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[Trickster]

Are people really talking about how amazing the Dungeons were in Diablo 2? I also like showing the Durance of Hate Vs Diablo 3. Thats like Durance Vs Den of Evil.

I no way were D2's dungeons awesome in design or scale. Lots of dead ends, lots of backtracking when you go a full length across the map, just to find out you went the wrong way. Yay fun!

I think the people that are complaining about the hallway feel of the D3 dungeons are people that also dislike other things about D3, like the graphics, skill system, and difficulty. I personally don't agree with most of it. But I think it's important to realize that a lot of people obviously do.

 

[MasLegio]

Playing with other people feels more like a race than playing a game. You don't have time to gather and sort weapons, items, craft, sell, carefully choose your skills, take in the story, etc etc. and all the players are just racing to beat the game as fast as possible. Nobody chats either. It takes all the "game" out of it and reduces it to a clicky spam-fest.

this is why I stopped playing WOW two times now. Everyone just tries to level up as fast as possible or run through instances instead of enjoying the game.

 

[V_Arnold]

Playing with other people feels more like a race than playing a game. You don't have time to gather and sort weapons, items, craft, sell, carefully choose your skills, take in the story, etc etc. and all the players are just racing to beat the game as fast as possible. Nobody chats either. It takes all the "game" out of it and reduces it to a clicky spam-fest.

I cant wait to see how GAF plays this game. EU-Gaf, you better prepare for some serious Nightmare/Hell farming!

 

[UnluckyKate]

I cant wait to see how GAF plays this game. EU-Gaf, you better prepare for some serious Nightmare/Hell farming!

I played the game yesterday alone, then with 3 friends. We were in the same room. I probably never had such fun playing a game in years. We farmed the game to get to level 13. We were dying to get more challenge

Also, multiple monk casting Bells is hilarious

 

[Synth_floyd]

It's natural that if you've played it 10 times already that you already know what skills and items you want and need and how to quickly sort and sell/craft, but I guess I just don't see an incentive to play the game that many times.

Once you've beat the game and you're playing it on the harder difficulties then you're just farming for specific high level items? Is there some additional degree of meta-gameplay that opens up at the end game?

 

[Raide]

I think the people that are complaining about the hallway feel of the D3 dungeons are people that also dislike other things about D3, like the graphics, skill system, and difficulty. I personally don't agree with most of it. But I think it's important to realize that a lot of people obviously do.

How complicated were the dungeons next to Blood Raven? That is pretty much what we are doing now. Who knows what else lies once Hell and beyond opens up!

The skill system it taking me a while to get use to but I am enjoying unlocking new skills but also new Runes as I level up. Its like getting new skills over and over! As for difficulty, here is a suggestion. Don't equip any blue/Yellow items that you put in your Shared Stash. Play it with Grey/White items if you want a bit more challenge. Also, its on Normal...

Durance of Hate being an Expansion Pack Dungeon seems a little unfair to compare it to 1/2 of Act 1 basic Dungeon stuff.

 

[Darkone]

I need some help in understanding how the difficult level system:

When i finish the first run and start a new game on Nightmare will my current character continue his leveling or start from level 1?

 

[Woo-Fu]

It's probably nonsense to even think about it since everything will be dynamic with upcoming patches, changes etc. and you can look it all up on the net anyways but there's something about reading Diablo facts on the crapper that is just appealing to me hmmm...

I must be blessed, I never need to spend that much time sitting on a toilet.

 

[Raide]

I need some help in understanding how the difficult level system:

When i finish the first run and start a new game on Nightmare will my current character continue his leveling or start from level 1?

Finish Game on Normal, Start Nightmare at the level you finished at. So if you finish at 25, you start fresh at 25 with all your gear etc.

 

[Trickster]

I need some help in understanding how the difficult level system:

When i finish the first run and start a new game on Nightmare will my current character continue his leveling or start from level 1?

Your character will be exactly like he/she was at the end of your normal playthrough, the world becomes harder, but your character stays the same.

Durance of Hate being an Expansion Pack Dungeon seems a little unfair to compare it to 1/2 of Act 1 basic Dungeon stuff.

Durance of Hate was the act 3 dungeon where mephisto was

 

[Moofers]

Game finally clicked for me last night. Had around 2 hours of playtime in before that, and wasn't really feeling it, but I think its because I spent most of that time alone. Last night, I played for a couple hours with full parties and had a blast. Plus, my Demon Hunter finally started getting some kickass abilities.

There was one playthrough where there was one other Demon Hunter in the party and we would just sit back together and fucking rain arrows on mobs. It was glorious. Then later my Wizard got up near lvl 9 and was able to do really cool shit as well.

Can't decide if I want to buy this on 5/15 or wait for a console port. The "always online" really bothers me, but I had a pretty good time so I might be able to get over that. However, Game of Thrones comes out the same day, and I want to buy SSX really bad too. Decisions, decisions....

