It doesn’t matter how and what you and hardcore players think here. It is the player retention that Blizzard aiming for and casual players are definitely outnumbered the hardcore players by miles. So if they want their BP or MTX to sell in huge quantities, they definitely won’t be taking the path that will drive the casual players away from D4.
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A single players own wealth is still quite relevant. That is what determines how much they can spend on the various gold sinks.
Honestly matters a lot more than whatever trading economy there is. The latter is destined to be trash regardless.
Yeah, very much what I expect will happen too.
But that is also exactly why it matters.
Every single developer fails at making their economies work, also singleplayer currencies (which gold should be).
If it accomplished that, sure. I think the game should have a drastically higher death penalty/survival bonus in SC, so anything that increases it, would be lovely.
Blizzard is just never going to take enough gold from durability, to the point where players might be unable to repair their gear. Since that is a gamebreaking experience, unless you are making a rogue-like or something. Which unsurprisingly Blizzard is not (as interesting as it would be if they were).
That said, even if the gold sink part of this somehow ended up working, the aspect of having to click on a blacksmith from time to time still seems like unnecessary busywork.
Yes, that could be a much more interesting system.
I dont think it belongs in an A-RPG (finding very rare items that you know will be gone soonish seems counterproductive), but on the other hand, in trading games, permanent item degradation is a requirement.
Indeed.
As with so much else in Blizzads games these days, it feels like paying lip service to an idea, rather something that is part of a coherent game.
Having comsumable arrows without an underlying system is just busywork. That is a good example.
Indeed.
Exactly this. The idea that a bland and inconsequential game will be better at keeping players around is crazy talk.
People keep misusing “casual” and “hardcore” to an absurd degree.
Casual does NOT mean you dont want consequences, hard choices, or challenge, at all.
It simply means you play less time (whatever that means without context). Nothing else.
A casual player might as well quit because they think the death penalty/survival bonus is too meaningless, as the opposite might happen.
This is essentially my point.
It’s logical that a suit of armour takes up more space than a ring or that you have to maintain a sword from constant use.
That and immersion != realism, despite the fact that you keep railing on the realism of it all as though that means anything.
Plus these things aren’t binary anyway. It’s not as though once one thing in the game isn’t 100% realistic the entire game is now has no realism. The same goes for immersion.
I’ve already said what it adds to the experience. That you don’t care about the added immersion doesn’t really matter.
Oh, and Diablo does actually have varying durability between weapons like what you’re talking about with Monster Hunter. It just doesn’t apply a damage gradient based on how much durability is left.
but D2 does things like maces have more durability than swords for the most part.
This is not what this person said, and is in fact a whole new sentence. Congratulations
Completely binary?
Jeez dude get off the computer, cuz it’s completely binary!
BuT iT wAs A fEaTuRe In DiAbLo 2! WhAt Do YoU wAnT, D3?
You like inconveniences? Or as Blizzard terms them, “Meaningful Choice” lol
Yeah. Have a section where you can’t lose if you must, but don’t make that the entire game.
And it’s worth noting, that the mouthbreathers being described, are likely rather indifferent one way or another. I mean I doubt much of anyone would be surprised or dismayed to discover that D4 a game about lilith’s blood sacrifice to the burning hells, is challenging past a certain point, I mea holy crap you don’t say.
The doug episode about quailman and silver skeeter comes to mind lul.
So what room is being read here, and why are they skipping school. See if the vocal ones don’t change their mind once their balls drop! as commonly happens. Nobody wants a game that they’d feel embarrassed to commit to.
i do. but not ones that don’t add gameplay.
Not when it’s being stored in a magical storage medium that is already storing far, far, far more than is logically applicable.
Not when it’s a magical sword in a universe where magic can make items indestructible.
Usually, a game is designed entirely around the concept of being “Realistic” or cultivating “Immersion”
Sticking in one terrible system and justifying it with “Muh Immersion!” is just bad design.
But it doesn’t add to the experience.
It doesn’t bring immersion, because it’s so out of place within the game world. It doesn’t create any kind of interesting gameplay because it’s nothing but pointless tedium.
Except, this varying durability has 0 impact on the game experience unlike with Monster Hunter. A game where a SINGLE monster battle can have you needing to resharpen some dual blades 2-3 times, while your Greatsword might be just fine through the whole mission.
Whereby there’s actual strategic thought in what items you use based off their durability and the mission you intend to embark on (On top of other things, like damage types and ability to leverage special properties of weapons)
Diablo’s varying durability just changes how frequently you might need to go to the blacksmith and repair.
Meaning, the 2 systems are VASTLY different in implementation.
Heck, even Dark Souls durability system was more impactful than Diablo’s specifically because of a handful of weapons where it actually mattered (Things like Crystal weapons had higher than average damage but low durability and couldn’t be repaired as well as enemies/traps that could degrade equipment) but even this was scrapped in Elden Ring because it didn’t add enough to the game experience to be worth including.
Yet, somehow Diablo is “More immersive” because of the need to occasionally go talk to a blacksmith and click repair? Nah, I’m not buying it. Nor am I buying the need to repair the sword I don’t ever swing because my character is conjuring thunderbolts or sheathing the weapon and punching enemies instead…
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Really?! It’s back. WHY?!?!?!
There are plenty of cases where magic storage doesn’t compress all the items to the same size. Magic being in the game doesn’t automatically mean it’s the answer to everything.
Which shouldn’t be on every object since that’s an actual affix in Diablo 1 & 2, suggesting that the enchantment for indestructible is something you have to aim for and not just a buy one get one free that comes with every single enchantment.
Again this is not an all or nothing deal.
Diablo is still a RPG, and RPGs tend to have some stuff for immersion in them.
Again just because you don’t care doesn’t make it not bring something.
I find it very weird you think Dark Souls durability has more impact because it has a feature that Diablo 2 also had.
To be honest it’s sounding a whole lot like you’d be okay with if it the game just made you click that button more often, and made you do it in the middle of a boss fight, because then it’s “impactful”.
So obviously doubling down on the mechanic is the way here.
I love breaks from the action. Like looking at the stats of “EvEry sInGlE iTeM On THe fLoOr”, sorting my inventory, gathering materials in monster hunter which is being streamlined out of the franchise, or just sitting in front of a skill tree/blacksmith and figuring out where my build is going. There are a lot of ways to break from the action and let people do actual stuff that is fun and requires a brain before jumping back into the battlefield. In the best case directly influencing the battlefield so you are excited to do it. But not “oh, i died, time to click the button again at location XY”
Wild Hearts is doing a great job at it. It has a whole cooking minigame with different, preparation technics and ingredients that gives you buffs for the hunts.
I like that you can gather materials in D4 even if most people don’t because it serves a purpose. It has gameplay. Clicking the button at the blacksmith every time you go to town, doesn’t
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Yep.