What does Diablo 4 need?

[Yoshingo]

To be under a new company.

Jay Wilson and activision fought so hard to include the real money auction house. Most of the people who resisted that and well as Josh Mosqueira are gone.

Diablo 4 is going to stuffed full of some kind of microtransaction bullshit.

[Wangming]

To be under a new company.

Jay Wilson and activision fought so hard to include the real money auction house. Most of the people who resisted that and well as Josh Mosqueira are gone.

Diablo 4 is going to stuffed full of some kind of microtransaction bullshit.

They really want to monetize it. They should just make an MMO.

[Bodonius]

For me to play it alot I need.

Get rid of timed content and the insane differance between solo and group playing.

Or just do a D2 remaster with no content change and Im happy.

[valky94]

With Diablo 4 potentially in the works, what overhauls does it need from Diablo 3 to make it successful? Or should Blizzard stick to the D3 formula with new, updated content?

id like for them to keep the whole adventure mode from RoS (seasons, rifts, bounties), the combat was very good aswell

[Wangming]

Eh, why would you release a game that is B2P and would requires years of maintenance after if you don't monetize it. PoE has tons of monetization, so will D4. If D3 could have been monetized, we'd have had another xpac.

If D3 generated constant revenue we would have had two more at least.

[Corruptus]

What it needs is a release date.

[Qnubi]

Just to be precise as possible: i know RoS saved D3 and made it 1000x better. It's not my point. I'm saying that GRs are a content format that bores me to death, since progressing for that +3 mainstat and +1 gem level just to tackle another randomized dungeons with the same random boss i either nuke through or just fish for another makes zero sense for me.
But again, i'm mixing itemization with content format. I don't really think how people can find appealing mindless zerging stuff in the hope of getting something useful. Target farming for me is ok, a random dungeon that has everything in it is unimpressive to the max.

I don't have to change anyone's mind anyway.

GR and gem levels are good if they would have made them more thoroughly. You start with 1 effect per gem on level 1. Then you unlock another at level 25. Unfortunately it ended there. There should be new gem effects every 25 levels, so 1, 25, 50, 75 and lastly 100. I would be more encouraged to grind and enjoy GR if it unlocks cool stuff down the road on top of some extra stats and loot along the way. I say they missed an excellent opportunity with the gems to put in some soul into the GR system. It just needs more meaningful unlocks that you crave and makes you push higher with excitement.

[Khaza-R]

NPCs / Questgivers

One of my biggest gripes from the narrative style in D3 is how you only really ever interact with your traveling posse and seemingly ignore the locals in each act. One of the best things about D2 was how you would go to a new location and meet a new cast of characters who would hand you quests. It helped build the world and make it feel like you were on an actual adventure. In contrast, I can't remember a single NPC from D3 outside of Leah or Tyrael.

More subtle story telling

Another grievance I have with D3 is the enemy constantly broadcasting themselves to the PC. This is an obnoxious and rather gauche way to tell the story. Especially when you're suppose to be dealing with sneaky demons who are bent on corrupting the world in secret. Its also a problem when the story has to tell you what a character is rather than show it. A great example of this is Azmodan. Who the story insists on telling you is the "greatest strategian of Hell but portrayed as a completely inept Saturday morning cartoon villain.

Deeper customization

"Building" out your character is not fun or rewarding in D3. Largely because there's no player agency in the progression of your character. Stats are pre-assigned and talents and runes have arbitrary level locks on them. Not even your choice of weapon type really matters because it just functions as a stat stick in most instances which is completely divorced from your build. All in all, its just a very shallow experience

[Saphyron]

Deeper customization
Not even your choice of weapon type really matters because it just functions as a stat stick in most instances which is completely divorced from your build. All in all, its just a very shallow experience

I agree fully. Except for one build. Thorns Crusader. The old one.
It required a Dagger, due to fast attacks. It required physical damage. As many different stats as possible.
Ye old Pig Sticker was the preferred weapon of choice

[Arainie]

Slower progress. Less damage scaling. Everything needs to be massively tuned down. Right now you can reach some sort of soft cap (ie comfortably farm the highest torment and decent level grifts) within a day or two of the season release and then all you do is farm paragons, collect better versions of the same gear and augment which is kind of stale (and almost neverending) gameplay imo.

[Coldkil]

Really? I always felt like Diablo wrapped up nicely with Lord of Destruction and the D3 story felt a bit tacked on.

Yup. They made the story purposefully have an open ending in D2 - we defeated the three Prime evils but a) we destroyed the Soulstones so they were not trapped anymore into them and b) destroying the Soulstone has a double effect of removing the "hiding shield" from Sanctuary and removing the "limit" imposed on Nephalem's powers.

