Diablo 4

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

25 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

I played for like 5 hours tonight and the only time I encountered other players was during an event out in the wild when we helped each other, or running by one another at the main hub/city. It’s been pretty much a single player experience for me thus far and that’s exactly what I want also.

There are probably a number of players in your game. It's just that it's hard to party up with strangers right now. I decided to do one more thing and there were dozens of people in the game running about. 

[IlyaP]

29 minutes ago, Relic said:

Not sure what you mean? All dungeons are instanced. Strongholds are as well.

What does instanced mean here? A game's either single-player, or it isn't, right?

[Relic]

10 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

What does instanced mean here? A game's either single-player, or it isn't, right?

It means that dungeons and strongholds are yours and yours alone unless you are in a party. Same thing it means in any other game. 

And, no...not right. D4 is a single player game unless you dont want it to be. The only parts of it where you interact others are in towns and overworld events.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Relic

[IlyaP]

9 minutes ago, Relic said:

And, no...not right. D4 is a single player game unless you dont want it to be. The only parts of it where you interact others are in towns and overworld events.

How...does that work? It's single-player until it's not, in towns and the like? Like, is it a case of you're in a Single-Player Space and then somehow, there are boundaries that lead into multiplayer zones? 

(I don't play multiplayer games, as it's just Not My Thing, so please forgive the ignorance.)

[Relic]

3 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

How...does that work? It's single-player until it's not, in towns and the like? Like, is it a case of you're in a Single-Player Space and then somehow, there are boundaries that lead into multiplayer zones? 

(I don't play multiplayer games, as it's just Not My Thing, so please forgive the ignorance.)

So all dungeons and strongholds and cellars and things you use doors to enter are created for you and you alone (or you and your party should you choose to be in one). The open world stuff like towns and the world map are shared with others, but you barely interact with anyone. You might come across someone fighting in a world event (which are common and sawn every few minutes in set place son the map). 

Enemies scale to your level and party size, no mater where you are. You will never run into enemies more than one level lower than you while you lvl to 50, and i havent seen a single dungeon or stronghold that i could solo. World Bosses you will need many people for but you dnt HAVE to do any of them. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Relic

[IlyaP]

2 minutes ago, Relic said:

The open world stuff like towns and the world map are shared with others, but you barely interact with anyone.

But..why? 

As in: why are the towns I visit shared with others? Why not just have a Not Online Version and an Online Version of the game? Kindly remembering that I live in Australia, where the internet is so bad and so slow it's almost a human rights violation and about as awful as going out on a nice summer's evening to a nice pub and getting served tepid, flat beer that tastes like stale gym socks left out in the sun all week.

[Argonath Diver]

Are you asking why Blizzard opted to make this a fully online game? It's quite obvious, of course - money from MTX purchases. Why do another D3 one-time purchase when they can charge 70 for a game, 20 for a first weekend, 10 every few months for a battle pass, and 30 for some fancy armor packs to show off to random nerds who are only looking at their own inventory, anyway.

Over the last decade I've spent nearly 500 bucks on POE, and although I bought early supporter packs to 'reward' a small company, that really was just money blown to look cool in towns. 

[IlyaP]

23 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

Are you asking why Blizzard opted to make this a fully online game? It's quite obvious, of course - money from MTX purchases. Why do another D3 one-time purchase when they can charge 70 for a game, 20 for a first weekend, 10 every few months for a battle pass, and 30 for some fancy armor packs to show off to random nerds who are only looking at their own inventory, anyway.

Over the last decade I've spent nearly 500 bucks on POE, and although I bought early supporter packs to 'reward' a small company, that really was just money blown to look cool in towns. 

But @Relic is suggesting it's not a fully-online game? 

Like, I know D3 was online only, and this made playing even the single player campaign occasionally an issue because somehow, despite doing singeplayer stuff, I'd *SOMEHOW* get lag, which I could never explain, and decided I didn't care enough to go and learn about because frell Blizzard-Activision. (I don't want to swear and upset Ran, 'cause I honestly don't know what the swearing rules are here, even after all these years.)

But what do you mean by charging by the week? 

[Relic]

You have to be logged in to play. Multiplayer and online dont mean the same thing.

The game has seasons, that last 3 months. To enter each season you have to pay 10 bucks. Like everything else thee days D4 can become a subscription based service if you want to play it that way.

[RumHam]

3 hours ago, IlyaP said:

But @Relic is suggesting it's not a fully-online game? 

Like, I know D3 was online only, and this made playing even the single player campaign occasionally an issue because somehow, despite doing singeplayer stuff, I'd *SOMEHOW* get lag...

Fair warning, I do sometimes get lag stutters in towns with a lot of people.

[Slurktan]

6 hours ago, IlyaP said:

But..why? 

As in: why are the towns I visit shared with others? Why not just have a Not Online Version and an Online Version of the game? Kindly remembering that I live in Australia, where the internet is so bad and so slow it's almost a human rights violation and about as awful as going out on a nice summer's evening to a nice pub and getting served tepid, flat beer that tastes like stale gym socks left out in the sun all week.

Because that's how Diablo has always been.

I don't have D4, for Relic, Rhom etc is there no password feature as in the previous games?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Up to four legendary items now. The druid is so much better than the barb. 

[RumHam]

I accidentally did "refund all" skill points trying to refund one. Took the opportunity to go all bone magic with a focus on critical hits. It seems like focusing on one type of attack is the way to go, at least at first.

I miss the invulnerability of blood mist, but I'm doing way more damage now.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

22 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I accidentally did "refund all" skill points trying to refund one. Took the opportunity to go all bone magic with a focus on critical hits. It seems like focusing on one type of attack is the way to go, at least at first.

I miss the invulnerability of blood mist, but I'm doing way more damage now.

Can't speak to D4, but in D2 that was always the struggle with the Necro, go bone or summon... Once you had awesome gear with >+10 skills you could go bone and just put a point into each summon, but until then it was always a hard decision. 

[Rhom]

10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Ditch the barb. I made a druid and am having so much more fun. I'm at 18 after not playing for that long tonight and already ran over a few bosses my barb couldn't do anything against. My pets can do like 1.2k damage in a few seconds if I set them all off at once. That plus a few tornados kills the big baddies in seconds when my barb would take minutes to wear them down only to die with the boss at half life. 

Started one up and played just long enough to get to Kyovshad.  Grabbed the Werebear skill and Tornado so far.

Did you do that?  Or stay more caster?  Pets come later I guess?

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Because that's how Diablo has always been.

I don't have D4, for Relic, Rhom etc is there no password feature as in the previous games?

No.  It’s a persistent world, not just an instanced play.

ETA:  Rather than triple posting…

Took the Steam Deck to the office this morning to fiddle around.  Experimented with Steam Link from the Deck to my TV and there was no appreciable lag there either.  Just absolutely gorgeous.  

Last thing to try would be to use a Bluetooth controller and set the Deck aside while streaming the link and see how the input goes.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Rhom

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Started one up and played just long enough to get to Kyovshad.  Grabbed the Werebear skill and Tornado so far.

Did you do that?  Or stay more caster?  Pets come later I guess?

I'm following this guide:

It's incredibly strong.

[Kalbear]

4 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Because that's how Diablo has always been.

I don't have D4, for Relic, Rhom etc is there no password feature as in the previous games?

To be clear that is emphatically NOT how diablo has always been. D1 and D2 had both online and offline gameplay. If you wanted to trade or do ladder stuff or play with friends you had to be online (though you could password protect or private your game so it was only you) but you could also freely play locally.

D3 changed that. Now all game servers are on battle net. You must be online to play. You can restrict seeing people and participate in open world things if you want, IIRC. But you can never play without internet.

One reason? Because ensuring that the server could run on your local machine is a kind of complex thing that also opens up their servers to discovered hacks and exploits. As it stands all the code for the servers are never shipped out, and they don't have to run on windows at all. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Kalnestk Oblast

[Darryk]

Liking it so far. It's like Diablo 2 on steroids. Very dark and atmospheric.

I like melee characters that get stuck in. Disappointed there was no paladin or monk. My original plan  was to go Barb but then I decided the Druid shapeshifting sounds more fun, so I've been focusing on Werewolf skills.

I might switch focus to Werebear as I like characters who can deal and take a lot of damage.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

52 minutes ago, Darryk said:

Liking it so far. It's like Diablo 2 on steroids. Very dark and atmospheric.

I like melee characters that get stuck in. Disappointed there was no paladin or monk. My original plan  was to go Barb but then I decided the Druid shapeshifting sounds more fun, so I've been focusing on Werewolf skills.

I might switch focus to Werebear as I like characters who can deal and take a lot of damage.

That's what you should do later in the game, but the goal right now should be get to 50 which is where it sounds like the game opens up a lot. The guide I linked is excellent. I've had zero trouble with bosses unlike with the barb (which will be broken once you get items for it due to the two extra slots).

Is the game working for anyone? I took a break a few hours ago and now can't login.

Also, if you've never played D1, pay whatever small fee it is to get it. That game is so fucking hard, or at least it was when I played it as a kid.