Having a MF button and essentially make MF swapping a requirement would be the worst choice they could do. I did it in the beginning but it was utterly annoying to do and you died from time to time, so i choose to get items with MF that i could fight with also, like in D2. Honestly this is how it should be.
Making yet another stat irrelevant on our gear is not a good solution. Soon we will end up with only 4 stats that are worth using which will make it even more boring. MF on gear should be something that people thrive to get.
I blogged about this tonight, and here's my idea of the perfect solution:
After acquiring your 5th Nephalem Valor stack, you have an option to “pop it,” which will sacrifice your NV stacks, but grant the player 60 seconds of 150% Magic Find/Gold. This in turn will force players to resume the grind of hunting Champ Packs/Rares, and having to make the decision if they’re going to save their “pop” for a major boss or not.
Subsequently, remove Magic Find as an affix EXCEPT from Follower Tokens. That way an NPC-only item gets 8,000,000 times more valuable and stops all the stupid bullcrap of swapping gear late in battles.
Also getting legendary items fixed as well as tweaking drop rates, and BAM - problem solved.
"Pop it" would basically be tied to a key or mouse, adjustable by the player of course. "Pop it" is a terrible term, but I think it gets the idea across.
The whole MF debate is retarded. What players basically want is an on/off toggle of a magic find buff. This in and of itself is totally stupid. Increase the gold/MF bonus from NV stacks, keep on adjusting drop rates, fix legendaries, remove MF gear bonuses (except for Follower Tokens), and be done with it.
I don't think Force did that good of a job explaining why he quit. He himself said that it just sort of felt like it wasn't fun - this is not the first, nor last time this will happen with a game.
The RMAH had the same effect on him as it has millions of others - it sucks ass and cheapens the gear-grind experience. It's a necessary evil due to the obsessive nature of the game and the gear's compulsive effect on players, but that doesn't make it any less slimy. And obviously you don't have to use it. I don't and neither do many others, I'm sure. But even Force couldn't come up with a single reason why he quit, it's just...not fun. The game isn't D2, and since people are realizing they're not going to get that 2-3 year initial experience again, they're bailing.
It's not a bad strategy, nor should it be frowned upon as cheating, it's just...what it is. But having a button to accommodate it seems a bit far-fetched.
The "End Game" people throw around in the context of Diablo II is totally a misnomer, as the pleas are for the devs to make the game not have an end. Obviously you can only stretch the present game structure so far, but what players want is the ladder/ranking system as well as PVP. Players want to prove they're the best, and for a lot of these guys like Kripparrian, Force, etc., the challenge of maxing out hardcore simply isn't enough. They and others were expecting years worth of play out of this.
The AH doesn't ruin the game, far from it. I think it's a great idea, especially considering how the primitive and unreliable user-perpetuated economy of D2 got out of hand. It's great that gold has value again, but the problem I have is that the best items have no real gold value, as the 2 billion gold cap is simply not enough incentive when you can sell the same objects for an obscene amount of actual cash in the RMAH.
I'd like for them to not quite blatantly push players to employ the RMAH, but it's virtually impossible when there's people very clearly willing to spend $250 on a whim. That's not to say you can't get some really nice gear in the GAH, but unless you have the outrageously stuffed coffers of millions/patience to scour the GAH's endless pages of awkwardly unsortable items for steals, you'll find yourself pumping items through the RMAH in the desperate hope to get the real ubergear to then in turn make your real money back.
If you're one of the mega-farmers who's decided to remain loyal to the GAH, then you're buying and selling at the maximum gold allotments consistently, and often spending countless millions simply to gain +4 vitality on your shoulders, or a sword that gives you +50 dps. Tiny increments to push your gear over the edge require prohibitive amounts of gold that are incomprehensible to acquire for the average player, and with the potential for gold to be sold in the RMAH, the inflation/worthlessness of gold is going to go unchecked, which is exactly what blizzard wants. The item disparity will further increase as the auction houses quality of gear polarizes, and ultimately the GAH will be relegated to new or leveling players with modest 3rd-tier items, lvl 55-63 tier 1 items will be jockied in the RMAH, as blizzard swims in their vaults of money Scrooge McDuck style.
TL;DR version: Good idea initially, RMAH is slimy, eventually both AH's will be absurd, Blizzard profits obscenely = ultimate goal.
I'd be absolutely, totally cool with Leah never being involved in the game's story again. Or Diablo, for that matter, at least not for awhile.
I'd like for the creative team to come up with something totally new and not typical Team Up With The Angels To Defeat Hell Lords stuff. Give the characters shades of grey - can't the main antagonist be a corrupt angel or even a nephalem gone bad?
I like this idea, I really do. The only problem is that the Team Up With Angels To Defeat Hell Lords storyline is pretty much what the entire Diablo / Sanctuary universe is all about, so it's quite likely that will continue. As far as characters having shades of grey, I think that some do, just not as in-your-face with their differences as some might have wanted.
I mean, look at Imperius. Angels used to be depicted as calm, serene voices of justice and light (or however you'd like to describe it). This dude is f**king pissed. All the time. Not very angel-y if you ask me. There are other examples in the game as well, but I do agree with you that maybe the story could have been a bit more complex. There really weren't any plot twists other than Adria's betrayal. Most of the storyline was very straight forward.
