The elements that keeps D2 going.

[Malrenn]

What makes D2 such an enduring game? If and when D3 comes, which do you want to see implemented? Ill get this started by naming a few off the top of my head.I am mainly talking PvM here.


Viabilty of different builds.

Sure theres plenty of cookie cutter builds. One can try and be successful with non standard builds though. The talent system in D2 is one of the best in gaming hands down IMO.It adds so much replayability.
Viability of different armors and weapons.

Self explanatory. You dont HAVE to wear the same crap as everyone else. IE T1 T2 T3 gears etc etc. Add runes in and it really gets interesting. I love the rare/unique item system.
The great story and atmosphere.

People say Diablo had a darker feel to it. I played thru the game once, and I guess i see it. I think D2 is right up there with it though. I hope they stick with that feel and an M rating.
Crafting.

The Horadric cube is one of the simplest yet most versatile crafting systems I have ever seen. Will it fit in D3 lorewise? I hope so cause its friggin awesome:crazyeyes:
World Events

Came into play much later in D2s life. I hope this type thing continues in D3.
Scaling difficulty for soloers/groups.

You wanna solo mf, group run its all there.

These are some of the things that has kept me playing D2 off and on for 6 years now. I dont want a rehash of D2 with souped up graphics. It would be a mistake for Blizz to ignore these great aspects of D2 though.

Announce D3 already arggggh!

[sicilian]

To me it was the way it shot you right into the gameplay. You talk to two people who have brief introductions, and all of the sudden you're out in the field doing your thing.

It starts off simple, and because your character is essentially naked to start the game, almost everything that drops early is exciting because it's an automatic upgrade.

Then, as you move on and those things become less exciting, the game starts to ramp up and become more difficult and complex.

It's hard to really put a finger on it, but to me that all speaks to a perfect scaling system where you never feel like the game is too difficult too soon and then too easy later on. Blizzard seems to have a nice touch for that.

[stillman]

I'd say it's the player-friendly aspects such as:

-With bone spear, the monsters don't have to line up perfectly; rather, it's designed so the spear hits as many monsters as possible without looking too unrealistic.

-The fcr breakpoints make it so we don't have to fret over losing/gaining 10% increments of fcr. You just have to worry about the breakpoint.

-The overall speed at which you can access stash, pick things up, etc.

-It seems you don't have to click on monsters and items perfectly, there is plenty of room for error.

-The life orb seems to be designed so that even when it appears near empty, you still have a good 15% of your health left. This increases the intensity of the game. You think you're going to die more often, as your chr keeps getting hit with an "empty" life orb.

The game is just really easy to play for hours on end. It's a well oiled machine. Also, the ladder system is great, and would be taken more seriously if there wasn't so much cheating (Baal bots, duped runes, mh, etc).

[Angel_of_Wrath]

I'd say it's the player-friendly aspects such as:

-The fcr breakpoints make it so we don't have to fret over losing/gaining 10% increments of fcr. You just have to worry about the breakpoint.


To expand on this:

It is also related to the readily available documentation or statistics for the technical details of the formulae and such. This is why we know all the breakpoints of fcr, fhr or ww... or how blocking works with each class.

Blizzard enabled the player to take their char that much farther so if you plan ahead on all your stats, skills and gear based on your previous experiences... you can almost have a perfect setup. I say almost because there's always something a tiny bit better, which is what keeps people going.

[Jednowlosy]

I agree with pretty much everything, except for atmosphere (imho D2 has no atmosphere, sorry). It's a nice, enjoyable hack and slash, and the competitiveness (look what cool stuff I have x]) and general success of battle.net makes the game still going.

[Erwwwd]

-The fcr breakpoints make it so we don't have to fret over losing/gaining 10% increments of fcr. You just have to worry about the breakpoint.


I think this is one of the parts that needs to be changed as it is completely the opposite of user friendly.

Make us know IN THE GAME what the breakpoints are and if we hit any with our current equipment. It is absurd that we had to plow through the gamefiles to get that info that we have at the moment. It should have been in the game itself.

[stillman]

Yes, I agree. I was basically trying to come up with more ideas on how player friendly the game is, so I should not have really mentioned the breakpoints.

Even worse is the way the game lies about your mf. Gull dagger doesn't really give you 100 mf at all. There are the diminishing return formulas which we have to look up outside of the game. Even though the mf given in-game is correct for blue magic items, most people use mf for finding uniques and they might be horrified to learn that having 1000 mf only roughly doubles your chance to find a unique from monsters.

I'd like to see more increments of speeds in d3. Simply put, there aren't enough breakpoints in d2. I hope to see extreme attack speed that makes your regular arrow shot to look like strafe! Of course, the damage would be low since all your gear would be dedicated to ias.

[Jednowlosy]

I think it would be interesting if they gave up on breakpoints. Who needs them anyway.. +63% should be equal to +63% IAS, not 50% because some stupid breakpoint sets it that way.

[Kiroptus]

I actually think that Diablo3 needs more simplicity and less numbers.

ARPGs are already about casuals anyway and it took a long time to get all the info wrapped up in a page (Arreat Summit). And just because it gains simplicity doesnt mean it needs to lose depth. It just needs to take out some burocracies like having to know that you actually need 1100 % fast hit recovery to have 2 frames of animation and all that.

[Booner]

I guess for me, the things that make Diablo better than all of the other, more current Diablo knock-offs (Titan Quest, WoW, ect) is the speed and the violence. No action RPG has really captured these things like Diablo has.

[Kiroptus]

^Yep. Titan Quest was in the right track but the action was slow and the combat somewhat slugish. Diablo 2 is fast and there arent many "checkerboards" in the engine, (which is the issue with Mythos, the movement seem very restricted) so you feel free to go move as you wish, which is a great feat for a 2D game, imagine if the game had a decent 3D engine? It would just be so beautifully smooth.

[Intolerance]

There are two primary reasons that I got so into Diablo 2 starting when it first came out: Hardcore mode and competition.

I loved D1 and was extremely hyped for the release of Diablo 2. I had read about Hardcore mode and I was very interested. After a week long trek to get through Normal, I created my first Hardcore character and never looked back. Hardcore mode provided an edge to the game that kept it interesting for me much longer than softcore mode could possibly have.

The competitive aspect of D2 has been dead for me since LoD was released. When classic was the norm, the ladders (the Hardcore ladders, at least) actually meant something. The only way to have any sort of serious competition within the game anymore is to run the ladder following a ladder reset. It's too bad that these only happen once a year.

[SandyVagina]

I've been playing Diablo 2 on and off since the release and right now I'm running Meph as never before. Can't really say exactly what keeps me going, but I do have som thoughts on D3!

The random levels! The fact that most of the game is different every time you play it makes a huge difference when it comes to replayability! Unless they make a WoWish game where you basically have to get to max lvl and therefore won't be making many different chars, most people will play through the entire game quite a few times.

They must not make the game WoWish! Simply put, WoW takes forever, D2 does not. Sure you have to spend a lot of time playing D2 to get the really good stuff, but you don't have to get a lvl99 char and do raids for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week to get it.

They should not make you depend on other people! Again I refer to WoW where you have to group up with no less than 39 other people, that is just stupid imo. Sure it could probably be insanely fun and I completely understand people who keep on doing it, but for Diablo 3? No. Never. D2 is a fast paced game, if i have 30mins to spare I can start up the game and do a few runs, perhaps even get a SoJ! I should be able to do that in D3 too. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against partying up with other people, most of the time it's a lot more fun, but you shouldn't have to! If you like to solo, you should be able to do so, if you like do party up with others, you should be able to do that too!

Don't make me pay a monthly fee for D3, I beg you, don't.

Better trading. Trading in D2 is a bit outdated, some sort of AH or perhaps an ingame trading forum could be cool.

Keep Hardcore. I'm not a HC player, but it is definitely something to hold on to.

Darker atmomsphere than D2. Diablo 1 was spooky, D2 isn't. It's of course easy for D1 to be scary because the game is a lot slower than D2, but still.. make the game nasty!

A great thing about D2 is the waypoint system. To instantly travel to a any place in the game with no loading is simply awesome, they have to keep it, or better yet.. improve it!

Don't know how to put is, but even though the D2's basics are pretty repetitive, the variety of everything is simply immense. There are a lot of different ways to play this game and many different reasons. I'm all about the gear, getting the best possible character for PvM. Some people are also all about gear, but for PVP. I like to do MF-runs do get good stuff, others like to do keyruns and then trade them for good stuff. Some people just want to get to lvl 99, while others never go that far. As I said I don't know how to say this, but the game simply feels so complete.

I was planning on writing more, but right now I'm so hungry I am most likely going to die. But give me D3 blizz. PLEASE!

[bryvx]

It's beautiful because it's EXTREAMLY well made. A well oiled machine. It has a very smooth learning curve that surprisingly goes really high up. A player has the choice just to play or get into the real statistics. The game also makes you feel important. You are the only one that was able to surge through 16 levels of dungeon to kill diablo, or you have been the only one to defeat the ancients to gain access to the worldstone keep.
And the possibilities of the items are somewhat endless.

One thing i believe they messed up a bit on was making rare items worst than uniques. I found the best days of diablo 2 were pre-lod were rares were the best. Barb dueling was insane. Unqiues are a great way to get a "good" character, but rares where the deciding aspects, no 2 characters could be the same, ex dupes :-( .

[Omikron8]

What makes D2 such an enduring game? If and when D3 comes, which do you want to see implemented? Ill get this started by naming a few off the top of my head.I am mainly talking PvM here.


Viabilty of different builds.

Sure theres plenty of cookie cutter builds. One can try and be successful with non standard builds though. The talent system in D2 is one of the best in gaming hands down IMO.It adds so much replayability.
Viability of different armors and weapons.

Self explanatory. You dont HAVE to wear the same crap as everyone else. IE T1 T2 T3 gears etc etc. Add runes in and it really gets interesting. I love the rare/unique item system.
The great story and atmosphere.

People say Diablo had a darker feel to it. I played thru the game once, and I guess i see it. I think D2 is right up there with it though. I hope they stick with that feel and an M rating.
Crafting.

The Horadric cube is one of the simplest yet most versatile crafting systems I have ever seen. Will it fit in D3 lorewise? I hope so cause its friggin awesome:crazyeyes:
World Events

Came into play much later in D2s life. I hope this type thing continues in D3.
Scaling difficulty for soloers/groups.

You wanna solo mf, group run its all there.

These are some of the things that has kept me playing D2 off and on for 6 years now. I dont want a rehash of D2 with souped up graphics. It would be a mistake for Blizz to ignore these great aspects of D2 though.

Announce D3 already arggggh!

it endures because of action RPG gameplay

action RPG gameplay is much faster paced than typical MMO gameplay

blizzard thought most diablo 2 players would hop right into WoW and they were quite mistaken

fighting a monster 1v1 for 30 seconds is not my idea of fast paced even when it comes to age of conan's simon says combo mashing

another key component is NO requirement of forced grouping, the forced grouping of MMOs will never be compatible with the solo everything environment of action RPGs, if you try to implement forced grouping into action RPGs you'll just end up pissing off both action RPG and mmo players

[Ravenhoe]

Don't forget about the random generated maps. To me, that was a huge setback when it came to games like Titan Quest, Sacred etc.

H.

[BlackWinterDay]

I am canceling my Wolrd of Warcraft account for the third and final time today. Each time I quit WoW, I end up coming back to D2 for something fun to play in my downtime. I realize that WoW is an MMO and D2 most certainly is not, but since these are the only 2 games I've really played in the last 3+ years (excluding a short stint with Hellgate London) I think the comparison is fair.

1) I can pick D2 up and actually accomplish something when I am only able to play for short bursts of time. As a married, working professional I am getting tired of having to dedicate huge blocks of time to getting anything done in endgame WoW.

2) I can have as much or as little contact with other people as I want in D2. Endgame WoW requires being part of a raiding guild, making friends with the right people, and being part of a social system that I despise. I don't need a party or a raid to kill anything in D2; it's essentially a solo game with the option to play in groups if you want.

3) D2's economic system is far more fun and interactive than WoW's. Soulbound equipment, massive gold sinks, and an easily controlled AH system all make WoW more of a headache than it needs to be. I love browsing trade lists and striking deals in an item based economy.

4) D2 offers far more gameplay variety despite having 3 less character classes and no racial options when compared to WoW. In WoW, if you do not spec and gear one or two certain ways you are a noob and a scrub, gg. D2 players are constantly looking for new ideas and fun things to try, sometimes basing entire builds off of one or two peices of gear.

5) I don't really have a 5, I think that's about it.

Anyways, I am happy to be back having some fun while enjoying the summer months with my new wife, as opposed to being chained to my computer paying for the privilege to "play" that second job called WoW.

Whatever D3 ends up being, I really hope they continue to build on the fun aspects and solo-friendly spirit of D2 without introducing any MMO elements, such as forced grouping, massive raid bosses etc.

[Malrenn]

I am canceling my Wolrd of Warcraft account for the third and final time today. Each time I quit WoW, I end up coming back to D2 for something fun to play in my downtime.
3) D2's economic system is far more fun and interactive than WoW's. Soulbound equipment, massive gold sinks, and an easily controlled AH system all make WoW more of a headache than it needs to be. I love browsing trade lists and striking deals in an item based economy.



.

That's a huge one there that I totally overlooked. I know duped HRs and whatnot have screwed things up and all, but it is still possible to do alot of legit trading in D2 to this day. D2s item based economy is really fun as you pointed out. I agree with the whole soulbound/goldsink thing too. I hope they model the economy on the next game after this, and leave the other stuff in WoW where it belongs.
~ Left the top part because I too have decided that not only am I tired of WoW, but the MMORPG genre in general.:coffee:

@ SandyVagina : "Better trading. Trading in D2 is a bit outdated, some sort of AH or perhaps an ingame trading forum could be cool ." Yes they need to kick it up a notch in terms of an in game trade system. I seriously doubt Blizz will ride the coattails of past work, so to speak. Meaning, its safe to assume they will try to be innovative, I just hope they dont screw it up! On a side note, Im guessing you live on a beach?