I just got into the Beta on this last wave of invites, and I figured I'd give it a go and see what it was like. I have played through as the Barbarian first and the Demon Hunter second.
THE OPENING SCREENS:
Very generic feeling. I disliked the "tabbed" character choosing, with the video of what the character can do to the side. I also don't like the little writeup below the video. It feels "wrong" somehow. I would like to see something more akin to D2's character selection screen, with all of the characters on screen at once and you simply click and choose, with a little animation or some-such to differentiate them, rather than a sterile skills video and write-up. Hopefully this is a place-holder for the Beta and simply to explain to newbies the differences off the hop, rather than being representative of the finished product.
The Profile Screen is very nice, with the stats page and all your character and what they are wearing easily accessible, although there are a couple of little things I'd like to see changed, like the background color of the small character icons being reversed, so that Blue is the character selected and Red is the unselected characters.
The Banner Page is very simplistic, with not a lot of choice. This may be a Beta thing, but I do hope there are a lot more choices in designs and unlocks for the future (multiple unlocks per achievement) in the finished product. I would like them to fold the Banner page into the Profile screen however, as you don't need to be able to click on many things to bring up those different pages.
The Tool-tips on the screen should not be shown until you hover over something for a few seconds (the "Left Click to Open Profile" thingy). It just makes the screen look cluttered, plus the light-up halo around the object kind of indicates that it is "clickable" without being told to click.
Clicking your character should take you to the Character tab of the Profile rather than your overall career, otherwise it is redundant with the clicking of your name to get the profile page.
I found not being able to "spin" the character or "zoom in" on the character somewhat disconcerting, as it was the first thing I tried to do in that Character select menu, to get a better look at the models. I would like to see that implemented into the game. Yes, I know you can spin the model in the Character Profile page, but it just feels "wrong" to not be able to do it in the main menu area.
Overall, the Opening Menus need a bit of work as they feel very clunky and cluttered. They definitely don't draw me in to the "world" of Diablo as they are.
IN GAME:
The UI is...off putting. There is too much on the screen at once, in a very in-your-face way. The Skill Icons need to be toned down/muted. I would rather they be more like the D1 and D2 kind of "Stone Rune" look, or at least a silhouette kind of thing, rather than the colored icons they have currently. That whole bottom bar needs to be toned down in brightness to keep it from being as distracting.
The Icons for Skills/Inventory/etc need to be able to be hidden, much like the toggle-able ones with D2. I do not use the icons, I use hotkeys, so they are needlessly cluttering up the visible space. The mini-map is too "zoomed out". Zoom it in a bit to make the areas seem larger. As well, take away the border and tone down the brightness so it can be ignored (or even better, make it toggle-able, so I can lose it when I wish to). Take away the quest locators please! Considering the nature of the game, exploration and monster killing should take the forefront, not quest rushing.
Remove the "Quest Complete" pop-up that cannot be removed without hitting Continue. It interrupts the flow, and also takes up a large amount of screen real-estate and is unnecessary. As well, tone down the Level Up effects. A little too bright and considering you can't really do anything during them anyway, it makes no sense to "show it off" that much.
Buying items is a chore, as I cannot drag and drop the item into the new slot and swap the old one back to the merchant for gold. The item is put into your inventory, then you have to click it into the new spot. Then you have to click the old one to sell it. Here's a spot to make it more intuitive. Drag and drop is the way to go.
The red glow around monsters needs to be toned down/use a thinner line. Right now it is too bright and distracts you away from what you are killing. The same goes with the blue line around interact-able things like the bookshelves, but the lighter blue color is not as invasive as the red.
The "You have empty inventory slots" Tool-tip needs to be altered. It shows up all the time. I haven't found an amulet yet, dammit! You don't have to remind me every time I pick up a club!
SKILLS/STATS/CUSTOMIZATION:
Overall they feel very...generic. Yes, they are useful, but being able to swap them at any time feels wrong, as well as gaining them feels wrong. It feels like I have such a lack of choice with them. Yes, I understand that Runes will be able to customize them to a degree, but that is not enough. I don't want items to be my only form of customization. I would like to see items "accentuate" the choices I've made, not be the only ones that I've made!
Level-ups are very...boring. I level-up, I might gain access to a new skill, and that's it. I gained a few stat points that I couldn't control and it did nothing to me. I didn't feel any different killing monsters, ultimately making the level-up feeling an empty action. What will happen once I've reached 30 and I have all of my skills, and the next 30 level-ups are essentially gaining nothing?
Customization is very lacking in the Beta, partly because of the limited item affixes and partly because of the lack of runes, but also because beyond those two things, there is no real customization! Yes, you can choose your skills, but it feels like a very empty choice. Mainly because there are not enough skills to choose from. Guild Wars was similar in that you can swap your skills in town, but they still had stats you can alter, and there were so many skills to choose from that finding the synergies between them was half the fun! In Dungeon Siege III you could customize your skills as well so that each one could have different effects. I can see the Runes doing some of it, but not enough. I just didn't feel like I had any control over any growth of the character.
So far, I am not a fan of the different resources for characters. They just feel too...arbitrary. I would have rather seen the same resources used in different ways, or allowing characters to use other resources for their skills to allow different effects. This would open up the amount of items any given class could find useful. I would have liked to see Stamina return, just changed to make it more important, and useful in regards to skill use (maybe having skills draining stamina to varying degrees, giving an excuse to use the basic attack you will never see again after level 2...).
ITEMS:
Too many items are class specific, and there is a giant red "X" in the centre of those. How about a small X in the corner, or even better, simply a red background and a "You cannot use this" voice? There are still far too many specific items however; I'm pretty sure that people can figure out which items will work for their character given the inherent bonuses. We aren't that dumb...And why can't I have a Barb wielding crossbows? It could be fun!
Stackable potions are very nice. Hopefully gems and runes will be as well.
Please change the "DPS" stat. I would like to see it removed, but at least make the number smaller than the name of the item!
I really wish that identifying meant something again. Right now, you only ID yellow items. It just feels odd to have it completely arbitrary like this.
Salvaging is nice, although I can't see it being as in-depth as Guild Wars was, and hopefully crafting the items will actually mean something later.
LORE:
I like the way lore is integrated into the game as a recording, but I would like it called something else, rather than generic "Lore", like "Excerpt from the Book of Cain" or some such thing. Having it pause when someone else speaks would be nice as well.
The Skill names and titles need work. "Hatred Generator" and "Hatred Spender" and "Passive Skill" is far too generic and out-of-game seeming. Make them fit into the world of Diablo please!
The same goes for shrine descriptions, so they seem more "mysterious" hearkening back to D1 and D2.
I really hate the removal of the Pentagrams/christian references, as they were a big part of the earlier Diablos, and I think their removal was very hackneyed and given a poor excuse. This is a war between Heaven and Hell after all, albeit on a fictional plane...
The dialogue seems a bit "flat" in delivery, more like actors and not like the characters they are acting, if that makes any sense.
The quests are okay, although everything seems to be a bit too linear right now. Hopefully they will have that fleshed out in the actual game. The world itself needs a bit of work. It is very linear. I would like to see far more randomization in the game. I know that the dungeons are supposed to be randomized rather than the overworld, but even the dungeons seem very...samey right now.
MUSIC/SOUND/ART:
The music is great, although the title screen music feels off. Too "Epic" sounding, I think. During the game however, the ambient style music sounds very good as a beginning thing. Hopefully we will get lots of different ones further in the game.
The sound is good, hearing gold drop, or books drop, destroying barrels and such. All of that works very well, although the skill effects are a bit loud compared to everything else. I turned that volume to 1/2 compared to the rest, just so I can hear things uninterrupted.
I did dislike the change in font. I miss the Diablo "O"s and such...
