Alpha Centauri 2

Other Games => Other Games => Topic started by: Unorthodox on March 09, 2023, 04:21:18 PM

Title: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on March 09, 2023, 04:21:18 PM

To say I'm a diablo nerd is an understatement. 

Beta tester, content creation, modding encompass my diablo II time. 

I still say Diablo II 1.04 is the best version to exist.  But recognize improvements in other areas, especially 1.10. 

I skipped diablo IIIs release based on the change to how skills worked. 

That said, the boys got involved when the expansion hit playstation, and I joined them.  I'd say Diablo III is closer to ye olde Gauntlet than Diablo with it's arcade styled action.  Big numbers flashy things really fast.  That said, despite me very specifically NOT being a trophy/acheivement chaser, I did platinum Diablo III on playstation.  To my knowledge the only game I've done so.  And i've done it on three separate accounts without specifically targeting achievements even though my boys have somehow NOT and I only played with them. 

I did download the mobile game...maybe played a day.  Meh. 

Enter Diablo IV.  Until very recently I've mostly ignored developement. 

The Beta Test begins next week for pre-orders.  I will not be playing that. 

Open Beta begins 3/24.  At the very least, I'm going to be downloading to see if my laptop will run and on the PS4 to see how it runs there.  If the boys are going to be diving in, I will likely be purchasing on release.  I have questions on whether crossplay is possible or not to decide what system we'll be playing on. 

From what I've seen so far it looks like closer to II than III but with significant QOL upgrades and a healthy dose of WOW.  It's the latter I'm not terribly sure I'm going to like.  Open world with instanced zones...I enjoyed how Guild Wars handled that.  Not how GW2 did.  I'm aware I'm in the minority here though. 

Early class impressions: 

Barbarian: solid as always.  Contender for first playthrough
Sorcerer: looks like some of my just for fun builds from II are back and likely my starter as a result
Necromancer:  Looks more like III than II.  where the skeleton army is mostly there for flavor rather than a feature.  Not interested to start until I see how the skills work in person and whether zookeeper style is viable.   
Druid: Never been my thing but want to try some builds for fun depending on how shapeshift plays.
Rogue: Would have preferred a different class name for dumb reasons.  Bow classes have never been my thing for Diablo styled games will definitely be trying to build a melee version at some point. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on March 25, 2023, 02:36:58 AM

Alec got in early this morning and enjoyed what he saw, so it's working well on PS4. 

There was a 1.5 hour queue on the PC earlier today and I said F that. 
Looks like a 30 minute queue now that if it gets through without issue I may play a bit. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on March 25, 2023, 06:26:37 AM

First impressions levels 1-7 on a Barb.

My dear god do I adore Lilith's design in absolutely every sense. 

Barbarian is HORRENDOUSLY underbalanced.  Maybe it's melee in general. 

It's shiny, and you're trying to hide it but that sure as hell seems like Diablo III's release state of [poopy] build system.  I gotta google if there's a work around or not.  Did they really not learn that lesson?

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on March 25, 2023, 08:53:23 AM

Barbarian 7-12

I respecced my character after getting to a dungeon that had weird bonuses. 

Perhaps counter intuitively, the Diablo IV barb is meant to quick swap weapons.  So instead of focusing on the hammer, switching to a quick 2 weapon build to gain resource and a hammer skill and double handed slashing weapon skill to spend the resources, it started going better. 

Finished a Barbarian only dungeon that gained me a legendary aspect I can put on an item when I find one high enough quality. 

Seems everything scales to your level...which has made general overworld sometimes dodgy when a higher level person activates a map event.  I'd say it's MMO light in that respect.  Not as populated as big MMOs, looks like they're limiting local to 10-12 people. 

Enemy AI is better than normal for this kind of game.  Archers back away and spread out. 

The builds being locked thing broke itself open about level 9 so just some weird tutorial setup to force you into the concept I guess. 

Game is running very smooth on my 10ish year old laptop after some driver updates. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on March 25, 2023, 10:59:36 PM

Barbarian 12-17

Higher end items coming online regularly.  Build starting to come together, finding the game rather difficult. 

