Monte Carlo

He should be called Necro-Pet-Owner because it's cooler. Or 'He-Who-Flings-Insect-Filled-Pottery'

I still don't like or understand this mechanic.

Is the combat dog-piling fixed?

^ Wow that's harsh.

In fact *some* of the quest xp-only people are deliberately painting this as a binary choice when it isn't. The *vast* majority of 'combat xp' proponents are in fact (as Msxyz points out) 'wider spread of xp reward methods' proponents, amongst which combat is only one.

16:16 "Combat's super-smooth." Ahem?

I would. I just booted it up again and honestly, combat is a scrum where I haven't got a clue wtf is going on.

I'm still playing on PS4, it feels easier than the PC version but is still great MP fun.

I agree with Indira. Hopefully future Diablo sequels will have names so elaborate you'll have to buy a bigger monitor. Or maybe two big monitors.

Planescape Torment is considered one of the best RPGs ever because the hip, trendy hive-mind of gaming journalism says so. Most of Torment's devotees online were probably twelve when it was released. I'm not attacking Torment, although it was never my cup of tea, but the praise heaped on it is mystifying. Until you realise it's like the person who claims to have read a book he or she feels they must like to keep up with the herd.

I didn't say it was flawless, did I? It is very, very good though.

Expressing unhappiness and behaving like a 3 year old that throws a tantrum because his momy doesnt buy him candy in the supermarket are two different things. And your insulting tone isn't equally petulant? Come on.

Dear Mayama, I don't really get where you're coming from, except to say you seem to enjoy getting indignant at other people's unhappiness. This frustration seems to stem from your inability to understand the concept of the internet message board. I'll leave you to have a little think about that, seeing as you are clearly not unintelligent. As for the beta, there would have been a storm of merde only because Obz promised it as a stretch goal and charged money for it. See my earlier post. Had they not done that there would be no controversy. As for the Beta, it came as part of my pledge and tbh I'm not minded to play it as it isn't a great deal of fun as-is. * shrugs * nor do I think anything I post will make an iota of difference to the development team, who have put on defensive blinkers about their decisions. So personally, I could have happily lived without a beta, or a later beta. The convention schedule dictated the beta release, not the state of the beta for the backers. Which tells you quite a lot about their priorities. They are reaping what they have sown. * shrugs again * I hope combat gets sorted in the next patch, which will be a make-or-break moment in this game's dev cycle imo.

You know what happened to Bobby McFerrin, don't you?

I'd rather play a game like D:OS with poor writing but bags of game play than a storytyme RPG with crap combat.

^ I agree with you Ashen, it's a beta. Actually, it's an alpha-beta, if I wanted to be generous (I too have been a tester). It's meant to be representative only, I dig that. For me, stability isn't a major issue and it looks nice (apart from the horrible inventory system and design, which I'm pretty shocked at given Obz's experience in designing them). It's the combat and systems mechanics that make it unplayable for me and not a great deal of fun. But, as we've seen with other aspects of this project, it's a tad weaselly. For starters, Obz clearly don't really want or need us as beta-testers. This whole thing was something they added in as a stretch goal for moar dollars and had to deliver on. Had they simply crunched the hell out of bugs and slept on their desks and never had this beta, stuff would be fine. So lesson one: only release a beta if you want it to be a beta. This isn't. This is an ass-backwards PR / reassurance stunt that has backfired. Secondly, how often do you see a green name at the bottom of this forum? Obz don't like talking to their fans, mainly because more than a few of us tell them stuff they don't want to hear. I don't expect the main guys on here that often, tbh, they've got work to do, but as I pointed out in autumn 2012 they should have appointed a community manager. Relic do this well, they are a smaller company and have three. Noun can be found on third party and fan forums pretty much constantly. Sawyer swoops in occasionally, to issue a stern glare to dissenters, and that's about it. Lesson The Second: If you don't want to engage with fans that much, and only via updates, then don't say you will and issue Bio-levels of hype about your unprecedented dialogue with your backers. I don't pretend to know much about game design. I'm genuinely not being an armchair general. But as a games fan I've followed, participated in and generally been around dev cycles and betas for fifteen-plus years and I'm telling you Obz has changed. In fact, we got more general engagement when they had a publisher. MC out.

Sorry, but you've just made me crash my lolocopter. Do you actually understand what you just wrote? They need to 'incentivize' combat, an activity 80% of the game engine and character builds are about. It's like building a flight simulator where take off, landing and the bit inbetween is a bit of a drag. Risk and reward. Choice and consequence. It's really simple. A combat-heavy game where it pays more to pump your storytyme stats and avoid combat. Utter genius. Why didn't anyone think of it before?

It is repetitive when the developers make it repetitive. When you make the game where every fight can be won using one strongest spell then its not the game to be blamed, it's the creators of the game. You have to have mobs having various powers and different attacks for which you need to change tactic to come around; for example golems in BG2 who could not be defeated by piercing weapons, trolls whom you couldn't kill without fire or acid, magic golems, demi-lich, dragons... Temple of Elemental Evil - one of the best tactical RPG ports from a pen and paper game, ever. It was *never* repetitive.

Arcanum is a clunky rogue-like with funeral music. I loathed it.

^ Dark gothtastic fangoria doesn't float my boat, and if I want a story-heavy experience I'll read a book. I'm glad folks enjoyed it, but it wasn't on my radar. I play games to play games. This is why the tactical / wargamer side of the fanbase will never really reconcile with the Planescaper / games-as-art side of the house.

Q1 2015 makes more sense. I'd be cool with that.

Ha ha. Gotcha. I love Diablo and I like the lore, a lot. Leonard Boyarsky did an excellent job. I know enjoying mainstream stuff is [too often] frowned upon on these forums, but Blizzard are doing something right. Troika, OTOH, didn't.

I've nothing against Tim Cain but he's never helmed a game I've personally enjoyed except for ToEE. However, Troika's hubris and arrogance when interacting with fans was legendary. I would lurk, aghast, on the forums over there. Tim gave up on item degradation and crafting so I suppose the xp thing is his line in the sand. Then again, look what happened to Troika. Leonard ended up working the lore on Diablo 3. There's a moral to the story in there, I think.

^ Yeah it's falling down. The XP thing makes me feel like the scene in the burger restaurant.

^ What he said. Quest-based XP and a modest amount of random XP for killing critters satisfies everyone. In fact, I like quest-based XP too, it's yin and yang. I'll go further - I have no problems with people getting the same XP for taking the easy talkie route if it scratches someone's RP itch. Fine. But not letting exploring hackmaster's carve a trail through the local wildlife and get some XP from it is astonishingly lame.