illusion.

The fact that you could trade items to yourself doesn’t make it an illusion. that was a circumvention of a mechanic, and it still involves decision making as you have to decide whether it’s enough worth keeping to go through the motion of moving it on to another character (or trading it away).’

the choices became more clear on holding onto items of value for accumulation of wealth as opposed to simply being gameplay upgrades.

The accumulation of wealth is limited by the 20 character limit. And even with 20 characters you can’t keep every single unique and set item.

However, I also believe that many people misconstrue what the original core values were designed to be

I don’t feel that’s the case here. It was a design decision back when the game was made. It’s not like it was just a technical limitation. Even back in 2000 they could have made the character data far larger to store way more stuff. It is very obviously a design decision to make making decisions about loot part of the gameplay. If it wasn’t, they would have expanded space far more than they did for Resurrected.

54

Technically QoL are changes to something different. Auto gold pickup? Change. Extra storage? That’s a change different from the original game. Extra characters? Change.

Archers would be a simple swap of models, skill slot at level 12 and then maybe a few behavioral changes. Maybe not simple, but close enough.

55

Agree. I quit the game (the day 2.4 dropped) and if not for 2.5 news spreading I’d still be gone from these forums too.

Money does talk, and it is weird in today’s microtransaction world that new account sales are the entire monetization scheme for this game. D3 and D2 have lasted for years, but with pretty limited support from Blizzard.

Unless it’s a long con to add microtransactions for character slots or tabs (or god knows what) D2R’s maybe best hope for making long term money is the mythical Act 6 expansion (that nobody has ever promised). Money equals team/dev support. I don’t believe Blizzard wants another 20 year “success” story. I’ve come to believe Blizzard is using D2R as fodder to get more people to pickup Diablo 4.

However, forcing the most active D2R players to either rebuy a second copy of the game (or delete characters) to play during season 1, and then releasing one of the most egregious monetization models in recent memory with Diablo Immortal is not an obvious marketing win for D4. Maybe I’m too old or dumb to understand.

Thanks Blizzard. You made me old and dumb.

56

It doesn’t feel like new content, nothing new is added… Not even enjoyable i wonder how it could take months to finish…

Really agree that they should start to be transparent, and actually take input… It kinda feels like, it is some last minute smash something together(like it has felt since release date) to make it look like we done something, then throw it in for a test 2minutes before it has to be released…
What did all the money from the sold copies go to?

2 Likes
57

What were you expecting? A new act or character?

But to the OP I don’t really see those QoL changes as a priority.

58

100% we need QOL, buff underused and crappy skills, bring in new items and buff items to switch up builds and make more builds viable. If all we get is this crappy terror zone I wont be coming back to this ladder reset. There is so much code out there already from mod communities they could implement very easily with currency tabs, loot filters, item buffs. After months of work they came out with Terror zones, instead of glorious end game mapping.

The team is being ran by interns, or they literally have no leadership, no deadlines or accountability.

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59

It’s not new content. They clearly said it’s alternative way to farm for lvl 99.

D2R is not priority for them. Probably just a couple of people on it left. It still got a lot more work than remasters of Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 1.
People shouldn’t expect a full expansion. Diablo 4 and Immortal are your new content.

60

A couple of people is what PD2 has and look how much content it gets lol

61

Maybe they will release QOL in next patch or mid season patch. Currency tabs or thing like this don’t need to be tested in a PTR.?.?.