Diablo 3 Player number Health

[Kiroptus]

^I agree with that. Something very strange happened inside the Diablo 3 development, and I think its a shame, at the previews we could actually feel that there was some effort of making a fantastic game but as the release date approached, as the beta kept getting major changes, redesigns and elements being removed, that game was slowly changing into the abomination we have today.

They gambled, they lost and they gambled with something so powerful as the Diablo brand, even without a decade of having a game like this, it managed to snatch 10 million sales, even the analysts had to eat their words saying that Diablo 3 would sell 6 million copies by the end of the year when it made more than that in the first week, I guess everyone thought that the Diablo franchise wasnt as strong as it used to be but no, its a very powerful brand that they managed to taint it to the ground. Now other developers, big or indie, will feast on blizzard's demise, you can expect a big surge of ARPGs comming, thats the only good thing that will come out of this mess.

[Kinmaul]

The problem is D2 Hell was a complete joke. You could outlevel the content and then it was literally a loot pinata that you beat until something good dropped. There were cookie cutter builds you could use to dominate, but you could get away with a lot more as long as you understood the game mechanics. In D3 once you hit a3 inferno you really, really need to understand your class to be successful. However there are some problems with the end-game in D3 that Blizzard needs to desperately address:

1.) Itemization sucks, and that's putting in nicely. Legendaries, for the most part, are trash. Also since resist-all is mandatory it severly limits what gear is viable and what is junk. If they added a resist-all gem I think that would help out a ton. This of course wouldn't fix everything, but it's a step in the right direction.

2.) Skills are not balanced around a3/a4 inferno. Up through a1 inferno you can do pretty much whatever you want and be successful (your mileage may vary based on what you pick of course). However once you hit a2 "sub-optimal" builds will start to struggle and a3 completely breaks them. This, in and of itself, isn't a bad thing since their should be good/bad choices: the problem is that there are a ton of bad choices and only a few good choices for each class. Blizzard spent time designing these amazing skills, but a majority of them are completely worthless at the end-game. Not every build should/needs to be viable, but right now the scale is tipped heavily in the wrong direction.

So what happens is people get to the end-game, and start running into gear checks. This wouldn't be an issue if the majority off your gear didn't HAVE to have resist-all for you to even function in inferno. Next, that fun build you have leveled with is most likely complete trash in inferno. Either you wallow blindly in frustration thinking your class is broken, or you head to the internet and realize "hey there's only 3 builds that even work". So much for those 35 billion skill combinations...

The game does have potential, but if Blizzard wants the end-game to last they need to make more gear and more builds viable. Nerfing inferno isn't the answer because that will not change the quality of the builds, or the requirement of resist-all (you'll just need less of it).

[sacridoc]

I wouldn't even say combat is done right. I think it's terrible. The animations and visuals feel nicely smooth and fast-paced, but the mechanics themselves are awful.

- Mobs that run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run

- Loads of CC that can be chained infinitely, often leading to death-from-full-health that you can't react to

- Ridiculous mechanics like shielding, jailer, teleporting mobs, mobs that are untargetable unless you're in melee range

- Insane AoE damage that piles up and can't be survived. This is especially bad if trying to play self-found where literal instant death isn't uncommon

- Mobs with attacks that are meant to pretty much one-shot you (such as berserkers) but then they can also spawn with affixes that make it impossible to avoid said attacks

There's no consistent difficulty. You can be breezing through one area without a challenge, and in the next is an unkillable champion pack that forces you to abandon the game. Too many mechanics do little more than essentially pause the game every few seconds for no particular reason, like nightmarish or knockback enemies, things that become invulnerable at regular intervals, and things that teleport away when you hit them. This game makes me go "really, Diablo III? Really? Who the hell thought that was good gameplay?" far, far too often. It feels like they deliberately designed combat to make you feel like you need to use the AH as often as possible, and I wouldn't be the least surprised if that were in fact the case.