The art style is a bit...off putting. The characters and monsters often seem a bit "over-exaggerated" (the one boss you fight to get Leoric's crown for example seems wrong), and the lack of the style of scenes like the Butcher's room in D1 is noticeable, although that "could" change further in the game. It is too bright colour-wise, but not that terrible (however the overlay that people have done to fix that is great!). The lack of a light radius in dungeons doesn't feel right as well, with an over-abundance of blue and green fog effects not making up for it. The overworld areas in the forest right before the church has a proper feel to it, however.
I do like the look of a lot of the background scenery like Cain's house and such, having a "lived in" look. We'll have to see how it progresses though.
OVERALL:
I can't see too much changing within the game, other than a bit of polish here or there. As it is, it seems to be an okay game, but I don't know yet if it will have the longevity of its predecessor. Right now I think it is too "watered down" for the masses, in terms of hand-holding and ease of play. I don't know how the later difficulties will play of course, but I can't see the game being as deep as D2 in regards to customization, which means that I think it will be shorter lived overall.
I'm not a fan of all of the character choices, but have yet to play through the game with them all, so that could change.
We'll see how the finished product compares with the Beta.
EDIT: Not trying to flame or anything but reading through that is really what it sounds like.
Not to worry. There are lots of things that I would like to see changed about D2 as well, and will never see, so it's not really that. I play a modded version as it is...
All I want is a worthy sequel to the series and name that will stand the test of time as much as D2 did. Would I want an "improved" D2? Sure, who wouldn't? Just like I would want an improved D1. I understand that D3 is a different game, I just want it to see it aligned more to the series.
ROLFCOPTER, LOLLERBLADES, LAWLZER. Whatever it is that the kids are saying today that shits funny and i totally agree
?
I'm not sure what language you are speaking here, but it sure isn't English. (I apologize if your native language is something else, but I can hardly understand what you are saying...)
I read your entire, thread and have to say the "Lack of customization" Is actually not lacking at all. I mean it really is better having your items do the work. If I want to have a huge Fire damage output with shitons of dodge, I'd need dex and fire gear and I'd look for anything that helps out in that way. It just makes it easier than fucking up your stats, or doing the same build for everysingle character. This makes the characters interesting and more fun to play with, I can actually try all the different builds.
I'm super happy about colors. I don't understand why people say color is bad. If you want desaturated monotonous tones and a overall poor and simplistic play experience there's already a Direct3d filter for ya. but color is a good thing. The light radius is dumb because it really is pointless in a lit corridor. I'm sorry but if i'm standing in a open church with light coming in or some static light source I'm pretty sure I can see throughout the entire church. Just run down to your local church that has lights you'll understand you can see everything no problemo. I forgot where I saw a video on this site i've been searching but it showed later acts, One that looked akin to hell and one that looked akin to the spider lairs in D2 act 3. The spider lairs were darker than the current dungeons but the hell was brighter and clearly more visible due to an outstanding amount of bright red lava flowing around it. There's a time and place for darkness. A lit church is not that place
I have to ask, have you seen the Den of the Fallen yet? in any of your playthroughs or in anyone elses videos? Because it shows how it handles a darker area, yeah you can see a bit but it's not like everything is perfectly illuminated until you get a bit closer. and for the screen size you are pretty zoomed in making your FoV essentially all you are able to see. If that makes sense.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
I totally agree with the OP. There are so many ways to make an RPG deep and customisable awell as allowing for choice. Look at Path of Exile's skill tree it's like the FFX sphere grid mixed with an ARPG very interesting and customisable .Aslong is there is a cost to small types of respec there can be a skill customisation type system that benefits the uniqueness of the individual and can accurately be called a build.
I want to point out I don't really care about stat customisation it seems like extra points ontop of automated points is the only enjoyable way to do them.
Also just on the basis of no character attribution of skill or stats the likihood of quests that are not manditory being completed are much less likely.
I read your entire, thread and have to say the "Lack of customization" Is actually not lacking at all. I mean it really is better having your items do the work. If I want to have a huge Fire damage output with shitons of dodge, I'd need dex and fire gear and I'd look for anything that helps out in that way. It just makes it easier than fucking up your stats, or doing the same build for everysingle character. This makes the characters interesting and more fun to play with, I can actually try all the different builds.
Thanks for reading! I was expecting a bunch of "TLDR"...
I would have had them find a different way to address stat screwups than just nixing them altogether. Like Guild Wars for instance, having you earn respec points through experience and such. It allows for experimentation as well as stat adjustments if there are alterations needed.
I'm super happy about colors. I don't understand why people say color is bad. If you want desaturated monotonous tones and a overall poor and simplistic play experience there's already a Direct3d filter for ya. but color is a good thing. The light radius is dumb because it really is pointless in a lit corridor. I'm sorry but if i'm standing in a open church with light coming in or some static light source I'm pretty sure I can see throughout the entire church. Just run down to your local church that has lights you'll understand you can see everything no problemo. I forgot where I saw a video on this site i've been searching but it showed later acts, One that looked akin to hell and one that looked akin to the spider lairs in D2 act 3. The spider lairs were darker than the current dungeons but the hell was brighter and clearly more visible due to an outstanding amount of bright red lava flowing around it. There's a time and place for darkness. A lit church is not that place
The way they do the lighting seems wrong though. It's the same kind of "ambient lighting from nowhere" that permeates even when well underground. I did see the filter thingy, and I would probably use it on the finished game if there were no other options available, but I would rather have Blizzard provide those options in game, especially since there are a lot of people that are asking for it, or something similar.
I have to ask, have you seen the Den of the Fallen yet? in any of your playthroughs or in anyone elses videos? Because it shows how it handles a darker area, yeah you can see a bit but it's not like everything is perfectly illuminated until you get a bit closer. and for the screen size you are pretty zoomed in making your FoV essentially all you are able to see. If that makes sense.
Yes I did, and it is better, but still not quite right. Maybe later dungeons will be better, but the overuse of the colored fog really gets to me. One of my main things though was the brightness of the UI being too distracting mainly.
we have access to 1/3rd of the skills and zero of the customization. and access to like 1/8th of the passives and only 1 slot. OF COURSE its going to feel like its generic and has no customization. good grief people need to stop complaining about customization of skills before release because no one can judge it until you have access to everything.
in D2 what happened when you leveled up? oh you got a few stat points that didn't matter because you funneled enough into str to wear gear then the rest into vit, unless you wanted max block then you get enough dex then yet again dump rest into vit. so it was an extremely fail system and should've been removed. also you got a skill point, making 1 skill SLIGHTLY more powerful, thats it. in D3 your skills get slightly more power exactly the same. you think because you could only make 1 skill a tiny more powerful its "so much more customization"? O_O.
the customization in D3 hasn't disappeared, it just shifted to gear. your attributes are now on gear, look at the blacksmith he makes specific gear with specific stats and ranges like "+15-24 vitality, +2 random properties". and then skill customization moved to runes, you find a lvl 3 crimson rune and then you search for lvl 4 then 5 then 6, 7. or then search for another kind and another kind. once you've gotten all your specific runes at lvl 7 its like in D2 when you pretty much maxed out all your skills.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"once the pretty hardcore gamers we had testing inferno found it fairly difficult, we then we doubled it" -trolololol jay wilson
we have access to 1/3rd of the skills and zero of the customization. and access to like 1/8th of the passives and only 1 slot. OF COURSE its going to feel like its generic and has no customization. good grief people need to stop complaining about customization of skills before release because no one can judge it until you have access to everything.
They have only shown me the Beta, so it's the thing that I am commenting on. If by some chance the customization they include in the full game isn't enough, it won't be because I didn't let them know how I felt given what I was shown...
in D2 what happened when you leveled up? oh you got a few stat points that didn't matter because you funneled enough into str to wear gear then the rest into vit, unless you wanted max block then you get enough dex then yet again dump rest into vit. so it was an extremely fail system and should've been removed. also you got a skill point, making 1 skill SLIGHTLY more powerful, thats it. in D3 your skills get slightly more power exactly the same. you think because you could only make 1 skill a tiny more powerful its "so much more customization"? O_O.
