You actually don’t know that us what they all are since we haven’t seen any actual boards.
It’s not really too big to grasp, it’s just for how bug it really is, you almost always go the same path for the ascendancy you pick.
Probably, as people figured out the optimal path for certain builds, but I don’t think that’s an issue. I’m pretty sure the same situation will occur for D4’s paragon, depending on our build choice.
All depends on the randomness of the boards and layouts.
I don’t think boards will be random, that would create lots of problems.
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Yeah, best not to make them random imo.
Afaik Ascendencies dont determine passive paths in PoE, since Ascendencies themselves have multiple paths to take.
Doing A because you do X is not automatically a problem in any case. Like, if you choose to use Fireball as a skill, it might certainly make you want to use items/affixes that buffs Fireball.
The issue with something like sets in D3 is that they determine everything. Do X, leading you to do A, B, C, D etc., because of how specific most of them are designed.
If choosing Fireball also leads you down a path where all other kinds of choices are already decided, that is bad, like if there is a skill that buffs fire dmg by 10000%, and a curse that makes enemies take 1000% more fire dmg, and so on, then yeah, the path ahead begins to be pre-determined.
For the paragon boards, if they really end up being based on attributes (of which I am worried, imo attributes should come mostly from normal lvls, as I honestly dont believe Blizzard will manage to make them work as breakpoints for skill upgrades, when there are so many attribute sources; lvls, paragon, gear), it makes it even more important that the attributes are equally useful, not only for the class, but it also starts to be quite important that each/most attribute becomes useful for each skill.
Like a Int Fireball build or a Str Fireball build, each offering a valuable path to go for.
I dont understand people beef with small stat boost nodes. What do you wanna do just remove them? It doesnt really change anything. Replace them with other nodes? Nothing prohibits them from adding those anyway.
If you compare it to PoE. Str, Dex, Int are not useless. Entire builds can be based around stacking each of theese. Which makes these “useless” node far from useless. Even if not stacking them they help give you the requirements to wear some items and they inherently give you bonuses such as STR gives you life and physical damage, or dex gives you evasion and accuracy.
It’s all about what the devs decide to do with it.
Well, let’s use an example. Imagine that we wish to build a hulk - a lot of hp, regeneration and no troubles with ability to hit. And to make it possible we decide to take “Resolute technique” (to ignore evasion), “Blood magic” (to remove need in mana) and whole bunch of nodes with regeneration and hp-relative. The thing is that our path through the tree is mostly predetermined by our final ends. But the issue is not about having a huge bonus to STR / HP in this build, but …
- about need to pick them at all
- about splitting player’s attention among things that could be much more compact
- about the fact that there’s not so many really impactful choices in the tree, but that’s not obvious for inexperienced player because of tree’s initial “huge view”.
That’s why I propose to separate functional building from stat building and make first one more compact, propose to give more choices, propose to make those choices more meaningful. So my whole idea isn’t about wiping out this system - it is about improving it and making it more… convenient?
OP it’s been a long time since you posted and we all miss you.
You are in the prayers of many @TOPCommander.
Let us know if all is well please!
(post deleted by author)
Hello,
Druid: every class has mount, but druid could use thing like “full wolf/bear” and transform himself to wolf/bear and run as horse (it could benefit from their passives - if attacked). Near enemy he could use jump to enemy and transform himself back to druid form. (Bear is slower) - Remember this would be a druid only exception. Don’t remove the horse as option … 
Rogue: I will never consider rogue as ranged class because half of the skills are melee and the other 4 are enchanted arrow… How many skills are left for a full ranged build?
Skills: I missin more skills with druid as werewolf (+1 AoE), but I hope every class will have at least 25 skills…
I will definitely try every class except rogue (up). Because the Quarterly Update in the last few months looks totally great.
Basically, and this is true for everything, it is very important to be properly involved in all things so that they work and work well on you.
If you think you can do everything without paying attention, you will go against the principle of life and it will not work properly.
Here for D4, it means that if we pretend that the world and what we are doing right now everywhere does not have the same value everywhere, then these things will not work.
If we think we are skipping the level path because the level path is just a minor thing and we don’t pay attention to the progression of the roleplay because of that, then the roleplay and the path will not work properly.
If we think we overdraw the game and overload it at one point by too much and want to emphasize it, then this will not work and create the opposite, it will be too much and not seem integrated.
