cynan wrote:... but I didn't know they were planning 4 for the release. Are you sure about this?
Yes. They've said it in a few interviews, and in the forums.
cynan wrote: Apparently they have a rough plan of releasing the equivalent of a new act or so each year after release. I wonder how this will work with level scaling... Or if they will simply reset the game each time a new major chunk of content is released (which could bother some of the more casual players).
The team has said publicly that there will be no more resets after OB release. They haven't said how they will insert new acts. In a recent interview Chris said that they have plans and they don't want to make all the grinding and levelling people have been doing before the new acts come out pointless. Exactly what their plans are, I don't know.
cynan wrote:I also really like that they don't have any of that auction house crap or even a external currency selling which seems, at least form my mostly ignorant perspective, to do more harm than good overall in D3.
The closest thing there will be to an auction house is a website and in game trading system. Apparently you won't need to be in the game to make trades. Sounds interesting. I do worry about external sites using this to make money though. I don't know what safeguards against this there are.
cynan wrote:I really haven't noticed many desync issues to speak of. In the 3 or so dozen hours (not that I've been really keeping track) I've put in I did have the client shut down twice with some "unexpected error". And another one or 2 times my computer hard locked - but I think the latter was a graphics/driver hiccup). Mostly, it's been running pretty stably.
The patch a week ago or so did wonders for stability. Desyncs are a problem, but one they say they are working hard on. I'm hoping it gets better not worse. Thankfully in the past OB stress test things seemed to hold up okay.
cynan wrote:The one thing that worries me is the Free 2 Play model. I don't see how this isn't going to result in a flooding of the servers (at least upon release) and also a lot of less desirable types that will just mostly spam the chat and generally be disruptive. I'd almost rather pay some sort of a fee up front (like Guild Wars 2 or D3 if this will minimize such issues) - but maybe I'm giving the popularity of the game too much credit. And then then there is the question of how the game will continue to be profitable enough to maintain given that the developers are promising that none of the microtransactions offered will be incremental to game play (the non Play-2-Win notion is noble and good - but just how much money can they make of of aesthetics and upgrades like extra camp inventory slots...).
I absolutely LOVE the ethical microtransaction policy.
I am worried about the general public. They say the in game chat will be moderated upon release. It's hardly moderated at all right now. Hopefully that will make things liveable.
cynan wrote:It'd be nice to see some of the TR ARPGers in there. Who knows, maybe we can try a quick coop game...
True that. Anyone here can feel free to add me. I'm usually up for some co-op. I'm going light on it at the moment because I'm holding off so I don't burn out before OB release.