Question For Developers/Community

Console Discussion
1

What is the obsession with forcing players to complete remedial tasks exactly?

In what way is freeing 5 prisoners considered engaging game design?

Do people log into DIV and get genuine excitement when they are required to kill all monsters just to progress through a dungeon?

Want to play the open world? Here collect these same orbs you’ve collected a million times but in this area that we will choose for you.

Hey guess what it’s Helltide! Now farm these same shards and open these same chests!

I’m trying to understand the logic that Blizzard wants us to play “our way” but immediately bombards players with the same objectives ad nauseam?

Why are nightmare dungeons (the endgame activity) the exact same dungeons we already played 1-50 only now lightly sprinkled with monster modifiers?

Modifiers we can basically ignore because sigils are so abundant.

Added difficulty is very much welcomed but you’re telling me I need to free even more prisoners and fetch the same quest items forever?

Sure we can play “our way” but only after doing exactly as we’re told.

Now that you’ve made it here I would like to clarify that I am still loving the hell out of this game but I’m scared this core design philosophy will do away with the unlimited potential that comes with simply “exploring”.

What if dungeons were 30-60 minute labyrinths that offered real variety?

No chores. Just connecting tile sets with cool transitions that provide meaningful things to discover and unique places you really want to explore.

Impeding progress for the illusion of progress is just bad design in my opinion.

Immersion means so much more for longevity and I think Blizzard needs to reevaluate how they want to engage its players.

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2

First time in a video game with quests?

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3

It sounds like you have never played any of the diablo games before.

Is that a fair assessment?

If so, it would explain why you are questioning the monotonous game play…aka grind.

It is a linear storyline. It is a linear gameplay. It is a linear arpg.

Cant really explain it any simpler than that.

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4

There are plenty of side quests in the game. My gripe is with the endgame systems that revolve around constantly completing the same objectives.

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5

Easy answer: Lazy. There is NO NEW innovation in this Diablo 4 game. When you take into consideration, what D2 did for the genre and where we are with this game. Yeah. I was thinking that last night, I am down to MAYBE one dungeon clear now. Last night dungeon had me doing that junk. Locating and freeing prisoners. This is not gaming innovation. How in the world, did Diablo 4 Devs, think Nightmare Dungeon Spamming would be our golden egg. I have two characters: 97 Druid, 65 Bow Rogue and I am nearing burnout. Why? No uber unique items, think back to them GREEN Drops we would see in D2. Nothing. They gonna have to act quick.

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6

Grinding isn’t my problem. It’s how they impede progress with silly objectives that repeat indefinitely.

A single objective nightmare dungeon that is twice as long and offers optional events for additional glyph experience would be far more enjoyable in my opinion.

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Specifically, how would you fix it? What kind of nonrepeating objectives would you put in place?

8

Fair enough.

I will say though, D3 just had rifts, that was pretty much it.

Here, at first release, you have 3.

Regardless of how monotonous they become, you still can “choose” to do Helltides, Whispers or Nightmare Dungeons.

I agree that the “objective based” end game is very sluggish and could be refined heavily to make each one enjoyable.

For Helltides, don’t just show me Protection, Weapon, Jewelry. Show me which exactly, as in, legs, hands etc.
Same with the other 2. That way I can target that area on the map to chill and collect Cinders.

Whispers needs a bump to renown given. It’s too grindy for the rewards you get. I’ve had several caches at the end drop just yellows.

Dungeons need to add a kill % of enemies to move on. It’s a slog having to explore 99% of every dungeon you go into.

Again though, game is early on and I have 3 choices.

4 if you are doing Seasons as farming Hearts counts as well.

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9

Agree its soo sick play over and over the same thing over over and over over and over anything change anything can be do in different way, u are forced to do tons of time sigil for lvl up ghilpf , and now i dont have any clan mate for do that bcs all of them quit tired of this endless boring s1ht all of us are diablo player but d4 its the worst thing ever seen

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10

NEWSFLASH!

THERE IS NOTHING INNOVATING ABOUT THE ENTIRE GAMING INDUSTRY!

The only things that change are the characters, stories, and assets.

That’s it!

It’s kill this and fetch that ad infinitum.

The only way endgame could be innovative if there were autogenerating quests and loot where you could have a million aspect and affix varieties without humans populating a list of like 30 total.

11

Free 7 prisoners, but 3 of them are dead.

Backtrack 3 times with three different rocks to be able to fight one boss.

And there is the “Last Stand” event that pops up in 2 out of every 3 dungeons. They call it last stand for a reason because it’s the last time any of the three of them will be standing.

“We came here to purge this evil, but now I can’t leave my friends here, not like this.”

Bad news lady, they aren’t going to be like this for much longer. How exactly did you make it all the way down here past the gauntlet of poison spiders, 15 elite enemies and the Butcher?

At least the inevitable death event is optional and can be skipped, but it’s the only real mob density we ever really see so I watch them die every single time.

