Blue: Pull Over and Read the Damn Map
Posted 8 February 2012 by FluxThat’s not only just what your girlfriend says when you get lost taking a shortcut — it’s the mandated navigation instructions in Diablo III, as Bliz EU CM Nakatoir explains.
You are very much correct in your statement that this was a deliberate design choice, Caelestis. We did not want to have the Diablo II scenario where people just stared at a dot on a map to guide themselves through an area. We made the map full screen, completely opaque and prevented commands from being sent while it is open to stop this from occurring. We also like the concept that your character has to take a few moments and stop so that they can get their bearings
If you’ve not played the 
Diablo 3 Beta yet, realize that the small map is always visible in the top right corner, but that it does not show enough for you to find your way around a large area. You have to hit the “M” key to open the full map, as seen below. Now when it’s open, your character can not move or cast spells until you close the map again. This was not the case early in the beta; back then if you were moving by holding down the LMB (not clicking it; actually holding it steady down) you could keep moving as long as you held the button. This feature (bug?) was fixed a couple of patches ago, and we now know that was an intentional change since the developers apparently felt that the process of navigating through large, empty dungeons needed to be slightly more inconvenient. SIGN OF RELEASE!!1!
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If they made the dungeons linear there would be no problem of wading through empty dungeons half the time.
Are you suggesting they should make dungeons linear? That would be a terrible suggestion. I hate the direction video games have taken over the past decade with map design. I want to explore a dungeon, not stroll through a theme park attraction.
I think the response was supposed to be sarcastic, referencing how D3 has been dumbing down everything else about the game.
It would be great if they would add some opacity control over the minimap. A small sweet for this bitter solution of having mini-map always open. Plus extra if I have to stop for viewing the full map ( as the programmers decided so) i also demand of having control over minimap so i can switch this thing of with my hotkey – I dont llike being disturbed with it.
In short :
1. hotkey for opacity 90% ; 80%;70% … 50 %
2. hotkey for turning this small minimap off/on
Do me a favorite and send the words futher since i dont have access nor I’m worth enough to mail directly to Blizz > : D
stay cool.
Sar.
Ahh and one more thing
3. Give me control over switching portraits of my team / minions / fallowers as was in the diablo 2
As I said I like only my UI clean of “garbage”.
My choice, MY DECISION! Send this please further to them INC Gamers I would be more then grateful
Sar
Good idea on their part, I always had that damn map open on d2. Never got to enjoy the scenery much :p
then close the map
I played with it on most of the time too. I learned to just see through it when I needed to I guess because it never really got in the way. But I’m glad they changed it for D3. Outdoor environments are set and the dungeons don’t have quite the ridiculous amount of rooms, so it isn’t as necessary anyway.
Thats just STUPID!
And this is a problem, why exactly? I’ve always hated having the map open all the time. I mean, sure you get used to it, and it is nice to have that information readily available, however, it kills the immersion if I can’t really see my char from the bloody map. It also makes it kinda difficult to fight with it, especially against smaller and/or more dangereous monster packs, which meant I had to toggle it on and off all the time, which is inconvenient.
As opposed to that, D3′s system is a significant improvement. At least for me, it is less irritating to have mini-map always available for shorter distances, and having to stop and look at the bigger map for couple seconds still isn’t as irritating as having that map cover my screen, and then rushing to turn it off when some small, irritiating monster started killing me.
Also, “empty dungeons”. Why did you mean by that? From everything I have seen, they are filled with monsters, in about the same amount as D2 dungeons of the similiar level.
I agree, hated having to have that damn map back in D2. I think its better this way with the mini map, and having to stop to look at the big map.
Also.. “If you’ve not played the Diablo 3 Beta yet ” … sign of more beta giveaways!!!! :O
Once you kill everything and reach a dead end…the dungeon is empty and you have to run around trying to find that one tiny little patch you didn’t explore. Usually it’s not an issue but sometimes it’s a pain in the ass.
I can’t believe this is the mentality we are dealing with. You lost immersion? You pressed the key to open the map up!?#**$()%@!! your goddamn self. No one stopped you from playing without it.
This isn’t the only example of an option that was reworked in D3 where in D2 the person had to actually invoke the command themselves and now its restricted because the behavior wasn’t looked upon favorably.
What’s wrong with enabling people to navigate the world in a way that suits them? You aren’t forcing them to run around with the map open and neither are you forcing them to stand still while getting their bearings. In this situation, everyone is doing the same thing the same way. Increasing that’s the kind ****ing options we are getting in D3.
