Thoughts after playing D4

PC General Discussion
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I finished playing D4 and i would like to share some thoughts on it. I hope they can at least a bit help further development of D4.

CAMPAIGN

  • campaign was fun, even if i didnt really like the story
  • cutscenes were good
  • pacing was good
  • bosses were boring except Lilith
  • renown progression is fine one-time chore, but why is it reseted if you switch from hardcore to softcore? i can understand it the other way.

GAMEPLAY

  • combat feels good, responsive

  • levelscaling of monsters slowed progression whole time except to 2 spikes (jump to sacred and ancestral gear)

  • so many design choices that just slow you down for no reason. These mechanics are not fun at all and serve no purpose.

    • obstacles in open world which need to be destroyed. why? not fun.
    • forced jumping from platfrom to another. why?
    • cooldown on mount. why?
    • backtracking in every dungeon (bring several items to entrance of next room. why not just 1? killing all monsters. where is fun in that?)
    • travelling to each dungeon
      These mechanics are not fun at all and serve no purpose. Who at blizzard thoght that adding these mechanics would make the game more fun?

  • monster density in open world is very low. Why would even anyone go to open world and kill? there is no purpose for going there except helltide, when you are forced to play less density game.

  • crowd control of character is major flaw of combat. whats fun on being chain cced? You literally have to make your build as cc resistant as possible to minimize this effect to actualy be able to play the game. More cc breaks and unstoppable uptime = better build.

  • riding a mount is painful. its stuck everywhere. why cannot we sprint in city?

BUILD VARIETY

  • skill tree is even more shallow than D3.
  • build variety is worst of all arpgs on market, even those which were abandoned because they were too shallow. more build variety does not equal less casual experience.
  • Itemization is limiting build variety mostly. you just have specific sets of legendaries you need for specific build and thats it.
  • vulnerability is so strong being a standalone bucket that every build need to have it in skills and on all items possible. simillar with cooldown reduction. its like taking off 2 affixes from you items, because they are fixed.
  • paragon board does not bring any build variation. Its only increasing dmg/def on your already defined build.
  • glyphs the same thing, howerever only good thing on them is stat requirement.

ENDGAME

  • endgame is the same from lvl 50 to 100. nightmare dungeon all the time with forced break for helltide. its even more painful when starting new character, as you are doing this from lvl 1 and cant even do helltide and world bosses yet.
    • events in dungeons are joke and skipping them is more efficient than doing them.
    • some affixes of sigils are only slowing you down and bring no fun to game.
  • Helltide is mechanically good with opening chest and being able to get specific mats and gear, but needs higher mob density or events.
  • world bosses are not fun. there is no challenge in beating them and they dont drop anything specific from killing them. They should have different loot table.
  • there is nothing to look forward or grind forward in endgame. its just chasing for higher numbers. Only pinnacle boss is Lilith at 100, but there should be more content between 50-100.
  • trading is nonexistent
  • community hub is not in game. you literally dont interact and dont need to interact with other players.
  • being a new game is not an excuse for not having content. any other realeased game with this much content in endgame would just be abandoned by players. saying that game has good foundation will not help it and players will leave when there is no content for it. saying that other games are already 10 years in development and we need to wait and be patient is just bad excuse. D4 is also 10 years of development and it should just not be released yet if it has no endgame content.

TECHNICAL STATE

  • closed betas, open betas, server slams. still technical problems. I think it was expected anyway, but announcing official hc race was a mistake with current state of game. most of hc players die because of technical problems.

Good luck Blizzard to fixing your game. I’ll come back again when its done.

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Good post. I actually liked most of the campaign bosses.

It’s a kick in the nuts that we can’t fight them again. Really goes against the Diablo series.

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Pretty much agree with all of that.

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i dont find any other memorable. They were mechanically very smillar except for Lilith. Only difference was visuals, which i agree were great and would like to fight them again at least because of that.

