Alright, I can understand the idea that variability was the main focus in this game, based on the number of skills along with each skill having a set of runes is awesome. Although the major downside is that a lot of the runes/skills are useless and or retarded and do not increase survivability at all. The developers say they want to make each level seem like an increase in power and they add a rune/skill for each one but in the end they don't help. A great for instance is the Demon Hunter, one of the passive abilities say "Upon death you drop a grenade that does some percentage of weapon damage to an area." That is completely useless for hardcore, i mean it's borderline retarded. The skill/rune system is good in theory but in application it takes away all forms of customizability, you can't learn anything to improve your build because you have a set number of usefull skill/rune combinations depending on your class. I understand that this game isn't D2 and it never will be for obvious reasons. Let's be honest though, if you're going to make a sequel, you could at least make it better than it's predecessor.
I have been doing some reading about this system now for about two days or so and have yet to find many people who like this system. I know what you're probably thinking; "I'm just a hater wanted to be an asshole." Well this would be the case if I hadn't waited for four years hoping this game would come out and it would be great when in reality it's just not as good as the hype it created.
For me the greatest thing about D2 was that I was able to create my character the way I wanted to, I could set up my stat points, my skill points, and my gear just the way I wanted in terms of my play style and the type of character I made. Cold sorceress were my favorite, they were so damn fun because they where difficult to make awesome because of the gear requirements; you had to get good gear to go through hell so I had something to look forward to at the very least the satisfaction you get watching "Cold immune" disappear because of the gear you just got and you ravage everything that was kicking the hell out of you before.
Another massive freaking failure for this game the maps DO NOT CHANGE... Do you have any idea how annoying it is when you're playing hardcore and you lose 3 or 4 characters over a months time and when you remake them and redo act 1 just to see that the maps never freaking change; it is the definition of insanity. I loved D2 because the maps were always random, no two maps were EVER the same which made it fun to explore and kill new monsters depending on the beastiary of the particular game you made. Now in D3 it is so monotonous I can't stand it.
The other thing that bothers me is the legendaries. Yes they are indeed quite awesome if you are doubly lucky. You have to be lucky enough to get the legendary to drop then when you identify it you have to be lucky enough that the random number generator doesn't make the gear useless by giving you stats to the weapon or armour that doesn't even come close to fitting the character you're making such as giving a Bow a large bonus to strength when you need dex/vit. I can understand why they did it, so this way one legendary item "can" be useful to all the classes depending on the stats given when it was identified. This to me seems rushed and was not thought out very well. To me it seems like they didn't want to take the time to make gear specifically for each subcategory of character such as a cold sorceress in D2 where you can't really make one of those in D3 with gear supporting only cold. In D3 you can't make a subclass of a character because you can't control your skills/stats.
After the time I've spent researching D3 and the systems they implemented i just don't understand what they were trying to do. D2 has been being replayed again and again for the last ten years, there has to be a reason for it, but I don't think D3 will be so lucky if they keep the system the way it is since the level cap is so low and the skills are not customizable it kind of takes away this games replayability. I mean I've had this game for about a month and ten days now and I am already get tired of playing it because nothing ever changes.
If you have any thoughts or defences for the system I would honestly love to hear them, I am curious as to what other people's thoughts are on this. I'm not as hard headed as it sounds, I just don't understand what their plan was with this system. As it stands now I'm probably just going to uninstall this game and continue focusing on other things. Although I do welcome any and all comments to assist in my understanding and the expansion of my knowledge on the subject.
A great for instance is the Demon Hunter, one of the passive abilities say "Upon death you drop a grenade that does some percentage of weapon damage to an area." That is completely useless for hardcore, i mean it's borderline retarded.
All abilities aren’t meant to be amazing for every type of gameplay. You’ve got some that are good for Hardcore, some that aren’t. Some that are good for group play, some that prefer solo. For example, there’s a Monk ability called Near Death Experience: Hardcore Monks swear by this, while softcore don’t really bother I find.
The abilities need to be this way: if they all needed to be good for every mode of play, it would create a very boring skillset. All the abilities would be bland and ‘safe’.
The skill/rune system is good in theory but in application it takes away all forms of customizability, you can't learn anything to improve your build because you have a set number of usefull skill/rune combinations depending on your class. I understand that this game isn't D2 and it never will be for obvious reasons. Let's be honest though, if you're going to make a sequel, you could at least make it better than it's predecessor.
