08-25-2006, 05:52 PM
>I have no beef with people partying, not partying, or playing however (non-cheating) they want to. The issue here is that one (similarly leveled) character can join the game I created to, for example, co-op through a quest with friends, and have a single person blow through it and take all of the experience, potentially the drops, all with greater kill speed than my entire party combined.
That has existed in one form or another though, it's all well and good to show some courtesy and not behave like a jack-ass when and where others are involved. What with the golden rule and all. But my question is, to what end?
While I have seen the example you mentioned (especially if Ladder is involved), I could also see the player justifying it by saying Ladder is a competitive ranking. While I don't entirely agree with that view, it's not entirely invalid either. Why should he\she help someone who is their view, their competition?
>As for legitimately acquiring the equipment, I believe that's a rather grey area. I don't believe I know anyone who has found two Bers in the same ladder season. Trading for items that rare is a near certainty of getting duplicates.
I didn't want to get into that because this type of discussion is tricky enough without it. But yes, personally I think it's separate from the issue yet part of the problem. Certain items\r-words almost screams 'dupe bait'. That doesn't mean I'm going to automatically brand someone wielding a LastWish a cheater, but unfortunately the way things are there's a high chance that r-word is not exactly kosher.
>Howsabout this: the most prominent skill on just about any given character now no longer comes from that character, but from an (overpowered) item. Solo mono-elemental Sorceress, Amazons are not much without their Conviction (most blatant offender). Blessed Hammer paladins lose much without their various goodies, and while they are still viable, they are not the killing machines we all know them as without everything else. You can make a case for Teleport--it is used mainly as a movement utility, but Conviction? Do most of those builds even work without it? The game has been distorted when the "best sorceress skill" is a Paladin skill, AND is equippable, either on oneself or on a mercenary.
My guess is bliz somewhat painted themselves into a corner on this, which is why I still say it's the best they can do under the circumstances. (They shouldn't have painted themselves into a corner in the first place, but no one is perfect.) For argument sake let's say we remove all this x-skill items. I'm willing to bet most of the players will say 'wtf? what the hell are we left to fight with, harsh language?!' Bliz made the changes to game difficulties, and items \ r-words was used as a balancing factor.
>Bots are the problem, but not only would they be (at the very least) much less widespread without Enigma to teleport the paladins in question to their killing zone, but they would be raceable. Even if possible, do you know how long it would take, how many potions/town trips it would take, etc., for a bot Paladin without teleport to kill with Blessed Hammer? Yes, there are other offenders, but none even close to this severe in terms of the ladder raceway.
Then isn't the real problem duped runes and bots? I'm willing to bet you remember Pindlebots yes? And you remember how bliz solved that one according to the patch txt at least. Pindleskin's reward is toned down to 'discourage' botters. With that kind of solution, who needs an enema.
I don't know much about bots, only from reading some of the txt files concerning them. But if I understand them right, even without Enigma these bots will always have an advantage over me. Bots do not need sleep, they do not need meal and bathroom breaks like me. They do not feel boredom while doing repetitive tasks. They do not feel fear, they can not be bargained with, they will not stop until they find and terminate Sarah Connor. (Compared to that, teleport via Enigma looks fairly insignificant in the long run to me. And the marathon run is what bots seems to excel at.)
Seriously, they might be raceable under some conditions like you say, but to what and for what point? If you personally enjoy Man vs Machine type race that's one thing. But you remember the ending of John Henry vs the Steam Drill right?
>It is well to remember that Blizzard is a corporation whose primary goal is profit. The main purpose of Diablo II is, at this point, to serve as a good-faith gesture to the players. Blizzard will do what they feel will make the majority of them happy (or possibly what the majority of them SAY they want).
We're not in disagreement on this, I never once claimed that they're some sort of benevolent charity organization. Just to make something clear I'm also not some foaming bliz basher. That's way too easy to do.
>Unfortunately, judging by the vast amounts of maphack account bannings, multiple CD-key usings, and all of the other crap that goes on, I'd say this likely leaves me and my balance in the minority.
Here is where my criticism of bliz (and some player base) comes in. Bliz says they want to promote a cheat free\reduced environment, to the best of their ability. I'm not sure if this is a left hand\right hand situation or simply being very cynical. But considering the DClone event is connected with the sales of SoJ, I find that stance hard to take seriously. Same goes with r-words that uses multiple high runes that seems to either ignore the practical drop probability for most legit players, or again from a very cynical point of view understands perfectly what is going on.
>People want to have the game played for them, seemingly, so they can be "ub3r".
I know what you're saying, but wanting to be uber is not exactly bad in itself. Not everyone enjoys or wants a challenge. D2\LoD use to have a stronger case for saying this game is fairly open ended. For some players completing Normal (with or without intentional 'handicaps') can be a monumental deed. For others completing or assembling a collection is their main goal. Recently however the swing seems to be heading for less diversity. There was always something like this even in 1.00, but not to this extent. Hell mode seems to be the end game, period. What would be considered a bonus area\event in the past is now considered end game target for some. Multi-Ladder is where is at, everywhere else is for tards or n00bs, or tardy n00bs. At this point it's a chicken or egg thing to me, did players screamed and demanded for these and bliz gave it to them, or vice versa, or both.
But in the end, it's not like this is some sort of binding vote. (Since I don't have shares or a chair in either Blizzard or Vivendi, nor do I have enough skills and abilities to make a mod that contains all my wish list.) And many of the things we discussed is probably best left as agreed to disagreed or simply differing points of view.
While I can still get some sort of enjoyment from the game in some form or another, I don't have the interest to post in the official forum where I might have a better chance of getting heard. However that doesn't stop you or anyone else to do so if you feel that strongly about the matter. (If you haven't done so already.)