Official Blizzard Quote:
Followers were originally going to be available during co-op, and actually are right now because of a bug in the current build we're playing. And it's crazy. If you're unfortunate enough to also have a witch doctor, it's insanity. Eight characters running around plus all of the potential pets. It's complete chaos. That's the biggest reason they aren't going to be available outside of single player.
Not wanting the game to be chaotic is completely understandable and is likely one of the contributing factors behind why they initially decreased the maximum party size from eight players [in D2] to four this time around. Going back and doubling the party size would be the last thing they want to do if things truly do become chaotic. However, this begs the question, how will the game feel with a full party of Witch Doctors'? If adding four more potential "summons" turns the game into chaos, how apocalyptic will the game feel with a full set of summons from each of the four WD's? Regardless, if we do want to take advantage of these Followers, we won't be able to with a full party anyway.
Official Blizzard Quote:
It encourages co-op by giving people that are going to be playing the game alone from the start many of the thoughts and process that go into playing with another person. Seeing someone else on screen. Thinking about their items and skills. Hearing them talk. That all sounds silly from a lot of our perspectives, because, we all play co-op and who needs a primer? Well, a lot of people, and that's where this encourages co-op. More people playing co-op means more people in a mindset of an online community, and that has many far reaching benefits for all players.
It seems to me like we have to drop the Mercenary line of thinking from D2 in order to understand this decision. Essentially, Bashiok makes it sound like Followers aren't really supposed to be Mercenaries, but they are supposed to act as party members that replace other real players for those users who refuse to play multiplayer. When you look at the system in that perspective, it makes this functionality great, as it adds some form of cooperation for those who would rather play by themselves, and could even persuade said user to jump online and play with other users, for some real co-op play. This is simply because once you complete Normal by yourself, or rather with the [fake player] Follower, the Follower will become useless.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Followers will not stay alive easily past Normal, and if they're not alive you aren't going to be getting their bonuses. I'm sure people will try to game this, and ideally they will fail. If not we will ensure followers are not part of the end-game MF equation. They are not intended to be, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure they cannot be.
Now you'll be yearning for that co-op play and your only choice will be to jump on Battle.net and find some peers to game with. Blizzard is doing some real funky reverse psychology to promote the social experience, but in the end, they are still promoting the social experience.
From my standpoint I am very much excited to have the followers be added depth to my solo play experience and story of the game.
we are excited about things, eg. diablo 3 overall
so excited in fact, that we analyse all the material we get
perhaps if you want more excitement and less of the analytics, you should avoid the information until you get to experience in the game
awesome writeup Sixen, as usual
I understand what you're saying and I like the Follower system too. However, in a way, it's good to have people be very passionate about something like this because it shows that D3 has a large following, and really, there's nothing wrong with a steadfast opinion.
I do think it's pretty damn strange that you'll be investing your time in building a "side character" only to have he/she be pointless later on though. That being said, it would be REALLY BAD if Followers were like mercs were in D2 because, like Bash said, there's not enough screen real estate for that many players.
Which is why you really don't need to invest all that much time, gear or effort making a follower. They have, what, 4 equipment slots and a whopping total of 12 skills divided into groups of 3? There aren't that many choices involved, and even though its easily useless from our standpoint, if you look at how it will be from the point of view of someone who is just starting to play, it will be an easier transition to multiplayer. I think its a great system, and while I do wish it was usable in higher difficulties its far from the end of the world. Considering the outrage when people thought they would be essential, combined with the outrage now that people know they aren't, Blizzard had to make a choice and I think this is a reasonable compromise.
Of course, compromises always piss people off though
Or, you can choose not to use them. Really it's not a big deal at all.
Cool system that you use if you want to, but you're not at a disadvantage if you don't.
Oh, and on the matter of "screen real estate" does it feel like anyone else's (spelling?) field of view and/or screen space it's self is shrinking. The big push is for less people on the screen. But I don't think it's such a big deal that you should be hobbling a great idea just for a reason of screen space. Why not just give us a larger field of view? My main point of focus is my hero first and foremost and yea I do care that there are others with me. But, at the same time my view is centered on my anyway it not like in some other games with a free cam I'm not going to just lose track of myself I'll always be in the center of the screen. My last point on this matter is that while ideally we're all going to be good friend and play along and help each other, that's no guarantee that we will or that I'm going to have 3 others in my field of view. Mind you this isn't strictly held to the followers system.
lol... I deleted my post by mistake going to change a typo
this makes the characters seem insignificant and ends up detracting from the game more
try using a diablo 2 resolution hack to say 1680*1050 and youll see what i mean
nb. a working one of those requires older versions of d2
The Follower system is at its core concept right now and as it goes through Beta, changes can and will occur. Keep in mind, that's what Beta is for. So many people get stuck on the idea of Beta being a process that it to just identify errors in the game. Its not.
The whole of this game is a dynamic, new, complex set of systems. They are bound to go through some significant changes.
My first gut instinct tells me the Followers may get changed a bit, to last a bit longer through the difficulties....
I know were talking about a system thats only available for playing solo. but i believe that if a system cant be utilized in all portions of the game, there is no point of it. especially if its only useful for a certain amount of time,
i have a question in regards to the follower; they said that if your Follower dies, it will respawn in about 15-20 seconds. so if i;m playing in hell, solo, will my follower keep respawning? or is there a certain amount of times it will respawn consecutively? or is there an option to turn off the Follower?
I definitely don't feel like this needs to be an all or nothing situation where they should just scrap the idea if it doesn't work like people want.
I'm just gonna get attached only to be missing them soon after. Oh well though.
I wonder if there is an option to keep them in town permanently. I dont want them following me around in hell just to be dying all the time, it'd be annoying.
Normal difficulty only.
What the fuck is your problem, Blizzard? You do -everything- right, and then fuck it up right there in a single strike.
I'm not playing your fucking coop and your incentive just pisses me off as a single player guy.
What the fuck is up with today's thinking that playing with players is better, anyway. Seriously? My worse experience in gaming are all related to the shitty communities that comes with them. Don't try to force me into that crap, and give options to everybody.
I can't take this anymore. What kind of stupid developers do they have. So infuriating.
Normally I'd scream at or attempt to troll you, but pretty much this.
Blizzard took what would have been a nice system to have a second, more simple character by your side throughout the game, then fucked it all up.
*sighs*
/sign
Blizzard had said they promoted coop at the very beginning, and now give you single player a bonus.
the multiplayer who also like follower should complain.
Honestly, I don't want a Follower in the first place, just to get that same feeling I had in D1, where I was all alone in a dark dungeon seeking treasure and Terror. And hey, that's up to me. I don't have to have a follower if I don't want to. But for my first playthrough, I'll use one. Just to immerse myself in the story, and enjoy everything I can about D3.
Then I'll get down to business.
What makes a follower so critical to playing single player?