TCP/IP support should be reimplemented in D2R, it allows many options and benefits to players without any big foreseeable downsides.
It would allow many more options to players, such as:
(SP = Single Player, MP = Multiplayer)
Direct connections are often less laggy than playing MP through bnet servers
Having access to the /players command while playing with friends, so you can run content on /players 8 without actually needing 8 players.
Lots of flexibility (less reliance on bnet servers so you can play while the servers are acting up, being able to switch between SP and MP with the same characters).
Making modded multiplayer a possibility (Note: I’m not asking/advocating for private servers, that’s an entirely different discussion), it’d be fun to play some of the skill/monster/item overhaul mods with some buddies.
Smaller/more niche benefits like allowing true LAN parties and self-rushing SP characters.
The potential downsides are the “security risks” and perhaps attracting more piracy, but I think adding TCP/IP back would actually generate more sales that would outweigh the potential loss from pirates, a lot of people didn’t buy D2R just because of the removal of TCP alone. I don’t think it would be a massive undertaking of work either, considering TCP was actually present in the TA (and maybe the beta but I don’t remember), just disabled. It seems like it would be pretty easy to reimplement.
I invite you to share your thoughts and feedback please, I hope this thread can gain some traction and TCP doesn’t just end up swept under the rug and forgotten.
I’ve been wanting this eversince they announced they would remove it.
I’m the only one amongst 5 interested ppl in my sphere that has bought the game.
I think it’s too late to convince 2 of them… but the other 2 would gladly fork 60$ if TCP/IP was back.
I say that the security risks are not just piracy. I say there is more to it than that. Before removing it in the technical alpha you had players that unlocked everything. Then it gets removed, that is the reason. Giving players a way to do things that Blizz doesn’t want them to do with D2R online. Sure offline doesn’t matter but not online.
Indeed it was people unlocking the TA that led to the removal, but why should other people wanting TCP be punished for the doing of a few?
“Giving players a way to do things that Blizz doesn’t want them to do with D2R online”, could you elaborate? Are you talking about bot developers using TCP to try and experiment/refine their bots?
That’s gonna (already did) happen regardless of TCP, they just do it on bnet. Sure it’s harder since they risk their account getting banned but they’ll do it anyways, it’s too profitable not to.
Whether people like it or not, the reality is bnet on D2R will eventually be overrun by bots/maphack/cheats just as original D2 bnet was, it’d at least be nice to have the alternative option of TCP to play legitimately with friends along with the benefits I listed in the original post.
Since the modding too Open 4 that is used for GTA 5 among other games has been used to make malicious mods that have affected the online game. Even though the tool should’ve been able to block the use of mods online as that is what it is designed to do. That means that there are a lot of things that people could be capable of if they have TCP/IP back again. Whatever security that the removal brings is better than giving it back that leads to security risks.
That is what happens when you have players that don’t play fair and by the rules. It hurts the honest ones. But we need to grin and bare it because it is better to have security than a lack of security with the ways things would be with both back again.
To repeat I don’t know how bad it would be if both were replaced. But I do know that I would agree to something that would be similar to TCP/IP but more secure than they are. Kind of like saying TCP/IP 2.0.
That means that there are a lot of things that people could be capable of if they have TCP/IP back again. Whatever security that the removal brings is better than giving it back that leads to security risks.
I don’t know, TCP was there for all 21 years of original D2’s existence and AFAIK there have never been any security concerns in regards to TCP somehow interacting with online battlenet, the only similar case I can think of is when open bnet characters could import items to closed bnet characters for a brief time during 1.09 (20 years ago), but that was patched and there haven’t been any similar scenarios since, and open bnet isn’t present in D2R (which I don’t mind that it’s gone).
I’m not a Blizz dev though, so there’s probably a lot to it that we don’t understand. I just wish they gave a better explanation/reason than “security reasons”, cause that’s just a hand-wave.
That said, I wouldn’t mind a replacement system to TCP, I’d be fine with a TCP 2.0 as long as it could fulfill the duties of the original TCP, mainly being able to MP with SP characters and allowing the possibility of modded MP.
So a game that had it for more than 2 decades with no reportable events somehow miraculously on remake is now uncontrollable on the servers? I call bs.
The simple fact is they promised us MORE modding capabilities, and effectively made them null and void.
Some of us played modded versions even longer than vanilla LoD.
Amazing things can be done with the engine, and now we are relagated to going back to 1.10 (the only patch that any mod of note has ever used, or will ever use).
It’s just more Blizzard promises that are total bs. I lost count of things they have said they will do in their titles by now.
As far as I know project diablo 2 and median XL use the most up to date version of Diablo 2. Plus check my reply above yours in this post and you will see there are mods for D2R.
The current 20 character limit on battlenet makes the game unplayable. If I could play with other people using single player characters, that you can have an unlimited amount of, I’d be able to play again.
I think the point flew high HIGH above your head. Dark was speaking about being able to play those created and future mods in a multiplayer setting with others, which you can’t without some sort of LAN mode in Single Player.
The only problem with mods right now, are the core bug issues (such as vanishing items/corrupted saves, and then having the update the game may break mods that don’t get regularly updated with game as it’s updated.
I’m aware, it’s as Tanis said that you missed my point. There is absolutely no modded MP in D2R, which is sad considering how much mods extended the lifespan and replayability of original D2. Modding is already further restricted in D2R compared to the original, but removing TCP shoveled even more dirt into modder’s faces.
Probably not, but I’d rather try to bring some attention to it for even the slightest chance of having it reimplemented rather than having TCP get swept under the rug and forgotten.
Definitely, there’s a lot of people that would buy D2R if TCP were reimplemented and it would also help invigorate the modding scene as a lot of people were looking forward to making MP mods to share.
The current version of it I would say yes. But if there is an updated version where it is more secure than the current version then it might be okay to bring it back.
