I simply mean that if you had a chart of single player vs co-op concerning time spent playing, co-op would be much larger. Co-op is what will keep the game alive, and be a main force driving people to buy expansions.Quote from Equinox
From what I'm aware the game is the same size in both SP and MP. So not sure what you mean by play time.Quote from WingedKeep in mind that Blizzard wants people to play the game for as long as possible. Single player is a fraction of the game really, I mean sure you get all the content but the experience comes from Co-op (In my opinion). An Co-op surely is where 90%+ of the play time is at.
I hear ya about normal difficulty, but chances are it will be rather easy.Quote from EquinoxThe current system doesn't make sense to me.
I don't really view Nightmare as a place where experienced players should feel at home. I believe Normal should take very significant effort to finish, not be some kind of piece of cake like it was in DII. There's plenty of space in Normal to scale the difficulty, but making Normal easy is pretty unfulfilling for the casual players as well.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Normal is super easy. It's intentionally super easy. You will die, but you can essentially slap on gear and not think too much about it, and probably beat the game without too much trouble. There will be many people though that will get a good amount of damage and utility by keeping their follower along. But, realistically people aren't going to actively refuse the help of a follower as they play through the game the first time.
I can beat the game on normal without gemming any items. That doesn't mean gems are a waste of time as a system. One happens to be required more at higher difficulties, one happens to be more useful and fun when playing alone in Normal. There's nothing that says all of our mechanics have to be useful at all times through all difficulties and classes or else it's a waste of time, and in fact, that'd probably make things super boring.
Quote fromMost of the game will sit in around Nightmare. Making companions useless there doesn't make sense. If they're going to be useless, remove them all together. Playing with a companion is different than without, so people may get used to it and then having to slowly lose the companion is a bit counterintuitive.
I believe powerful companions have a place in SP, solo MP, and PvP. Whether Blizzard wants to bother or not is another issue, it seems like they don't. I won't cry a tear over it, though.
Official Blizzard Quote:
I don't mean any offense, but you don't represent the majority of people that will play the game. For better or worse. People here, logging in with their Diablo II keys to talk about an unreleased product - - on an essentially hidden forum - - do not represent the vast majority of people that will play the game. Which doesn't mean we don't want the game to appeal to you or be a lasting game you'll want to play as long as you played Diablo II, it very much is our intent to be, but we have a broad range of Diablo fans to appeal to.
Looking at Diablo II the amount of people that bought the game, never logged on to Battle.net, and never went beyond Normal are not insignificant. In fact, they're a substantial portion of the people that bought copies throughout the life of the game. The same goes for StarCraft II. Many (maybe most) people play through the story on normal difficulty, they MAY jump into multiplayer for a bit, and then that's about it. Putting effort into ensuring their experience is a solid one is not a waste of time because some other people completely skip the story and go straight to the 1v1 ladder.
Followers fit in with that 'average' use of games very well, but their intent is to also help people expand beyond their initial intent of beating it on Normal, and then shelving the game. If the followers can get a player excited about co-op because they like playing with another character, that's a win. We also think they just add a lot to the experience up front, which is important.
And, they're memorable characters. I don't think the scope of who these people are needs to end because their health doesn't scale so we can ensure the end-game is pure and there's less visual noise in multiplayer games. We don't have any plans for them beyond what we've announced, but, I wouldn't be surprised if they became meaningful in other ways in the future. Even if they're not, if someone enjoyed playing along with them, enjoyed the dialog, and liked what they add to the single player experience (which is pretty significant) then that's not a waste of time.
... "May 9th, they will announce the Beta, guarantee it."
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Just sayin'
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Gear
For me, my end game Barb is dark, and fiery. Due to life long battle, and two time defeater of Diablo he fears not using damned armor and weapons. His single Maul glows with ancient script, his armor black, smoldering from the cracks which glow red hot. A constant fog falls from him, gathering on the ground around him when he stands still.
