MMORGs and role playing discussion.

I enjoy the LoD!! Although I'm not very good at it Perhaps I should rephrase to say... I don't spend too much time on it My high-point is back in v1.10 where I had a multi-shot 'Zon with a Buriza. Now I started getting into ladder, but my trials with an MFing Sorc in Hell are hit and miss. My teleporting skillz are kinda lame My favourite character has always been the Paladin. But I hate the magic hammers kind. And I've never had an Enigma or any other high-rune equipment so my Paladins are generally weaker fanatic-zeal blends. But they're fun to play! (I don't put enough time in to reap any decent benefits from trading).Never been a big fan of the Barbarian, Druid or Assassin. Never played any of them (significantly). I've had great fun with the Paladins, Amazons, Sorceresses and Necromancers.I'm currently trying to wait for v1.13 to come out before I try another ladder character. (I want to try a strafe-amazon).And, with somehow even more gusto, I'm trying to wait for D3... but that may take a few years Go Diablo!!

It's just a computer game. Best classified as an ARPG (Action Role Playing Game). It has been argued, and if population of gamers actively playing the game is any indication it's also substantiated, that Diablo II (and it's expansion.. Lord of Darkness) is the best ARPG game available. It was made something like 10 years ago, is 2D isometric, has graphics from 10 years ago, has a top-resolution of 800x600, and the online servers (BNet from Blizzard, who made the game) are still as full as ever. Many other companies have tried to duplicate it's success, but no one (as of yet) has made a dent in the player base still going strong with Diablo 2.It all started with D1, where you could choose a Rogue (arrow-shooter) a Mage (wizard) or a Fighter (sword-and-shield) character. Then you go down "levels" of a cave under a cathedral to eventually fight Diablo and win the game. It was the first (I think?) game to incorporate randomly generated level design every time you re-load the game. Therefore, you can "gain experience" without getting board of or knowing the layout of the playable monster-killing space.D2 expanded on the concepts.You now have Paladin, Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress and Necromancer. Each with their own skill set of monster-slaying abilities. Levels are much larger (split into 4 Acts, each with 8 or so different zones themselves) with many different caves and quests and such. Each area and dungeon is still generated randomly every time the character enters.
The expansion (LoD - Lord of Destruction) introduced two new playable characters, the Druid and Assassin. It also added Act 5.What keeps Diablo II interesting?1. Level Randomization
You can't get bored of monsters always attacking from the same area if they're always randomly generated areas and monsters!2. Character Build Variety
Each character has anywhere from 4 to up to 20 or so different "builds" you can focus on in order to create a "different playing feel" in your monster killings.3. Item and Equipment Randomization
This is the most alluring part to me. I see it almost as a "fishing" type of attraction. Good items are extremely rare, sometimes too rare to the point of basically-a-miracle-if-you-find-one type levels. Leaving you with a sense of "if I kill one more monster... maybe he'll drop what I'm looking for" sense of anticipation.The rarity of items and equipment provides an on-going challenge to "get all the cool stuff" long after you've beaten the game multiple times. Who doesn't want to kill monsters faster and better? 4. Monster difficulty
The game itself has 3 difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare and Hell. But each character can only get to Hell mode if they beat the game on Normal and Nightmare first. Obviously the best items drops are in Hell mode (where the hardest monsters are). The game isn't about "defeating Diablo", that can be done on Normal with a character with basic gear. The game is more about finding elite items that let you breeze through Hell mode (difficult unless you have decent gear) and impress others with your monster slaying prowess.5. Storyline
The classic good-vs.-bad that is Heaven-vs.-Hell with Diablo himself involved. What's better? Well the Heaven vs. Hell isn't as generally viewed. It's more like Heaven and Hell are constantly battling and "Sanctuary" (read "Earth") and it's inhabitants are caught in the middle.Oh... the game can be played single-player on your own computer, but most of the fun is online on BNet where up to 8 players can join a game and slay monsters together. Monsters, item drops and experience gain all go up as the number of players goes up. Oh yeah, and BNet is free, no monthly subscription or anything, just the 1-time fee of buying the game. I think you can get a "Battle Chest" with Diablo 1, 2 and LoD all for about $60 or so.There's also a Player vs. Player aspect, but I don't really do that.There's also a "Hardcore Mode" where if you die even once, the server will automatically delete your character and all items you have as-of-yet aquired. I don't play this mode either, but it's quite alluring in itself.Feel free to ask for any further clarification. I'm pretty much obsessed with the game, although my playing-time wouldn't really reflect that When I retire, I don't plan on going on trips, I plan on playing lots and lots of computer games

