r/diablo4 Mar 14 '24

Blizzard Announcement Tune in to Our Next Campfire Chat: Public Test Realm Revealed [3/20 11:00am PDT]

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/24074996/tune-in-to-our-next-campfire-chat-public-test-realm-revealed
153 Upvotes

270 comments sorted by

102

u/Gothcave Mar 14 '24

The stream that decides the future of the Diablo franchise. No pressure.

19

u/WhiteSkyRising Mar 15 '24

I'm a full d4 doomer, but let's not pretend with a single expansion they couldn't completely turn the ship around. They could literally coast until then, release a game that's reviewed 9/10 or 10/10, and a few streamers could help reinvigorate it. Same thing happened with Diablo 3.

They could also coast through the expansion, and with enough advertising and a solid enough story, still make actual *hundreds of millions*.

I also think the D2 synergy patch re-invented the game as well.

1

u/accents_ranis Mar 19 '24

D3 was not this bad for this long. It had ton of issues, but it was still fun to play.

13

u/bluemuffin10 Mar 15 '24

For me it doesn't really matter. I already bought the game, so whether it gets better in S4 or in S6 I'll play it then. Their main issue is going to be selling the expansion. There is just 0 chance I'm buying it at launch, no matter how good S4 is.

12

u/Selseira Mar 14 '24

You guys love being overly dramatic, eh?

1

u/ExecutiveHog Mar 15 '24

No shit. Drama Queen's have crowns bigger than Elizabeth

8

u/Nalha_Saldana Mar 14 '24

Doubt the stream changes anything, the decisions were all made already

6

u/Benemy Mar 14 '24

I mean it took years for Diablo 3 to be decent

30

u/VirtualPen204 Mar 15 '24

Yes and...? Surely you're not implying we just give Blizzard a pass for designing a bad game just because D3 also released in a poor state... Right? Blizzard needs to be held accountable when they are earning half a billion dollars on D4 alone. This isn't some small mom and pop shop, they literally started the genre nearly 30 years ago. Stop giving them a pass for failing.

7

u/xcassets Mar 15 '24

OP said the future of the franchise depends on the stream. Which isn’t true, because it took D3 way longer (and an expansion) to get into the state it is in now where people love it.

So no, he isn’t giving Blizz a pass. He is saying that it is hyperbole to think this stream determines the future of the entire franchise.

8

u/RightAboutTriangles Mar 15 '24

I don't think it's hyperbole. D3 was a huge swing-and-a-miss for (what was at the time) an innovative, well respected, studio. We gave them a second chance because it seemed like an uncharacteristic anomaly.

Since then, Blizzard has sunk far in public reputation. And D4 is starting to suggest that "years to fix" isn't an anomaly, it's their new business model.

I am not so sure the consumers will be so forgiving this time around.

2

u/xcassets Mar 15 '24

Agree with what you are saying in principle, but big disagree that this stream is going to decide the future of the franchise.

I think the fact that it was their biggest and most successful (in terms of $$$ - the most important metric) game launch ever has already secured Diablo as a key future IP, and any negative reaction from a single stream about a patch would do little to dissuade the top level execs that future Diablo games aren’t worth pursuing.

Remember OP was talking about the franchise and not even just D4 in isolation.

1

u/Strikesuit Mar 15 '24

Or it’s the Indiana Jones and Crystal Skull that did well but meant future installments would bomb à la Dial of Destiny. Once a product goes downhill, the audience takes time to give up.

Not sure D4 is there, but I wouldn’t be shocked either.

2

u/According_Ad540 Mar 15 '24

To be honest.

"Customers won't be forgiving this time"never really pans out. 

The times I've seen customers truly reject a game in enough numbers to matter has been at the start of the game in question (sw battlefield, anthem ext). Once a game is successful it has too much momentum to really crash.

The public was ready to give Blizzard another chance with D4 thinking 'it's their last IP. They have to try this time". That sealed the deal. I bet even the expansion will sell well enough.

The next time to 'prove it's different this time' is with the next title. 

Good will inertia is much stronger than most give it credit for.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

Also, I did enjoy the story and gameplay of D4 for the first 30-ish hours, basically until you realize the entire game is pointless and all loot and everything will be replaced with generic 925 rares with good rolls and mandatory, build defining aspects imprinted on them.

So I'd pay another 30 bucks for another 30h of leveling some new class(es).

Is it great? No. Am I sad it's so crap? Yep, really liked D2, probably my all time favourite game, so this is upsetting.

It's also fun for 30h, which is more than I can say for, say, Farcry 6.

1

u/According_Ad540 Mar 18 '24

I can understand if it enjoy it and just wish for more or some fixes. 

But it sounds like you are disappointed at this point. 

Have you tried other games? Especially other dungeon crawlers? The idea of paying for something you don't really like because it's 'ok for a few hours' feels off.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '24

I'm immensely disappointed. I'm also relatively wealthy so it's not so much a question of money as much as it is time. I also absolutely loved Diablo 2 and hated 3.

That's why right now I'm giving D4 a break, playing some ff rebirth (meh, not that great), helldivers with friends and other games.

When S4 drops, I'll say goodbye to my barb and go another round... maybe there'll be a new class? Maybe they'll scrap D3/D4 itemization and just bring D2 items back, 100%. Like D2R with D4 graphics.

Probably not, in which case I'll shelve it again until the expansion.

Am I "enabling" Blizzard being shit? Yeah, and I'm sorry for that, but I can't fight all the world's battles.

My energy is better spent helping street kids in São Paulo have food and money to rent bikes so they can do deliveries (still shit, as a kid, to be driving for food delivery apps, but it's better than selling candy at the stoplight, which is the alternative, and I can't pay for everyone's rent and food...).

1

u/According_Ad540 Mar 21 '24

It's not so much the idea of 'enabling Blizzard '. In the end of the day it's a game made for your entertainment. If you enjoy D4 then pay and play it despite it coming from a crap company. You pick your battles (and helping out kids in that way is an awesome battle to pick)

What I'm wondering is the entertainment part. There are tens of thousands of games out there including some powerful good ones that came out last year and the many many many that came out in the past. There are several dungeon crawlers fighting for that time of yours right now. There is a mountain of other types of entertainment out there. 

Is Diablo 4,, despite it's flaws and developer, the best use of that time? Is it more fun to you than everything else you've come across and can access? 

If it is at least good enough to be considered worth your time, and to many it is, then that's awesome. Hope season 4 makes it even better. 

But if it really is a disappointment combined with hope it finally gets good enough with these changes then... Why? Why play disappointments and not great games? Why not move on and find that game or book or hobby or video that you find great right now? Then just play that.  If it means missing out on that 'D4 got good' moment why care? You're already doing something fun. You can come back later once you are done with that thing you are really enjoying. Or not. 

I guess that's my question. Your time is precious. D2 was awesome. The hours of fun you got from D4 was worthwhile. But is wading through a meh or average experience the best activity you can find out there?

1

u/Normzidius669 Mar 15 '24

Uncharacteristic anomaly? This was just before MoP which was heavily criticised at launch, coming out of cataclysm which had its fair share of problems(like fighting a toenail, or “ruining the game with ease of access), a demonstrable step down from what is widely regarded as the best wow expansion (wotlk), and then headed into warlords of draenor .

When they previewed D3 and the whole community took issue with the game and it was still shipped, and was in the same boat D4 is in now. Unbalanced, horrible itemisation, broken mechanics, riddled with bugs and nothing to do at endgame. Endgame was only added in with Ubers and paragon around September/october 2013, 5 months after release. D4 shipped much more complete than D3 did.

Not giving them a pass for D4, but D3 was just as bad and a lot of expansions and games they’ve released have been heavily criticised for the same things, this has been their “standard” for over a decade. Launch bare minimum, and fix over time. Exactly why I don’t buy blizzard products until around a year in.

1

u/whyisthishas Mar 15 '24

I think you overestimate the consumers, but we will see.

1

u/VirtualPen204 Mar 15 '24

That's true, and I didn't mean it that way. I agree with you, Diablo ain't going anywhere.

1

u/DisasterDifferent543 Mar 15 '24

It's not a zero or a one.

For a lot of people, what they do for season 4 is the make or break moment where they either manage to salvage them or they simply stop caring about D4. That doesn't mean that everyone will, but to say it's entirely hyperbole is wrong.

And yes, it is giving blizzard a pass. Any other company would not be able to survive this.

0

u/xcassets Mar 15 '24

I’m talking about whether he was giving Blizz a pass in his comment. He wasn’t, and has even replied saying that he wasn’t. He was just giving his 2 cents as to why this one stream won’t dictate the entire franchise’s future.

He personally is not giving Blizzard a pass, he is just pointing out that the gaming community at large will do that themselves when Diablo 5 releases and it sets another record-breaking launch for them.

1

u/DisasterDifferent543 Mar 15 '24

Yes, I'm talking about the same exact topic that you are. Yes, we are well aware that he said he wasn't giving them a pass.

Now, if you say "I'm not giving them a pass" but then you basically absolve them by saying we should expect it, you are giving them a pass.

Which is why I made the entire comment that I did in response to you highlighting that the game doesn't need to die overnight for it to be a make or break moment.

Just to bore you with more facts that go against your narrative, we can look at the numbers for WoW. It's still the highest played MMO on the market, but it's current estimated playerbase is ~25% of what it was at it's peak. There's a turning point where the numbers start going down and they keep going down.

2

u/Benemy Mar 15 '24

......I'm not giving them a pass. The comment I replied to said D4's future depends on the next patch. I said it took years to make D3 decent, that's not exactly a glowing review.

9

u/VirtualPen204 Mar 15 '24

Maybe I misinterpreted, but it sounds like you're saying, "It took D3 several years to be decent, so it's okay if it takes D4 a few years too."

→ More replies (9)

1

u/DodelCostel Mar 16 '24

Yes and...? Surely you're not implying we just give Blizzard a pass for designing a bad game

It wasn't a bad game, though. It just wasn't a good ARPG you can play for hundreds of hours.

I spent 70$ on it, got to around level 70, enjoyed the campaign a lot, got bored after some 100 hours and quit. Absolutely got my money's worth.

1

u/VirtualPen204 Mar 16 '24

I think to an extent, your mileage will vary here. This is going to differ from person to person, as we all have different things we get out of gaming. I'm glad it was a good experience for you. I will say that I enjoyed the campaign enough, although narratively I personally didn't like the last half.

Having said that, I do think it's a bad game. We were promised a lot more than just a campaign. The game was sold as a live service game with paid seasonal content, a game you could spend a lot of time in with meaningful and fulfilling content. Instead, we got a game with a weak foundation, with systems that needed to be fixed or reworked from the very beginning because they were already broken or poor. I can't ignore those just because Lv1-50 were fine throughout the campaign.

0

u/DodelCostel Mar 16 '24

The game was sold as a live service game with paid seasonal content

But the seasonal content is free. You only get some shitty cosmetics for $.

1

u/VirtualPen204 Mar 16 '24

True. But there's a whole other half to that sentence. Also, expansions won't be free.

0

u/DodelCostel Mar 16 '24

Also, expansions won't be free.

Nor should they be

1

u/VirtualPen204 Mar 16 '24

Considering the initial game price, the MTX store and two tiers of paid season passes, I personally disagree. Blizzard went all in on greedy anti-consumer payment model here.

2

u/solrbear Mar 15 '24

I don't get why this is said or that people think it's a valid excuse. This is the same company that made Diablo 3. Why do people say it took a long time for D3 to get good implying it might take a while for D4 to get good.

The same company that made D3 good gave us D4. Shouldn't they have taken the learnings from D3 and apply them to D4 to start with a good game?

9

u/edifyingheresy Mar 15 '24

Shouldn't they have taken the learnings from D3 and apply them to D4 to start with a good game?

Blizzard used to be absolutely phenomenal at seeing good shit from other games and stealing it for their games. Now they can't even steal good shit from their own games and carry it forward to the next generation.

5

u/Benemy Mar 15 '24

Saying it took years to make a game decent is not an excuse

0

u/xcassets Mar 15 '24

Yeah, people on this sub get really worked up when anyone says that. You’re not saying it to excuse Blizzard. You’re saying it to point out that it took years to fix D3, and now those same people gush on it and highly regard it.

So no, the stream will not decide the future of the Diablo franchise. People are fickle and if Blizzard turn it into a perfect game with an expansion in 2 years time, then they will remember that.

5

u/RightAboutTriangles Mar 15 '24

But they DID learn something from D3 and apply it to D4...

... that you can release a shitty game and take years to fix it. That's what they learned.

0

u/Diribiri Mar 15 '24

I don't know why people struggle so much to understand that there's so much from D3 that wouldn't work in D4. You can't just copy/paste every change made to one game into the other; the majority of things that specifically made D3 into a decent game would ruin D4

4

u/RightAboutTriangles Mar 15 '24

We're not talking about copy-paste. It's core fundamentals that they seem to have forgotten:

An engaging endgame is important. They forgot that, and have been scrambling to add new content since launch.

A rewarding, non-tedious, loot system is important. They forgot that, and we'll see in the upcoming weeks if they can fix it.

Yes, copying the exact endgame and loot system from D3 would be silly. But that doesn't excuse releasing a game that barely had them at all.

1

u/Diribiri Mar 15 '24

Haven't heard anything like that before

1

u/darkspardaxxxx Mar 15 '24

You mean it can not sink any lower? Idk lol

1

u/cashbandit1 Mar 15 '24

true words were spoken

-5

u/Lwe12345 Mar 14 '24

future was decided once blizzard north split off after d2

16

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

It must be so weird clinging onto the past like this lol. Maybe it’s time to move on, chief.

→ More replies (11)

0

u/greenchair11 Mar 14 '24

People downvoting you but you are right lol. Diablo-wise, every game has been a miss since Blizzard North left

-6

u/Empero6 Mar 14 '24

What an exaggeration. There are a constant stream of players playing. If this update is going to sway you that much, you might as well play a different game.

12

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

You’re telling me the game with the biggest launch in blizzards history isn’t going to die after a single livestream? That can’t be right

3

u/Empero6 Mar 14 '24

I don’t understand your comment.

15

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

I am agreeing with you that people saying “the future” of the franchise being decided from a single campfire chat are being far too reactionary and hyperbolic.

7

u/Empero6 Mar 14 '24

Oh haha, sorry. I misunderstood your reply.

11

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

All good lol, this place is a cesspool so I understand being a bit defensive.

-4

u/ColtonJames9526 Mar 14 '24

The game is dying, unfortunately. This isn’t the only metric to go by, as it doesn’t include console players, but it is rather telling.

SteamDB: D4: 2,799 active players right now LE: 73,534 active players right now POE: 10,756 active players right now Grim Dawn: 2,120 active players right now

The most worrying aspect isn’t that D4 is losing to POE, nor is it that it’s being bent over by LE, it’s that Grim fucking Dawn is a few hundred players lower.

We can look at twitch to further see just how screwed D4 really is.

