DiabloFans

Quote from Kodachii

Man I hope people don't share your thoughts concerning gaming philosophy every time they log into an fps and actually believe they're blowing people away. That's messed up. I personally have always seen games as a way to wind down and relax, a form of entertainment not an alternate reality where I have a separate existence.

I simply mean from a lore and storytelling standpoint, as with books and movies and stuff. If I wanted to feel like I was massacring beasts with crazy skills, I would say "screw Diablo 3," pack some pyrotechnics into a backpack and wander into some good hunting grounds. Dat realism.

Really, though, it's called "breaking the fourth wall." You temporarily interact or show something to the audience, usually depicted as a character referencing the audience itself as if the audience was present with the actor or something unrelated to the present story that the audience would recognize, which is only acceptable (in my mind) in comedies and farces. I just think it needs to be minimal if not non-existent in a game like Diablo.

Quote from Lunitarius

Might just be a coincidence but pretty odd to name a skill (I'm assuming skill names change to their rune counterparts) this:

Smoke Screen

Obsidian Rune - Breathe Deep

Breathe Deep as in the Starcraft cheat that nets you 500 gas?

Breathe Deep, as in the thing people can do with their lungs?

I just think that this game is supposed to be, you know, immersive. Every reference piece will remind people that they are, in fact, playing a video game, and are not immersed in the world of Sanctuary. In a game that gives you dance commands or gives you a quest where you sit there and be the guy who hands out quests, sure, some giggly moments and tributes are pretty much ensured. But this is Diablo. It's not that I don't want this game to "become WoW," since that will never happen; it's that I want this game to be Diablo, and I have always appreciated Diablo for being an unswayable fortress of a video game. The only thing that Diablo borrows from other games is purely mechanical, and the only jokes it allows into itself are jokes about itself (such as the cow level.)

Long story short: when I'm playing the game, I don't ever want there to be a moment when I'm reminded that I'm playing a game.

None.

I'm fine with the summoning aspect of the WD right now. I mean, I loved the ridiculous army-style necro too, but I found I was recasting summons every 10 seconds then too, so no difference here.

The only thing that would make a yin and yang symbol okay for the DH orb was if the two played off each other, but as far as I can tell, they're entirely independent from one another.

Again, the hatred and discipline are fire and water respectively, I think that's neat.

I don't get you guys, I think the DH resource is fantastic. The hatred looks like fire and the discipline looks like deep dark moving water, it's really pretty great.

Fantasy isn't always better than reality.

I dunno, I'd play video games or.. you know, stuff.

Not to mention, the Blue Tracker's most recent update at the moment is the EU system profile update. Finally all you EU people can get a profile check without using the US version.

The hope, I think, is that Blizzard will be able to keep the Battle.net community free from some of these problems. If people can hack and get their own servers going on, that's one thing. After all, that won't affect the Battle.net community. Bots and stuff inside the B.net realms? I think they're trying to get a lockdown on that. Who knows? WoW may have hacks and such going on, but no matter how much they patch it, that game is still 10 years old. Maybe the D3 team has some tricks up their sleeve. It's likely to get hacked. Maybe even inevitable. But the real question is how much will it end up affecting the main community.

Quote from soulzek

Duping will be much more profitable in Diablo 3 than in any other Blizzard game because the results can immediately be profited from before Blizzard has time to react to the information.

MAYBE, but don't forget that not only will everything in Diablo 3 be tracked in general, but I'm about 99.99% positive that entering an item into either AH will immediately cause a search on the item's history of existence, and if there is another item somewhere that has identical information, and the item history of the character who found it, and the profile the character was under, and related sales histories... and so on (so on encompassing whatever else Blizzard's machines will track.) THEN the item has to even sell. The RMAH isn't instant. There's another human being on the other side.

Quote from Juystafan

Gems will become a currency

This...

is something I had not thought of, but seems extremely realistic. The only thing that could change this is how fast level 14 gems leave the market for good. I assume many will live in the gear of good traders, several will live in the bodies of HC characters, but who knows? That's really an interesting thought.

Quote from Shmark

He just has a helmet on.

I think the bigger question is, why did they replace the wizard with David Bowie?

An even BIGGER question is, why DIDN'T they replace the wizard with the only thing cooler than David Bowie: the Sandman?

