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Diablo 2 1.13 Patch possibly as soon as next week! Join us!


Tensei
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  • 2 weeks later...

From the Diablo II Public Test Realm forum on Battle.net

Update - 10/14

The decision on whether or not to include the enlarged stash size has been slightly delayed. As mentioned previously it would require some additional weeks of development and would remove one of the most requested features were we unable to include it. If it were to be included the concern is that it could render Diablo II unplayable, and repairing the issue after the fact would draw heavily on development resources. Which is also something we obviously want to avoid.

We hope to be able to reach a conclusion and decision soon on the future of the 1.13 patch, and we’ll keep you updated as it develops.

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  • 1 month later...

Alas, with these patch notes, of this I am forever certain: SC and WC3 are the only reasons why battle.net still exists.

But... most people who have seriously played D2 have put up with the bullcrap for as long as they have and moved on. D3 is going to be enticing regardless of the quality of the D2 product available today. Regardless of D2's flaws, I still have fond memories of it, and that will certainly be a factor in my decision to grab D3 or not.

Blizzard has dealt with Starcraft for even longer, though. If only D2 weren't so broken (in terms of bugs, mostly.. forget balance issues). Or as popular in certain markets.

I'm not sure what their best move is, though I'm inclined to think that focusing on D3 is the better choice, whether or not it has a monthly fee. A $50 price tag in comparison to a monthly fee is like an impulse buy, and should grab lots of users.

Or just forget everything but WoW. I'm sure they didn't fix anything in D2 so as to discourage people from playing it (encouraging WoW consumption instead). Bleh.

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To be honest, even with this update, I still won't play D2 anymore. I can't can't stand it. Something in me broke back in like 2004 with the game, and I haven't been able to play it properly since.

Still very much looking forward to D3, though Torchlight has been a very nice distraction.

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Oh? Which game? Because there's a difference between user-mods and regularly-released content by the creator. No Valve game has been out for 10 years with continual FREE new content by the developer.

TF2 is at what, 5? Almost six? With no end to the updates in sight?

And a far more regular update schedule than any Blizzard product has ever had?

Yeah, going to go ahead and say that this "support" for D2 ten years later is nothing more than a passing glance to keep people thinking about D3.

I honestly wouldn't even call this support.

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Neko, what other game company would even bother..

Doing something for free is not an excuse to half-ass it. There are many, many more problems within the game that could have been addressed in this patch.

That said, while I can understand people's disappointment, I'm not too broken up over it myself. Single player is enough to sate the urge to play when it strikes me, and only a couple of the changes affect the characters I tend to use.

EDIT:

TF2 is at what, 5? Almost six? With no end to the updates in sight?

Erm, it's only been 2 years for that. I believe you're thinking of HL2. As for the updates, well... We'll see what happens after Engie gets his stuff.

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Doing something for free is not an excuse to half-ass it. There are many, many more problems within the game that could have been addressed in this patch.

That said, while I can understand people's disappointment, I'm not too broken up over it myself. Single player is enough to sate the urge to play when it strikes me, and only a couple of the changes affect the characters I tend to use.

EDIT:

Erm, it's only been 2 years for that. I believe you're thinking of HL2. As for the updates, well... We'll see what happens after Engie gets his stuff.

My mistake.

Yeah, HL2 is still very well supported (even if it's in the form of paid episodes, that's still support).

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Yeah, HL2 is still very well supported (even if it's in the form of paid episodes, that's still support).

BIG difference between new PAID content and new FREE content. Again, name one other company who has released new FREE content consistently for a game that has been out for ten years. D2 has added new bosses, tons of new items, new levels, new features and probably added hundreds of new hours of gameplay. The point is, even if this patch is a minor update, it's still FAR more than any other game company would dream of doing.

Saying H2 is the same is like saying WoW or any game with expansion packs is "still supported"... pure fallacy.

Doing something for free is not an excuse to half-ass it. There are many, many more problems within the game that could have been addressed in this patch.

I've been playing D2 and D2X since they were released. The amount of balance issues and problems that have been solved by Blizzard is tremendous. I remember a time when there was practically no point in playing any other character than the Sorc or Barb. I remember when there were 1/5 the items there are now, and probably 1/2 the endgame content. Yes, it's not a perfect game, but need I remind you again that it is TEN. YEARS. OLD. What ten-year old WIDELY-PLAYED multiplayer game does NOT have problems? And isn't StarCraft, coincedentally another Blizzard game?

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What ten-year old WIDELY-PLAYED multiplayer game does NOT have problems? And isn't StarCraft, coincedentally another Blizzard game?

Diablo is a Blizzard North property. That division no longer exists, but it isn't particularly relevant. A different set of people laid the groundwork, and the differences in their design philosophies are obvious.

Also, define widely-played. I would think SF2 and all its incarnations to be a good example, unless you're going to be finicky about numbers.

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Yes, but SF2 has had countless iterations. Each new one had new balance tweaks, characters, and mechanics. Plus, you had to pay for every new game - full price, not as if they were expansion packs or DLC. Also, Blizzard is Blizzard as far as I'm concerned. D2 revolutionized the action RPG genre (it pretty much singlehandedly revived it and spawned countless imitators) just like WC/SC revolutionized RTS and WoW revolutionized MMOs.

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I'm still a huge Blizzard fan, and will continue to buy all of their games the instant they release.

But hyping this as a major content patch and then not even fixing the game's biggest glitch (TPPK) was a letdown. Similarly, in a game all about getting stuff, new content means new items...and there are none. The new drops from act bosses to get a respec don't count because they aren't useable.

That being said, the patch notes that are there are a step in the right direction. Hammer no longer ignores immunity, Amazon's Immolation Arrow tweaked (her best spear skill still misses 75% of the time in Act II normal as a level 99 character...), and some other goodies. More refining and balancing along these lines would be welcome.

Still though, much of the charm of D2 is lost on me now -- largely as a result of playing so much of the game that I still know the name's and relative drop rates of every piece of equipment in the game. Few games have gotten as much playtime from me as Diablo II.

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Bardic: that's basically what happened to me. The game stopped being fun for me when I started running the same rooms over and over for stuff. Not to mention that having to hold points to build skills effectively was never for for me. I stopped playing because of it, just got wore out on the game. Sadly, this was right before they introduced synergies, but I've never been able to get back into the game because I just can't stand playing it anymore.

Blizzard has done a phenomenal job at making money with this game. How many games do you know of that are 10 years old and _still_ sell for 40 dollars a box? I only know of two games like this, and they're both bliz games.

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Hmm... well, I didn't really care much for the update, myself (I was really looking at ladder reset, personally), but adding respecs to the system really makes me a little sick. Who knows, I'm most likely alone on this, but the fact that you really needed to plan your character out from the very beginning was one of the things that made the game stand out for me.

With respecing, that's no longer an issue (even if you can only do it three times - it still takes the bite out of early leveling). On the other hand it'll open up some more interesting possibilities with early/mid/high builds, so I guess there's still some experimenting to do. The patch isn't finished, so there's still some room for improvement before it goes live (perhaps TPPK'ing will still be fixed?), but a small patch, nonetheless.

Meh, a small patch, for sure, but who cares? It's not taking anything away from anyone, so what's the big deal?

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Having played other games like Guild Wars, where builds can completely change between every PVP battle, the ability to respec isn't so bad - it should keep you from having to remake characters (especially if you get the one from the act bosses, which allegedly has unlimited uses), and it'll let you experiment with slightly-off-builds that you wouldn't waste your time on otherwise.

But you can still get tppk'd, so idk.

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