Console Seasons 2017

[Kelimbror]

Confirmed in the panels, but here's the press kit image.



I'm thinking now that they are going with a DLC model they want people constantly playing on all platforms. Praise rngesus. I can stop breaking my wrist.

[Razael]

The best news for Diablo 3 for me from Blizzcon. Kinda underwhelmed in general was expecting an expansion.

[Kelimbror]

The best news for Diablo 3 for me from Blizzcon. Kinda underwhelmed in general was expecting an expansion.

I wanted an expansion, but from the schedule it looked not possible. I know a lot of people are complaining, but I see the paid DLC as a good sign that they want to continue to add to this very good version of the game. With the new system changes, including the mat inventory, I'm starting to see more how this game will unfold while they build an expansion.

Hopefully the revenue boost from the Necro will allow them to make a lot of cool classes, including the Druid. But I'm all set to stop playing on PC now. I've wanted console seasons since the second I started playing and felt how good it was on PS4. Looking forward to this so much.

[tikcol]

I wanted an expansion, but from the schedule it looked not possible. I know a lot of people are complaining, but I see the paid DLC as a good sign that they want to continue to add to this very good version of the game. With the new system changes, including the mat inventory, I'm starting to see more how this game will unfold while they build an expansion.

Hopefully the revenue boost from the Necro will allow them to make a lot of cool classes, including the Druid. But I'm all set to stop playing on PC now. I've wanted console seasons since the second I started playing and felt how good it was on PS4. Looking forward to this so much.

On the other hand, why commit to an expansion if they can milk it with batches of DLCs?

I have a bad feeling this necromancer thingie is but an experiment

[Kelimbror]

On the other hand, why commit to an expansion if they can milk it with batches of DLCs?

I have a bad feeling this necromancer thingie is but an experiment

I fail to see how providing new classes and items, the core gameplay of Diablo, is 'milking' it. In any case, hearing that the console and PC team is one team means that there should be some parity as we move forward. Hopefully that means all features coming to PC will come to consoles and v/v.

[zito]

I am most curious on how they are doing seasons on console. The primary reason was they wanted to keep the game offline and because of the cheating they couldn't do that.

Will there be like daily check ups for seasons then before you log in? Like if you click seasons you have to connect to the internet and it checks your save? Is seasons in another save all together? Really curious.

Also what miffs me about the DLC is that they just started working on it a couple months ago and the necro isn't coming out til the later half of next year so it's like... WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YALL BEEN DOING ALL THIS TIME.

[Kelimbror]

I am most curious on how they are doing seasons on console. The primary reason was they wanted to keep the game offline and because of the cheating they couldn't do that.

Will there be like daily check ups for seasons then before you log in? Like if you click seasons you have to connect to the internet and it checks your save? Is seasons in another save all together? Really curious.

Maybe save all data server side, push it to the console on load, then uploads to the cloud when you log off. It really was a weak excuse to worry about cheating when it has to go through Bnet/Sony anyways. Plenty of places to put checks in place.

[tikcol]

I fail to see how providing new classes and items, the core gameplay of Diablo, is 'milking' it. In any case, hearing that the console and PC team is one team means that there should be some parity as we move forward. Hopefully that means all features coming to PC will come to consoles and v/v.

they can't be too obvious to begin with, can they

[Kelimbror]

they can't be too obvious to begin with, can they

I'm having difficulty understanding you while you are wearing the tinfoil hat. A game that has provided free content updates and only charged for one expansion when it released, combining them together for a discount for console players, has no precedent to suspect what I can only label a typical EA Games behavior. Do they want money from more players for content, yes. Do they have a secret nefarious scheme to get this money, no. They just need us to pay for content now, just like any other game works. Diablo isn't a charity organization, despite Deckard's best efforts.

[tikcol]

I'm having difficulty understanding you while you are wearing the tinfoil hat. A game that has provided free content updates and only charged for one expansion when it released, combining them together for a discount for console players, has no precedent to suspect what I can only label a typical EA Games behavior. Do they want money from more players for content, yes. Do they have a secret nefarious scheme to get this money, no. They just need us to pay for content now, just like any other game works. Diablo isn't a charity organization, despite Deckard's best efforts.

You just agreed with me and said our opinion is a conspiracy.

[Kelimbror]

You just agreed with me and said our opinion is a conspiracy.

I don't think I did, but clearly engaging you in a meaningful dialogue isn't a good possibility. I'll have to leave you with that.

In any case, console seasons....I am excite!

[zito]

I don't think I did, but clearly engaging you in a meaningful dialogue isn't a good possibility. I'll have to leave you with that.

In any case, console seasons....I am excite!

I'm pretty meh over it

It doesn't really add anything gameplay wise like poe seasons do and the achievements stay the same each seasons too right? Pretty lame

[Razael]

I wonder how they'll manage cheating on consoles. I joined a public game rift once and my paragon went from 200 to over a 1000 before i could make up what was happening. 2 guys in the group were 4000+ one shotting everything and some kind of XP hack was affecting their game.

[Deleted]

I wonder how they'll manage cheating on consoles. I joined a public game rift once and my paragon went from 200 to over a 1000 before i could make up what was happening. 2 guys in the group were 4000+ one shotting everything and some kind of XP hack was affecting their game.

That was fixed a long time ago. At least for PS4 and XB1, there are no new cheated items AFAIK. And seasons will force you to be online. Data will be saved on server, not on client like now.