Certainly. There are "way-points" and such to warp you close to wherever you are in the story-line, or wherever you want to go next. Each little chunk can be done in less than 15-20 min. or so. Or if you're just looking for gear or leveling, it will automatically save as you exit the game, so you don't have to "make it back to a save point" or anything like that.I recommend playing only on BNet. You cannot transfer characters from single-player on your computer to online on BNet, you'd have to make a new character. However, on BNet you can restrict your games so that no one else enters and you play alone. It's also easier to exit the game and re-load another instance online (to reset the level randomization and monster spawning).It has it's problems though:
-difficult to transfer items from character to character
-trading system is archaic and sometimes frustrating (if you get this into it, I recommend using an external webpage that deals with such things).
-there are some bugs and old features and such, like other players (if you allow them into your game) can "go hostile" and kill you without your consent. However, there are certain restrictions on that too.But the good parts far outweigh all of the downsides. Hence it's still one of the top-rated games after 10 years.

A good tip. Can also be done with the Paladin (sword+shield) or Amazon (bow/crossbow) if those appeal to you more. All three have basic easy-to-start-with type builds. It's easiest to search online for what type of builds are available per character and what each do. That's one downside to Diablo 2, you can screw up your character so that it's basically useless in Hell if you don't plan out your skill points wisely. Good for those who like to perfectly research and tweak their characters, bad for casual gamers.I always end up creating a character I really want to play because I like their abilities, then finding an elite item for (almost always...) some other character type... then I make a character so that I can make the best use of that cool item. Then I find another item for another character, and the circle continues!! Actually, they're going to change this in the upcoming (next few weeks or month or so, perhaps?) v1.13.
Yes, it's 10 years after the game came out and Blizzard is still making patches for this game. They're pretty cool, those Blizzard guys.Upcoming features I'm really looking forward to in Diablo 3:
-some sort of easy method to exchange items between different characters on the same account
-some sort of auction-house type trading system to make trading easier and more effective
-upgraded storyline, graphics and playing system, it's going full 3D!!

(...also known as Final Fantasy III in the Americas)I had a lot of fun playing this game. It's fairly old now, and the storyline/gameplay is fairly straight forward.Hints aren't particularly necessary, the game has great balance in level progression vs. monster difficulty. Also, all the different characters are pretty good. Each and every one of them is "viable" if you use them enough and equip them okay. Just pick the ones that appeal to you and have fun.My personal favourites - Locke, Cyan, SabinDon't forget to take advantage of moving your materia around so that all those in your party are always gaining some type of spell at all times.

I don't really remember (it was a while ago... back in Super Nintendo times). But my estimate is anywhere from 50 hours to 70+ if you spend lots of time levelling and searching and exploring and such.Oh, I do have one tip, but it's kind of a bit of a spoiler. However, after I learned it myself I had to restart the game to get it right (although I'm sure others have had better success on their first-time through):(Peek Mode to view) For any other tips or hidden things... try gamefaqs.com, I'm sure they'll have walkthroughs and such. They sometimes also have "tip sections" where they don't give away all the information that a full walkthrough would.But, as early Final Fantasy games went, all you really need to do is search each area exhaustively and you'll find most of all the little surprises.

Diablo 3?Anywhere? No?Just asking... and still waiting...

Yeah, I know.Stupid Blizzard-exact-opposite-of-EA-Games-and-actually-want-to-make-a-game-that-works.I'm liking the idea of having an auction house, huge linked stash, let alone all the new ways to customize. I don't spend enough time to extract all the math from the game, so I think this is heading in a good direction for me... actually showing the effectual results of the math in the user interfaces for comparison purposes.I also like the looks of the Demon Hunter at this point, I've always been a fan of the ranged character. Next would be the Monk for me.