What’s wrong with empowering the players to play the adventure their own ****ing way?
Actually I believe most people played D2 with the large map open all the time. I sure did. It did distract from the scenery.
The reason people played that way is because it was the most efficient and in some ways ‘required’.
If Diablo 3 is intentionally designed around a map that does not let you behave that way, people will be forced to change their behaviour, and moreover the levels will be able to be designed with this limitation in mind. So the maps themselves may now be easier to navigate, or have more landmarks in them to help player navigation, compared to D2 where everyone more or less just used the map.
Yeah, I played with it open and I’m glad its gone.
Totally agree aside from that salty language! This d3 dev team has me nervous. Do they even listen to feedback? The large volume of criticism I’ve read in their beta feedback forums seems to be completely ignored or pushed aside nomatter how intelligent the argument. All while proudly and stubbornly defending “innovations” that warp the game away from what made Diablo 2 great. I’ve seen one awful change to another all while patting themselves on the back for their brilliance. ANYTHING to be different from the amazingly successful predecessor, even if it means stripping features. I haven’t seen enough to consider not buying the game but… the thought actually starting entering my mind after playing the beta and reading the forums.
It’s a problem because they’re limiting functionality. If I reach a dead-end in a dungeon, I like to be able to flick the large map open and closed as I’m running through a dead area. Removing such a simple, handy feature is annoying.
Immersion? The first thing I’d fix is the the UI menu button. An image of a CPU breaks immersion more than the idea that you character can do everything on the run except check a map.
Welcome change, strangely enough a design choice to make things a little more inconvenient!
I know, right? This is actually the first thing I’ve ever heard about D3 that I like.
i like to see the environment not a map
so im happy with this…
this is easy enough in D2, don’t keep the map open
Obviously they need to accommodate grandma’s poor eyesight and ensure that there isn’t very much onscreen clutter at once like having a map overlay, so of course they’ll force you to bend over and get ****ed in the ass to look at the map.
Is there a lot of hate in your life?
I would say mediocrity.
Pathetic. 10 years and the incompetent morons developing this **** have gone backwards. Useless.
so can I take damage while the map is open?
or does it pause the game.
It’s the only major gameplay inconvenient I can think of, because I remember hearing there will not be Pause in the game, so I guess it would be cool to die while checking the map, I mean it’s not like there will be guys who will 2 hit me in diablo right?
Right?
Yes you can… Don’t try to look at your map while around monsters…
the souls that shot lightning in d2 saw you before you saw them, let’s say I don’ see them press M and promptly get executed. sad story?
Anyway, in my book you don’t take away the see-through map from an ARPG.
But, blizz has been known to invent stuff so I guess it’s ok to believe.
LE: Oh wait you don’t take away the see-through map from an ARPG, unless it’s really linear. Ah.
Good idea! I played Diablo 2 for over 5 years and only a few month ago, when i restarted playing, I started observing more than this sequence:dot, monster = cursor kill kill kill, dot, dot, dot, monster = kill, you get the drift. It’s the same thing like watching movies with subtitles. You observe CRAP! Though I do understand that some players might analyze all environments meticulously and that they will desire only to be efficient afterwards. But who cares….bring the stupid game already! Tired of waiting!
if you’re incapable of observing a movie and reading subtitles simultaneously you may be autistic.
It really seems more likely to me that they just couldn’t manage to create a map overlay that included terrain & quest markers while not interfering too much with the screen.
The only two reasons people couldn’t see underneath the map in D2 were they had map opacity set too high, or they were using map hack (which added so many things to the map overlay that it made the game playable from the map itself).
Mods: The Solve media box now requires us to click the ad to see the captcha response that we need to enter. Is that intended? I’d rather just donate to your website than have to do that!
It’s not that they couldn’t see underneath the map. It’s that they usually only paid attention to the map to navigate through the world and dungeons instead of looking at the terrain itself.
When people come down to want to watch the map to playthrough, maybe the game has a problem, not the map itself.
You mean the same “problem” that in real life you are required to use maps to know your way around?
We all used the map incessantly because we were more interested in figuring out the right way to get to the quest/next wp (without the right way being spoon-fed). After the first or second play through, you’ll inevitably be focused on the destination rather than the journey. Might as well provide the tools to make focusing on the destination fun too…
But they haven’t. They’ve done the opposite.
Of course, they could just zoom out the mini-map a bit…