Gearing up for release

[FireIceTalon]

Yes, and I will apologize on Lissa's behalf for derailing it with utter non-sense, as well as my own behalf for being foolish enough to engage her trollery. Let's get it back on topic now, and keep it movin', shall we?

I'll stop, but I didn't put out the commentary that DH is OP and prior Bow classes were UP, you did. You think you've mastered the Rogue, but your knowledge about Windforce and why it's useful along with not knowing why Needler is better than of Swiftness shows you haven't mastered the Rogue as you think. Simply, no one ever masters a class until they can hit 50 using a BN(x) playing under the hard core rule set outlined by the various variant players because that is true skill and shows true mastery. You haven't done that (neither have I), so you haven't mastered the Rogue.

Go Here for my reply on that.

To get back on track, I have seen some concerns about D3 regarding the randomization - that those played Beta saw little or no randomization of the levels or items that dropped. I would imagine this is just for Beta only, and that the final version will have plenty of randomization, at least I hope so. That is one of the key elements that made Diablo so replayable. Maybe I'm late on this, but what are your guy's thoughts?

[Ruvanal]

To get back on track, I have seen some concerns about D3 regarding the randomization - that those played Beta saw little or no randomization of the levels or items that dropped. I would imagine this is just for Beta only, and that the final version will have plenty of randomization, at least I hope so. That is one of the key elements that made Diablo so replayable. Maybe I'm late on this, but what are your guy's thoughts?

Its partly beat and a greater part that only a tiny portion of the game world was open to access. The portion of beta that was open was about the same as trying to gauge what D2 would be like playing up Tristram and rescuing Cain. Or in D1 terms, playing only level 1 of the dungeon. You would not really see much variation due to having most of the things that gave variation not coming into play till after you were stopped.

Also from having gone through the D2 game files a lot, there really was not as much variation as some are remembering. It was a few in number of screen sized tiles that could easily be interchanged to make it look like there were large areas. But was really simple layouts that had a lot less variance in the actual topography of the zone layouts. I was beating maphack players through several dungeons for a the first year it was out because I could pick out which floor plan was in use for that level before they could scroll around to see where they wanted to go.

[FireIceTalon]

I see. Well, hopefully they dont make the same errors with D3. But I guess we will find out come May 15. The game is looking great so far as I can tell, and all the changes to the skill and rune stone systems seem like they are for the better. But it is good to see the dark atmosphere and lore back as well, this is one of the reasons I was highly disappointed with D2 - it was more action adventure game, and not a dark goth experience like the original. I see some of D1's dark elements in D3, i hope it is consistent though.

Im really curios about the PvP system too, I know they are going to implement it in a future patch. The 2v2 deal is cool and all, but I really would like to see some sort of clear-cut (but softcore) 1v1 system where players can really measure their overall ability and skill against another. Glad the pk'ing is gone. Some people are disappointed with this, but I think it is for the better overall. I can't tell you how many D2 players I came across that were tired of being hostiled while playing PvM and had their experienced ruined, especially in HC mode. I did this to cheaters pretty frequently on D1 back in the day, but now in my older age, I have calmed down a bit and wouldnt go "noob hunting" on D3 anyways . I do love great PvP action though, where both players agree to it. Competing against others is really a nice rush and change of pace from spilling demon guts all the time, and doing mass items runs/mf'ing.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

Its partly beat and a greater part that only a tiny portion of the game world was open to access. The portion of beta that was open was about the same as trying to gauge what D2 would be like playing up Tristram and rescuing Cain. Or in D1 terms, playing only level 1 of the dungeon. You would not really see much variation due to having most of the things that gave variation not coming into play till after you were stopped.

In addition, Blizzard has stated somewhere that the initial part of the game serves as a tutorial for the players to learn the game, and that the lack of variation in this part is intentional. They promised that later parts, i.e. after the tutorial part of the game, would be much more random. (Unfortunately, I can't remember where I found this quite from Blizzard)

*mild spoiler ahead*

What I like so far is that the event/mini-quest system from D1 seems to be back. I've had a room with a (mad) necromancer studying a tome who attacked me when I disturbed him; there's the "jar of souls" which is a really fun event; and I think I had two other "special" rooms full of monsters in some games but not others.

So it looks like there will not only be variation in dungeon layout, but also in special rooms an events which is great! I loved that about D1.

Also from having gone through the D2 game files a lot, there really was not as much variation as some are remembering. It was a few in number of screen sized tiles that could easily be interchanged to make it look like there were large areas. But was really simple layouts that had a lot less variance in the actual topography of the zone layouts.

Interesting, I didn't know that. This explains why the randomness of the map layouts felt somehow "wrong" to me, almost boring. You couldn't find the target of the dungeon blindly because the layout was different each time, yet the areas still felt way too similar. Although some dungeon types were better in this regard than others.

-Kylearan