DiabloFans

Quote from pinokis

is it just me thinking that due to the blizzard-might-want-as-much-different-systems-as-possible thing it may be smarter to collect info from your old-ass system (and I dont mean like ancient old, lets say 4 years old or so) rather than modern gaming rig?

I did exactly that


btw it sees only one windows partition instead of whole HDD, that kind of unfair

Dude, there is no "fair". There is no competition.

Yes it is clearly an e-peen thread, but I certainly couldn't care less. My specs are the lowest posted so far but i'm not worried about being able to play the game smoothly at all.

When diablo came out I was already knee deep in table top RPGs. I started playing D&D just before I started middle school with a pretty large group of friends. We had a DM who was much older then us, but friends with some of the families. I actually still play with this DM, but that's another story, really. Anyway, moving to video game RPGs was a natural evolution.

I remember how new the concept Diablo brought to the genre really felt. It was like my turn based RPG, except without the turns. I loved it. I actually first played it on the playstation, but moved to the PC version once I figured out I could connect to the internet and play with others. But I remember spending entire nights going through those dungeons with one of my friends. It was an experience like none other.

From that point on I really got attached to the franchise. When the second one finally came out one of my close friends at the time and I had it as soon as we could. We'd play online or sometimes drag our computers to each others houses to connect on LAN. For whatever reason though, I've played D2 on and off since it was released. I'm sure I've spent entire months of raw time playing that game. It's still a very unique experience.

Anyway, total nostalgia trip, thanks for that. But it's clear diablo has been a huge part of my gaming experiences and has no doubt shaped my opinion on many forms of entertainment as a result.

I think it all matters equally. They want to test it on a wide range of systems, not just the best ones.

Quote from AcidReign

I'm not sure if I can kill Leoric over and over for 3-4 months straight... lol

lol. I might be able to.

I wonder if they are capping/restricting other elements of the game though, like levels, skills and the type of gear you're going to find. Seems like they would...

Quote from HunterSCtv

I'm pretty sure I'm up to speed with all the changes/eliminations in the game systems but there are some wholes. As mentioned before, it's weird to make 1 barb and have no reason to make a 2nd (HC, male/female doesn't really count to me). I think that's a real problem. My question is, what permanent decisions do you even make for a character? Sex and HC/SC? :\

Yeah, that's really a problem inherent to the game structure as a whole, not just the new skill system though. There really wasn't any compelling reason to re-make characters before with the ability to respec, either.

Quote from Siloid

My thoughts for this was to make it so you could only switch out skills in town or something. This way you couldn't constantly be swapping them, but it was easy enough to take a trip to town to do it.

During the live cast today, I forget who mentioned it, but they said maybe make it cost gold to switch? I think this is an amazing idea actually. That way it's easy enough to switch, pay a little gold, but it's enough to deter people from switching skills every second, as well as creates another gold sink in the game. Even through all of the talk about crafting and artisans, I'm still concerned gold will eventually become too abundant. I would like to see as many gold sinks as possible, to keep it worth something.

I say they should create someone in town who effectively does respecs still. Don't make it so it costs more each time. Just a flat cost to clear your skills, maybe base it on level. 5xlevel in gold to wipe your skills or something. Gold sink and requires you to be out of combat, perfect.

Honestly I thought these things went without saying regarding the new system. While it was never mentioned, I think the spirit of the change requires that it can be done only in town. It was mentioned that they are considering putting other requirements (like a gold cost) on it too, but I can't seem to find where.

Anyway, that's just me. It seems like common sense, but who knows.

Hopefully i'm not duplicating a topic here. I searched but didn't find anything.

I understand it's likely different from title to title based on the needs of the development team, but how long did the beta testing last for Starcraft 2 (or other blizzard games)? Was it something that went until the game released? Was it done in waves? Anyone have any insight on this?

I certainly am not expecting to get a key, but was curious how the beta testing might pan out.

Does work count? Oh, you mean outside of work...

Been playing some Dungeons and Dragons online, but I've been playing that for like 5 years now so it's just a habit.