Those stat points mattered to me, as I did try out different builds, like shouting barbarians and such that required more mana than normal, or meleemancers that required a different sort of build and such. Having those options let me try out these things. Removing those options means that it will be much more difficult to run characters that are off the wall. I am not caring about "optimal builds" because there will always be "optimal builds" no matter what system you create. But giving customization options to people only adds to the number of "viable builds", and this is what I want. I want more viable builds and I want my barbarian to be different from your barbarian beyond gear, and I would like my growth throughout the game to matter. Right now, without those stat/skill points, there is less customization. I would have rather they tried fixing the idea rather than turfing it.
the customization in D3 hasn't disappeared, it just shifted to gear. your attributes are now on gear, look at the blacksmith he makes specific gear with specific stats and ranges like "+15-24 vitality, +2 random properties". and then skill customization moved to runes, you find a lvl 3 crimson rune and then you search for lvl 4 then 5 then 6, 7. or then search for another kind and another kind. once you've gotten all your specific runes at lvl 7 its like in D2 when you pretty much maxed out all your skills.
It has not "shifted to gear" Gear was already present for customization in D2. You just had stat and skill points in addition to gear. So you could use gear that wasn't necessarily upping your stats for other things. Now all you can do is up your stats through gear...that would be less customization to me. I would rather have gear accentuate your choices, not be your only choice.
Those stat points mattered to me, as I did try out different builds, like shouting barbarians and such that required more mana than normal, or meleemancers that required a different sort of build and such. Having those options let me try out these things. Removing those options means that it will be much more difficult to run characters that are off the wall. I am not caring about "optimal builds" because there will always be "optimal builds" no matter what system you create. But giving customization options to people only adds to the number of "viable builds", and this is what I want. I want more viable builds and I want my barbarian to be different from your barbarian beyond gear, and I would like my growth throughout the game to matter. Right now, without those stat/skill points, there is less customization. I would have rather they tried fixing the idea rather than turfing it.
lol... cmon man have you even looked at the skill calc or done any research of your own? in D2 there was literally only maybe 30-40 VIABLE end-game builds between ALL 7 classes, everything else could barley kill anything in NM let alone hell. in D3 you'll have HUNREDS of viable build combo's PER class. making infinitely more viable builds. yes there isnt some super special way to make you "unique" from some other guy but considering the builds combo's reaches the hundreds of millions just like D2 your build can still be "unique". and anyone can copy it exactly how someone could just re-roll their char or now they can re-roll skills and copy you as well. the rune skill system is an infinite improvement upon the fail skill trees from D2, once you do research and really think about it you will realize. or maybe you wont, you might have ot try it yourself to believe it but it is. without a doubt
It has not "shifted to gear" Gear was already present for customization in D2. You just had stat and skill points in addition to gear. So you could use gear that wasn't necessarily upping your stats for other things. Now all you can do is up your stats through gear...that would be less customization to me. I would rather have gear accentuate your choices, not be your only choice.
it has shifted to gear. if you dont like that then oh well. i like it on gear VS being attributes you pick each level. also by removing attribute requirements from gear (thank god) it also makes attribute allocation a lot less useful anyways. in D3 all classes have different resources, and you can boost those resource pools or regen for those pools through skills and gear, just like you could boost your mana pool with energy. again thats still there and ive created MANY crazy cool weird builds that will be theoretically end-game viable too so D3 still has that. just wait for release man and all these concerns will go away once you experience all of it and not just the tiny demo that doesnt have anything substantial in it
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"once the pretty hardcore gamers we had testing inferno found it fairly difficult, we then we doubled it" -trolololol jay wilson
THE OPENING SCREENS:
Very generic feeling. I disliked the "tabbed" character choosing, with the video of what the character can do to the side. I also don't like the little writeup below the video. It feels "wrong" somehow. I would like to see something more akin to D2's character selection screen, with all of the characters on screen at once and you simply click and choose, with a little animation or some-such to differentiate them, rather than a sterile skills video and write-up. Hopefully this is a place-holder for the Beta and simply to explain to newbies the differences off the hop, rather than being representative of the finished product.
I somewhat agree here. For some reason I like a more unadulterated screen for initially choosing the class. However, I don't think anything they did is dramatically different from the previous games either. But they could do away with the animations to the side. Only for the reason that it's more of a technical showcase thing and when I'm selecting characters I'm more interested in the mood and feel of things. I'm also pretty comfortable with my knowledge of the classes already. All this hardly a dealbreaker by any means though.
The Banner Page is very simplistic, with not a lot of choice. This may be a Beta thing, but I do hope there are a lot more choices in designs and unlocks for the future (multiple unlocks per achievement) in the finished product. I would like them to fold the Banner page into the Profile screen however, as you don't need to be able to click on many things to bring up those different pages.
Oh this is most definitely a beta thing. They just wanna get the feature in there and show it to people. It won't be hard later to include tons more customization options for your banner.
The Tool-tips on the screen should not be shown until you hover over something for a few seconds (the "Left Click to Open Profile" thingy). It just makes the screen look cluttered, plus the light-up halo around the object kind of indicates that it is "clickable" without being told to click.
Tool tips just seemed more a one time thing anyway though. Like just when you first start a character it shows them. I didn't notice them showing all the time I merely pointed at something. Maybe I should play it again when I get home and see if it's something I really could notice.
I found not being able to "spin" the character or "zoom in" on the character somewhat disconcerting, as it was the first thing I tried to do in that Character select menu, to get a better look at the models. I would like to see that implemented into the game. Yes, I know you can spin the model in the Character Profile page, but it just feels "wrong" to not be able to do it in the main menu area.
It did seem like in the main menu area you'd be able to do this as well. But I think in the Character Profile page, there will eventually be more to do there so you'll feel like there's more purpose to going to that screen, rotating your character, as well as a number of other things. Besides that I really didn't care that I couldn't rotate my character in the main screen.
Overall, the Opening Menus need a bit of work as they feel very clunky and cluttered. They definitely don't draw me in to the "world" of Diablo as they are.
Yeah at the most I'd say they definitely feel a bit cluttered. This is also likely a beta thing. Some screens could easily just use less information. Everything feels a bit too tutorial and it is a bit distracting. We'll see how they refine all that though.
The UI is...off putting. There is too much on the screen at once, in a very in-your-face way. The Skill Icons need to be toned down/muted. I would rather they be more like the D1 and D2 kind of "Stone Rune" look, or at least a silhouette kind of thing, rather than the colored icons they have currently. That whole bottom bar needs to be toned down in brightness to keep it from being as distracting.
The colored icons actually didn't bother me that much. Just the actual skills are underwhelming to me. Or at least I should say, not underwhelming, but...it feels like everything more or less works as effectively. I felt like I was hardly choosing skills based on my style of play but since they all seemed to kill things just fine, I was just going with whatever looked kind of cool rather than what I thought would be the smartest thing to use based on my play style. Maybe this would change over time as I got into more difficult levels. But skills seems a bit TOO interchangeable in this game. Like the choices I'd make for skills seemed less consequential than in D2.
This is a good thing to a point. Cause obviously they didn't want all the classes spamming the same skills and just going with the same cookie cutter builds, but now I'm just feeling it on the other extreme where it seems like no matter what skill you role with it's gonna work out no matter what. So far I've got no sense of how I'd build any of my characters cause no matter what skill I've gone with it's made little difference how fast I kill things.
The Icons for Skills/Inventory/etc need to be able to be hidden, much like the toggle-able ones with D2. I do not use the icons, I use hotkeys, so they are needlessly cluttering up the visible space. The mini-map is too "zoomed out". Zoom it in a bit to make the areas seem larger. As well, take away the border and tone down the brightness so it can be ignored (or even better, make it toggle-able, so I can lose it when I wish to). Take away the quest locators please! Considering the nature of the game, exploration and monster killing should take the forefront, not quest rushing.
