Diablo® III

10/02/2012 02:09 AMPosted by Rumpy

It's great that you recognise this as a problem, but I'd like to ask: how or why was the 5 buff limit ever implemented in the first place?

It's as retarded as 3 affix search engine with no quick reset button... This game was not made by the same ppl D2 was... Like it was full of guys with NO idea about games by general.

What about this way:
make spell like War Cry to be this:

"War Cry"
Passive: grant you xxx resistance
Active: generate xxx fury

and make the "Energy Armour" to be a passive skill that active whenever you have this spell in your spell slot?

or just like the "War Cry"

"Energy Armour"
Passive: grant you xxx armour xxx resistance
Active: generate xxx arcane power

I'm all for increasing it to a total of 7 or 8.

Vaeflare & Lylirra; Blues ... since you're reading this thread, please check out my PVP ideas:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6573699980?page=1

I don't know any other way to get you all to see these pvp concepts and consider them before the PVP patch is released (except to hunt you down like this)

10/02/2012 02:09 AMPosted by Rumpy

We agree that it would be great to be able to view more than five of your active buffs, and we’re currently looking into solutions that would ensure players are able to view buffs that are important to them, while also keeping UI clutter to a minimum. Ideally, we’d like to avoid situations where a portion of your screen is overwhelmed by buff icons (for example, just having your buffs stack across the bottom of your bar) and we’re experimenting with different ways to present that information in a format that works well for Diablo III.

It's great that you recognise this as a problem, but I'd like to ask: how or why was the 5 buff limit ever implemented in the first place?

Are you really that worried that the D3 gamers wouldn't be able to cope with managing or understanding more than 5 buffs?

Has the profile of your typical gamer really changed that much over the years? :/

Personally, I've always found that restriction pretty insulting.

I'd like to address one point in your post... "Has the profile of your typical gamer really changed that much over the years? :/"

Basically, the typical gamer is irrelevant other than making the game 'look' appealing to them in order to get them to purchase and if applicable sub, but these are excess baggage, or bonus customers.

Over the years there has been a rising presence of a 'type' of gamer that has caught the eye of Blizzard. This type of gamer doesn't value the game play experience, journey and 'progression from playing' as paramount, they see destination as paramount. Many of these type of gamers would play console games and think nothing of immediately using a cheat code to skip the game.
Being the very best, or of the highest possible power, as soon as possible is what is paramount to these players. Leveling as quickly as possible, taking the path of least resistance without even considering that the game they bought is being reduced in quantity and longevity, the content is simply an obstacle to be overcome, not the reason to play.
These players do not necessarily make up the majority of the customer/player base, but the way games are changing, these players are becoming a bigger proportion more and more. Partly because it starts to become more 'the norm' but also because, what I would call true gamers are becoming less and less as games fail to meet their needs.

So why are these player types the focus? Quite simple, we all know of 3rd party power leveling sites, we all know of gold selling sites, we all know of the presence of bots. Over the years, the likes of Blizzard have seen that there are people out there that not only put 'the end of the game' in higher priority than the journey, the content, the quality, the actual game play, but they will actually pay real money on top of a box price and even on top of a sub where applicable in order to skip the game.
It isn't rocket surgery to see that a profit focused company would say, 'Hey, we don't need to put effort and revenue into quality, we just need to put obstacles, obstacles which don't necessarily need to be content and people will actually pay real money to overcome them'.

This is why little thought goes in to things we see as required, as true gamers, this is why games are becoming thin excuses of games, this is why Diablo is the way it is in many ways.

I'll paraphrase (might actually be word for word) a quote from Bashiok, who is the voice of Blizzard to the community... "Obviously everybody wants the best gear possible as quickly as possible"...that quote right there, tells you how Blizzard now see gaming and tells you exactly how they see the intended market. Gamers who enjoy progression as not just part of a deep gaming experience and journey, but as a secondary product of that experience, are just excess baggage, they (we) are not the focus. The players who care more about being at the end of anything and everything ASAP and will pay more for it, are the focus.

As long as we are on the topic of buff icons...

With the recent changes to Leap Iron Impact, it should get a buff icon similar to the NV stack icon telling you just how many monsters you managed to hit so you can easily tell how much of an armor boost you gained.

I like to Leap right in the middle of Elite packs and in coop games it's impossible to tell whether I hit a monster with the Leap or not. That's ok right now but not in 1.0.5 when the armor boost will depend on how many monsters I hit with it.