It’s a different form of customisability. D2’s customisation was mostly arbitrary: sure, you COULD put a ton of stat points into loads of different stats, but in actuality that would just be pointless. Mostly there was an accepted method of stat allocation and anything else didn’t work.
The other point is that Inferno is far tougher than D2’s hardest difficulty, Hell. By making it more difficult you also reduce the number of viable builds. If you stuck to Hell, you’d find there’d be a ton more viable builds.
I have been doing some reading about this system now for about two days or so and have yet to find many people who like this system. I know what you're probably thinking; "I'm just a hater wanted to be an asshole." Well this would be the case if I hadn't waited for four years hoping this game would come out and it would be great when in reality it's just not as good as the hype it created.
Being let down because you bought into the hype isn’t Blizzard’s fault. It’s your own. Of course they’re going to market the game and get people excited. That’s good business sense. But if you started thinking ‘omfg it’s going to be the best game EVER’ and hyped it up so much that it could never live up to your expectations… You have no one to blame but yourself.
Cold sorceress were my favorite, they were so damn fun because they where difficult to make awesome because of the gear requirements; you had to get good gear to go through hell so I had something to look forward to at the very least the satisfaction you get watching "Cold immune" disappear because of the gear you just got and you ravage everything that was kicking the hell out of you before.
This exact feeling is in D3 too. You get owned by some champion pack in Inferno, go away, get better gear, come back and own it. Exactly the same thing.
Another massive freaking failure for this game the maps DO NOT CHANGE...
Yes they do. There are some maps which are static, but the majority of the game is random. I think the main issue is that a lot of the time, the entrance and exit points are the same, so it feels as though the map is static. Not the case.
But yes, I’ll re-iterate that I am aware that some maps are static (the cursed hold in act 1, f.ex.), but nowhere near all of them are.
I mean I've had this game for about a month and ten days now and I am already get tired of playing it because nothing ever changes.
And I’ve had the game for the same length of time and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. Love the game so much, it’s amazing.
Also, playing the same game for an entire month would be considered a huge success for any other game. Again, your expectations are set way too high. Take a break if you’re tired of the game: maybe you’ll come back later and enjoy it again.
If you have any thoughts or defences for the system I would honestly love to hear them, I am curious as to what other people's thoughts are on this.
It’s simple: they’re aiming to make a great game. They wish to make a fun, entertaining game for as many people as possible. You’re never able to please everyone though, which is ok. There’s plenty of games out there.
Another massive freaking failure for this game the maps DO NOT CHANGE... Do you have any idea how annoying it is when you're playing hardcore and you lose 3 or 4 characters over a months time and when you remake them and redo act 1 just to see that the maps never freaking change; it is the definition of insanity. I loved D2 because the maps were always random, no two maps were EVER the same which made it fun to explore and kill new monsters depending on the beastiary of the particular game you made. Now in D3 it is so monotonous I can't stand it.
I do agree with this point you made. It's amazing how a very unique series-defining feature that was developed 12 years ago was somehow considered worthless and not added to the 3rd game. It's basically pissing away the game's potential and replayability right from the get-go.
And if someone honestly thinks there's enough randomness to the maps as it is now, well then I won't bother arguing with them! I'll just play other games with more heaps more replayability and leave them to their variety-less game. :/
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Some people tell me I'm going to hell. I just let them know that I've already packed my bags!
I do agree with this point you made. It's amazing how a very unique series-defining feature that was developed 12 years ago was somehow considered worthless and not added to the 3rd game. It's basically pissing away the game's potential and replayability right from the get-go.
And if someone honestly thinks there's enough randomness to the maps as it is now, well then I won't bother arguing with them! I'll just play other games with more heaps more replayability and leave them to their variety-less game. :/
This is a personal opinion thing really. I think there's enough randomness, you apparently don't. There's a good reason for there being less randomness than D2 though, and it's evidence of a disturbing trend in gaming.
Essentially, the reason is graphics. The time it takes to create D2 quality graphics is far less than D3's art takes. As such, if there was as much randomness as there was in D2, it would've taken a lot longer to craft the graphics of the game, thus delaying the entire thing that much longer.
Blizzard try to avoid this issue by not going for cutting edge graphics: D3 is nowhere near the graphical level of some recent games. That said, they still need to adhere to a certain level of quality, because consumers demand it. So gameplay suffers due to consumers demanding great graphics.
