I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I detest open zone multiplayer in the game so much. I actively run away from other players when I see them. I’ve come up with 2 issues. One that can be easily solved and another one for which I don’t see any indication of any work done on it.
1.Problem: I very much prefer to play a dark game like to play the story and exploration part of Diablo without people around or just with a grouped friend. Random people running around and killing things takes away all of the atmosphere.
Solution: Add an isolation mode that allows players to experience the game without others around if they choose. If they happen to walk into a world boss fight, then throw them in with everyone else. Otherwise, all other content seems to be meant to be soloable. Which leads me to . . .
There is no multiplayer content in this game. There is multiplayer in the game, but not any content. This used to be fine because you previously controlled having other people in your game or not. Now that it is forced, it calls out the real flaws of the design.
World bosses are using relatively simple mechanics, those that a single player could manage, to defeat, if the health and damage output was scaled. Events are soloable in the first place. Having someone else there just makes them easier, but is easier what we are looking for in gameplay?
So, where is the content that relies on multiplayer to be fun? Slapping more health on something in the open world to justify adding more players to the fight doesn’t make it more fun.
So, the question really is, why is forced multiplayer here. There are many pessimistic people on the forums that hop in to say it is only for monetization through cosmetics. I think its possible that someone just envisioned that more people meant more fun. I’m just not seeing it here. I’m not seeing multiplayer in the design of the game. It looks forced. Like someone converted their fun little roadster into a minivan because the car was so much fun that they thought it would be better to share it with more people, perhaps forgetting that being a focused, well delivered, experience was what made it fun. I think multiplayer as it existed before is what still suites the design of this game. Dungeon crawl with a few other people.
I’m not saying that open multiplayer is a bad thing in general. I’m saying that nothing here seems to support its existence. It’s a dark zoomed in game where monsters are supposed to feel closer and more dangerous. If this was meant to be multiplayer, I would expect it to be more zoomed out and giving the ability to coordinate better. It’s so tacked on here. Clan tags, titles, and skins don’t make MMO games fun.
Before someone jumps on and says, “But this is how the game was announced. You should expect it” (because I see that response all the time) this is just feedback. Even if the feature was announced long ago, I just don’t see it adding to the experience or even really worked into the design of the game. It’s like it’s just there.
It’s not Multiplayer Diablo. It’s Diablo + Multiplayer and I think that is the main issue.
Your opinion is based on the first 25 levels of the game… Diablo games have never been about low tier content. Once we get into World Tier 3/4/5 that’s when the game becomes challenging… difficult. You’re going to be happy to run into someone to help in these “soloable” events.
Just so you can understand what angle I’m coming from, what I am expecting is that the situation you are talking about would be mean that the event would involve creatures in the game with high enough HP that the DPS required to complete them under time would require more than one person. However, this game also has a controllable difficulty level and the dungeons are solo (or grouped only if you wish them to be).
So, the ungrouped spontaneous content in the open world (not world bosses which are not really spontaneous) is has a difficulty that is controlled by your setting and it’s actual difficulty is at the whim of the number of people they throw together in that zone that are together for it. The content itself cannot be mechanically too difficult because it is spontaneous and they know from WoW that random events with complex mechanics that require multiple people is a recipe for a horrible player experience. Also, how do they scale the difficulty? Does the difficulty stay the same when someone else shows up? So, something that was difficult now becomes very easy.
Compare that to the dungeon experience. Completely controlled. Any challenge you encounter you can attack and attack again until you either give up or defeat it.
So, the game has both of these very different experiences in one game. Those looking for a more consistent experience might want the option for an option to have both the exterior and interior experiences be the same, especially when there is, seemingly, very little gameplay difference between the two.
In WoW, when you enter a dungeon, you have packs of mobs in groups for you to tackle in some sort of order before you fight bosses. In Diablo, both interior and exterior environments have random events and tough elites. The only difference is dungeons usually have a boss.
