“Look better” is a subjective term. Who exactly gets to be the singular person who deems one item to be better looking than the other? Do the players get to vote for that person? It’s like someone saying that a Porsche is “better looking” than a Ferrari. Stop buying microtransaction items and they will stop making them and trying to swindle you into spending your money on them.
I have played D4 since the first closed beta and haven’t spent a penny on store items. But, I am a person who doesn’t have to have a new pair of Jordans every week to feel good about myself, either. No one is impressed by how your tiny on-screen avatar looks. Continue to waste your money on useless eye candy if you want, but doing so only fuels their desire to continue squeezing every cent out of you at every turn. Don’t complain about they system that you willingly perpetuate.
It was strange but it did feature in one of the early developers chats and they continued to double down on the point a number of times.
Provided they keep adding new cosmetics as part of future content it probably matters little to most people. Its only when the gap between the shop cosmetics and the in-game cosmetics become worlds apart might there be a concern.
The only thing I can find is them saying is that there will be plenty of stuff to find in-game for free without ever going to the shop.
Google a washington post article ‘Don’t worry’ Diablo 4 won’t be pay to win. In that article they state “The best-looking cosmetics aren’t exclusive to the Shop”
And IMO that is true. I have a few shop pieces but when I dress my characters I usually like in-game transmogs.
Specifically, S2 leather pants that were part of free battle pass, and S3 hat that was part of free battle pass, those are currently two of my favorite peices;. in shop or out.
Back pieces are the main thing I think the shop is a clear winner on. I really wanted one of those animal (like mongoose and polar bear) back peices, but never drop the cash on them.
I am not going to trawl through the all the videos but did they absolutely and ‘specifically’ talked about the shop cosmetics being more like a side-upgrade. They were very adamant that the shop and in-game would be on the same ‘cosmetic’ level.
The below Blizz article explains it and has side-by-side comparisons - its very clear IMO
The best-looking cosmetics aren’t exclusive to the Shop. Diablo IV will ship with hundreds of transmogs unlockable from drops in-game, including dozens of armor sets of the highest visual quality. There are incredible pieces—Unique and Legendary quality items—for players to find without ever going to the Shop. The Shop offers more diversity of choices, not systematically better choices.
That said, I really don’t care if the shop has amazing cosmetics - if the gameplay is great I am happy to buy something occasionally to get a good thing going.
I have not bought a thing yet myself, I am prepared to play a wait and see long game since expansion’s are meant to be offered yearly.
Pretty sure new zone themed base gear will be added as new zones pop up.
In saying that I wouldn’t mind if they added uber rare world drop item costumes. Give me another choice option to hunt grind and farm a full set of gear if need be.
I wish they had a stack more transmogs that were “normal” looking. I find just about everything you find and definitely everything you can buy is “fantastical”
Why no plain cloak? Why no robes or plate mail or chain mail or… I dunno. I just find everything is too fancy, meaning all the fancy seems too standard for me.
Less is more. It’s fun to combine plain options to create understated unique, but then it makes the fancy really pop cause there’s less by contrast.
Then you could make something like 1/3 fancy findable, and 2/3 buyable, to suit whatever the business model is.
This is so untrue, biggest cope of 2024? I bet 10.000 € if you let people choose from 4 sets (2 normalingame sets and 2 shop sets), 90% would take shop sets.
When i played back then, I even transmogged ALL my items to be invisbile, because holy moly most of them just look so awful (Sorc and Barb mostly).
ALL non buyable transmog look like an old honda civic vs payed sets which range from golf to porsche, daimler, bmw (or whatever you consider “good” looking, because most sets dont look so good either, but still miles above ingame sets).
I am fine with the BP cosmetics, they look good enough for me… and with time we will have so much cosmetics just from BP. I opened the shop once shortly after launch… saw the prices and closed it, never opened it since.
Regarding the former, D4’s original design/artistic concept is that the world is more grounded, so no visually fantastical armor and weapon effects and design. But a lot of players actually want to look fantastic (preferably with wings on their back) and Blizz is slowly giving in to this demand.
