Depends what you really want from a mouse. If you are a serious/competitive gamer then you need one of the following:
Microsoft Intellimouse 1.1 SE
Most commonly used mouse by FPS pro-gamers (cs,quake,tf2 etc). I have a few SK-gaming 1.1's laying around as well as the one I am currently using :D. They can withstand a tonne of punishment, great sensor, perfect balance (in terms of no negative acceleration etc). It is a smallish mouse suitable for a 'claw-grip'.
Should be able to pick up a normal IMO 1.1a for ~$30. The SE's and the various MODs of this mouse (Zowie, Steelseries, SK-Gaming) are more expensive.
The next most commonly used mice by FPS pros are: Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0 and Logitech mx518(@400dpi) both of which go for about $30.
I wonder how hardcore pvp arena will handle disconnects. If you can simply escape out of the game while in a hardcore arena I am sure there will be a lot of quitters/plug pullers when the situation gets bad.
Edit: The thing that makes a D3 hardcore battle a lot more "hardcore" than a D2 hardcore battle is that in D2 you can always run away, either back to town to escaping the game. Although you cannot run away anywhere in the D3 arena. That only leaves the question about plug pulling/escaping
I am from Sydney,Australia and I always played D2 on USWEST and also play sc2 on NA. I PERSONALLY get more enjoyment from playing on the NA server because the US and AUS cultures are very similar (at least to me they are). So I find the social aspect on the US/NA realms a lot easier. I will be playing d3 on a NA/US realm again.
Between release and about 1.10 I made nothing but PVP sorcs and I took it very seriously. I made just about every build under the sun and tweaked skill/stat/gear combinations until I thought that they could not be improved. HOWEVER, with all of the countless pvp sorcs that I made I would not dare to call any of them "perfection" or a perfect build.
There is no such thing as a perfect build. If there was then the game would be imbalanced and would be patched.
For eg: Back in 1.09 when ITHs hit the scene, PVP barbs were all the craze and people would spend a fortune getting a "perfect" barb. But if your perfectly geared and built barb could not catch my FCR sorc to even git a single hit in then is he actually "perfect"?
I played around a lot with FB PVP sorcs in 1.09 and let me tell you, there is not a PERFECT way to build them. There are various different styles of using the character which are perfectly viable. Eg: you could go for an in-your-face type of FB sorc with max-block, DR gear and a focus on life. Or, you could play a FB sorc in a more strategic way and snipe people from a distance, in which case you would go for a FCR build with a focus on mana and regen.
So my question to you is what do you actually think that "Perfection" is in diablo? From my experience with PVP builds in D2 it is a whole lot more than just your skills and stats. It is how you actually use your character in a strategic way whilst taking into account the strengths and limitations of the build. People who truly understood this were very rare. Most people were just like *herp derp, I now have an ITH blade! ill just go and chase sorcs around because I have the best sword in the game.... Oh crap I died. But but, my gear and my build is perfect?!?!*
So, re-specing may see more casual players with the correct skills for a solid build, but does that mean you will see more "Perfection"? No
Since you are going to be interviewing some developers I think it would be interesting to ask them how the journey of developing Diablo 3 has been for them.
What has been your highlight of the development process so far?
What is your favourite thing about working on Diablo 3?
I just hope that bliz have put this to a REAL world scenario/test when they decided on the 4 player limit. Of course if you do consider 8 people who have never played the game before, they will all stick together and play the game properly with teamwork, i.e they will play the game as bliz intended.
But look at a real scenario. In d2 you make a game called "Diablo for quest" looking to get some help with killing D. 6 people will join the game, 1 of them will go and MF on meph, 1 of them will use your game to transfer items to another character by hiding their items and coming back, another player will do a quest/run totally unrelated to what you wanted but just wanted a full game for drops/xp, another player joins legitimately but is too weak so he spends 80% of the time a few screens away from the main battle to avoid damage. In the end your left with 1 person actually cooperating with you.
Part of me thinks that bliz is being a bit naive when it comes to how things will go down once the game has been out for a while. My experience with d2 (have played on BNET since it was released) is that you need 8 people to join the game to get 2-4 people to PROPERLY cooperate. Although I guess we will never know until the game comes out.
They are not required to... I am just stating that most of the mac users that I know ( myself included) bootcamp win7 for gaming. A lot of the niche gaming utilities and applications aren't available on mac so it just makes sense to game under win7. I don't want to start a mac vs pc thread, my day-job is actually cocoa development/engineering so I love my macs, just not for gaming
Just be like every normal mac user and set up a copy of windows 7 through bootcamp for your gaming needs. With intel chips on macs these days there is really no need for a mac port. But regarding the digital download, after waiting 10 years for diablo 3 I NEED to own the box. Downloading it would seem like such an anti-climax as opposed to carefully unpacking the box
I wonder if the numpad character voice commands from d2 will be returning to d3. they were a fun addition.
