In addition to all the other feedback people have provided. Generally, when I was playing D4 it felt really good. However after logging out it felt like something was missing. I don’t see many people talking about this so I’ll try and explain it below.
I was expecting D4 to feel like a game I was playing for the first time. I took my time while enjoying the story and exploring but something felt off. It almost felt like I was starting a new season character in D3. Legendaries were dropping so often I felt like I had to consider what my BiS gear was and if I should skip the story and level up quickly so the legendaries were higher item lvl. Adding to that the knowledge that changing skill points at higher levels would cost a lot of gold made we wonder if my build would be meta? These distractions greatly took away from how I wanted to play the game for the first time. I don’t mind having access to the codex of power or lots of legendary drops in the endgame but it greatly cheapens the first play through experience.
Adding to this poor experience, D4’s world seems to also cater towards the endgame experience and not the story. Playing in Fractured Peaks felt like playing an Diablo Act stretched out over a large area. The world’s dungeons and cellars lack a sense of identity and layout variation. There were lots of large empty areas or isolated quest objectives. There was no sense of exploration when entering a new area for the first time because large areas get revealed at once and dungeon locations are already shown. It felt like a mashup of campaign and adventure mode in D3.
Possible solutions:
use the current setup for seasons only (adventure mode equivalent) to help with QoL
unlock the codex of power as a reward for completing the campaign or hide power locations.
reduce legendary drop rates in Veteran difficulty so they are very rare
gold requirements for changing skills is free/cheap until you finish the campaign after which it will increase based on the number of times you respec
map slowly reveals itself as you move not in chunks, like other diablo games
dungeons aren’t shown on the map unless you walk near them
dungeons have nightmare and campaign versions. Not all dungeons have to be the same size as long as all the dungeons balance out for each class.
Although the endgame will be what we play the most, the first play through is what I remember fondly. The point of having an open world game is to enjoy the journey, explore the world and go at your own pace.
Whatever the dev’s decide to change there will be people that don’t like it, so yeah I’m glad I’m not a dev. Most of these suggestions work well in previous Diablo/Blizzard games or other open world RPGs. D4 is focusing too much on endgame viability that the open world aspect is pointless.
use the current setup for seasons only (adventure mode equivalent) to help with QoL
Removes content from the game. Leveling again is additional replayability and potential to strategize efficiency.
unlock the codex of power as a reward for completing the campaign or hide power locations.
Playing the dungeons to unlock the codex is interactive and something to do in the game. This is a goal that has more depth rather than being handed the codex entries.
reduce legendary drop rates in Veteran difficulty so they are very rare
Drop rates are already worse than they were in beta. Too rare without open trading and builds just won’t be able to be played. A certain level of rarity is warranted to make items exciting to get, but legendary is not even the highest item rarity.
gold requirements for changing skills is free/cheap until you finish the campaign after which it will increase based on the number of times you respec
The system already sets the respec costs to free/cheap until post level 50 and that cost remains low if you are only respeccing a couple of your final points. They even said that the total cost wouldn’t be too prohibitive, but you likely won’t be able to constantly respec without it being cost prohibitive. Doing it based on number of times you respec would eventually make it totally impossible to respec.
map slowly reveals itself as you move not in chunks, like other diablo games1
Non-issue. The fog of war does expose the map in chunks, but those chunks aren’t massive or anything.
dungeons aren’t shown on the map unless you walk near them
They are shown as long as you uncover the fog of war.
dungeons have nightmare and campaign versions. Not all dungeons have to be the same size as long as all the dungeons balance out for each class.
Content would still be in the game, just not required for seasonal play. What may be “replayability” to you is just frustrating repetition to many others. PoE players have been complaining about this very thing for years and they even seem to be pretty united in that complaint.
I don’t think this really adds as much depth as you think it does. There will be an optimal order for getting the most powerful Aspects and those will be rushed. With the lower legendary drop rates, people will just rush the optimal Aspects and a huge amount of their character’s power is going to come only from those. You may like that, others don’t.
I think it’s pretty clear that OP is just uninformed about the fact that the drop-rates were increased for the beta.
Doing it based on the number of respecs could work, if there was a time-based-cost-reduction applied as well. Without something like that – definitely a no from me. Some people seem to like really restrictive respecs for whatever reason, though.
I don’t personally care about this at all, but it’s a matter of opinion. This isn’t a bad suggestion, you just don’t think it’s an issue (which is fine, we’re allowed to have differences of opinion).
OP mentioned layout variation earlier so I’m guessing he didn’t mean “size” here in the classical sense. Not exactly sure.
Many of these suggestions were reasonable, even if you happen to disagree with them – hardly a reason to insult the OP.
I wish there was something not so hopeless and dreary about D4.
I know it’s a dark fantasy but some family scenes or something generally wholesome would help give perspective of what is at stake, maybe some comraderie and tavern drinking, a brighter future to fight for, that kind of thing.
This in particular is just outright wrong. They will have to LOWER respec costs in the foreseeable future.
Yes, legendaries dropped quite often. But it is VERY difficult to get the legendaries you needed in the slots you needed them in, and then you needed to get the right stats, in the right slots, in addition to the right affixes. And you can only transfer a legendary power once.
I am actually concerned the legendary drop rate will be too low, but I need to see what end-game reward loop is like, and how “sanctified” and Saintly (Whatever it was) legendary affixes will function.
I never found a unique item the entire closed or open beta.
I’m a Data Scientist actually working at a large multi-national firm. I have a Master’s Degree in Data Science and will have my PhD at roughly this time next year.
That’s interesting, every complaint about D4 on the forum since the closed beta has been that the game wasn’t more like D2 or D3 in some way or another. Both of those games are boring, I’m not sure why people don’t want to try something new.
I’m thinking that’s just a slight exaggeration. I have, however, noticed that many who don’t like to read criticism here just say “go back to D2” even when nobody has mentioned it at all. Weird.