Left 4 Dead 2

Bad company 2

Dungeon siege 3

EVE is a great game, I just don't have the energy or time to devote to it, sadly.

Looking forward to battlefield 3, heroes 6 and dead island too.

First off, the tool shows what information they collect. They only care about the version of windows, not whether or not it's legitimate.

Secondly, since they aren't Microsoft, why would they care? They want you to buy the game irregardless of the fact that you have a pirated version of windows.

I'd hazard a guess that it's probably even illegal for them to check, but I can't be certain.

Ok, so it's over. As we should expect there isn't much information. The beta is coming "later this quarter", as we expected.

We have up to 2 more months before we see it, though it could be sooner.

Quote from Nuvian

Quote from omgitsbees

Quote from Nuvian

I guess it depends on how thorough you are when it comes to exploring every part of the map, but 25-30 hours sounds about right.

Ooh man, this was absolutely me. I had to explore every inch of an area in Diablo 1 and 2 before I would move on.

He he same here, and this time around it looks like the environments will be much more worthy of exploration

Ditto.

I really like the way they've implemented the random encounters system. It means that we can see wildly different maps for the same area and see different events within those areas.

I can also foresee them using that system to deliver additional content through random encounters occasionally. Well, i'm hopeful of that, at least. From a developers point of view I think it's the perfect platform for it.

Quote from MasterFischer

Well they aren't the majority of the playerbase and fanbase. So they probaly won't get what they want.

The whole point of the skill system is that your build isn't BETTER as such.. than other builds.. just different, MAYBE better in SOME situations sure.. but overall.. not better... just more specialized.

Eh, what I said above was a super-simplified version of what I've been telling people for days now, but yeah I 100% agree.

Quote from Shades_X

just because you put points into a skill doesn't mean your going to use it, thats why synergies don't really work. Granted the same can be said for the current system but I think the way it works is your going to choose the skills you want to use without having to worry about other skills that you don't like.

Yep. I've said it a dozen times. These people like the ability to make their characters weaker, not stronger, for some odd reason.

I think your math fits the spirit of what they're achieving in the fact that each act becomes shorter, but I expect the play time will likely increase with each difficulty. They've stated they're increasing the scale of each difficulty more then d2 had and the 1 hour play time in the beta is the first third of the very first act. The easiest stuff there is.

But it's hard to say.

EDIT:

Ok so i didn't read your post fully, sorry. You pretty much addressed what I had to say.

I spent all day yesterday debating this with other people and there was one common denominator with people that didn't like this system. They all wanted the ability to "mess up" their characters. They wanted the sense of fulfillment when they finally found a build that they felt "worked" for them.

The funny thing is this system doesn't really change much from the previous. There are only 2 things you lose in the new skill system, neither of which impact "customization" of your character in any way.

The first is, at it's most basic level, the ability to make your character weaker in choosen areas. WIth the old system you basically had to decide which skills you wanted "strong" and then distribute a few points around the rest of the other skills. So, in essence, you choose which skills you wanted to have that would "SUCK" so you could have one or two really good skills.

The second is you loose some of the level-to-level variability between similar classes using the same skills as you. Basically, with the old system it was possible for 2 characters to have a certain skill and have one player use that skill more strongly then the other (because they dumped more points into it at different levels). Obviously the other character would be stronger in another skill, but assuming both characters are of equal level and class, they both have the same relative strength (character level).

But this only seems to matter in those few cases where you're partied up with somone of the same level and class and who has chosen the same skills as you. It's just a way to temporarily flex your e-peen because you have a skill that's "slightly" better then others. The "advantage" is false anyway, since you're not really competing with other characters.

The new system fulfills the same purpose in that, you get to choose the skills you "want" to use and then fill in the blanks with others. It's just that the other skills won't "suck" because you failed to choose to put points into them.

The customization of a character isn't determined by the strength of the skills they choose (skill points were only good for that), but by the skills they choose to actually use.

People who don't like this system really, actually, have a problem with the idea of respeccing, because now it's an inherent part of the skill system, instead of an optional one.