Closing the maps to one direction, making them narrow will be the biggest fail in Diablo 4.
Just think about it. When you stat a new Role Playing Game in 2022, and you expect to have a lot of content , difficult challenges and different ways to get to the end game and what you’ll get is only straight path, with no options for getting in 5-6 different paths from point A to point B! IMAGE FROM MAPS - https://ibb.co/7Jk0wQ1
Why don’t you open the maps? Instead of creating linear - one way maps, design for console and mobile players, create open maps, where we can explore the world, explore the unknown areas.
And of course we can have some linear maps in dungeons, underground, prisons…etc. But make them rare. Give us some space so we can explore and kill monsters.
Can you open the image? You can clearly see that maps are all in one direction, all narrow and with no option for exploring and side roads.
Did Blizzard stated that they are changing the maps? Did they say that maps are gonna be more open, and more adventures, and with a lot of options to move and tactical options?
I think that it varies a lot according to locations, the drowned cave seemed pretty linear, beginning to end, while the khazra cave and the fallen keep seemed more like an branching area with objectives spread all over.
Sopose it would be like you sugest… after 2 dungeons you would quit the game, as you would pass about 50min just to find what your quest are, other 10min just comming back to entrance, and other 1:30h to find any other thing in the map…
Remember, our imagination should be limitless, but machines are not. They have limitations. Would your pc run a game like that you want?
These maps of dungeons. Personally, I hate mazes. It’s also very early as in, “hey, we got it generating maps, but haven’t tune them”. A lot of crap on this forum is from people who have no idea how the process works. I guess it’s partially my fault for thinking that you would, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.
Are you aware that the game is still 3-4 years away from release?
What they have on demo is literally NOTHING. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just don’t have enough assets (pieces) made to make branching labyrinths.
Also, it was a 20 minute demo. The goal of map creators there is to make everything as straightforward as possible so that every player gets as full a demo experience as possible and sees every location, or maybe even fights Ashava. If they made a branching long dungeon - then people would waste most of their 20 min completing it.
The demo dropped legendaries from pre-defined mobs, and it were always the same items for each class too. So what - will you create another thread criticizing D4 for scripted looting?
In other words - your fears are completely unbased.
What you get shown in the demo is in no way representative of a real game.
I mean, what are you even talking about at this point?
Just hatemongering.
You can’t even focus on one subject doing that.
I think they might have done that on purpose for the particular demo of blizzcon. The reason for that is that they wanted players to actually follow a particular sequence (even the legendary drops weren’t random) so they could see the exact features they intended to show in that demo. Since the demo was 20 minutes long, they probably didn’t want players to lurk around in the cave for too long.
I agree with OP. It’s true that the randomised outdoors also look like corridors. Although some panels showed other randomised dungeons that looks more like clusters.
I agree that there is no point of having a randomised maps if you only have to choose between 2 corridors. Nor it should be 10 corridors. The paths should inter-act each other.
I know it’s extremely difficult to do (because they bake lights for each scene), but they need to find a way.
By the way, currently the outdoor map is mainly static…
Hopefully this is just demo material and they plan on creating more open or maze like layouts. If everything is linear then procedural generation is almost unneeded.
I wouldn’t mind if certain aspects are the same each time, as long as there is some randomization along the way.
For example, perhaps the main boss is always in the top right corner of that particular area, but the journey to the boss is varied. Along the way, there are random quests/things to explore if I don’t want to just farm 1 particular boss. Just a thought. Envision D1 quest variance along the way.
It’s good, but it’s generating console-friendly maps on purpose
If it’s case 1) they should make it better. If it’s case 2) this will be the result in initial game simply because consoles have higher priority than PC.
I dunno man, I think it will depend on the area. The drowned dungeon had a path or two that no one took since they had 5 min and went straight for the boss. Garan Hold had a 4 way branching path at the Idol of the Imp location. I think your post cherry picks mini map grabs and is disingenuous at best.
In case I am being too harsh and you didn’t look at any Blizzcon demo game play footage to see how the maps really were I apologize. With that the last thing we need is more Barracks or that Act 5 Adria endlessly sprawling maps. I don’t mind mostly linear maps with a few shot side areas, but spending a few min to reach a dead end only to spend another min or so back tracking is not compelling game play.
Yes, I believe they wanted players to get to the open world as fast as possible as well as see that little cutscene that transitions after leaving the cave, instead of lingering in the cave for too long. It really looks like a demo type of thing for me (having played other Blizzcon demos of games before, they always do stuff like that)
Also remember it’s probably the first dungeon (or one of the first) of the game. Something like the Den of Evil in Diablo 2, which was pretty much a corridor too.
Early in development. I really don’t think it’s the time to be judging their level design yet. They’ve been clearly focusing their efforts on the open world part to impress people at blizzcon. It wouldn’t be surprising that they just slapped together a few corridors for the dungeons at the moment