But then again, this is just my opinion, and we'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
Edit - Going back to my point about plot twists, compare Diablo 3 versus Diablo 2. There were demon uprisings, betrayals, hero corruption, backstabbing, close calls and mayhem all over the place. Do want more.
I know the D2 vs. D3 comparisons are currently the most tired and re-vomited arguments in any Diablo forum anywhere, but what the hell.
The thing I loved about DII's story was that my character was never directly involved. It was a lot more fun to chase the antagonist than play a pivotal centerpiece in how the story unfolded as we did in D3. Plus the voice acting in D2 was superior and kept to a fair minimum. Whereas in D3 the very trying voice acting was seemingly borrowed from every Fable game.
Speaking of D2, we got to play in an aesthetically pleasing variety of venues, from the dark shadows surrounding the Rogue Encampment, the bright shimmering deserts of Lut Gholein, the mysterious jungle mazes of Act III, of course Hell, and finally the snowy white mountainside in LoD.
I know that sounds somewhat hypocritical, considering the backlash after the initial gameplay releases were that the game wasn't dark/desaturated enough, but I think there is a general agreement that there wasn't much variety or distinction on the whole of D3.
My opinion/hopes are that that was intentionally done by the devs in order to use the primary D3 release as something of a celebration of the franchise before subsequent expansions open the world and storyline up. Hopefully the first previews of an expansion feature something along those lines in addition to an atypical Diablo plot arc.
I'd be absolutely, totally cool with Leah never being involved in the game's story again. Or Diablo, for that matter, at least not for awhile.
I'd like for the creative team to come up with something totally new and not typical Team Up With The Angels To Defeat Hell Lords stuff. Give the characters shades of grey - can't the main antagonist be a corrupt angel or even a nephalem gone bad?
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I blogged about this tonight, and here's my idea of the perfect solution:
"Pop it" would basically be tied to a key or mouse, adjustable by the player of course. "Pop it" is a terrible term, but I think it gets the idea across.
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The RMAH had the same effect on him as it has millions of others - it sucks ass and cheapens the gear-grind experience. It's a necessary evil due to the obsessive nature of the game and the gear's compulsive effect on players, but that doesn't make it any less slimy. And obviously you don't have to use it. I don't and neither do many others, I'm sure. But even Force couldn't come up with a single reason why he quit, it's just...not fun. The game isn't D2, and since people are realizing they're not going to get that 2-3 year initial experience again, they're bailing.
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I'd like for them to not quite blatantly push players to employ the RMAH, but it's virtually impossible when there's people very clearly willing to spend $250 on a whim. That's not to say you can't get some really nice gear in the GAH, but unless you have the outrageously stuffed coffers of millions/patience to scour the GAH's endless pages of awkwardly unsortable items for steals, you'll find yourself pumping items through the RMAH in the desperate hope to get the real ubergear to then in turn make your real money back.
If you're one of the mega-farmers who's decided to remain loyal to the GAH, then you're buying and selling at the maximum gold allotments consistently, and often spending countless millions simply to gain +4 vitality on your shoulders, or a sword that gives you +50 dps. Tiny increments to push your gear over the edge require prohibitive amounts of gold that are incomprehensible to acquire for the average player, and with the potential for gold to be sold in the RMAH, the inflation/worthlessness of gold is going to go unchecked, which is exactly what blizzard wants. The item disparity will further increase as the auction houses quality of gear polarizes, and ultimately the GAH will be relegated to new or leveling players with modest 3rd-tier items, lvl 55-63 tier 1 items will be jockied in the RMAH, as blizzard swims in their vaults of money Scrooge McDuck style.
TL;DR version: Good idea initially, RMAH is slimy, eventually both AH's will be absurd, Blizzard profits obscenely = ultimate goal.
0
I know the D2 vs. D3 comparisons are currently the most tired and re-vomited arguments in any Diablo forum anywhere, but what the hell.
The thing I loved about DII's story was that my character was never directly involved. It was a lot more fun to chase the antagonist than play a pivotal centerpiece in how the story unfolded as we did in D3. Plus the voice acting in D2 was superior and kept to a fair minimum. Whereas in D3 the very trying voice acting was seemingly borrowed from every Fable game.
Speaking of D2, we got to play in an aesthetically pleasing variety of venues, from the dark shadows surrounding the Rogue Encampment, the bright shimmering deserts of Lut Gholein, the mysterious jungle mazes of Act III, of course Hell, and finally the snowy white mountainside in LoD.
I know that sounds somewhat hypocritical, considering the backlash after the initial gameplay releases were that the game wasn't dark/desaturated enough, but I think there is a general agreement that there wasn't much variety or distinction on the whole of D3.
My opinion/hopes are that that was intentionally done by the devs in order to use the primary D3 release as something of a celebration of the franchise before subsequent expansions open the world and storyline up. Hopefully the first previews of an expansion feature something along those lines in addition to an atypical Diablo plot arc.
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I'd like for the creative team to come up with something totally new and not typical Team Up With The Angels To Defeat Hell Lords stuff. Give the characters shades of grey - can't the main antagonist be a corrupt angel or even a nephalem gone bad?