Yeah, I've never been a big fan of the Barbarian. I have no motivation to play that class at all. But 4 out of 5 ain't bad! One day... Maybe... They're joke-level, if they put in something like the cow level should be a frozen Hell level, since that's when they'll ship the game...

A few answers to your questions from this other thread (Message 77), now that I finally got a PS4 and into my character. We did so. On "Zalera" world/server:
Wife: Oz Raven - Level 49 White Mage
Me: Cold Raven - Level 31 WarriorWe're not black in real life, we just liked how the models looked. Then we entered the game and it sort of dawned on us that everyone else in the game chooses a white character. We found it funny, anyway. Bunch of FF14 racists Dungeon cues are instant. I mean instant when we party together. (We obviously do our duty-roulettes on our own).
The longest we've ever waited has to be no more than 3 seconds. Tank-healer combo for the win!She's closing in on level 40 story quests, and I'm at about level 28 or so in the story.
We'll probably be a while before we're actually opening up the level 50 stuff for the main storyline.Tanking was difficult to start with. Took me a bit.. but I'd say I'm a "competent" tank now. Not great... but certainly not bad, either. Still working on it, and I'll get there. Yeah, it's a good system. We certainly like the organization of it, anyway.
We've started watching a you-tube guide for dungeons before running them the first time... seems to work out pretty good. It was, actually. Didn't mind the startup at all. Might be a little slow for starting other classes, though... but meh. We purchased wireless keyboards that plug into the PS... problem solved. That much closer to making the move to PC!

I found this very true when we were levelling a Conjurer and into White Mage.
Not so with the tank, though... gladiator and marauder seem to be able to hit the single-player content stuff right away.I think they slightly messed up some balancing issues there somewhere... too much focus on defense that tanks have and no one else does? Doesn't really matter, though, it's not too big of a deal. For sure. And as Tank/Healer sitting beside each other on the couch... we have total control over any 4-man dungeon."That guy looked at me funny... stop healing him and let just let him die."
"Okay."No, seriously... we've never had to actually use our power of control, but it's a nice thing that gives us confidence when playing with randoms. It's amazing how awesome some people are in the game vs. how shitty others can get.
Sometimes we just kinda watch the psychological experiment unfold on it's own... Doubt it... highly unlikely.
We even have some vial of something-magical that allows us to go back to the character creation screen and redo our character creation looks (once) if we ever feel like it. We got the advanced one.
Basic can only pay month-per-month, advanced can allow you to pay for up to six-months in one go.
If you take the six-month advanced option... it's the same price as basic month-per-month.So, that's what we did (advanced for the price of basic). But I doubt we'll ever use the additional character perk... which basically means we've locked ourselves into paying for 6 months when all we needed to do was pay each month individually But that's just not the way we roll with our budget... we tend to plan further ahead and then worry less about day-to-day finances.

Haven't stopped playing FF14, definitely addicted.
Won't be playing GTAV, or any other game for a while... all gaming-time goes to FF14 for the foreseeable future! My dude: Cold Raven
Wife and I also run a (small) Free Company ("Guild"): Raven's NestApart from the addictive nature of it anyway, it's been making a great social-atmosphere for the wife to get into and still feel safe in her own home. We still both play, together, whenever we would otherwise be "just watching TV" or something like that.This is the only MMO I've ever played, so I'm not an expert by far. But we've met a few people who've come from WoW and such and if any game has a shot at it, I think FF14 has a decent chance at surpassing WoW. I think it's about to take off, in the next 6-months to a year, anyway. I've personally noticed a bunch of new-comers and it seems to be rising exponentially. But, well, that may just be our own server at this particular time...It's still an MMO, and as such it will always have issues and problems and things people complain about. But these are the main (general) positives:

• You can have all your different classes on one character. DPS, Healer, Tank, Crafter... all on one character. Swap between them as fast as you can unequip and re-equip your main weapon/tool.
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• There are many, many incentives for end-game players to redo content and help new players learn and get through everything so that they are also into end-game content. Things like daily roulettes that give the end-game player bonuses and extras they need for more/better end-game gear... they just have to run through a random newbie dungeon. Lots of things like this to keep older players and newer players working together so that any "gameplay content gates" aren't frozen due to no one running the content any more.
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• Multiple paths to progression. End-game raid content still gives the "best" gear, and there's no other way to get that. But there's really no significant difference going down to the next-to-best gear (unless you're doing that actual final raid-content... ), which can be obtained more casually, just sometimes more time-consuming/grindy. There's also isn't 2 options here... more like 3 or 4.
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• Lots of new content added very frequently. Since they started FF14, there has been 3 new dungeons and major content patches added every 3 months. Not sure if this will continue (it can get overwhelming sometimes...) but it's crazy awesome so far.
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• Lots of varied content. Don't want to raid? The crafting system is more strategy-based, no twitch-skill involved. Just want to mingle? They just added the Golden Saucer (casino-thing) where you can pretty much just hang out. Also, if you played FF8, FF14 now has Triple Triad (an in-game, digital collectible card-game). So many, many things to do in the game other than "raid all night long."

On a more personal note, our game-play has been fantastic.
Wife and I now have our mains geared up to end-level stuff. We don't have the best-in-the-game gear, because we don't have a static-group put together to attack the end-game raids (pretty much required for that stuff, but only that stuff...). Our FC is small, but that's the way we like it We'll eventually build our own static out of our folks and do all that end-game stuffs too.We've opened up every dungeon in the game and played them all at least once.
We've touched on pretty much every aspect in the game including non-progression things like minion and mount collecting.
We're really looking forward to Heavensward (the first real expansion, not just a major patch) that should be coming out this spring.
We love to run the Crystal Tower raids (24-man... largest raids in the game, there's 3 of them). Sometimes just to watch the social experiment of seeing 24 strangers attempt to work together We're currently into building up our Relic Weapon (a weapon you do long quests with to "level it up" as your character grows in end-game).
Ours are currently i100 (Item Level 100). It can currently be built up to i135 (matching the current best raid-gear available).
And into leveling up our other classes (DPS) for fun and to learn how they do.If anyone's looking for a WoW-like MMO, but they want better graphics and simply just a "more modern approach" to the whole MMO-system, I highly recommend FF14.We play on the Zalera server, which is housed on the Aether data centre.
Oh, and I can get a game-code that will get any new-player a few free items (recruit-a-friend campaign). The game-code is good for any server on any data centre. But, well, Zalera's the obvious best, anyway... Just have to pay for 4-months subscription to get the "free" items, though... (doesn't have to be done right away, just won't get the items 'till you do). I suppose that only makes them free if you were going to play for that long anyway... Edited by Stile, : Adding a bit more s p a c i n g.