The quest locator tells you where to go, but once you're in that location there is no indicator. I didn't see a problem with this.
Also, while I do hope they have lots and lots of options for customizing the UI and the map and all that, I personally found the map non intrusive and there was plenty of visible screen space I thought.
Buying items is a chore, as I cannot drag and drop the item into the new slot and swap the old one back to the merchant for gold. The item is put into your inventory, then you have to click it into the new spot. Then you have to click the old one to sell it. Here's a spot to make it more intuitive. Drag and drop is the way to go.
Now I think you're a little crazy....It is so liberating to just right click an item to sell it or equip it. I've spent so many hours in D2 and Eastern Sun dragging shit from my inventory back and forth and after so long it just hurt my eyes and gave me carpel tunnel syndrome. You're crazzzzzy.
The red glow around monsters needs to be toned down/use a thinner line. Right now it is too bright and distracts you away from what you are killing. The same goes with the blue line around interact-able things like the bookshelves, but the lighter blue color is not as invasive as the red.
I'd agree with this. I also really hate how the monsters flash white when you hit them and I've written a lot about it on the forums. In D2, when you hit something it would make a nice satisfying sound to indicate you scored a hit and then they might bleed out or do some other effect to indicate they've taken damage instead of an arbitrary white flash. It just looks so arcade game like for that to happen and this is one of the few things I'm surprised about cause I really thought more people would complain about this. And it ain't even nitpicking, I don't think. The white flash is really really annoying and is an arbitrary and outdated way of indicating an enemy taking damage.
The "You have empty inventory slots" Tool-tip needs to be altered. It shows up all the time. I haven't found an amulet yet, dammit! You don't have to remind me every time I pick up a club!
Does it? I thought it only told you if you have found an equippable item for which you had nothing equipped in that slot.
Overall they feel very...generic. Yes, they are useful, but being able to swap them at any time feels wrong, as well as gaining them feels wrong. It feels like I have such a lack of choice with them. Yes, I understand that Runes will be able to customize them to a degree, but that is not enough. I don't want items to be my only form of customization. I would like to see items "accentuate" the choices I've made, not be the only ones that I've made!
For me it's been hard to tell how much I like the skill/stat system because I've yet to experience the game being very difficult. I'd like to think my customization choices will matter very much and the developers seem to care a lot about this as well, but so far I've had a difficult time seeing what difference any of my choices make.
Level-ups are very...boring. I level-up, I might gain access to a new skill, and that's it. I gained a few stat points that I couldn't control and it did nothing to me. I didn't feel any different killing monsters, ultimately making the level-up feeling an empty action. What will happen once I've reached 30 and I have all of my skills, and the next 30 level-ups are essentially gaining nothing?
Leveling up was very boring for me too. I just didn't feel like I accomplished much. There may be a number of factors contributing to this though, and not all of which may necessarily be the game's fault.....I'm trying to save some of my judgments for beyond the beta.
So far, I am not a fan of the different resources for characters. They just feel too...arbitrary. I would have rather seen the same resources used in different ways, or allowing characters to use other resources for their skills to allow different effects. This would open up the amount of items any given class could find useful. I would have liked to see Stamina return, just changed to make it more important, and useful in regards to skill use (maybe having skills draining stamina to varying degrees, giving an excuse to use the basic attack you will never see again after level 2...).
The different resource system actually seems arbitrary to me too, but strictly from an aesthetic point of view I really like it. Even if you won't notice a huge difference in gameplay based on the different functions of each one, I still think it's kind of fun to have a different orb for each character. I think in the end...they could've had them all just be mana but still look different like that and I might have been just fine with that.
On a sidenote I think it really does sound silly when the Demon Hunter is like, "My hatred is too low." And like, "You better get hatin' some more then!"
ITEMS:
Too many items are class specific, and there is a giant red "X" in the centre of those. How about a small X in the corner, or even better, simply a red background and a "You cannot use this" voice? There are still far too many specific items however; I'm pretty sure that people can figure out which items will work for their character given the inherent bonuses. We aren't that dumb...And why can't I have a Barb wielding crossbows? It could be fun!
Maybe operating dual crossbows requires more delicate and dextrous hands. I can easily see that being a reason for the Barb not to do it. And yeah, a simple red background would be preferable to an X I suppose. But still, you know you're not gonna use those tons of class specific items anyway so does it really matter? They're not gonna make a wanderer hat with enough stats that would benefit a Barb over some heavy helm.
I like the way lore is integrated into the game as a recording, but I would like it called something else, rather than generic "Lore", like "Excerpt from the Book of Cain" or some such thing. Having it pause when someone else speaks would be nice as well.
It falling into Lore is just fine....Seriously, it's fine. Although they can never bring back that special feeling from D1 when you'd find a book narrated either by your character or Lazarus. Never again will it be as cool as that.
I really hate the removal of the Pentagrams/christian references, as they were a big part of the earlier Diablos, and I think their removal was very hackneyed and given a poor excuse. This is a war between Heaven and Hell after all, albeit on a fictional plane...
Simply more of the original game feeling we'll never get back. But we also have yet to see hell in D3 so maybe you'll get all your pentagrams and what not.
The dialogue seems a bit "flat" in delivery, more like actors and not like the characters they are acting, if that makes any sense.
I would definitely say the deliveries of lines are not quite as deliberate as in the first games. But much of the design philosophy of this game is to keep things rolling at all times. The developers are kind of embarassed at Cain's speech in D2 after you rescue him, saying it's just too long and it's this wall of uninterruptable text. But I personally liked it that way.
Some of the worse voice acting though is in the character classes. Especially the female Wizard. Seriously she sounds awful....
The quests are okay, although everything seems to be a bit too linear right now. Hopefully they will have that fleshed out in the actual game. The world itself needs a bit of work. It is very linear. I would like to see far more randomization in the game. I know that the dungeons are supposed to be randomized rather than the overworld, but even the dungeons seem very...samey right now.
Things felt a bit rushed to me. Maybe this was a beta thing also, but when you think about the Blood Raven quest....That's a very hard quest to beat when you're just starting out. It's almost a bit of a grind, even. But man it's quite rewarding the first time you beat it, isn't it? I never felt that satisfied beating a quest in the beta. I felt like no real thing had been accomplished. Maybe it's because killing things was so freaking easy. Maybe it's also just me getting older though....
The music is great, although the title screen music feels off. Too "Epic" sounding, I think. During the game however, the ambient style music sounds very good as a beginning thing. Hopefully we will get lots of different ones further in the game.
The sound is good, hearing gold drop, or books drop, destroying barrels and such. All of that works very well, although the skill effects are a bit loud compared to everything else. I turned that volume to 1/2 compared to the rest, just so I can hear things uninterrupted.
Music seems to change each time you enter the main screen. I like the different tracks I've heard so far even the greater orchestrated ones. The ambient music is delightful. I may just recording some with Audacity to listen to later.
Ok so I read it all... Seems like all or most of your criticisms are based on aesthetics rather than technical considerations. IMHumbleO the beta isn't a D3 crowdsourcing app designed so that Blizzard can get everyone's opinion on what colour the background of the currently selected character button in the home screen should be. They're looking for bugfixes and mechanics that don't work the way they hoped. Sure, if you have some major point to make then I'm sure they (and we) would all be interested to hear, but this stuff? If you have a degree in video design (and seriously, what are the odds that you're both a Lord and a video designer? If it was me I'd have the butler posting on forums for me to begin with...) then I'd say that the best outlet for this sort of criticism is to apply for a job on the Blizz dev team. I don't have a degree in any sort of design, though, so when I have opinions like this, my outlet is my internal monologue.
