Diablo III's Massive, Free Loot 2.0 Patch Goes Live
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Wow, the nerfed the HELL out of the Monks Wave of Light skill. Man, that was my go-to AoE/Heavy damage skill in the console version for that class and now it's only half as effective.
OT: They still haven't removed the always online and Path of Exile still fits that itch if I want a good looking dungeon crawler that happens to always be online. Seriously, if you can just yank out the RMAH and the console versions Always-Online, WHY do they insist on keeping it in the PC version?
OT: They still haven't removed the always online and Path of Exile still fits that itch if I want a good looking dungeon crawler that happens to always be online. Seriously, if you can just yank out the RMAH and the console versions Always-Online, WHY do they insist on keeping it in the PC version?
Both Microsoft and Electronic Arts were contemplating doing so until the backlash happened.Aeshi said:
Mobs take a while for me to kill as well, but being a squishy melee character makes it a bit more exciting I imagine. Most of the Monk abilities I have equipped are passives or defensive, so I have to do a lot of kiting, which is something that keeps the 8 million health elites from being too boring for me.shintakie10 said:
Might have been more prudent for me to play on Master until I got a full collection of level 60 equipment, but I've always been a bit mad and the upgrades are serving me well so far.
A decade's worth of development and we got the astoundingly craptastic piece of garbage that was D3's initial launch.
I probably won't be downloading it and picking it up to play any time again, but at least I can appreciate that once they took Jay Wilson's lard ass off the project, D3 has seen nothing but improvement.
So, good on Blizzard for fixing a game that should never have been this broken to awful with, but fuck them for taking ten years to make a game that awful to begin with.
I probably won't be downloading it and picking it up to play any time again, but at least I can appreciate that once they took Jay Wilson's lard ass off the project, D3 has seen nothing but improvement.
So, good on Blizzard for fixing a game that should never have been this broken to awful with, but fuck them for taking ten years to make a game that awful to begin with.
ugh fuck sake, rushed version; written this out three times before now, god damn it firefox.Valderis said:
Well it doesn't bother me, more I just want to discuss it, it is a forum after all. It kinda goes without saying that you thought everything was wrong because you said the game was a steaming pile of rancid shit. My point was that it's not the WORST GAME EVAR like some people proclaim it to be. If this was the worst game they ever played, they've had some fucking luck, Diablo 3 isn't even close to being within the same continent as truely shit games; Guise of the Wolf, Superman 64, Aliens Colonial Marines, heck, fucking Duke Nukem Forever anyone?
I was more interested in the /why/. Just saying everything was wrong doens't make it so. Though nevermind the lore and writing, I'm talking gameplay, and Diablos writing was never really that stellar to begin with. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much you dislike D3, it's not a terrible game or even a bad one, not really. You don't like it, which is fine, but perhaps it's just not for you? It's mediocre at worst, good at best. Not a great game, but a good one. It does what it set out to do pretty well. You have 4 classes, lots of spells and customization of spells, lots of monsters, fuck loads of treasure and you can kill monsters to get that treasure.
Lastly, you say it's not really that surprising and you could see this coming from when Diablo 2 came out waaaay back in 2000? Really? Sorry but I'm not buying that. Call me presumptuous, but it sounds like you wernt too keen on D2 either, maybe you just don't like the franchise? People loved D2, D2 was an improvement over the original in every way imaginable, people could not get enough of D2, it swallowed peoples lives long before MMOs took that particular crown, people made thousands of pounds selling items and gold on the black market because people could not get enough of D2. Hence why D3 had so much hype behind it, because people fucking loved D2.