Quote from SlGrim

Quote from theSkaBoss

Then we're talking about a system identical to the current system

Exactly.

except you have no control at all

See now you are also falling for the "illusion" of control. You want to be able to control it?
Too bad it all comes down to luck wouldn't you say?

Either you can control where it goes or you can't. No illusion.

cannot choose where the rune goes

Vs you can choose where it goes but cannot choose what it will be?
[Edit] Let me eleborate, and I hope you will at least agree with me on this point: It's easier to accept a bad fate when you don't percieve to have had control over the outcome in the fist place, than to accept it if you do percieve to have had some control/influence over.

Again. I did or I did not choose where it goes. I'm not imagining I chose where it goes. I'm not MAYBE going to find A rune for the skill I want to get the right rune for. I am DEFINITELY going to find A rune for the skill I want to get the right rune for.

What that means is that no one's trying to accomplish anything

Don't agree there. You're still hunting for that specific rune aren't you?

it would be more or less that runes are no more exciting to find than an unidentified wand or staff, or a ring or amulet.

Except if they make the drop chance scale well.
If the drop chance of a lvl 7 rune is really low then if you find one it would be just as exciting as finding a really rare piece of armor.

So let's play this game.

I give you a red die and a blue die, both six-sided. You pay me $50 for the privilege of playing.
You are trying to roll one of 6 combinations.

• 1 and 6
• 2 and 5
• 3 and 4
• 4 and 3
• 5 and 2
• 6 and 1

If you can succeed in getting all 6 combinations in 36 turns or less, I will give you $50. Therefore, you have won back your investment by playing.
If you fail to get one of the combinations, a point will be added to my counter. Once my counter has reached 36, you can only win $10 when you succeed.
When the counter is full, you may choose to abandon this round or continue to play until you win. When you abandon the round, you get no money.
You can only play my dice game for 24 hours. You may play as many rounds as you can in that time. You must wait 1 minute between rolls.


Here are some numbers for you to chew on.

• 1440 minutes in a day.
• 240 is the maximum number of times you can win $50 in every round in a day
• 40 is the minimum number of times you can win $50 in every round in a day
• 1...38 is the number of times you can win $10 or quit in a day

And finally....

• 1 in 6 odds, initially...
• 1 in 7.2 odds, after one find (uh oh)
• 1 in 9 for the third find
• 1 in 12 for the fourth find
• 1 in 18 for the fifth find
• 1 in 36 on the last find

That last list of bullets is a big deal. I'll let you think it over while I go play a round of my own game on random.org, time limits removed, to see if I can even win a round.
...
I lost.

So let me change the rules of the game in ONE respect... Now, you may CHOOSE how the red die falls before rolling the blue.
All other rules stay the same.
All other statistics stay the same.
Until...

• 1 in 6 odds for first find
• 1 in 6 odds for second find
• 1 in 6 odds for third find
• 1 in 6 odds for fourth find
• 1 in 6 odds for fifth find
• 1 in 6 odds for sixth find

Hax. Allow me to go play my new game on random.org while you think about that one.
...
I won.

Choosing skills to roll the dice on radically changes the game in your favor. Wherein lies your illusion?

Side note! -- I know that there's only 5 rune options, not 6. 6-sided dice are just easy analogies. If you want to know the numbers as they apply to the rune system, it's
YOUR SYSTEM
1 in 5 initially, then 1 in 6, then 1 in 7.5, then 1 in 10, then 1 in 15, then 1 in 30.
LATEST KNOWN BLIZZARD SYSTEM
1 in 5, 1 in 5, 1 in 5, 1 in 5, 1 in 5, 1 in 5.

This analogy works as follows:
24 hour time limit = the total amount of your life you will play D3, whatever that is.
1 minute roll separations = the time between level 7 finds.
$50 reward and $10 reward = the reward you feel at completing your build (as far as skills go) before and after the point when you feel like you've spent too much time getting to that peak.
No reward = not completing a build
Red die = skills
Blue die = runes


SO, in response to your earlier statement that you were still going for a specific rune... no, you're going for 1 of 6 specific runes, then 1 of 5, etc... until you're on your last rune. THEN you're looking for your specific rune. Play the dice game, see how much you care which of those specific combos you get. If you want to play super realistically to the Diablo experience... then aim for a specific one, and then you tell me which system (yours where you roll both dice or Blizzard's where you set one and roll one) you like better. Please let me know how illusory your control feels if you go for the Blizzard version.