 

[Raide]

Your character will be exactly like he/she was at the end of your normal playthrough, the world becomes harder, but your character stays the same.




Durance of Hate was the act 3 dungeon where mephisto was

Damn, confusing it with those Baal levels.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Are people really talking about how amazing the Dungeons were in Diablo 2? I also like showing the Durance of Hate Vs Diablo 3. Thats like Durance Vs Den of Evil.

I no way were D2's dungeons awesome in design or scale. Lots of dead ends, lots of backtracking when you go a full length across the map, just to find out you went the wrong way. Yay fun!

I don't mind the backtracking. I do however mind the soullessness of some of the grid layout. I'd prefer a dungeon and overworld system with more landmarks and set pieces to distinguish particular areas.

 

[Suairyu]

Final day of the beta but I'm in work. Won't be home in time. The final class I never got to try was Witch Doctor, but I'm not generally a fan of "summon things to do the work for you"-kind of RPG characters. I like feeling I have direct control over everything.

Also, I apparently seem to be the minority of people who will do - at minimum - a run of every single character through Normal mode at least to get a feel of what they're really about.

This beta weekend has been fantastic. It convinced me to pre-order. I've eeked tens of hours out of what is really three hours of content. I could not be happier with how this game is turning out. Going to finish playing my Warrior run of the first Diablo tonight, then begin a Wizard run. After that, I can hopefully complete Diablo II a couple of times before May 15th.

The funny thing is I hadn't ever played this series at all until a couple of weeks ago. I've been missing out.

Playing with other people feels more like a race than playing a game. You don't have time to gather and sort weapons, items, craft, sell, carefully choose your skills, take in the story, etc etc. and all the players are just racing to beat the game as fast as possible. Nobody chats either. It takes all the "game" out of it and reduces it to a clicky spam-fest.

That's what happens when you play with strangers. f0rk and I were playing together and, while it was undoubtedly a bit more fast paced than if solo, both of us paused to gather loot, mess with our skills and made frequent trips back to Tristram. If the game on release has microphone support, I can only see this being even better.

As with WoW, so long as you have a group of solid people who - chiefly - communicate, all is good. The advantage Diablo has over WoW is that you don't need as many decent people to fill a party. So long as I can convince a pool of friends both IRL and on GAF to play D3, I'm fairly confident I will be playing this game for a long time to come.

 

[Cipherr]

It's natural that if you've played it 10 times already that you already know what skills and items you want and need and how to quickly sort and sell/craft, but I guess I just don't see an incentive to play the game that many times.

Once you've beat the game and you're playing it on the harder difficulties then you're just farming for specific high level items? Is there some additional degree of meta-gameplay that opens up at the end game?

In a rather round about way you are sort of describing the end game. This isnt like an MMO. Its all about loot at the end game. There will be so many variations of items though, so painting it as "Specific high level items" isnt really accurate. But yeah, Diablo is Kill Kill Kill, loot loot loot.

Thats the game.

 

[daviyoung]

I don't mind the backtracking. I do however mind the soullessness of some of the grid layout. I'd prefer a dungeon and overworld system with more landmarks and set pieces to distinguish particular areas.

Wouldn't that be really hard to do with randomly generated settings?

 

[Raide]

I don't mind the backtracking. I do however mind the soullessness of some of the grid layout. I'd prefer a dungeon and overworld system with more landmarks and set pieces to distinguish particular areas.

Currently, I like exploring some of the D3 dungeons, just to see the detail they have put in and possible hidden journals etc. For me it is more about the monsters I encounter and not just the design of the dungeon. I don't tend to notice all those things once my mind gets into loot mode.

D2 dungeons did get really annoying, since many areas did look the same, just in a slightly different place. Some of them were really annoyingly long too, like the Jail levels.

 

[Cipherr]

Wouldn't that be really hard to do with randomly generated settings?

Yeah, either that or the landmarks would lose their luster as they appeared in random spots in random dungeons. Not sure you can have it both ways. Ill take randomly generated dungeons, over the same ass layouts with standout landmarks anyday considering how this game it played at the end game.

 

[Number45]

Playing with other people feels more like a race than playing a game. You don't have time to gather and sort weapons, items, craft, sell, carefully choose your skills, take in the story, etc etc. and all the players are just racing to beat the game as fast as possible. Nobody chats either. It takes all the "game" out of it and reduces it to a clicky spam-fest.

This is why I think my first run through the game will be alone, plenty of time for loot whoring and co-op after that.

 

[Raide]

Yeah, either that or the landmarks would lose their luster as they appeared in random spots in random dungeons. Not sure you can have it both ways. Ill take randomly generated dungeons, over the same ass layouts with standout landmarks anyday considering how this game it played at the end game.

Well, there are some landmark areas that trigger events. I am sure plnety more of those are planned.

Anyone else get the "loads of undead bursting out of the ground" event? That was awesome. More of those!

 

[Darkone]

Finish Game on Normal, Start Nightmare at the level you finished at. So if you finish at 25, you start fresh at 25 with all your gear etc.

Tnx for the info, i think i will have a hard time of deciding what to do, continue with my current character or start a new class at level 1, grrrrr.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Once you've beat the game and you're playing it on the harder difficulties then you're just farming for specific high level items? Is there some additional degree of meta-gameplay that opens up at the end game?

That is part of an appeal of Diablo. It will be different than WoW, you won't have one-week boss timers, etc. Farm gear, do achievements, farm more gear, do more achievements, wait for expansion, kill new stuff, farm gear again.

Fuck yeah.

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Playing with other people feels more like a race than playing a game. You don't have time to gather and sort weapons, items, craft, sell, carefully choose your skills, take in the story, etc etc. and all the players are just racing to beat the game as fast as possible. Nobody chats either. It takes all the "game" out of it and reduces it to a clicky spam-fest.

Playing with only friends or playing solo will fix that for you, Diablo is all about loot loot loot and that is all anyone cares about is getting the most loot in the shortest amount of time.

 

[red731]

This is why I think my first run through the game will be alone, plenty of time for loot whoring and co-op after that.

I will play solo first time through too. If you are from Europe, will follow the story, check and read everything, then I would play with you.

 

[Winnie the Pimp]

Tnx for the info, i think i will have a hard time of deciding what to do, continue with my current character or start a new class at level 1, grrrrr.

crap i didn't know this...

So i'll have to basically STICK with my FIRST character then on later difficulties or else i'm gonna get my ass kicked as a new lvl 1 right?

 

[Raide]

Tnx for the info, i think i will have a hard time of deciding what to do, continue with my current character or start a new class at level 1, grrrrr.

Remember, since you can share items between your other characters, it will make it easier to start a new character and level them.

I will be mainly playing a Monk but will probably slowly level the other classes also, just so I get to see more content.

 

[strafer]

Christ! My fans are going crazy in this game.

I'm afraid to play.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Your new level 1 will start on normal.

Diablo has a weird difficulty system. You basically beat the game 3 times on each character to reach the "end-game".

 

[Winnie the Pimp]

Your new level 1 will start on normal.

Diablo has a weird difficulty system. You basically beat the game 3 times on each character to reach the "end-game".

oh! So if i wanna play another character then i basically HAVE to start on Normal hmm ok gotcha... might have to level them up side by side then

 

[Valnen]

Compare that to how the layouts of the dungeons are in D3 from what we've seen. They are much more spread out, and force the player to follow straight paths much more.

Do you really think it's fair to judge Diablo 3's tutorial dungeons against what is quite possibly the biggest dungeon in the game in Diablo 2 in a later act?

 

[Interfectum]

Do you really think it's fair to judge Diablo 3's tutorial dungeons against what is quite possibly the biggest dungeon in the game in Diablo 2 in a later act?

If it fits his narrative, yes.

 

[TheApatheticOne]

Playing with other people feels more like a race than playing a game. You don't have time to gather and sort weapons, items, craft, sell, carefully choose your skills, take in the story, etc etc. and all the players are just racing to beat the game as fast as possible. Nobody chats either. It takes all the "game" out of it and reduces it to a clicky spam-fest.

This, this, this.

Sporadically adding GAFer's as I go, but had a good time with GAF for those I did play with. My buddy, on the other hand, may as well be drifting around corners. I felt like I was storm chasing. I had the tornado on radar, and I was just trailing behind looking at the damage. Im not saying we need to sit down and have tea after every encounter, but damn... ya know.

Please send me a friends request if you dont have me on your list yet and you aren't interested in only doing speed runs - Battlenet ID - ApathyReigns#1159

 

[Number45]

Christ! My fans are going crazy in this game.

I'm afraid to play.

Yeah, I have this as well. My PC is getting on now, if it's consistently like this I might need to convince the missus to let me get a new PC tweak the settings. Just left the beta on the default (most at high, 1680x1050):

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Windows 2.6.1.7600
CPU TYPE:
AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
CPU SPEED:
3.22 GHz
SYSTEM MEMORY:
4 GB
VIDEO CARD MODEL:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
DESKTOP RESOLUTION:
1680x1050

 

[Yoshichan]

Christ! My fans are going crazy in this game.

I'm afraid to play.

It's normal.

 

[Trickster]

Do you really think it's fair to judge Diablo 3's tutorial dungeons against what is quite possibly the biggest dungeon in the game in Diablo 2 in a later act?

The later part of act 1 were pretty similar in design structure and were also big. And all there is for people to judge D3's dungeons on so far are those we've seen, which are the beta dungeons. So they are what people will compare with D2.

But like I said, I'm not the not that thinks the D2 dungeons were better than the ones D3. Just that there are people that feel that way.

 

[Darkone]

Your new level 1 will start on normal.

Diablo has a weird difficulty system. You basically beat the game 3 times on each character to reach the "end-game".

After trying all the classes i dont know what to pick and now that i need to finish it with each class and decide with who to invest my time i barely have i think i am Going to bash my head against the wall now.

 

[Salih]

can it be that the barbarian is way too strong compared to the other classes?

 

[zoukka]

The fact that we've grinded the same layouts for months without losing our sanity tells a tale about the world of DIII. The short glimpse into the other areas that we got a while ago just confirmed, that the variety will be there.

 

[Torraz]

The D3 dungeons so far do seem "tunnelyer" than most anything in D2.

D2:
Act 1: The catacombs there had broader tunnels, or am I misremembering

Act 2: Maggot cave was very narrow, same as the arcane sanctuary. However, the salamander cave and the tombs were again pretty spacious.

Act 3: Spider caves and the tiny guys with big knives caves were also pretty spacious. Mephistos dungeon aswell as shown in the screenshot.

Act 4: Diablo's was pretty small, but again did not feel so very cramped.

Looking at maps from D3 it seems that, for instance in the catacombs, there are several larger rooms (on D2 level-size) but they are connected by these really long and narrow tunnels which, to me, make it feel too cramped. Of course, it could be that this only applies to these very first demo areas, but Diablo 2, by comparison, was a lot more spacious in most of its dungeons.

 

[V_Arnold]

It's normal.

So will it be even worse on Inferno?

Spoiler

wink-wink

 

[RoyalFool]

It's normal.

Try lowering the maximum in-game framerate value in the settings. My machine gets the hottest when not much is on screen and the frame-rate sky rockets.

 

[The Hermit]

This is my first "always-online" game ever and the experience is incredibly frustrating. The couple of hours I´ve played with the Monk were fun (albeit too easy) and I was sure that I would have no problem since my connection was always solid before...

But just this time its crapping out several times and its frustrating as hell. I guess I won't be able to enjoy DIII

 

[Number45]

This is my first "always-online" game ever and the experience is incredibly frustrating. The couple of hours I´ve played with the Monk were fun (albeit too easy) and I was sure that I would have no problem since my connection was always solid before...

But just this time its crapping out several times and its frustrating as hell. I guess I won't be able to enjoy DIII

This weekend has been a stress test. I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but the full release (at least once it settles) should be a lot smoother.

 

[Trickster]

This is my first "always-online" game ever and the experience is incredibly frustrating. The couple of hours I´ve played with the Monk were fun (albeit too easy) and I was sure that I would have no problem since my connection was always solid before...

But just this time its crapping out several times and its frustrating as hell. I guess I won't be able to enjoy DIII

It's an open beta where they were doing stress tests on their servers. They've already stated that they capping things like players limits massively for testing purposes, and that if they removed their cap, they could easily handle all the people trying to play the game.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Slowdown during first load is normal? I get random bouts. Unless the game really is taxing me. It's 60fps all the time but with random drops.

2500k@4.8
6970
8gb RAM

I know what the minimum spec is but I'm going to chalk up the issues with it being a "beta" and all.

Love the game though. This will be my first day 1 Diablo since the first.

 

[Torraz]

Somehow can't delete my 2 above posts. Decided to play through the cathedral again in D3 since I found no screenshots to use on the web. I think it's pretty clear that D2 and D3 dungeons (at least the early game cathedrals in both games) look very different.

D2 = lots of boxes. D3 = large rooms connected by long cramped tunnels.

D2

D3

 

[AndyMoogle]

By just comparing those two maps, I prefer the D3 map.

I can't say that I ever considered D1 and D2 to have great dungeon designs. Not that I think that the ones in the D3 beta are great either.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Has anyone seen the Witch doctor spotlight video today?? Wow, he has a big ass frog that eats people lol

 

[Fitz]

Has anyone seen the Witch doctor spotlight video today?? Wow, he has a big ass frog that eats people lol

Do you have a link for that?

 

[elfinke]

Has anyone seen the Witch doctor spotlight video today?? Wow, he has a big ass frog that eats people lol

Even the basic beta frogs are awesome. Can't wait for the full game versions!

By just comparing those two maps, I prefer the D3 map.

I can't say that I ever considered D1 and D2 to have great dungeon designs. Not that I think that the ones in the D3 beta are great either.

Yep. Just looking at those D2 pics fill me dread and despair at all the needless backtracking and boxes. Urgh. What we've seen of D3 may be a little too corridor heavy, but the randomisation (within fairly predictable confines) is better. And hey, they're the first dungeons of the game!