Diablo 3: We need a thread

[Alaris]

I haven't played Splinter Cell (...) Cave Story (...) Braid to me is really just a puzzle game. (...) Orcs Must Die (...) SotC is pretty much the same. And none of these games are really hard to complete the first time around. (...)

To me a skill game is something where you're playing against another player or an AI as advanced as an actual person, like in PvP, Street Fighter, etc. A game where practice makes you better, not just progressing through the game.

Again, you confuse difficulty with skill-based. Skill-based means that if you play well, you can really improve your performance. That is true of all those games. While I agree that they are for the most part not very difficult (unless you actually go for achievements or put it on difficult) they are still skill-based.

PvP is a trivial way to make a game difficult. It's not easy to make a good PvP game, but if you do, the game will be difficult automatically. But without changing difficulty, you can make a PvP game be less dependent on skill by making it more dependent on gear or luck. See? Double dissociation.

Puzzle games require puzzle-solving skills. It's a skill too.

Street Fighter is an excellent example of skill-based combat. Thanks.

The rest of it is fairly similar to the series. It's Diablo, it doesn't stray too far from the formula.

I was under the impression that they were changing the skill system to be a bit more like GW, in that instead of spamming one attack they had ways to make you want to use more skills. Different resources, recharges maybe... not sure about it.

Also, free respecs, which is a huge bonus over the D2 of back when I was playing it.

I'm not reading great things about the combat either, which I'd hoped was a case of 'lol bad press players'.

If you have any specific questions about combat, it'd be nice to hear them... because so far what I heard was that combat in GW2 was pretty good. But hey, I'd loooooove to hear about specific questions you think the media should answer.

[Jez]

This and GW2 are the only games I'll probably play this year. D2's combat seems to be more like in between Guild Wars and Diablo, you have your left and right click buttons with your main attack generally generating a resource for most classes, then you also use the 1-4 keys that are by default healing, support and other damaging abilities. So more advanced then Diablo 2's but not at an overwhelming wow like amount.

Shawn definitely needs to formulate some questions for the press beta, I agree.

[shawn]

I was under the impression that they were changing the skill system to be a bit more like GW, in that instead of spamming one attack they had ways to make you want to use more skills. Different resources, recharges maybe... not sure about it.

Yes, you can. You can change a skill at any time at all, with the only drawback being that you have to wait 15 seconds before you can use it. You can have six skills at any time, and - using the Wizard for an example - there are 25 total skills, but each skill has 5 different versions due to the rune system..

For example:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ljm!bXg!ZZZYYb

If you have any specific questions about combat, it'd be nice to hear them... because so far what I heard was that combat in GW2 was pretty good. But hey, I'd loooooove to hear about specific questions you think the media should answer.

Don't have questions no, I'm just reading stuff from reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...t_after_a_day/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...ut_the_combat/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c..._state_of_gw2/
and to a somewhat lesser extent http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...ing_they_took/

[Jez]

The problem I see here is that the unhappy ones don't care about being banned so they voice their dissatisfaction and the ones that like it don't post because they want to keep playing. Nothing can please everyone and unfortunately it is still beta so who knows. The next beta will be much more telling with a lack of NDA.

[Alaris]

I see a lot of opinions that are not backed up by actual information that would show they were actually in the Beta. I tend to believe that except for the last one (or maybe including the last one), they were not in the Beta at all, and hence don't care if they lose their NDA because they never had it to begin with.

Still, I think it'd be good for some of the beta press to look at those concerns, and try to answer them.

[RD]

For example:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ljm!bXg!ZZZYYb

Whoa, that's awesome.

Don't have questions no, I'm just reading stuff from reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...t_after_a_day/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...ut_the_combat/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c..._state_of_gw2/
and to a somewhat lesser extent http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...ing_they_took/

Yikes...

Admittedly, I expect the combat to be as mundane as any other MMO. I don't care what any of the hype says, I never bought into it, especially after seeing the actual skill descriptions - there's not a ton of difference between them. If that's the only complaint, I'm not too worried.
I AM a bit worried about the posters saying it's even worse than other MMOs because there isn't anything to watch out for. (Even in SWTOR, you want to save anything that can interrupt - straight interrupts, knockbacks, stuns, etc. - for a mob's heal or big damage skill. It can make a big difference in the fight.) I am not really shocked by the news that conditions are pretty meaningless in combat. If they weren't, mesmers wouldn't be slapping them on randomly (which I still think is such a silly idea).
I am a tad worried because I have the same expectation as that first post: "GW2 will ruin all other MMOs for me." It already has a bit, to be honest. But I am cautiously optimistic in that I really don't expect any game to be as amazing as GW2 is being sold to be. Anyway, some of the comments on the threads are much more uplifting.

I wonder how many of these people disliked GW 1. GW 1 wasn't exactly the most populated game at any time; I wouldn't hate it if GW 2 was the same.
It is still beta, though...

[Alaris]

Well, TotalBiscuit said that conditions were really important, because he noticed that stuff with lots of conditions tended to die faster and hit a lot weaker than stuff without conditions.

No skill activation bars though is worrisome, because the twitch gaming is either gone or at least a lot less intuitive.

[Tru Reptile]

Mobs telegraph their attacks but sometimes it's difficult to tell with all those spell effects going off. That's something that really needs to be toned down.

@Shawn: you said the stuff in the cash shop turned you off, but how do you feel about the real money auction house? That sounds much worse imo.

I'm also taking some of those reddit comments with a grain of salt. I've always heard good things about the combat system ever since it was first playable and now it's suddenly bad?

[shawn]

*shrugs* I don't see a problem with the RMAH at all, for several reasons:

1) It's not in hardcore mode (but the gold AH is), and that's where the highest level of play exists. It doesn't matter as much in softcore, because.. well, it's softcore.
2) There are still level restrictions on items, so it's impossible to "pay to win", and on top of that there aren't any consumables to buy a la gw1 & 2.
3) Because of the way gear works, you might buy a fancy sword for a dollar, and an hour later a better one will drop. Grats on wasting money.
4) Trading was done with real money in D2 anyway, this just legitimises it. The other option would have been to do MF runs until your eyes bleed, and hope that you could amass 100 SoJs to trade for items. For most of us normal players, we'd be lucky to ever find one SoJ let alone 100.
5) Due to the way the Nephalem Valor works, it won't be possible to plunk down $10 and become a solo farming machine. You'll die horrifically in Inferno without teamwork.

[Tru Reptile]

As far as number 2 is concerned, I think that might be true until you reach max level. Then it's a matter of buying the best gear you can afford. Right?