Ok so I read it all... Seems like all or most of your criticisms are based on aesthetics rather than technical considerations. IMHumbleO the beta isn't a D3 crowdsourcing app designed so that Blizzard can get everyone's opinion on what colour the background of the currently selected character button in the home screen should be. They're looking for bugfixes and mechanics that don't work the way they hoped. Sure, if you have some major point to make then I'm sure they (and we) would all be interested to hear, but this stuff? If you have a degree in video design (and seriously, what are the odds that you're both a Lord and a video designer? If it was me I'd have the butler posting on forums for me to begin with...) then I'd say that the best outlet for this sort of criticism is to apply for a job on the Blizz dev team. I don't have a degree in any sort of design, though, so when I have opinions like this, my outlet is my internal monologue.
From the front page of this very site:
Your Beta Thoughts As you know over 100k beta keys were sent out two days ago. This means a lot of you have now played through your very first run of the beta! We want to know your thoughts! Tell us what you favorite part was! Did anything surprise you? Did something make you want the game even more than before? Tell us in the comments and include any screenshots if you like!
Seems to me that everyone wants to hear impressions, not just technical errors. It's kind of funny how anyone that dislikes anything about the Beta has to be "wrong"...
I don't have to be a video game designer to critique a game, just like I don't have to be a director to critique a movie, nor a beer maker to determine if a beer tastes good or not. That's one of the most asinine arguments a person can say...
Ok so I read it all... Seems like all or most of your criticisms are based on aesthetics rather than technical considerations. IMHumbleO the beta isn't a D3 crowdsourcing app designed so that Blizzard can get everyone's opinion on what colour the background of the currently selected character button in the home screen should be. They're looking for bugfixes and mechanics that don't work the way they hoped. Sure, if you have some major point to make then I'm sure they (and we) would all be interested to hear, but this stuff? If you have a degree in video design (and seriously, what are the odds that you're both a Lord and a video designer? If it was me I'd have the butler posting on forums for me to begin with...) then I'd say that the best outlet for this sort of criticism is to apply for a job on the Blizz dev team. I don't have a degree in any sort of design, though, so when I have opinions like this, my outlet is my internal monologue.
From the front page of this very site:
Your Beta Thoughts As you know over 100k beta keys were sent out two days ago. This means a lot of you have now played through your very first run of the beta! We want to know your thoughts! Tell us what you favorite part was! Did anything surprise you? Did something make you want the game even more than before? Tell us in the comments and include any screenshots if you like!
Seems to me that everyone wants to hear impressions, not just technical errors. It's kind of funny how anyone that dislikes anything about the Beta has to be "wrong"...
I don't have to be a video game designer to critique a game, just like I don't have to be a director to critique a movie, nor a beer maker to determine if a beer tastes good or not. That's one of the most asinine arguments a person can say...
Actually most people don't care or just want to read opinions that are the same as theirs (and will engage in an internet battle if opinions are contrary).
The site wanting your opinions ? This is just to get viewers and forum activity, don't fool yourself.
Sure, if you have some major point to make then I'm sure they (and we) would all be interested to hear...
Because I seriously would like to hear about the sort of reasonable scale criticisms they were talking about when they made that post on the front page of the site. I lap that shit up for breakfast lunch and dinner because I'm excited about this game. I'm just sayin', your OP seems fairly negative and nitpicky. I also disagree with many of your points, and I guess I could have chosen to rebutt them individually if I'd felt like it, but at the end of the day the amount of mental energy I'd have to expend to express why I think it makes sense that you can't spin your character on the selection screen but can do it on the profile screen is just way out of proportion with the amount that I (or any reasonable person) care/s about that very minor detail. So instead I chose to rebutt your post as a whole by pointing that fact out.
UI: It's just Humongous. Why is the health/resource and everything in between bar so damn big? Is the UI scale set to "Blind People"? I wish they would have a UI Scale option like in World of Warcraft. I really don't need the UI so overly large and in my face like it is currently.
The RMAH: Why is this so poorly implemented? The search functions just plain suck. Why can I not filter by only equipable items? Why can't I choose specific values for stats etc? Why didn't they copy the excellent layout and function of the WoW auction house and tweak that to fit their needs?
Another grip with the RMAH is it searches based on the character you have selected. You can change which character it's searching for with a drop down, but if you name all your characters the same (which I did and this is a feature of the game) then you can't tell which character is which class...
Currently the RMAH seems really under developed. I hope it gets a major UI pass before release.
UI: It's just Humongous. Why is the health/resource and everything in between bar so damn big? Is the UI scale set to "Blind People"? I wish they would have a UI Scale option like in World of Warcraft. I really don't need the UI so overly large and in my face like it is currently.
The RMAH: Why is this so poorly implemented? The search functions just plain suck. Why can I not filter by only equipable items? Why can't I choose specific values for stats etc? Why didn't they copy the excellent layout and function of the WoW auction house and tweak that to fit their needs?
Another grip with the RMAH is it searches based on the character you have selected. You can change which character it's searching for with a drop down, but if you name all your characters the same (which I did and this is a feature of the game) then you can't tell which character is which class...
Currently the RMAH seems really under developed. I hope it gets a major UI pass before release.
agree and agree. sometimes it IS the best solution to completely steal a system from another game in this area because its not very good and i love WOW's AH.
the UI's hugeness is the only thing i dont like, a bit smaller would be perfect. i dont mind how big the health/resource is because its big in D2 so im used to it and like it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"once the pretty hardcore gamers we had testing inferno found it fairly difficult, we then we doubled it" -trolololol jay wilson
UI: It's just Humongous. Why is the health/resource and everything in between bar so damn big? Is the UI scale set to "Blind People"? I wish they would have a UI Scale option like in World of Warcraft. I really don't need the UI so overly large and in my face like it is currently.
The RMAH: Why is this so poorly implemented? The search functions just plain suck. Why can I not filter by only equipable items? Why can't I choose specific values for stats etc? Why didn't they copy the excellent layout and function of the WoW auction house and tweak that to fit their needs?
Another grip with the RMAH is it searches based on the character you have selected. You can change which character it's searching for with a drop down, but if you name all your characters the same (which I did and this is a feature of the game) then you can't tell which character is which class...
Currently the RMAH seems really under developed. I hope it gets a major UI pass before release.
I actually don't have an issue with the UI, but my question would be what size monitor are you using? I know blizzard took out some features in the beta for settings (such as ultra settings and whatnot) and I'm thinking they might have a UI scale with release. But maybe a tiny monitor displays it wrong, idk =D
Edit : Just checked to make sure I just didn't notice. I use a 27" monitor and I must say if anything, the char UI including the orbs might be a tad small. It might just be a problem depending on monitor size =P
UI: It's just Humongous. Why is the health/resource and everything in between bar so damn big? Is the UI scale set to "Blind People"? I wish they would have a UI Scale option like in World of Warcraft. I really don't need the UI so overly large and in my face like it is currently.
The RMAH: Why is this so poorly implemented? The search functions just plain suck. Why can I not filter by only equipable items? Why can't I choose specific values for stats etc? Why didn't they copy the excellent layout and function of the WoW auction house and tweak that to fit their needs?
Another grip with the RMAH is it searches based on the character you have selected. You can change which character it's searching for with a drop down, but if you name all your characters the same (which I did and this is a feature of the game) then you can't tell which character is which class...
Currently the RMAH seems really under developed. I hope it gets a major UI pass before release.
I actually don't have an issue with the UI, but my question would be what size monitor are you using? I know blizzard took out some features in the beta for settings (such as ultra settings and whatnot) and I'm thinking they might have a UI scale with release. But maybe a tiny monitor displays it wrong, idk =D
Edit : Just checked to make sure I just didn't notice. I use a 27" monitor and I must say if anything, the char UI including the orbs might be a tad small. It might just be a problem depending on monitor size =P
It's not a question of monitor size. I get what you mean. You mean resolution.