I still think D3 has enough randomness to it (even with static maps you still don't know what elite packs you're going to get, nor the composition or amount of normal mobs), but as I said at the start: it's up to you whether you're ok with this level of randomness or not. Just remember why there's less randomness.
Working through Act 2 Inf atm, and I have no problem with the map randomness not being enough, Just my personal opinion!
I agree that the maps could have been more randoms, like in hallsof agony. lvl 2 is always after the big saw thingy, highland passage is always to the right and lvl 3 is always up, that makes runs concentrated on going to that particular direction thus the time it takes for exploring an area is a lot less then in D2 I remember in D2 often the exit was at the only remaining spot because of bad luck while some other times I just found the exit right away. in D3, now except for the first few runs, you always have an idea of where things are and outdoor maps exit are always at the same place too... an exemple of D2 is in act 3, when you need to go too Kurast, the way can be in the first map, OR in the great marsh another zone entirely, so you have to explore the first map wich is huge and if you,re not lucky then go into the great marsh to find the next place, the randmoness of D2 was amazing, but I still love D3 and i'm gonna play it a lot more, I just think things could've been more random
n exemple of D2 is in act 3, when you need to go too Kurast, the way can be in the first map, OR in the great marsh another zone entirely, so you have to explore the first map wich is huge and if you,re not lucky then go into the great marsh to find the next place, the randmoness of D2 was amazing,
That Amazingness of Kurast is also what made Act 3 the most despised act of the game too. I hated Act 3 with a passion. It got better as we approached Kurast Bazaar, because you were out of that god forsaken forest and NEVER returning there. Ever. But starting that point, Kurast bazaar, Upper Kurast and Travincal are right next to each other, with very predictable exits, Travincal is always the same too.
I hated ActIII's super-random maps with a passion... more specifically, I hated the huge amount of back-tracking needed, and the fact that I couldn't just rush to the end without getting lost in a giant bloody jungle-maze.
D3 strikes a good balance by adding variation for people that want it, and keeping things similar enough for people that just want to blast through the levels... but calling it an "infinite amount of content" is spurious nonsense.
I mean I've had this game for about a month and ten days now and I am already get tired of playing it because nothing ever changes.
I've been wondering about people who are starting to say this about D3. You've been playing the same game for roughly 40 days. Are you really surprised that you're starting to get tired of it? Maybe everyone else had a different experience in D2, but I'd play for a few weeks, drop off for a few months, and come back and play again. This is how I assumed the game lasted longer than most TV shows - very few people kept playing consistantly for a decade, but would play for a few months at a time, take a break, and go back. Maybe I'm wrong.
But anyway, I think a game that entertains you for 40 days is a big win. Even if it's predecessor managed 10 times that amount. Any game that promises to keep me entertained for the length of time D3 has already (~100 hours, I know, I'm slow) is a pre-order buy for me. But that does go back to, if you hyped up a game to be better than it's predecessor, that you probably are remembering through the happy filter that is the human memory, you're probably going to be dissapointed. And for the record, I am also starting to get bored with it. I'll probably playing occasionally for awhile, then give it a rest for 6 months to a year, just like I have every other Blizzard game since Warcraft 2, with the exception of WoW.
Another massive freaking failure for this game the maps DO NOT CHANGE... Do you have any idea how annoying it is when you're playing hardcore and you lose 3 or 4 characters over a months time and when you remake them and redo act 1 just to see that the maps never freaking change; it is the definition of insanity. I loved D2 because the maps were always random, no two maps were EVER the same which made it fun to explore and kill new monsters depending on the beastiary of the particular game you made. Now in D3 it is so monotonous I can't stand it.
I do agree with this point you made. It's amazing how a very unique series-defining feature that was developed 12 years ago was somehow considered worthless and not added to the 3rd game. It's basically pissing away the game's potential and replayability right from the get-go.
