Is a D2 remaster being worked on by Vicarious which is now part of Blizzard?

I hope the remaster will be more than just a graphics upgrade. At the end of the day, it’s still the same 20 year old gameplay. I really hope the gameplay gets modernized / enhanced.

Diablo games have always had a rather simplistic gameplay. How would you change the gameplay?

What I’d like at the top of my head is:

modern interface, similar to that of D3, so that I don’t have to press a button in order to change skill, rather I can put all the skills on a freaking skill bar (and there’s plenty of space on the D2 interface for a skill bar, they can turn the freaking Stamina bar into a small ring);

large, shared stash;

separate space for charms, so that I can use my inventory again… The talisman was one of the good ideas for D3;

allow the “ladder only” runewords (like Spirit, Insight and things like that) on single player, since you already can get them on a modified client like plugy, then bring your save file to a non-modified client and they still work;

Rework the freaking Diablo Clone world event, so that there’s a more reasonable way of getting the Annihilus charm, rather than hoping to be lucky, or trying to track which servers are close to spawning the Diablo clone;

add more areas, that grant good experience past lvl 90, rather than the freaking Baal runs…

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This must be an elaborate troll… Would you play it if gameplay changed? You just said, up there;

So Median XL is bad because it plays like a different game but you want D2 to play like D3? That’s sorta… Puzzling.

Diablo 2 combat generally revolves around adapting the situation. A limited skill bar with say, 8 slots or so, says good bye to one-point wonder skills, switching auras and off-class charged skills in a way. Most skills don’t have cooldowns and that will cause a huge data strain for servers.

Charms take space in inventory to separate PvE and PvP builds; where PvE builds supposed to spare some space to pick up items while PvP fills it to the brim because they need to squeeze more stats.
You don’t exactly need huge inventory space at PvE endgame to smelt, salvage and sell every item to negate gold loss on death. At the end game, just like D3 requiring you to filter out items to pick up as you speed through, you need to be mindful of what to pickup in D2 in a similar fashion.

Please leave Diablo 3 at Diablo 3, their design points are miles apart.

No, I am not trolling…
Both D1, D2 and even D3 have a rather simplistic gameplay. Definitely simpler than an MMO, where I juggle 30+ skills. Simpler, than a shooter, that requires precise movement and aiming. Simpler than an RTS.

The only somewhat complex thing in D2 was remembering breakpoints and learning how to trade.

It’s precisely why I’m asking him how would he go about changing the gameplay. If he were to make it too complex, too slow paced… it would not be a Diablo game, it wouldn’t feel like one either. Not really.

No. Even with an interface similar to that of D3, D2 would play in the exact same way it always has, just better.
For example, if I play a Paladin, it would make no difference if I were to see all the aura shortcuts on a freaking skill bar, since only one would be active at a time anyways. However, I wouldn’t be forced to use just my left click for abilities, but I would have my active aura on whatever button I want.
It would not change the gameplay, it would be merely a convenience.

But, you see, I never said it should be limited. And even if it was to be limited, it doesn’t have to be limited to 6 skills like D3.
Here’s an actual build, that uses more active skills, than most builds… one point wonders, charges and everything. Are you really incapable to see, how such an interface can easily work just fine?
xxhttps://i.imgur.com/JHS1G3S.jpg

And in reality, most people go around with their inventory looking like this, put items in the cube and then place them in their stash… so a separate space specifically dedicated for charms would be fine as well.
xxhttps://i.imgur.com/oeztoGt.jpg

I can look at both games objectively. While I do prefer D2 and I have many criticisms towards D3, I can safely say, that the D2 interface is lacking and it would be nice for it to be modernized.

+1. You just said all the issues that I want to fix in D2 Remake.