Yeah, from what we can tell, they've done a great job making it a loot-based game again.Blizzard fired the guy who used to run it (Jay Wilson? or something?).
The expansion is pretty cheap ($10 'murikan for Reaper of Souls).
Loot has been updated.Some big game-play changes: No such thing as Normal -> Nightmare -> Hell... progression.
Now they just allow you to "set the difficulty" when you begin your game-session (can change at any time, just not always in-session).
Normal - Hard - Expert - Master - Torment I - Torment II - Torment III - Torment IV (I think).
Each level comes with harder enemies (more health, more damage to you) and better loot (200% more gold and some level of magic find increase for Master is the one we're currently using). Adventure Mode
So what do you do now when you beat the campaign and there's no "next difficulty" to do it on?
There is a new Adventure Mode where they basically give you random stuff to do throughout the entire map (and give you all waypoints and stuff like that) and you follow the quests to get the big loots.
Also includes side-things like "Nephalem Rifts" which will portal you away (like a mini-side-dungeon thing) and you'll see enemies from across the game and a mini-boss-fight-thing and then get more big loots. Season Mode
Like Diablo II Ladder stuff.
Have to start from scratch, and each season has "season goals" you have to do (beat the campaign, do this many Nephalem Rifts...). If you do them, then when the season ends you'll be rewarded with some nice Set gear and a pet and stuff.
Seasons last about 3 months or so (I think?)
At end of season, your "Season" characters just move to your normal "non-Season" characters and you get to keep all the stuff you found/earned. Then the next Season starts...Also, wifey is using our desktop (gaming rig I built for her 4 years ago... still working pretty sweet).
And I'm currently using work-laptop (giant pile of gaming poop).But... we're currently in the works of buying and putting together another gaming rig for myself (we're also very casually playing some WoW too). Pumped about speccing-out and putting together another new system. Going to be awesome! Yes, pretty sure we're already Battle.net friends. I think I'm "Stile" on there too.
I've recently found myself with 2 Battle.net accounts. I'll sooner-or-later be merging them, but I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to do that.
Wifey and I started it up again after not playing for years and looked at all our old characters and were like wtf? Barbarian named MrBalls is hilarious but we have no recollection of where these names/characters came from... If you're starting fresh, I recommend starting fresh right inside Season 9. You'll start working towards the Season goals that way, and besides, at the end of the season it just all gets converted to normal anyway. No loss, possible gains... sounds like the way to go to me.Oh, and one more Diablo bonus if you like the general series:Apparently this year (or just past?) is the 20th anniversary of Diablo. Blizzard is re-making Diablo 1 in all it's glory and all owners of Diablo III will get it and be able to play for free. Something about even retaining 8-bit goodness and diagonal-only movement? Not sure... But I think they mentioned that there'll be a way to use your current D3 character-skin in the remake I did play Diablo 1... but I was too young to really understand/learn the "re-load your game and do it again to gain more experience/loot" feature at the time (no one around to explain it to me either) so the entire concept kinda went over my head. I didn't play it much. But I've heard lots of folks had many, many hours of fun in it.Have fun!

I'm a Demon Hunter (bows 'n stuff)
Wifey is a Monk (melee with party-helping mantra-things)
Buddy is a Wizard (spells)I don't think any class is really "needed" but what's left is Barbarian, Witch Doctor or Crusader (new with Reaper of Souls - Crusader is sword-and-shield, kinda like D2 Paladin).
Might be nice to have a Crusader or Barbarian around, but Diablo isn't really balanced that way, so likely doesn't matter.But also, wifey is sometimes weirded-out by playing with people she doesn't know. So if you get the feeling of any stand-off-ish-ness, it's nothing personal... she just has her own social issues is all.We're almost level 60, I think... 70 is current cap, and then all this "Paragon" stuff starts kicking in... it's also been totally revamped. More specific-stat-picking involved for powering up. I'm not sure how it works with level-disparity in a party.Oh, I think I quickly read something about the next expansion (sometime in 2017, pretty sure). Remember Necromancer from D2? They're doing him again for D3. A "re-imagining" of the skeleton-summoning, corpse-exploding dude. Should be great! Would fry the integrated video on my laptop, but should have the new rig going in about a month or so anyway!And we might not be playing D3 for a few days or a week or so... FF14 just came out with their 3.5 expansion yesterday... so we're into the new content there for a bit. But we'll see you around when we can!

Does Clash of Clans fit?It is "simple" in the sense that it's a mobile game. Your village is on one screen, and you build it and level up your offense/defense from there.It is "complex" in the sense of forming your army and strategy to attack other villages.It's half farming - using a cheap army to attack others for the purpose of gathering resources.
And half pvp - your "clan" (group of others on your team, if you join one) can go to war against another clan. With 10 v 10 all the way up to 40 v 40 or so. Each member gets 2 attacks. You try to take out the other clan, they try to take you out. When it's done and rated, the winner gets "more resources" as a reward.
You can balance these halves more to one side or the other depending on how you want to play.If you don't do the micro-transactions, it will take approximately 3-4 years to raise your village from Town Hall 1 to Town Hall 11 (current max).You can get to being a healthy Town Hall 9 (where the "end game" pretty much starts) without micro-transactions in about 6-months or so.It's no full-blown PC game, though.
But it is very entertaining, addictive, fun and heavy with strategy.