So, since the content seems so much the same, when I see other players, I see them as competition for the content. Would I get gear faster because someone helped me finish the event faster? Sure. But what did I want out of that event, the gear or the challenge? For me, it is the challenge and that random person, through no fault of their own, will have robbed me of it. I only as for the option to preserve the challenge. Not to ask them to deny you that multiplayer experience you may be looking for, but for me to avoid it when it doesn’t even seem like the gameplay requires it.
It’s not just a HP buff, the resistances of the creatures increase even to the point of being immune to damage types. Enhancing creature damage, and seeing your own damage reduction abilities being less potent in higher world tiers. You also have to understand as you progress up the world tier system you no longer meet people on lower world tiers anymore. You only see those on the same world tier as you… so as you progress up you see less and less players. When you’re apart of a group the difficulty increases for your party as well. There are plenty of modifiers that make the game harder.
Thing is the open world is mostly easy until world tier 3 when open world areas become invaded by demons. These zones are called helltides… and the demonic enemies in these zones will always be several levels above your character at all times. Just one of many end-game mechanics we haven’t had access to yet. We already have act bosses with multiple phases… if people can’t handle such basic mechanics then too bad… I guess people forget Diablo 3’s final boss in the expansion. Players were so bad at the game the devs had to tune down the final boss two separate times… The difficulty lies in how well optimized the individual player is. If you have bad gear, bad skill combinations it doesn’t matter what that player does… they’re destined to fail.
The dungeon experience changes with every world tier increase. I believe there are even other mechanics to increase how difficult these dungeons are too.
Until we reach world tier 3 and higher there really isn’t any major differences between open and closed instances but that changes with helltides and other mechanics.
In wow you can avoid engagements entirely if your party is aware of how to run that specific dungeon. Most people want to get the dungeon done as fast as possible… not clear every mob in some specific rotation. That said not every single player is skilled enough to tackle content. With helltides being available at world tier 3 the overworld becomes much more dangerous for the individual player. Not to mention the zones affected have increased amount of mobs as well… so you better be optimized or you’re going to be dying a lot. Having others help tackle that content provides a better experience for those who can’t handle the content.
You’re only seeing so many players because everyone is stuck to one zone… there’s literally 5 other zones… and if you’ve taken the time to zoom out you’ll see that the likelihood you run into someone else would be much more rare. The only time you should see another player potentially is in a event area (rare) or a world boss (which gets announced zone wide to everyone). Other players are not competition… all drops are yours alone, and at higher difficulties you might like the idea of being picked up by someone when you die. There will always be a challenge in this game as you move up the world tiers, and most will not be playing at world tier 5 (Level +90).
The only element that could make it interesting is Helltides.
When I discussed competition, I’m not talking about loot. I’m talking about content. If someone comes in and makes a difficult challenge trivial, then they have, again by no intent or fault of their own, stolen that challenge. Loot and a feeling of accomplishment are the reward for the challenge. Remove the challenge and the loot is just loot. Yay.
So, hopefully the end game open world content feels truly cooperative instead of just mass of players vs mass of stuff.
This is just the first act and level 25 isn’t a gauge of that end game content, but at this level, other players around are just an annoyance. I will definitely be happy if the the late game means less people and cooperative truly cooperative challenges. So far, I’m looking forward to pushing through the main outdoor sections to get to the dungeons.
Except the content you’re playing right now is trivial to anyone with some clue how to play their class… World tier 2 is just “normal” with world tier 1 being easy mode. A lot of these events will get much harder at higher world tiers. Hell I remember vanilla Torment 1 in D3… it was stupid hard for everyone.
And if you really want to engage with less players, with a much more cooperative world play hardcore where people take their characters lives much more serious.
Don’t know why that’s the particular group you’d label pessimistic, given the average post on this board.
It’s true though. Even the devs have said there really isn’t any multiplayer content except world bosses. The campaign doesn’t really sync, the clan system has no actual function. You’re just seeing people out in the wild to see them, and unless you’re actively farming an outdoor spot their impact is virtually non-existent.