DiabloFans

Quote from PantheraOnca

<br />As a point of comparison, saying that you should know what type of rune it is sounds awfully similar to saying &quot;i should know if that small charm gives life before i pick it up.&quot;<br /><br />I don't think that's a valid complaint.<br /><br />Try viewing the &quot;socketing&quot; process as simply using a scroll of identify on the item. Lets go with unique rings as another example, if a unique ring drops and it doesn't turn out to be an SoJ, you don't complain &quot;goddamnit! WHY DIDN'T THEY LET ME KNOW IT WASN'T AN SOJ AHEAD OF TIME!!!1!`&quot; You have a moment of anticipation when you pick it up and right before you identify it, then its &quot;goddamned nagelring&quot; or &quot;oh nice, its a 'ravenfrost,' i needed one for this char&quot; or hell, it might be a BK ring. YOU DON'T KNOW. and when you find out its either trash, useful, trade fodder, or amazing. The same will apply to runes. Except now they can also be cash-money.<br /><br />getting a (lets say) lvl 5 rune of the type you want would be similar to getting a skiller with a not-great affix attached, lets say like mana (did gc's give mana? i haven't played d2 in a whiiiiile). It gets the job done, but there are upgrades that you will continue looking for (and playing the game for).<br /><br />lvl 6 and 7 runes will of course be harder to find, but who's to say that they even give THAT much more power. Maybe a lvl 5 magic missile rune lets you hit 6 targets and a lvl 7 lets you hit 8. I think you can get by without those extra 2 hits, but they would certainly help out. it gives you something to play for while not being completely absolutely necessary (opinions will differ on that).<br /><br />And I hope that runes are re-blank-able. That will be a fantastic gold sink, which will be good for the game's economy. <br /><br />And you don't just need 1 lvl 7 rune, you'd need anywhere from 6-100, depending on how flexible you plan to be with your character. That makes MASSIVE demand, which makes for healthy trading.<br /><br />Some people seem to be arguing that there will be no gradient between lvl 1 and 7 rune drops. You'll get a taste of what a run does real early via candy-runes, and then you'll get hell-functional runes probably by the time you get to hell difficulty, with the absolutely best runes being an item hunt similar to an anni charm or hellfire torch or a windforce or whatever.<br /><br />I don't see how any of that is bad.<br />

Quote from sneakywombat

This is actually the first thing I've heard about Diablo 3 that I really don't like. Matter of fact, it actually kind of makes me angry. What is the point of implementing a follower system and placing that much time and work into it, if the followers become obsolete in the following two difficulties?

I know there's a large crowd that doesn't feel like the followers should be a crutch, and that's fine, but making them completely useless seems like it's going a step too far.

I for one almost exclusively play singleplayer in Diablo 2, and I kind of like having that mercenary around, even in the endgame, and while I agree with the people that say the follower shouldn't be a crutch, I also think it's counterproductive to invest that much effort into a system that becomes completely useless in the higher difficulties.

Am I in the minority here? Thoughts?

Quote from italofoca

Imo the follower system, the way it is present, have one big flaw.

People will choose wich follower fits their character best. People will also choose their skills and items. No matter how "small" those choices are, they are choices. Jay Wilson said "we don't want to follower to feel like secondary character". As long as people choose their skills and use then freely, this is execly what they will feel. Not us, that already kno that they will be useless beyond normal. But the new players, wich they are trying to please by adding this, will truely feel that the follower IS a part of their characters.

However, later in the game, the follower will be scraped. It will feel like, as you advance in the game, a part of your character will be scraped. Found out that the guy who helped you so much time will no longer follow you have a bitter taste.

Imagine a avarage casual player starting to venture in the nightmare difficulty and fiding out that the guy that he build so carefully is now obsolete. Seriously, i can't imagine anyone getting happy with this situation. Everyone feels weird when advancing in the game the amount of game features decrease.

Imo theres a great way to fix this system. Remove a few follower customisation features and their ability to follow you anywhere you wanna go. Those 3 followers will be only present while you doing a quest related to then. Also, make then scale and take a part in MP (1 follower per party, not per player!). The benefict of those chages:

- The player will not have a sense that theres something missing between Normal and the higher difficultiess, wich is the number one problem right now.
- They can take a part in MP w/o making a fuz.
- They still play a big role in the game, add alot of lore elements and makes the world of sanctuary feels more filled with cool characters.
- They still play their main role: show to solo players how cool play with another player might be. Solo player will make a quest chain with some of the followers and see how cool it is to see a friend protecting you from danger by ccing the monsters, for example.
- They make some quests chains feels really unique and special. Not only the quest chain will involve a character you might like, but this quest will also have a really unique gameplay. Playing with a templar tanking and healing is surely alot different, for example. They can even build some new mechanics using the follower in specific situations. Like a certain boss that loose his shield when the enchantress curse him, for exemple.
- The item and skill choices don't need to be removed! You still pick a feel skills for your follower and still give him items! The only diffenrence is that they will not level up with you since you will be using then only pontually.

Imo this design would make followers a perfect addition to the game. My 2 cents!

Quote from Nekrodrac

Quote from Cyber_Cheese

people can open a box, they do it every birthday/present giving occasion, so they can open the box.
besides, manuals?! what is wrong with you, even suggesting that? nobody reads manuals and, really, having to read a manual would detract from the experience

Chill Cheese. Not all children know how to open boxes and the manual can contain descriptive pictures you know, not necessarily words.
See, this way everybody is happy.

Quote from Butcher2011

Quote from bleakparta

Quote from Kojain

A hot topic to say the least.

Absurdly hot. But a Diablo newbie like myself should stay silent, when the Big Boys are talking. And so I shall be.

You are too kind!

Many "newbies" as you call yourself do the very opposite and come with crazy ideas about things but don't be scared of giving us your opinion. All opinions matter and will be discussed (well maybe not all but you get the idea)

Quote from Nekrodrac

Quote from Cyber_Cheese

think of the follower as a tutorial for people that would struggle playing alone in normal
thats basically what this is
and its incentive for them to pass the game multiple times, for story
remember, hardcore gamers like us are a minority

as long as they find a way to tell these people not to expect followers to do well past normal, and tie it in with coop recommendation somehow
eg tips in the loading areas

I think just to play it safe, a manual of how to open the game box should be provided and also how to insert the disc in the computer.
Of course, the manual should be attached on the box and not be inside it, otherwise it will be a complete disaster.

Seriously though, it is not a question of being hardcore or not. Gamers are not dumb.
Anybody playing the game even casually would want a consistent and rewarding experience. Mercs as one of those features could essentially add a lot in that aspect.

When considering those new to the game, this 'mechanic' as it is could cause a lot of frustration where when difficulty increases, their ally essentially becomes crap. So yes, they will now ditch the game and resume COD. What's left now are those casual/hardcore gamers who would have wanted a more in-depth and better thought-out merc system.

With the proposed normal-only restriction, single player looks more like an undesirable compromise by the developers. They want you to play MP- they are just going on in an extremely bad way about it.
It is painfully obvious that this feature is useless in its current form.

Quote from akainu

I would argue locking a bunch of people in a room with each other isn't exactly "promoting" community or co-op.

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