Yeah, there is indeed a lock camera option. I’ve never used it though, since I never move the camera anyway. I always figured, hey, what if I really really need to move it, for some reason? (I have over 1200 hours in this game btw).
On the xbox, it does not really lock the camera…just locks the view toward North or something random like that. I checked it and I could still rotate the camera and zoom in/out. I always rotate the camera view, cant imagine leaving that alone.
I leave it alone 90% of the time because the landscape design for me is such that i hardly ever feel views are so obstructed I need to adjust it. Of course, I’ve put maybe 15 hours at most in ths game, so could be that’s not the case in later areas.
(One game that badly needs camera control to begin with is Torchlight 2, I don’t know how they didn’t think it was necessary. )
I played T2 with my kiddo an never even thought about the camera. I just like to have it facing the direction I’m facing at all times but it does not do that. I know D3 and T2 didnt do that either but for this one, I keep rotating. Oh well, will get used to it.
As long as the zoom stays where you put it, that’s all i care about.
I’ve bounced off Grim Dawn more times than I can remember, I finally have a controller (PS5) for my PC, I am assuming it supports that and does it make a noticeable difference to anyone who has played. I know I am in a tiny minority that has not played a lot even though I am one who has put hundreds of hours into Diablo 3.
Yay! Thanks for giving it another try! It’s much more fun with the controller.
When you’re theory-crafting a character on Grim Dawn Build Calculator and actually start implementing it, remember that certain skills might sound great on paper, but don’t have any ooomph on the screen, skills like “Word of Pain” by the inquisitor or “Drain Essence” by the Necromancer, and a few others. If you encounter those kinds of skills, do what I do and go back to the drawing board. Stick to the fun skills.
When you say you bounced off of it, can I ask what was different about Grim Dawn that doesn’t work for you in the way that I guess Diablo does?
I tried GD 5 or 6 times at least before it stuck. The critical path is really obtuse in that game, and it’s what put me off. I spent hours wandering around trying to figure out where I was supposed to be going. Once I finally figured out enough of the critical path to get some levels is when the game clicked for me, have 1200+hours at this point.
It’s worth going through whatever you have to until it clicks, because in my opinion it is the best ARPG ever made. It’s one of those games that is well worth the learning curve.
I don’t know how to describe it other than the actual combat and slaughter didn’t feel as satisfying. I couldn’t really “feel” the hits landing or what felt like the same amount of contact visited upon the bad guys.
I am sure there are smarter people than me and game reviewers who have names for that difference, but I have always been at a loss to describe what makes Diablo better for me. I really thought I was done with the whole genre of ARPGs and just downloaded the initial Diablo 3 demo as a lark with no intention of buying it. I’ve played many ARPGS before and since. For whatever reason, I immediately bought Diablo 3, spent a coupple hundred hours on the PC version and the same or more on my PS4 and maxed on the character classes more than once. Probably more time than I spent on anything outside of WoW.
Quantifying why that is vs. so many other decent/good/great ARPGs is still difficult. It wasn’t the use of a controller as, like I said, I first played on the PC. I’ll give GD another go with the controller, though.
Oompf would be the word :-)
In the Grim Dawn development, I remember reading about how Titan Quest lacked any sort of feedback when it came to damage, amongst other complaints. Sure there was the ragdoll effects, but it never felt like hits happened, there were no giblets on screen when doing a crit, and it always sounded like a ‘thunk.’
I think in Grim Dawn they did a much better job with that intuitive player feedback on damage. But… Diablo does do it better. Having more money, and I guess the staff on hand to invest into sound design and animations matters, and that to me is the feedback I pick up on when striking something. For Grim Dawn, I understand all their animations were outsourced, at least in the early stages of the project when it was largely kickstarter funded/early access. The other part too involves gameplay, and that would be that minor tension/adrenaline spike when monsters rush the screen. I don’t think that happens effectively in Grim Dawn. Sometimes in Diablo, it felt like a super concentrated mob of chaff-like monsters to plough through. Grim Dawn is more like a smaller mob ruled by some decidedly difficult to kill boss that can easily 2-hit a badly specced character.
Conversely, I didn’t care much for Diablo 3 in the end because it felt samey. Grim Dawn I knew was a passion project, Diablo just felt like it lost its way.
The item descriptions in grim dawn are also… kinda obtuse sometimes. you may not realize how powerful something really is until you see it for yourself or experiment.
I was thinking of how, while I liked Titan Quest and played a bit more of it, I had the same issue.
AdamB’s Archon build that I’m playing, I’m glad I didn’t start it as Hardcore. I’ve already died twice. Once in Act 1, and once in Act 2. Surprising, given that I’m even finding really decent equipment so far. I have some physical resistance, and most of my other resists are either maxed out or really high. And yet, I still got killed, for instance, by the guy in the arena. I haven’t played the game in a while, but you guys know that area where you open up a bandit area using dynamite, and then there’s a little arena where there’s a mini-boss guy? Usually I kick his ass, but this time he had a friend with him. They were both mini-bosses, and his friend kept putting down one of those inquistor seals at my feet, you know?
I was all “WTF, step off dude”, and tried to keep backing up and kicking their asses using swarm and vitality storm totems, but they got me before I got them.
if anyone wants to do any coop on xbox let me know. currently running a shield tank with taunts and just beat warden.
I like that the loading times on the Series X are so short. Otherwise I’d be very annoyed that the game doesn’t allow Quick Resume. It seems to load from scratch each time. But, like I said, the load times are very very short. Much better than on my PC.
So I tried this with a Demolistionist with Fireblast + Blackwater Cocktail + Flashbang. And I banged my head against the Warden over and over and I finally got him!
And then he turned into his second form, where he’s much stronger. Hahahahah.
Ok, so that didn’t work.
So last night, I said, you know what, my Devouring Swarm is badass, let me try it with that. So I started over with a Shaman. I got to the Warden and I kicked his ass at level 10!
But no achievement!
D’oh! I completely forgot to change the difficulty to Veteran when I got to him. No wonder he went down so easy compared to when I tried it with the Demolitionist. D’OH!
Oh well, might try it again tonight. These kinds of speed runs are actually a lot of fun.
My highest level character is a Demolitionist who started out by maxing Blackwater Cocktail with a single point here and there in other skills as needed. You can get the size of the fire pretty large once you can overlevel it with items and it just melts enemies for the first few acts. I think it was one of my easiest experiences with the Warden as I could just focus on kiting him while letting the fire take him down over time.
That didn’t work for me. I do have Blackwater Cocktail maxed, but it doesn’t seem to do enough damage to him to overcome his natural health generation when he’s in his second form.
They must have either nerfed it or I had some decent items that boosted it further. That’s too bad.