Sorcerer 1-5

Game almost laughably easy.  Yeah, balance between classes is pretty [poop] tier. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on March 26, 2023, 06:42:11 AM

Barb -20

As items get plus skills trying out more combos.  Remains a strange mix of trying to build defense and resources.

Melee focused Druid 1-6

Yeah, it's not Melee, it's just the Barb royally sucks.  I think it's the fact they start resources at 0 and have to build them. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on March 27, 2023, 04:36:51 AM

Sorcerer 15 unlocked the enchantment class feature.  Focused completely on Fire.  Hydras are so stupidly overpowered it's laughable.  Erin says chain lightning is just as badly overpowered at this level.   

The enchant class feature is really straight forward.  Maybe detrimentally so in the long run

Druid 10 Completely werewolf.  Mostly single target DOT but some AOE.  Self-heal is quite handy, but you do need to charge up your resource by attacking, similar to a barb, but yours doesn't bleed off if you're still so it's more friendly to use. 

Kyle's Druid 15 :  AOE control build mix of bear, wolf, and elemental.  Useful party based build focused on de-buffing and tanking for Erin.

We did not unlock it's class feature.  Not sure if it was possible or not.   

Kyle's Barbarian 10:  Struggling to find a working build much like I was.  Settled on a bleed build and called it 'ok'. 

Barbarian 24:  Figuring we were missing something, I loaded up my 20, really read the skills and equipment.  I noticed a lot of equipment was flagged as "better" when maybe it wasn't.  So I purposely chose equipment for strength and life stats (have not worried about substats on other classes), discovered weapons add these substats to the character even if not in use, so loaded up on life leach on things I wasn't going to use, and respecced my build to take another look at the hammer build I initially started with. 

Suddenly the barb was just as good as the sorcerer, and could REALLY tank hits with no problem.

The barb has Berserk, Fortified, and something I forget as possible added buffs.  I'm convinced focusing on one and stacking it is the key to unlocking the class coupled with stat watching on the equipment.  Really, it was recommending intelligence equipment just because it had 1 more AC when the +20 strength equipment gets more than that from the strength stat it's boosting. 

Barbarian appears to have a REALLY long progression with the arsenal system class feature.  While we didn't unlock the tactics portion in the demo, just the progression of the basic arsenal looks like it will take weeks to fully level out any one of the weapon types at the rate I play. 

Alec's Rogue 10: Burst DPS sword build that was struggling.  I'm betting it's the stat equipment situation. 

Erin's Rogue 10: Bow sustain build struggling.  Same. 

Necro:  Not played by anyone. 

Couch Co-Op works well on PS4.  Drop in/drop out play.  Upgrade from Diablo 3 as you both can access inventory and skills at the same time. 

Cross progression across systems works well. 

We did not test cross play. 

Party is set to the party leaders world...and my barb got downleveled to some degree to Alec's level.  Didn't lose any skills but my stats were clearly at a % handicap.  Ultimately this won't matter when we're all 100. 

Queues and stability were much better after Friday.  Whether that was from the patch they pushed or people losing interest is open for debate. 

Randoms on the world map doing events was not as annoying as I anticipated. 

We did not join any of the world boss events. 

Peaking into end game content as much as possible:  Aspect farming to enhance items looks rather fun at least the first time.  This SEEMS to be account wide as well.  If they do seasons, though, that could get old. There were a couple other farming systems I could see but weren't in the beta. 

Fun enough I'm going to pre-order. 

The basic game.  None of the digital crap matters to me. 

Though that collectors box looks nice it aint worth the money. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on May 01, 2023, 09:21:18 PM

One last beta "server Slam" coming over mother's day weekend.  hEts out of town that weekend, will likely be on with length being determined by how smooth it goes. 

Patches since the last beta include class balance and rolling drop rates back to normal levels from the beta. 

Torn between firing up a necro and playing barbarian again to see the balance changes. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on May 15, 2023, 02:47:23 PM

Server slam recap:

Game stability was impeccable.  I had no wait times during this server slam.  Whether this was due to lack of interest or them figuring their [poop] is open to debate. 

Balance changes:  Sorceress rolled and fiddled with several builds.  Still felt powerful but not as stupidly easy as the first beta.  Able to come up with a shockingly tanky build which I ended up taking in to do the world boss that was the point of this server slam.  I'd purposely avoided watching content regarding the boss, so wasn't completely prepared.  Now I've seen it in action, confident I could take it in hardcore with a group. 

Unlike the first beta, I mistakenly thought you needed to finish the story to activate the boss, so plowed through the actual main quest instead of just randomly leveling.  I absolutely adore Lilith. 

Necromancer run...some history first. 

I ran a naked necromancer (no equipment) DAR in diablo II back in the day and beat normal difficulty.  I'm intimately familiar and fondly recall playtime with that necromancer. 

Fast forward to Guild Wars (yes, Guild Wars is basically a diablo game with half the developers of DII going on to make that) where the Necromancer sought to solve the 'problem' from Diablo II by making the minions degrade.   I enjoyed my necro/monk in that game as it still FELT like a necromancer building an army. 

Fast forward to Diablo III....and I actively HATE that necromancer.  They 'solved' the problem by making the skeletons nothing more than a cosmetic thing for some of your skills. 

Diablo IV FEELS right again.  You're actively building and maintaining your army.  (if you choose, there's other ways to play)  I actively leaned into that, dumping all my points into minion buffs and skills to help them.  This was the most "Diablo II" styled experience I've had in a game.

Hardcore Druid run:  Only got to level 15 before time run out. 

Hardcore servers were pretty devoid of players.  Not terribly surprising given the limited time given.   I misread the end time and thought I had more time to finish this run. 

Druid still felt weak, but I was in that hard space where I hadn't really found any decent gear yet, so hard to judge. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on May 30, 2023, 02:41:31 PM

Early access starts this week.  I'm resolute in not paying for the early start. 

That puts me starting in 1 week.  Not doing anything silly like taking time off work or such.  Not planning to watch spoilers or read guides.  I'll figure things out as I go, like with the world boss.

Have enjoyed most the marketing.  Would have totally been to any of the live events if they were near. 

https://www.v36.fr/visite-virtuelle/230515-Diablo4_Chapelle/

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 30, 2023, 02:56:41 PM

You like the name, don't you?

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on May 30, 2023, 09:20:06 PM

Which Name? 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on May 30, 2023, 09:27:32 PM

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 30, 2023, 10:31:31 PM

Devilation.  It first caught your attention for being named after Satan.  ;nod

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 01, 2023, 04:20:21 AM

ORIGINAL Diablo? 

Lord thats a LONG time ago. 
Honestly don't recall.  I played the PS1 port back in the day.  Didn't have a computer at the time.  (Ok, had a free to us APPLE IIGs I think for hEt's schoolin)

Why or how I ended up with a Diablo copy is lost to time, but it sure did hook me.  It's one of the very few games I recall on the PS1. 

Final Fantasy 7
Tomb Raider  (I never liked any of the sequels as much as the first.  Too much focus on human enemies and not as much exploration as that first.)
Crash Bandicoot that come with the console, mostly remembered because hEt played. 
Armored Core (which is also getting a new game later this year, but I haven't played the last couple entries.  Love the series in general)
And Ogre Battle....the game that taught me to embrace being EVIL.  I TRIED.  I REALLY REALLY tried to be the 'good guy' in that game because that's what you're supposed to do...and it kept judging me more and more evil until I finally broke down and decided if I was the bad guy, by damn I would be THE BAD GUY.  I haven't really been the same since in morality option games. 


We bought the computer largely because Diablo II was coming out and my friend introduced me to Civ II. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 05, 2023, 03:24:15 AM

Tomorrow is launch.  My battle.net ID is Ulias#11675 if anyone out there wants to hook up for a game. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 08, 2023, 02:45:25 PM

Just cleared act I, so just barely getting past where I was in the betas.  Taking it slow and mostly playing with my sons. 

Necromancer does feel quite reminiscent of Diablo II still, but at the same time there's hard decisions with so few skill slots available.  Rolling full zookeeper summon build...which is probably pretty stupid from a best in slot perspective, but it's working extremely well for our grouping.

Story wise, it keeps trying to tell me how bad it will be if Lilith wins and we must stop her....but narratively, I would actually rather HELP her. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 13, 2023, 07:08:47 PM

Started a secondary character now, so have both a sorceress and a necro to level 34. 