IT would be nice if we can remove Social icon and chat buttons on left side of screen.
I don't need that because i play only SP

About time. I started a few threads about this, and even submitted this in the bug report.

Dunno why this thread won over mine for a Blue post...

10/01/2012 11:43 AMPosted by Vaeflare

We agree that it would be great to be able to view more than five of your active buffs, and we’re currently looking into solutions that would ensure players are able to view buffs that are important to them, while also keeping UI clutter to a minimum. Ideally, we’d like to avoid situations where a portion of your screen is overwhelmed by buff icons (for example, just having your buffs stack across the bottom of your bar) and we’re experimenting with different ways to present that information in a format that works well for Diablo III.

Ok, this has been bugging me since this was first mentioned months ago. You want to keep UI clutter a minimum, yet 20% of my screen is taken up by a gigantic notification that I destroyed 8 barrels in a row? A quest completed notification for a quest I've ran 1,000 times?

This has nothing to do with UI clutter and more to do with "we rushed the UI and now we have to rewrite it to show more than 5 buffs".

This screams of the same excuses thrown around in the Trail of Cinders post. Which screamed of the excuses made when Attack Speed was nerfed.

You're bad liars Blizz team. Very bad.

Just give us more than 5 icons since Diablo 3 is using WoW formula. No one will care how frustrating the UI is when its more annoying to keep looking at the buff timer.

Isolate the location of self-buffs, from others buffs.
Since CC where on the rightmost side,
Why not just put the buff from the shrine/party member right in the middle?

The icons are really hard to use to see when they expire, even if they were increased in size. 99% of the focus of the eye is on your character - not the bottom row of the screen. What I like and think should be focused more upon are things like this:

Battle Rage - you get a green glow (happens already) nice but it's not always so easy to see in the thick of battle. Give players an option to double up the effect so it *really* stands out. As for the time left, the glow could gradually fade. You cast it, you're glowing super-green... over the course of 30 sec (or w/e is finalized in PTR) it fades to a lighter shade. Then you never really ever need to even look at timer icons. Another possibility would be to add the option of a tiny icon or timer above the character's head similar to how it shows damage numbers. Maybe you see the "seconds remaining for battle rage" tick off similar to how you can see life regenerated with some unique color for skill timer messages.

As long as the timers are on the bottom of the screen, I won't be focusing much down there in a fast paced game. Going from slashing monsters to looking at UI timer also somewhat breaks the immersion "magic circle" of being focused on the game action.

10/01/2012 03:56 PMPosted by Tokadub

We agree that it would be great to be able to view more than five of your active buffs, and we’re currently looking into solutions that would ensure players are able to view buffs that are important to them, while also keeping UI clutter to a minimum. Ideally, we’d like to avoid situations where a portion of your screen is overwhelmed by buff icons (for example, just having your buffs stack across the bottom of your bar) and we’re experimenting with different ways to present that information in a format that works well for Diablo III.

It would also be great if your buffs weren't so tiny that it's hard to tell whether certain ones like Barbarians "Battle Rage" were about to expire. The Bar's artwork for some reason blends quite well with the timer bar so it's hard to tell during a battle since it's SOOO TINY. Why are your UI Elements so TINY? And your text is pretty small too when playing 1920x1080...

Seems like you guys made your UI really crappy. NOT USER FRIENDLY... the whole point of UI. You guys just made it try to be extremely simplified and "elegant"... what a failure. When will you learn people prefer substance and custom options rather then simplicity and unobtrusiveness.

Same error you make with your character class designs, you make with your UI :)

LOL ABOUT KEEPING UI CLUTTER TO MINIMUM. You guys have sooo much room to work with. WOWZERS

+1, and I went to school for Human Factors. It's kind of a shame, Diablo team. Get some usability people in there.

10/02/2012 04:27 PMPosted by lilbuddhaman

We agree that it would be great to be able to view more than five of your active buffs, and we’re currently looking into solutions that would ensure players are able to view buffs that are important to them, while also keeping UI clutter to a minimum. Ideally, we’d like to avoid situations where a portion of your screen is overwhelmed by buff icons (for example, just having your buffs stack across the bottom of your bar) and we’re experimenting with different ways to present that information in a format that works well for Diablo III.

Ok, this has been bugging me since this was first mentioned months ago. You want to keep UI clutter a minimum, yet 20% of my screen is taken up by a gigantic notification that I destroyed 8 barrels in a row? A quest completed notification for a quest I've ran 1,000 .

nice one. good thinking. +1

ya. seriously... clutter? the problem is, Blizz fixes things that aren't broken and doesn't fix whats broken. plain and simple.

