Diablo III Wild Speculation and Rumor Mongering Abounds

[Slayerik]

No issues logging in or playing...so far so good!

[luckton]

Agreed.  This is quickly raising itself to a day 1 purchase, if not a year of WoW for a free copy + benefits.

[Rokal]

Played through Act 1 as a barb with a friend.  Really enjoyed myself. The attack animations all have a fantastic feeling of impact. The environment around you properly responds to your swings, as do the shatter-prone bones of of skeletons  

[Malakili]

Played through Act 1 as a barb with a friend.  Really enjoyed myself. The attack animations all have a fantastic feeling of impact. The environmental around you properly responds to your swings, as do the shatter-prone bones of of skeletons 

Just to be clear, I'm pretty sure the end of the beta isn't the end of Act 1.   Not that it matters for what you are saying, but just for the sake of accuracy.

[Rokal]

In that case, I played until the first boss where a giant "end of beta" pop-up appeared. Glad to hear it's not the end of Act 1, I guess that wouldn't have made much sense considering Act 1 in D2 was significantly longer.

[Ratman_tf]

Download is slow as fuck. Of course, by this time everyone has gotten home after work and smashed the servers like a drunk co-ed.

[Sky]

Played to level 6 as a monk. Pretty cool, though it seems a bit primitive on the skills. Didn't like going into the skill menu and then another layer to switch my main hand skills for the explodey guys (swtiching from my skill that ports me to an enemy to the one that knocks them back). Guess I could put it on a number key, but wouldn't that limit those skills? Whatever.

Definitely had the vibe of Diablo, which was a decent enough game when it came out; if a bit repetitive and boring. I'm with taz, not really my genre; but I've known that since the original. I'll definitely buy it if it ever gets to steam sale pricing because it sits at the border of stuff I like. Just don't like clicking to move and attack, like to have the actions separated.

Like FB, I liked the environments quite a bit, very painterly indeed. The monk was fairly meh, I'd imagine that improves quite a bit with lewtz. Pinata effect is nice, though the legacy picking up mechanic is a bit clunky. Maybe if they had a mousewheel zoom rather than the one fixed hotkey zoom, I dunno.

I can definitely see why the Diablo fans are digging it, if it weren't for the stuff I didn't like about the original (and TQ and Torchlight and Sacred...), I'd be all over it. I bet co-op is a blast.

[ezrast]

The only indicator I can figure out for whether I like this sort of thing is mob density. D2 and PoE have you regularly plowing through a couple dozen mobs without slowing down and I love them; what little I played of Fate and Torchlight only gave you a handful at a time and I didn't like them. Titan Quest and D3 beta are somewhere in between and I think they're okay. Whether that's the *actual* reason or just some correlative indicator, I don't know.

Played through with a wizard and got to level 9. It was fun but not terribly remarkable. Not to beat the horse any more, but I think not having any character customization to look forward to took away even more than I expected. Also the skill interface is terrible.

[ffc]

I like every mechanic / gameplay change from D2.  Going through it single player and exploring everywhere was fun but the world eventually felt empty so I joined a multiplayer game and just like in D2 the group charges ahead skipping everything just to rush the boss.  That's why I'm not sure if I'll pick this up, especially since my chances of exploring with randoms decreases exponentially each passing day after launch.

[Hoax]

Everything else is the best anyone has ever done (no surprise there) it but they made a huge mistake with the way they decided to leave skills/runes this feels like the worst of all worlds, progression feels incredibly linear and my hands feel so tied. I mean they couldn't even let us choose whichever combination of skills we want? How shitty.

Also the rune system went from being really exciting and cool AND A NEW KIND OF EXCITING LOOT to a pretty meh feature that at least early on feels very limiting and stupid.

[taolurker]

I also echo the skill interface being terrible. Why am I not able to bind and use ALL the skills I've learned? Why do I have to choose between them for one key press, and then not be able to use the lower level one?

I played a demon hunter to 6, and sampled wizard some. Honestly the story parts, voice-overs and atmosphere is good, but it feels slow. It also has a washed out look in some places near lighting (is it fog?), and it seems silly I have to see where every click of mine on the ground is. Path of Exiles seems to flow way more without these things IMO, and the killing/attacking seems almost delayed too much by some of the animations (which I do like).  Destroying parts of the background, and having more things to interact with is good, but it didn't feel exactly right to me.

The UI for me is almost too cartoony, and although the detail and graphics are pretty, they don't actually make me think "Diablo" as much as Path of Exiles does. The items in the UI are almost painful to look at, and I seriously expected more (and I certainly hope this improves as you advance in levels/equipment).

I might consider this game after a price drop or something, and I really don't see this game hitting the buttons I wanted from a Diablo sequel. With Path of Exile being free to play, I think I'm gonna enjoy that more without any buyer's remorse.

[ezrast]

I mean they couldn't even let us choose whichever combination of skills we want? How shitty.

You can, but it's buried in the options as "Elective Mode" because having that on by default would just be too overwhelming for Blizzard's target demographic, who apparently needs to play the game for several hours before being asked to make a character choice that they can undo at any time.

[Hoax]

I mean they couldn't even let us choose whichever combination of skills we want? How shitty.

You can, but it's buried in the options as "Elective Mode" because having that on by default would just be too overwhelming for Blizzard's target demographic, who apparently needs to play the game for several hours before being asked to make a character choice that they can undo at any time.

Are you fucking kidding me? I looked in options and turned on everything I could find, if servers will let me I need to confirm this.