And if someone honestly thinks there's enough randomness to the maps as it is now, well then I won't bother arguing with them! I'll just play other games with more heaps more replayability and leave them to their variety-less game. :/
As it's been pointed out - it is incredibly difficult to make a truly random 3D game. I know both Gearbox and Runic agree, although Runic claims that TL2 will have "more" randomness than D3. While I would have liked more randomness (although not to the extent of D2 Act 3. Oh goodness no), I'm fine with what we have, mostly because I see it as a decent trade off. If we had more random, then either the maps wouldn't be as nice, we'd have worse graphics, the game would be shorter, or the game would have been delayed.
n exemple of D2 is in act 3, when you need to go too Kurast, the way can be in the first map, OR in the great marsh another zone entirely, so you have to explore the first map wich is huge and if you,re not lucky then go into the great marsh to find the next place, the randmoness of D2 was amazing,
That Amazingness of Kurast is also what made Act 3 the most despised act of the game too. I hated Act 3 with a passion. It got better as we approached Kurast Bazaar, because you were out of that god forsaken forest and NEVER returning there. Ever. But starting that point, Kurast bazaar, Upper Kurast and Travincal are right next to each other, with very predictable exits, Travincal is always the same too.
This. So much this. Whenever anyone complains about the lack of randomness in D3, I want to duct tape their hands to a keyboard and mouse, and make them play through Act 3 with a properly leveled character 3 times (normal, nm, and hell). And then ask them if they like random maps. Probably while tea bagging them or something, just cause I'm an ass like that.
As far as itemization goes, I'd like to see something that compares to the '+ to skills' mod we saw in D2....a modifier that adds % bonuses or something to skills/skill runes. The items in D3 just don't have that "pop" we're used to. I get that we don't have RW's anymore, but can't we do something to items to give them a similar flare?
Nothing in D3 has the same appeal as the Enigma, Greif, Spirit, Exlie etc....and I may be wrong, but why no CBF (cannot be frozen) mods?
Working through Act 2 Inf atm, and I have no problem with the map randomness not being enough, Just my personal opinion!
I agree that the maps could have been more randoms, like in hallsof agony. lvl 2 is always after the big saw thingy, highland passage is always to the right and lvl 3 is always up, that makes runs concentrated on going to that particular direction thus the time it takes for exploring an area is a lot less then in D2 I remember in D2 often the exit was at the only remaining spot because of bad luck while some other times I just found the exit right away. in D3, now except for the first few runs, you always have an idea of where things are and outdoor maps exit are always at the same place too... an exemple of D2 is in act 3, when you need to go too Kurast, the way can be in the first map, OR in the great marsh another zone entirely, so you have to explore the first map wich is huge and if you,re not lucky then go into the great marsh to find the next place, the randmoness of D2 was amazing, but I still love D3 and i'm gonna play it a lot more, I just think things could've been more random
D2 wasn't really that random. Even Act III, despite being horribly long and chock full of irritating mobs that made everyone miserable, was actually fairly linear with only 2-3 points at which it could kind of "bend". If you just kept going northeast you'd always be going pretty much the right way. Act II and IV were just squares, and you just had to hunt 2-3 edges to find the exit. Probably the most random places were the dungeons, especially the Durance of Hate before Mephisto, after they upsized it. But they made it so big that it almost filled out the whole available area so it was pretty much square again, it was just random where in the square the portal was.
I'd say D3 and D2 are roughly the same in terms of randomness.
As far as itemization goes, I'd like to see something that compares to the '+ to skills' mod we saw in D2....a modifier that adds % bonuses or something to skills/skill runes. The items in D3 just don't have that "pop" we're used to. I get that we don't have RW's anymore, but can't we do something to items to give them a similar flare?
Nothing in D3 has the same appeal as the Enigma, Greif, Spirit, Exlie etc....and I may be wrong, but why no CBF (cannot be frozen) mods?
PS I'd kill for a pair of dracs on my monk
Yes but that's because all of those things, +skill, runewords, certain uniques, were so stupidly OP that they rendered all the randomly generated gear worthless. Which sucked. LOD kind of destroyed the random element of D2.
For me the greatest thing about D2 was that I was able to create my character the way I wanted to, I could set up my stat points, my skill points, and my gear just the way I wanted in terms of my play style and the type of character I made. Cold sorceress were my favorite, they were so damn fun because they where difficult to make awesome because of the gear requirements; you had to get good gear to go through hell so I had something to look forward to at the very least the satisfaction you get watching "Cold immune" disappear because of the gear you just got and you ravage everything that was kicking the hell out of you before.
Yeah I just hope you didn't accidentally put a point somewhere bad because OOPS there goes the whole character.
There were only a handful of viable builds at any given time (varied patch to patch) and your stat points were just get enough STR to wear the BiS gear you traded off some duper then dump everything into your main damage stat. All of it was false choice. I mean you could get away with lots of suboptimal builds (anyone remember the guy who beat the whole game without killing any mobs? Remember naked level 1 no pots no skills?) because D2 was incredibly easy. D3 has a variety of skills and runes you can use, sure some are crappy (hopefully they'll retune them) but I'd still say there's a lot more real choice than D2 ever had.
