DiabloFans

hmmmm, you're right. troubles at work...

but i really love the game, i bought 3 copies! and was thinking about 4th! for the lan parties... but MP is just plain bad, and i feel... betrayed. by my favourite game ever. worse, they are going the wrong way, they are going the wrong way, right now, with 1.05, they are going the wrong way! how come nobody realizes?

alright, just one, a quick one, mind you. don't ask for best-of-three later!

Quote from Bogok

Quote from Bleu42

What? There was a LOT of unbalance in the other diablo games !! Hammerdins anyones? How about the sorcerer in D1? Stack str for heavy armor and spam mana shield, invulnerable. You just didn't hear about it as much because there wasn't as many people on forums.

There will never be true balance in this game or any game, they can only make it close. And the grass is always greener on the other side.

Well spoken

ill spoken. SP - imbalances doesn't mattered - take easier or harder class or build, you're playing for own pleasure. MP - imbalances doesn't matter by default, players are joined against common enemy. PvP is only mode where imbalances mattered, but i don't like it - though i won them all

on the other hand, HERE imbalances matter a great deal, since you play against THE HOUSE. like a roulette. against AUCTION HOUSE, to be precise. and what if 1/5 players have increased luck by 10% by default? and 2/5 has it decreased? that does matter a lot!

and before it did not... some kid exploiting hammerdin to the max? what the hell do i care? here, i have to give him hard earned gold, cause only advance is through items, and he can get them and i can not? can i compensate? nope, there aren't 99 levels. so this is the game where balance means the most, and there is least of it

i'm not hating, but reacting to a pure nonsense - just because previous games had some imbalances (boring to play, btw), we shouldn't have balance now? that's your point?

or that imbalance is unavoidable? it's nonsense, meta-game evolves all the time, and new exploits/imbalances are discovered all the time. so, game makers react to them and achieve relative balance again. it won't last or be perfect, but will be better, and sometimes weaker classes/factions/whatever are intentionally overbuffed to compensate for past. balance is dynamic thing, but it can be maintained more or less.

I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue, will quote this, without comments - it is self-sufficient. Furthermore, the cold reason (ok, lets skip the phrases used by dead human philosophers) cannot find any logical flaw, and whole B section is best-though replayability solution I've found on forums. To bad dave's God is so scarce on details of it. Someone should really analyse him - a madman, a comedian, a genius, a savior? All of that together? Anyway, game replayability quote:

Quote from Clavdivs

and yes, all is clear in divine thought. diablo III lacks:
A) achievements
replayability

A) By achievements, The God considers the feeling of happiness when defeating Diablo, or some other boss. they are just too easy! and whole act IV is way too easy. i should played more to reach pinnacle, to defeat Lord of Terror himself. last maps (act IV and hellwell on act III) should be so hard that it looks almost impossible to beat... and by farming, gaining exp and gear, they gradually open and after one very hard battle, you proudly say 'I, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, HAVE DEFEATED DIABLO!' (preferably getting decent stuff, unlike one i got. oh, and you can use your own name. or mine. whatever). and then chose another class. then another. then another build. forever.

currently, you'll probably continue to farm for loot. then start another class, but will have more gold then Rome, run through leveling, run through inferno, defeat diablo, feel miserably...

By replayability, The God criticize skill system, and ability to change it in instant, buy some equipment and there! from melee wizard to glass cannon? diverse? The God don't think so...

Has The God solution? I, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, introduce THE PERKS. player picks one (out of three, for instance) at creating of character, something that change the class feeling considerably. it is the specialty player character has, which influence later game by it's very nature. AND IT CANNOT BE CHANGED! well, player could get to change it when reaching Inferno, and at the same time chose another, INFERNO PERK. or not. maybe first choice perk should stay the same forever. or there should be only one perk. either. no matter.

By having THE PERKS, players are forced to make multiple characters, if they want multiple builds - this way, one only needs V heroes and some items - one wizard for PvP, glass cannon, balanced, melee... The God actually enjoyed leveling another hero of same class for each build in diablo II. here, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, will likely have V heroes, and V for stashing stuff...

I, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, The God, have interrupted my crucial work to commend this analysis! so, it appears that int/str secondaries 'lose uselessness' - rather than call them useful - at late-lategame!

as a trial, The God did similar test with dexterity and %dodge, though this test is doomed to be unreliable and misleading. for that reason, I, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, The God, will INTERPRET the test results, rather then post them and mislead the mortals:

- the higher HP is, the more useful %dodge is - The God advise absolutely no investment in dexterity until vitality is less then CD (and the level is LX, due to differences in HP formula)
- possible investment shouldn't, in any case be greater than D (or XX% dodge) - while additional percentage can't actually hurt, in most cases direct investment in vitality pays more
- %Life items favor %dodge investment
- both armor and resistance favor %dodge investment

as a conclusion, The God advises 'accidental' dexterity - some is gained through leveling, and some is usually found on items anyway. pure build, consisting of only vitality and primary, would be in most cases somewhat weaker than build mixed with up-top-D-or-whatever-luck-would-have build. remember, mortals, dexterity is lesser value early-game, and grows in power only in lategame scenarios, where it can achieve several percents advantage over vitality INVESTMENT - not replacing it as first choice, but rather 'having some will help some', following the rules above

Hail, Clavdivs, i'm here mainly to put some common sense in dave (also known as von Oberstain), who hasn't displayed any faulty logic (yet), but is prone to it, mainly cause he was some mathematical wunderkind back in fatherland and does calculations with large numbers from head - but misses important points... anyway, i'm remaning agnostic, but want to "manage" dave, so all can have some use of his analyses

AHEM, here we go:
1. misconception 1 - intelligence and strength are inequal as sencondaries, in terms of defense

proof:
each 3000 armour equals 100% additional HP
each 300 intelligence equals 100% additional HP

final damage resistance, and hence inteligence is calculated by 1-arm*res (and *0.7 natural defence of barbarian and monk, or 0.8 wizard with blur)

this is a simple truth, and couldn't be missed by spreadshit-loving people of blizzard. main problem is in polynomial multiplication, which *was* (obviously) missed by blizzard, but shouldn't be missed by dave here

namely (dave, hits his head on the wall by this time), arm*res differs from maximum, which is of course arm=res

i'll make this clearer, though i'm sure divine insight unferstaind, which i know since i read your initial proposal:

3000 armour is equal with 300 resistance. investment of 100 attribute of either strenth or intelligence will result in same secondary effect (i ignore primary for this purpose only, say we talk about demon hunter)

armour and resistance should remain in close-as-possibly 10:1 ratio, or result falls. example:
1) character with 5000 armour and 500 resistance investing
a) 2000 attributes in strength alone
1000 attributes in strength and intelligence equally

will result in a) having 0.23% better overal defense (seems not a big deal, but it is, when we are talking about ~90% defense)

or, much more understandably:
2) character having 2000 armour from items and 67 resistance from stats, investing 2000 attributes
a) strength only
equally

will result in 5% in favour of a) - this being a borderline case

if resistance initial resistance was 200, masser ( a) ) would LOSE for 3%

recapitulation:
- armour and resistance has to be ALWAYS as near as 10:1.
- borderline case from example doesn't count, since that same character profits of having +20 resistance and -200 armor - we should ignore him, actually, but i'm kinda fond of borderline cases

a problem:
- each character gets at least 2000 armour from equipment, usually more, and there are bonuses more often and stronger than for resistance
- character is FORCED to invest in ALL RESISTANCE heavily, say at least till +200, which limits his build opportunities - it's allright if he WANTS TO, but not if he HAS TO
- investing in ALL RESISTANCE is impossible for leveling characters, so there is a SERIOUS disadvantage for intelligence builds

as divine intellect already solved this, in not-too-elegant manner, i must say - consider this as my little contribution here. The God has good intuition and solution, but no important debates with his "disciples" (or heretics, for a matter of fact)

welcome, troll, to our humble temple. if you have any rational thoughts, or thoughts in general, feel free to share them

I, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, The God, will answer your question in blue.

being a game designer is far from "living your dream". there are deadlines, overtime work, always unfinished stuff. and there are "fans". like a crows, like a murder of whining crows: i don't like this, i want to, this is imba, this should be like, my friend's brother who is also a moron said that, this is too high, this should be left - YOU ARE TOO BLAME JAY WILSON

two names? not a royalty? or conqueror? well, nevermind, i had freedmen in my service, too. so, this jay person is probably having a worse time of his life, probably plays for XV minutes a week and is pressured constantly

OF COURSE HE MADE WW BARBARIAN IMBALANCED SO HE COULD DO IN THAT XV MINUTES WHAT THE REST OF US CAN IN WEEK

"a conflict of interests", really! he gets paid for his job, but The God is sure that, at this moment, he wishes about two months unpaid leave or that he would pay someone to be jay wilson instead

use your head next time. and if you want to play imba class, there is always ww-barbarian for you. not that hard to level

Quote from Zero(pS)

Make sure to post this on the official forums... who knows, maybe for an expansion...

