Diablo III Open Beta this weekend

[Swift]

Took me about 16-17 soloing and exploring almost everywhere.

Once you get to nightmare the difficulty does kick in, champions/rares/elites start to pack a real punch.

[Veilan]

15 Softcore, 10 Hardcore now... the latter took about as long as the former?

[Grand Fromage]

I'm not as impressed as I hoped to be. The level of customization has been pretty minimal so far, the loot isn't interesting, and as of act 3 we're still rehashing the previous games. Tristram, the Cathedral, Leoric, the desert town that totally isn't Lut Gholein, now we're replaying act 5. I dunno, it's not bad but I can't see it having the life of Diablo 2, and I have no idea why it took twelve years to get around to doing this.

Also loving having a 500 ping and disconnects in single player.

[Veilan]

Yeah, those random ping spikes and network disconnects are atrocious - I mean, "patch day is not play day" is an old Blizzard truth, but the launch is over now and I want to enjoy hardcore, the thing that made D2 an awesome instead of a good game, and that so far manages to make D3 at least interesting.

Not that I've played that far, but so far I fail to see any improvement of substance over D2 - sure, there is a bit more fluff and convenience here and there, but there's also a lack of a lot of features that were fun and added tactics and party-fun for the play (say, walking for blocking / evading). The lack of customisation is a bummer, and it was born out of laziness - cheapening the development work required for balancing. THAT IS THE ONLY REASON, everyone who believes different should just admit he drank the kool aid. It's not a gameplay improvement, that is saying "uh, a bobbycar without motor runs better, more reliable and in a speed range we can far better anticipate than that of a real car, I mean, seriously, just look at all those horrible moving parts in a real motor, that would like, require actual knowledge and engineering to make work!". Dumbing down for the loss.

Minor point, but I'm rather miffed that the "bonus" system rewards solo-minded gaming over cooperative party play - what good is it to me if I reap more exp than my friend with mighty blows and massacres, and what incentive is there to allow cooperative set-ups and synergetic gaming? Seriously, that should have been a bonus given to the party.

In any case, I'm sure it will be only a matter of hours now til one of the random lag spikes / disconnects hits us at an act boss, and I'm done with the game for a while .

Veilan#2508, Europe

[Swift]

Pretty sure one of the vids I linked earlier in the thread is from Blizzcon 2011 where the Game Director states that Blizzard want the Casual gamers to become more hardcore. To that end, they have spaced the 'customization' out a little more than Diablo 2. Gems and sockets don't start to appear until act 2, the jeweler (to upgrade gems) doesn't show up until the end of act 2. Item Affixes that benefit specific skills do not start to show up until Act 4 Nightmare. As someone that played strictly single player in D2, I do not lament the loss of runes or rune words, as the chance of ever getting the right ones for the good rune words was almost nil. I can understand why long term D2 players would miss this and use it to cry that customization has been harmed (but then, Runes/Jewels did not appear until the expansion anyway).

I am most disappointed in the reduced effects that gems have. Some claim that the Blacksmith is a waste of time compared to the AH, which may be right, but again, owing to my strictly single player experience from D2, I have no desire to even look at the AH, so he has proved worthwhile. I do wish the recipes you can teach him were not all at the high end. Some recipes along the level up period would have been pretty cool.

Difficulty wise, I am pretty satisfied. Act 3 and 4 of Normal start to introduce some new monster properties and some tougher mobs. Once you get into Nightmare, the difficulty does ramp up noticeably. Stepped into Act 1 Hell immediately after killing Diablo in Nightmare and the first elite pack I came across (Fast/Arcane Enchanted/Waller) absolutely wiped the floor with me.

I think for alot of people, particularly hardcore D2 players (as in long term, not the mode) will not really get into D3 until the expansion launches, which will likely bring back alot of the increased customization that appeared in the D2 expansion (runes/charms/jewels).

[Grand Fromage]

I also feel like I have no idea what my character does. I'm playing a wizard and none of the spells have damage listed anywhere that I can find, so I have no idea what benefits the new spells are bringing me or what the runes do.

[Swift]

Go into your options and turn on Advanced Tooltips. It will then show you exactly how much damage each skill is doing.

[Veilan]

where the Game Director states

This is what seperates us - you listen to what their PR says, I look at what the game actually does .

Anyway, SC 17 / HC 18 now, time for a sunday walk with the girl then we shall tackle Maghda HC. You, Cres, anyone free to join as usual .

Cheers,
Veilan#2508

[Veilan]

And let me add a hearty lulz to weekend server downage.

[BlakOrkz]

Diablo 3 has been underwhelming thusfar for me. I am in Act 1 Hell. The difficulty has been just about right but I am afraid that the game will lack the longevity of its predecessor.

The character customization systems are absolutely atrocious and itemization is lackluster. Rarely have I ever found something and thought... "ooh, I wonder if that will be better than what I already have?" if it isn't blatantly obvious. The reason being that they idiotified attributes/modifiers.

I feel like I am playing Dungeon Siege 3 again just with more koolaid flowing behind it. The RMAH will be a process of adding ultrarare items that one up the last season every few months while introducing arena PvP to incentivize idiots to purchase them to stay competitive.

The always on DRM has been a massive, unecessary PITA. If Blizzard couldn't figure out how to prevent offline cheating from affecting their precious RMAH... Seriously? Create two loot systems that generate item tags/variables differently and don't disclose how it's done serverside (like it is now)? Ban people who try to change data packets using SP tags/variables? Simplified example: SP sword = sw_abcd; MP sword = _sw_abcd.

I have liked a lot of the usability features in the game, though. The henchmen are a huge improvement over D2. Crafting is more fun, if ultimately pointless without serious recipe grinding. The game has finally found a use for gold besides repairing your equipment. The gold auction house is a nice way to swap items. Shared loot is good.

I then have minor gripes like not getting a guest pass with my digital copy... Seriously, I generated a higher profit margin with my purchase than the retail buyers at the same price point yet I get less product. Way to go, Blizzard. They should be encouraging digital purchases and reduce their marginal costs as much as possible.

But really, besides technical polish and difficulty pacing I feel that Sacred 2 from 2009 is a much better game that was developed 5 times faster than Diablo 3. Heck, I could see myself replaying the Sacred games, Titan Quest, Divine Divinity, or even Diablo 2 before Diablo 3.

[Swift]

Whimseyshire is the best "Fuck you" to idiot customers I have seen in a long time. Check it on youtube if you don't mind spoiling the 'secret' level for yourself (it is a bit of an expensive hassle to get into)

[BlakOrkz]

I agree with you Swift. Whimsyshire made me laugh out loud the whole time. Loved it.

[Magile]

I'm on Act IV on Inferno. All I'll say to anyone saying the game is easy or "just right" is... enjoy Act II on Inferno.

I'm a Witchdoctor, by the way, by no means anything powerful (since it was the DH, Wizs and borderline Monks that were soloing it).

[maxcell]

so this is why you are absent from being an ass in chat. Praise D3!!!!

[Veilan]

so this is why you are absent from being an ass in chat. Praise D3!!!!

Meanwhile, maxcell trolls forum with aplomb ^^.