P.S. That Cold Immune thing - pretty sure they eventually patched it so -resistance couldn't break immunity. Ever notice how only a Cold sorc could do that (and Necros with Curse of Elements)? If you were Fire or Lightning you were screwed. I don't know how anyone can consider being railroaded into an entire talent tree "fun" or "choice" it was clearly a design flaw that drastically limited your choices. Actually the real answer is you were never supposed to be able to break immunities on any class because D2 wasn't supposed to be soloable in Hell difficulty. They said as much.
As far as itemization goes, I'd like to see something that compares to the '+ to skills' mod we saw in D2....a modifier that adds % bonuses or something to skills/skill runes. The items in D3 just don't have that "pop" we're used to. I get that we don't have RW's anymore, but can't we do something to items to give them a similar flare?
Nothing in D3 has the same appeal as the Enigma, Greif, Spirit, Exlie etc....and I may be wrong, but why no CBF (cannot be frozen) mods?
PS I'd kill for a pair of dracs on my monk
Yes but that's because all of those things, +skill, runewords, certain uniques, were so stupidly OP that they rendered all the randomly generated gear worthless. Which sucked. LOD kind of destroyed the random element of D2.
You're forgetting the '+ to random properties' tied to legendaries. I agree that the OP RW's in D2 were too overused, as there were too few to choose from. But in D3, the legendaries are truly unique and adding powerful skill mods could make the selection far more diverse.
The mistake they made in respect to RW's in LoD was that there were way too many lame RW's and only a handful of powerful RW's. Let's not forget that duping made them standard equipment when they were meant to be very very rare.
A drop rate similar to Templars Might, very infinitesimal, for OP legendaries and a lack of dupes would be very interesting to have contained in D3.
I have been doing some reading about this system now for about two days or so and have yet to find many people who like this system. I know what you're probably thinking; "I'm just a hater wanted to be an asshole." Well this would be the case if I hadn't waited for four years hoping this game would come out and it would be great when in reality it's just not as good as the hype it created.
For me the greatest thing about D2 was that I was able to create my character the way I wanted to, I could set up my stat points, my skill points, and my gear just the way I wanted in terms of my play style and the type of character I made. Cold sorceress were my favorite, they were so damn fun because they where difficult to make awesome because of the gear requirements; you had to get good gear to go through hell so I had something to look forward to at the very least the satisfaction you get watching "Cold immune" disappear because of the gear you just got and you ravage everything that was kicking the hell out of you before.
Another massive freaking failure for this game the maps DO NOT CHANGE... Do you have any idea how annoying it is when you're playing hardcore and you lose 3 or 4 characters over a months time and when you remake them and redo act 1 just to see that the maps never freaking change; it is the definition of insanity. I loved D2 because the maps were always random, no two maps were EVER the same which made it fun to explore and kill new monsters depending on the beastiary of the particular game you made. Now in D3 it is so monotonous I can't stand it.
The other thing that bothers me is the legendaries. Yes they are indeed quite awesome if you are doubly lucky. You have to be lucky enough to get the legendary to drop then when you identify it you have to be lucky enough that the random number generator doesn't make the gear useless by giving you stats to the weapon or armour that doesn't even come close to fitting the character you're making such as giving a Bow a large bonus to strength when you need dex/vit. I can understand why they did it, so this way one legendary item "can" be useful to all the classes depending on the stats given when it was identified. This to me seems rushed and was not thought out very well. To me it seems like they didn't want to take the time to make gear specifically for each subcategory of character such as a cold sorceress in D2 where you can't really make one of those in D3 with gear supporting only cold. In D3 you can't make a subclass of a character because you can't control your skills/stats.
After the time I've spent researching D3 and the systems they implemented i just don't understand what they were trying to do. D2 has been being replayed again and again for the last ten years, there has to be a reason for it, but I don't think D3 will be so lucky if they keep the system the way it is since the level cap is so low and the skills are not customizable it kind of takes away this games replayability. I mean I've had this game for about a month and ten days now and I am already get tired of playing it because nothing ever changes.