I'm going to start by saying that while nothing anyone ever says ever can be seen as purely objective, this patch is an amazing improvement over the base game. If this had been D3 at launch, I can assure you the hate and bile would've been laughed out of the room. The legendaries actually feel, Legendary. In no specific order here are a few of the effects I've seen on items. A weapon with the power of a max level item and a level requirement of 29(Cap being 60.), a pair of shoulders that make all of your worn equipment indestructible, another pair of shoulders that give you a bubble when you use the teleport to town spell that reduces damage taken by 55% and stops it from being interruptible, giving you a Get Out of Jail Free card. A ring that summons a little treasure goblin that picks up loot and randomly drops items, including legendaries. A helmet that allows you a chance on hit of dealing a poison nova around any target you hit. A belt that allows you to do explosive damage every time you grab a health orb.
All of those including stats that roll within the rare level range but gain the additional benefits I mentioned. All in all, it's pretty awesome. The changes to the skills are a bit wonky, but if you're patient and want a good challenge, you can level from 1-60 on "Master difficulty". The entire leveling experience feels very organic, every item has a use, either to be salvaged or an actual upgrade, including Junk/Common quality items. All in all, at the risk of sounding really excited over it, it's a great patch.
All of those including stats that roll within the rare level range but gain the additional benefits I mentioned. All in all, it's pretty awesome. The changes to the skills are a bit wonky, but if you're patient and want a good challenge, you can level from 1-60 on "Master difficulty". The entire leveling experience feels very organic, every item has a use, either to be salvaged or an actual upgrade, including Junk/Common quality items. All in all, at the risk of sounding really excited over it, it's a great patch.
Still not playing it. That "always online" requirement has proven more detrimental for me than anything else. Glad they did this for all of those who want to enjoy the game and still do, but I don't feel I can ever go back.
Diablo 3 did not feel like a worthy successor to Diablo 2. The story felt more watered down, special events were just torn away, none of the battles felt satisfactory after winning them. The characters play out more like Gauntlet than Diablo; of which is better is up to speculation, but that customization to make your characters the way you wanted was really special to me in Diablo 2, and I lost that with Diablo 3.
It's a solid game by many respects, and at least it works out well. If it wasn't called Diablo 3 there probably wouldn't have been as much as a backlash to it, but then again it most likely wouldn't have sold as much. But for me, and obviously for many people, simply having good game play is not enough to make a great game, since such ideas are subject to opinion. I wouldn't call it the worst game ever, but I get why many people think so: it stems from the great hopes they had for it, and just how let down they were with the results.
The good news here is that Blizzard is doing what it can to make things all the better (mostly) so that they can satisfy their customers. I hope that this trend at least continues, that game companies listen to what's going on and make improvements as the game continues it's life cycle.
Diablo 3 did not feel like a worthy successor to Diablo 2. The story felt more watered down, special events were just torn away, none of the battles felt satisfactory after winning them. The characters play out more like Gauntlet than Diablo; of which is better is up to speculation, but that customization to make your characters the way you wanted was really special to me in Diablo 2, and I lost that with Diablo 3.
It's a solid game by many respects, and at least it works out well. If it wasn't called Diablo 3 there probably wouldn't have been as much as a backlash to it, but then again it most likely wouldn't have sold as much. But for me, and obviously for many people, simply having good game play is not enough to make a great game, since such ideas are subject to opinion. I wouldn't call it the worst game ever, but I get why many people think so: it stems from the great hopes they had for it, and just how let down they were with the results.
The good news here is that Blizzard is doing what it can to make things all the better (mostly) so that they can satisfy their customers. I hope that this trend at least continues, that game companies listen to what's going on and make improvements as the game continues it's life cycle.
Still Always-Online?
Yes?
Then I still have no use for Diablo 3, and still call betrayal on Blizzard.
Yes?
Then I still have no use for Diablo 3, and still call betrayal on Blizzard.
They don't insist on keeping it for the PC version, it shuts down in the middle of this month two weeks before RoS launches.otakon17 said:
As for always-on, it's a different culture thing. Consoles are still not expected to have an internet connection, but PC's kind of do. The people who "won't play D3 because it's always-on" are such a small amount of people that I doubt they care at this rate. Yeah, it blows, and yeah for those who have shotty internet it pretty much means Blizzard told them "no", but this was going to happen ever since SC2 launched as an always-online title.
