First of all, I have been following the development for quite some time and I am aware of the intents of the developers. I have put a lot of legitimate thought regarding the new skill system, but I feel that the forums are not an adequate place to post my feedback, because my posts get washed to the second page immediately. That being said...
Thank you for taking the time to read my comments below:
The Good
- The new system makes leveling much more exciting
- There are no longer ridiculously huge comparisons that the player has to make
- We get cooler abilities in the early game
- The difficulty now feels appropriate for the first act of normal difficulty
The Bad
- Because the runes that become available are given to us, rather than letting us choose which ones to unlock, the choice is now gone from which skills to use. If I have two abilities, one with a rune and one without, I am essentially forced to use the ability with the rune. A comparison that involves an ability that is more powerful than another is NOT a comparison.
- There is no longer a form of end game progression besides collecting new gear. While this is cool, it is certainly not the same as feeling like you are unlocking new ranks of an ability (even if they are statistically equal).
- There is even LESS build commitment. I know this is intentional, but my choices feel meaningless! A good system should allow the player to experiment freely, but encourage the player to identify a build that they can call theirs.
The Ugly
- The new skill interface is ugly; it is functional, but ugly. The old interface looked so awesome. It had a stained glass window appearance that was aesthetically awesome. You could see ALL the abilities in the game AND what level they became available. Being able to easily see all the abilities and when they become available is a HUGE "Carrot on a stick". It makes people look ahead and get excited about playing.
Suggestions:
- At levels that runes unlock, grant the player a skill point (nothing like D2 skill points). These skill points are used to unlock new rune effects. We should be able to unlock a rune on any ability we have, but we cannot unlock the runes out of order (we must unlock the runes for an ability from left to right) Why? We shouldn't be able to select all of our favorite runes in the first 10 levels, because then there is nothing to look forward to. In addition, I might choose to unlock all my runes on shock pulse to get the last rune which seems most interesting to me. Eventually, a player should be able to unlock all their rune effects.
- Allow the player to save ONLY 2-3 skill builds. Changing the saved builds should cost gold. However, you may also freely use other non-saved builds. The saved builds are simply a convenience and a list of builds that identify "you". (If one wanted to go further, there could be a benefit for using a saved build, like a 5% damage increase). I really feel like this is critical to the game design. The current system makes me feel like a class with a pool of abilities, rather than MY DESIGNED character. At least my saved builds would differentiate me when I show off my character. I don't feel like this is an unreasonable request or a request that moves the game away from the direction it is being taken.
- Make trash white items have a grey name. Useful white items like potions should remain white.
- Redesign the skill interface so that it isn't confusing for "elective mode" and so all abilities can be seen at once. Also, try to reduce the screen real-estate.
- Some sort of end game progression besides gear would be nice to include.
wtf pets that gather gold that was the most retarded idea ever glad they removed it we already have autostats autoskills whats next autopilot ?
No surprise they removed in game pvp, they are aiming for kindergarten papamole customers.
I`m surprised that they removed the portable shop that is Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube good choice though.
So in the end the last changes Jay Wilson did were very good i hope they don`t fire him now when its on a good track.
Jesus, you don't have autostats, but you have passives. There is no longer useless customization that wasn't REALLY customization. There is now REAL customization.
NOT A SINGLE change they have made to the game has made it for "kids". If you think removing tedious annoying aspects of a game makes the game easy... You are mistaken. Making characters unable to die in the beta makes the game easy, which I hope changes as the game progresses.
For example, I'd like to see some Blizzcon 2011 Arena gameplay. I'd like to see some Blizzard DotA gameplay. I'd like to see some HotS gameplay. I'd like to see this stuff! Where is it?
You do know that "Mana" is a sort of tribal religious concept of a mystic force that resides in people and animals right? It originates from Pacific Island tribes.
The use of mana for the Witch Doctor is totally fitting. The usage of Mana as a general spell-casting essence is what you're basing this on, and that usage is not at all true to it's origins.
I'm a role player, and when I think "mana" I think "generic". I want my class to be themed uniquely.
It may be that the islands developed the concept of mana, but they also developed of the concept of mojo, juju, and voodoo. That resource is much more unique and not shared by 50 bajillion other games.
There is NO REASON Blizzard would EVER say nothing is going to happen. That throws away press, seems stupid. Then they were specific as to WHAT will not happen on the 16th... Demonic invasions...
They MUST be messing with us. I definitely think a diablo 3 related announcement will occur on the 16th, maybe beta will start. I do not think they are being serious. They are trolling so hard to generate hype.
They really need to show us the rating. For epeens the world over. I hate playing just to win, I like seeing a high rating next to my character.
I believe the reason they're not showing it is because if they do, they'll have to eventually do a "ladder reset" on it, which they specifically want to avoid for the entire game.
Edit: that's not to say I don't agree with you.
And because you can essentially buy rating. They don't want rating mistaken for skill.
