Wowbagger_TIP wrote on Jul 6, 2012, 10:54:

Elessar wrote on Jul 6, 2012, 10:45:
I felt the same way about TL1's music too. Sounded a lot like the Tristram theme in a cartoony world. I may have to just disable the music altogether because of how unfitting it is. It's great music, just doesn't jive with the game.

Oh and btw, I think the reason they delayed TL2's release was because they were revamping the skill system based on feedback like yours from the beta. Let's hope it works out.

My concern is that they are apparently revamping the skill tree, but they don't seem to be planning to beta test those changes before release. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

It is my understanding that they didn't test anything past Act 1, which feels very polished.

Elessar wrote on Jul 6, 2012, 10:45:
I felt the same way about TL1's music too. Sounded a lot like the Tristram theme in a cartoony world. I may have to just disable the music altogether because of how unfitting it is. It's great music, just doesn't jive with the game.

Oh and btw, I think the reason they delayed TL2's release was because they were revamping the skill system based on feedback like yours from the beta. Let's hope it works out.

My concern is that they are apparently revamping the skill tree, but they don't seem to be planning to beta test those changes before release. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I felt the same way about TL1's music too. Sounded a lot like the Tristram theme in a cartoony world. I may have to just disable the music altogether because of how unfitting it is. It's great music, just doesn't jive with the game.

Oh and btw, I think the reason they delayed TL2's release was because they were revamping the skill system based on feedback like yours from the beta. Let's hope it works out.

TL2 is pretty fun but there is a lot of stuff that makes you kind of wonder what they were thinking. The music is great but it doesn't fit the cartoony environments and art design at all, it's very distracting. Ironically Diablo 3 had totally forgettable music that would have been a great fit for TL2 and TL2's music would be very fitting in Diablo 3. The skill tree implementation is weird, I don't know if this has changed yet but several of the things I tried were so weak (even with several points in them) that it was better to just spam your actual weapons.

On the other hand I do love attributes and building out my own dude. The overworld map addition was a big thing and really makes the game feel fleshed out now. The production values are improved enough to be noticeable, theres some voice acting and graphically the game looks better. From what I've played (with some modding) it will probably get a lot more mileage than Diablo 3.

Kajetan wrote on Jul 6, 2012, 04:58:
TL2 could be the game people expected from D3. A simple but clever H&S, with LAN-Support and open to modding for a decade of gaming fun.

From your lips to God's ears...

Cram wrote on Jul 6, 2012, 04:06:
They also made Hellgate: London. The original Diablo developers were not, are not, and will never be gods no matter how much some people on this site think they are in their attempts to bash today's Blizzard.

HGLs demise was caused by lack of proper project management, NOT by lack of talent. Look at Runic and you see, how much the former Flagship crew learned from their mistakes.

No, they are not gods. Not everything they do is pure gold and gaming awesomeness. But at last the people at Runic know what they are doing. This could change in time, but right now its looking good. TL2 could be the game people expected from D3. A simple but clever H&S, with LAN-Support and open to modding for a decade of gaming fun.

If not, well, we all wait for Grim Dawn & Path of Exile to carry our hopes

Kastagir wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 14:33:

Kajetan wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 05:30:
Nobody at Blizzards knows how to make a H&S worthy of the fame Blizz has in this genre. The people mainly responsible for D2 left long ago.

<ahem> And they're making...

They also made Hellgate: London. The original Diablo developers were not, are not, and will never be gods no matter how much some people on this site think they are in their attempts to bash today's Blizzard.

Kastagir wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 14:33:
And they're making Torchlight II, which will be out in a matter of weeks.

Here's to hoping that Torchlight 2 is worth playing for more than 2 weeks.

Kajetan wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 05:30:
Nobody at Blizzards knows how to make a H&S worthy of the fame Blizz has in this genre. The people mainly responsible for D2 left long ago.

<ahem> And they're making Torchlight II, which will be out in a matter of weeks. They seem much more deserving of my money than the makers of this crap.

MadBoris wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 13:49:
In a related note, in terms of Online Only/F2P gone wrong...

It's been disappointing in recent years to watch game development almost cut in half, when half the team in development, oversight, testing is spending half it's resources and hours in a day, not on making the best game possible, but developing, incorporating, testing the most effective, reliable and secure monetizing interface and mechanic, in said game, to make people buy things consistently other than the "actual game" itself. Devs never seem to talk about that in the dev blogs or patch notes, a huge waste of time that the game actually needs.

What a waste of resources (only for the gamer) that takes away from real game development time.

It's become twisted.

Couldn't agree more man, well said.

