Diablo 4

[KingOfPain]

Diablo 4 will launch on June 6, 2023

Pre-order:
Ultimate Edition - CAD 129.99
Digital Deluxe Edition - CAD 119.99
Standard Edition - CAD 89.99

Seems pretty stiff for special editions?

Packages

Seasonal Battle Pass Unlock in Diablo® IV (including a Premium Seasonal Battle Pass Unlock plus 20 Tier Skips and cosmetic)

I have no idea what this mean. Can someone explain about Seasonal Battle Pass, and Tier Skips, please.
Does the Ultimate Edition come with a special box or packaging. (since they call the other edition Digital Deluxe)

CLANS!?

I personally have not been keeping up with the development with DI and D4. What are your likes and dislikes?


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[KingOfPain]

There is a Limited Collector’s Box for ~$100
But does not include the game.

Some info on Season Pass




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[Kylearan]

I'm still on the fence re: D4. I've watched some of the press kit footage and what some YouTubers had to say about the closed beta; there are some good and some bad things. I won't preorder (to get a mere 6 days of beta testing before launch?!? Are you kidding me?) and wait for more info and/or first impressions.

Some random thoughts:

• I like the darker look and atmosphere. Definitely better than D3 and Immortal, and more in line with how the DIablo franchise started. What I don't like is the limited field of view; the camera seems to be zoomed in quite a bit and you don't see much of your surroundings, which limits tactical maneuverability. I also think the item stat blocks look silly, too clean and not in line with the rest of the artistic style of the game.
  
• Limited trading: Not final yet, but it looks like only some items can be traded (crafting materials, extracted legendary affixes) but not full GG items. I don't care about that, as I don't do trading, but I doubt it will have the intended consequence, e.g. less bots, but will frustrate a large amount of players. I only hope you can freely trade items between your own characters inside your account.
  
• Skill and spell mechanics seem a bit uninspired, but I think the skill tree mechanics are neat and have the potential to be interesting and rewarding. I also like that you can respec early on, but that it will be difficult/expensive later. It means you can experiment and redo mistakes in the beginning, but choices you make still have an impact at higher levels and build don't feel arbitrary later on.
  
• I hate that the game is designed for both PC and consoles. I realize why they do it, but it also means the mechanics and general difficulty of the game will probably be dumbed down. D2R in its current form is too easy; D4 gameply looks like it might be a casual game as well. When I play a game, I don't simply like to kill time, I like to feel challenged. Now we don't know how gameplay at level 26+ looks like, but I feat the worst.
  
• Dungeon layouts look less interesting than in D2R, as do monster group compositions. But that's hard to tell from the footage only. I like the idea that you'll get some new power upon first completing a dungeon (most of the time? for all dungeons?).
  
• Open world: I hate level scaling. I hate that when you return to an area later, the difficulty feels the same as when you first entered it. That was one of the reasons I stopped playing Grim Dawn even though I loved the class system there. Now I think they said there are some level caps on areas(?) so we'll have to see how it works in practice, but that's one of my biggest put-offs for the game right now.
  
• Open world also seems to mean having to run around more and taking longer to get to stuff. Maybe they have a good waypoint system, but I already saw some beta testers complaining about the time you are forced to spend running/riding. I'd rather spend my gaming time doing meaningful stuff.
  
• The idea of strongholds and how you can liberate them sounds nice.
  

I fondly remember the hype before the release of D2 and how I had fun immersing myself in it. For D4, I allow myself to be cautiously optimistic but I also realize they can do a lot to make the game bad for me.

[T-hawk]

It appears the game is online-only like Diablo 3, so that takes me out of it, I'm not interested in playing that way.

[KingOfPain]

I would most likely buy the standard game, tho not pre-order.
Certain things I don't like:
-Huge ass screen sized monsters. They break the magic for me, it doesn't feel like I am engaged in a battle. I might as well be stomping on the ground
-Open World. Same concerns as Kylearan's
-Seasonal Pass. It's a good thing for most, I guess. Not that I am too cheap to pay for extra contents, but I fear the new contents might come too frequent. That would just make me, at my pace, feel out of touch. The game will be catered to the power levelling crowd.
-So I might only buy into the original release and stay there - tho, I fear extra Classes might require new Passes.

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[Kylearan]

After reading up some more on D4, I'm worried that they take away too many player choices. I don't remember how it was with D3 (didn't play it much), but I don't like that every class can only equip specific weapon types and not everyone can wield everything - in D2 terms, that would mean no more Buriza Sorceress, for example. They also say that class skills only appear on items for that specific class, so no whirl girl or Fade procs or Clay Golems for other classes. I don't really understand why they limit options here, i.e. player choices and creativity - for balance reasons?

I also don't like that every spell's damage depends on the wielded weapon's damage even for casters, instead of a flat amount like in D2. The upside is that the difference in dependency on finding good items between ranged and melee characters is reduced somewhat (although melee chars still need good armors more than ranged classes), but it is silly that my Frozen Orb suddenly does more damage simply because I found a new weapon. That's tailoring too many game mechanics towards item drops for my taste.

[Tyrmith]

After reading up some more on D4, I'm worried that they take away too many player choices. I don't remember how it was with D3 (didn't play it much), but I don't like that every class can only equip specific weapon types and not everyone can wield everything - in D2 terms, that would mean no more Buriza Sorceress, for example. They also say that class skills only appear on items for that specific class, so no whirl girl or Fade procs or Clay Golems for other classes. I don't really understand why they limit options here, i.e. player choices and creativity - for balance reasons? 

If you want that then these days POE is your only option I believe.

[Tarkeel]

After reading up some more on D4, I'm worried that they take away too many player choices. I don't remember how it was with D3 (didn't play it much), but I don't like that every class can only equip specific weapon types and not everyone can wield everything - in D2 terms, that would mean no more Buriza Sorceress, for example. They also say that class skills only appear on items for that specific class, so no whirl girl or Fade procs or Clay Golems for other classes. I don't really understand why they limit options here, i.e. player choices and creativity - for balance reasons? 

I also don't like that every spell's damage depends on the wielded weapon's damage even for casters, instead of a flat amount like in D2. The upside is that the difference in dependency on finding good items between ranged and melee characters is reduced somewhat (although melee chars still need good armors more than ranged classes), but it is silly that my Frozen Orb suddenly does more damage simply because I found a new weapon. That's tailoring too many game mechanics towards item drops for my taste.

Honestly, this sounds a lot like the great dumb-down in Cataclysm, so maybe the WoW design team has been bleeding over to Diablo.

[Kylearan]

For quick context after waiting 8 years I got the means to get diablo 3 recently and a thought hit me “diablo 4 is right around the corner” this caused me to ask this question, Will your diablo 3 account, like characters, loot or items... all of that stuff, will all of that be able to carry over to diablo 4? if anyone knows the answer to this?

Most certainly nothing will be carried over from D3 to D4, as D4 has completely new game mechanics, different items, different classes etc. You couldn't transfer stuff from D1 to D2 or from D2 to D3 either, so it's safe to say you have to start completely fresh with Diablo 4.

[KingOfPain]

Honestly, this sounds a lot like the great dumb-down in Cataclysm, so maybe the WoW design team has been bleeding over to Diablo.

Just as Diablo 3? Of course I can only tell by the promotes and game play videos, they might have muted the color palette but the game's graphic and play is very much D3. I hope I am wrong.

Screenie from D4 game play demo. These Laser clock look familiar?