So, as I was attempting to discover the whereabouts of The Viper Tomb in act 2 with my level 51 Druid I was roaming through The Lost City. It got me thinking about the diversity within the act itself. When you hear the name "Lost City" don't you expect something a bit grand? Almost like your going to discover Atlantis or something? Yet, The Lost City, looks pretty much, exactly like everything else in Act 2. Now, of course there is the general theme of the act but there could be some diversity within the act. It's pretty bad when, the area of the last waypoint looks exactly like the area where you first leave town. This pattern is present throughout the entire game really. Save for maybe the occasional dungeon within the act. Act 2 is what really hit it home for me, the entire thing is just a big dessert, yes it's the theme but also, seeing the exact same thing the entire time does get a bit stale wouldn't you agree?
So, hopefully, in Diablo 3, within each act we can expect to see a bit more diversity. Of course each act will retain it's overall theme but hopefully there will be things that sets different areas within the act, apart from say, the first thing you see in the act.
Do you agree? I'm curious as to what others think about this. Some may be fine with the general layout of Diablo 2 and think it find for D3 but personally I would like a bit more diversity within the acts (It's a bit ironic that I keep asking for diversity, yet I use the same word through the entire post lol).
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I completely agree. Act 2 was one of my least favorite acts (Act 3 being my least)... and simply put, it lacked... what's the word... I don't think I've seen it today..... "diversity" I believe. XD
Seriously though. From everything I've seen thus far in Diablo 3, we'll see a broader scope of things in a single act, and much of that will stem from, what I believe, to be a change in pace. We're now traveling across Sanctuary, perhaps across several specific locations in a single Act. That will definitely keep me interested.
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I think your 100% right. So far, from what we have seen the diversity will be present in a plethora of ways.
Also, you brought up another interesting point that almost deserves it's own thread. The pace of each act. Once again, A2 is lacking here. Through the entire act, the same pace is maintained except for maybe in the Arcane sanctuary. You are in a wide open space and get to leisurely walk up and kill your foes. The pace stays the same throughout. This includes dungeons. From the first second you travel beneath Lut to find Radament all the way to the Tomb of Tal, the pace within the tombs is exactly the same.
So, likewise, I really hope they add different elements to D3 to change up the appearance and pace of the game even within the act. I don't want it to feel empty or copy and pasted throughout the entire act.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
And to be honest, I don't think we will see a copy-pasta'd Diablo 3. From everything we've seen thus far, even the randomized dungeons have flair. I'd bet my mother's golden wigwam that there are over 400 "tiles" that will be available for each type of randomized dungeons, just to keep things from becoming droll. This is evident in the Wizard's gameplay trailer, in comparison with the Blizzcon demos that can be watched on YouTube.
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I agree with pretty much everything you guys said. I do think Blizz said something about it. I recall a quote about more than one city per act, so logically, if there more than one city there should be more than one "mood" or atmosphere
I'm just going to jump here and say if the game doesn't offer that kind of variety, thats just... sad, I guess.
Diablo 2 to me is just an old game based on randomly generated areas (mostly)... we all know each Act looks exactly the same. But I always think of it as "its because the game is old".
I wouldn't find that acceptable in D3... I really hope anything considered Dungeons are more distinguishable and important ones have a more different feeling.
Since the outside is pretty much all static and not randomly generated, though, now it would be even more ridiculous if it all looked the same, right? I don't think they will disappoint us on that level... at least I really hope they won't.
Good point. I completely forgot about that tidbit of information. That was some of the most exciting news to me that we will finally have more than one camp .
@jaKe, the age of the game is no excuse. There are plenty of older games that are amazing.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Considering that the game was made ten years ago, I think they did pretty well with the details. Sure, the whole story was pretty repetitive (bad guy here, go get him, oops he got away) x5 but each zone is pretty identifiable.