[Kelimbror]

I'm pretty meh over it

It doesn't really add anything gameplay wise like poe seasons do and the achievements stay the same each seasons too right? Pretty lame

Yet as much as I've tried, I've never been able to even get a character to max level during a PoE season. PoE has some really amazing gameplay, truth...but the grind is real. I can hit level cap in D3 on the Friday night that seasons come out, at which point I can focus on the 'real' game. If PoE was that accessible, I would probably come back to it constantly just like D3. It doesn't need to stop being 'difficult' or interesting, just take less time. I could just play their normal mode, but I like the interesting mechanics each season.

In any case, PoE isn't available on consoles which is why I'm so flipping excited about D3 seasons on there. Playing a Monk and DH gives me Carpal flare ups every season so I burn out before I can do much. This season I've at least done slayer, but mastering the set dungeons have eluded me since a few seasons ago so I don't go much further. On console I don't have that problem so I can really go at it, which is nice.

[Coldkil]

I can hit level cap in D3 on the Friday night that seasons come out, at which point I can focus on the 'real' game.

Can cope with that, but given how endgame is farming GRs ONLY (any other activity doesn't give you comparable rewards) and given how it's the 8th season i'm doing that with zero changes, it's becoming really stale at this point.

The whole season journey can be summed up into "reach 600-ish paragon then you can do all journey easily". When you get familiar with the process, it takes literally zero time and it's a grind for the sake of grinding, not even for loot/rewards or similar.

This said, i'm starting season 8 tonight with the DH.

[Kelimbror]

The whole season journey can be summed up into "reach 600-ish paragon then you can do all journey easily". When you get familiar with the process, it takes literally zero time and it's a grind for the sake of grinding, not even for loot/rewards or similar.

Sorta, but not really. I mean...depending on the class/build, you may be running bounties for the chests, going for the hellfire amulet parts, aiming for some specific cube stuff, etc. Do they need more content modes? Yes. But is the goal really as simple as hitting the p level and that's it? Not really. D3 has a lot of places it can go, but the core content is pretty solid.

To know that can be done on console as well? That's really close to perfection for the game. Sure there can always be more interesting things added, but provide a semi compelling reason to play the game regularly every couple of months? No games accomplish this outside of Diablo and very popular MMOs.

[zito]

random thing

just got a rift with 30 treasure goblins all in one area and I was running my strafe DH build so they all died

sadly the only thing good was all the gold and 1 legendary. Do portals still appear from killing goblins or is it just the ring only?

[Coldkil]

random thing

just got a rift with 30 treasure goblins all in one area and I was running my strafe DH build so they all died

sadly the only thing good was all the gold and 1 legendary. Do portals still appear from killing goblins or is it just the ring only?

They appear but not in rifts IIRC.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorta, but not really. I mean...depending on the class/build, you may be running bounties for the chests, going for the hellfire amulet parts, aiming for some specific cube stuff, etc. Do they need more content modes? Yes. But is the goal really as simple as hitting the p level and that's it? Not really. D3 has a lot of places it can go, but the core content is pretty solid.

To know that can be done on console as well? That's really close to perfection for the game. Sure there can always be more interesting things added, but provide a semi compelling reason to play the game regularly every couple of months? No games accomplish this outside of Diablo and very popular MMOs.

No, that's exactly the point. You won't be running bounties because GRs are just better for anything. You'll run bounties to cube stuff when you get the right items and then you're done with them. HF doesn't takle much anymroe and while different is more an exception.

D3 has literally no place to go but rifts/greater rifts. Start season, do a bounty boss at lvl1 then spam rifts at hard till 70, then do free set stuff and the farm GRs till done.

There no better, faster, and efficient way of doing it. You can do other stuff, but you're just losing time and rewards are a multitude of levels inferior. Also, when you get all your gear (which will happen REALLY fast) you're left with legendary gems upgrades only. And guess what is the only way to upgrade them? GRs.

It's not a "i'm playing top notch so i want 100% efficiency". It's literally "do this otherwise you're getting nothing worth or simply much less for no reason".

EDIT: i've heard i'm a pretty harcore diablo player, but i'm really far from being that. Thopugh to complete a Season Journey takes to me around 30 hours top following the long road.

[Kelimbror]

No, that's exactly the point. You won't be running bounties because GRs are just better for anything. You'll run bounties to cube stuff when you get the right items and then you're done with them. HF doesn't takle much anymroe and while different is more an exception.

But you see, that is my point. You said 'you won't do them' then explained why you 'will do them'. It's impossible to make two content methods identical in parity. The end game of seasons was designed to be Grifts. The goal is to continue pushing higher in them.

The 'world' serves a different purpose to provide supplemental time sinks, both for specific items/materials and to check off journey tasks. You literally have to run bounties to get materials to cube items. To complete every build, you have to obtain said items and cube them. I can't say I've played POE's end game, but from a design space you can't really make things 'more interesting' only less accessible. I imagine the end game is like this: you do <insert content> to receive <insert item> and you repeat until you have perfection, which never comes.

In any case, Rifts are also for drop in and out play. This makes them perfect console content as you can boot it up, do 15 minutes of stuff, get some legs, get some gold, go have dinner. I don't want to sound like I'm arguing, but ARPGs are pretty binary. You're either leveling or you're grinding gear. Every one I've played, from Marvel Heroes to D3 and in between, has basically the same end game regardless of what systems they drape them with.