I'm just saying the general feeling of combat compared to D2 (and other ARPGs) is an upgrade and the best part of the game in my opinion. The fact that you can use 6 abilities at once and that it's way faster. The speed has a lot to do with it.

But yeah, there are tons of issues. Particularly I agree about the some of the bad enemy mechanics. There are far too many enemies that 1 shot you under certain circumstances. Invuln + Shield is awful as well. The disparity between certain champion packs is really stupid. Like some monsters (in their champion form) are a complete joke, while others are way too strong. Mainly there just isn't enough creativity in terms of mechanics.

The whole point of ARPGs is that they're supposed to be really simple in terms of combat but complicated as far as builds and items go. That's the impression I always got. Blizzard made the combat more complicated, but ruined build diversity and items in this game, probably to make it easier to understand.

The result is a game that feels like some kind of bad MOBA/ARPG hybrid where the combat isn't really that complex (just more so than most ARPGs) and the build diversity / items are super monotonous.

I don't get it really, ARPGs are so much better when the combat is simple, but the character customization is complicated. If you want a game where you press tons of buttons MMOs or MOBAs are a lot better.

I would take slower combat / less active abilities over almost 0 build diversity, customization any day. I would assume it's possible to do both, but to me the thing that differentiates ARPGs from MMOs or MOBAs is that the character customization is more complicated. D3 just doesn't have this at all.

[flooble]

I still have what I feel is a fairly sound theory that they gambled too heavily on the RMAH. I think many of the things that make the game furstrating to play are deliberately implemented in order to compel players to use the RMAH and thus generate revenue for Blizzard.

<<Snip>>

That.

I totally agree. It was the overwhelming feeling I got from the hotfixes/patch changes that highlighted it initially for me and then a lot more fell into place - unable to dodge/enrage timers etc.


I'm hoping 1.04 signals a move away from that. I don't expect miracles from it, but I *do* expect a change of wind in terms of direction, hopefully getting a bit more away from GearCheck3™

If it doesnt deliver, I do not anticipate anything but the most cursory look every 6-8 weeks or so. And that's being generous.

[Lorderan]

100% Agree. Once you realise the game is all about the RMAH a lot of the design decisions start to make a bit of sick sence. Removal of sockets, removal of mystik, small stash, enrage timers, hit boxes, gear checks everywhere. A "gaming" company that makes these types of decision scares the hell out of me. A company that makes these decisions leaves me with little to no faith they get it or will ever give a stuff.

[sacridoc]

You could probably make a believable argument that the game mechanics are based around the RMAH (or buying gold). The fact that characters don't have inherent stat points... the fact that the whole game is a hard gear check...

Between enrage timers and reduced effectiveness of CC, it's basically impossible to kill anything unless you have the right gear.

But I really don't think it's like that. The game is just badly designed. It's not some grand conspiracy to force players to spend real money... If anything, the D3 RMAH is just a trial run for TITAN.

It's not difficult to beat the game without buying things off the RMAH. Maybe you have to farm for a little while, but it's not that hard. Also, even though you can't grind your way through the game with bad gear, you can make multiple sets of gear that stack offensive / defensive stats in order to run past content / burst down bosses.

I guess if you believe that people will still use real money to ensure they have gear that allows them farm Inferno rather than just beat it, then maybe that encourages use of the RMAH. Or that they'll be encouraged to use the RMAH because they don't want to farm for 100 hours or whatever. But it's really not necessary to spend real money at all.

D3 is just badly designed in many many areas, to the point where fixing it would require a total overhaul of the game's foundation.

[Kinmaul]

RMAH is definately not required to clear the game, not even close. I've cleared inferno on four classes and haven't touched the RMAH or purchased any gold. Obviously I've bought and sold stuff on the AH, but I've never used it for flipping. I'm sure I've played more than the average player due to having the summer off, but if you are only playing a few hours a night then what is your rush to finish the game so quickly? What I don't think people realize is the disparity in time invested when comparing hardcore and casual. There's nothing wrong with being casual (you are probably better off in fact), but don't expect to have the same amount of gear as someone who has put in 3-4 times the hours you have.