Skills
My attacks are straight to the point, bashing, and crushing my way through any foe. If in a tight stop I use a flashy aoe skill, maybe a runed ground stomp, or seismic slam.
How do you see your character come endgame?
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There is no need really, there's barley even a justification to do it.. Between the extra $800 for the monitor, and $200-$600 extra needed for the extra PC parts it's hard to justify spending 1k for a few extra pixels.. lol
How I see it is that it's something I've always wanted, and it's getting to that point in life where i have to starting putting away money for "real life" things as people call them. So this is my last chance to splurge for a pretty long time. I'm pretty much working all summer only to pay for this rig, which I justify to myself with, - I find happiness in gaming more so than almost anything else, so I'm going to do what I've always wanted to, while I still can and go all out. -
My friends laugh that my PC rig will be worth more than my car, but the thing is I'll surely be gaming more so than driving, I'm not a car fanatic, and I have an amazing girlfriend so why do I need a better car ya know? Plus it's not like it's a POS anyway, 1998 528i..
No one NEEDS a high end gaming rig, but no one needs a sports car, no one needs a 500,000 square foot house, no one needs to drink soda, or eat candy. It's what makes you happy!
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You always beat me to the punch Scyber.. Come'on man :tongue:.
Quote taken form Diablo 3 Wiki.
"The proprietary engine will incorporate Blizzard's custom in-house physics, a change from the original usage of Havok's physics engine,[9] and feature destructible environments with an in-game damage effect. The developers are aiming to make the game run on a wide range of systems, and have stated that DirectX 10 will not be required.[8] Diablo III will use a custom 3D game engine[10] in order to present an overhead view to the player, in a somewhat similar way to the isometric view used in previous games in the series.[8] Enemies will utilize the 3D environment as well, in ways such as crawling up the side of a wall from the depths into the combat area.[5]"
That picture is truly is worth 1000 words in this thread. It looks outstanding, even in the state of completion the game was in back than.
Chances are the game will come out Q1-Q2 2012.. Will it make a difference? No.. While it's true that technology moves quickly, as known since Moore's Law; that doesn't directly correlate to graphics as you always rest your opinion on. Take Crysis for example, came out November 16, 2007 and is still the standard for hyper realism.
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* All items are categorized to standard Diablo 2 weapon classes. So Maces = Flails, Polearm = Scythe, and so on.
I love playing as a Barb for the lush array of weapons to choose from. Being more of a DPS player, I sway from weapon to weapon trading for higher damage, though some make me feel more powerful just by how they look. Mauls and their bludgeoning qualities are one of my favorites.
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Anywho, I really enjoy the colors in the chosen art direction. I honestly think the game looks perfect. I don't use that word lightly, I have seen nothing, not one thing that I would change in the most recent screen shots.
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Good point, even though the armors will have the same stats, the stats themselves work differently for each class.. The amount of balancing in this game is ridiculous, ten fold the work it looks like at a quick glance.
So now with that fact in mind that willpower only effects one class, mana another, and so on. Armor has a lot more possibilities as to what class it'll benefit most. This is pretty exciting.
I don't agree in how you think it should work. This in essence in the same as a strength, or dexterity requirements, just with a different look. In D2 the barb started with more Str, not much but that wasn't the point, the point was to hint at what kind of traits represent that class. Each class had to meet a trait (stat) requirement to use certain armor. This forced the player to use stat points on stats that might not have any other real use than to where a piece of gear. Your system essentially would do the same thing, time, and points spent just focussed on gear that you'll eventually replace, and those points might have been more useful somewhere else.
I think the system they have now, where lvl is the main requirement opens the door to a lot mroe opportunities for point distribution to benefit your character much more than just meeting a requiorment for a piece of temporary armor.
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Not to make my first post an objection, but I don't feel this is very "Diablo". The predictability of getting a certain weapon from a certain type of monster is much more WoW than Diablo, and not a feature I personally would like I see make it's way into Diablo 3. When a rare item drops from a regular mob, it's like getting a Christmas gift in July :tongue: