On October 23 2010 08:58 Jayme wrote: Ugh I am not liking the direction they are going. Focusing on pvp in a dungeon crawler type game is meh. So much can go wrong here
Time will tell, if they can pull it off though I think it would be an excellent addition.
I'm not liking the looks of the characters, either. It's actually pretty difficult to tell the male and female versions apart, unless it's on a high resolution screenshot. And I hate the huge shoulderpads and overly complicated armor designs from WoW. The focus should be on the characters and the armor should complement them, not take away the visual distinction.
The only character design I like is the male monk. This female demon hunter and the male barbarian are kinda ok, too. I don't really like the rest, especially both the male and female wizards.
While watching that video I went from oh hey this looks pretty good rogue/assassin looking class to dual wield crossbows... what? Couldn't take it seriously after that.
On October 23 2010 07:10 DannyJ wrote: Im really having a hard time trying to imagine balanced pvp arenas in a diablo game...
It will probably be like Arena in WoW. Balanced up to a point, but certainly not balanced enought to be a proper esport.
The thing is though that WoW always had PvE balance to think about while diablo 3 won't have that issue i guess, which means it gets easier to balance pvp
They are going to need spells to work differently or be less effective in pvp than in pve, something wow refused to implement.
On October 23 2010 07:10 DannyJ wrote: Im really having a hard time trying to imagine balanced pvp arenas in a diablo game...
It will probably be like Arena in WoW. Balanced up to a point, but certainly not balanced enought to be a proper esport.
The thing is though that WoW always had PvE balance to think about while diablo 3 won't have that issue i guess, which means it gets easier to balance pvp
They are going to need spells to work differently or be less effective in pvp than in pve, something wow refused to implement.
Regarding two of the concerns voiced about the PvP component :
1) Competitive play / balance During the follow-up panel after the announcement the members of the D3 team stated that they mainly intend it to be a fun component to provide some distraction, not something they want to evolve into a competitive environment. As such, they will not devote too much of a focus to re-balancing gameplay elements based on the arena part. What they did mention is that certain spells will have more use for PvP so that players can customize their character to accomodate for w/e they prefer, PvE or PvP.
They further acknowledged that with so many ways to customize your character balance would be too difficult to pull off, and consequently the aim is not to establish an overly competitive PvP part. Certainly nothing that evolves into an e-sport like 3v3 arenas in WoW.
Quote from their forums :
With almost 97 billion potential skill and rune builds, and then factoring in items, the talisman system, and traits, character balance isn't likely to lend itself to an eSport, and in fact the PvP for Diablo III has always been designed a side game intended purely for fun. We know you like killing each other, so that's what it's there to provide.
I'm not really sure I like the direction they're taking for now...
It starts to look a bit like with SC2: 1. announcement + a couple of vids = huge erection 2. showing more content = don't know what to think about it, maybe I'll get used to it 3. showing some "great new ideas" = seriously? Could you please reconsider?
In other words, the closer to the release, the less I'm interested in it (I just hope they won't push it to the same point as they did with SC2 for me - where I decided to not get the game at all).
Trying to balance PvP just seems like a total waste of time. They should just make the PvE as awesome as possible and then as part of the arena system let people create their own leagues with the ability to limit admissible gear, gear modifiers and skills. Communities over time will balance it far better than Blizzard ever could and you could have all sorts of different communities with different rulesets and playstyles. Trying to make a standardized, balanced PvP will just limit and hurt the game in the end.
Overall I'm way disappointed with what I've seen too with the WoWishness and cliches and noobfriendliness and respecs and all that.... But then again I was a huge D1 fan and thought D2 was way too noob friendly when I first started playing it but it ended up being addicted for several years.
Wow I was a little concerned about the state of D3, but holy crap, watch the video in the D3 presskit. 19 minutes of pure sweeeeeeeetnessssssssssss. Everything I've worried about out of the game looks fine in it. Big shoulders from pics look pretty fair size. There is so much blood in this I was just so happy. And it doesn't really look that wowish at all.
On October 23 2010 11:11 mucker wrote: Overall I'm way disappointed with what I've seen too with the WoWishness and cliches and noobfriendliness and respecs and all that.... But then again I was a huge D1 fan and thought D2 was way too noob friendly when I first started playing it but it ended up being addicted for several years.
I see where you are coming from. But the industry, and more importantly, the consumers have changed in the past 13 years. And let's face it - they are a company trying to sell a product. What we consider as "easymode" to them means a more accessible game, thus a broader customer base and consequently more money.
In fairness, playing inventory tetris wasn't always fun, to name only one small aspect. Being able to modify your skill trees also doesn't sound like the worst addition either; common argument against it is that it lowers the replay value, which I can't see. You can fiddle around a bit with your char to replay runs with a different setup or to just try out something aside from a cookie-cutter setup. Which might mean that you need to hunt for some new gear as well to tweak your char further. Personally, it won't stop me from trying other classes either to see how they play and get through the game.
I do agree on your statement about PvP for the most part though. Would type more, but it's boxer vs fruitdealer now !
On October 23 2010 11:26 Filo wrote: Wow I was a little concerned about the state of D3, but holy crap, watch the video in the D3 presskit. 19 minutes of pure sweeeeeeeetnessssssssssss. Everything I've worried about out of the game looks fine in it. Big shoulders from pics look pretty fair size. There is so much blood in this I was just so happy. And it doesn't really look that wowish at all.
On October 23 2010 11:26 Filo wrote: Wow I was a little concerned about the state of D3, but holy crap, watch the video in the D3 presskit. 19 minutes of pure sweeeeeeeetnessssssssssss. Everything I've worried about out of the game looks fine in it. Big shoulders from pics look pretty fair size. There is so much blood in this I was just so happy. And it doesn't really look that wowish at all.
Is that the video with barbarian/witch doctor from last year? Or something completely new? I don't want to DL the whole thing because I think I've seen it :s
On October 23 2010 11:26 Filo wrote: Wow I was a little concerned about the state of D3, but holy crap, watch the video in the D3 presskit. 19 minutes of pure sweeeeeeeetnessssssssssss. Everything I've worried about out of the game looks fine in it. Big shoulders from pics look pretty fair size. There is so much blood in this I was just so happy. And it doesn't really look that wowish at all.
Is that the video with barbarian/witch doctor from last year? Or something completely new? I don't want to DL the whole thing because I think I've seen it :s
No, the video from the presskit contains Demon Hunter gameplay, both solo and grouped (about 15 minutes) as well as roughly 4 minutes of 2vs2 PvP (Barbarian + Wizard vs Barbarian + Witchdoctor). Rest of the presskit has all sorts of screenshots from the different classes, artwork and additional information.
On October 23 2010 08:54 setzer wrote: I'm really sick of their character designs. The "demon hunter" looks just like a NE hunter port with the huge spiky shoulders and glowing eyes.
What is it with giant shoulder pads and glowing eyes anyway? It's like they paste it on any character to make it look "cool" but all it does it is make the character look like a 8th grader worked on it for his arts and crafts class.
Isn't that the way blizzard;s artwork has always been though?
On October 23 2010 08:54 setzer wrote: I'm really sick of their character designs. The "demon hunter" looks just like a NE hunter port with the huge spiky shoulders and glowing eyes.
What is it with giant shoulder pads and glowing eyes anyway? It's like they paste it on any character to make it look "cool" but all it does it is make the character look like a 8th grader worked on it for his arts and crafts class.
Isn't that the way blizzard;s artwork has always been though?
No, the Diablo series from Blizz North had a more gritty, more (for lack of a better word) realistic style. The main Blizzard one for the Warcraft series have a style where they would exaggerate certain features, especially ridiculous looking shoulder armor. Their armor designs were such that it looks like you're more likely to hurt yourself from the numerous spikes on your armor than having the armor protect you. Some of the designs really look like you're better off fighting naked rather than wearing that armor. The armor just doesn't look functional at all, even for the illogical standards of fantasy fiction.
It kinda works for the Warcraft series but it doesn't work for the Diablo series. I would rather each universe have their own distinct art style.