I'm not being "smart" on either one, doing what I find fun even though it's clearly not optimal.  I'd guess I'm about half way through Act 2.  Not really beelining but trying to focus on story line as I go.  There's 5 areas on the map, presuming there's an act per area, and theoretically one in Hell as well, I'm kind of shocked at the size of this game. 

There's been a noticeable dropoff of other players in my areas.  I get the sense that's more to do with people getting through faster than me more than a decline in playerbase.  I do find a lack of obvious party making system a bit odd.  Otherwise it kinda feels like the original Guild Wars in a lot of ways. 

Legitimately, I'm going to be playing this for years, likely.  At the same time, I can see areas that probably aren't for anyone, and some areas that will hopefully get improved on over time.  This is a launch state after all, and Diablo II and III at launch were vastly different than they ended up. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 13, 2023, 10:17:46 PM

According to review bombs, apparently Diablo IV is woke trash because they have finally animated Lilith officially and made her the focus here.  (she was in some Diablo II content that never released and referenced in Diablo I.  Not terribly sure about III as I didn't do much lore in that one)

Whatever. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 13, 2023, 10:47:07 PM

Why would they send the woke trash here?

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 18, 2023, 04:42:28 PM

An Unorthodox Halloween officially formed a clan yesterday as there were issues finding each other cross platform.  It all worked fine finding the clan.  Anyone is welcome to join.

I've finished act 3.  So about half through the campaign. 

Me being me, I really want to start other characters and try more stuff out, but trying to focus until I finish. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 20, 2023, 02:01:10 PM

It was stated at points in marketing you should be finishing the campaign at around level 50... I've got at least 2 acts left to go. 

The lightning sorceress has really come into it's own with a good skill rotation.  It's a little random, though that's always been lightning in Diablo.  I do miss the crit fishing style of Diablo 2, but this random proc style is fun in it's own way. 

My necromancer is only played with my boys, because I was *technically farther* into the main quest with the sorceress.

The Paragon system (leveling after 50) is simpler than people are making it out to be. 

*My one real complaint so far on the game is co-op on the main quest line.  If you are not EXACTLY the same spot together, there's a good chance one of you isn't getting credit for the quests.  My necro has had to do a lot of things twice just because he's the one I'm playing with the kids on, and often we're at different sections when we start so my character just doesn't get any credit even if we get to where he was.  So, when we'd played Saturday and I realized I had about 2 hours of main quest to re-do I just went to the sorceress. 

The good is it still LETS me pay with the boys anyway, and I'll take that over some gate preventing the party from moving forward.

We also had a severely bugged main quest mission we had to google a work around for, but that's just a known bug at this point and I'm sure will be fixed. 


One thing that is EXTREMELY SLICK and, I don't really know how they are pulling it off, is the coop between extremely disparate characters.  Kyle's SO joined us Saturday, and he'd rolled a new character with her.  They were level 18, while Alec and I were level 36.  The system scaling is essentially seamless.  Alec and I were 'fighting' level 36 mobs on our end.  Kyle and Erin were fighting level 18 on theirs.  And it didn't feel at all like either side was gimped or being carried.  I honestly don't know how they do that in the back end but it is definitely slick as hell. 

Title: Re: Uno's Diablo IV catchall.
Post by: Unorthodox on June 23, 2023, 04:01:03 PM

Closing in on the end of the campaign. 

I think I've spoken before about the old original plan for Diablo III and scrapped game.  I can still see the bones of some of that, and really wish I had the option to choose sides like the original plan was. 

I've moved on to the paragon system and can see what they're trying to do, and it should be meaningful up to level 70-80 or so where it would likely become minor tweaks instead of feeling of actual growth. 

It's been really weird the fan feedback on this game.

The number and type of complaints have me scratching my head. 

Vendors are too far from the waypoints.  Dungeons you have to walk to.  It takes too long to get to 'endgame' level 100 (I think this stems from Diablo III players where the game didn't really start til you hit max level, where this is much more like diablo II and a journey not a destination).

The latest being upset that the season system will require you to make a new character for season content...which every other diablo game with seasons has done. 

I really don't know what the heck people want.