Overall, despite a lot of connection issues, I really enjoyed the beta. What follows is all intended as constructive criticism:
The great: Most of the production values: cinematics, the story, art, MUSIC,. etc. have been fantastic so far.
Combat feels really good, and the different characters all feel distinct and enjoyable so far.
To save time, let’s just say as a long time Diablo fan back to The initial release of Diablo 1, I am extremely happy with what I’ve seen so far.
Suggestions:
Dungeon design looks great artistically, but really needs more interesting and differentiated maps and puzzles/ locked doors if this game is meant to hold long term interest. Dungeons are arguably the heart of this type of game, and right now they feel too repetitive in layout and especially boss fights.
Long dungeons need more save points. You just get set back way too far and end up wasting a lot of time repeating the same sections especially given the disconnection issues. I know this will get better as the bill gets more stable, but especially in the longer main story dungeons, more safe points would be greatly appreciated and diminished frustration.
When you get disconnected, your last teleport gate should be saved with your last character save. If you get disconnected in a long dungeon and had temporarily ported out to sell loot or something, you have to redo the whole freaking dungeon.
In certain ways, the interface can be counterintuitive and obscure. None of the people I play with could find the main quest list for example, until the second day when one guy found it and told the rest of us how to do it. Commonly used features should be clearly labeled and simple.
Being able to toggle off the MMO aspect and play solo or in closed groups would be GREATLY appreciated! I understand that you might need to toggle it on sometimes for world bosses, etc. It’s just NOT fun running around the world seeing guys with stupid character or guild names like ButtStallion and HumpMeDumpMe in towns or the open world. I don’t want to adventure with Beavis or Butthead. Additionally, it ruins the lone hero in a dark dangerous world vibe seeing too many people running around, or having them assist me in battles I don’t want help with, or competing for mobs in some of the drop quests. I think you would find if you had the “offline” option, most players would choose to play this way, and while that might not be what you envisioned for this game and it’s semi-mmo aspects, the sheer number of people who would probably toggle MMO off should be a clue as to what your customers REALLY want. Options are always good for those people who genuinely like the MMO aspects of this game. If this is more of a DRM thing, then just make it where if anybody logs on the account that’s already logged on, they disconnect the online player. This is sort of already in the game, because in my many disconnects, it told me my account was locked and I couldn’t log back on for 5 minutes or so. This would be no more exploitable from a DRM perspective than people who are willing to time-share accounts now.
The game needs more diverse monsters and especially bosses. The bosses I have seen so far are great, but fighting the same small handful of opponents in a region all of the time will probably get boring fairly quickly.
Many if not all of the world events seem to spawn in the same location. It would be cooler if these moved around. Again creating a more diverse experience will make the game feel much more interesting, especially long-term.
I Hope there is a more organic way of presenting the world bosses in the full game, instead of set days/times. For instance, you could have NPCs telling rumors about strange occurrences around the area where these events are happening, leading players there in a more immersive way.
More multiplayer matchmaking options would be nice, helping us to find the types of players we would prefer to group with. Better matchmaking particularly needs to exist for creating groups to fight world bosses.
If the always-on MMOishness cannot be toggled on and off, a quick and easy way to flag players that you do not want to see again would be extremely helpful. That way if you meet somebody looking or acting like an idiot, you can avoid seeing ANY of that player’s characters in the future.
Although the developer plans for seasons have not really been discussed yet, I hope the more “grindy” aspects of the game like shrines of Lilith do not need to be repeated every 3 months for people participating in the season play. I would really like to see something like “adventure mode” from D3 added to the game as well. Most responsible adults simply do not have the time to re-invest grinding needlessly every 3 months.
Overall, I really want to thank you guys for all of the hard work you’ve done so far, and the game is off to a great start in most respects as far as I’m concerned. Everything mentioned here is meant not as a complaint, but suggestions to make a good game truly great.
The ability to zoom in or out would be fantastic!
Thank you for listening.
–Soulfire