*cow level begins, nova sorc goes to tristram and fetches leg, drops it in town with 7 other players standing around.* starts spamming " this is yours, this is for you " until someone opens the portal XD
I would love to see the wizard be able to call down two additional wizards to aid in the battle. Similar to mercenaries these two extra wizards would follow our hero around for a limited amount of time and would both master opposite tech trees to yourself. So including yourself, the three wizards will cover all 3 elements, fire lightning and ice.
I can see it working in a few ways. Perhaps they can simply be other wizards that our hero has trained together with and simply follow him around for a certain period of time or until they die. OR they can be something which our hero casts. In the second case, obviously sustaining these magical clones would require energy, so it may require X mana per second from our hero to keep them going.
I feel that this could be a strong ultimate spell for the wizard but obviously a lot of thought would have to go into something like this.
Wha...at??.... Did you just say Starcraft 2 is a "Great Game?"
Honestly, I'm a huge fan of Starcraft, played it since I was a kid.
But all the hype, and the time went to making SC2 was not what everyone expected it to be.
The balance is off by a big margin, the UI is not even upto date. The chat channel looks like something a high school student coded. The Custom Game system is so bad, its almost unplayable. Theres not much you can say about SC2 besides it being from Blizzard. And the trend continues with the new fresh looking game, which is why e-sports is picking up.
Its not because SC2 is a great game, hell, most people even admit its not as epic or fun to watch compared to SC.
I would rather watch SC any day over SC2.
That being said, you said their not going to release a perfect game. God knows how long that will be.
SC2 was far away from perfect, and if it were to be "perfected" I dont know how you define that, one would never really see another blizzard game for long time.
That being said, SC2 is a good example to show that Blizzard's development is a big failure. I'm not biased, I have nothing againts blizzard. I just dont understand why their not in rush to release any of their games. When i mean rush, its not scramble some code and ship it out. I mean release games productively, and with some regularity. WoW expansions are good, but honestly, they need more games. SC and Diablo was designed by a whole different group of guys, and maybe thoes people are who we need.
Right now, things are always getting pushed back and theres no sense of urgency for them at all.
A normal company must work at a deadline. Thats how normal companies work, they set a deadline, and they work to finish it on time. If I didnt have a deadline on my essay, hell i'll never do it, untill 10 million ppl hate me for it.
"The balance is off by a big margin"
1.3 has done a good job tweaking balance. But even before that patch balance most pros believed the balance to be quite good just that the ladder current map pool was unfavorable to zerg (hence GOM introducing new maps which resulted in some EPIC seasons). Just have a look at the recently finished GSTL which had players from all races showing how strong the race can be (Losair all killing as Zerg, MC being a boss in the last GSL and RainBow and MVP almost all killing as terran).
"the UI is not even upto date. The chat channel looks like something a high school student coded"
Totally subjective
"Its not because SC2 is a great game, hell, most people even admit its not as epic or fun to watch compared to SC."
Is that why at any given time on teamliquid.net there are more people viewing the SC2 streams than the BW streams? Although I do agree that watching BW matches can be very epic at times but that is mainly because the BW metagame is so well refined and the players have had YEARS to refine their skills and builds so you are really seeing top tier entertainment.
For those defending blizzard for releasing the game so slow, tell me this.
If you were making 150 million per year just from WoW subscription fee while eating popcorn, do you think your in rush to finish the game? Compare the current state of Blizzard with other gaming companies, where they produce results much faster. [Don't talk to me about the quality of other games, because SC2 was such a failure and the way it was designed has so much flaws. Wasn't worth the wait. Why do you think so many Koreans say their not buying SC2?
Plus.. SC:BW is still in the top 10 most played game in Korea while SC2 is nowhere to be found. so dont tell me longer it takes to develop a game = better game ]
That being said, its quite obvious that Blizzard is in no rush to release Diablo 3. Why would they be?
Jay Wilson has always told the media "they'll release the game when its done". Who has the guts to say that to the media?
Honestly, thats when you know their in no rush.
You wanna see how a "Normal" game developing companies work? Shut down WoW for 2 years and you'll see the productivity which must be maintained in order to bring consistent salary by selling games. Not PRESCRIPTION FEE that you can sit on it eating popcorn.
sc2 was a failure? what have you been smoking? sc2 is totally taking over the RTS scene. Most of the pros from BW are not switching to SC2 because a) they are under contracts with their BW teams and they are making money in BW.
it has not even been a year since the release of sc2 and already there are tonnes of huge prize tournaments. GSL, NASL, Dreamhack, IEM, IGN, TSL just to name a few. also, WCG has phased out BW and replaced it with SC2 because of its huge popularity amongst foreigners.
you live in a fairy tale world if you think that blizard can just flick a switch which decides when d3 is finished. software engineering is not something where you can simply throw more resources at the project to speed things up like throwing more brick layers onto a construction site (well to a point, but you get to a stage where extra people become redundant). There are a lot of dependencies in software development (cant begin B until A is finished or well architected).
Also, they are developing under an agile environment so everybody will be learning as they go about how this product is going to finally fit together and what it will contain. It would not be uncommon for them to have to rebuild/redesign entire components (from the conceptual level all the way to build and test).
0
Microsoft Intellimouse 1.1 SE
Most commonly used mouse by FPS pro-gamers (cs,quake,tf2 etc). I have a few SK-gaming 1.1's laying around as well as the one I am currently using :D. They can withstand a tonne of punishment, great sensor, perfect balance (in terms of no negative acceleration etc). It is a smallish mouse suitable for a 'claw-grip'.
Should be able to pick up a normal IMO 1.1a for ~$30. The SE's and the various MODs of this mouse (Zowie, Steelseries, SK-Gaming) are more expensive.
The next most commonly used mice by FPS pros are: Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0 and Logitech mx518(@400dpi) both of which go for about $30.
0
Edit: The thing that makes a D3 hardcore battle a lot more "hardcore" than a D2 hardcore battle is that in D2 you can always run away, either back to town to escaping the game. Although you cannot run away anywhere in the D3 arena. That only leaves the question about plug pulling/escaping
0
0
There is no such thing as a perfect build. If there was then the game would be imbalanced and would be patched.
For eg: Back in 1.09 when ITHs hit the scene, PVP barbs were all the craze and people would spend a fortune getting a "perfect" barb. But if your perfectly geared and built barb could not catch my FCR sorc to even git a single hit in then is he actually "perfect"?
I played around a lot with FB PVP sorcs in 1.09 and let me tell you, there is not a PERFECT way to build them. There are various different styles of using the character which are perfectly viable. Eg: you could go for an in-your-face type of FB sorc with max-block, DR gear and a focus on life. Or, you could play a FB sorc in a more strategic way and snipe people from a distance, in which case you would go for a FCR build with a focus on mana and regen.
So my question to you is what do you actually think that "Perfection" is in diablo? From my experience with PVP builds in D2 it is a whole lot more than just your skills and stats. It is how you actually use your character in a strategic way whilst taking into account the strengths and limitations of the build. People who truly understood this were very rare. Most people were just like *herp derp, I now have an ITH blade! ill just go and chase sorcs around because I have the best sword in the game.... Oh crap I died. But but, my gear and my build is perfect?!?!*
So, re-specing may see more casual players with the correct skills for a solid build, but does that mean you will see more "Perfection"? No
0
What has been your highlight of the development process so far?
What is your favourite thing about working on Diablo 3?
0
But look at a real scenario. In d2 you make a game called "Diablo for quest" looking to get some help with killing D. 6 people will join the game, 1 of them will go and MF on meph, 1 of them will use your game to transfer items to another character by hiding their items and coming back, another player will do a quest/run totally unrelated to what you wanted but just wanted a full game for drops/xp, another player joins legitimately but is too weak so he spends 80% of the time a few screens away from the main battle to avoid damage. In the end your left with 1 person actually cooperating with you.
Part of me thinks that bliz is being a bit naive when it comes to how things will go down once the game has been out for a while. My experience with d2 (have played on BNET since it was released) is that you need 8 people to join the game to get 2-4 people to PROPERLY cooperate. Although I guess we will never know until the game comes out.
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*cow level begins, nova sorc goes to tristram and fetches leg, drops it in town with 7 other players standing around.* starts spamming " this is yours, this is for you " until someone opens the portal XD
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oh really? in that case <3 blizz
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I can see it working in a few ways. Perhaps they can simply be other wizards that our hero has trained together with and simply follow him around for a certain period of time or until they die. OR they can be something which our hero casts. In the second case, obviously sustaining these magical clones would require energy, so it may require X mana per second from our hero to keep them going.
I feel that this could be a strong ultimate spell for the wizard but obviously a lot of thought would have to go into something like this.
0
"The balance is off by a big margin"
1.3 has done a good job tweaking balance. But even before that patch balance most pros believed the balance to be quite good just that the ladder current map pool was unfavorable to zerg (hence GOM introducing new maps which resulted in some EPIC seasons). Just have a look at the recently finished GSTL which had players from all races showing how strong the race can be (Losair all killing as Zerg, MC being a boss in the last GSL and RainBow and MVP almost all killing as terran).
"the UI is not even upto date. The chat channel looks like something a high school student coded"
Totally subjective
"Its not because SC2 is a great game, hell, most people even admit its not as epic or fun to watch compared to SC."
Is that why at any given time on teamliquid.net there are more people viewing the SC2 streams than the BW streams? Although I do agree that watching BW matches can be very epic at times but that is mainly because the BW metagame is so well refined and the players have had YEARS to refine their skills and builds so you are really seeing top tier entertainment.
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sc2 was a failure? what have you been smoking? sc2 is totally taking over the RTS scene. Most of the pros from BW are not switching to SC2 because a) they are under contracts with their BW teams and
it has not even been a year since the release of sc2 and already there are tonnes of huge prize tournaments. GSL, NASL, Dreamhack, IEM, IGN, TSL just to name a few. also, WCG has phased out BW and replaced it with SC2 because of its huge popularity amongst foreigners.
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Also, they are developing under an agile environment so everybody will be learning as they go about how this product is going to finally fit together and what it will contain. It would not be uncommon for them to have to rebuild/redesign entire components (from the conceptual level all the way to build and test).