Lost City did have a bunch of ruined walls and stuff. Act 3 was by far the most "diverse" act in the game. From the tropical jungles to an expansive city to a deep underground Zakarum temple.
But Act 5 is undoubtedly the best. I think they fixed nearly everything that was wrong with Diablo 2 vanilla with the expansion.
the whole story was pretty repetitive (bad guy here, go get him, oops he got away) x5
Well to give credit where it's due, the heroes role may have been repetitive but the story as a whole was pretty good.
Quote from "Huck" »
But Act 5 is undoubtedly the best. I think they fixed nearly everything that was wrong with Diablo 2 vanilla with the expansion.
Hmm, act 5 did offer more diversity, but I certainly wouldn't call it the best of them. Really I found Act 5 to be my least favorite and always thought the expansion broke more than it fixed, but I guess that's a whole separate topic.
It's not about looking at the game super critically and going "Well, they could have added this". It's not like that. It's not something is hard to find, it's right in front of your face. Act 2 specifically has always been a disappointment to me. Ever since the first time I played D2, I was so bored with the same landscape over and over again.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
well lets face it: we dont play diablo because of its awesome story
Speak for yourself.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
well lets face it: we dont play diablo because of its awesome story
Quote from "Umpa65" »
Speak for yourself.
lol me too, personnally, the story = I DON'T CARE !!! If you have a really awesome story, but linear poor gameplay, you'll play it once and it's finished. If you have a really poor story with a great re-playable gameplay, you'll play it constantly.
People who don't like the story of Diablo don't actually know the story....At least not in it's entirety.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Act 1:
Sure the general theme was just plains. But certain area's had a fitting theme, The Dark Wood (If I recall the names correctly, if I don't you'll have to excuse me.) Had a lot more trees then any of the other area's. And the Rocky Plains (Again I'm most likely wrong about the name) had a lot more rocks including the Cairn Stones.
Act 2: Sure it was desert here, desert there, desert everywhere.
But cerain area's had a distinct flavor. You had the Lost City, it had a lot more diversity. A lot of houses and locations (it had a theater).
Let's not forget the Far Oasis with the more watery surroundings and houses here and there. And let's not forget the Maggot Lair which had a whole different layout then the regular dungeons.
Act 3, also pretty diverse with the whole City, Lower Kurast, and there are a lot of difference between Lower Kurast and the Temple Part (Higher Kurast).
Act 4 also (despite it small size had a lot of diversity), first cold and rocky, then fire, then some gothic fire church thing.
It looks like they only change the number of objects in the tileset. Lost city have more walls and houses, still in no way it looks like a City.
The same happens with dark wood. It just don't look like a woods. Black marsh also doesn't look like marsh despite the increase in the number of water pits.
I think they should plan the maps alot more, even if it decrease the randomness. D2 citys, all of then, looks awesome. If the rest of the game were good as the cities and other no randomned places it would look much better. And between us the kind of randomness found in D2 never added anything to the game gameplay wise.
But they can surely find a middle ground. Actually they found it already. The level desing will be alot better because it is maded in blocks and the randomisation happen between those blocks. This way they can design part of the levels and leave the other part to the randamisation.
I remember when I first started Diablo I... I spent hours reading the manual, learning about the world of Sanctuary, and all of its splendor. ((Hell, hall of my notebooks in High School were covered in Vizjerei runes))
To those who don't play the Diablo franchise for the story, I highly recommend whipping out your Diablo I and II manuals and reading the lore. Knaak and Metzen did an epic job.
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------------------------------------------- Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I know Diablo sucess is because of the good gameplay AND online re-playability/coop play.
If the story is the reason, explain me why many peoples play it without have read books and listen story... AND when you already know the story what's push you to re-play it ??????
It's the base of every game, if the gameplay was failed whatever the story you have, your game will be a flop
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So, hopefully, in Diablo 3, within each act we can expect to see a bit more diversity. Of course each act will retain it's overall theme but hopefully there will be things that sets different areas within the act, apart from say, the first thing you see in the act.