Does it bother me? No, but, again, it's a case-by-case issue.
Oh but they DO insist on keeping the "Always Online" bit, because if they DIDN'T the game for the consoles wouldn't work at all. I shouldn't have to rely on their servers to work to play a game I paid for to play whenever I want. And what about when they eventually make Diablo IV or reboot the series and shut down the servers for it? Because they will you know, eventually. People still play Diablo II for crying out loud, that should stand as an example. The Online is not needed, the console versions of the game prove it.Ferisar said:
This turned D3 into a game that I beat once and got bored of on the second play through to a game that I can't wait to get back to.
While I was initially positive about their experiment with the AH, especially the real money aspect of it, it turned out to be fundamentally in conflict with the core design of the game, that is, keeping you playing to find cool loot. Keeping you playing to farm gold to buy cool loot, or just shelling out the cash for it, wasn't nearly the same.
Good job Blizzard!
While I was initially positive about their experiment with the AH, especially the real money aspect of it, it turned out to be fundamentally in conflict with the core design of the game, that is, keeping you playing to find cool loot. Keeping you playing to farm gold to buy cool loot, or just shelling out the cash for it, wasn't nearly the same.
Good job Blizzard!
Blizzard is definitely known for shutting down services for older games /sarcasmotakon17 said:
Again, it's a transition. It has been one since the second SC2 came out. Is it a problem for people? Yes, but not enough for them to change their minds at this point.
And the consoles proved nothing outside of where the console player-base sits at this moment. "Always On" console games don't make sense right now; the Xbone proved that. There are enough people to whom that's detrimental to the point of disinterest. Do I support it? No. But it's not a problem for me and most everyone else on the PC. I guess the problem lies in the fact that I never played single-player Diablo anyway, outside of a first play-through where I break the character in, but that's the problem. I don't want to spend however long leveling by myself and have no access to that character's progression just because I hopped from SP to MP.
And I definitely don't want Open B.net again.
They removed the RMAH right? So.. is the real bane of D3 still there? The gold AH? Because that thing was what ruined D3 - together with boring skills + atricious loot.
Pretty sure I'm the only person who hates this patch.
I didn't hate the base game, to be honest, and didn't have much objection to the auction house other than the cash-grab that was the real money version. But when I log in and discover that the skill in my Monk's fourth slot is now "!!Missing!!52082;[sno unknown];", I'm forced to see this as a patch made by a bunch of careless idiots.
Then there's the nerf bat wielded in the direction of Life Steal, for literally no reason. I mean none. There was no reason to flatten that. Yeah, they hated magic find and wanted rid, the explanation was semi-logical (if pants)... but at least they had a reason, and stuck with it. I don't see why LS went, at all.
The new level system is stupid.
I haven't yet found a new legendary that was worth finding.
"Toughness" is a totally meaningless combination of several better stats; it made more sense when your resistances and vitality were seperate things, and the combined version makes gear comparison nearly useless.
Stop selling me ROS. I've already got the special edition on pre-order from Amazon; if the Crusader is an RoS exclusive class, then there is no justification for me finding Crusader gear in vanilla, other than the sort of advertising we'd be lynching EA for right now if they tried it.
All told, I'm personally seeing this as a fix to things that weren't that broken. Less but better in loot terms was a great idea, but my Wiz is still finding Butcher's Sickles first up.
I didn't hate the base game, to be honest, and didn't have much objection to the auction house other than the cash-grab that was the real money version. But when I log in and discover that the skill in my Monk's fourth slot is now "!!Missing!!52082;[sno unknown];", I'm forced to see this as a patch made by a bunch of careless idiots.
