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

General Discussion
22

Yeah, but the thing is… WarCraft 3 is essentially an e-sport and I imagine a lot of the downgrades were due to that… because pro players complained, that if some of the new features, such as being able to control larger groups of units, it would change the game.

I’d say go for a remake… whatever allows for better interface, more stash space, separate space for charms (essentially a 2nd inventory) and things like that, so that we don’t have to resort to mods to get that…

D2 is not a competitive game. It’s also not an MMO, so botters don’t affect you. It also does not have official RMAH, so botting does not affect you.
It doesn’t need to be addressed. I don’t want games losing features 20+ years after release. If anything, we should be getting more features, not less.

Also, D2 is easy enough, so you can get your gear within few weeks of grinding by yourself, let alone engage in trading.

Doesn’t WC3 Reforged allow for you to play offline? Cause I’m pretty sure I had the client installed and I did play offline…

I wouldn’t, because it’s literally like the lamest, most idiotic and masochistic D2 mod, which goes to show, that the person who made it really didn’t like and/or understand D2 in a similar fashion to the D3 dev team.

23

That’s kinda the point of asking the question “remake or remaster?”. Also, Wc3Rg seem to have DRM checks by forcing you to login first periodically just like Starcraft 2 now. You can play offline as long as you login once per month.

As for Diablo 2 Remaster, do you really think they’d keep it with once a month login when you look at Diablo 3? Well… That’d be a treat to keep things simple just like GoG release of Diablo 1 but that wasn’t a remake or remaster now, was it?
Online DRM may not make sense after this hour but there’s a strong possibility they’ll embed it to get rid of glitch and exploits haunting the game for a long time. A remake of D2 makes more sense more I think about it.

I get that you never played it? Even Diablo 3 developer, Jay Wilson when bragging about how D3 reduced the item affix count on items compared to previous games, he used an armor piece from Median XL (correct me if wrong) instead of D2:LoD as an example. Maybe it was against what they stood for, but also emphasizes the mod’s popularity.
Also, BrotherLaz went onto make items for Path of Exile team Grinding Gears for a while. Perhaps that’s why you hate him?

24

When I got my Limit Edition of Diablo 3. The was USB drive with D2 on it. They had rework it so you could play it on newer OS. It wasn’t rework on better Graphics, but I could play it on a higher resolution.

25

If there is a Diablo 2 reblablabla, I will only play offline mode.
Boom. Problem solved. NO BOTS!

26

At this point I don’t trust Blizzard to remaster their own crap after Warcraft 3 and Vicarious did a great job with Crash Bandicoot so maybe there’s hope

27

IMO that’s a non-issue.
If I purchase a legitimate copy/license, whatever, I’ll most likely play it over battle net anyways.

And if I wanna single player on an airtight machine with no internet on it, I’ll put a pirate version, that will have the DRM removed.

You do realize, that you literally proved what I said, right?

Popular =/= good or true. The popular view used to be, that the Earth is flat.

I don’t hate him, since I don’t know him. However, I don’t believe his mod is good. The same way I don’t believe PoE is a good game.

Let me put it like this. I find something like Eastern Sun to be a good, enjoyable D2 mod, as it’s more or less consistent with how the game plays out without the mod. Something like PoE or Median XL for me is too much of a departure, if that makes any sense.

28

Yep but still popular. It may be masochistic because it’s a bit more complex and demanding but it wasn’t a silly design.

How is that any related to objectivity in the present time? Popular view back then there was cows on the moon, there was no micro-organisms or gravity back then as well. When you compare median xl, eastern sun and diablo 2 search terms side to side on google trends maybe you’d realize there’s some truth behind it? No?

Median XL took Jay’s attention because one, it was popular back then and everyone was praising it. Also appears BrotherLaz, the developer of Median XL gave an interview back in '12 to a very famous fan site which he shared his view on Diablo 3 that may have pissed off developers.

Opinions that you stick with. I get it. My mistake.

29

Jay wasn’t a real fan, or he wouldn’t have released such a terrible version of the game… There, I fixed that for you…

Eastern Sun plays out more or less like the same game, with what I’d call are minor changes, that spice up the game.

Median XL plays out like a different game.

You can call it “opinion” all you want, the same way you can try and dismiss someone saying, that WoW Classic and Retail WoW play out like different games.

And yet, if you really think about it and analyze, it’s not just an opinion…

OK, it’s not literally the lamest mod, I’ve tried broken mods, that don’t work at all… But sure, mod support would be nice for fans of Median XL, so if there’s a remake/remaster, I hope you and other fans of the mod get mod support.
Happy now?

31

I used to be on that gang, but now I can neither confirm nor deny a D2 remaster.

Plus, people have been talking and rumouring about D2 remasters for so long it’s just a matter of time until Blizzard decides to finally do it. Just like it happened with years of begging for a FF7 remake or a WoW Vanilla server.

Popular demand usually makes this kind of stuff happen.

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32

I will not believe anything until Blizzard makes the announcement.

  • Speculating can be fun if it we keep it in check and do not go overboard with it.
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33

I just assuming the worst case scenario for D2 Remake. :smiley:

34

ya there’s now like 5 threads all with this identical information. Why can’t people look for threads before reposting the same crap someone else did an hour ago? :roll_eyes:

35

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.

36

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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37

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.

38

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.

39

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

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40

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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41

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.

42

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.