That's why Belial and Azmodan get on Sanctuary and why we hunt for the Black Soulstone - to effectively trap the evils into that; too bad Adria betrayed us, resurrected Diablo (which we defeated) and in the battle against Malthael the stone gets destroyed effectuvely freeing all the souls contained again.

If anything, the story in RoS feels unfinished because there was another expansion planned that we never have seen. However makes sense to have an open ending again. We have ended with out chracaters and basically all humanity no more shackled by the Worldstone, and with Tyrael admitting he's afraid pof Nephalem. They're so powerful to be able to beat both champions of Heavens and Hell, but also very prone to corruption. If someone of them decides to go berserk, who's going to stop them?

Honestly a fitting setting for a new game. Makes room for stuff like a persistent world, factions/settlements, deeper interactions with NPCs and other players.

- - - Updated - - -

GR and gem levels are good if they would have made them more thoroughly. You start with 1 effect per gem on level 1. Then you unlock another at level 25. Unfortunately it ended there. There should be new gem effects every 25 levels, so 1, 25, 50, 75 and lastly 100. I would be more encouraged to grind and enjoy GR if it unlocks cool stuff down the road on top of some extra stats and loot along the way. I say they missed an excellent opportunity with the gems to put in some soul into the GR system. It just needs more meaningful unlocks that you crave and makes you push higher with excitement.

Yeah, more structure was needed - that's exactly my point. Your example is good but still simplistic taken alone and there could have been done a lot more stuff. Actually, some datamining some patches ago showed how permanent GR affixes were planned like Arcane rays everywhere and so on, so there was an idea of making them more meaningful/deep.

[schwank05]

All D4 needs to be successful is to do what D3 should have been D2 with new story and better graphics.

[Appelgren]

Diablo 4 just needs to be Path of Exile, but Path of Exile already exists. Blizzard are not going to make a better ARPG than GGG have, so D4 needs to be something different to the traditional isometric grinding game.

No thanks! I'm actually looking forward to play D4.
If it's like PoE then I'm not going to because it's an insanely overhyped game. Its reputation for being the best arpg is there just because its fanatic fanboys.

[Yoshingo]

Eh, why would you release a game that is B2P and would requires years of maintenance after if you don't monetize it. PoE has tons of monetization, so will D4. If D3 could have been monetized, we'd have had another xpac.

They were and then it was canceled.

But I can see the big corporation propaganda has worked on some people and they're now just openly defending shitty microtransactions.

Path of Exile only has cosmetic monetization. The real money auction house was not. And then they tried to argue it was to stop third party sellers, which continued to exist unabated.

[Yoshingo]

Yes, RoI is propaganda. Gratz.

The RoI was the 60 dollar price point that sold amazingly well and blew almost every other game they created out of the water sales wise.

But keep on defending horrendous practices that are choking the market.

I guess I see how Blizzard thought Diablo: Immortal wouldn't piss people off. They just overestimated how many like yourself were in their fanbase.

[Phantombeard]

What does Diablo 4 need? IMO. A Deep Story , Lots of Death and Gore. Graphics in Honor of D2 and a play style completely new, maybe a new twist on the ARPG Genre.

[Miyagie]

Copy alot from Lost Arc and let the RoS Team do the main game.

[Kyphael]

Bad class? I'd play it if they introduced a Bard class.

[bloodwulf]

Sadly i liked the idea of the earlier canceled iteration that seemed like it would be closer to Hellgate: London (broken game but was almost amazing). I think with the focus media has on D&D, a Diablo looter in a 3rd person perspective has a viable chance of succeeding.

That being said, Blizzard wont take that risk. So to be a viable Diablo looter game, it needs to have a few things.
- Frequent Dramatic Seasonal changes (ALA POE's Leagues).
- Actual class customization
- Loot needs 100% redone.
- TRADE TRADE TRADE TRADE TRADE (if they have a good trade system that does not require external websites to navigate, then they will do well)
- Random Events while farming (D2 had it, POE has it, give us some things to go OOOOOOO on when we see it).
- Some sort of skill customization or system to allow better specializations into certain weapon or spell types.

[LanToaster]

I´m no GameDesigner, so I dont really think to deep into stuff I would like.

Like some, I really like the Place where Diablo3 is right now. While its not a game I play very much, I really enjoy it from time to time. Thats why I would really like to see seasons again.

Ontop of that, as someone mentioned if they could somehow make the world more Open, and fuse the AdventureMode and Story mode together, maybe even have the Campaign as something you can do multiple times would be Awesome.

Also, Rifts are a fun mechanic, improving on them would definetly be awesome.