Diablo III™

I've gone back and forth on this issue and I honestly can't make up my mind on it.

Here's what we know about how D3 will move forward:

1. There is no advantage or bonus between playing Solo or playing in 4-player Co-Op, other than faster killing speed and being able to teleport directly to a party member from the Town Portal Banners.

2. You do not share/stack Magic Find or Gold Find between party members. Your item modifier bonuses only affect you and your loot drops.

3. The # of people in a Co-Op game has no effect on total item drop quantity or quality. It only makes the game more difficult.

4. Followers can not be used in Co-Op games.

5. The entire game will supposedly be soloable - every Act and every Difficulty from Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno. This also includes the Hardcore version of these acts/difficulties.


Now, part of me thinks it's cool that I can play solo and never feel like I'm missing out on something.

But another part of me thinks that since this is an online-only game that we should WANT to play Co-Op and that there should be added incentive for doing so.


I see both sides of the issue very clearly and I see the positives of both.

But I can't make up my mind though.

What do you guys think? Or do you not care either way?

12/20/2011 10:55 AMPosted by Scourge

faster killing speed

means that

3. The # of people in a Co-Op game has no effect of item drop quantity

is wrong.

Playing cooperatively is reward enough.

faster killing speed

means that

3. The # of people in a Co-Op game has no effect of item drop quantity

is wrong.

I edited it.

It now reads:

"The # of people in a Co-Op game has no effect on total item drop quantity or quality. It only makes the game more difficult."



Getting items FASTER doesn't mean you get more of them in a single run. It just means you get them faster playing Co-Op than you would solo.

However, if you played the Beta in Co-Op groups, as I have, you'll notice you will likely MISS a lot of items due to people rushing through. You'll miss a lot of items due to not being within range during monster kills -or- you'll be too busy trying to keep up with the rest of the group to take the time to stop and gather drops or salvage inventory to make room for more drops.

A significant number of the people who'll be buying this game (possibly including myself) intend on primarily playing the game in single-player.

The online-only requirement already harms the single player experience in a number of annoying but ultimately managable ways.

If Blizzard decides to take that to the next step and gimp my gameplay? I'll reinstall D2 and go back to playing mods. Don't have to be online for those.

Nope. Sometimes I want to play with others. Sometimes I want to play by myself. I'd rather not be coerced in to doing one instead of the other, thanks.

There is the one boss that makes co-op harder: latency, god of frustration.

12/20/2011 02:08 PMPosted by AlX0298

There is the one boss that makes co-op harder: latency, god of frustration.

The hidden fourth Prime Evil.

So insidious that he makes an appearance in our single-player games too now.

Now, part of me thinks it's cool that I can play solo and never feel like I'm missing out on something.

But another part of me thinks that since this is an online-only game that we should WANT to play Co-Op and that there should be added incentive for doing so.

The whole point is to give you an option, not pigeon-hole you into one thing.

Why do people feel single player would be somehow penalized/gimped for having even a small bonus incentive for cooperative play? This argument on the whole makes zero sense to me.

I'd like it to be easy to find Co-Op games - when i want to play Co-Op.

12/20/2011 03:54 PMPosted by Bashiok

faster killing speed

Faster killing speed means more drops, more drops means more power or money. Since the goal of the game essentially boils down to either power or wealth, or both, the advantage (in our opinion) is pretty clear and doesn't need any additional incentive.

Very curious to hear continued thoughts, though.

I am still worried on how MF is being handled.

12/20/2011 10:55 AMPosted by Scourge

2. You do not share/stack Magic Find or Gold Find between party members. Your item modifier bonuses only affect you and your loot drops.

so what if you go pure mf or goldfind while ur 3 buddies are pure insane damage kick booty butt dps setup? they would maybe kill just as fast and u will most likely get good drops to share/use??

I'd love to see some benefit. If only to incentivize players who wouldn't normally play co-op to do so. I found there was a Marked difference in how fun it was when I went from solo (good) to 4person (excellent!)

I see no issue.

Those that want to play solo can, those that want to play multiplayer can, and those that want to do both can.

I don't see why Blizzard should encourage one over the other.

I think you're looking at this all wrong, the limiting factor when you play diablo games isn't the amount of items dropped in a game. The limiting factor is the time you spend playing, if you have more people in a co-op game, you will be able to have more loot dropped in the same amount of time you would spend playing alone. Regardless if you have MF or not, more items dropped in that time frame means more chances to get good loot.

The other benefit is that it is just more fun to play multiplayer. I just got in the beta last night and played co-op with only 1 other person all night and it was pretty fun. I then played solo most of today and it was not quite as fun as last night but let me focus on learning the ins and outs game mechanics. Then I finally joined some public games and with 4 people it was extremely fun (barb fury generation issues aside).

I also now see why they have capped multiplayer at 4 people. The amount of stuff (spell effects, bodies flying, etc.) happening at one time, particularly during fights with large groups is insane. I think 8 people multiplayer would give people seizures.

Edit: I'm fine with no other benefits, though I REALLY hope they implement the /playersX feature from D2 in order to allow players to fine tune the game difficulty (even if it doesn't have an effect on drops like it did in D2).