Regarding the latter, it’s true that at launch the in game and shop armors are on par with each other so Blizz is true to their words at launch. But they have been very slow at updating what we can get in game while moving at breakneck pace with the shop (made possible due to outsourcing, check artstation).
We need to ask ourselves a question, do we want the armors and weapons that we can get in game to look more fantastical to match the shop? This will be a slight departure to the original artistic vision of the game which is a grounded and gritty world.
Not only that,but they also stated in one of their D4 prepurchase bait videos , there wont be any flashy or super unique items in the $$ shop
I didnt believe it for a second,but what i am surprised about is that they went on a record and said it literally ‘‘after we baited you with D4 purchase,promising you no flashy items in $$ shop,now we decided to add flashy items in $$ shop because its already too late and you bought game already’’
I mean,ok i get it. Company has to have revenue and its totally fine. What they shouldnt do is
Lie
Intentionally not add good and unique cosmetics in game as a drop,just so they can sell you 25-30$ cash shop cosmetics.
I got Crown transmog during PTR droped off Uber boss,its barely even noticable,but $$ shop head cosmetics looks in ULTRA 16K resolution,you are able to see every pixel of it…
I don’t KNOW of course BUT I am going to assume you are a united-states-ian. So where exactly is the “surprise” in any of this? We’re a capitalist piggy society that will say or do anything to get some extra bucks and consumers are all about kind-of managing, “pleasing” is on the back burner.
Sure, I guess I agree with you but the moment I saw them state that loot-able transmogs would be as good as the shop, I knew that was a hot mess of a lie. Just due to: living in reality. A lot of people don’t seem to get that a lot of folk say whatever they want and that doesn’t make it fact or something they will feel they should be accountable for.
I don’t know why this should be surprising but people will say anything to sell their X and that is the basis of the American economy. There are choices and why not go with “gaslight the X out of people” if it means more money?
-It is really unfortunate that it is unrealistic to expect any company to operate with morals, etc. but reality is reality.
Heya brother. I am from EU,but considering the fact forums there are dead,theres no point posting there,but i know what you mean.
Its same here in EU as well. Its all one massive monopoly.
I mean, $$ shop can work perfectly if done properly. In GW2 it works more than fine. Theres thousands of cosmetic items,but they are
Every Outfit costs the same = 10$ . There were some (rare cases) with the price of 15$
2)Usable on any char
Some stuff like weapon cosmetics, capes, gliders, wings,or pair of gloves ,boots , helm costs 5-10$ but again, usable on every char, dyable with 4 combinations of colors
Tt works perfectly and whats even more saddening,they look 10x better than any D4 $$ shop item.
And the best thing is that you literally do not have to spend any money. You can convert gold to their $$ shop currency (gems) When i used to play GW2 i never spent single dollar besides buying expansions and i had acc worth of almost 700 k gold. I had every single Outfit/cosmetic item in general available at the time
Their Cosmetic items changed physical appearance of your character,thats why most Outfits looked unique and good.
D4 Cosmetic items looking from a far all look the same and none of them look unique. The very first ones released look like copy-paste recoloured version of standard armor available in game.
Well, “better looking” gear is subjective but as far as flashy, I prefer the more down to earth and realistic looking (for a fantasy setting anyway) in-game gear than the WoW/DOTA skin/anime-looking shop gear so I never feel like I’m missing out by not buying it.
The current items that are in the Shop are def better looking than the in game items. But most of the items in the Shop are not that great or have fancy effects, except a few of them. They def need to dial up and make more flashy cosmetics like glowing Wings, more glowing effect armors. The current glowing Cosmetic sets that they have in the Shop so far are not that bright.
I haven’t looked at a single store item. What ticks me off are the rags we get from the free season journey path.
The only cosmetic that felt rewarding when unlocked is the bloody liquid steed and that’s been around since release.
D4’s original artistic vision is a dark gritty world (“going back to darkness”) so both the in-game and shop items reflect that. But people have been requesting more fantastical looking items and wings, so Blizz decided that it’s time they give in to that request slowly.
Wings will most likely come, as Rod has hinted several times. Heck, even the first new class Spiritborn could have wings since they can float according to the leak.