Quote from Daemaro
How in the world do you figure that?We've said exactly what will come of this competition. Also you're speaking to a art student. Umpa.
You've speculated that it may or may not be a good opportunity for a designer.
Google "spec work" and see what you can learn about it, and how it's one of the largest issues facing the design industry today.
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Might post something on BNet forums actually
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Google search = here's a really good example of the difference between aa and no aa.
The issue in Mac OSX is that there is no graphics utility software to tweak your graphics card performance like there is on windows (Radeon has catalyst control centre, GeForce has something similar I forget the name). This sucks because it means I can't have aa in SC2 because there's no in-game option.
Even on lower systems I'd personally drop my resolution a little to have a low setting of aa because I find it can make some animations in particular look really ugly without it - an example is when something is allllmost vertical but not quite, and animated, you get a row of almost vertical pixels slide up and down the screen which I think looks incredibly ugly (if that makes sense)
AA doesn't matter in SC2 as much as it will in D3 because D3 uses a larger amount of pixels for most of it's models (think about the size of your D3 character vs the size of a marine or most SC2 vehicles) which likely cause a lack of aa to affect the look of their animations a bit more.
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I am aware that this can be forced using your graphics card settings in windows, but this is not possible on a Mac. As a mac user I find this pretty annoying since I would definitely prioritise this over some other graphical features, and personally think it makes some animations (especially idle character animations etc) look pretty ugly.
Thoughts?
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Is this a simple case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?" Can you comment on the process that led up to this decision?
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Seems unlikely now though.
I also don't really see why they couldn't take an existing NPC and put a spin on him to make the character a lot more diverse. Imagination anyone?
In my opinion we almost definately will see a ranged class. Amazon seems unlikely because of gender, as does the rouge. I'm betting they're gonna take an interesting NPC from the previous games to the drawing board and see if they can't build something into an original character.
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That IS different. Really different. Not sure what I think about that. I'm very interested to see how they work in prereqs and prevent players from always choosing the 'best' skills at each tier immediately.
That's gonna give us soooo many choices though, which sounds fun
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I agree that there is nothing wrong with building a character in a build that isn't quite optimal. However, most people are not going to "have a great time" grinding a new character from scratch after playing through the game several times with other characters. But if you do enjoy this, then the inclusion of a respec does not in any way hinder your ability to do so. It simply caters to people who perhaps don't have as much free time as you, and allows them to play through all the content the game has to offer.
Blizzard is indeed developing a number of different viable builds per chracter, as we can see emerging from the early skill trees we have seen so far. However, I do not understand how this has anything to do with respecs at all - Surely a respec isn't going to change your base skill tree? You will still have the ability to build it any way you want to.
And again - how you build your chracter has nothing to do with the inclusion of respecs, it is actually to do with the choices the players make. I'm certainly excited about trying out different builds at different stages of the game, and I will definately try to do so if I have time. Wouldn't you too? What if Blizzard made it take so long to build a character with these builds that we essentially didn't have time to try them?
I fail to see how the game could be more successful without it. Respecs are all about adding choice to the game, whereas a system without it takes away your choice. With respecs you still have the choice to do everything the D2 way if that's really what you prefer.
I certainly haven't heard any objective reasoning from anywhere that makes much sense as to why it would be a good idea - people are mostly stuck on the "D2 made me work hard to respec, and I liked feeling like I was doing lots of work in order enjoy the full content in the game".
Someone earlier hit the nail on the head: I think people need to ask whether a game (read:entertainment) is meant to feel like "hard work", or whether it should instead be enjoyable. (hint:level grinds, although enjoyable for a little while, will always inevitably become a frustrating and tiresome element of the game)
If you enjoy hard work so much, get a fkn job.
Agree entirely. If they made a respec cost you about as much time as the whole rushing then I don't see how anyone could argue it could be a bad thing - it simply means you aren't exploiting a loophole in the game progression design to get there.
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This guy sounds awesome. In all honesty, that's a pretty cool way to play the game. Simply make your character look the most badass regardless of his actual ability in a practical situation haha
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Except that Blizzard have expressed that they wish to make respecs costly, so it would be fair to say that this scenario is redundant.
I personally think that respecs are important - remember that the people who post on forums like this are likely make up the more dedicated fanbase - and as such the group who will devote the vast amounts of time required to make a huge number of different builds from scratch.
Some of us simply don't have that sort of time, but I'd still really like to be able to try out a number of different builds - and I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to do this. The fact is that it doesn't effect your gameplay experience at all, it simply gives everyone else more choice as to how they wish to play their game.
I don't think that respecs should be cheap, but you should certainly be able to fully respec your character into new builds if you want to - and if you don't want to, then simply don't. There's no reason to ruin it for the rest of us
Some other systems that I've been thinking of - some would also encourage a certain gameplay style:
Cumulative respec that is quite expensive - for example it frees 10 skill points per respec (these can be accumulated) which costs experience or possibly a number of rare dropped items.
Rare dropped consumable item that frees one skillpoint of your choice. Would encourage bossruns and trading. Could be made to free up 10 skillpoints instead, but made more valuable/rare.
Character drops one difficulty level, and drops to the level you were when you finished a particular difficulty, freeing up all your skill points. This would also encourage characters to progress through the game slowly and discourage rushing. Hence it would be impossible to respec until Nightmare.
NPC could request a particular high level unique or set item in return for a respec. This would encourage trading and bossruns, and would make respeccing quite expensive. This item could be on a timer rotation, perhaps of a week (incase you get asked for a SOJ or something else very very expensive)
to be honest - rereading my post above, I think that most of the things that myself and others have suggested are pretty ridiculous. Blizzard won't implement a system unless it is very simple.
Here's hoping for a full, but fairly expensive respec. I can't for the life of me think why some people want to force everyone else to make entirely new characters if they want an entirely new build - I feel that this is very selfish - since it won't affect you much at all, just don't respec if you want to make lots of characters... it's not that difficult.
By "fairly expensive" I'm thinking that your level may drop by 1/3 to 1/2, or something that will set you back by an equatable amount of time for your level. Seems about right to me - that's cheaper when you are a low level, for new players etc - but prevents a quick respec at higher levels. I really think that something like this won't upset the classic character feel too much.
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This also discriminates against people with slower internet connections, ie: if you have a high ping you will NEVER be able to get anything - and this is completely out of your control.
As someone playing in New Zealand on a US server I am stoked to have a system that doesn't do this. The old system was stupid any way you look at it - the only thing it did was to encourage people to play by themselves instead of multiplayer.
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The beam itself also evaporates instantly and appears instantly - it could be nice to have a hlaf-second animation of it lighting up and thendissipating when she stops casting.
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I mean - look at his pose. It is incredibly strong, noble and heroic, hands on hips, holding two very heavy oversized looking swords, sure of himself, and wearing detailed, heavy armour - almost certainly is being drawn as some sort of hero. _Absolutely not_ an enemy of any sort.
Most likely concept art for the class that they were concepting before the barbarian that they scrapped. Makes sense that they might recylcle this for cains journal to act as a visual aid to the "hero" from D1.