Pretty cool. There is specifically one picture that caught my eye: “A Battle for Survival.”
The reason why it caught my eye is that the colors seem accurate. Everything in the picture looks like it belongs. The models and the world should blend seemlessly together and this picture actually sort of has that which is nice. I want the game to look like a drone is flying above the action - that level of realism. I want to hear screams of death when a man or woman dies on the battle field. I love that Blizzard is taking a step in the direction of Diablo II’s theme and art style. I think at first people at Blizzard thought when fans said they wanted gritty, that thought that meant grainy. We’re looking for bleak realism. We want to feel isolated and underpowered. Look at the progression of Diablo II. You kind of suck for a real long time (unless you’ve played it over and over). Difficulty isn’t just how much health a mob has, its also their mechanics and how much damage they do. We want that ‘tough love’ the developers gave us with the butcher in Diablo 1 and literally all the bosses in Diablo 2. Some of the bosses in Diablo 3 were cool too but the idea of the instances with phases irked me. If there are phases, they should be seamless. I think the threshhold for difficulty should be like how Diablo 2 was. Difficult alone, more difficult with more people, but through good team effort -easier. I don’t know, I have a lot of thoughts about D4. I remember when I posted way back that Diablo should be like Dark Souls on the forums and saw that at some point you tried to make a Diablo Dark Souls - my message got lost in the mix. I meant Isometric Diablo with Dark Souls style approach to bleak and grittiness with complex boss mechanics. If you’re not careful, you should die a lot in Diablo. It’s not supposed to be a walk in the park. The game should be trying to kick your butt.
Add blocking and dodging. Blocking should be based on your characters class and ability to block and dodging should be based on the same thing essentially but not be superhuman - tether the classes/characters to reality and you’ll get a game where people care about every +1 damage.
Great to here from the development team. I’ve really enjoyed reading the updates, it keeps me engaged with the games hype and renews my excitement each time. I loved reading about the lore and seeing the artwork from the cannibals tribe. I think the artwork is amazing and would love to keep seeing more, even if that doesnt become the final designs of said characters, your artists’ work should be showcased not just in the final product!
Another thing I’d love to see would be maybe some possible mechanics of the game you’ve been working on or considering. Speaking of, I enjoy that you explain the thinking and process behind the UI development, I like reading how you’ve come to certain conclusions, or when you ask us for our thoughts to aid your decision.
As far as something else I’d love to here about, just some of the development teams favorite things you’ve been working on (without too many spoilers)
I guess I will have to get use to quoting the list below.
I have no idea what you are doing wrong. I’ve run nvidia drivers across 5 different nVidia cards across more than 15 different distros.of Linux. nVidia drivers have been quite solid for several years. You would have to provide full details about:
your PC hardware setup
nVidia driver version
distro and version
approximately when this happened
details about what went wrong or didn’t work
You have an unsubstantiated claim, which amounts to FUD. It is no different than me saying nvidia drivers are faulty in Windows and not provide details to substantiate that claim.
I would not ask you to bet. A PC Linux version is within their grasp. Even PoE devs realize that there is a strong opportunity once they embraced Vulkan.
When the driver had a bug, it took a few months (iirc year+ for one bug) to fix.
We (small pharma research company) had to use the Qudro FX series of cards for the 3pin miniDIN output to support 3D visualization of protiens (ca SARS)
Eventually, we moved from StereoGraphics ($1000) glasses to the nVidea ($150) glasses. IIRC - there were a few bugs with the usb adapter at first.
I still remember the rendering glitch the one patch had. But only because the CEO was showing off “we can do things faster/cheaper because we’re running linux [vs SGI Octanes]” when the 3D rendering of a protein went wonky. (Not a fun day)
Maybe it was the early days
Maybe it was the stereo visualization
Maybe its my (opposite of rose-tinted) glasses
But the bugs didn’t get fix as fast as i thought they would. I doubt a game company would want to support that type of platform.
I’m liking everything I’m seeing. I started D3 on PC at release and played a ton, finished inferno before the largest nerfs, etc. It ended up feeling far more satisfying for me because I didn’t have to pay as much attention to the one thing that is sure to take my mind out of the action in an RPG: too much time dealing with inventory management. I also have the problem of not being in love with attack and move being the same button, which made PS4 and Switch feel better at times. I’m used to it, but there’s more than one ARPG where attacking an enemy when I meant to move has lost me a hardcore character. I also really like that PC will have controller support, because, while I will still play with a mouse, I have problems with wrist and hand pain using a mouse/keyboard for extended periods and really like the option for using a controller when I don’t need the precision of a mouse.
I love all the thought that’s going into customization options, but I think it’d be even better if you looked to WoW to see how user built UIs have allowed players to choose their own way to play. I think allowing non-intrusive add-ons would help the game a lot. Some of the D2 overhauls vastly improved the experience and UI. Unless it’s a thing that will be in a constant state of development after release, UI seems like one of those things where you can’t know what is “right” until you know how the majority of your actual players use and react to it.
You do realize SARS was 2002-2004. 16-18 years have passed since then. I’m glad that you brought it up though. First, nVidia drivers are proprietary so any bugs/glitches in them are the responsibility of nVidia. The same would be true on the Windows side. Second, the glasses represent proprietary hardware that most likely has a proprietary drivers, which again belong to the manufacturer. Lastly, it would not be fair to judge the Linux of now and the last 10 years, based on the Linux of the 1990’s.
