Let me begin by thanking the developers for their time and efforts. While this may come across as negative to some extent. The feedback is intended to help with the further development of the title and others in the works.
Note this is PC oriented feedback
-
Art direction.
I found that much of the artwork while intended originally for phone or tablet looks extremely well on PC.
The primary problem was a lack of clear direction a blend of cutsie and dark that I believe the artwork would have had greater impact with a singular design aspect along one of these lines. -
Online facet of game play
First off two many objective based facets of the game are impeded by a lack of other players to allow you to proceed. An example would be the Forgotten tower on Hell II. I tried for half a day to form a party of 4 players to enter it before the requirement was met.
Sadly I did not have access to the system logs of the game so I can not detail why but numerous disconnects. I would say that in the average 2-3 hour game play I would get at least 4 -5 disconnects. Having said this the game was EXCELLENT about getting you right back to were you were. Only once did I lose any progression and it was a mere 2-3 seconds to return to were I had been.
Teleportation can be difficult many times because even though you have cleared a zone the constant re-spawning of mobs can cause it to be problematic
On 2 occasion when attacked while teleporting the player character disappeared from screen. I was able to attack and defeat the mobs even though no visible character and once teleportation was complete the player returned in town.
3.Lack of clear direction
Clans warbands parties (shadows/immortals)
Platinum gold orbs etc…
Runes materials charms
Blizzard has forgotten that the VAST majority of their player base is not the VOCAL minority that is the hard core players.
what made it a commercial success was you could hop right in the game without a tutorial manual or anything else and play with a mere mouse.
I fear that in attempting to lure path of exile players to the game (they enjoy the complexity) you will lose your casual player base.
To this day playing diablo 3 the VAST majority of players are sub para 2k after multiple seasons.
-
The ability to transition upgrades and attributes to different items Is Very welcome from a player base perspective. I would simply argue that few seem to be game changers when using essence transfer. More power balance is required on items so that multiple build varieties are encouraged. (no arpg developer has ever heard that last comment I know
). -
The ability to overhaul your build and player in a far easier way needs to be addressed. In diablo 3 you are but clicks away from re-assigning your paragons or skills) and while yes you can do this with skills paragons not so much.
when you dont have 20 hours a day to play (remember most of your base is casual) grinding to the point where every conceivable paragon is enable seems like your feet are in cement. This is also where Diablo III shined as far as player progression allowing you to have a joint stash amongst your characters and joint paragons. Once again this current system only favors hard core dedicated players. -
engine performance and stability.
The game engine while looking quite nice launches exceptionally fast. VERY NICE WORK. Performance I can recall only the briefest of stutters once. Stability though needs much attention for pc. Also the UI gets stuck in different window constantly. The player can get stuck in animation loops as well. One that has plagued me as a dh I will stop attacking momentarily and the player stops responding entirely until strafe is once again available. I can not utilize any other skills. Thirty percent of the time this happens I cannot even move. The other annoying thing that happens is dialogs can occur while you are moving and until they are finished you are STUCK moving you cannot stop. The other factor is mobs attacking while a dialog is occurring. When this happens you are forced to contend with them and start over. While not the end of the world on longer dialogues this can cause numerous retries until you succeed. That is if you skip actually reading or listening to them.
7,Market
When you create a game that favors hard core players or ones with deep pockets or both. You then make the rest of your player base feel like they are competing with their hands tied a most unsatisfactory sensation. Again remember you main base is the casual player. For all the hardcore players they will still only purchase one copy of the game.
While I realize the market is an attempt to keep a constant revenue stream, a decision must be made. Will you eliminate competitive facets since a market negates true competition. Or limit the market to non game changing mechanics like path of exile. (stash tabs and cosmetics only)
This also applies to the player market.
I have played Diablo III since its beginning and I saw an interesting phenomena occur when you got rid of the market. From a game where drops were almost NEVER shared to a game where its not uncommon for players who have never played together before to leave drops for new players. Sometimes ALL their drops.
****** this is off topic in the sense that it is directed toward both Diablo IV and Immortal Development******
I think you need to eliminate and and ALL rewards that pit player VS player. In to many titles including some of your own you see exploitation by hard core players on the new players occurring. Even amongst friends this can lead to bad feelings if it is abused.
Allow PVP for fun only NOT for any progression or rewards this will lead to a DARKER community in the end where folk are not as civil to one another.
- Player progression
I hate to say it but unless you play 24/7 most players are going to feel progression in Immortal is to slow. Especially if your targeting a phone base. Phone game play while quite large tends to be in shorter bursts then pc player.
Because of this and many of the facets previously commented on about alienating casual players I foresee a stellar launch of your title that wanes and flickers out to a dim smolder after a little over a year.
LONG TIME blizzard fan I have more then a few of your titles and play almost 2 hours every night at the least
This is not meant to be harsh or overly critical is because I am a fan that I feel I needed to be honest with you to help you maintain your stellar lineup and HIGH volume of sales
edited I will probably do this on occasion as additional thoughts hit me
war band camp…
You need to make a much clearer exit mechanism from warband camp.