A user at the Diablo III community forum asked as much, professing that "the forces of both gravity and friction are way too weak to look right."
While Bashiok did say that there are "some straight up issues that [the team] intend[s] to correct," he also explained that much of what is seen in-game is a faithful rendering of their vision of the game:
Official Blizzard Quote:
I don't want anyone to get the impression that we're shooting for realism here, because our goal is absolutely to make it feel like you're an over-the-top human god laying waste to the demonic masses and setting their carcasses flying free like so much loosed meat.
The moon physics, as trend followers have come to call the phenomenon, isn't limited to the Barbarian. The effect is common among many skills, such as the Wizard's Energy Twister. Dead bodies behave more like toy dolls in a hurricane than anything of a like scale in our world. But most of this is intended:
Official Blizzard Quote:
It is absolutely intentional that the barbarian's skills have crazier impact physics than other classes, because we think that fits with the visual and feel of the character - huge impactful strikes that send dudes flying, whereas the monk might be more of a 'thousand cuts' kind of fighter.
Or perhaps this is all really the work of Gravitablo, the Lord of Gravitational and Frictional Disruption, and Bashiok is merely an unwitting pawn in the nefarious Demon Lord's dastardly work.
If you haven't had the chance to observe the controversial physics yourself, or you haven't been invited into the beta quite yet, Force Strategy Gaming has an excellent video that shows just how out-of-this-world the force of gravity behaves in the world of Sanctuary:
I do agree though, it looks very moonlike due to how they essentially float up.
What's the point of taking a skill with knockback if you can already throw them around like they are weightless?
Maybe just throw mobs a little less in the air? Cause now it's looking way too arcade-like.
But if i have to choose this way or "old D2 way", it's better too leave this EPIC feelings than bland monster-smashung from past
Maybe just throw mobs a little less in the air? Cause now it's looking way too arcade-like.
But if i have to choose this way or "old D2 way", it's better to leave this EPIC feelings than bland monster-smashung from past
I love how one powerful hit sends them flying and sliding but when they float it is weird.
I love the idea of physics, and of making your character feel like an over-the-top demigod. That's a design philosophy I can get behind. The problem is that as things stand now, that's not the case at all.
But if enemies float daintily down after being launched, it gives the impression that they don't weigh all that much and are easily thrown around. I then feel like I'm fighting a zombie army of 98-pound-weaklings, and suddenly my character's great feats of strength no longer impress me as much. Turning up the gravity and making enemies land with a loud thud would actually increase the effect that it seems they're going for.
Bashiok's reply seemed a little noncommittal in regards to this. This one seems like a no-brainer to me. It seems like common sense that this is really the only thing to do.
As well, I agree about the way the slip-and-slide ground physics. These are issues that should be corrected.