Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

[Takelli]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

I just don't see why I shouldn't have the ability to pause my single-player game, and I am completely baffled that people would defend the removal of such basic functionality.

QFT

Don't forget the part where if you idle for too long, you get "disconnected", and can loose all unsaved progress.

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

can loose all unsaved progress

What progress are you worried about losing, exactly? You don't lose items, and the game is riddled with checkpoints so you hardly lose any physical ground. The only thing left to be worried about is monsters respawning. If you don't enjoy killing the same monsters over and over again this may not be the game for you anyway.

---------- Post added at 11:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 AM ----------

Don't forget the part where if you idle for too long, you get "disconnected"

Also true in Diablo II btw. Not a new thing.

---------- Post added at 12:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 AM ----------

I don't understand why people are up in arms about non-issues like pausing and timing out in multiplayer games instead of focusing on the much bigger and more central issue of local single player being disabled entirely. I would submit that anyone making a big deal about the way Diablo multiplayer has been for a decade is really just mad about the loss of single player and should focus their rhetoric on that.

[Takelli]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Also true in Diablo II btw. Not a new thing.

When ONLINE! Not when offline.

I like to beable to pause because if I have to get up quickly to do something, I don't want to get killed for RL reasons.

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

When ONLINE! Not when offline.

Right, which is exactly how it is in Diablo 3. You'll only ever be disconnected from a game when you're playing online.

[Takelli]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Right, which is exactly how it is in Diablo 3. You'll only ever be disconnected from a game when you're playing online.

Did you read the article though?

It says even in offline mode you will get disconnected from the server if you idle for too long, and are unable to pause in offline mode due to the DRM (I think that is what it is called.). You have to be connected to the internet 100% of the time you play the game, even if you never go online with it.

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Did you read the article? There is no offline mode in Diablo 3. All games in D3 are the equivalent of "closed realm" games in Diablo 2. Even if you're the only person in the game, it's a multiplayer game hosted remotely on battle.net.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s John Walker politely asked Blizzard to potentially add an offline mode for single-player to compensate for some of the online troubles he ran into

[cidbahamut]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Can we jump up and down on that issue then Uncle Tasky?

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Feel free. I offer no defense to that design decision. I kindof get why they did it, but it does seem a bridge too far and I can understand other people being upset about it. I just think it's silly to make mountains out of molehills when you already have a perfectly good mountain to jump on.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Good.

I was under the impression that the single-player would be offline, mostly because it makes zero sense to have single-player mode be online but also because it's been a few weeks since I last read the article in question, so I thought they were taking away pause in that.
But apparently they're doing something even dumber: making single-player require an internet connection. What is this bullshit? Single-player means a stand-alone game. If you want it an online game rather than a PC game then make it an online game, but I had been lead to believe it was going to be a PC game.

[Aeni]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

This is true, but my bigger concern is that this enables a slippery slope where "not a big deal" functionality gradually gets cut from games and people are OK with it. We're not talking about some obscure, genre-specific feature, after all. This is the goddamned pause button. If they're OK wth this, what's next?

It's not a functionality, to be honest, as it is more of incompetance in programming and design of a game. Adding in a pause button means you can then be sloppy with game play and design and let players hit the pause button to resolve their issues.

There's auto save points in key sections of any new dungeon so if you die, you resurrect to that point, with no exp penalty and no loss of items/money from your inventory. I've died a couple of times and was pleased that I didn't have to start again in town. It's not the same game that you guys remembered, that's for sure.

If there's any other concerns you want addressed, I can go take a look at it.

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

There is a 10% durability loss on your items when you die, is there not?

[Armando]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Adding in a pause button means you can then be sloppy with game play and design and let players hit the pause button to resolve their issues.

As someone who doesn't play Diablo, I have no clue what you mean by this.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

As someone who doesn't play Diablo, I have no clue what you mean by this.

As someone who's played the first and second Diablo games, I have no clue what that means either.

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Tbh, I play Diablo and don't understand how pausing is a game design crutch.

---------- Post added at 03:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:39 PM ----------

The only possible exploit I can think of is for a hardcore player who's gotten in over his head to pause and quit the game at the last second to avoid death. There's a wait before leaving games in D3 much like an FFXI logout, but you could still pause and yank your router. That's only an argument against pausing for hardcore players, though. Normal players aren't up against that kind of penalty for death and the effort of the exploit probably wouldn't be worth the reward if it were possible.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

In all honesty, if the .hack//games didn't require an internet connection, there's absolutely no reason why D3 should.