If we think we’re going to let the players play through everywhere quickly and not stay in the moment, but not take anything from it, then this will all seem just as gray in gray and the game itself won’t work.
Everyone can set their own priorities if the game itself is all of a piece and works really well everywhere, but to do that it also has to involve everyone everywhere and not even seem like it’s just about the one thing.
That’s why I keep saying:
Don’t make the game too fast, more like D1 than D3 even in combat. Let everyone dive into their world at any time.
Don’t overload the game with effects, make them appropriate and more manageable to stay in the moment. This also applies to the effects of the NPCs.
Don’t let the battles be like a hot knife going through butter. Give hitstun, let players feel resistance, but not by cluttering the screen with effects and reaction tests and skill games. That’s not solid, it’s artificially inflated and won’t work that way.
Give the NPCs recognition value and idiosyncrasies. Don’t let every NPC be able to do everything at random, just because he has different colors in his name, or because he suddenly reappears 20 levels later in the same form with more difficulty. This has no valuable content neither for the world nor for the player.
It doesn’t make the game an endgame game. Focus on the path, because the value of the game lies in the path and in the actions, in the exploration, research and development of skills. A pretentious number hunt devalues everything that is there and erases its value. It expropriates us all from being involved in something and will therefore not work.
Build the game so that we and you can continue on the path without overdoing it and always overloading a story as well. There should just be a long path that sometimes goes up and sometimes goes down, but works within the framework of the world, in flow, development, narrative and authenticity.
Don’t make the player an overhero, we won’t get out of this otherwise. The world must function as a world in itself cohesively and the NPCs, even the “good” or “simple virtual living there” should not seem as if they are just waiting for us, as if we are the deity known to all in the form of a hero and all worship us and have no other life.
This will not work.
It won’t work either if the/the “evil” doesn’t have its own world, even if we see it only in parts. Again, the game should not seem as if we are expected by evil and as if for these evil beings there is only the antagonist as a central element. It shouldn’t seem like that, it has to seem independent, detached. We as players are not their universe, they have their own task, goals, desires and world just, we just disturb and do not always succeed, are those who flee, are those who run away, or those who will have succumbed to a trap.
Only when we also reach limits, it will work.
Don’t build the classes on comparison, but on roleplaying, on differences, and thus on completely different ways of playing.
That will work. It just won’t allow for sporting comparison. But the implications of this decision are enormous and will tip the game either one way or the other, and massively so.
Either RPG with all the possibilities, or sport/comparison/competition with a bulldozer…
I’m for RPG.
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Didn’t pay attention to how most underlying systems worked in D2 and got along just fine. Lack of sufficient resistances popped up a couple of times to slow me down but not enough ruin my enjoyment. Didn’t pay attention to hit recovery, MF, crafting the cube, or any of that. Just played the game.
Because Diablo games are like that, accessible to play without needing to understand the deeper systems.
They already make battles faster with “resource generation,” now U need just lower cooldown on armor and U can just spam abilities… yeah that’s not fun and that’s not old diablo (just upgraded D3)… and I hope horses aren’t so fast…
Horses are fast though… It would be AWESOME to see randomised horse speeds since some are generally faster than others.