I have a 24'' monitor and I run the beta at native 1920x1080. This is pretty standard now. having a 27 inch doesn't really change much. You're typically just stretching the same image over a larger surface at the same rez (assuming your going 1080P)
I find the UI huge. I really hope the Ultra settings have a bit more punch of those of us with higher end pcs and it has a UI scale.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
THE OPENING SCREENS:
Very generic feeling. I disliked the "tabbed" character choosing, with the video of what the character can do to the side. I also don't like the little writeup below the video. It feels "wrong" somehow. I would like to see something more akin to D2's character selection screen, with all of the characters on screen at once and you simply click and choose, with a little animation or some-such to differentiate them, rather than a sterile skills video and write-up. Hopefully this is a place-holder for the Beta and simply to explain to newbies the differences off the hop, rather than being representative of the finished product.
The Profile Screen is very nice, with the stats page and all your character and what they are wearing easily accessible, although there are a couple of little things I'd like to see changed, like the background color of the small character icons being reversed, so that Blue is the character selected and Red is the unselected characters.
The Banner Page is very simplistic, with not a lot of choice. This may be a Beta thing, but I do hope there are a lot more choices in designs and unlocks for the future (multiple unlocks per achievement) in the finished product. I would like them to fold the Banner page into the Profile screen however, as you don't need to be able to click on many things to bring up those different pages.
The Tool-tips on the screen should not be shown until you hover over something for a few seconds (the "Left Click to Open Profile" thingy). It just makes the screen look cluttered, plus the light-up halo around the object kind of indicates that it is "clickable" without being told to click.
Clicking your character should take you to the Character tab of the Profile rather than your overall career, otherwise it is redundant with the clicking of your name to get the profile page.
I found not being able to "spin" the character or "zoom in" on the character somewhat disconcerting, as it was the first thing I tried to do in that Character select menu, to get a better look at the models. I would like to see that implemented into the game. Yes, I know you can spin the model in the Character Profile page, but it just feels "wrong" to not be able to do it in the main menu area.
Overall, the Opening Menus need a bit of work as they feel very clunky and cluttered. They definitely don't draw me in to the "world" of Diablo as they are.
IN GAME:
The UI is...off putting. There is too much on the screen at once, in a very in-your-face way. The Skill Icons need to be toned down/muted. I would rather they be more like the D1 and D2 kind of "Stone Rune" look, or at least a silhouette kind of thing, rather than the colored icons they have currently. That whole bottom bar needs to be toned down in brightness to keep it from being as distracting.
The Icons for Skills/Inventory/etc need to be able to be hidden, much like the toggle-able ones with D2. I do not use the icons, I use hotkeys, so they are needlessly cluttering up the visible space. The mini-map is too "zoomed out". Zoom it in a bit to make the areas seem larger. As well, take away the border and tone down the brightness so it can be ignored (or even better, make it toggle-able, so I can lose it when I wish to). Take away the quest locators please! Considering the nature of the game, exploration and monster killing should take the forefront, not quest rushing.
Remove the "Quest Complete" pop-up that cannot be removed without hitting Continue. It interrupts the flow, and also takes up a large amount of screen real-estate and is unnecessary. As well, tone down the Level Up effects. A little too bright and considering you can't really do anything during them anyway, it makes no sense to "show it off" that much.
Buying items is a chore, as I cannot drag and drop the item into the new slot and swap the old one back to the merchant for gold. The item is put into your inventory, then you have to click it into the new spot. Then you have to click the old one to sell it. Here's a spot to make it more intuitive. Drag and drop is the way to go.
The red glow around monsters needs to be toned down/use a thinner line. Right now it is too bright and distracts you away from what you are killing. The same goes with the blue line around interact-able things like the bookshelves, but the lighter blue color is not as invasive as the red.
The "You have empty inventory slots" Tool-tip needs to be altered. It shows up all the time. I haven't found an amulet yet, dammit! You don't have to remind me every time I pick up a club!
SKILLS/STATS/CUSTOMIZATION:
Overall they feel very...generic. Yes, they are useful, but being able to swap them at any time feels wrong, as well as gaining them feels wrong. It feels like I have such a lack of choice with them. Yes, I understand that Runes will be able to customize them to a degree, but that is not enough. I don't want items to be my only form of customization. I would like to see items "accentuate" the choices I've made, not be the only ones that I've made!
Level-ups are very...boring. I level-up, I might gain access to a new skill, and that's it. I gained a few stat points that I couldn't control and it did nothing to me. I didn't feel any different killing monsters, ultimately making the level-up feeling an empty action. What will happen once I've reached 30 and I have all of my skills, and the next 30 level-ups are essentially gaining nothing?
Customization is very lacking in the Beta, partly because of the limited item affixes and partly because of the lack of runes, but also because beyond those two things, there is no real customization! Yes, you can choose your skills, but it feels like a very empty choice. Mainly because there are not enough skills to choose from. Guild Wars was similar in that you can swap your skills in town, but they still had stats you can alter, and there were so many skills to choose from that finding the synergies between them was half the fun! In Dungeon Siege III you could customize your skills as well so that each one could have different effects. I can see the Runes doing some of it, but not enough. I just didn't feel like I had any control over any growth of the character.
So far, I am not a fan of the different resources for characters. They just feel too...arbitrary. I would have rather seen the same resources used in different ways, or allowing characters to use other resources for their skills to allow different effects. This would open up the amount of items any given class could find useful. I would have liked to see Stamina return, just changed to make it more important, and useful in regards to skill use (maybe having skills draining stamina to varying degrees, giving an excuse to use the basic attack you will never see again after level 2...).
ITEMS:
Too many items are class specific, and there is a giant red "X" in the centre of those. How about a small X in the corner, or even better, simply a red background and a "You cannot use this" voice? There are still far too many specific items however; I'm pretty sure that people can figure out which items will work for their character given the inherent bonuses. We aren't that dumb...And why can't I have a Barb wielding crossbows? It could be fun!
Stackable potions are very nice. Hopefully gems and runes will be as well.
Please change the "DPS" stat. I would like to see it removed, but at least make the number smaller than the name of the item!
I really wish that identifying meant something again. Right now, you only ID yellow items. It just feels odd to have it completely arbitrary like this.
Salvaging is nice, although I can't see it being as in-depth as Guild Wars was, and hopefully crafting the items will actually mean something later.
LORE:
I like the way lore is integrated into the game as a recording, but I would like it called something else, rather than generic "Lore", like "Excerpt from the Book of Cain" or some such thing. Having it pause when someone else speaks would be nice as well.
The Skill names and titles need work. "Hatred Generator" and "Hatred Spender" and "Passive Skill" is far too generic and out-of-game seeming. Make them fit into the world of Diablo please!
The same goes for shrine descriptions, so they seem more "mysterious" hearkening back to D1 and D2.
I really hate the removal of the Pentagrams/christian references, as they were a big part of the earlier Diablos, and I think their removal was very hackneyed and given a poor excuse. This is a war between Heaven and Hell after all, albeit on a fictional plane...
The dialogue seems a bit "flat" in delivery, more like actors and not like the characters they are acting, if that makes any sense.
The quests are okay, although everything seems to be a bit too linear right now. Hopefully they will have that fleshed out in the actual game. The world itself needs a bit of work. It is very linear. I would like to see far more randomization in the game. I know that the dungeons are supposed to be randomized rather than the overworld, but even the dungeons seem very...samey right now.
MUSIC/SOUND/ART:
The music is great, although the title screen music feels off. Too "Epic" sounding, I think. During the game however, the ambient style music sounds very good as a beginning thing. Hopefully we will get lots of different ones further in the game.
The sound is good, hearing gold drop, or books drop, destroying barrels and such. All of that works very well, although the skill effects are a bit loud compared to everything else. I turned that volume to 1/2 compared to the rest, just so I can hear things uninterrupted.
I did dislike the change in font. I miss the Diablo "O"s and such...
The art style is a bit...off putting. The characters and monsters often seem a bit "over-exaggerated" (the one boss you fight to get Leoric's crown for example seems wrong), and the lack of the style of scenes like the Butcher's room in D1 is noticeable, although that "could" change further in the game. It is too bright colour-wise, but not that terrible (however the overlay that people have done to fix that is great!). The lack of a light radius in dungeons doesn't feel right as well, with an over-abundance of blue and green fog effects not making up for it. The overworld areas in the forest right before the church has a proper feel to it, however.
I do like the look of a lot of the background scenery like Cain's house and such, having a "lived in" look. We'll have to see how it progresses though.
OVERALL:
I can't see too much changing within the game, other than a bit of polish here or there. As it is, it seems to be an okay game, but I don't know yet if it will have the longevity of its predecessor. Right now I think it is too "watered down" for the masses, in terms of hand-holding and ease of play. I don't know how the later difficulties will play of course, but I can't see the game being as deep as D2 in regards to customization, which means that I think it will be shorter lived overall.
I'm not a fan of all of the character choices, but have yet to play through the game with them all, so that could change.
We'll see how the finished product compares with the Beta.
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/34229-diablo-iii-beta-impressions/page__view__findpost__p__743763
EDIT: Not trying to flame or anything but reading through that is really what it sounds like.
ROLFCOPTER, LOLLERBLADES, LAWLZER. Whatever it is that the kids are saying today that shits funny and i totally agree
Not to worry. There are lots of things that I would like to see changed about D2 as well, and will never see, so it's not really that. I play a modded version as it is...
All I want is a worthy sequel to the series and name that will stand the test of time as much as D2 did. Would I want an "improved" D2? Sure, who wouldn't? Just like I would want an improved D1. I understand that D3 is a different game, I just want it to see it aligned more to the series.
?
I'm not sure what language you are speaking here, but it sure isn't English. (I apologize if your native language is something else, but I can hardly understand what you are saying...)
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/34229-diablo-iii-beta-impressions/page__view__findpost__p__743763
I'm super happy about colors. I don't understand why people say color is bad. If you want desaturated monotonous tones and a overall poor and simplistic play experience there's already a Direct3d filter for ya. but color is a good thing. The light radius is dumb because it really is pointless in a lit corridor. I'm sorry but if i'm standing in a open church with light coming in or some static light source I'm pretty sure I can see throughout the entire church. Just run down to your local church that has lights you'll understand you can see everything no problemo. I forgot where I saw a video on this site i've been searching but it showed later acts, One that looked akin to hell and one that looked akin to the spider lairs in D2 act 3. The spider lairs were darker than the current dungeons but the hell was brighter and clearly more visible due to an outstanding amount of bright red lava flowing around it. There's a time and place for darkness. A lit church is not that place
I have to ask, have you seen the Den of the Fallen yet? in any of your playthroughs or in anyone elses videos? Because it shows how it handles a darker area, yeah you can see a bit but it's not like everything is perfectly illuminated until you get a bit closer. and for the screen size you are pretty zoomed in making your FoV essentially all you are able to see. If that makes sense.
I want to point out I don't really care about stat customisation it seems like extra points ontop of automated points is the only enjoyable way to do them.
Also just on the basis of no character attribution of skill or stats the likihood of quests that are not manditory being completed are much less likely.
I would have had them find a different way to address stat screwups than just nixing them altogether. Like Guild Wars for instance, having you earn respec points through experience and such. It allows for experimentation as well as stat adjustments if there are alterations needed.
The way they do the lighting seems wrong though. It's the same kind of "ambient lighting from nowhere" that permeates even when well underground. I did see the filter thingy, and I would probably use it on the finished game if there were no other options available, but I would rather have Blizzard provide those options in game, especially since there are a lot of people that are asking for it, or something similar.
Yes I did, and it is better, but still not quite right. Maybe later dungeons will be better, but the overuse of the colored fog really gets to me. One of my main things though was the brightness of the UI being too distracting mainly.
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/34229-diablo-iii-beta-impressions/page__view__findpost__p__743763
in D2 what happened when you leveled up? oh you got a few stat points that didn't matter because you funneled enough into str to wear gear then the rest into vit, unless you wanted max block then you get enough dex then yet again dump rest into vit. so it was an extremely fail system and should've been removed. also you got a skill point, making 1 skill SLIGHTLY more powerful, thats it. in D3 your skills get slightly more power exactly the same. you think because you could only make 1 skill a tiny more powerful its "so much more customization"? O_O.
the customization in D3 hasn't disappeared, it just shifted to gear. your attributes are now on gear, look at the blacksmith he makes specific gear with specific stats and ranges like "+15-24 vitality, +2 random properties". and then skill customization moved to runes, you find a lvl 3 crimson rune and then you search for lvl 4 then 5 then 6, 7. or then search for another kind and another kind. once you've gotten all your specific runes at lvl 7 its like in D2 when you pretty much maxed out all your skills.
Those stat points mattered to me, as I did try out different builds, like shouting barbarians and such that required more mana than normal, or meleemancers that required a different sort of build and such. Having those options let me try out these things. Removing those options means that it will be much more difficult to run characters that are off the wall. I am not caring about "optimal builds" because there will always be "optimal builds" no matter what system you create. But giving customization options to people only adds to the number of "viable builds", and this is what I want. I want more viable builds and I want my barbarian to be different from your barbarian beyond gear, and I would like my growth throughout the game to matter. Right now, without those stat/skill points, there is less customization. I would have rather they tried fixing the idea rather than turfing it.
It has not "shifted to gear" Gear was already present for customization in D2. You just had stat and skill points in addition to gear. So you could use gear that wasn't necessarily upping your stats for other things. Now all you can do is up your stats through gear...that would be less customization to me. I would rather have gear accentuate your choices, not be your only choice.
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/34229-diablo-iii-beta-impressions/page__view__findpost__p__743763
it has shifted to gear. if you dont like that then oh well. i like it on gear VS being attributes you pick each level. also by removing attribute requirements from gear (thank god) it also makes attribute allocation a lot less useful anyways. in D3 all classes have different resources, and you can boost those resource pools or regen for those pools through skills and gear, just like you could boost your mana pool with energy. again thats still there and ive created MANY crazy cool weird builds that will be theoretically end-game viable too so D3 still has that. just wait for release man and all these concerns will go away once you experience all of it and not just the tiny demo that doesnt have anything substantial in it
Oh this is most definitely a beta thing. They just wanna get the feature in there and show it to people. It won't be hard later to include tons more customization options for your banner.
Tool tips just seemed more a one time thing anyway though. Like just when you first start a character it shows them. I didn't notice them showing all the time I merely pointed at something. Maybe I should play it again when I get home and see if it's something I really could notice.
It did seem like in the main menu area you'd be able to do this as well. But I think in the Character Profile page, there will eventually be more to do there so you'll feel like there's more purpose to going to that screen, rotating your character, as well as a number of other things. Besides that I really didn't care that I couldn't rotate my character in the main screen.
Yeah at the most I'd say they definitely feel a bit cluttered. This is also likely a beta thing. Some screens could easily just use less information. Everything feels a bit too tutorial and it is a bit distracting. We'll see how they refine all that though.
The colored icons actually didn't bother me that much. Just the actual skills are underwhelming to me. Or at least I should say, not underwhelming, but...it feels like everything more or less works as effectively. I felt like I was hardly choosing skills based on my style of play but since they all seemed to kill things just fine, I was just going with whatever looked kind of cool rather than what I thought would be the smartest thing to use based on my play style. Maybe this would change over time as I got into more difficult levels. But skills seems a bit TOO interchangeable in this game. Like the choices I'd make for skills seemed less consequential than in D2.
This is a good thing to a point. Cause obviously they didn't want all the classes spamming the same skills and just going with the same cookie cutter builds, but now I'm just feeling it on the other extreme where it seems like no matter what skill you role with it's gonna work out no matter what. So far I've got no sense of how I'd build any of my characters cause no matter what skill I've gone with it's made little difference how fast I kill things.
The quest locator tells you where to go, but once you're in that location there is no indicator. I didn't see a problem with this.
Also, while I do hope they have lots and lots of options for customizing the UI and the map and all that, I personally found the map non intrusive and there was plenty of visible screen space I thought.
I actually do miss the simple hammer sound accompanied by the red cross button. But games just gotta be flashier these days I guess.
Now I think you're a little crazy....It is so liberating to just right click an item to sell it or equip it. I've spent so many hours in D2 and Eastern Sun dragging shit from my inventory back and forth and after so long it just hurt my eyes and gave me carpel tunnel syndrome. You're crazzzzzy.
I'd agree with this. I also really hate how the monsters flash white when you hit them and I've written a lot about it on the forums. In D2, when you hit something it would make a nice satisfying sound to indicate you scored a hit and then they might bleed out or do some other effect to indicate they've taken damage instead of an arbitrary white flash. It just looks so arcade game like for that to happen and this is one of the few things I'm surprised about cause I really thought more people would complain about this. And it ain't even nitpicking, I don't think. The white flash is really really annoying and is an arbitrary and outdated way of indicating an enemy taking damage.
Does it? I thought it only told you if you have found an equippable item for which you had nothing equipped in that slot.
For me it's been hard to tell how much I like the skill/stat system because I've yet to experience the game being very difficult. I'd like to think my customization choices will matter very much and the developers seem to care a lot about this as well, but so far I've had a difficult time seeing what difference any of my choices make.
Leveling up was very boring for me too. I just didn't feel like I accomplished much. There may be a number of factors contributing to this though, and not all of which may necessarily be the game's fault.....I'm trying to save some of my judgments for beyond the beta.
The different resource system actually seems arbitrary to me too, but strictly from an aesthetic point of view I really like it. Even if you won't notice a huge difference in gameplay based on the different functions of each one, I still think it's kind of fun to have a different orb for each character. I think in the end...they could've had them all just be mana but still look different like that and I might have been just fine with that.
On a sidenote I think it really does sound silly when the Demon Hunter is like, "My hatred is too low." And like, "You better get hatin' some more then!"
Maybe operating dual crossbows requires more delicate and dextrous hands. I can easily see that being a reason for the Barb not to do it. And yeah, a simple red background would be preferable to an X I suppose. But still, you know you're not gonna use those tons of class specific items anyway so does it really matter? They're not gonna make a wanderer hat with enough stats that would benefit a Barb over some heavy helm.
We'll definitely see more salvaging options with the full game.
It falling into Lore is just fine....Seriously, it's fine. Although they can never bring back that special feeling from D1 when you'd find a book narrated either by your character or Lazarus. Never again will it be as cool as that.
Simply more of the original game feeling we'll never get back. But we also have yet to see hell in D3 so maybe you'll get all your pentagrams and what not.
I would definitely say the deliveries of lines are not quite as deliberate as in the first games. But much of the design philosophy of this game is to keep things rolling at all times. The developers are kind of embarassed at Cain's speech in D2 after you rescue him, saying it's just too long and it's this wall of uninterruptable text. But I personally liked it that way.
Some of the worse voice acting though is in the character classes. Especially the female Wizard. Seriously she sounds awful....
Things felt a bit rushed to me. Maybe this was a beta thing also, but when you think about the Blood Raven quest....That's a very hard quest to beat when you're just starting out. It's almost a bit of a grind, even. But man it's quite rewarding the first time you beat it, isn't it? I never felt that satisfied beating a quest in the beta. I felt like no real thing had been accomplished. Maybe it's because killing things was so freaking easy. Maybe it's also just me getting older though....
Music seems to change each time you enter the main screen. I like the different tracks I've heard so far even the greater orchestrated ones. The ambient music is delightful. I may just recording some with Audacity to listen to later.
Big amen to that.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Ok so I read it all... Seems like all or most of your criticisms are based on aesthetics rather than technical considerations. IMHumbleO the beta isn't a D3 crowdsourcing app designed so that Blizzard can get everyone's opinion on what colour the background of the currently selected character button in the home screen should be. They're looking for bugfixes and mechanics that don't work the way they hoped. Sure, if you have some major point to make then I'm sure they (and we) would all be interested to hear, but this stuff? If you have a degree in video design (and seriously, what are the odds that you're both a Lord and a video designer? If it was me I'd have the butler posting on forums for me to begin with...) then I'd say that the best outlet for this sort of criticism is to apply for a job on the Blizz dev team. I don't have a degree in any sort of design, though, so when I have opinions like this, my outlet is my internal monologue.
Your Beta Thoughts
As you know over 100k beta keys were sent out two days ago. This means a lot of you have now played through your very first run of the beta! We want to know your thoughts! Tell us what you favorite part was! Did anything surprise you? Did something make you want the game even more than before? Tell us in the comments and include any screenshots if you like!
Seems to me that everyone wants to hear impressions, not just technical errors. It's kind of funny how anyone that dislikes anything about the Beta has to be "wrong"...
I don't have to be a video game designer to critique a game, just like I don't have to be a director to critique a movie, nor a beer maker to determine if a beer tastes good or not. That's one of the most asinine arguments a person can say...
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/34229-diablo-iii-beta-impressions/page__view__findpost__p__743763
Actually most people don't care or just want to read opinions that are the same as theirs (and will engage in an internet battle if opinions are contrary).
The site wanting your opinions ? This is just to get viewers and forum activity, don't fool yourself.
Because I seriously would like to hear about the sort of reasonable scale criticisms they were talking about when they made that post on the front page of the site. I lap that shit up for breakfast lunch and dinner because I'm excited about this game. I'm just sayin', your OP seems fairly negative and nitpicky. I also disagree with many of your points, and I guess I could have chosen to rebutt them individually if I'd felt like it, but at the end of the day the amount of mental energy I'd have to expend to express why I think it makes sense that you can't spin your character on the selection screen but can do it on the profile screen is just way out of proportion with the amount that I (or any reasonable person) care/s about that very minor detail. So instead I chose to rebutt your post as a whole by pointing that fact out.
UI: It's just Humongous. Why is the health/resource and everything in between bar so damn big? Is the UI scale set to "Blind People"? I wish they would have a UI Scale option like in World of Warcraft. I really don't need the UI so overly large and in my face like it is currently.
The RMAH: Why is this so poorly implemented? The search functions just plain suck. Why can I not filter by only equipable items? Why can't I choose specific values for stats etc? Why didn't they copy the excellent layout and function of the WoW auction house and tweak that to fit their needs?
Another grip with the RMAH is it searches based on the character you have selected. You can change which character it's searching for with a drop down, but if you name all your characters the same (which I did and this is a feature of the game) then you can't tell which character is which class...
Currently the RMAH seems really under developed. I hope it gets a major UI pass before release.
agree and agree. sometimes it IS the best solution to completely steal a system from another game in this area because its not very good and i love WOW's AH.
the UI's hugeness is the only thing i dont like, a bit smaller would be perfect. i dont mind how big the health/resource is because its big in D2 so im used to it and like it.
I actually don't have an issue with the UI, but my question would be what size monitor are you using? I know blizzard took out some features in the beta for settings (such as ultra settings and whatnot) and I'm thinking they might have a UI scale with release. But maybe a tiny monitor displays it wrong, idk =D
Edit : Just checked to make sure I just didn't notice. I use a 27" monitor and I must say if anything, the char UI including the orbs might be a tad small. It might just be a problem depending on monitor size =P
It's not a question of monitor size. I get what you mean. You mean resolution.
I have a 24'' monitor and I run the beta at native 1920x1080. This is pretty standard now. having a 27 inch doesn't really change much. You're typically just stretching the same image over a larger surface at the same rez (assuming your going 1080P)
I find the UI huge. I really hope the Ultra settings have a bit more punch of those of us with higher end pcs and it has a UI scale.