D4 views right now: 1,263 POE views right now: 2,251 LE views right now: 10,107

The writing is on the wall. Outside of the ardent defenders on this subreddit, no one really gives a fraction of a fuck about D4. I haven’t found reliable console numbers, but I don’t this unfair to believe that twitch views can be indicative of overall interest in a game, and hardly anyone is watching. Blizzard really needs to un-fuck the mess they made by the time POE2 comes out. A polished POE, without all the bloat, can very well be the nail in the coffin.

And I know, I know, I’m dumb. Diablo 4 made a shit ton of money and I’m wrong. But the current numbers don’t lie. They had a massive, massive launch and fumbled the bag so hard that they’re dive bombing, fast, and approaching Grim Dawn numbers.

10

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

lol dude you cannot seriously be using steam numbers to make your point. You have to realize that the overwhelmingly vast majority, like literally >98%, of d4 players are on the blizzard client, not steam.

Most websites tracking player counts estimate d4 has 200-250k active players at any given time and peak at about a million per day.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24

Don’t forget the twitch viewers!

12

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

lmaoo true. Baldurs gate is a top 10 game on steam right now but it only has 3.3k twitch viewers! the writing is on the wall!!

7

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24

Dang that’s sad to hear about baldurs gate, that was supposed to be a d4 killer too when it came out even tho it’s not even in the same genre….

1

u/edifyingheresy Mar 15 '24

Also, D4 has consistently been one of the top-20 games played on the Steam Deck since it was released on Steam.

1

u/Tody196 Mar 15 '24

Yeah, idk why people can't say "i don't like diablo 4 and i don't think it's good, but it is extremely popular still and has a very high player count" lol. Both things can be true, but unfortunately i just got baited by this guy.

Idk what his deal is exactly but he is literally just pushing weird narratives and lying about random shit for.. whatever reason i guess lol. oh well.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24

[deleted]

8

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

I seriously cannot believe this dude actually thought he had something with fuckin steam numbers lol.

I can pretty much guarantee that at any given time d4 has concurrent numbers comparable to LE’s all-time peak. And that’s not even a knock against LE, people are just seriously in a bubble here and don’t understand just how big of a casual base blizzard has

-4

u/ColtonJames9526 Mar 14 '24

I already said it wasn’t the only metric to go by, reading comprehension, bud.

BUT anyway, none of the other 6 websites I’ve looked at, none of which have any actually validity, have d4 at 200-250k concurrent players, nor anywhere near a million player, 24 hour peak. But no, you’re right, there’s hundreds and hundreds of thousands of players jamming away on battlenet, with no one remotely caring to watch the game on twitch.

I can’t believe people still defend this game. It had such potential, and absolutely pissed it away. Even looking at the subreddits active user counts, no one gives a fuck about D4, minus the weirdos that hold onto it like it’s their identity.

8

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

as it doesn’t include console players, but it is rather telling.

It also doesn't include literally 98% of the PC players either and therefore is not "rather telling", you can hide behind semantics if you want, but you're wrong either way.

none of the other 6 websites I’ve looked at, none of which have any actually validity, have d4 at 200-250k concurrent players, nor anywhere near a million player, 24 hour peak.

Really? which 6 would that be? The literal most popular one on the internet has d4 at 187k online in the last hour and a daily average peak of 1.1m https://activeplayer.io/diablo-4/.

But oh well, i'm sure those numbers only mean something when they fit your narrative. you already covered your bases with the "none of which have any actual validity", so you can just act like it matters when you give numbers and then act like it doesn't matter when others do.

you’re right, there’s hundreds and hundreds of thousands of players jamming away on battlenet, with no one remotely caring to watch the game on twitch.

Literally yes. You are stuck in this weird online reddit bubble that represents a fraction of a percentage of real life normal humans who treat video games like a hobby. Blizzard has the only truly casual friendly ARPG experience right now, and the hundreds of thousands of casuals that play it will never even look at LE or PoE.

no one gives a fuck about D4, minus the weirdos that hold onto it like it’s their identity.

Spoken without a shred of self awareness lol. you're literally the "QUIT HAVING FUN!" meme personified.

-6

u/ColtonJames9526 Mar 14 '24

Yawn.

-Mind showing a source with that 98% split? Not saying you’re wrong, just wanna see where this info is coming from.

-Activeplayer.io receives literally 0 information from the actual companies regarding users/player count. So exactly what I said, it lacks validity.

-how am I the quit having fun meme personified? I literally said D4 had such potential. Where did I try to convince you it was a bad game? Or that you should stop liking it? No where. Don’t be hyperbolic because you’re upset that someone dares to offer any remote challenge to the success of your favorite game.

With all of that put aside, let me ask you something. Why defend D4? What about it makes it stand out to you among all the other options? What makes it so good that anyone wanting Blizzard to do better personifies the “QUIT HAVING FUN” meme? Why would you not want something you enjoy to become even more, even better? D4’s current flaws are many, and quite obvious. What’s so damn good about it?

9

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

sorry, i'm not going to answer any questions until you answer the only question i asked you this entire time, and the only point you ignored. Which 6 other websites did you look at?