Then there's the nerf bat wielded in the direction of Life Steal, for literally no reason. I mean none. There was no reason to flatten that. Yeah, they hated magic find and wanted rid, the explanation was semi-logical (if pants)... but at least they had a reason, and stuck with it. I don't see why LS went, at all.
The new level system is stupid.
I haven't yet found a new legendary that was worth finding.
"Toughness" is a totally meaningless combination of several better stats; it made more sense when your resistances and vitality were seperate things, and the combined version makes gear comparison nearly useless.
Stop selling me ROS. I've already got the special edition on pre-order from Amazon; if the Crusader is an RoS exclusive class, then there is no justification for me finding Crusader gear in vanilla, other than the sort of advertising we'd be lynching EA for right now if they tried it.
All told, I'm personally seeing this as a fix to things that weren't that broken. Less but better in loot terms was a great idea, but my Wiz is still finding Butcher's Sickles first up.
That's what I'm saying, they insisted first that the always online was for the RMAH. Well they're removing the RMAH so that was a lie, so what is the always online for? It's not for cheat prevention because it wasn't a requirement for the console versions. So why are they keeping the always online? That's the question, if it's not for DRM and it's not for cheat prevention and it's not for the RMAH, what is it for? Beyond being another damn hurdle for people that just want to play the game they paid for, or did you forget how this launched to a wealth of users not being able to play due to server overload?Ferisar said:Blizzard is definitely known for shutting down services for older games /sarcasmotakon17 said:
Again, it's a transition. It has been one since the second SC2 came out. Is it a problem for people? Yes, but not enough for them to change their minds at this point.
And the consoles proved nothing outside of where the console player-base sits at this moment. "Always On" console games don't make sense right now; the Xbone proved that. There are enough people to whom that's detrimental to the point of disinterest. Do I support it? No. But it's not a problem for me and most everyone else on the PC. I guess the problem lies in the fact that I never played single-player Diablo anyway, outside of a first play-through where I break the character in, but that's the problem. I don't want to spend however long leveling by myself and have no access to that character's progression just because I hopped from SP to MP.
And I definitely don't want Open B.net again.
Again, the console version of the game proves very little. It proved A: The game works fine without the AH assuming you change how loot tables work and B: That the console gaming crowd is still the console gaming crowd.otakon17 said:
There's no "Always On DRM" on the DRM side because consoles don't have that problem due to barriers of entry and being un-intuitive for the purposes of cheating/piracy. Does being always-on immediately solve that problem? Well, no, but it certainly makes it harder. It actually makes it a lot harder in the case of D3 given that a lot of essentials for that game are server-side, making a proper offline emulator pretty hard/almost impossible because of how the game is designed from the very beginning. (See the same on the end of WoW, where most emulated servers are, to this day, horribly buggy and are missing a lot of proper quest responses/items/NPC's and behaviors. It's pretty comical)
From the "Always On" side of things, Blizzard has been talking about this since late 2008 (if memory serves), and it had a backlash back then, one that subsided and most people moved on. This is actually related to the RMAH: The original decision to include an in-game auction house was to prevent third-party sites to sell items and pose potential risks to the user. In theory it would've worked fine, but the vast majority of the Diablo playerbase didn't partake in those services, which rendered designing loot tables around the auction house detrimental to the overall player experience while preventing a much smaller sub-set of indecent transactions (and only encouraged botting, if anything else).
Did it hurt the game? Yeah it did. It's why this a news story. But that's the thing: consumer-side problems are a problem, because longevity is important. Always On has been proven to work fine through a different game, so they knew it wasn't going to be an issue with most people, and it was a cheap way to solve a lot of awkward exploits that exist because of how the game functions.
The Launch kerfluffle was regrettable, but I'm almost 100% positive that it would've happened even with a single player option. Most people played D2 online. Just because your servers are being barraged by one less million out of 10 doesn't make it any easier for them to resolve the problem of being swarmed. And once the launch period ends, you have a bunch of servers that sit around gathering dust. It was a shitty situation for both parties.