I believe Jay Wilson said as much in his interview at the press event last week. You won't be able to SEE your pvp rating though from my understanding, which I think is why some people are complaining.
Makes sense though. It's because it doesn't actually show skill. It just shows who you should face for equal difficulty.
"Sure, but the advantage (in PvP) would be they could maybe get a short winning-streak but with the matchmaking system it would compensate and they'd quickly get matched against better people and it would even out.
If having better gear makes you a better player in PvP (which I would argue is only true to a small extent), it doesn't mean anything because you're getting matched against similarly skilled players each time."
Also, keep in mind that if there is a rating-based matchmaking system and we add additional modes, you increase queue times. I don't think Blizzard believes that a competitive mode choice is worth the queue time increase.
Thank you for taking the time to read my comments below:
The Good
- The new system makes leveling much more exciting
- There are no longer ridiculously huge comparisons that the player has to make
- We get cooler abilities in the early game
- The difficulty now feels appropriate for the first act of normal difficulty
The Bad
- Because the runes that become available are given to us, rather than letting us choose which ones to unlock, the choice is now gone from which skills to use. If I have two abilities, one with a rune and one without, I am essentially forced to use the ability with the rune. A comparison that involves an ability that is more powerful than another is NOT a comparison.
- There is no longer a form of end game progression besides collecting new gear. While this is cool, it is certainly not the same as feeling like you are unlocking new ranks of an ability (even if they are statistically equal).
- There is even LESS build commitment. I know this is intentional, but my choices feel meaningless! A good system should allow the player to experiment freely, but encourage the player to identify a build that they can call theirs.
The Ugly
- The new skill interface is ugly; it is functional, but ugly. The old interface looked so awesome. It had a stained glass window appearance that was aesthetically awesome. You could see ALL the abilities in the game AND what level they became available. Being able to easily see all the abilities and when they become available is a HUGE "Carrot on a stick". It makes people look ahead and get excited about playing.
Suggestions:
- At levels that runes unlock, grant the player a skill point (nothing like D2 skill points). These skill points are used to unlock new rune effects. We should be able to unlock a rune on any ability we have, but we cannot unlock the runes out of order (we must unlock the runes for an ability from left to right) Why? We shouldn't be able to select all of our favorite runes in the first 10 levels, because then there is nothing to look forward to. In addition, I might choose to unlock all my runes on shock pulse to get the last rune which seems most interesting to me. Eventually, a player should be able to unlock all their rune effects.
- Allow the player to save ONLY 2-3 skill builds. Changing the saved builds should cost gold. However, you may also freely use other non-saved builds. The saved builds are simply a convenience and a list of builds that identify "you". (If one wanted to go further, there could be a benefit for using a saved build, like a 5% damage increase). I really feel like this is critical to the game design. The current system makes me feel like a class with a pool of abilities, rather than MY DESIGNED character. At least my saved builds would differentiate me when I show off my character. I don't feel like this is an unreasonable request or a request that moves the game away from the direction it is being taken.
- Make trash white items have a grey name. Useful white items like potions should remain white.
- Redesign the skill interface so that it isn't confusing for "elective mode" and so all abilities can be seen at once. Also, try to reduce the screen real-estate.
- Some sort of end game progression besides gear would be nice to include.
Jesus, you don't have autostats, but you have passives. There is no longer useless customization that wasn't REALLY customization. There is now REAL customization.
NOT A SINGLE change they have made to the game has made it for "kids". If you think removing tedious annoying aspects of a game makes the game easy... You are mistaken. Making characters unable to die in the beta makes the game easy, which I hope changes as the game progresses.
For example, I'd like to see some Blizzcon 2011 Arena gameplay. I'd like to see some Blizzard DotA gameplay. I'd like to see some HotS gameplay. I'd like to see this stuff! Where is it?
I'm a role player, and when I think "mana" I think "generic". I want my class to be themed uniquely.
It may be that the islands developed the concept of mana, but they also developed of the concept of mojo, juju, and voodoo. That resource is much more unique and not shared by 50 bajillion other games.
It would add so much flavor to the resource.
Opinions?
Signed up for the other two as well!
They MUST be messing with us. I definitely think a diablo 3 related announcement will occur on the 16th, maybe beta will start. I do not think they are being serious. They are trolling so hard to generate hype.
And because you can essentially buy rating. They don't want rating mistaken for skill.
Makes sense though. It's because it doesn't actually show skill. It just shows who you should face for equal difficulty.
"Sure, but the advantage (in PvP) would be they could maybe get a short winning-streak but with the matchmaking system it would compensate and they'd quickly get matched against better people and it would even out.
If having better gear makes you a better player in PvP (which I would argue is only true to a small extent), it doesn't mean anything because you're getting matched against similarly skilled players each time."
Also, keep in mind that if there is a rating-based matchmaking system and we add additional modes, you increase queue times. I don't think Blizzard believes that a competitive mode choice is worth the queue time increase.