Blizz... please talk like a game company not politicians.

Battle Rage - you get a green glow (happens already) nice but it's not always so easy to see in the thick of battle. Give players an option to double up the effect so it *really* stands out. As for the time left, the glow could gradually fade. You cast it, you're glowing super-green...

And while you're at it, make him shout "Hulk smashhhhz"

10/02/2012 09:33 AMPosted by Anuhart

It's great that you recognise this as a problem, but I'd like to ask: how or why was the 5 buff limit ever implemented in the first place?

Are you really that worried that the D3 gamers wouldn't be able to cope with managing or understanding more than 5 buffs?

Has the profile of your typical gamer really changed that much over the years? :/

Personally, I've always found that restriction pretty insulting.

I'd like to address one point in your post... "Has the profile of your typical gamer really changed that much over the years? :/"

Basically, the typical gamer is irrelevant other than making the game 'look' appealing to them in order to get them to purchase and if applicable sub, but these are excess baggage, or bonus customers.

Over the years there has been a rising presence of a 'type' of gamer that has caught the eye of Blizzard. This type of gamer doesn't value the game play experience, journey and 'progression from playing' as paramount, they see destination as paramount. Many of these type of gamers would play console games and think nothing of immediately using a cheat code to skip the game.
Being the very best, or of the highest possible power, as soon as possible is what is paramount to these players. Leveling as quickly as possible, taking the path of least resistance without even considering that the game they bought is being reduced in quantity and longevity, the content is simply an obstacle to be overcome, not the reason to play.
These players do not necessarily make up the majority of the customer/player base, but the way games are changing, these players are becoming a bigger proportion more and more. Partly because it starts to become more 'the norm' but also because, what I would call true gamers are becoming less and less as games fail to meet their needs.

So why are these player types the focus? Quite simple, we all know of 3rd party power leveling sites, we all know of gold selling sites, we all know of the presence of bots. Over the years, the likes of Blizzard have seen that there are people out there that not only put 'the end of the game' in higher priority than the journey, the content, the quality, the actual game play, but they will actually pay real money on top of a box price and even on top of a sub where applicable in order to skip the game.
It isn't rocket surgery to see that a profit focused company would say, 'Hey, we don't need to put effort and revenue into quality, we just need to put obstacles, obstacles which don't necessarily need to be content and people will actually pay real money to overcome them'.

This is why little thought goes in to things we see as required, as true gamers, this is why games are becoming thin excuses of games, this is why Diablo is the way it is in many ways.

I'll paraphrase (might actually be word for word) a quote from Bashiok, who is the voice of Blizzard to the community... "Obviously everybody wants the best gear possible as quickly as possible"...that quote right there, tells you how Blizzard now see gaming and tells you exactly how they see the intended market. Gamers who enjoy progression as not just part of a deep gaming experience and journey, but as a secondary product of that experience, are just excess baggage, they (we) are not the focus. The players who care more about being at the end of anything and everything ASAP and will pay more for it, are the focus.

Good points, and I can relate to everything you've said from my experience with WoW (and certainly after playing both D3 and TL2).

It's made me sad :(

10/01/2012 11:43 AMPosted by Vaeflare

We agree that it would be great to be able to view more than five of your active buffs, and we’re currently looking into solutions that would ensure players are able to view buffs that are important to them, while also keeping UI clutter to a minimum. Ideally, we’d like to avoid situations where a portion of your screen is overwhelmed by buff icons (for example, just having your buffs stack across the bottom of your bar) and we’re experimenting with different ways to present that information in a format that works well for Diablo III.

It would be great if we can hide our Mini-Map as well. The maps are very linear at the moment, removing the mini-map might help to remove some of that feeling.

Hiding the UI would also be great, it will give off the feeling of more immersion, when all of this can be done.

10/01/2012 11:43 AMPosted by Vaeflare

We agree that it would be great to be able to view more than five of your active buffs, and we’re currently looking into solutions that would ensure players are able to view buffs that are important to them, while also keeping UI clutter to a minimum. Ideally, we’d like to avoid situations where a portion of your screen is overwhelmed by buff icons (for example, just having your buffs stack across the bottom of your bar) and we’re experimenting with different ways to present that information in a format that works well for Diablo III.

Just add it on the game option so that we can decide to see how many buffs on my screen.

Gave this issue some space on my site, hope the change comes soon (preferable in patch 1.0.5).

http://easydiablo3.com/post/2012/10/03/More-Room-Coming-for-Buff-Icons.aspx