Decline Auction House Online: The Game (Diablo 3) is a MASSIVE decline

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Yeah, the destructible environments are pretty nice I guess, and it's not like it's totally unsatisfying to send stuff flying, but I think it misses the point by just going over the top. And knowing Blizzard's usual polish, I really wasn't expecting flying ragdolls. I would've thought they had a handful satisfying death animations for each creature.

Maybe, but I'm not sure the old style would have worked so well in 3D. Sprites work because limited frames of animation let your mind imply a lot more than literally meets the eye. It gives it an almost animated or comic-book feeling that smooth 3D graphics can't replicate. That applies to the visual design of the whole game, in fact - the darkness and grittiness of the 2D graphics is something you just can't do in 3D without the game becoming difficult to look at or play.

Sound effects are a different story, but truth be told I think the sounds are actually a minor part of the picture - important, but it's more their relationship to the visuals that matters. A powerful "smack" only feels so good because of its juxtaposition to what we're seeing on-screen. And again, I haven't seen a 3D Diablo-style game that feels anywhere near as good to play as Diablo or Diablo II, so unfortunately there's no example to turn to that can be said to be better (although granted, I haven't played Path of Exile yet).

I was going to type that Path of Exile actually does a good job with both the visuals and the feeling, and then I saw you mentioned it at the end. Definitely try that. It's a bit shiny, but otherwise it looks and feels almost perfect (basically Diablo 2 in 3D). It lacks the $1B polish of Blizzard, of course, but it's getting there.

I'm not sure if this was posted before, but it might be something some people would be interested in. Basically, someone came up with a darkening/sharpening filter for the game, which arguably makes it look a lot better and more in tune with what you might expect from a Diablo 3. It removes the "cartoony" look along with the glowing effect on the models, which I think looks a lot better, but I'm sure some people will dismiss it as trying to be "grimdark."

I don't know why Blizzard doesn't just give an in-game option to remove the glowing/blurry shit. It looks so much better when sharpened. Like the filters/shaders for Morrowind, this also effects the UI so it's arguably useless to some people.

Anyway, link with screenshots: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3967848172

So many Diablo 3 and Mass Effect 3 threads. :/

definite improvement, I approve

too bad I'll still be playing path of exile instead

Many threads for older games get little to no attention - from list i am playing now: dark spyre, crystal dragon, alethar, avernum.

See you in patch 0.9.9.

I have been playing Path of Exile myself.... though I haven't had much time in the last few weeks.

Working on a Witch. Fun, though don't take it too seriously as I realize there will be a wipe when the open beta comes... or when the game gets released... mostly just playing around with how the passive skill tree works... interesting. Theory-craft is fun at work with that one.

Bros, I just got beta access to Path of Exile. I will be playing when it is ready.

Those filters looked like ass.

Looks a lot like what I do with my Nvidia driver settings (40% brightness, 60% contrast, .80 Gamma, 80% digital vibrance). A lot of games look a better when you actually make darkness dark. The fact that every area in D3 looks like it's covered in some kind of weird light mist looks horrendous.

MY WUT?

Which is irrelevant. What's relevant is whether you believe that completely castrating even shitty and limited character system creates a better one.

I'm terribly sorry that I didn't express myself with sufficient clarity. Allow me to correct that regrettable mistake on my part:

Would you kindly GTFO and kill yourself along with your fucking JPGs?

Dude, I didn't say that. In fact, in the original post you quoted, I even basically said the same thing as you.

I don't think non-permanent character choices are better than permanent ones. I saw this picture of the skill system from 2009 and it made me cry inside. There's no reason why they couldn't have taken the skill system of D2 and expanded/modified it. Hell, I don't like Titan Quest but it had a super-customizable system. You can dual class and use the skill trees of both classes. Fucking awesome.

I don't think the current system is better by any means. I just don't think it ruins the game.

Old system:

I don't see what was so bad about the old system... but I don't mind the new system either.

I'd be happiest if it found some happy medium between D2 (skill trees) and D1 (spell books) systems.

Something with random consumable items bestowing actual abilities, but also with tree of some sort, maybe used to modify stuff or add extra effects combining with the previous system.

Well, I think that loss of atmosphere and move to derpy mmo-like mechanics in D2 is what ruined the series. But doing away with actual character system is what delivers the actual coup de grace.

PoE is actually fairly close to that. The skillgems aren't consumable, but they are found both randomly and some given out as quest rewards (so you're not completely fucked for choice, a mage can get some spells instead of just random melee skills) and a skill tree for passives.

I can't imagine the stats being very interesting in D3 gemming/equipment wise. All the main stats add some sort of defense, so the best option is simply going to be whichever one gives your class bonus damage. And it'll be the same stat for all your skills.

My favourite system for a HnS I've played so far though is still the one used in Record of Lodoss War (and the significantly more derpy shining force clones of it made by the same guys... though adding companions and a lot more active skills was a good move.)
Although that entire system was largely built around the concept of exploration and non linear progression. But, well, thats a better thing to build a system around imo. I'm not sure why there hasn't been any diablo clones moving in that direction honestly. Everything is tied up with the idea of multiplayer + linear progress through chapters of increasing numbers (but not difficulty.)

Old system is pretty much like D2 system. Another skill level adds +x to duration, damage etc.

Now that I think about it, why the fuck is it a skill 'tree' anyways? What does limiting abilities by level or prior investments add? Nothing. It just makes shit more limited.

I'd love to see a skill 'forest'. Dozens of little skill trees, with a base skill that can be acquired at any level, and multiple sub attributes that can be boosted or added. So you might have a firebolt spell- with subskills for adding more projectiles, AoE explosions on impact, critical rate, cooldown, a damage over time buning effect, and other shit like that. Maybe some crossovers between skills too; like a subskill for your firebolt spell that makes it cast your flame wall spell whenever it scores a critical hit.

Then you could start out as a flame wall specialist, and later branch out into firebolts, focusing on multiple hits and critical chance over damage so you can use it to trigger your amped up flame walls. Or you could use other shit to make the flame walls more effective, like movement impairing effects from wind elemental skills or something. Or just opt for another souped up damage spell with no real synergy at all that is simply better for enemies the fire wall isn't good at handling, like a powerful lightning spell that can't be evaded or something, for fast enemies or enemies with fire resistance.

If something like that were put in a diablo clone normally, they'd make flame wall level 1, firebolt level 16, and you couldn't learn firebolt until you'd learned flame wall and everything else in between. Which is a retarded way to set things up. I mean it was a novel idea... the first time. But it makes no sense. A tech tree makes sense in a strategy game because you want some tech to be plain better than other techs, so you don't want people researching tanks before chariots. But for character building you want as many viable options as possible, so forcing the player to pick obsolete shit to unlock the good stuff is stupid and makes everyone more similar.

Titan Quest kind of had this idea where you could upgrade different parts of abilities. It didn't matter much though because in a H&S where you spam one ability 80% of the time you might as well upgrade every part of that skill.

No level limits is just silly. Some spells are naturally stronger and should wait till later in the game. Level 1 characters do not need to cast Earthquake of the Heavens or whatever. Nerfing Earthquake of the Heavens so that it only does 5 damage at level 1 is just stupid.

A Diablo-like with some kind of TES-style spell maker along with scripting capabilities would be awesome. Start with a few basic shapes and elemental effects and have more complex components discoverable through the gameworld. Would probably end up a lot like Magicka actually. Not sure how you could integrate physical characters into the system, but going with a 1-class-does-everything system and letting someone freely specialize in a weapon and then augment it with spellcrafting would probably work well. I could go for a max-level build using a repeating crossbow firing fire-enchanted bullets that explode into a wall of electricity that causes insanity or some shit.

I wish they kept the UI and icons, they look great.

The thing is, Earthquake of the Heavens doesn't need to be a spell on the list. You could start out with a Quake spell with a low radius at level 1 that just stuns enemies a bit. Ramp up the AoE, add damage, make it trigger lightning strikes, let it hit multiple times over a duration... THEN it's a fucking earthquake of the heavens- 30 levels later, when you've focused on it the whole time. Or it could be anywhere in between. Maybe it just stuns things near you repeatedly. Or in a big radius. Or does a lot of damage with insignificant stuns.

You can apply this line of thinking to any kind of spell. Summoning a demon going from a single weakling to a horde, or a huge spellcasting pit fiend, or it's a huge pitfiend but only has the melee still, or whatever. Curses starting as single target and scaling in duration, area and strength as you want, with additional side effects. Barrier spells that gain efficiency, strength, duration, and particular affinities.

Make some shit mutually exclusive or have some upgrades increase the cost of the ability, so summoning a horde of spellcasting pitfiends is prohibitively expensive, so you can't upgrade every part of a single skill and then spam just it.

I agree. Actually, the skill UI is absolutely awful now. It's... dare I say it... consolized. It's very suboptimal for navigating with a mouse, anyway. Sad.

What a sad and sorry state when a company once admirable like Blizzard goes from having a reputation of excellence in just about all areas of development, to a reputation built around making some of the most devious, soulless and simplification-minded decisions ever imagined.

It was kind of expected that Diablo 3 would be a step down from 2. I'm not sure how many people that even worked on D2 were on the current D3 team, but I don't think it is many, and definitely not anyone that was important, and now they have the Activision turd hanging over their head at all times. They shitcanned the original Diablo 3 which was being worked on by the D2 guys at Blizzard North (who did D1 and 2) and the people that mattered left to create Hellgate: London and now Torchlight 1/2, all of which are banal shit boring (maybe TL2 will be good).

Seeing as how D3 was designed entirely by people that had nothing to do with D2, expectations were pretty low for me. Having said that, I had more fun with the Diablo 3 beta than I did with the full Hellgate or Torchlight, so I guess that counts for something.