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Imagine going to a restaurant and picking your meal and drink not based on how tasty they are, but on how quick and efficient you are with energy per hour. Wash your hands? Nah, waste of time. Relax after several bites and chew for a while? Nah, can’t sacrifice energy per hour. Are you people genuine autists or something?

Events in the dungeons are fun not because of your silly efficiency, but because it’s a video game where killing enemies is fun. Brings variety to the dungeon contents.

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If i have 2 restaurants to pick from and they provide same food, im picking the one where the service is faster.

Events in dungeons are not more fun than rest of the dungeon.

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If you enjoy lollygagging, then please go ahead and do it. But, you do realize that your last question actually applies to you, right?

You are still spreading ignorance. I’m pretty sure I’ve explained and so have many others: people will always find the most efficient way through the game. That is what META is. META isn’t some weird hack or exploit or ungodly thought process - it is what people have come to a consensus on that works best to accomplish the goals.

Diablo is an RNG slot machine. The more enemies and content you clear = the more chances you are pulling that lever. Let that sink into your brain before you try to post again.

If you enjoy lollygagging so much, let me recommend some other cool games you’d enjoy. Have you heard of Roblox? I hear that appeals very much to your type.

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Lol what a mid analogy.

Which restaurant is local (time riding your horse to dungeon), and which one gets you in and out the fastest?

That’s the one I’m going too.

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This post is a great example of quality feedback, and I agree with majority of the bullet points.

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I’m pretty sure he’s a kid and has never actually dined out.

If I’m going out to eat, it’s going to be a restaurant with good service and good food. Funny enough, that translates to RESPECT for peoples time.

If you go out for lunch with co-workers mid-day, you only have a certain amount of time to eat and report back to work. You can bet money we are going to pick a place that allows us to efficiently get in and out the door.

I could go on and on about how dumb that initial analogy is. :face_with_raised_eyebrow: :face_vomiting: :skull: :man_facepalming:

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100% true, end game is boring and leveling last to long for no reason, if there is some exclusive content or equipement at max level i would understand 100 hours leveling. But they offer nothing at level 100. Simply stupid …

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Imagine not enjoying food.

:thinking:

:rofl:

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That’s where you’re wrong. That’s the key thing in all of this. Diablo, at least the VI part, is not a slot machine. It’s a video game where you enjoy the sights, the combat, the story. Slot machine is a small part of it.

If you look at games and only see spreadsheets and slots, you’ve got a very warped perception of what video games are. You are totally disconnected from reality and should probably seek psychological help for gambling addiction.

Those that look for it, yeah. People who think they are competing with someone in a noncompetitive game.

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What you just described is a MMORPG. They advertised this game as an ARPG. So, now you are telling me this was false advertisement?

New to the series, yeah? Every time you post I literally think you have no clue what Diablo games are about.

The only thing they want you to enjoy with Lilith is your couch while you play it on console and ask no questions.

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They advertised this game as an ARPG.

ARPG stands for Action RPG. Are you aware of what it means? No, it doesn’t stand for “a slot machine”. It means, previously (90s) RPGs were mostly turn-based: Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, etc. Including text-based Rogue-like games. Diablo was a Rogue-like game put into graphics: endless random dungeons, random enemies, random loot. It was even being developed as a turn-based game. A modern example of such Rogue-like game is ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery). Well, I say modern, but it goes back to the 90s. Diablo devs decided to give live action a try and saw that it was awesome, but the foundation and the fabric of the game remained the same: it’s a Rogue-like, a dungeon crawler. Which was never about a slot machine or farming gear for better builds. It was about exploration, seeing how far you can go without dying, because at the end a high score table was waiting for your inevitable death. That’s the Diablo’s foundation.

So the live action was the new thing, and because they stepped away from the permadeath concept and the high score at the end, meant you could actually farm for gear, because what else was there to do as the game turned softcore?

ARPG means there’s character customisation and action combat. That’s it. Diablo itself however traditionally is based around also being a slot machine, true. But as you can see from their changes in Diablo 4, that is no longer the case, and thank god, because the slot machine game was dumb and boring as FCK. They’ve moved towards coop play, shared world, random coop events in the open world, more tactical combat, more mechanical than “mow down 1000s of enemies per second”, and all the nerfs they’ve made so far clearly indicate that the stupid slot machine idea is not the primary goal or feature of the game. Yet you people keep pushing against the grain pretending that it is. No it’s not.