[waffel]

I mean they couldn't even let us choose whichever combination of skills we want? How shitty.

You can, but it's buried in the options as "Elective Mode" because having that on by default would just be too overwhelming for Blizzard's target demographic, who apparently needs to play the game for several hours before being asked to make a character choice that they can undo at any time.

Yep. Extreme hand-holding when it comes to skill selection combined with the total lack of exploration makes it feel like I'm playing some rushed 20 dollar game designed to appeal to early teens. It feels like every aspect of the game was designed to be as easy, accessible, and non-threatening as possible.

[Sjofn]

Also the rune system went from being really exciting and cool AND A NEW KIND OF EXCITING LOOT to a pretty meh feature that at least early on feels very limiting and stupid.

That really is the biggest disappointment for me, personally.   The skill stuff I can deal with, even though I feel they went too far with that trying to simplify it, but the rune thing is what makes me saddest.


EDIT: My BATTLETAG is Sjofn#1820 by the by.

[amiable]

I keep losing connection lagging out briefly (sometimes i have long stretched where i do not)..  This is going to make hardcore mode impossible.

[Malakili]

I mean they couldn't even let us choose whichever combination of skills we want? How shitty.

You can, but it's buried in the options as "Elective Mode" because having that on by default would just be too overwhelming for Blizzard's target demographic, who apparently needs to play the game for several hours before being asked to make a character choice that they can undo at any time.

Yep. Extreme hand-holding when it comes to skill selection combined with the total lack of exploration makes it feel like I'm playing some rushed 20 dollar game designed to appeal to early teens. It feels like every aspect of the game was designed to be as easy, accessible, and non-threatening as possible.

It is the first hour of the game on the easiest difficulty.  This is basically the tutorial.

[Sky]

EDIT: My BATTLETAG is Sjofn#1820 by the by.

Speaking of this...why did it tie my real name into my account (when I rt-click my character, I see my full real name)?

Guess I need to go make another fake email address and dust off the nom de game, and hopefully that doesn't conflict with payment methods.

[ffc]

It feels like every aspect of the game was designed to be as easy, accessible, and non-threatening as possible.

I came to this same conclusion, but for me this is a positive. PoE's skill bonanza made me pause with indecision and I never make up my mind on which stat to boost in these games. Here, there are no decisions!     It is a flip flopper paradise.

[Malakili]

EDIT: My BATTLETAG is Sjofn#1820 by the by.

Speaking of this...why did it tie my real name into my account (when I rt-click my character, I see my full real name)?

Guess I need to go make another fake email address and dust off the nom de game, and hopefully that doesn't conflict with payment methods.

You can only see the full name of people with whom you share your Real ID (aka e-mail address you use to login).  That information won't show to people with whom you only share your battletag.  It works just like SC2 in this regard, if you've played that.

[01101010]

Since I could not sleep last night at all, I went for the open beta. I shall have to purchase this game now.

[Sir Fodder]

I found it sort of jarring to see my real name pop up in the stats screen, I'd rather not have that happen.

Played a witch doctor to level 3, am loving the environment art, just stunning. Some of the character art seems very asian-ified, sweet animations but don't like the effenenangst/whiff of cheezy Korean/Chinese MMOG. It does feel very hand-holdy and linear. I think (like D1 and D2) this may be a game that I enjoy more watching others play rather than playing myself, its maybe a bit too click-festy and frenetic for this old guy. But I did find a dagger, a magic dagger and that sound... ahh!

Heroin, be the death of me
Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life
Because a mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head
And then I'm better off and dead
Because when the smack begins to flow
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jim's in this town
And all the politicians makin' crazy sounds
And everybody puttin' everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds

A magic dagger, oh  fuck   yeah.

[cironian]

Oh yes! I haven't even played D2 for a long time, but the drop sounds instantly did something to my brain. Dr Pavlov would be proud.

[Tannhauser]

Haven't been able to log on today.  This is literally the worst thing that can ever happen to me!

[Merusk]

We should do a separate thread for battletags, I think.   They'll get lost in here.

Mine is Merusk#1698

[MuffinMan]

Sounds like a good sticky thread for a sub-forum...

[Musashi]

Errors!  Grrrrr.  Angry!

[fuser]

Playing last night noticed the+200k players online, was about 187k before todays battle.net downtime.

[Lantyssa]

Tried a dozen times over twelve hours.  Error 37 each one.  Game is awesome.

[Stabs]

I found it sort of jarring to see my real name pop up in the stats screen, I'd rather not have that happen.

I agree with this. I think we're on a slippery slope of
Anonymous and private > my name appears on screen but no one can see it > my guild requires me to give them Real ID access so they can yoink me out of Diablo when we raid > every tosser I gank finds me on Facebook and craps on my wall.

[Ingmar]

Tell your guild to fuck off, problem solved. 

[Sky]

Tried a dozen times over twelve hours.  Error 37 each one.  Game is awesome.

I just copied my password and pasted it in an old uo-style dos-alike on the login until I got in. Took about 10 tries and let me in.

Also, wtf 16 character limit passwords from a company with security issues. That's a minimum in my world.

[Stabs]

Where do you come up with puppies' names that are longer than 16 characters?

[proudft]

Tried a dozen times over twelve hours.  Error 37 each one.  Game is awesome.

Error 3003 now, totally different!   

It was pretty fun when I got to play it last night, but it has been denying me today.

[zwohand]

Bird Watch Simulator Version 37
What a disaster.