Greetings
Isolde wrotes
Now this actual interesting to think about. It is ofcourse not shure that all this goals is possible with all the conflicting directions as Isolde points out! But a goal mentioned must be a goal worked at, so lets have a look!
* providing a more interesting play experience (more variety, greater challenge)
Play experience is about clearing the acts, killing the monsters and feel entertained by it!
As I see this it must be about mixing monsters a little more! In my wild dreams this means Oblivian knights in
Act 5 , but it could just means more varity in acts! Can you Imagine how annoying Imps would be in Bloddy foothils for a mellee character! Offcourse someone would claim it to be a nerf to changes the favorite exp hunting grounds. It would surprise me if blizzard where up to more than that!
A daring move would be to achive goal by changing some off the quest too! (Imagine that you didn't know wich off the 6 temples in act 3 to find the tome to give you the quest reward!).
* enough new rewards to peak the interest of all the players
This is really interesting. Rewards is about items! We obvious already sees the rewards for powergamers, and collecters in the 2 screens, but new rewards for the rest? (exsept cheaters offcause :angry: )
(First thing to notice is that we actual are a few (as exsample untwinked SP gamers) there could use some old rewards! As there is plenty of items we have newer seen already! :ph34r: )
Hopefully new rewards does include more than the exstreme rare to find new uniques, or else this goal really would fail to peak all but the theoretical interest in quite few players!
To get around to all players, there need either some change in drops (for the better) or some cleaning in
the affix pole making rares usefull again. If this is done, together with the introduction of alot off new (balanced and usefull) affixes this goal should be acchiveble! Anything less and then blizzard/isolde should restudy the meaning off the words "all the players".
* not nerfing anything
This is mainly about builds right! (old items are not changed and new can be equiped anyway! )
Now this is a proud statement, and its also possible not true! (this world is ruled by to much political correctness!). "The best cookie cutter character" goal would be nerfed if it isn't the best any longer! And changes like that would happend! Not nerf anything as a goal its reasonable to have in mind! But if it prevent blizzard from making the game better, correcting mistakes , its simply not brave enough. I quess it means that all builds affected by the changes in the patch should still be playable, and that would be a fair goal to have.
* not make it impossible for non-uber characters
This implies that blizzard worked at somehow making the game alot harder, and that some counter have to be made too make it doable for all! There are 3 ways to make this counter we have already seen in LOD, 1 skillpoints wonders, super blue affixs on items and powerfull mercs! And I exspect that this would still be the tools! Not that I like it! (without the mercs the classes are much more different! and pallys and necros are really appriciated compagny!, without the superblue affix finding yellow items would means something in the game instead of shopping blues! Hmm I quess I actual liked classick D2 better where gambling made it posible for all in the end!). But hopefully blizzard have dared to address this in a better way now, both making the game harder and more interesting!
* promote a greater variety in build styles
In my opinion maybe the most important goal! This means offcouse fixing broken skills and rebalancing them to be equal among the other skills. The goal off No uber skill! But as the new unique shows, and a lot have already reacted on this, is in conflict with items having uberskills! who is ever going to have sanctuary if this can be gotten from an item! the solution I expect is it would only drop (and very very rare )from 1 monster in the game, by the way making quests hunts very interesting! .. fallen angel here we comes.
But behind the fixing the skills this also could point at fixing the envirement as variety in builds does not go with cookie cutter build farming exp at the same area over and over again!
Overall I really hope that blizzard have dared to do something to chain the changes together into a whole new playing experience!
I just have too wish Blizzard and Isolde good luck here with the work done!
with regards jondifool
NB it looks like blizzard at least now would keep us entertained with screenshoots once in a while, while we are waiting!
Isolde wrotes
Quote:Some (by no means all) of the goals of the patch included:
* providing a more interesting play experience (more variety, greater challenge)
* enough new rewards to peak the interest of all the players
* not nerfing anything
* not make it impossible for non-uber characters
* promote a greater variety in build styles
Now this actual interesting to think about. It is ofcourse not shure that all this goals is possible with all the conflicting directions as Isolde points out! But a goal mentioned must be a goal worked at, so lets have a look!
* providing a more interesting play experience (more variety, greater challenge)
Play experience is about clearing the acts, killing the monsters and feel entertained by it!
As I see this it must be about mixing monsters a little more! In my wild dreams this means Oblivian knights in
Act 5 , but it could just means more varity in acts! Can you Imagine how annoying Imps would be in Bloddy foothils for a mellee character! Offcourse someone would claim it to be a nerf to changes the favorite exp hunting grounds. It would surprise me if blizzard where up to more than that!
A daring move would be to achive goal by changing some off the quest too! (Imagine that you didn't know wich off the 6 temples in act 3 to find the tome to give you the quest reward!).
* enough new rewards to peak the interest of all the players
This is really interesting. Rewards is about items! We obvious already sees the rewards for powergamers, and collecters in the 2 screens, but new rewards for the rest? (exsept cheaters offcause :angry: )
(First thing to notice is that we actual are a few (as exsample untwinked SP gamers) there could use some old rewards! As there is plenty of items we have newer seen already! :ph34r: )
Hopefully new rewards does include more than the exstreme rare to find new uniques, or else this goal really would fail to peak all but the theoretical interest in quite few players!
To get around to all players, there need either some change in drops (for the better) or some cleaning in
the affix pole making rares usefull again. If this is done, together with the introduction of alot off new (balanced and usefull) affixes this goal should be acchiveble! Anything less and then blizzard/isolde should restudy the meaning off the words "all the players".
* not nerfing anything
This is mainly about builds right! (old items are not changed and new can be equiped anyway! )
Now this is a proud statement, and its also possible not true! (this world is ruled by to much political correctness!). "The best cookie cutter character" goal would be nerfed if it isn't the best any longer! And changes like that would happend! Not nerf anything as a goal its reasonable to have in mind! But if it prevent blizzard from making the game better, correcting mistakes , its simply not brave enough. I quess it means that all builds affected by the changes in the patch should still be playable, and that would be a fair goal to have.
* not make it impossible for non-uber characters
This implies that blizzard worked at somehow making the game alot harder, and that some counter have to be made too make it doable for all! There are 3 ways to make this counter we have already seen in LOD, 1 skillpoints wonders, super blue affixs on items and powerfull mercs! And I exspect that this would still be the tools! Not that I like it! (without the mercs the classes are much more different! and pallys and necros are really appriciated compagny!, without the superblue affix finding yellow items would means something in the game instead of shopping blues! Hmm I quess I actual liked classick D2 better where gambling made it posible for all in the end!). But hopefully blizzard have dared to address this in a better way now, both making the game harder and more interesting!
* promote a greater variety in build styles
In my opinion maybe the most important goal! This means offcouse fixing broken skills and rebalancing them to be equal among the other skills. The goal off No uber skill! But as the new unique shows, and a lot have already reacted on this, is in conflict with items having uberskills! who is ever going to have sanctuary if this can be gotten from an item! the solution I expect is it would only drop (and very very rare )from 1 monster in the game, by the way making quests hunts very interesting! .. fallen angel here we comes.
But behind the fixing the skills this also could point at fixing the envirement as variety in builds does not go with cookie cutter build farming exp at the same area over and over again!
Overall I really hope that blizzard have dared to do something to chain the changes together into a whole new playing experience!
I just have too wish Blizzard and Isolde good luck here with the work done!
with regards jondifool
NB it looks like blizzard at least now would keep us entertained with screenshoots once in a while, while we are waiting!