Mostly using this as a notepad as things come up. No particular order.
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Where is my twangy weird classic Diablo music? I should be able to tell that a Diablo game is playing simply by the sound track, and I cannot. First of 4 games I have ever come across this issue, and it was something I was looking forward too. The score of Diablo games has a very, very special, nostalgic place in my heart. It’s like jungle music from the desert, folk metal made from tambourines, chanting and deep drums and wobbly strings and sparkling percussion. Where is it?
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Map overlay is sorely missing and a staple for the genre. Gives entire game a slightly awkward feel. The little swooshy “fog of war” style reveal when you go to a new area accentuates this awkwardness in remarkable ways.
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The outlines of buildings are the exact same as random terrain on the mini/map, and that’s just weird. You’re standing in a hut, but on the minimap it looks like you’re in a little cave. It’s not really a problem as much as it is…just weird.
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Default key bindings for Skills (A) and Assign Skills (S) is counter-intuitive. Easy rebind, easy fix to avoid needing to.
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Items on ground should display a tooltip when you hover over them. It is annoying to need to pick an item up to see what it is, especially with full inventory. This should be an option (if it already is and I’ve missed it, ignore this).
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When not on full health, but full on potions, walking over a health potion should auto-use one, treating it as a health globe of sorts.
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Receiving “Item not usable by your class” items as quest rewards is the opposite of rewarding.
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Interaction-able traversal objects in the world (Ladders, ropes, jumps, climbs) should be clickable, like any other traversal object (doors, portals, instance openings, etc).
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Stats on items in early game (so far only up to level 16) don’t seem to matter much at all, outside of a handful of “ooh that’s what my stuff does” that are easily trivialized by the next piece you get based solely on its increased Armor or Damage. It doesn’t seem like these stats are taken into account when comparing the overall damage change you would actually see when equipping said item. This could be fixed by adjusting the levels provided by early affixes, or including the effect of those affixes in the (+/-DMG/ARMOR) display. In MOST games of this nature I’ve ever played, I am still using some item from level 20 because of its stats by the time I hit the endgame, or something like that. That doesn’t seem to be a feature in D4, and that is a shame. Item power matters, item affixes matter, this is a gear-based ARPG. If we are being fed red “you done messed up” numbers based on what boils down to arbitrary and inaccurate calculations, it is going to give the entire gearing experience a sour taste. In short, don’t trivialize the thing these games are about. You did that in D3 and it sucked.
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Melee skills will not activate if your target is behind another target, and you cannot move towards it. Case in point, an enemy behind a bone wall. Treating object collision similarly to holding the Shift key could alleviate this, but may cause other issues. Melee/all skills having an option to “always attack if you have a target” could help as well.
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Attempting to mark an object as Junk (default: Space) while in the Blacksmith’s window (where you salvage Junk) causes your character to dash (default: Space).
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A way to display the nameplates of interactable world-objects such as “Funny smelling stack of books” or “Barrel” or “Biteberry” or “Lost Pack” as if they were item tooltips (default: Alt (nebulously functional to begin with)) - I am all for surprises and exploration, and those things are achieved by moving my character to an area, not waving my cursor around that area willy-nilly.
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If Thorns being actually viable is only an early game thing, make it be a late game thing too.
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Teleporters at the end of Dungeons are infrequent, and should be an expected “return to beginning” in all larger than Cellar off-map content. Alternatively, a (better? more obvious? forced?) tutorial quest that shows that the Emote wheel apparently has a “Leave Dungeon” function would be spectacular. I had no idea it was a thing until someone commented about it below.
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The keybinding to have a character appreciate a view (appears as “Look”) is by default set to a control called “Force Interact” - What is the purpose of this, and the similar seeming “Force Move” controls? Why can it not be the same button that has you interact with another player?
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Right clicking the map should zoom out one level. (default: number keys) The current functionality with the number keys selecting the different “layers” is fine, but right clicking the map should “zoom out” one layer by default as well.
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If we are going to be able to change our markings and accessories, and the NPC’s themselves are such a feature in the “crafting/utility stations”, a barber to change our hairstyle is a completely feasible ask I think.
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Random named baddies shouting stuff from…somewhere? Don’t know what to say about this one really.
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The Barbarian is playing a different game almost entirely. The level of…I don’t know if difficulty is the word, maybe challenge, is at least twice that of the Rogue/Sorcerer. If the Barb had some natural splash damage on ALL of his attacks, especially the generators, this would help a great deal. There are very, very few attacks in his toolkit that would require some explanation as to how they are hitting other enemies nearby, but the question of why they aren’t is there instead. He could use a bit of a boost in damage as well, ESPECIALLY considering the amount of damage a melee class puts themselves up against compared to a ranged class.
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Someone put a lot of work into that barf animation when we first come to, saved from the meat shed in the very early game. All that hard work consistently it seems, ends up on poor Iosef’s feet. Perhaps have the character do a 180 and vomit somewhere visible, to save the poor mans shoes and show off the story-pertinent-petal-laden-spew that someone painstakingly animated.
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The Sorcerer feels very…homogenized. Granted, I did not get very far with the character (yet? probably at all) but compared to the Barb and Rogue, it felt very uninspired. The first three tiers of spells, Generator, Spender, Defensive, they seemed to lack unique functionality beyond some very basic differences. Despite the obvious bonuses the different Elements attempted to convey, they ended up feeling like different colored sameness. Certainly being low level aided in this feeling, but it was not a feeling I got from the other two classes at all.
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The entire UI feels, off. Hard to pinpoint it exactly, but there seems to be a few too many windows to achieve simple things, and those windows felt out of place. It doesn’t quite feel like a Diablo game interface. I am not even gonna touch on the “at least its not comic sans” font usage throughout the entire UX beyond this sentence, I am assuming this is a placeholder and if it is not, then I shall bring out the torch and pitchfork.
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If Gamble currency is going to have such a low cap, and only come from world-events, the prices should be lowered or the probability of good items should be raised. The very familiar and exciting mechanic seems hobbled, despite hardly being in the race. Might be better at higher levels, cap may be raised, but I gave up on an old friend pretty quickly after it netted nothing valuable. I don’t even pick up Obols anymore…and only partially because I can’t.
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Despite limited access to it, I do thoroughly enjoy the non-linear story the world has. I think this is going to take a good bit of the sting out of leveling a character in the long run, as you will be able to cherry pick your favorite areas to level up in. Granted, we may have something similar to the way D3 handled it, where you can level up alternatively to the story.
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Game throws The Butcher at you on a “Level 1+” side quest? LOL
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Honestly taken aback that the Ultimate abilities do not unlock their own slot. These either need a rename, or their own extra button press. Having to take away one of your skills to equip something called an “Ultimate Ability” just makes it another regular ol’ ability.
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Player’s location on map is very difficult to see. Make the player location arrow gold or blue or red or something, to stand out.