Sounds like similar aspects of the ARPG genre appeal to the two of us.
Itās not like they are going to shut off respeccing at some level. It just gets really expensive to redo your whole skill set. You can still experiment with a few points here and there, and since none of the individual skills let you invest more than 7 points, swapping a single skill out should prove relatively doable even at high level (just not free to do it on a whim or to swap back and forth to face different kinds of enemies).
Basically, people want to play the fantasy of being a specific character and for that to mean something more than just having certain items. If all the power and swappable skills are on the items, then your ācharacterā is completely generic.
For people who donāt want to replay from level 1, they will still be able to modify their build if they come up with ways to adjust it. But the cost to go from Build A to Build B will depend on the difference between the builds. It might be faster to re-level from level 1 for builds that are different enough (though Iām a bit skeptical of that claim), but that doesnāt mean you have to relevel from level 1. Iām betting most people will either be constantly making alts or will be never making alts of the same class and neither group will consider whether or not the build they want would be easier to get by the other route.
They have kind of mitigated this. Of course, min-maxed to the gills builds will all require specific equipment but D4 has dungeons that unlock aspects as well as save them from gear. I think as the game progresses that balance will change and you will want/need to get specific drops with the aspect to put on the right piece of gear but hopefully there will be a variety of ways to get it to drop instead of just slapping Baal/world boss over and over.
I honestly never thought to look for this during my time playing to level 20 - does D4 use the smart loot system from D3:RoS where most gear has the stats and effects for your character type?
You definitely get far more drops for items usable by your class than ones usable by others. And I didnāt see a single +1 skill/skill category drop for a different class on a piece of armor or an amulet or w/e (though maybe that happens sometimes?). Iām not sure about the legendary powers, though. I think all the drops I found were for powers that affected skills of my class?
Fantastic post - tons of great information and consideration of the systems. Thanks for taking the time to provide such detail.
My token comment is on one of your more trivial comments - I liked the Cellars a lot. And I think they, like the āsit in chairsā ability you also mentioned, as well as the city vendors being spaced out across an expansive city, are just attempts to make the world more interesting to explore. In some ways, the world reminded me of Sacred, the old ARPG, in that there was at least some attempt to make the world more interesting to look at and explore, rather than just have combat zones.
Agree that those features, and the inclusion/exclusion of other world building elements, probably waxed and waned over its lengthy development. As a person who is primarily interested in campaigns and exploration, I appreciated the fact that Diablo 4 seems to have a much more interesting world, storyline and side quests than prior games (which were pretty spartan and basically contained none of that, other than great looking cinematics that were doled out almost like a reward for progression rather than being integrated with gameplay or even entirely coherent).
I think that viewpoint is probably pretty typical of people who really get invested in ARPGs (and MMOs) - you are definitely a more sophisticated gamer who really enjoys dissecting the meat of systems.
Iām definitely the complete opposite in that the ācrunchinessā is somewhat dull to me, while the world and creatures are more important, and I just like creating interesting characters and finding non-standard ways to succeed with them - even if they are comparative misfits in raw ability and have to use different, more onerous strategies - for that reason I somewhat enjoyed the badly imbalanced characters. I like creating varied characters and having experiences of differing challenge - I want to take a powerful wizard and easily blast through areas, and then find a way to navigate through the storyline with a wimpy hobbit, etc. ā obviously ARGs arenāt designed for meaningful roleplaying options like that but I appreciate having more varied choices and consequences in character development, even if there arenāt storyline/other roleplaying options.
I love that too. I loved doing the melee Sorceress in Diablo 2. It was semi viable in Normal difficulty until Act 3 I think.
I really appreciate your post. Iām curious about this thing though. If the battle pass is 100% cosmetics (which theyāve promised so far, but could always change), how would nerfs affect anything about the battle pass model?
Iām guessing that they might want to gate how fast you go through all of the Battle Pass milestones, and builds that are OP would reduce the appeal of paying for accelerators, maybe. Thatās all I can think of really.
Pretty much what @TheWombat said ā if the Premium Battle Pass is progression gated, any builds that are massively better will need to get toned down, otherwise players will feel like they āhave to goā that build to get the cosmetics as efficiently as possible.
Incentives are a hell of a drug, in other words.
Ah, makes sense. I guess I didnāt think through how battle pass progression might work, just what rewards it would contain.
With a well-constructed system, there is plenty of time to get everything if playing regularly. However, there are a) people that want everything now and will pay to get it and b) people with limited time that still want all the shinies. The first group in particular (IMO) is likely to gravitate toward a power build, especially if something is obviously op.
There are also people who power build because we are bad at gaming and need all the help we can get!
While that may be, I was speaking to why the existence of a season pass could potentially impact balance philosophy.
In teaching our students who are in game development majors, I try to get them to think about game design broadly. Not just in terms of crunchy systems or neat hooks (which are important, of course) but also in how the overall context of the game as a product as well as a creative object might shape what they do. Monetization strategies have to be considered from the very beginning of the design process I think. You can definitely build games that are both player-friendly and highly monetizable (and one hopes profitable without being exploitive), but it takes intentionality and a keen understanding of how game mechanics and structure interacts with the stuff you are selling.
Hard disagree. I prefer the āif I build it, they will comeā passionate artist approach every single time. Building games from the business perspectiveā¦no thanks!
When I was a teen and made my own levels in 90s PC games I didnāt care about money. I just wanted it to be good. Wish I still had that spirit.
I am not saying ādonāt make games without building in monetization gimmicks.ā Iām saying, if you are building games that will have to have monetization strategies built in for their lifetime, you have to do that from the ground up. Retrofitting them to a design that never considered them is a recipe for disaster.
No matter what you build, though, unless itās a hobby, you have to think about how it will sell. You can bank on the creativity or passion or quality selling copies, and it might work. Or you can hedge your bets and make something in a genre/market niche with a high probability of success, even if it isnāt what you really love. Or you can go full-on gacha, up to you. Iām just saying that in most cases beyond passion projects where you donāt need to sell anything, you are going to have to consider your commercial context at the beginning or you will be trying to shoehorn in stuff with bad results.
I guess a good sign for me is after 3 days since the demo I sat down at my computer last night and nothing appealed to me, I wanted to play D4.
Yeah, thatās always a great sign!