In short, what you described is not a Linux problem it would be driver and hardware manufacturer problem and would still be the case on the Windows side.
You know it’s a balance, how much is too much when it comes to item slots. 20? Would you like 30? Doesnt sound like fun to me. I’ve been playing wolcen and it’s fun for sure. I am also someone who deeply values depth and meaningful choices. I mean D3 had very fun game play but everything else was not so good.
I’ve been thinking about it and you know wolcen could probably lose a few item slots and I wouldn’t notice. It might even make the item slots I have more valuable. I mean 2 shoulders seems extreme and leads to some busy work really. I dont neccesarily mind it. However to be honest I actually might like having just a few less item slots. Maybe 12.
Theres Maine where making meaningful choices on your gear can become a little bit of a chore. Again I dont neccesarily mind it but I could find myself enjoying a few less spots. I’m surprised I’m thinking this way but there it is.
The same can be said for Hit recovery, you are “wasting” affixes to improve combat performance or magic find, even PoE has accuracy rating and hit recovery.
Thats what D2 was about, sacrifice something in order to gain something better in return and not just have the same repetitive affixes in D3 that make barely to no difference in gameplay but increasing your mainstat/damage by a mere 5%-10%
And ill repeat again, you are asking for convenience to lower difficulty and tactical engagement of the game by having effortlessly “always on hit mechanic”, this measure will surely break PVP balance again and why are you even getting a free bonus feature of dealing extra damage instead of attack rating? This makes no sense at all and you are suggesting to make the game easier for no reason.
Its like dumbing the game down again like in D3, i miss the monster modifiers of like aura enchanted/manaburn or extra fast of D2 in PoE. (Fanatism, might, conviction, etc)
Extra Fast mobs will hunt you down the entire Map until they kill you, im not joking.
D4 mobs should have modifiers and base attacks of skills from classes.
You can choose where the Health and energy balls are to be made. But please add the possibility for others to decide in the menu whether they want health and energy balls or want Health and energy bars at the bottom of the screen.
The spheres of health and energy were Super 20 years ago when Diablo 1 reigned Diablo 2 are a little outdated. And I would like Something fresh in the Diablo series to decide whether Spheres or Belts. Then fans of Kul will be satisfied and fans of Health and Energy Bars will be satisfied.
From what I see here regarding armor and stats, I must say I’m dissapointed. You might aswell just have it say “this item is better” when all there is, is that.
Please up your game Blizzard, Path of Exile are crushing you at the moment and I hope come Shadowlands you will not disappoint, this favouring casual niece you’ve been heading for is not working out for your fans. It’s pulling in cheap money with short terms players absolutely but is that what made WoW the biggest MMO and most culturally impactfull game ever made? No, it had a balance between casual and hardcore. The latter which you have thrown to the wayside and as such left millions of players to competitors.
Really blizzard think your way right out of a good game once again. It is not to hard to make the game everyone wants.you take diablo 2 and you remake it inventory no problem make it bigger like pod . change some skills and the visuals of skills . make diablo 4 the same design as diablo 2 why you ask because people still drool and play this game for hours on end 20 years later . you guys try to hard and then create this crazy game worthless as poop.people want to trade people want to pvp people want to magic find to gear chars and collect and hoard currency to feel rich people want a game that is good . is it really to much to ask for ? Have we not been good paying monthly subs grinding years of life ?it’s not hard to make a game that everyone wants even if it means you make less money or whatever the case is. Hire some fn talent and lets get this done .
Enjoy reading quarterly updates. More information is always better.
Visuals:
Graphics changes seem right on target for dark look.
Please keep the varying inventory sizes; hate to loose detail of weapons.
UI:
Be very cautious on UI changes for adapting Console Controllers.
Don’t limit the Keyboard/Mouse functions just to add a controller.
If you dumb down the current PC controls, you will lose a large percentage of the PC gamers. If we wanted Controllers we would be on a console.
Others have indicating allowing Keyboard/Mouse to Console games. This I agree with.
Info heads up:
Allowing placement from Corner to Center is a great idea, but set default to center; Allow choice to move to a corner for Larger Screen ‘TVs’ and greater viewing position distance, but make it optional.
Power Ups:
Consider adding ability to boost all of an items properties at high Paragon levels.
Give us a reason to reach levels in Paragons; extra enhancement with each 25-50 Paragon levels achieved. This would help Solo players greatly. Also look into being able to re-craft weapons and armor once you reach different Paragon Levels to improve item max abilities. This would allow weapons to scale up to compete at next series of Levels. (Maybe have a Solo and a Team enhancement scale; Keep track of where levels are gained, controlling how fast you can move up for a Character; Team base enhancements would occur at a slower rate.)
Gems:
look into adding Special rare Gems Stones that permit using an attribute from a different class onto your character; perhaps with long cool down of said power.
Would also like to see Belts be able to hols one or two Gem Sockets. These Rare belts would be able to use any Rare Gem in them. Make the Belt Level dependent; Initially use Level 10 Gems. Recast with Cube or Rare spells to increase belt Gem levels.
I edited the post so as not to offend anyone but if the devs want feed back the vast majority of the content is going to be opinion based. Its expected that players are going to react with A is good, B is bad, C is terrible, D is awesome, I want X, have no interest in Y, and Z might pique my interest under certain conditions. My intent is not to offend, but rather convey my criticisms.
A stretch goal for Pathfinders new game was for more interactivity between NPCs/party members and your character. I think this would be a great way to improve the world.
