mrjonno wrote:It's a pure Blizzard addictive sink which is definitely one defintion of a good game.
Was a bit pissed of I got disconnected the send after I killed the boss so couldnt pick up the loot, this is definitely a degree killer good job I'm quite a bit ahead at the moment

This having to be online factor is the biggest negative for me. If it were any other game, I'd have passed over it. I only intend to play Single Player - why do I need to be online? If it's an anti-cheating thing... I don't give a fuck! I'm big and ugly enough to live with my choices - if I want to cheat, so be it. Just stop me from playing online. The downsides are far greater - the inability to pause as we're not all teens who can shut out the world while we slay demons, and lag - I've already died 3 times out of 5 total to lag.

Spearthrower wrote:

mrjonno wrote:It's a pure Blizzard addictive sink which is definitely one defintion of a good game.
Was a bit pissed of I got disconnected the send after I killed the boss so couldnt pick up the loot, this is definitely a degree killer good job I'm quite a bit ahead at the moment

This having to be online factor is the biggest negative for me. If it were any other game, I'd have passed over it. I only intend to play Single Player - why do I need to be online? If it's an anti-cheating thing... I don't give a fuck! I'm big and ugly enough to live with my choices - if I want to cheat, so be it. Just stop me from playing online. The downsides are far greater - the inability to pause as we're not all teens who can shut out the world while we slay demons, and lag - I've already died 3 times out of 5 total to lag.

Oh am I right there with you on the Lag thing. It's gotten me killed most of the times Before Halfway through act III, at which point I went out to murder Balista's... and started dying A.. LOT.. MORE.. Including one specific ccrawl aroudn the lower level of hell with a Big huge fat guy with the two club/maces yellow shining Champion murdering me 8 times in a row.. ON HIS OWN.

I guess being a ranged character really steps up survivability in those situations...

Though I am a REALLY big fan of the Online play. Because I can just hop in and join my friend at all times etc...
Best part if your connection drops they are still there and your loot persists since they are holding the instance.

Actually. I think people should really look at the game again. It does not in fact say Single Player ANYWHERE on the game...
Blizzard should have made this maybe more obvious but a lot of people are complaining about this fact, when it's not actually stated anywhere.

Spearthrower wrote:

Fallible wrote:Well this is my first time Playing any of the Diablos. I got it free because I'm a Battle.net account holder or something. It's taking some getting used to and I die a lot more than I do in WoW, but yeah...I would say I'm enjoying it. I'm a...um...forgot. Someone with a crossbow.

Demon Hunter?

That sounds about right. I'm early on, keep getting butchered by the Butcher. Infuriating.

The need to be online is pretty stupid, it's ludicrously draconian for an anti piracy measure. This concept that you don't buy games but just the right to access a service is not really great.

That said the game is growing on me, normal difficulty was pathetically easy as demon hunter, did manage to get killed once before the end, but if I'd realised that I could equip a shield or bothered to get more than about 0 vitality on my gear it wouldn't have even been once. Gonna try a bit of nightmare to see if it's more balanced, if not I'll just pack in I guess.

To be fair, it's not quite the easiest game I've ever played, Fable 3 beats it by a degree.

PS: Female demon hunter in platemail dyed lime green looks great.

PPS: Crafting seems fine, I didn't bother with AH, but made a number of rare items as I levelled, quite cheap and could be sold for a lot more than the mats I should think as well.

Thommo - by the time you get to Inferno, you'll be squealing, I assure you!

Spearthrower wrote:Thommo - by the time you get to Inferno, you'll be squealing, I assure you!

Are you on inferno already?

I'm not really a fan of being forced to replay a game multiple times to reach a decent challenge, not sure I'll make it. It's fun enough at the moment I guess but it is irking me that I have to replay and replay to access options that should be available from the start, and indeed are in 99% of games.

Thommo wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:Thommo - by the time you get to Inferno, you'll be squealing, I assure you!

Are you on inferno already?

I'm not really a fan of being forced to replay a game multiple times to reach a decent challenge, not sure I'll make it. It's fun enough at the moment I guess but it is irking me that I have to replay and replay to access options that should be available from the start, and indeed are in 99% of games.

No, I haven't got to Inferno yet - I am basing this off playing D2 and Hell mode - apparently Inferno is much harder.

Really: It wouldn't be possible to play Inferno difficulty from the start. You have to work on your equipment just to survive, let alone prosper. The step to Nightmare is relatively minor in comparison, so if you are going to bore of repeating the quests, you're right - you probably won't make it to inferno. It's worth taking 1 character there though, just to see the shit being obliterated by the fan.

Spearthrower wrote:Grand! After writing the above, I played the game and the loading screen tip said that locations, treasures and monsters are changed every time you play the game. That cheers me up a lot!

Yep.

Outside areas don't change a lot, and towns don't change at all, but the dungeons are built with modules and change drastically each time. Also random events and mini dungeons are added from time to time.

Even just moving things around a little is HUGE for re-playability.

Nice little video illustrating how things are randomized.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9NLRDAs0YA[/youtube]

That sucks about the lag. I think the reason for forcing people online is not so much for cheating or piracy, but for the fact that there will be a micro transaction element to trading with real money. This is a problem for any off line generated loot because the ability to hack for profit is too great. They should have provided an offline option where you would never have access to the auction houses or at the very least, they should have provided a much broader distribution of game servers. Add at least another server in Asia or Oceania.

