Open Beta Feedback
Controller UI
Targeting: This seems to have been improved at least somewhat and is slightly less aggressive with target changes, though it is still very difficult to select a target manually. We could really use a target lock bind to help with retaining the target while repositioning ourselves to avoid incoming damage.
Aiming: Trying to aim a specific direction is still a royal pain because we have to be moving to change directions. We need force stand still as a bind option. Most builds leave us enough empty binds that we can afford to use one for this functionality. Allowing us to bind it to any button is a plus here.
Movement: I noticed that regardless of the current toggle for run/walk, the left analogue stick will make you walk if not fully extended in any direction. That’s not bad, but it would be nice if we had an option to disable that so that it would obey the run/walk toggle whether the analogue reading is 25 or 127.
User Note: The reason for asking for this option is because turning and rounding corners often slows us down if we aren’t jamming the stick into the edge at all times. This would both save wear and tear on the stick and also allow for more precise movement via quicker turns without losing run/walk status.
Vendors: It is worth repeating here - give us a separate button for selling. Currently when a vendor screen is open we have to hold to sell. Let us use square/X (quick press) to sell and reassign “drop” to long-hold square/X.
Inventory/Vendor Screen: Please give us the option to bind the compare function. L1 and R1 are unused outside of the options window and should be allowed to be used as “field” binds for any assignable function. This then frees up triangle/Y for “multi-use” for the Tome of Identify, like we can in Path of Exile. Having to long hold to use the tome for each and every item gets tiresome quickly out in the field.
Stat and Skill Panes: Allow L2+L1 and L2+R1 in the field to trigger the Stat and Skill windows respectively. That gives quick access to both and avoids having to do the shoulder/trigger button dance with the main options window (at least as far as getting to the skill pane).
Control Binding Pane: Please move the controller binding pane to its own L1/R1 accessible pane instead of being a subpane next to the skill tree pane. Again, control binding preferences should always be in an easily accessible section without having to dance around within subsections.
Ammo/Charge Indicators: The ammunition and skill charge text is very difficult to read on the controller UI. There are two decent options to fix this. The first is to raise the height of the skill bar enough to fit the text underneath the skill icon but still between the bulging controller button icon. The second is to do the same, but instead of the text being in between the skill and controller icons, new thin rectangular boxes can be added above each button bind display while being beneath the EXP bar.
Additionally, changing the shade of the ammo/charge text, or better yet, allowing the player to choose a preferred color to accomodate visual impairments would be grand. Light blue on a grey background is somewhat difficult to see even in the KB/M UI.
Menu Navigation: Currently we can only go down from the top in order to reach the bottom. Please allow us to cycle to the bottom by pressing up. It would make waypoint navigation a lot faster.
Stash and Inventory Screen: Please allow us to use triangle/Y (long hold) to deposit an item direclty into the Horadric Cube and either L1 or R1 to open the cube directly (whichever one of these two is not used for the compare binding). Currently we have to drag items into the cube with the analogue stick after picking the item up. This would speed up transmutations greatly.
Keyboard and Mouse UI
Stat and Skill Buttons: These are still right smack in the middle of the playing field. Please widen the OG skill bar and move them back onto it. You have room to do so as the skill bar is narrower (left to right) than the controller UI skill bar and making them both the same width would allow placing those buttons back where they belong. It’s a really big downgrade to have them where we’re trying to click.
Alternate option: You can also put them above the EXP bar in the spaces indicated by the green borders in this picture (sorry for not being perfectly rounded - my deformed arm doesn’t do precision with the mouse and I have no Wacom tablet or Cintique to work with). You could fill the bordered area with a maroon background and small cross when we have stat and/or skill points available respectively. When no points are available to spend, the maroon background would become grey like the rest of the skill bar (or slightly darker to indicate the presence of these buttons’ functionality).
Ammo and Charge Indicators: Same as with the controllers - let the player choose a color for them and perhaps use one of the location methodologies outlined above for the controller skill bar.
Skill Bar: We would still like a D3 style skill bar as a third control option for KB/M users to alleviate having to constantly reach for a skill bind to change the RMB bind. It would help immensely with preventing RSI.
Movement Visuals: There is still a very noticeable jerkiness when changing directions quickly. The classic client does not have this issue. What happens is when changing directions quickly the display freezes for just a split second and then moves in the new direction you’re facing. You can see this very easily by moving the mouse rapidly in opposite directions and by moving it in a circle around the character onscreen and watching how it seems like there are breakpoints and not smooth turning.
Miscellaneous
Contrast: The original (classic) game client has a contrast slider to fine tune color saturation with the current calibration of the display. This would help a lot with the issue of washed out colors in the D2R client.
Vendors: A refresh button like we have with the gambling screen would help for vendor NPCs when looking for specific equipment types and/or number of sockets. To accomodate this, you may need to also put in a warning popup that tells the players that refreshing the vendor inventory will permanently delete any items sold by the player (popup only comes up if the player has actually sold an item to that particular vendor during the current vendor session).
Graphics Engines: We’re still waiting for the option to select a specific graphics mode so we can turn off (disable) the engine we aren’t using in order to free up resources. This is very likely why console users have to select Performance instead of Graphics for their general setting. It’s a nice tech demo, but lousy on the resources.
Netcode: I hope you’re planning on focusing on this area intensely prior to launch. The changes you made for the open beta actually made rubberbanding worse. It happens so often now that I find myself getting angry due to the frequent rubberbanding. It’s not as prevalent with the controller UI as it is with the KB/M UI, but it happens often enough that it makes the game feel really bad when inside caves or indoor areas.
Input Delay: This is very noticeable with the KB/M UI and somewhat noticeable with the controller UI. It feels like the responsiveness is literally tied to the OG graphics engine’s 25 FPS single player limit. There is that much of an input delay in moving and attacking. If this is because of both engines running concurrently and needing to be “in sync”, then give us the option to select the engine we intend to use and turn off the other engine. Fast paced games like this need as little input lag as possible and this seems to exacerbate it instead.