So, now you are telling me this was false advertisement?

No, because ARPG doesn’t mean a slot machine. Which you’d known if you’d been around back then. They did, however, diverge from the previous Diablo designs. But like I said - thank god, the slot machine alone is not really a video game, it’s just gambling for all you addicts. It’s an interesting mechanic, but it needs to be mixed with something else - which Diablo 4 does by introducing a better combat system, and something else to focus on rather than “rewards per second”. Gtfo with that dumb efficiency stuff. Learn to enjoy the game itself, not spreadsheets.

New to the series, yeah?

I’m thinking I’m really old to the series, because I did play Nethack and Rogue and ADOM and Fallout and Icewind Dale. Did you?

What you just described is a MMORPG

I don’t care what labels anyone puts on any given game. What matters is if that game is fun without any preexisting stereotypes. Just take it for what it is.

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Your only retort is calling people addicts, autistic, insulting intelligence, etc.

The only thing Lilith did well is keeping players busy with mundane tedium.

See the world? In an isometric ARPG? What a joker you are.

This is a console game created as a cash grab. It is a dull experience that is anything but fun. If you enjoy sandbox games, you might also enjoy Minecraft. The quicker you realize that, the sooner you’ll be content and understand what 90% of the posts are about here.

You are severely disillusioned if you think the RNG slot machine isn’t at the core of the game.

Coop play? LOL - yeah, what an amazing coop play with no party finder or chats. :rofl: :rofl: :skull: :skull:

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Your only retort is

Only if you ignore 99% of my text and pick a single sentence to your liking.

calling people addicts,

I believe you called Diablo games slot machines and pointed out that’s what people want in Diablo games. Like, what do you call it? Gambling aficionados? Suprise mechanic devotees? Lootbox connoisseurs?

autistic,

That was a genuine questiton. What else is one to think when people ignore 99% of what a game is and only see some stupid spreadsheet in front of them?

insulting intelligence, etc.

My bad.

See the world? In an isometric ARPG? What a joker you are.

D4 is praised on being beautiful. You’ve got to be very selectively deaf to not hear such feedback. It’s an eye candy, as it should be in a triple A product.

It is a dull experience that is anything but fun.

It’s fun for people that like the new classes, enemies, combat. If you think it’s dull from the slot machine point of view, then you’ve answered your own question as to what this game is and isn’t.

If you enjoy sandbox games, you might also enjoy Minecraft. The quicker you realize that, the sooner you’ll be content and understand what 90% of the posts are about here.

Oh, I’m fully content with the game. It’s you folks who are constantly complaining that everything is wrong. Affixes bad, horse stupid, events dull, slot machine slow, combat long, endgame missing. You are incapable of looking at what the game has to offer and enjoying it for what it is without trying to project some other imaginary game on top of it. The sooner you understand what this game is, instead of what you want it to be, the sooner you’ll be content and understand that the only outcome from your incessant crying is neverending toxicity and it doesn’t help anyone.

You are severely disillusioned if you think the RNG slot machine isn’t at the core of the game.

It is part of the game, but it’s not the only part, nor should it be. There is much more to video games than loot generation, there are many systems that can enhance the overall experience. I don’t want, for example, for combat to suffer just so you folks can drool on the keyboard with glassy eyes while pulling the slot machine lever faster and faster. I want good loot to be rare and good as a result of skilful combat. I want more world bosses, I want them to be as hard as in the first open beta when Ashava one-shot everyone. I want public matchmaking for fun (and difficult) coop runs, and so on. Loot generation is only one of the systems, and it’s not 2000 anymore when that’s enough - it’s dumb to be honest.

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^ you dont know what makes a good arpg it seems.

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Yeah dude get off the forums for a bit. No one wants your crappy ideas here