View Full Version : I hope D3 has an in-game lobby, rather then a Bnet Chat Room
Netherscourge
29-06-2008, 04:16
One thing I would like to see is Diablo 3 matchmaking/socializing/trading switch from the Bnet Chat rooms to a full Town or Village, ala Guild Wars.
One where you can run around and see other players and chat and trade with them.
I not exactly sure if Blizzard is doing the sharded instance route or a Realm-Server Lobby route, but I would like to see a better method for trading and matchmaking then just spamming the Bnet chat channels with a little avatar of my character.
I'll miss that mysterious little Chat Gem, but it won't be forgotten :)
I'm curious what Blizzards "revamped" Bnet will look like for Diablo 3.
That would be great. That way it would even be fun to just hang out when you're not really playing...
Doesn't Hellgate have a similar system? I never played it, but from what my friend says it sounds like each city is kind of a hub for everyone on the realm.
Speaking of realms.. I hope that they keep the system they have for D2. I don't like having a million servers a la MMORPGs.
casserole
29-06-2008, 04:55
Hellgate has something very similar to Guild Wars. Towns/Stations are the gathering place before setting off into an instanced area.
I'm sure most of us would like to see something a bit grander than what Bnet currently has with D2. I expect they will have something and would be surprised if Blizzard didn't come through with this. Some kind of staging area which allowed us to feel a bit more immersed in the game/storyline would be great. Instead of the channels, maybe the staging area that looked like old-school Tristram where we could walk around with our toons.
Netherscourge
29-06-2008, 05:04
And of course - Auction Houses and a mail-system :p
I'm an alt-a-holic.
I disagree. I prefer the simiplicity and ease of use of the channels, rather than the confusion and chaos of the Guild Wars system. Walking around towns sounds all well and good but if it's anything like Guild Wars it would be a mistake imo. Revamped channels are the way to go for me.
uhhhhh hell NO no auction house or mail system PLEASE! This is not WoW, and to the above posters, ALOT of people loved the different channels where you had to actually make an effort to trade ur stuff, and values were established, unlike just throwing ur stuff up in an auction house and running away... ughh that sounds like wow so much, god i hope they dont put in an ah
EDIT= see this is what the old D2 players need to try and fight for, the protection of all the things that made D2 a great game that need protection from the hordes of WoW players who want to see all their WoW stuff replicated in D3, D2 traditionalists need to fight this to the max
Yeah, because WoW was the first place that auctions were established. Auction house sounds like ebay!! Please don't add ebay! It's successful and takes the monotony out of selling items all day long when you can be playing! God don't do that please!!
I love D2 just like anyone else, but even I know when something is a waste of time and can be done more efficiently another way.
Garisdacar
29-06-2008, 05:45
yeah i'm starting to think a lot of ppl want D3 to just be another expansion pack for D2....
channels were not a waste of time, they were something that many players enjoyed and utilized, channels allow tons of stuff, from looking for cow games by bots or players, or trading stuff in various class channels or trade channels, or just clan channels. What im saying is, just because some people think that channels are out of date doesnt mean they didnt work, channels worked fine, fine enough that D2 was one of the most popular pc games of all time.
Channels werent a waste of time unles you plain and simple didnt know the benefits of using them. I traded many an item/soj through the channels, and leveled many characters through baal runs and cow runs by way of channels, and had many fun clan chats in them to boot, as did many others. Channels were great, leave Auction houses to WoW and just update the channel concept. Why must you people try and insist on tearing down the fundamental systems that made D2 the masterpeice and classic it was and is?
yeah i'm starting to think a lot of ppl want D3 to just be another expansion pack for D2....
Or Guild Wars 2? Or WoW 2? It cuts both ways.
Vertigo X
29-06-2008, 05:52
I'm with Zagggon here. Channels are good. WoW auction house is not.
All a channel is is an advertisement...
Channels=
Soj 4 HR!!! You wait... someone sees it, they trade
Auction house=
You put up SoJ for HR, you go on your way, and then someone buys it.
Oh no, you gained time!! but the same thing was accomplished, amazing.