If you have any thoughts or defences for the system I would honestly love to hear them, I am curious as to what other people's thoughts are on this. I'm not as hard headed as it sounds, I just don't understand what their plan was with this system. As it stands now I'm probably just going to uninstall this game and continue focusing on other things. Although I do welcome any and all comments to assist in my understanding and the expansion of my knowledge on the subject.
Thanks everyone, KillerKowz
All abilities aren’t meant to be amazing for every type of gameplay. You’ve got some that are good for Hardcore, some that aren’t. Some that are good for group play, some that prefer solo. For example, there’s a Monk ability called Near Death Experience: Hardcore Monks swear by this, while softcore don’t really bother I find.
The abilities need to be this way: if they all needed to be good for every mode of play, it would create a very boring skillset. All the abilities would be bland and ‘safe’.
It’s a different form of customisability. D2’s customisation was mostly arbitrary: sure, you COULD put a ton of stat points into loads of different stats, but in actuality that would just be pointless. Mostly there was an accepted method of stat allocation and anything else didn’t work.
The other point is that Inferno is far tougher than D2’s hardest difficulty, Hell. By making it more difficult you also reduce the number of viable builds. If you stuck to Hell, you’d find there’d be a ton more viable builds.
Being let down because you bought into the hype isn’t Blizzard’s fault. It’s your own. Of course they’re going to market the game and get people excited. That’s good business sense. But if you started thinking ‘omfg it’s going to be the best game EVER’ and hyped it up so much that it could never live up to your expectations… You have no one to blame but yourself.
This exact feeling is in D3 too. You get owned by some champion pack in Inferno, go away, get better gear, come back and own it. Exactly the same thing.
Yes they do. There are some maps which are static, but the majority of the game is random. I think the main issue is that a lot of the time, the entrance and exit points are the same, so it feels as though the map is static. Not the case.
But yes, I’ll re-iterate that I am aware that some maps are static (the cursed hold in act 1, f.ex.), but nowhere near all of them are.
They’re being changed in 1.1.
And I’ve had the game for the same length of time and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. Love the game so much, it’s amazing.
Also, playing the same game for an entire month would be considered a huge success for any other game. Again, your expectations are set way too high. Take a break if you’re tired of the game: maybe you’ll come back later and enjoy it again.
It’s simple: they’re aiming to make a great game. They wish to make a fun, entertaining game for as many people as possible. You’re never able to please everyone though, which is ok. There’s plenty of games out there.
I do agree with this point you made. It's amazing how a very unique series-defining feature that was developed 12 years ago was somehow considered worthless and not added to the 3rd game. It's basically pissing away the game's potential and replayability right from the get-go.
And if someone honestly thinks there's enough randomness to the maps as it is now, well then I won't bother arguing with them! I'll just play other games with more heaps more replayability and leave them to their variety-less game. :/
This is a personal opinion thing really. I think there's enough randomness, you apparently don't. There's a good reason for there being less randomness than D2 though, and it's evidence of a disturbing trend in gaming.
Essentially, the reason is graphics. The time it takes to create D2 quality graphics is far less than D3's art takes. As such, if there was as much randomness as there was in D2, it would've taken a lot longer to craft the graphics of the game, thus delaying the entire thing that much longer.
Blizzard try to avoid this issue by not going for cutting edge graphics: D3 is nowhere near the graphical level of some recent games. That said, they still need to adhere to a certain level of quality, because consumers demand it. So gameplay suffers due to consumers demanding great graphics.
I still think D3 has enough randomness to it (even with static maps you still don't know what elite packs you're going to get, nor the composition or amount of normal mobs), but as I said at the start: it's up to you whether you're ok with this level of randomness or not. Just remember why there's less randomness.
I agree that the maps could have been more randoms, like in hallsof agony. lvl 2 is always after the big saw thingy, highland passage is always to the right and lvl 3 is always up, that makes runs concentrated on going to that particular direction thus the time it takes for exploring an area is a lot less then in D2 I remember in D2 often the exit was at the only remaining spot because of bad luck while some other times I just found the exit right away. in D3, now except for the first few runs, you always have an idea of where things are and outdoor maps exit are always at the same place too... an exemple of D2 is in act 3, when you need to go too Kurast, the way can be in the first map, OR in the great marsh another zone entirely, so you have to explore the first map wich is huge and if you,re not lucky then go into the great marsh to find the next place, the randmoness of D2 was amazing, but I still love D3 and i'm gonna play it a lot more, I just think things could've been more random
That Amazingness of Kurast is also what made Act 3 the most despised act of the game too. I hated Act 3 with a passion. It got better as we approached Kurast Bazaar, because you were out of that god forsaken forest and NEVER returning there. Ever. But starting that point, Kurast bazaar, Upper Kurast and Travincal are right next to each other, with very predictable exits, Travincal is always the same too.
