I wrote out a huge feedback that was probably 10 pages long but I couldn’t even get through it so I decide to just give a quick hit list of why myself and a couple of friends have pretty much stopped playing after 10 hours compared to last 2 Beta windows where we logged out for a couple hours to sleep and then spent the rest of the weekend stuck to our screens. Three is a more in-depth explanation of the feedback I gathered from my friends below each if you want more than what I provide in the bullet point.
Also, I might not be the best person to represent all players. I am an ex industry vet of many years from SCE, 47 and retired, so I am coming from more of a gameplay point of view that this is a hobby relaxing thing not a trying to be a streamer, or pro gamer type situation. I don’t value my identity on how hard a game is, but instead value the game on how much fun I have. I am not talking down on those who have those aspirations, in the slightest, just giving a focal point of where the feedback is coming from. My friend group are all professionals or retired players over 40.
- Loot - either increase legi drop rate, or create a new class of drop affixes only that has a drop rate between rare and legi.
You created a new system that intrigued us where we build our own legi’s, using affixes garnered from Legi’s that drop in the world. Not one person I met, all of us D2 players btw, who thought “Man, this stuff drops too much!” We just were having fun trying to farm the abilities we wanted to make our own. Fix for us - Make affixes a drop. Give them a drop rate in-between rare and legi if you are going to keep drop rates even close to what they are now. NONE of us want another game where we do 15 Andriel and Meph runs a night, and leave loot on the ground cause its all worthless.
- Class Balance - We really don’t want another D2/D3 situation here as a group. We don’t want ONE dominate spec with everything else being worthless. This I think is the least of the issues I posted because this can and WILL change over time.
Not sure what you are going to do about this honestly. I mean I know what I would do, but I don’t think the majority of Diablo players agree since it seems most are happy with the “I want to one shot my mobs, and just jump around out of fire on the ground while I play.” It’s the worst aspects of WoW and Diablo 2/3 combined. What is the purpose of D4 for you? To make a ton of money right? I don’t see the value in this type of balancing. I am not asking for Equality between builds, I’m just asking you don’t make one OP build, and 15 worthless, with a couple “can survive but won’t be very fun” builds. I would balance the tree as basically 4 major groups - Melee / Ranged / Support / Passives as separate trees. I would go into a full design breakdown but I don’t get paid to do that, and I don’t want to move back to Cali to work in an industry I already left.
- World Boss - I think it’s fine. Just remove the timer, put it in a dungeon zone where you can’t enter until you meet a minimum level requirement, and don’t allow afk/portals/death screen.
We lost every single World Boss fight today because with the 9 people we had in the instance, after dying once or twice, people would just sit in the death screen hoping to get credit off our hard work. 2 of the 3 runs we got them mob to 10% with the players doing this, and the timer runs out. This is such an easy fix I wonder really why no one has actually done anything about it. It ruins the experience for everyone so trolls can laugh. Cool.
- D4’s Identity? - I feel like D4 was an attempt from a team who wanted to get their fingies wet in making an MMO but didn’t feel they had the experience or know how to accomplish it. Either go full in, or knock it off. The desyncs are real.
What do I mean? This game feels like the same problem New World had at launch. Not exactly the same but using NW as the example: A game built to be a full loot PvP Survival game that got feedback from PVE players that scared them in beta, who then tried to make it a consensual PvP survival game which made the pvp crowd mad. So what did they do? Panicked, didn’t stick to their guns, and made a game that was trying to be an MMO, leaving in Survival mechanics that didn’t fit, and a broken PvP system with no rewards. How is it going? They just alienated EVERYONE. Figure out what you want to be brave ones and BE IT! But figure it out fast. While I think a Diablo themed Sandbox MMO would be a dream come true, this current form of D4 seems like the only reason we are pushed into the world with other players who we didn’t invite, is to give cosmetics a purpose.
I mean you do you, but I think the better route would to be focusing on how fun the game is, not how many costumes you can sell. This coming from someone who while working in the Industry, wrote a white paper for Gamasutra and SCE in 2010 on how to increase revenue for failing subscriber counts in online games. Man do I wish I could take those days back. I never realized the extent of the greed that would follow.
So what do I expect from this post? Honestly nothing. I and my friends will find something else to play if the game doesn’t fit what we want, and you will still have millions of people who play. But as someone who loved/s our industry, and doesn’t like the direction its going I always try to at least give feedback where I feel I have some to offer. Please, from my little friend group to the D4 team… sit down and reconsider what direction you are taking this game and fix what you can before Launch. Beta 1 and 2 were glorious besides the desync. Now we just kinda feel meh about it and the group as a whole are kinda bummed.
Take care and thanks for reading if you went this far.