I feel penalised for exploring on my first playthrough

PC General Discussion
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I’ve been loving D4 so far, but I’m running up against a simple problem that’s starting to sap the joy for me a little. The short version is that I feel penalised for exploration.

D4 is such a beautiful, detailed world with some fantastic writing in the main campaign and the sidequests, NPC dialogue, everywhere. Now that I’ve hit level 50 though, I am acutely aware that if I don’t rush down the campaign, I’ll be missing out on effective gear progression and xp. I want to do the sidequests as the story progresses, because the sidequests relate to the story and events in each area I move through, but I’m aware that if I do, I’ll be essentially throwing away xp.

I’ve never encountered an rpg that actually penalised explorative or immersive play. I feel like I have to ignore the NPCs that need my help, and that’s a jarring feeling.

Diablo 4 is a game for min-maxers, but it’s a story-rich title, not action only. Blizzard surely knows that people playing games are doing so for different reasons, and that sometimes people play for a few reasons at once. For such a polished, big-name title to make me choose between min-maxing and story immersion is strange.

Based on my limited understanding, all that would be needed is to either slow down levelling progression on a first run through the story (to prevent players reaching 50 before campaign completion) or allow shifting to a higher WT as soon as you reach 50.

The inevitable comparison and defense here would be that WT3 and 4 are basically like a ‘new game plus’, which is a feature that is always locked behind campaign completion. I’d argue though that that’s not a great comparison. NG+ always follows on from an entirely complete playthrough, but WT3 is presented as access to the ‘full’ game with better equipment and better levelling post-50.

Not everyone plays for the reasons I do, of course. But if you’re like me, you want to min-max and feel powerful, but you also want to feel to some extent that you ARE the character. If I play sidequests, I lose out on progression, and I’m aware while reading the story that I’m essentially wasting my time xp-wise, which makes it hard to have fun with them. If I speed-run the campaign, it begins to feel empty and kind of cold, and my immersion suffers. I don’t enjoy the feeling that I have to postpone sidequests until after I complete the main game.

I had thought when buying D4 that I might grow tired of the endgame, but I feel unmotivated to explore even on a first playthrough, and that is honestly a new one for me. It feels like not that much would have to change to make a first playthrough so much more satisfying for people like me, which would encourage people to keep coming back. Which is what Blizzard want, right?

Ideally later in the game’s development I’d love to be rewarded for re-attempting the campaign at higher world tiers, with harder boss fights and increased rewards, but right now I’d settle for not feeling penalised for exploration.

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This is a problem you are making up for yourself. Its a video game, it serves absolutely no purpose other than fun. If exploring and doing side quests is fun, then just do them? There is no prize for speeding through the game, unless you think racing to being bored and quitting faster is a prize.

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I have a different experience of the game than you. That doesn’t make me wrong, just a different kind of player. Everything is ‘made up’ in that sense, including your perspective on the game.

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Exactly. Then why call for a change to the game if you are the one that is different? Why force others to play a certain way?

Play how you want. I will play how i want. Others will play how they want. Under no circumstances should the game be changed to cater to a specific group set.

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I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t say that you were wrong, I was encouraging you to play however you want, however you feel is fun, because racing serves no purpose if its not fun for you.

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So what you’re saying is that no-one should express their opinion on the way the game should be? Fun is a subjective experience. I have ideas on what’s fun. So do you. I’d like to see the game’s development move in a certain direction, and I’m sure you have your own ideas on what that direction should be, no? Let’s talk on the level of the game. Do you disagree with my perspective? If so, why?

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I disagree with people wanting to change the game blizzard has put forth.

No one is saying you cannot have an opinion on the game or on what you feel is fun. I do as well, but i do not call for the game to be changed based on my opinion.

Have fun, or don’t. Play the game, or don’t……but this game is in its current state because blizzard keeps listening to its players. There is no clear direction that i am able to see other than heading to a mobile gaming micro transaction platform to suck money out of everyone.

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Right. But what I’m saying is that idea of fun is different - i like to be rewarded both by getting stronger and by experiencing the story. The idea that my progression is gated so long as I take my time makes it harder for me to have fun with the story, so I’d prefer to have both if possible. I’ve read similar posts from others, so I don’t think I’m alone in this perspective. Other games reward in both ways so there’s no reason this one shouldn’t, with a couple of minor tweaks. All previous Diablos have managed both.

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You didn’t actually offer any solution to your “problem”, the only one that comes to mind for me would be to slow down xp gain so you’d be able to do all the side quests and extras and the full campaign before hitting level 50.

That’s closer to how the game launched, and the overwhelming feedback was that the leveling was too slow, and so they made it faster. This talk and feedback has already happened.

What you need to keep in mind is that there is simply nothing stopping you from taking it slow and doing all the extras. You’ll just be level 50 already for some of it. You are deciding thats a problem when it doesn’t need to be.