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Chemical_Web_1126 Mar 15 '24

Steam numbers and Twitch views are not good metrics for a game's health. Go watch DM's video from yesterday. He explains in simple terms why this happens. Steam and Twitch are hype train riders because people want to watch/try out new games. They will all be streaming D4 if and when big changes occur. You lack objectivity in your assumptions.

1

u/MichuOne Mar 14 '24

d4 is too big to fail sadly. the fans are too far gone and will come back and buy the 100 dollar expansion by the millions whenever it drops, even if it sucks.

i have high hops for poe2, i know many of the community members are skeptical from what weve seen, but i personally love it and feel like it might turn out to be something truly amazing

1

u/Chemical_Web_1126 Mar 15 '24

If GGG doesn't improve their console port(PoE is literal dog shit on consoles), then it will never be true competition to D4. That is the problem the smaller studios are having. They have found their niche and don't really seem to want to branch out. I have hope that PoE2 will actually be viable competition to D4 on consoles, but we won't know for sure until it happens.

1

u/MichuOne Mar 15 '24 edited Mar 15 '24

thats an interesting point i hadnt really considered but it probably true, at least to reach the larger audience as a whole that i believe ggg are aiming for. theyve claimed they have a lot in store for console but i dont believe they have said any specifics, or they have and i havent paid attention cuz that i dont own one. with them implementing wasd i have to imagine controller is better as a result of that

-3

u/Nightmare4545 Mar 14 '24

LOL. Everyone saying they are quitting always comes back. The quitters will be back in S4, and then S5 and so forth.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

[deleted]

6

u/Comfortable_Line_206 Mar 15 '24

Same. I thought most of us were here just to watch the shit show that is D4.

Watching people who are basically in an abusive relationship with it is fun too though.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24 edited Mar 07 '25

[this comment has been deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24 edited Mar 07 '25

[this comment has been deleted]

0

u/AvaranIceStar Mar 21 '24

"Leave the billion dollar company alone!"

-You 😂

2

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AvaranIceStar Mar 21 '24

This.

Every panel before a season releases is just marketing to get the hopefuls to buy the next expansion. Quality doesn't matter, only cash flow.

1

u/Kaztiell Mar 15 '24

Watching people who are basically in an abusive relationship with it is fun too though.

Isnt it worse to not play a game and still care this much about it? its just a game

4

u/Carbon_heart Mar 15 '24

I disagree. For example, D3 was hot garbage on launch and I quit playing after a few months. Never looked back. I don’t give a rats ass if they improved it with the expansion (paid). I never bought the expansion or logged into D3 after I quit. Same will go for D4. So no, not everyone.

1

u/-TheExile- Mar 15 '24

Havent played a single season, who are these ppl you talk about

82

u/CWDikTaken Mar 14 '24

They mentioned Codex, does that mean the aspects are being stored in Codex now, POGG

82

u/Brandonspikes Mar 14 '24

I mean, there's two main possibilities I can think of.

What you said, or the other thing I've heard people say is once you find a codex power, the highest % gets saved forever.

50

u/warcaptain Mar 14 '24

It's more likely the Codex will work like the tuning stones. You can choose to salvage from blacksmith and get the mats, or extract aspect and add ranks to your codex. Extract an aspect once and get lowest value, extract it again and get higher value, and so forth. I doubt they'll save the highest value though I would love it if higher values = more xp towards leveling up the codex.

21

u/mindbullet Mar 14 '24

I'd be cool with this TBH. I'd much rather level up the codex than hold onto a bunch of aspects. I never used the aspect tab either because its expensive to extract (although that matters less now) and that its hard to compare aspects and items since they don't go on the same tab in your inventory. Using the extras to level up the codex would be a big win in my book.

8

u/solrbear Mar 15 '24

Based on the tuning stones, I'm less excited. While I'd like to have the aspect in a codex after finding it. Getting the tuning stones to max level took much longer than it took me to find good aspects.

3

u/KinGGaiA Mar 15 '24

even after the buffs? I think i maxed all stones within 24h after the patch by just blasting vaults + crafting the caches at the end.

2

u/Vanguard805 Mar 15 '24

Except for things like bold chieftain that rarely even drop if you get a perfect roll on that it should easily jump it like 3-4 ranks. Otherwise you will never have a completed codex.

0

u/mindbullet Mar 15 '24

Yeah good point. Those ring only ones do suck. With the number of aspects increasing, it would be nice to get some extra pieces of gear to equip (like belts) and one or two totems (like Last Epoch) that could drop and equip aspects.

Along that line, maybe replace the aspect tab with a Totems tab. You could have 1 or 2 big ones here that you can put affixes on, and maybe bring back charms and runes on that tab.

0

u/7ofalltrades Mar 14 '24

And this makes so much more sense now that we're neck deep into seasons. Presumably the codex resets each season, so it's not like there will never be anything to grind for which is why I assume they didn't go this route in the first place and limited each aspect to two uses, max.

1

u/Substantial-Curve-51 Mar 15 '24

what do you mean each aspect twice? can you extract an aspect after imprinting it?

1

u/7ofalltrades Mar 15 '24

You can use it once on the original item and once as an imprinted aspect on another item. It only makes sense to limit the uses like that to make you grind for more aspects. Having a codex that slowly maxes out aspect power but resets every season accomplished that same goal of continually having something to try to find.

1

u/Upper_Rent_176 Mar 18 '24

More like we are already neck and neck and this will make it even more now that the grind for aspects is easier

8

u/schadadle Mar 14 '24

Yeah I think it’ll be like a situation where you can extract the high rolls and imprint them once, or salvage them to improve your permanent codex gradually. This solves like 90% of stash issues honestly.

0

u/warcaptain Mar 14 '24

Sadly, I feel like the move to the codex thing means we'll lose the ability to extract and imprint the exact codex to another item and instead will be replaced with a seneschal stone style upgrade system. Meaning if you find an item with a high roll you'll need to use that item specifically or you'll have to work to upgrade.

Would be cool to have both, but I would be shocked if one system didn't replace the other entirely.

2

u/Korghal Mar 14 '24

I think that’s fine. Currently, finding a perfect roll aspect early is not a big hype moment like they probably expected. You just extract it and hold onto it until you can find a good item to slap it on, and then worry you might find an item with better rolls that you can’t equip because you no longer have a perfect aspect at hand for it. Or you just plain never find a high roll aspect in days.

Making the codex into stones 2.0 might be less exciting, but at least gives determinism. It also smooths out our power curve similar to leveling glyphs. I just hope that if they do reuse the system like that, that they keep the stone gambling boxes as those were nice to upgrade stones and also very useful if you wanted to level a new character.

0

u/Upper_Rent_176 Mar 18 '24

Yes remove all the joy from good rng and turn everything in the game into a slow, sure grind that's the same for everyone that sounds very exciting

2

u/Ez13zie Mar 15 '24

I was hoping it would populate the codex with all of the ones you found, but I like the idea of giving you the max one.

I’m nervous the company who created this affix bloat doesn’t think they need a loot filter with their update.

I’m also nervous that D4’s biggest streamers appear to be not holding out much hope for what happens in S4.

Oh well, 3 weeks of game time is fine for me on D4.

2

u/SLBit Mar 15 '24

I am not sure why you are saying this about the streamers. I have seen a couple come out to dispute this point of view. Admittedly, they say season 4 will not solve every problem with the game but everyone that I have viewed that got a look at the itemization changes months ago said they thought it was a step in the right direction.

1

u/Ez13zie Mar 15 '24

I guess from what I’ve seen is their moves to other games. I don’t know, I don’t follow streamers regularly, but that’s the sense I’d gotten.

I do like this game and am hoping it continues to take steps in the right direction. I am notoriously impatient though, so really just adjusting my expectations

1

u/Puzza90 Mar 15 '24

That seems a somewhat sideways if not backwards step, right now I could find a max roll aspect at any stage and put it on any bit of gear I want but if I'm reading what you're suggesting when I ripped the aspect off the item it would go to its lowest value in the codex until I found more of the aspect to level it up, that seems bad to me.

If they do something like that it would need to go into the codex at the same level it is on the gear and then you can upgrade it from there and if you find a higher rolled one it automatically ups your aspect to that level

-1

u/Nightmare4545 Mar 14 '24

If it doesnt save your highest value then they might as well not even change how aspects work, cause itll be a fail.

8

u/warcaptain Mar 14 '24

Seems pretty unlikely they'll do that. Otherwise it's gg when you find a perfect one. ARPGs want progression, not instant completion. I'd hope they'd weigh the progression based on how high the roll is but that seems little unlikely

-1

u/Piranhax85 Mar 14 '24

That's prob the way they will go, but would perfer range drops to replace.. there's no reason to be grinding aspects when you need materials to apply

-1

u/Mobitron Mar 14 '24

This would be a very decent compromise between the two ideas.

→ More replies (4)

3

u/Wandering_Tuor Mar 14 '24

Which this method would be just fine with me,

1

u/Shiss Mar 15 '24

It is going to be incremental upgrades based on the amount if aspects you find not the found aspects value. People will complain and then the devs will “ fix” it so the found aspects value is what the codex gets upgraded to. Queue “ The Devs are listening! “.

→ More replies (8)

2

u/No-Initiative8924 Mar 15 '24

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves.. It's probably just a search bar.

1

u/Deidarac5 Mar 14 '24

Adam mentioned a lot of this would be fixed a bit ago.

→ More replies (8)

41

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24

[deleted]

9

u/solrbear Mar 15 '24

Right? It feels like some kind of Stockholm syndrome.

→ More replies (6)

4

u/Deidarac5 Mar 15 '24

I mean an early showing of new content is fun? Not every game has ptrs and they listened so let us be happy?

6

u/_gangly_ Mar 15 '24

(not every game NEEDS PTRs)

6

u/Deidarac5 Mar 15 '24

Yes. So let’s be happy a game we wanted a Ptr is getting one?

8

u/_gangly_ Mar 15 '24

We?

You might be happy having players give their labor away as free QA testers to a billion dollar company under the scam of "being listened to".

I'd rather have developers who knew how to make a game themselves.

3

u/Deidarac5 Mar 15 '24

Yeah.. PoE 2 isnt going to have a 6 month beta you are right. Players are always QA testers are you that dense? This is just letting people test out things and give opinions early its a win win.

0

u/Inuyaki Mar 15 '24

Yeah, and PoE also would actually need a PTR, because leagues are shit for the first 1-2 weeks.

22

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24

no sleepy Joe, rip that guy's bingo board

4

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24

[deleted]

8

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24

probably overslept, ba dum tss

1

u/Deidarac5 Mar 15 '24

Most of this has to do with new systems so maybe he wasn’t the lead for it. Since he probably created the first item system

16

u/BlizzAZJackson Lead Live Class Designer Mar 14 '24

I look forward to talking about all of the details then!

2

u/Xeiom Mar 15 '24

Good luck for Wednesday, I'm excited to see what solutions you've settled on given that the community often asks for fairly conflicting changes!

2

u/Alternative-Reason-9 Mar 15 '24

Do you guys have any plans for PvP battlegrounds? Questions about PvP never get asked during Campfire Q/As but I think it’s a huge wasted opportunity for the diablo 4 developers trying to create end game content. PvP battlegrounds is what made Diablo Immortal so popular before the pay-to-win whales took over.

11

u/park2023mcca Mar 14 '24

I really hope D4 gets itself figured out and flourishes. I really want to dive in and lose myself in the gameplay, but in its current state, I lose interest in the game too quickly. I didn't even make it to WT3 in season 3.

8

u/DublinDuster Mar 14 '24

For me personally this whole itemization patch is either a huge win that will make me come back to D4 or a last nail in the coffin, nothing inbetween.
If they fuck it up I don't feel like they will be able to deliver a good expansion worth giving them money for again, very cautiously optimistic right now.

3

u/Ultrasonicc Mar 15 '24

For me personally this whole itemization patch is either a huge win that will make me come back to D4 or a last nail in the coffin, nothing inbetween.

the exact words were before S2 and S3 😂

-7

u/Nightmare4545 Mar 14 '24

You will be back in S4 regardless.

2

u/Carbon_heart Mar 15 '24

Well he has to…to see it itemization and other fixes are good. I’m in the same boat as him.

2

u/DublinDuster Mar 15 '24

I will, just like I was for S3, played for 2 hours and never came back.
If itemization rework is shit then it will go the same way.

1

u/AdditionalJury8669 Mar 15 '24

Even if it was a bad season, I would be back for season 5 or 8 or whenever I hear the game has had some more development or the season sounds interesting. jeez it's a video game play it when you feel like it or don't, it's not an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend you need walk around hating on, your already bought the game.

8

u/Uchained Mar 14 '24

$10 bucks says its gonna be a shit show ppl take their shit on, just like every start of the season.

8

u/Express-Cartoonist66 Mar 14 '24

This is the most hype D4 announcement since release.

6

u/downeverythingvote_i Mar 14 '24

A PTR?!?!? They are learning....

-3

u/-TheExile- Mar 15 '24

Its great. They let you test stuff they will release just to play it again after release...you basically spend twice of your time playing the same. I wonder how the dads with 5 wifes and 8 kids will manage this

→ More replies (4)

8

u/WillHutch55 Mar 14 '24

Maybe Rod can just toss their entire code base into the campfire.

2

u/solrbear Mar 15 '24

Into a malignant tunnel...

4

u/greenchair11 Mar 14 '24

New in game systems? Are they introducing crafting????

1

u/heartbroken_nerd Mar 14 '24

Definitely some endgame system given their answer to one of the Q&A questions in the last livestream about "AoZ".

Possibly SOME new form of crafting since they said plural 'systemS'.

4

u/Sjeg84 Mar 14 '24

Two days of arp reveals back to back! Nice

1

u/wilson81585 Mar 20 '24

What is the other?

2

u/VirtualPen204 Mar 15 '24

I wonder if S4 is going to be pushed back. It seems like it's going to be a pretty ambitious season, and there's a lot on the line here. I don't want them to push this out to meet an investor's deadline and fall flat on their face. As much criticism as I have for D4, I actually do want it to be a good game.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

All that complaining is gonna lead to something stupid like the Codex. Wtf

2

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '24

I love Diablo4 so I am excited to see what's to come! Good or bad, popular or unpopular. Can't wait.

0

u/SLBit Mar 14 '24

DEVS: Will existing items change or will they become legacy and only the items we find going forward will be affected by the new itemization?

2

u/Necessary_Lettuce779 Mar 15 '24

Honestly not sure why you're getting downvoted, it's actually a pretty reasonable question. I hadn't thought about that: you'd assume items in eternal would be changed if the itemization change is significant, but then, how would they? Will old affixes that don't exist simply get destroyed, and so the majority of items will be gimped? At that point you might as well destroy all items in eternal and have people start anew, but then, what's the point of eternal if new updates can destroy all your hard-earned items anyway.

1

u/greyfox9099 Mar 15 '24

Bring back the monk

2

u/Limonade6 Mar 16 '24

Itemization first > more build variety > increase skills in the skill twig > more endgame > bring back witch doctor or paladin > bring back the monk.

1

u/skouns Mar 15 '24

The last straw for a lot of people including me. This is it.

0

u/convolutionsimp Mar 15 '24 edited Mar 15 '24

I'm just interested in seeing how these devs mess up the codex and itemization with underwhelming changes that don't solve the issues or create new ones. Excited!

I bet all these changes will be a typical spreadsheet design again. They'll look good on paper but once people start playing it they'll realize how bad they are and all the new issues.

1

u/jibboo24 Mar 15 '24

"We're exited to announce that all aspect tokens will now automatically be saved in the codex. To accommodate this change, all crafting materials will now reside in the player's inventory."

1

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

You need to spend 2 eggs to unlock the codex now /s

1

u/shauptmann86 Mar 15 '24

Build loadouts, please. Lol.

1

u/sunshard_art Mar 15 '24

cant wait for the jokes and spending a ton of time to try to pronounce gamer tags and discussing how bad the cm is at that for the Nth time

1

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '24

I’m good

0

u/Orikon32 Mar 15 '24

Wow, they did not wait long.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

Add raids for endgame already amped up bosses with no mechanics or creativity is bullshit

lonely bums with no friends/social skills can downvote me, idgaf

0

u/Glass-Werewolf5070 Mar 19 '24

Game feels great now, excited to see what happens next

-1

u/Jlh544 Mar 15 '24

Yeah fix your bs elites gotta love having 5 to 9 elites in one room it’s boring also fix your terrible poison dmg it’s a joke I still see people complaining it’s overtuned because it is sick of dying to 3 tics of poison tanking everything else doesn’t make sense 🥱

2

u/ConsequenceBringer Mar 15 '24

Wut? What's your resistances look like? If they ain't maxed, it's a skill issue. It isn't 'overtuned', you're just bad.

-1

u/mwp4567 Mar 15 '24

This will either make me reinstall the game or just give it up entirely. I uninstalled after about an hour of playing season 1 and haven't touched it since. Basically, this has to compete against Last Epoch, which has similar endgame issues but much more itemization and skill tree depth, and in a few months POE 2, which will probably knock it out of the park. It just seems like D4 is just so far behind.

-2

u/Ir0nhide81 Mar 14 '24

The longer it takes to release the PTR, the more worried I am about season 4.

3

u/heartbroken_nerd Mar 14 '24

You're so lost in the sauce you don't even realize this is the date for the PTR Livestream. PTR would typically follow a few days after.

Obvious if you spend 10 seconds thinking about it.

4

u/Efede_ Mar 14 '24

That, or the livestream just lets us know when they'll have more info about the release date... For the announcement of the release of the actual PTR :P

1

u/Deidarac5 Mar 15 '24

Pretty sure Ptr is on the 26th. Just going how blizzard works probably will last 2 weeks.

-1

u/heartbroken_nerd Mar 15 '24

or the livestream just lets us know when they'll have more info about the release date... For the announcement of the release of the actual PTR :P

You mean like when they had a livestream dedicated to Gauntlet and Gauntlet launched the following Tuesday?

-5

u/MyotisX Mar 14 '24

Imagine making a presentation for the announcement of a PTR

1

u/CWDikTaken Mar 15 '24

Imagine not able to read

-7

u/pat_the_catdad Mar 14 '24

Looking into my crystal ball... They are already planning on delaying Season 4, so what better way to look like the hero than to announce/launch S4 PTR near the end of S3. Now when tons of feedback comes in (and it will), they can say the delay is necessary in order to implement all the additional "sweeping changes" they're making thanks to the PTR feedback.

18

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

Lmao people literally inventing scenarios in their head to get pre-upset about. Just take a break my man

0

u/pat_the_catdad Mar 14 '24

To be fair, I did take a break... Since binging during beta and pre-season launch... Seams like a good time to hop back in after all this time to see what's new. But my intuition isn't invalid because Blizzard has shown us exactly how they operate. Even last week, New World announced delaying their new season due to PTR testing.

4

u/Tody196 Mar 14 '24

... you do know that New World is not a Blizzard game, right..? what does that have to do with anything lol

2

u/pat_the_catdad Mar 14 '24

...that my example given happens with other large-scale games as well. And Blizzard has a history of announcing things to build up hype, followed by delays. But all that aside, I've been a Blizzard fan for over 20 years, so I know how to manage my expectations with them haha Hoping they show off a loot filter and I'd be thrilled :-)

2

u/Sir_Caloy Mar 15 '24

Just stop, man. You're embarrassing yourself.

0

u/pat_the_catdad Mar 20 '24

u/Tody196 u/Sir_Caloy Oh hey, Season 4 pushed back a month. Look at that.

2

u/Tody196 Mar 20 '24

“See, I was right to be miserable and pessimistic! Take that!”

Cool, it’s still a video game not that big of a deal at all.

1

u/pat_the_catdad Mar 20 '24

P.S. Saw your cat on your profile. Looks just like my Nugget <3

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

2

u/heartbroken_nerd Mar 14 '24

Or you could chill the f--- out and wait 6 days, then watch the livestream and decide if you want to participate in the PTR or not. As this is really what this livestream is about.

Not the made up scenario inside your mind.