CdesignProponentsist wrote:That sucks about the lag. I think the reason for forcing people online is not so much for cheating or piracy, but for the fact that there will be a micro transaction element to trading with real money. This is a problem for any off line generated loot because the ability to hack for profit is too great. They should have provided an offline option where you would never have access to the auction houses or at the very least, they should have provided a much broader distribution of game servers. Add at least another server in Asia or Oceania.

I would be just as happy to forgo all of the above to be able to play single player with none of the restrictions.

They always ignored the SP crowd, and it seems the pattern hasn't changed!

Thommo wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:Thommo - by the time you get to Inferno, you'll be squealing, I assure you!

Are you on inferno already?

I'm not really a fan of being forced to replay a game multiple times to reach a decent challenge, not sure I'll make it. It's fun enough at the moment I guess but it is irking me that I have to replay and replay to access options that should be available from the start, and indeed are in 99% of games.

Just went for a quick play through the first level of NM with my Monk, and my first encounter with an elite monster (is that what they're called in D3?) was in the Damp Cellar in the first area after you enter Tristram.

It was an Arcane Enchanted Zombie.

As a monk, I naturally ran up and smacked him several times in the head with my fists... and noticed all these strange points of light appear around the small room. Then I realised beams were coming out of these points of light.

One beam hit me taking off around 10% of my life per tick, and it seemed to be hitting me about 3 times per second. 6 beams hitting me lead to a *cough* tactical withdrawal. My monk's got 3320 HP, but only 11 of each elemental resist. I haven't found anything yet to help boost those!

Spearthrower wrote:Just went for a quick play through the first level of NM with my Monk, and my first encounter with an elite monster (is that what they're called in D3?) was in the Damp Cellar in the first area after you enter Tristram.

It was an Arcane Enchanted Zombie.

As a monk, I naturally ran up and smacked him several times in the head with my fists... and noticed all these strange points of light appear around the small room. Then I realised beams were coming out of these points of light.

One beam hit me taking off around 10% of my life per tick, and it seemed to be hitting me about 3 times per second. 6 beams hitting me lead to a *cough* tactical withdrawal. My monk's got 3320 HP, but only 11 of each elemental resist. I haven't found anything yet to help boost those!

Oddly enough, I had that same encounter*!

Not so bad as a ranged class though, once I realised that the pink lasers were bad it all went smoothly.

Intelligence gives you resistance by the way, not sure if there's another method. Tooltip on armor also says it reduces all damage, which presumably stacks multiplicatively with resistance.

*Might have been arcane enchanted and teleporting, I think it listed 3 abilities, which surprised me.

CdesignProponentsist wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:Grand! After writing the above, I played the game and the loading screen tip said that locations, treasures and monsters are changed every time you play the game. That cheers me up a lot!

Yep.

Outside areas don't change a lot, and towns don't change at all, but the dungeons are built with modules and change drastically each time. Also random events and mini dungeons are added from time to time.

Even just moving things around a little is HUGE for re-playability.

Nice little video illustrating how things are randomized.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9NLRDAs0YA[/youtube]

Thanks for posting.... it would have answered all my questions for the time when I first posted about that, but I'd pretty much figured it all out since then, but it does confirm what I thought was happening!

I do think it's a bit of a shame about the outdoor areas. I can see the value of keeping some of them the same - but a few randomised outdoors areas would have been a good plan too.

In fact, they could have made some huge random outdoor areas somewhere in the late game, with the chance to spawn lots of different monsters. They've gone most of the way towards a MMORPG feel here, so that kind of huge, sprawling themed zone would have been a nice addition.

One thing which I'm having real problems with is the inability to pan up or out with the camera so I can get a look at my surroundings. I'm having to take breaks because it makes me feel ill. Also, I think I must be doing something very wrong, because I keep dying over and over again.

I rescued an old man from a skeleton captain with my wizard. It was fun, and his niece thanked me.

Yeah but what did you do in the game?

Fallible wrote:Yeah but what did you do in the game?

Fallible wrote:One thing which I'm having real problems with is the inability to pan up or out with the camera so I can get a look at my surroundings. I'm having to take breaks because it makes me feel ill. Also, I think I must be doing something very wrong, because I keep dying over and over again.

With this game you have to play a bit more tactically and think more about damage mitigation and tactical retreats, positioning yourself and the enemy for maximal effect.

Also, I started using the auction house to keep myself fully equipped with rare equipment with the right attribute bonuses on them.

Wizard and Witch Doctor = Intelligence + Vitality
Demon Hunter and Monk = Dexterity + Vitality
Barbarian = Strength + Vitality

Also keep your followers (or at least the one you use all the time) equipped well. I like to spec them more for disruption than damage. The more disruption you put on them the less they are fighting you.

But play the way you like to play. Hope at least this helps give you some ideas

Thanks, Cdesign, it does! I've only been playing it a couple of days so hopefully I'll work out all the little tweakings I can do as time goes by.

This concept that you don't buy games but just the right to access a service is not really great.

Its been the norm since the beginning of computer games, you have never owned them merely a right to use them. Until technology has improved the limitations on use were very hard to enforce. Good or bad this sort of thing is going to be the future its a combination of business wanting to improve their revenue and freetards wanting to pirate everything and calling it freedom.

I reckon I will get somewhere between 20 and 200+ hours of entertainment out of this software I paid £28 but i know others paid more but to me its a bargain