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Diablo and games in the genre aren’t RPGs. You don’t do any roleplaying. Your character’s growth is only related to how quickly you can obliterate a room full of enemies.

The side quests are there for flavor and you’re right: they could offer more exp, but that wouldn’t move it closer to being an RPG.

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Yep i thought and stressed way too much about it. I’m even asking for them to let you into wt3 and 4 before the campaign is over given they’re putting helltides in t1 and t2.

Everything you’ve logically calculated is true and is a problem.

But none of it matters. The extent to which it doesn’t matter is actually quite a deflation, i took you seriously as a game d4, but it doesn’t take it self seriously, its just a dope flasher for blasters and a live service.

In fact:

  • They changed level scaling so that you have until level 55 to finish the campaign if you want to be on parity.
  • Your level vs enemy levels is a strong enough multiplier you’ll never be broken, or even challenged regardless of what level gear you arrive into wt3 with.
  • The casino gaming algorithm that drives the loot by watching your every click and measuring your dopamine pulse rate gives you an at level weapon within 15 mins. Without fail. This is the majority of the catchup, you’re now even.

Having said, i only own the pc version on steam so don’t have access to the beta. In case they haven’t changed the capstone access, combined with faster levelling… do you end up in wt3 at level 100 if you do 100% of the campaign? There’s a chance season 4 will change the above… but i can only guess make it easier.

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Let’s just say that the game is gone into a direction of caring ultimately mostly if not significantly about the final state and final result

I agree with you in terms of the game being anti-exploration and anti-alt

But could also see when people get tired of “not being able to explore” i.e. the game evolving faster than the player comprehension itself for an SSF mode to be available in one form or another

TBH I don’t like this one mainly cause makes the whole game “rushed up”. Perhaps consider reintroduing “XP shrines” like D2 had, then people will “rush themselves up” at times for a particular reason instead of the whole game feeling like being rushed-up

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You’re not missing out on anything. In fact this is the best season to play slow, enjoy the story and get the achievement for all the side quests. All the gear counts for nothing as a new gear system coming next season. Even if you play eternal, there’s absolutely nothing worth keeping. So let this season be the the one for not being efficient and do the story.

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Meh. In my and only playthrough I did all the exploring, campaign and quests and all those sorts of things. I was not worried about exp or level progressions whatsoever. The only focus I had was to enjoy the journey and learn everything about the lands and so forth.

On my second character (this would have been during Season 1 as we have to create new characters every new season) the main focus was no longer about exploration, it was about leveling, XP efficiency, gear grind and so forth.

Just play the game however you want and don’t worry about “efficient XP”. It’s a fools errand unless you’re competing against other players (racing).

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One more thing - S4 early game feels good again (relatively better), i.e. it’s not bombarded with ToW chores in that regard

You have the horse from the get-go yes but can’t go immediately anywhere you want (kinda need beef up a bit before going into Hawezar)

In fact you can play the campaign even if you clicked “skip campaign” when you start

One thing I noticed is that perhaps “By three they come” should’ve been an actual part of Act 4/5, it has a really nice campaign-ish vibe in it and nice looking layout :slight_smile:

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I fully agree with you. As if I were reading my thoughts.
Diablo IV is a game where you have to be in a constant rush. This is strange to me because this beautiful, vast world begs for thorough exploration.

Has anyone noticed while going through the campaign that, for example, NPCs in Kyovashad have different dialogues in Act I and different ones in Act V? In fact, there are even new characters from the Dry Steppes, for whom we did side quests!

There are a lot of such details, but who would bother with them if you have to be in a hurry all the time…

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Simple fix:

Option to toggle xp gain. Option 1 : campaign (slower). Option 2 : endgame (faster).

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So has anybody in this thread been on the forums lately?

Y’all have been crying like hungry babies for “muh endgame” for a long time.

We get more endgame and then Nooby Nobbins here starts crying for more leveling.

Devs must think we’re certified at this point.

OP, join another thread that wants more leveling, maybe the 6 of you can sway Blizz into reversing course after a year of begging for more endgame, I’m sure they’ll be happy to help.

:laughing:

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yea, it’s weird how WT3+ are gated behind campaign, even on release when lvling was slower i did all sidequests/dungeons in ACT 1 and realized, i would massivley outlevel the campaign, if i keep completing the sidequests.
so i focussed on the MSQ and still ended up at 49 or so at the end of it.

with the exp changes and everything i would assume overleveling the campaign is a given right now.

So i agree, just remove the requirement of campaign completion for higher WTs, it’s not like the campaign changes or anything if you can up the difficulty at lvl50

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You play the game the way you feel it is fit. In D2 I only played the campaign with all classes and COW level. Fighting the 3 Prime Evil was great experience for me, it never bother me for not try other D2 end-game activities.