Closed Beta Constructive Feedback - Dungeons/Cellars

Console Discussion
1

Dungeons are near and dear to my heart in Diablo franchise. The memories of the randomness of their layout, what you would encounter in them, where baddies would be encountered, what loot you might find, alters, goblins, puzzles, bosses - its a big part of the fantasy to get it right.

In the beta, Dungeons and Cellars looked amazing graphically, but fell short of feeling long term replayable and unique when I went in them. The biggest surprises were alters or running into the Butcher randomly - bun, but not enough. Itā€™s a beta so I get that its not final by any stretch and you cannot give up the full game. However, I expected more diversity of experience for what is supposed to feel like all of Act I. Dungeon and cellar layouts were surprisingly bland and repetitive, mechanics and bosses felt very reused and repetitive. I completed all but 3 of them, but was reluctant to do the last three as they just were not very engaging beyond getting the affix to drop once as my only real motivationā€¦ which feels like a miss.

Dungeon Mechanics

  • Find 1+ item, return item(s) to locked door, enter, beat boss
  • Boss was repeated commonly amongst a few different ones

Cellar mechanics

  • Enter, navigate the same L shape, beat boss, or open chest and beat mobs

Possible ideas for dungeon mechanics

  • locked door doesnā€™t take to fetch items, instead, you must solve a puzzle related to mystery of story or act you are in which can RNG changeā€¦

  • puzzle example, door has 3-4 spinny devices with different icons on them. Each spinny device has 5 icons. You need the right combination in the right order. You must search dungeon for clues on which icons you need, clue may come from a few different solvable items, parchment, mob drop, mural on wall, whateverā€¦

  • No locked door, when you get to boss, itā€™s wide open. Boss is surrounded by pylons/minions of power heā€™s linked to. Kill pylons/minons for easier fight on boss, or kill boss while heā€™s attached to pylons where heā€™s much harder to kill, but you get better loot drop chances?

  • No boss in final room, you arrive at final room and have to solve a puzzle for treasure.

  • No boss in final room, there is a hard to kill ā€˜postule/tumor looking thing or giant spider cocoon thingā€™ that is going to explode in final room once you start attacking it. Now attacking - thereā€™s a timer noise with undisclosed time remainingā€¦ if you fail it explodes wiping party and ending dungeonā€¦ sad face. If you kill it, 1 loot goblin for each player in party pops out as you release them from their prison and they all take off in different directions. Now have to chase / kill them quickly before they escape with your goodies - chaos insues as party tries to figure out which goblins to go for!

  • No boss in final room, there is a hard to kill ā€˜postule/tumor looking thing or giant spider cocoon thingā€™ that is going to explode in final room once you start attacking it. Now attacking - thereā€™s a timer noise with undisclosed time remainingā€¦ if you fail it explodes wiping party and ending dungeonā€¦ sad face. If you kill it, super baddie pops out - way worse than normal boss and no loot gobo like above, instead - this butcher level baddie requires maximum effort from party to deal with or - wipes party. if you kill it, bonus loots and you get a new title option or something ā€˜sucker punchedā€™ or somethingā€¦

Your options for what you encounter at the end are so potentially varied. Even the design of the dungeon elites and mobs encountered can have far more variety. The above are just off top of my head at some Diablo themed ideas.

Cellar maps as always being an L are equally repetative. Those mechanics seemed so bland. Again, Iā€™m hoping for more variety, different map designs, and puzzles, bosses, fun events and RNG ecounters within them so they are not all the same.

Devs/designers really nailed the asthetic ā€˜feelā€™ but the map layouts did not feel fresh and new as I went in them, and mechanics inside the dungeons were not engaging enough to make me want to replay them. The reward encounter at the end needs to feel like a chance of something epic happening. Iā€™m REALLY hoping our narrow view of encounter types and mechanics in the dungeons were just overly simplified for the beta where full game launch has much greater variety of experience to keep the dungeons and final rooms a guessing game of possibilities. Its part of what made original Diablo and D2 so great.

Thank you,

Tac

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I canā€™t imagine playing 100+ dungeons with the same 4 or 5 basic mechanics over and over again. This was getting old quick to me and itā€™s only the beta.

I think they also need more lore, and that lore needs to have implications on how the dungeon is completed find more lore, unlock bonus rooms or bosses. Find all the lore and open up a deeper part of the dungeon after the boss fight. Encourage exploration.

What I did like are the dungeons are circular in nature in that of you miss a particular branch you can more easily circle back to it later without having to backtrack through the entire dungeon.

Cellars need a lot of work. Every single one was go in, kill elite mob and leave. I would like to see more variety or at least add more lore to the kill maybe something that circles to a landmark or dungeon in the area. Or perhaps those statues where you have to use emotes to get rewards can give better rewards based on the lore implications of completing a cellar nearby. Or maybe certain cellar instances which present a moral choice to kill or spare someone who may or may not be encountered later in the game in another cellar, dungeon town or just out in the world. I want more of that, not loading screens between mobs to kill.

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Longevity of this game will be based on the actions the dev team takes on dungeonsā€¦ alot of people are talking about how boring they thought objectives in dungeons wereā€¦ however the Art/Music is absolutely amazing imo. I really hope the devs are listening because this game has soooo much potential!

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We do have to keep in mind that this is a beta and only a small slice of what is potentially to come. I do have higher expectations for the release. I also believe progress will ultimately be slower based on what they gave us so far.

We got little bits and pieces of story and side quests but not enough to give away the whole game. We also got fast tracked in terms of gear and aspects to get a taste or the endgame power fantasy. They gave us just enough to test, I only wish we had a bit more interaction with Lilith, so far itā€™s only cut scenes and images.

One tease I did like and a bit of foreshadowing here is that Lilith doesnā€™t feel like the only main antagonist in the game. There are clearly two bad forces at play here.

5

Agreed, Lilith almost seems like the good entitfy in the rift formed between her and Inarius. I see little chance he is getting back into heaven and see him becoming daemon before its all said and done. Lilith definitely daemon, but far more of a grey character. Inarius basically hates the inhabitants of Sanctuary at this point. He treats the people like peasants. Wouldnā€™t be surprised if he and Tyriel go at it, Inarius goes to the dark side, Lilith and he battle it out only for him to fall further into despair/hate/loathingā€¦ dark side stuff.

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The battle of neutral evil vs lawful evil only the lines are blurred. There is a little bit of both in each character so far. Iā€™m anxious to see where this goes.

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I would also love a randomised dungeon in the mix (think of a portal into hell,ā€¦). With changing environments and so on.

I like the current dungeons but this will keep me hooked on diablo 4.