Seriously, the fact people have to get excited over getting an item in an AH interface versus having it drop playing the fucking game, is just pathetic.

In a related note, in terms of Online Only/F2P gone wrong...

It's been disappointing in recent years to watch game development almost cut in half, when half the team in development, oversight, testing is spending half it's resources and hours in a day, not on making the best game possible, but developing, incorporating, testing the most effective, reliable and secure monetizing interface and mechanic, in said game, to make people buy things consistently other than the "actual game" itself. Devs never seem to talk about that in the dev blogs or patch notes, a huge waste of time that the game actually needs.

What a waste of resources (only for the gamer) that takes away from real game development time.

It's become twisted.

rist3903 wrote on Jul 4, 2012, 13:38:

This morning, I picked up a lvl 51 ring, with 21minutes remaining in the auction, that I know was worth over 20 million gold along everyone elses up above, and I won it for 25 thousand gold. this ring alone will make my hell game playable, (100 STR, 120 VIT, Attack speed 6% , crit chance 4%, socketable)

Thats a killer ring, man. Grats on getting that.

YEAH TOTALLY AWESOME AMIRITE?! Seriously, the fact people have to get excited over getting an item in an AH interface versus having it drop playing the fucking game, is just pathetic.

Kajetan wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 11:03:

PHJF wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 10:32:
They were clearly dicking around the entire time. Just during the beta we saw that GIGANTIC paradigm shift in the skills/rune system, the kind of thing that should NEVER be happening so late in development.

But why? I know, never underestimate the Power of Stupid, but why? Was there a specific reason for this change other than "Guys, we were bored this morning, so we changed everything. Do you like it?"?

3 reasons.

1. They were lazy and embraced laziness.
2. They held off showing how lazy they were till they got some decent press about.
3. They knew all the stupid, uninformed, or blindly hopeful people would buy it regardless.

PHJF wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 10:32:
They were clearly dicking around the entire time. Just during the beta we saw that GIGANTIC paradigm shift in the skills/rune system, the kind of thing that should NEVER be happening so late in development.

But why? I know, never underestimate the Power of Stupid, but why? Was there a specific reason for this change other than "Guys, we were bored this morning, so we changed everything. Do you like it?"?

PHJF wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 10:32:
They were clearly dicking around the entire time. Just during the beta we saw that GIGANTIC paradigm shift in the skills/rune system, the kind of thing that should NEVER be happening so late in development.

Like I've said for years, proper project management at Blizzard is, and has been a joke for a long time.

They were clearly dicking around the entire time. Just during the beta we saw that GIGANTIC paradigm shift in the skills/rune system, the kind of thing that should NEVER be happening so late in development.

Yeah it makes you wonder. Looking back on Diablo 3 I was most disappointed with the following:

- poorly paced length and map randomization
- quality of loot
- Lower number of sets, uniques, etc.
- Inferno
- Power/skill progression being reversed
- Balance nerfing to accommodate the Auction Houses
- Online infrastructure providing zero tangible benefit to players, bots and cheats still heavily rampant.
- Many features of Diablo 2 removed without providing an equivalent

They've been actively working on the game since what...2006? Granted those were early concept/dev builds but it's still frustrating that despite all that time they didn't even manage to ship with feature parity to Diablo 2 or put the game through a proper public beta test.

Verno wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 09:29:
The game just needed actual play testing, less MMO influence and more time in the tank.

One does wonder, what Blizzard has done all these years? Was the dev team not competent enough? Or were there ordered changes from the company board, who just had this neat idea to maximize profits. Changes, which didnt fit into the original gameplay design so that everything has to be torn apart and hastily thrown together to meet certain release deadlines?

Yeah the loot is really boring in general. I can still remember a solid 10-15 memorable items from Diablo 2 and that's not going into runewords and other cool stuff. I can barely remember a few items from Diablo 3 and even then it's only because of how much I sold them to people for, not because I actually wanted to collect it.

Way too much emphasis on getting to level 60 and grinding loots. Diablo 2 worked because you got cool stuff at any level. Diablo 3 also has this weird progression system where you actually get weaker and lose more skill options as you level up which is just bizarre. Most ARPGs are all about collecting stuff and becoming powerful, not starting powerful then getting weaker as you collect things.

The game just needed actual play testing, less MMO influence and more time in the tank.

I like Diablo 3 and play it a lot but I am looking more forward to Grim Dawn and Path of Exile now than I did before.

I wise blizzard would fix the balance issues (if it is a issue) with the loot. The other I got 2 set items that were so useless that they are really not worth being set items and same goes for legenary's.
2h axe ilvl 61 legenary with 300 dps that doesnt make any sense to me at all.