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Thanks. Not sure if you noticed, I did post a visual representation of how I would want the interface to look like.
It’s crude, since I did it for like few minutes on paint, but I think it illustrates perfectly how a more modernized version of the interface can work for D2 just fine, rather having the stupid stamina and exprience bars occupy half the pannel:
xxhttps://i.imgur.com/JHS1G3S.jpg

Again, this is an actual PvE summoner build with Corpse Explosion. It’s one of the most popular, meta builds, with extremely fast clear.
Bone Spear and Bone Armor are one point wonders, I’ve put some points into Bone Prison, so I can trap and abuse mobs, and have some armor and magic damage.

Here are the skill trees, the overall amount of skills, and just the ones, that I would be actively using:
xxhttps://i.imgur.com/3QOd9Dg.jpg

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This can be setup easily but instead of showing it all the time, game simply trusts player to group up their own scheme of auras, attacks, buffs and debuffs. Forgetting this, should be out of luxury for the player because he/she’s the one who set the entire thing.

You just removed the entire stamina bar, that’s open to debate. I’m not entirely sure how it would affect the game but I guess not much.
If it’s a list of the available skills, sure it can be arranged. Further than that, I have some questions about technicality because as far as I know online bnet servers simply drop you if you rapidly change skills as in it won’t let you send so much data at once at all.
https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/264916

  • Scrolling through skill selection too quickly using the mouse wheel

Here. Please mind the date, it’s only 6 months ago. Concern here is, we’re not sure if servers can handle that much data at once for one character. I hope you see my point.

And in theory they supposed to realize that it doesn’t worth carrying 3 block large charms for a few extra stats and have to spare space to carry at least 2-3 items with them to identify and check at once while playing PvE.

Huh? There’s no “luxury”, “the player setting up the entire thing” and “the p[layer grouping up their own scheme of auras, attacks” or whatever…
You literally see only two shortcuts and you constantly have to swap the freaking skill though pressing keys…

Yeah, exactly! The way the D2 servers work as of current, if you scroll with the mouse wheel too fast or too much, and you can get disconnected.
My suggestion for a rework on the interface does not exacerbate the problem, it would alleviate it.

That’s… That’s fine but that also increases the data hold in servers for one character. If I’m not getting you wrong, you’re talking about creating an action bar and making all skills an instant cast by keys, right?
Server has to remember what skills (and at which level, which diablo 3 doesn’t have) you put on your action bar, which increase the burden directly if that’s the model you’re talking about.

Correct.

I’m pretty sure in D3 the server has to remember more things about my character, and especially in high GR with more monsters, that don’t die instantly and the game starting to stutter to the point, that it freezes.

Also, if they release a remake, they’ll have appropriate servers. We don’t live back in the year 2000 anymore. (hell, I think we’re were already migrated to modern servers few years back, I might be wrong).

Also, I really don’t understand enough about networks, but I highly doubt my character running around with 17 skeletons, 20+ revived creatures, a golem, a Merc is not much of a problem for the server, but having some more of my active skills on the skill bar is what would actually be causing strain on the server.
At least I wouldn’t be swapping constantly, which is what seems to be causing the disconnects.

I believe your interactions handled by random number generator in your bnet client, all server ever do was raising some predetermined flags (multipliers) to tell how the generator (Mersenne Twister?) should calculate all of this in pico seconds.
If you’re going for that action bar model, I believe you need some sort of restriction somewhere, because what you’re describing here still means your client will interact with server.

If it’s a remaster, I believe we’ll be using the very same servers. I think they did renew most servers to be modern but constant data stream, means bandwidth. Just hopefully they will hire more staff for maintenance and make the performance better.
I don’t know for sure, but I believe Warcraft 3 Reforged still use same servers. I’ve been reading tons of latency complaints over social media back then.

They’re just automated entities with once done creation. Spamming skills are just another aspect of the problem.