D3 strikes a good balance by adding variation for people that want it, and keeping things similar enough for people that just want to blast through the levels... but calling it an "infinite amount of content" is spurious nonsense.
But anyway, I think a game that entertains you for 40 days is a big win. Even if it's predecessor managed 10 times that amount. Any game that promises to keep me entertained for the length of time D3 has already (~100 hours, I know, I'm slow) is a pre-order buy for me. But that does go back to, if you hyped up a game to be better than it's predecessor, that you probably are remembering through the happy filter that is the human memory, you're probably going to be dissapointed. And for the record, I am also starting to get bored with it. I'll probably playing occasionally for awhile, then give it a rest for 6 months to a year, just like I have every other Blizzard game since Warcraft 2, with the exception of WoW.
As it's been pointed out - it is incredibly difficult to make a truly random 3D game. I know both Gearbox and Runic agree, although Runic claims that TL2 will have "more" randomness than D3. While I would have liked more randomness (although not to the extent of D2 Act 3. Oh goodness no), I'm fine with what we have, mostly because I see it as a decent trade off. If we had more random, then either the maps wouldn't be as nice, we'd have worse graphics, the game would be shorter, or the game would have been delayed.
This. So much this. Whenever anyone complains about the lack of randomness in D3, I want to duct tape their hands to a keyboard and mouse, and make them play through Act 3 with a properly leveled character 3 times (normal, nm, and hell). And then ask them if they like random maps. Probably while tea bagging them or something, just cause I'm an ass like that.
Nothing in D3 has the same appeal as the Enigma, Greif, Spirit, Exlie etc....and I may be wrong, but why no CBF (cannot be frozen) mods?
PS I'd kill for a pair of dracs on my monk
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
D2 wasn't really that random. Even Act III, despite being horribly long and chock full of irritating mobs that made everyone miserable, was actually fairly linear with only 2-3 points at which it could kind of "bend". If you just kept going northeast you'd always be going pretty much the right way. Act II and IV were just squares, and you just had to hunt 2-3 edges to find the exit. Probably the most random places were the dungeons, especially the Durance of Hate before Mephisto, after they upsized it. But they made it so big that it almost filled out the whole available area so it was pretty much square again, it was just random where in the square the portal was.
I'd say D3 and D2 are roughly the same in terms of randomness.
Yes but that's because all of those things, +skill, runewords, certain uniques, were so stupidly OP that they rendered all the randomly generated gear worthless. Which sucked. LOD kind of destroyed the random element of D2.
Yeah I just hope you didn't accidentally put a point somewhere bad because OOPS there goes the whole character.
There were only a handful of viable builds at any given time (varied patch to patch) and your stat points were just get enough STR to wear the BiS gear you traded off some duper then dump everything into your main damage stat. All of it was false choice. I mean you could get away with lots of suboptimal builds (anyone remember the guy who beat the whole game without killing any mobs? Remember naked level 1 no pots no skills?) because D2 was incredibly easy. D3 has a variety of skills and runes you can use, sure some are crappy (hopefully they'll retune them) but I'd still say there's a lot more real choice than D2 ever had.
P.S. That Cold Immune thing - pretty sure they eventually patched it so -resistance couldn't break immunity. Ever notice how only a Cold sorc could do that (and Necros with Curse of Elements)? If you were Fire or Lightning you were screwed. I don't know how anyone can consider being railroaded into an entire talent tree "fun" or "choice" it was clearly a design flaw that drastically limited your choices. Actually the real answer is you were never supposed to be able to break immunities on any class because D2 wasn't supposed to be soloable in Hell difficulty. They said as much.
You're forgetting the '+ to random properties' tied to legendaries. I agree that the OP RW's in D2 were too overused, as there were too few to choose from. But in D3, the legendaries are truly unique and adding powerful skill mods could make the selection far more diverse.
The mistake they made in respect to RW's in LoD was that there were way too many lame RW's and only a handful of powerful RW's. Let's not forget that duping made them standard equipment when they were meant to be very very rare.
A drop rate similar to Templars Might, very infinitesimal, for OP legendaries and a lack of dupes would be very interesting to have contained in D3.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan