A handful of Observations

PC General Discussion
1

I do not post in general, but after playing this casually since beta I do have a few observations and a preamble. I have kept to few games, so my knowledge is admittedly limited compared to most folk.

Have played the game since D1 in my 20s in the late 90s. Gaming was crazy innovative back then, so much goodness. D1 blew me away as the dungeon crawler was yet to be awesome, until then.

Several years later, D2 came out. What a fun game, you could blow 10 hours grinding and not even notice. Again, was much younger. Play with friends, lay waste, a good time.

D3 was interesting after the major patches. It was a game of turbulence in the first bit but became its own game. Cartoonish graphics sure but I did enjoy the sets. You eventually focussed on those or the LoD, had choices. No real endgame tho beyond runs.

D4 was interesting in beta as the mechanics changed. Attaching great abilities to items and being able to swap them was something I had not seen. The graphics are very good, the mood is dark, harkening back to D2. It did feel unfinished and it was strange they made major changes to items and play after launch but they needed to.

Now it seems like something is still missing. The glory of previous Diablos was getting that one drop to get you to the next level. It happens here but not as fulfilling. And I do get gamers have changed, some have more time to grind but sadly I do not. So how are they going to cater to casuals and hard cores? I don’t think any game can. Beyond what I saw as fair even in the D2 days, if you are offline for a time you should get a bit of a bump with good drop frequency for a limited time, much like XP increases as you are offline for a while in some games.

Again, not a big gamer anymore, when not playing this I do more strategy and building to spend time. I log in to run around and kill things for a while, sometimes 1 hour, others 5 when time permits.

Sorry to ramble but I just wanted to say this cannot be an easy job for the devs. This climate, this gaming industry is nothing like I’ve ever seen.

I will say though, and I don’t program games but am a statistics programmer, equalizing classes should not really be harder than what it seems. This is all arithmatic. Eg. the best geared Barb hits for a damage on average that should be close to what an SB hits or Druid hits within a deviation of crit chances. Lots of variables involved, gear and paragon chosen but all should be close, and especially within one class.

Sorry to keep you if you stayed around but on a closing note 2 things:

  • I LOVE to play Sorc/Wiz. Always have and always will, since D1. They should be squishy and deal crap loads of damage. They are not in this game. Perhaps I do not spend as much time as I should tweaking gear, but that was never the point of D1-3. Perhaps it is now and I lost my way. Have yet to find a way to enjoy all builds. Again time.
  • I don’t think this is a negative post, just observations. Times have changed, and I get that, and there is a new generation of gamers that are looking for different things that I am not. Is hard to juggle that. There are a lot of good ideas out there however, not these, but I do hope the devs are keeping an eye out. To all those who just do not like the game: take a break, spend some time outside and with your family and take this for what it is, a game. I do look forward to what they come up with season to season.

Be well all.

8 Likes
2

back then, i could pee three yards further even against the wind, but now i just end up wetting my shoes with the wind.

we’re in menopause, we don’t feel things the same as before. don’t you think d4 would have been cool and edgy if it was released in the '90s?

2 Likes
3

Thank you for your first post and I think it was a good one! I can at times feel the same about sorc/wiz but I find a way to main them anyway. It it possible!

1 Like
4

Welcome

True. I was younger than you are and I miss gaming from back then. Developers were only limited by scope and technology. Instead, what they had was unlimited creativity and freedom of design.

I could play Diablo II for hours on the weekends same for LOD Battlenet Plus that music. The soundtrack of Diablo II’s has the best game music that even topples Halo and that is saying something.

DIII vanilla had interesting concepts that never came to be. In the event that the arena game mode was finished and in the base game. I think it would have lessened the blow of the impact the game had on the original fanbase. Diablo III Reaper of Souls may as well been a whole new Diablo installment/spin off.

The codex of power is a cool system.

I disagree that video games can’t appease both original fanbases/competitive and casual gamers. The Halo trilogy under Bungie did it with Halo Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo Reach.

This is true.

You too.

1 Like
5

Well said thx for posting chief

2 Likes
6

This is so true.

Over the years and many games, things just become average as it’s just a new skin on an old idea. Some things are cool but they just don’t have the same power to grab you like back in the day. Guess getting older takes a toll.

1 Like
7

after ~30 years, i cannot deny that my mentality has changed. numbness and resistance to ordinary contents ensue. if the game is not fun, we are responsible for half of it. for the remaining half, i don’t expect the devs to create highly innovative content, but i do hope they put more effort into fixing bugs. this is also their responsibility for the studio.

1 Like
8

We also are better able to see the lame manipulations and cheap parlor tricks modern game companies are attempting to use to pull the wool over our eyes and less tolerant to them when we see it. in the 90’s bugs were fixed to maintain a semblance of fairness. Now they are only fixed if it threatens revenue. We aren’t the only things that age has affected.

4 Likes
9

I think this is the heart of it. Gear needs to become much more useful and seasonal powers need to be toned down. Gear should be the most beneficial part of your build.

10

MMOs back in the day had rested XP. Being logged out built it up and you earned more XP until this rested XP ran out. I think they could do something like that here to improve casual experience and engage players to log in each couple of days and spend their rested XP. It could work and I dont see how it would be a negative. There could even be a version to up gold drops and item drops for a limited time. This would be account based so no making 14 alts and farming it nonstop.