RMAH is for people that want to rush to the end without putting in the time. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's silly to think that the game is "balanced" around the RMAH.

[Lord_Jaroh]

RMAH is for people that want to rush to the end without putting in the time. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's silly to think that the game is "balanced" around the RMAH.

Blizzard (Bashiok if I remember correctly) has already stated that the drops were designed around the idea that items would be readily available on the Auction House. Considering Diablo is all about the drops, it is safe to conclude that the game is designed with the Auction House in mind. The point is game progression is designed around gear checks. You can "force yourself" through them by farming an excessive amount of time (because the drops have been reduced for a "single" player), or you can alleviate your aggravation by visiting the Auction House for a quick fix.

They (Blizzard) has designed the overall game with you being unable to "out-level" the content, and the only way through it is by "better gear". They made it so the path of least resistance is through the Auction House. That speaks to me right there, that the game was "balanced" around the Auction House, from start to finish.

The Auction House is only one of the (many) faults with the game, but it is the driving force:

- That Blizzard designed a poor action game instead of an Action RPG game, by adding in "actiony" combat, but not adding in direct player input, as well as enlarging hitboxes and making dodge dependent upon numbers rather than actually avoiding things.
- That Blizzard removed all forms of replayability by having no permanency within your builds, giving you no reason to relevel characters. Along with that it removed nearly all forms of randomness within the areas themselves, making playthroughs boring and redundant.
- That Blizzard, given umpteen years of development, still managed to "rush" the last 3/4 of the game; every act after the 1st is shorter than the one previous!
- The lack of variety within the game is telling. Shrines, Gems, Potions, Monsters. Items in general are all lacking in quantity and variety. The itemization, arguably the most important feature of a Diablo game, is an utter failure, both with crafting, drops, and the "interestingness" of uniques. The lack of anything new in areas you visit; all the areas are roughly parallel to the previous Diablo (barring Heaven of course). Even the new "events" that occur are minuscule in amount, especially the further you get in the game. Hell, their much vaunted skill system is so lacking in variety from the original iteration of it, I'm surprised that it made it into the game at all!
- The story is so laughably bad I would be embarrassed to have been attached to it. That they shove it in your face throughout the game, with every repeated playthrough only makes it worse.
- That Inferno was not designed as a challenge level, but simply another gear-grind/gear-check level, along with including everything they wanted to avoid! (frustration, one-hit kills, "unkillable" creatures, slow gameplay, "cheap" difficulty rather than challenging difficulty).

You can tell by Blizzard's development decisions that they were banking on the "difficulty" of the game driving the Auction House sales and keeping people playing longer. The problem was they gave us a mediocre game which didn't encourage people to want to spend money on the auction house in order to keep playing. Thus people are leaving. Whether or not they return if Blizzard "fixes" the game, that's different for everyone. I'm guessing that if the newest patch doesn't create enough "numbers", I doubt we will see anything significant from them regarding Diablo 3 "fixes", and Blizzard will wash their hands of the game and move on to their next "big thing" (Titan), if they already haven't.

[Kinmaul]

You quoted my statement about the RMAH and then wrote a massive post about the GOLD auction house. The only thing I said about the gold auction house was that I used it to buy/sell goods. I read the Bashiok post you mentioned and I agree that drops are balanced around the presence of easy trading, for better or for worse that is what we are stuck with for now.

In my post, and the text you quoted, I clearly stated that the RMAH is not required at all to be successful in D3. I also think it's silly to say that the game is balanced around the RMAH when you do everything you need with the gold auction. If you want to make an statement saying that the gold auction house is driving people away that's definately your right, but don't use my mis-quoted post as a springboard to do it.

[Lorderan]

Kinmaul seriously AH/RMAH the same bloody thing. Since you can buy and sell gold. across both systems.