I posted my concerns/ideas in another thread, guess I’ll do a summarized/shorter version
1 - Make sure that items are different from one another, that they actually have an immediate impact when putting on or off (this isn’t a mistake that I assume D4 did, but know some examples so wanna point it out that)
Item A [Scepter] should differ A LOT from Item B [Wand] should differ a lot from Item C [Axe or Sword], should differ a lot from item D [Mace or Hammer], even if and despite them all having same “theme” (say poison damage for example)
Item A should focus on Life/Mana return, Spectral hit, or maybe even Bash, item B should have Frailty (or any other Curse for that matter) or maybe have Pierce resistance/s, should allow “stacking damage” component (or at least quite significantly efficient component compared to others), item C should maybe have Slow and perhaps pierce Armor, and item D should have some CC component tied to it like Knockback or Stun
Additionally despite all of them being poison-themed (as per the example), ALL of them should differ on Impact by a lot, the Scepter could also Empower sockets by a significant amount, the Wand could have a cast-based offensive capability (cast range, mana return, mana regen), the Sword could do backstabbing/critical, and the Mace/Hammer could have bonus vs Elites for example… i.e. each item type should have DIFFERENT AFFIX POOL to “Roll” from, therefore have a much different experience when equipping one vs the other
2 - Don’t make the game “walk in the park” or even worse in this particular case since distances are big and there are mounts (a ride in the park)… Make each mob a threat as much as possible, or at the very least try not to make them “yolo” at the player and be an XP placeholder
Yes, there will be casters, archers, brutes, elites that won’t be “XP placeholders” but try at least implement some AI to them, make some retreat, make some hide, make some spread, make some charge in unison (and by that I meant from more than one direction)
3 - In regarding to the previous point, would advise to try add some AI to some elites/rares as well, add “veterancy” to them as a stat which would determine their “skill” and “combat awareness” level/s
Say 1 stars to 5 (well, 0 to 5 to be more exact, 1 regular veterancy, 5 is general/army-leader, the latest will retreat, dodge, be mobile all over the place, pick fights on their own, might even call some reinforcements on occasions)
This kind of mechanic should deter from the trap of power creep and quantity being the sole factors for (endgame) progression… An alternative could be “augmentations” (i.e. individual mutations) to some mobs but if would choose between the two would prefer veterancy (at this point) tbh
4 - Try SPLIT skills into 3 groups… Melee, Ranged/Projectile, and AoE… Give separate hit-effects (and bonuses) for each
For example give Melee backstab instead of Critical hit, and give AoE multicast instead of Critical… Give melee stun and ranged shackle, AoE should have Root… Differences like this are a slight change but adds up and makes quality difference in impact long term… Melee = knockdown, Ranged = knockback, AoE = Airbourne (e.t.c.)
5 - Try make significant (or at least on paper) differences between different elements of damage
Fire should do one thing (ignite or explode), Cold should do another (Chill or Shatter), Poison should do a completely 3rd effect (Wither or cause summons), and same with Darkness (Disintegrate or phase-out, maybe a curse or two, whatever)… Lightning should also do other things (knock unconscious unless attacked again for ex. or “charge up” to deal damage to nearby mobs), Regardless, you GET the idea, different elements of damage should FEEL different and have vastly (as much as possible) impacts on use
Overall:
Something tells me that only “1” is or being close to being implemented (though I suspect the impact differences for the most part will be next to negligible), but would recommend for the devs to consider the other 3 also, point 4 should add some depth and significant difference on the long term in impact for builds per category (melee vs ranged vs AoE), and 2 and 3 should be a “breath of fresh air” for the genre (albeit at occasions) overall
I need only two words for answering: Private Sessions !!!
I hope they limit to ‘horses’ only and only the horses you saw on the video clip. I don’t care if it’s an item or a spell or an ability. Keep it simple Stanley!
The second I start seeing people mounted on frogs or turtles or some other WoW nonsense, I AM DONE.
Of course, at that point Blizz won’t care since they already got my money to play the game. But… they won’t get anymore of my time with D4. I will go back to D3 if they still keep it going as is. Or maybe I will jump off the Blizz ship forever and play other games. Good thing there is an extremely expansive gaming market with plenty of genres and games.
Well I reply U,
because it’s reply to my post here. I doesn’t like mounts like frogs,… etc. too but run AS (NOT ON) werewolf U actually can also in D2. So it feels natural for me. And if U have blizzard launcher U can check posts about game. In D4 U can just change visual of the horse.
Not sure if text responses are ok since this thread appears to ask for video responses but I saw a few already…
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Appears to be controversy over smart loot. I’m all about player options. Give us a slider to adjust smart loot personally. If that’s a bad idea, work it into the quests…i.e. Barbarian Chief so and so gives your (insert character type here) a quest and upon completion he provides you access to a barbarian cache. You can target the different factions if you want more (chances of) loot focused on that character type. Great for helping to gear side characters/alts or friends.
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Provide something to work for end game. Let me choose an activity: dungeon, rare world spawn/boss, etc that has a high degree of difficulty where I will likely die if not properly geared/skilled. Have said activity provide indicators beforehand that it will include the possibility of obtaining something I’m actually interested in.
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I love the idea of following a difficult quest chain to obtain pieces or fragments of an item then completing a difficult task (solo or with a group of friends) to forge that item. Working towards a goal that culminates in a big end fight can be a truly unique experience. It’s also great fun to help a friend in the final stretch to complete a long sought after item or objective they couldn’t do on their own.
Just a few quick ideas. I hope this is the one we all play for a long time and have a great time doing it together.