Does Anyone Miss Maphack?
Posted 6 November 2012 by FluxA fan feeling nostalgic for Diablo 2′s more popular cheat piped up in the Battle.net forums today and drew some mild blue condemnation.
…I do fondly remember using MH on D2. I never bothered using Pindlebot or the autopick up programs- but MH made my runs so much more efficient and reasonable (read as “fun”).
Vaeflare: Using the type of programs or “hacks” you mentioned could potentially violate our Diablo III Exploitation Policy. I highly encourage you to check it out and familiarize yourself with it, because players found to be in violation of it may have their accounts actioned.
I wasn’t even going to news this one, but after reading it I started wondering if it would even matter. Even assuming you were going to use some Maphack-like feature cheat in Diablo 3, would it make any real difference? My initial thought was no, since MH was useful in D2 since everything was about runs, and players were forever dashing through multiple levels of the Worldstone Keep or the Durance of Hate or the Forgotten Tower (Cellar), just to get to the lowest level and kill Meph or Baal or the Countess. And since Diablo 2 levels were random, and regular bosses along the way weren’t really worth the trouble, anything that let players find the stairs more quickly was a competitive advantage.
Compared to that, using a hack to find the stairs in Diablo 3 would be kind of pointless, since (aside from initial leveling up) you’re never really rushing to find the end of a dungeon. You’re generally touring through them to wipe out all the randomly-distributed random boss packs, and to do that you’ve got to pretty well explore the whole thing.
…And then I remembered that later versions of maphack showed not just the map, but all of the random elements on it, including the locations of monsters, and bosses, and shrines, etc. And of course that would be very useful for D3 item hunters, since you could just rush instantly to the bosses, find the keywardens quickly, etc.
Personally, I’m glad we don’t have that in D3, since I enjoy playing and exploring and feeling like there’s some actual challenge and luck and fun to finding what I’m after. Searching the entire damn Fields of Misery and running into a pack of Champion Beasts with Vortex, Arcane, Fast, Molten (or something like that) for the Keywarden can make the level live up to its name, but when I do find finally find the Keybastard and split his purple goaty corpse open for the goodies inside, it’s a feeling of accomplishment and fun. And games when he’s right by the waypoint, or when I run the correct direction and find him quickly, feel like a bonus.
If every single game was like that, and I could always avoid all the other bosses, or avoid bosses with nasty mods (by reading them on the map), and always find the keywardens instantly, I think that would get boring very quickly. Like playing on godmode, where all the running on the wheel is eliminated and it’s just non-stop food pellets. Others may disagree though, and that’s what comments are for.
If there was some sort of MH-like tool built into the game, would you want it to be there? Would you use it? It’s kind of hard to answer those questions independently, since if it was in the game most players would feel “forced” to use it just to keep up with everyone else. So you might be glad it’s not there just since you’d be unable to resist it if it was. Thoughts?
The static areas in D3 are the most boring to go back over because I know the map already. A maphack would certainly have the same effect.
While I miss mousepad’s maphack in the glory days of D2; I just don’t feel the need for it like ever in D3. Never had the urge to want it. Besides most of the maps are static for the most part. Save for the special dungeons you find.
What’s there to miss? It’s not like Diablo 3 has randomized environments.
Seriously the overworld’s always the same and there’s what, 5 possible puzzle peaces per dungeon? Not to mention other iffy things you’ll only know from experience like exits always being on same wall in some cases and other consistencies.
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On a side note: I never used MH. But it was always fun to have a guy in the pub party say ‘it’s over here.’ Really cut down on pointless time wasted.
No need for MH nowadays with the relative lack of randomization in dungeons. Also, with the need to stack NV and the benefit of killing rare mobs, it’s not necessary to pass through a dungeon quickly, as the intent is no longer to reach the end as quickly, but to generate loot drops.
never used MH, but I sure would like it in D3
I hate running all around the levels of Bastion’s Keep and through the cave and dungeon’s in Act 2
i just go in circles and dead ends
maybe if I actually found a decent item once in awhile killing randoms then I wouldn’t mind, but since release I’ve only found one set item and about 6 legendaries (and only one legendary was worth selling)
i have got to be the unluckiest person playing the game
Weird, I find 1 or 2 legendaries every ~2 hours of playing, usually running A3 (Machines of War quest and onwards) on MP1. I run between 270 and 400% MF (the latter when swapping for packs). Maybe you are indeed unlucky, but it’s hard to tell without knowing how much farming you actually do.
Whatever. Blizzard don’t ban my D3 account please, for the following!
I gleefully used Mousepad’s MH for years. I never really exploited it to a game-breaking level. I loved that it could hide items that dropped. Honestly that was pretty much the sole reason I used it. I could play all my random-ass builds in d2 (yeah, d3, people actually love using weird, non optimum builds, thanks a lot). And I could have fun on what I was doing, instead of holding Alt the whole damn time scanning through drops, hardly paying attention to gameplay.
In my opinion, MH made the game much more fun. I used its awesome perks, I didn’t use it’s game-breaking allowabilities, and I shamelessly will tell Blizzard that. D2 was a very different beast than D3, though.
I don’t want a reveal map, or a minimap tag for elites, etc. I honestly only want to be able to hide even seeing what I want falling on the ground. I never want to see another white or blue. I don’t want to see any shields or sub-63 class armors. That kind of thing. If that’s a hack, so be it. I want it. It’s not game breaking, it just makes my looting more fun.
I don’t miss it, since in all my years of D2, i never once used maphack heh.
I too used MH in d2, it made the game a lot more fun. Blizzard can’t tell me otherwise.
It wouldn’t be nearly as game changing in d3. I can get around d3 pretty easily.
I used some customized version of maphack because it let me change the colours of items on the ground!! Something that still, in the year of 2012 can’t be changed..
Good maphacks with extra features like mousepads were the BEST, I loved it!
seeing elite packs on the minimap and knowing where to go for mfing was priceless.
Also only showing the stuff on the ground you cared about was awesome.
If it wouldn’t be for some of the better maphacks I would have never played D2 as much as i did.
Thanks to mousepads and other tools I reached lvl 99 with my awesome roflstomp Hdins and dual-sorcs – god I miss those times.
D3 sucks right now, I am going to start D2 tomorrow, **** it.