Do you agree? I'm curious as to what others think about this. Some may be fine with the general layout of Diablo 2 and think it find for D3 but personally I would like a bit more diversity within the acts (It's a bit ironic that I keep asking for diversity, yet I use the same word through the entire post lol).
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Seriously though. From everything I've seen thus far in Diablo 3, we'll see a broader scope of things in a single act, and much of that will stem from, what I believe, to be a change in pace. We're now traveling across Sanctuary, perhaps across several specific locations in a single Act. That will definitely keep me interested.
-------------------------------------------
Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
-------------------------------------------
Also, you brought up another interesting point that almost deserves it's own thread. The pace of each act. Once again, A2 is lacking here. Through the entire act, the same pace is maintained except for maybe in the Arcane sanctuary. You are in a wide open space and get to leisurely walk up and kill your foes. The pace stays the same throughout. This includes dungeons. From the first second you travel beneath Lut to find Radament all the way to the Tomb of Tal, the pace within the tombs is exactly the same.
So, likewise, I really hope they add different elements to D3 to change up the appearance and pace of the game even within the act. I don't want it to feel empty or copy and pasted throughout the entire act.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
-------------------------------------------
Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
-------------------------------------------
Diablo 2 to me is just an old game based on randomly generated areas (mostly)... we all know each Act looks exactly the same. But I always think of it as "its because the game is old".
I wouldn't find that acceptable in D3... I really hope anything considered Dungeons are more distinguishable and important ones have a more different feeling.
Since the outside is pretty much all static and not randomly generated, though, now it would be even more ridiculous if it all looked the same, right? I don't think they will disappoint us on that level... at least I really hope they won't.
@jaKe, the age of the game is no excuse. There are plenty of older games that are amazing.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Lost City did have a bunch of ruined walls and stuff. Act 3 was by far the most "diverse" act in the game. From the tropical jungles to an expansive city to a deep underground Zakarum temple.
But Act 5 is undoubtedly the best. I think they fixed nearly everything that was wrong with Diablo 2 vanilla with the expansion.
Hmm, act 5 did offer more diversity, but I certainly wouldn't call it the best of them. Really I found Act 5 to be my least favorite and always thought the expansion broke more than it fixed, but I guess that's a whole separate topic.
Signature and avatar courtesy of Indestructible.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Speak for yourself.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
lol me too, personnally, the story = I DON'T CARE !!!
If you have a really awesome story, but linear poor gameplay, you'll play it once and it's finished.
If you have a really poor story with a great re-playable gameplay, you'll play it constantly.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
It looks like they only change the number of objects in the tileset. Lost city have more walls and houses, still in no way it looks like a City.
The same happens with dark wood. It just don't look like a woods. Black marsh also doesn't look like marsh despite the increase in the number of water pits.
I think they should plan the maps alot more, even if it decrease the randomness. D2 citys, all of then, looks awesome. If the rest of the game were good as the cities and other no randomned places it would look much better. And between us the kind of randomness found in D2 never added anything to the game gameplay wise.
But they can surely find a middle ground. Actually they found it already. The level desing will be alot better because it is maded in blocks and the randomisation happen between those blocks. This way they can design part of the levels and leave the other part to the randamisation.
To those who don't play the Diablo franchise for the story, I highly recommend whipping out your Diablo I and II manuals and reading the lore. Knaak and Metzen did an epic job.
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Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
-------------------------------------------
I don't said I don't like, I said I don't care...
Yes story add something great for the firsts time you complete the game.
The story isn't the reason of Diablo series sucess
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I know Diablo sucess is because of the good gameplay AND online re-playability/coop play.
If the story is the reason, explain me why many peoples play it without have read books and listen story... AND when you already know the story what's push you to re-play it ??????
It's the base of every game, if the gameplay was failed whatever the story you have, your game will be a flop