3 Likes
12

This is all Blizzard rpg /arpg /mmo content - it has been this way for a long time. Could they learn and gather things from other game developers in the space they exist in - yes, will they - no.

Diablo has always been a grind game - at some point it becomes a lol game as you just ludicrously thrash everything. But this feels more grindy than the past with less of a feeling of progress, killing goblins -meh, killing the butcher -meh, downing most of the bosses -meh, story length -meh … etc.

Open world - these guys pretty much perfected it in WoW - yet here we are decades latter and it’s an ant maze map with open world stamped on it. Over time for what ever reason blizzard moved away from true open world into progressively more limited avenue worlds.

Lesson’s already learned - D1, D2 and D3 all taught lessons and for the most part they aren’t applied here. Inventory, pointless sub stats, various QoL features all learned from years of product updates - not really applied to this “new” game. Even some of the QoL from DI didn’t make it in and that’s the same generation more or less.

Perhaps it’s because we now have too many choices and so the issues stand out more. I know when I played D2 there were issues but what was the alternative in the same quality? Now you have options and so your more disappointed when a developer you have nostalgia for lets you down. And I feel let down, by the price, the delivery and the pace of the game in it’s current state. And before a person wants to tell be “have you played etc.” I’ve been in the game since it first came out and pounded out some serious hours, even giving the current one a lot of time. Just because it’s Diablo /Blizzard doesn’t mean we should accept lower quality. The games always had a gimmick a thing the caught you and had you play, this version seems to be missing it. It might get it in time - but out the gate it feels like they didn’t get it in the first place.

Still playing - hoping they make diablo great again.

1 Like
13

They could take notes frum hurl ubisuck, and give us some of those QOL items.
How about if they even just FIXED the fn broken stuff in their game???
Go to any blacksmith.
Scrap common works.
Scrap magic works
Scrap rare works
Scrap all …NOPE IT DOESN’T WORK!!!
YES I fully understand that it’ll scrap those legendary items I DO NOT WANT, THAT’S WHY I’M CLICKING IT…
How about a SELL X quality, sure would speed things up so you don’t have to mark everything individually every last time.
How about maybe a MARK ALL AS JUNK… these are things other games have, why not here???
The number of (seemingly) small QOL improvements that they COULD make, and don’t, is quite telling.

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14

As of now dungeons are segregated into sections and players are forced to complete the same objectives just to progress. Free prisoners, etc.

I would rather they not focus so much on giving players more tasks. The game is absolutely loaded with mundane activities because of this philosophy.

Nightmare dungeons should be simple and to the point. Long dungeons with a single objective, optional events that reward glyph experience and random modifiers that are not chosen by the player. This adds a ton of variety to the content.

Now instead of optimizing and catering the entire experience for ourselves and drooling from one area to the next players can simply “explore.” It’s a profound thought.

1 Like
15

Hello out here fellow gamers, players both casual and semi professional…this game is super broken and we all know it…
It’s broken in SO many ways and at SO many levels it’s truly a disgrace and disappointment from Blizzard
They said a very long time ago, back way before it was even given a release date a few things that just didn’t happen…

First they told us that WE the players and people buying and playing the game would have complete control over and freedom of creating our characters…

This has turned out to be a blatant lie…

They offer us a paltry selection of pre designed faces, a mere smattering of different hairstyles and ONE, yes only one, body type per character class. How is this letting us create the character that we are comfortable using or playing for multiple hours…!!!

Most games that have been created and released of this action genre have body sliders or at least some sort of options to play with during creation

They, the Developers, could at the very least offer us the ability or option to chose from the existing five body types that are already available….

Then there’s this joke of an open world. It’s not open world at all…just an ant maze of tunnels with different textures and climates…

The dungeons, caves, basements are all mostly the same. Using the exact same layout but adding different textures doesn’t make it amazingly different from the last one we just completed…

Not to mention, but I am, on console the somewhat constant lag, rubber banding effects, ice skating or Tokyo drifting that happens on a regular basis…

It is SUPER annoying to be trying to fight a boss and to keep snapping around and not being able to position yourself where you need to be to actually fight it or be able to dodge it’s attacks…!!!

Has anyone taken a look at the cosmetic shop lately…?

Not only are the cosmetics outrageously priced but a lot of them are downright disgusting. Why would I pay money for my, already gross looking Druid…to be made even uglier, grosser and less appealing to look at…???!!!

This endless grind, running errands, moving silly objects…just to go and face a boss is downright disappointing and ridiculously repetitive…

The one thing that I would love is for the Devs to actually sit down and play this wrecked game and see what all the fuss is about…

Maybe then they would actually listen, make some important changes…but I wish for many things that never happen lol

Also these constant updates that take sometimes well over a couple hours to download is f’ing annoying…

Okay I’ll quit my rant…I was actually just trying to kill some time while this new update is sloggingly downloading…

I don’t expect everyone or anyone to have to agree with me or my views but I feel as if they need to be stated anyway…

Nuff said

JM

16

Some objectives completely removed? VIA developer stream.

Is this a W?