The link I sent up there states:

  • Repeatedly using a spell with no cast delay such as Amplify Damage or Glacial Spike

Giving everything to players’ hands not always the best solution so, they may need to take caution to process all this feedback.

shrug

The ~40 creatures might be automated entities, but they do individual hits, which the server has to track. To this day a summoner with full army can cause lag, which is why in Baal runs over battle net, I usually summon only 6-10 in order to not piss off the party and they don’t go hostile on me :stuck_out_tongue:

As to spamming skills, I already spam skills. I spam teleport, I spam Amplify Damage, followed by spamming Corpse Explosion.
However, it would be less key presses if I don’t have to swap from Teleport to Amplify damage, to Corpse explosion. I press… say 1 for Teleport, 2 for Amplify Damage and 3 for Corpse explosion.
Wouldn’t that cause less input lag, rather than more?

Oh, absolutely.

Seeing as you are going to break the law and pirate the game anyway what does it matter what you want it’s not like you are going to pay for the game just steal it

Dude, I’ve spoken to you about piracy in the past and you don’t seem to be able to understand a lot of the things I’m saying, despite… at least form my PoV, I believe I’m being clear and articulate.

Do I need to post you a screenshot from my battle net account in order to show you, that I have purchased most Blizzard games (the ones I’m playing)?

Is it lost on you, that I am literally writing on the forum, meaning that I have a valid account of good standing?

All I said is, that if hypothetical remaster/remake allows for offline single player, but requires you to check online every 30 days or so, and yet you wanna play it on some sort of airtight computer with no connection to the internet, I said, that the person asking can solve that by downloading a pirated version of the game on a freaking flash drive, deploy it on the airtight computer and play like this.

I never said, that they shouldn’t purchase a legitimate copy at all or “pirate everything for the lolz or to screw companies over”.
If the person cares at all for playing over battle net, he’ll have to buy the real thing. I’ll buy the real thing, since of remaster/remake gets released, I will be playing it over battle net.

But yes, piracy would solve the DRM issue, for someone, who wants to play the game on a machine with no internet connection… the same way piracy solved the problem for me with Assassin’s Creed 2. My legitimate copy, that I purchased myself, with real money, wasn’t freaking working on Windows 7 for some reason… I downloaded a pirated version and it worked. I still paid for the game.

So yes, if an issue like that occurs, I’ll download all manner of pirated versions in order for me to get to play what I paid for. It’s not “breaking the law” if I’ve already paid for it and the company already has my money, meaning they haven’t lost the revenue, and I’ve fixed the issue on my end without them losing revenue.

Jesus Christ. Some reading comprehension, please.

You’re the one that wrote I’ll just pirate the game
I know exactly what that means
regardless of what you think it means
and all you are doing here is encouraging people to break the law

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LoL. Yeah, I encourage people to “break the law” when it comes to a hypothetical release of a game, hypothetical scenario, in which there’s a DRM, that requires you to connect to the internet every 30 days, and a hypothetical scenario in which the person wants to play it on an airtight computer, which will not have internet connection at all…
and a hypothetical scenario, in which the person HAS ALREADY PURCHASED A LEGITIMATE LICENSE/COPY… right…

You know what, just report me. I’m sure the community managers can actually read and they’ll side with me.
Have a good day…

At least in the past it has been legal, in some countries, to break the copy protection of stuff you own, if it is needed to use it on your hardware.
Sadly not legal in US and most European countries anymore afaik. It certainly should be.

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Pretty concise illustration. This is something I kinda want to see in the Remake version; a modern interface, and features.

I just hope that D2Remake won’t end up like Warcraft 3 Reforged.

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From the info we have it looks like they prepared another WC:R scenario for D2, but they changed their minds (wallets hurt, ouch) and now everything is going fine.

They are learning the hard way, but nevertheless learning. I say we give them credit.

Thanks!

My issues with WC3 Reforged are the following:

A whole bunch of character portraits seem very ugly to me, inconsistent with the previous art.

A whole bunch of things are still not fixed, a year after the game came out, so the game effectively lost some features, rather than gaining some.