Oh man I wish blizz had a machine or something that just immediatly killed any D3 dev that tries to mesh WoW and other games into D3. Ughhh I hope blizz is listening to D people instead of these insane unfaithful WoW/other game people that have no loyalty or dignity to try and hold true to the essence of the Diablo world and not turn it into some sick little re-hashed version of WoW, complete with auction houses, mail systems and all.... Oh god we need the Diablo faithful to pickup their proverbial swords and fast.
While running around in a town and pickup partners might sound fun in theory, in the end it's the "ease of use" that rings supreme.
Channels are useful because a guild (or friends) can always meet at a specific place, for example, then get their games underway quickly (and know who's on and ready).
Otherwise, you'd need to go through "instanced towns" and run around until you find them, then try to meet all your friends in the same "instanced town". Example five of your friends make it to town 2, but then it's full so the other 2 cant make it, so you message them and say okay let's meet in town 5 instead. See where I'm going?
Kiroptus
29-06-2008, 06:24
The problem with having in-game loby is that it end up fragmenting the game in way too many mini-towns. That was what happened to HGL. Plus I dont like the idea of seeing 40+ people in a single isometric view in a Diablo town. It just looks too ugly. I really dont like that idea and I think it doesnt fit Diablo at all.
I say stick with channels, once the game is created it should a seamless experience that doesnt need to force you or the story to stumble on in-game lobbies all the time. Apply some anti-spam methods etc... btw you just need to search for the game list, the channel was really never that important.
It's just personal preference, I traded many things with channels, and having tried WoW's AH and mail system, I like them better. You don't have to sit in the channel all day spamming just to trade something because there are 32423432 others doing the same thing.
raveharu
29-06-2008, 07:15
Channels are much more efficient and neater.
Imagine 100+ characters clustering to one specific map....
Kiroptus
29-06-2008, 07:19
But most of the time you dont trade in channels, you trade in trading games. People make a game called "Trade post". To create in-game lobbies you usually have to butcher the towns into too many lobbies and end up fragmenting the action. I hope that when I create a game in Bnet I want it to be seamless, without any interruptions on my quest, I want to be immersed in the game and not stumbling into "pretty channels" (thats what in-game lobbies are) in the middle of my experience.
Oh man I wish blizz had a machine or something that just immediatly killed any D3 dev that tries to mesh WoW and other games into D3. Ughhh I hope blizz is listening to D people instead of these insane unfaithful WoW/other game people that have no loyalty or dignity to try and hold true to the essence of the Diablo world and not turn it into some sick little re-hashed version of WoW, complete with auction houses, mail systems and all.... Oh god we need the Diablo faithful to pickup their proverbial swords and fast.
Oh hush up with your elitist jibbeh jabbah.
Personally I wouldn't mind an improved trading system, be it auction house or whatever. Have you ever heard of d2jsp? There's a reason why its popularity grows daily. It's much like an auction house and has its own form of currency. I believe D2jsp isn't the only site like this, either. So, D2 technically already has auction houses. And guess what? A lot of people seem to enjoy it. Oh noes! The heavens shall tremble...
Im really hoping for some auction house system, myself. The spammed trade channels were horrible, and I could never know what to trade unless I spent hours monitoring going rates.
Id love to see a system where we can all hang out in some towns instead of channels too. Anything to make it seem like continious rather than a bunch of little cloned games, even if its just an illusion.
Finally, for mail, well, maybe not my first choice. What id like is a shared stash between all characters on your account, thats either unlimited in size, or that you can upgrade indefinitely by spending a set amount of gold for each extra square. That would be a great money drain. Enough with the muling crap, we want to hoarde stuff, and we want to do it hassle free.
Maybe you could have the channels in the ingame too. Just have a UI block that appears when u click a button and it would be connected to all battle.net channels.
This way you could have both the channels and the in game lobby area..
If an auction house can work (consider the near worthlessness of gold in D2)Id be all for it.I mean people spend hours trying to find a buyer for an item or spend ages trying to find that one special item that someone trying to sell it sold it (to Charsi)because no one seemed to want it.I certainly like how it works in Conan not sure how it works in WoW,I dont think it'll taint the game just because its been used in an MMO.
etslayer
29-06-2008, 23:37
I like the straight forward trading screens in D2. I hope they keep those.
Leave the auction houses and in-game lobbies for GW, WoW and AoC etc
I really, really hope DIII sticks with DII's (+ when it was up, D1) simple, yet effective channels. I don't need a town or a "staging area" to walk around posing with my characters, i want a simple chat + channel function where i can view all current games, remain out of the actual game and idle or chat in channels.
In-game channels work for WoW because it's a seamless world enviroment, but i feel the likes of GW and AoC feel very cluttered where people are horded into towns and then the game is split off into playable instances - it's not needed. I also think if they did go down this route they would have to split the DIII community up into many different servers to hold the large capacity of players in each town. This wouldn't be needed if it was simple channels...
Another aspect of Battle.net which i like now is the cross-gaming communication, all this talk of in-game lobbies would break that up. With the advent of Starcraft 2 i hope Blizzard would not want to change the current channel functions with regards to cross-game chat.
I hope the dev's follow the tradation of the previous Diablo games and chose to stick with what works!
Anyone who grew up using IRC is going to love DII's channel system. I love it and I hope they keep it simplistic. I don't care for a flashy in-game lobby..instance towns, which are basically glorified channels in their own right.
Instead of auction houses, which I don't think could logistically work in DIII, how about a bulletin board in channels?
"I offer, such and such, for such and such, contact me on such and such account" and can be viewable in the community channels, while you can go play...mf, or whatever. Not taking up your valuable time. It's unlike an auction house, where you still would need to create a game with the person to complete the trade, and fits within the same DII channel system.
And of course, I'm all for re-vamping it.
etslayer
30-06-2008, 02:54
You people just don't get it. Bardering and playing the economy is part of the magic of diablo. It sounds like you people want a WoW remake. The trading element of D2 is a HUGE part of the game. In the hayday of D2 I would begin the day with 5 sojs, and by the end of the day I would have 10 in my inventory. Working the economy, making deals, working for a profit margin is part of the diablo world. And I want to be able to haggle people. If we have to rely on auction houses, you see the price that someone is asking for, and you either match it or move on. If I have an alternate offer I want to be able to bargain and haggle the person. But if it's just an auction and the person isn't even there, I have to either match the offer or move on... the most I can do is leave them a message which reduces the chance that the person will ever even read it. If I can't haggle and bargain in D3, I won't be buying the game. That's how strongly I feel about the bare-bones trading system of D2. Besides the only way an auction house could work in the first place is if people use gold for currence, which will never be the case in D3. Diablo games are fast-paced, and you can't have a fast paced game if gold is hard to come by (ie. actually worth something). You think they want to halt your gameplay because you can't afford to repair your sword? Maybe in wow kids... but keep that **** OUT of my game!
Maybe in wow kids... but keep that **** OUT of my game!
Your game? How much did Blizzard cost you when you bought it?
If the channel system is kept, I hope they at least listen to Meimu and revamp it. Perhaps a window on the side of the trade channel that would open between you and another player, and you could see what all they'd have for trade and haggle.
Cast_Raider
30-06-2008, 05:40
Yes, the trading element is a huge part of Diablo. A part that sucks. Not everything in Diablo is good.
I've never played WoW so I don't know anything about how trades are done. I do know that "well, we can't do it like WoW" is a silly reason. Should Toyota switch to square tires because Honda's are round? No.
Auctions sound nice, but holy hell the game needs a real currency. Something to facilitate trade, and something that rookies can start collecting to trade with veterans for low level gear (using sojs or HR's as currency is sort of like having an economy where the only currency unit is a $100 bill--it makes small economic transactions a pain in the butt) It could be either gold, or possibly runes. If it's runes, make them combineable/splittable, sort of like breaking a $100 bill into 5x $20's.
If it's gold, keep each player's drop separate just like the other loot, so there is no mad scramble for it. And make it automatically get hoovered up as you walk near it. I don't want to waste time clicking each little pile. I'm not sure what you'd do to make gold really worth something. Improve gambling? Make large amounts of gold necessary for all the best crafting recipes?
Above all though, I want an inventory system that doesn't stink. Okay, Diablo 2 came out 8 years ago. Fine, they had to discourage people from being pack rats, the servers wouldn't support it. Well it ought to be a lot cheaper now, and if there's a monthly fee there's no excuse. I want to be able to move gear from one character to another with 0% risk. Ideally I'd like to have tabs where I can customize the name, so as to organize my stuff.
And along the same lines, once my personal stash fills up, I'd like to be able to dump something into my horadric cube or magic bag or whatever, and it appears in the common stash--without returning to town. As opposed to: open a TP, go in, walk to your stash, play Item-Tetris, refill TP scrolls maybe, walk back to TP. It's an annoying sequence of events that adds no interest or challenge to gameplay. Let's just get a fast-forward version of that via my idea.
Dunno about you, but I was under the impression that Perfect gems were what everyone starts out using as currency in D2; and higher-end items go for runes, or other higher end items. I like that the Diablo franchise has always been a goods-for-goods environment, and not a money-for-goods environment.
All a channel is is an advertisement...
Channels=
Soj 4 HR!!! You wait... someone sees it, they trade
Auction house=
You put up SoJ for HR, you go on your way, and then someone buys it.
Oh no, you gained time!! but the same thing was accomplished, amazing.
Same thing was not accomplished. You didn't meet any new friends in the Auction House.
An Ah will also do away with the "Free for you" games where ppl unload their mules to happy newbies. Which is part of what gives DII a much nicer feel to it than WoW where everyone is competing with the next guy.
And on the new ladder in Eu a Pul is being sold for 30 Perfect Gems. And an Um for 2 Pul, and an ist for 3 Ums. So whats the deal, who can't get perfect Gems? Just be glad you don't need to grind 400 Perfect gems to get a mount...
AriseAsCarrion
30-06-2008, 15:38
The problem with having in-game loby is that it end up fragmenting the game in way too many mini-towns. That was what happened to HGL. Plus I dont like the idea of seeing 40+ people in a single isometric view in a Diablo town. It just looks too ugly. I really dont like that idea and I think it doesnt fit Diablo at all.
I say stick with channels, once the game is created it should a seamless experience that doesnt need to force you or the story to stumble on in-game lobbies all the time. Apply some anti-spam methods etc... btw you just need to search for the game list, the channel was really never that important.
You hit the nail on the head, good sir. :thumbup:
Keep channels, and add improvements such as competent trading system, even if it's an auction house.
Seriously, while there is nothing wrong with Diablo 2's bartering, there is everything wrong with gold being worthless and the painful trash that was Diablo 2 trading system. I don't care about "magic" when the magic is a rusty nail being drilled under your fingertips.
etslayer
30-06-2008, 20:56
Yes, the trading element is a huge part of Diablo. A part that sucks.
Myself and many others would disagree. To me the trading element was the single best thing about the game. Hands down.
As far as currency goes, if you check out the item stats on the weapons in the gameplay demo, one of them sells for like 500 gold or something. So I think this would suggest that gold will not be hard to come buy and not worth enough to use as currency.
And you should also keep in mind that the devs don't want to introduce things that don't fit in witht he story line of D3. The game takes place in a world that is under seige, and in a critical struggle to survive the wrath of hell. I don't think Sanctuary can support any sort of stable economy. It's like during the great depression: you did what you had to in order to survive, you didn't go out buying a boat. You were lucky if your neighbor had anything to sell you for your chickens.
And yet currency-backed trade is a vital element of almost any civilization worth being called a civilization.
Sanctuary isn't a barbarian filled world. Trading routes seem to exist, merchants seem to exist, and so on. Why wouldn't there be an equivalent of a market or an auction house? Don't tell me "Demonic Invasion Broke Everything Down". For something like that to occur, the Demons would need to topple every government, from town to national, and essentially win the war before it starts.
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