Blog Your Current Game (1 Viewer)

[jmotivator]

Still playing Diablo 4 and working through my Nightmare Dungeon progression.

The biggest issue I have with nightmare dungeons is how absurdly lopsided/unbalanced the modifiers are.

At this point I and probably everyone else except a very small niche group of Shaman players have absolutely no reason to run a Nightmare dungeon with a Resource drain affix.

Seriously, who the heck thought that would be a good idea? 99.999% of all builds use attacks other than basic attacks, and in high level dungeons with resource drain you are always out of your primary resource.

Second only to that is a dungeon with added Cold damage since added Cold damage to all mobs is a stun-lock cluster-F.

It seems to me that when you create these kinds of insanely difficult tags to a dungeon all you are doing is upping the burn rate of sigils since practically everyone will just recycle those sigils.

 

[Redress]

Still playing Diablo 4 and working through my Nightmare Dungeon progression.

The biggest issue I have with nightmare dungeons is how absurdly lopsided/unbalanced the modifiers are.

At this point I and probably everyone else except a very small niche group of Shaman players have absolutely no reason to run a Nightmare dungeon with a Resource drain affix.

Seriously, who the heck thought that would be a good idea? 99.999% of all builds use attacks other than basic attacks, and in high level dungeons with resource drain you are always out of your primary resource.

Second only to that is a dungeon with added Cold damage since added Cold damage to all mobs is a stun-lock cluster-F.

It seems to me that when you create these kinds of insanely difficult tags to a dungeon all you are doing is upping the burn rate of sigils since practically everyone will just recycle those sigils.

Inquisitor elite+ mobs, with cold damage. Freeze you and teleport away. Not hard, but I had one take almost 15 minutes to kill. If I had one complaint about the game(well, I have several, mostly involving the game being too dark and any light in the room means not being able to see what is happening on the computer screen), it is that they confuse annoying with hard. Hard I can accept, annoying, not so much. Certainly not with the frequency they use it for mobs.

 

[jmotivator]

Inquisitor elite+ mobs, with cold damage. Freeze you and teleport away. Not hard, but I had one take almost 15 minutes to kill. If I had one complaint about the game(well, I have several, mostly involving the game being too dark and any light in the room means not being able to see what is happening on the computer screen), it is that they confuse annoying with hard. Hard I can accept, annoying, not so much. Certainly not with the frequency they use it for mobs.

When you run into an elite mob that has a resource drain field good luck. Ranged can stay out of the field usually, but a barbarian is screwed. If I were to offer a suggesting I'd say stop treating resources generically across classes .. it makes no sense that an elite field that steals mana would also steal... anger.

I don't mind the stone that follows you and does AOE because it doesn't really get in the way in a speed run, or a multiplayer run. The lighting thing that surrounds itself with a protection field is dumb, especially in multiplayer where it only follows one player and everyone else is screwed.

I just ran a nightmare dungeon where the mobs all dropped little AOE bombs AND had also freeze... that was awful. I blasted all but one of a large group who all dropped AOE bombs and then the last mob froze me while my shouts were on cool down so I just had to sit there helplessly waiting to die.

I spent more time than I care to say this morning re-theorycrafting my barbarian's Paragon board and I'm finally quite pleased by the results. I'm finally seeing 6-digit crits. The only trade off was that I had to hold off on the Fury-generation Paragon board which meant I had to go back to some old rings.

 

[Redress]

Two more Alters of Lilith to find and I have them all, but just not seeing them.

I think the memory leak is getting worse.

Been goofing around with a dual core rogue, the rapid flurry build, and liking it alot.

First season will be July 20, and have new, jewelry only gem kinda things with aspects(?). Kinda underwhelming, but still looking forward to it.

 

[PoS]

Im having a great time just watching my son play Fallout 4. He will occasionally ask me for advice like which faction to side with, so we are both having a blast. I sometimes do jump scares, which gets him mad, but its all in good fun LOL.

 

[jmotivator]

Since I burned out on Diablo IV I've been searching for a new game. I tried going back to modded Minecraft as is my usual bridge game, but I'm starting to realize that Minecraft has finally stagnated. Maybe it's new modders with fresh ideas going elsewhere, but it's the first time really that I have returned to Minecraft in between other games and found nothing new and interesting.

I ended up returning to an old game I played a lot in beta called STAR VALOR, which is loosely a Diablo-like space combat game. I've played a considerable amount but I think I've reached the limit with that game too. What Star Valor misses is interesting gear synergies. Improvement in STAR VALOR is just straight forward grind materials, improve the level of your gear. What it needs, and really what EVERY Diablo-like needs if it wants attention, is to be more like a rogue-like... or at least like THE BINDING OF ISAAC. They need hidden gear synergies that lead to experimentation.

Path of Exile probably comes closest to this with its gem-based skill system but even then it falls short because, for "balance purposes", the experimentation generally leads to finding that gems that should synergize just don't.

Anyway, so now I am burned out on Minecraft, Diablo 4, Star Valor and Path of Exile and my next binge game, Starfield, is months away....

So now is the time for rash decisions. I have purchased Jagged Alliance 3.

I hope it doesn't suck...

 

[Redress]

Since I burned out on Diablo IV I've been searching for a new game. I tried going back to modded Minecraft as is my usual bridge game, but I'm starting to realize that Minecraft has finally stagnated. Maybe it's new modders with fresh ideas going elsewhere, but it's the first time really that I have returned to Minecraft in between other games and found nothing new and interesting.

I ended up returning to an old game I played a lot in beta called STAR VALOR, which is loosely a Diablo-like space combat game. I've played a considerable amount but I think I've reached the limit with that game too. What Star Valor misses is interesting gear synergies. Improvement in STAR VALOR is just straight forward grind materials, improve the level of your gear. What it needs, and really what EVERY Diablo-like needs if it wants attention, is to be more like a rogue-like... or at least like THE BINDING OF ISAAC. They need hidden gear synergies that lead to experimentation.

Path of Exile probably comes closest to this with its gem-based skill system but even then it falls short because, for "balance purposes", the experimentation generally leads to finding that gems that should synergize just don't.

Anyway, so now I am burned out on Minecraft, Diablo 4, Star Valor and Path of Exile and my next binge game, Starfield, is months away....

So now is the time for rash decisions. I have purchased Jagged Alliance 3.

I hope it doesn't suck...

Jagged Alliance 2 was a top 10 games all time to my mind. Good team making 3, but I get the impression they where trying too hard to not be XCom and it hurts them.

Techtonica comes out in a few minutes, and that is what I am planning to play until season 1 starts. Satisfactory style factory game with alot of story and underground setting.

 

[Redress]

So, after grinding out max renown, today they buffed renown gains for side quests and side dungeons....

Also, your class got nerfed. Does not matter what class you play(unless it is sorc), it was nerfed.

 

[jmotivator]

So, after grinding out max renown, today they buffed renown gains for side quests and side dungeons....

Also, your class got nerfed. Does not matter what class you play(unless it is sorc), it was nerfed.

In fairness, Sorc started out Nerfed and has stayed that way

 

[jmotivator]

Jagged Alliance 2 was a top 10 games all time to my mind. Good team making 3, but I get the impression they where trying too hard to not be XCom and it hurts them.

Techtonica comes out in a few minutes, and that is what I am planning to play until season 1 starts. Satisfactory style factory game with alot of story and underground setting.

This game feels like JA2, but my current issue is that there isn't a dependable loot drop system. I like games where a guy is shooting at you with a cool new gun and you can just defeat him and take it. I'm guessing that some boss level mobs drop dependable loot, but I haven't gotten that far.

 

[jmotivator]

Two points for this morning:

Jagged Alliance 3 -

If the attempt was to make JA3 not X-Com, they failed. That isn't a bad thing since X-Com is one of the best games ever made. There appears to be a lot of depth to JA3 that I have only scratched the surface on. They now have a weapon modding system that allows for a full customization of weapons to help expand the utility of the same weapon across different load outs, which is good...

The voice acting seems to be part of the game too.. as in it's a challenge in and of itself. Do you keep around a character that can shoot fairly well and is cheap to employ even if the voice actor and dialogue is like nails on a chalkboard to you? Time will tell... some of the cheaper hires are like end-boss-level annoying.

The Infamous Diablo 4 Patch -

It really is rather funny how awful this patch is. The depth and breadth of the nerfs in this patch make it really apparent that the month between release and Season 1 was just a hidden paid beta. How is it possible that they could have released this game with so many colossal miscalculations on the performance and interactions of in game mechanics? I'm used to a handful of meta builds getting nerfed in the early game because you can't catch everything, but they are nerfing EVERY damage multiplier and EVERY armor source in blanket nerfs while raising base damage sources to make "more builds competitive" .. which is to say "everything will suck now" is the goal..

I always assumed that ARPG developers had some kind of modeling system that they could run iterative combinations of various additive and multiplicative damage synergies to spot these things.. but I guess they don't.

That said, it is also true that the system for calculating damage on release was so utterly broken that there really were only 1 or 2 builds in every class that were effective in late game and achievable by casual gamers. This patch was probably necessary because of that fact, but it doesn't excuse Blizzard for releasing a game that was so broken with regard to how they wanted/expected the game to play that they needed to pull the rug out from under everyone a month after release.

 

[jmotivator]

I think this passage needs clarification:



On first reading it appeared that Malignant hearts won't transfer, but I guess on second reading it seems that you only lose your items on your seasonal character if you transfer them to the standard server BEFORE the season ends.

Also also have to wonder whether the Malignant Heart mechanic will be incorporated into the standard world after the season ends?

Anyway, final thought:

When you are a developer of an ARPG getting ready to launch your first season, it's not a great idea to nerf everyone so badly that the new content you are providing doesn't even return the player to the pre-nerf standard.

Making games less fun isn't the best strategy.

The whole point to people playing late game in an ARPG is to improve their character and get better at the game, and they will lose interest very quickly if they see all that effort and time as wasted because you took away the progress with a nerf. In this case Blizzard did that to every class and every player.

Edit: One last point! The biggest issue that many have with this move is that the Season 1 access is an added expense for most players. Blizzard seems to think that the nerf will be fine because it mostly impacts late game builds and they assume everyone will be starting over in the Season anyway... but not everyone will be buying the season pass, and would rather just keep playing their standard character so to those people it seems like Blizzard is punishing them for not buying the season pass.

 

[Redress]

Two points for this morning:

Jagged Alliance 3 -

If the attempt was to make JA3 not X-Com, they failed. That isn't a bad thing since X-Com is one of the best games ever made. There appears to be a lot of depth to JA3 that I have only scratched the surface on. They now have a weapon modding system that allows for a full customization of weapons to help expand the utility of the same weapon across different load outs, which is good...

The voice acting seems to be part of the game too.. as in it's a challenge in and of itself. Do you keep around a character that can shoot fairly well and is cheap to employ even if the voice actor and dialogue is like nails on a chalkboard to you? Time will tell... some of the cheaper hires are like end-boss-level annoying.

The Infamous Diablo 4 Patch -

It really is rather funny how awful this patch is. The depth and breadth of the nerfs in this patch make it really apparent that the month between release and Season 1 was just a hidden paid beta. How is it possible that they could have released this game with so many colossal miscalculations on the performance and interactions of in game mechanics? I'm used to a handful of meta builds getting nerfed in the early game because you can't catch everything, but they are nerfing EVERY damage multiplier and EVERY armor source in blanket nerfs while raising base damage sources to make "more builds competitive" .. which is to say "everything will suck now" is the goal..

I always assumed that ARPG developers had some kind of modeling system that they could run iterative combinations of various additive and multiplicative damage synergies to spot these things.. but I guess they don't.

That said, it is also true that the system for calculating damage on release was so utterly broken that there really were only 1 or 2 builds in every class that were effective in late game and achievable by casual gamers. This patch was probably necessary because of that fact, but it doesn't excuse Blizzard for releasing a game that was so broken with regard to how they wanted/expected the game to play that they needed to pull the rug out from under everyone a month after release.

Speaking of X-Com, also released yesterday was Xenonaughts 2. I have not got it yet, but I have played the beta and it is excellent, being very much an original X-Com style game.

As far as the Diablo 4 patch, I did play a little bit last night, and while I could tell the difference, mostly the nerf to defense(I was running nightmares 2 levels higher than I was, first fight I died because I was not expecting the damage I would take, and used alot more potions than usual), but it was not terrible, just harder. Once I adjusted, I was fine with my whirlwind barb.

 

[Redress]

I think this passage needs clarification:

View attachment 67457706

On first reading it appeared that Malignant hearts won't transfer, but I guess on second reading it seems that you only lose your items on your seasonal character if you transfer them to the standard server BEFORE the season ends.

Also also have to wonder whether the Malignant Heart mechanic will be incorporated into the standard world after the season ends?

Anyway, final thought:

When you are a developer of an ARPG getting ready to launch your first season, it's not a great idea to nerf everyone so badly that the new content you are providing doesn't even return the player to the pre-nerf standard.

Making games less fun isn't the best strategy.

The whole point to people playing late game in an ARPG is to improve their character and get better at the game, and they will lose interest very quickly if they see all that effort and time as wasted because you took away the progress with a nerf. In this case Blizzard did that to every class and every player.

Edit: One last point! The biggest issue that many have with this move is that the Season 1 access is an added expense for most players. Blizzard seems to think that the nerf will be fine because it mostly impacts late game builds and they assume everyone will be starting over in the Season anyway... but not everyone will be buying the season pass, and would rather just keep playing their standard character so to those people it seems like Blizzard is punishing them for not buying the season pass.

Seasonal mechanics will not be moved to the Eternal Realm, so no Malignant Hearts.

 

[jmotivator]

Seasonal mechanics will not be moved to the Eternal Realm, so no Malignant Hearts.

If that is true then that really is awful.

 

[jmotivator]

I converted a coworker into a PC gaming nerd. He had been a console guy his whole life and I've been working on him to get him to PC gaming.

Last year the opportunity arose when he was build out his home office and his kids didn't want him to move his console into the office, so he finally asked me about how to buy a gaming PC. I think my initial advice was a failure since he ended up buying an Alienware () but the Alienware was enough to open his eyes to the bigger world of PC games.

He had ever really moved away from the console gaming mindset, thought, since his go-to games were still Modern Warfare and Madden, his go-tos on console.

This morning when I got to work he told me he finally took the bi leap into PC gaming when he got burned out on MW and Madden and he pre-purchased Starfield.

He wanted to know what to play while he waited for Starfield so I conducted a little interview to figure out what he was really looking for. What he wanted was a solo action RPG that could also be played in a group, but was still third person so I ended up pointing him to The Division 2.

He may or may not like my choice, but I agreed to buy him lunch if he hated the game.

I still think it is an very under-rated game.

 

[Port & Starboard]

Not much into gaming per say................. but I'd love to find a single player sniper game.

 

[jmotivator]

Not much into gaming per say................. but I'd love to find a single player sniper game.

The Sniper Elite series is probably your best bet. It's a solo-play sniper series set during WWII.

The latest game, Sniper Elite 5, is getting good reviews.

Also, Sniper Ghost Warrior series gets good reviews and it essentially Sniper Elite set in modern day.

(Slight Caveat: These games aren't ENTIRELY about sniping, from the looks of it. More like an Assassin's Creed with rifles)

 

[Port & Starboard]

The Sniper Elite series is probably your best bet. It's a solo-play sniper series set during WWII.

The latest game, Sniper Elite 5, is getting good reviews.

Also, Sniper Ghost Warrior series gets good reviews and it essentially Sniper Elite set in modern day.

(Slight Caveat: These games aren't ENTIRELY about sniping, from the looks of it. More like an Assassin's Creed with rifles)

Thanks....... need something to fill my time with my 3:00 am wake ups every morning.

 

[Redress]

Made it to level 11 so far in Season 1, and going to start working the new quest line for the season. Really quick and easy to level through low levels now that I kinda know what I am doing.

 

[beefheart]

I started playing Dave the Diver, addictive as hell, and fun, and it keeps getting a bit weirder, great story line. Scuba dive for fish in the day, sell sushi at night.

 

[Redress]

Go to log in and try to reach level 40 today, and the servers are down. Not a good week for Diablo 4...

 

[Redress]

Diablo 4 Season 1 review: It is firmly ok. The Malignant Hearts are interesting and have some nice effects, but are still kinda meh. I have not seen any yet that get me excited, but there are lots I have not seen. The quest line associated with them so far is a pretty standard questline for D4, nothing exciting, nothing wrong with it.

The season progression is weird but ok. You do a set of things, mostly that you will do anyway. When you get all you need for your chapter, you complete it, get a set of something(it is not really clear to me what, but I notice I have like 2 % exp bonus I think). I am working on chapter 4 I think it is right now, need 2 more corrupted tunnels, 1 more potion upgrade(the level 45 one I think), and 7 more Whisper loot reward packages to finish it. Note in this paragraph the number of things I am not clear on, or say "I think", and that is the biggest problem with the whole thing, it just ain't clear.

My new Whirlwind barb(named Chiaki if you want to look for her) is going well, but slow. The slow part is a combination of playtime and I am not being the most efficient. When I hit world teir 3, I should be about done with the 4th level of renown in each area(and the boost to renown from dungeons and quests really speeds it up) with a ton of quests ready to knock out. I have a few of the better aspects unlocked, am working on getting all the Strongholds done(they are nice exp), have almost all of the Waypoints activated. Setting myself up for world tier 3. Despite the inefficiency, I have made it to level 39, so it is not terrible.


Patch reaction: The defensive nerf went too far. I play a whirlwind bard, so about the least squishy class. I cannot imagine what a pain thee more squishy characters would be going through, especially combined with the offensive nerf. The exp nerf is annoying, but I can accept it. That the memory leak, the latency issues and the like have yet to be fixed is absolutely unacceptable to my mind. It is very much time to fix those, and buff sorc/barb classes.

 

[jmotivator]

I decided to give the season a try only because I had been waiting on trying out the Rogue until the season started, with the basic rule that I would minimize the Season mechanics with the thought that when all the season stuff was stripped I'd still have a functional Rogue to play.

Rogue is pretty nuts.

At 35 I am so close to unlocking Tier 3, which is sill, I know, since everything that drops in the capstone dungeon is 15 levels above me.. but I just wanted to see if I could.

I'm mostly in level 20-25 gear with some base-roll legendaries and I have been within a single cooldown from defeating the final fight. That's nuts.

Stacking poison and DoT damage for a rogue is basically the same as stacking crit and vulnerable for anybody else. Most mobs are instantly poisoned for 100% of their damage on hit, and bosses are melted in a few seconds. Most boss fights I could just run around letting poison do it's job and win after 10 seconds.

I tried swapping to bow skills to see if they were as OP and I immediately felt like I was playing my sorcerer again... nothing synergizes and then I die.

 

[Redress]

I decided to give the season a try only because I had been waiting on trying out the Rogue until the season started, with the basic rule that I would minimize the Season mechanics with the thought that when all the season stuff was stripped I'd still have a functional Rogue to play.

Rogue is pretty nuts.

At 35 I am so close to unlocking Tier 3, which is sill, I know, since everything that drops in the capstone dungeon is 15 levels above me.. but I just wanted to see if I could.

I'm mostly in level 20-25 gear with some base-roll legendaries and I have been within a single cooldown from defeating the final fight. That's nuts.

Stacking poison and DoT damage for a rogue is basically the same as stacking crit and vulnerable for anybody else. Most mobs are instantly poisoned for 100% of their damage on hit, and bosses are melted in a few seconds. Most boss fights I could just run around letting poison do it's job and win after 10 seconds.

I tried swapping to bow skills to see if they were as OP and I immediately felt like I was playing my sorcerer again... nothing synergizes and then I die.

Are you using an online build or one of your own? I would love to see the build.