It's a really neat idea, but one that would definitely need a ton of testing... finding that sweetspot where you want to have enough stats to actually impact the gameplay (actually helping the skill instead of reducing its cost by say 1%); but not having it affect so much the skill that it completely breaks the planned combat mechanics..

Balancing could also be a nightmare, linking gear stats directly to specific skill/runes/builds, and then having to nerf them would cause major complaints (imagine the Wiz/Barb drama times 1000).

I absolutely like it, but I also understand from a game-design standpoint that even the best ideas need testing before being implemented.

Cool, thanks for the response!
I wanted to post it here first where there are less threads about complaining and more that are constructive. At least to gather more feedback and ideas.

I agree that it would be a QA nightmare, but once again, just wanted to promote the concept of linking items and builds. It was a huge part od D2 that I believe is widely missed. My idea doesn't add complexity to items, it just makes their affixes more important.

http://savediablo3.wix.com/diablo3#!home/mainPage - address changed. Link is safe to click on...



This is short version of everything said on site. For a detailed information, The God is afraid that you'll have to dwell deeper into the divine wisdom.



Itemizatization
In there, The God discusses why is dual-wielding favored in contrast to two handers and weapon+shield, and gives solutions which would lead to far greater diversity among equipment usage. The gems are also discussed, Blizzard made awful mess with them - to be honest, they weren't good in diablo II also - and how to solve this, in a manner that every gem has its use and no gem is overpowered.

Loot
In there, The God discusses general problems connected to 'Three Stooges approach' - everything is random, but there is awful lot of them. Naturally, almost all are useless, cannot be sold on AH or RMAH, can be vendored but with annoying 'identification waste of time' for low profit. Solutions are, of course, given, mainly going towards lessening the number of drops, but increasing their quality, and renouncing some of randomization.

Attributes
Current 'variable builds' are exclusively consisting of main attribute + vitality, secondaries being lower grade. It this chapter, a discussion about making viable build of 'dexterity barbarian', or 'intelligence DH' are made. Those aren't, of course, meant to become main build, but are good for fun builds with decent viability.

Multiplayer
And how the Activision Blizzard killed it in 1.05. And how I, Clavdivs, The God will save it! And make the game a social one, instead lonely farming experience.

Interface
Various changes which would improve overall game experience, like 'drop non-magical' or 'drop non rare/legendary' button, remapping ALL keys, locking items in place etc...

Game diversity
Linearity? YES! Open, vibrant world. INFERNO, NO! Is it the game everyone wishes to play for next X years? Suggestions concerning GOOD side-quests, interesting bosses, variable dungeons, decreased repeatability during farming etc.

Class diversity
In this chapter, The God addresses the following problem: THERE IS NO REPLAYABILITY. Whatsoever. Paragons and MP made sure of that. But divine wisdom found a way to avoid this, of course. Even override paragon/MP tombstone, and convert game to what it should be in the first place. Make people play few heroes at one time? Make players repeat game with SAME hero with a different experience? HOW, HOW? - THE PERKS ™ - read on!

Acts and game
Arbitrary, the Act I and III are best designed ones - lots of interesting ideas put in (some working fine, others not so good). How to make Acts II and IV better, and Acts I and III even better than they are now? How to correct some, errr [The God made divine effort to remain polite] ...inherited ...mistakes. The Lord God wrote it all!

Wizard
Somewhat outdated with patch 1.05, but still worth a reading. Shows a basic concept of "Inferno Runes" ™, the runes which replace 'no rune' option on Inferno difficulty without being best-in-class, but viable alternative to currently most commonly used runes. Also, changes some useless regular runes to better ones, without... errr [The God coughs repeatedly] changing effects V or more times

About The God:
Apart from being Caesar an deity (post mortem), I, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, The God, was a programmer, a game designer, balancer, map creator and whatnot. I am over MM years old, and have played diablo series since diablo I came out. The God forgot more about diablo than most people ever knew.

After all, it's not every day that MM years old deity offers help unselfishly.