Balancing in Diablo

[gekko]

And lots of room for intelligent discussion on what adequate balance is.

Fine -- then describe what you mean by balance. Balanace is a term that gets tossed around alot here, but few people bother to say what they feel would be balanced. Also, I believe I did give a fair description of what I think makes balancing difficult and what the issues are.

Same leveling speed? PvP characters? Getting through hell without super powerful equipment? Safety?

When I said it's more intricate than you believe, I was refering to how you seem to think that adequate balancing is possible, and yet you offered no real insight on what that would entail. You mentioned that leveling should be hard because monsters should be "difficult even for an optimal character with ideal gear played by an excellent player." And I addressed this. How do you make a monster challenging for the player with the great gear while still possible for the one without it? That gap will make any attempt to balance the game futile.

"If one imagines a difficulty scale, the hardest class should be about twice as hard as the easiest."

Again, harder at what? There are too many opinions and too many aspects to balance by using a "difficulty scale" (not to mention the fact that different players will find different characters more or less difficult based on their experience, style, and preference).

"Since I didn't say anything about how difficult it would be to do, this statement is crap."

Simply put, no, it wasn't "crap." The mere fact that you think balancing is possible with diablo without some MAJOR overhauls says to me that you don't understand how difficult it is.

Don't be so quick to smash someone who doesn't agree with you. You say you want intelligent discussion? Then take a step back and think before you post.

gekko