Who will be playing D4?

[krischan]

I make really good mashed potatoes and gravy (as in, from scratch, nothing from a box or tin), but I loves me some fast-food mash.

Correct, don't use that terrible gravy powder to make gravy! I strongly recommend to put fried onions on mashed potatoes instead. Not fried to a crisp though, it still has to be soft, with a bit caramelization. Mashed potatoes with fried onions are awesome! And yes, real mashed potatoes (starchy potatoes plus milk, twice as much of what you believe to be the right amount of butter, as well as freshly ground nutmeg), not those terrible potato flakes!

 

[Gorny]

Correct, don't use that terrible gravy powder to make gravy! I strongly recommend to put fried onions on mashed potatoes instead. Not fried to a crisp though, it still has to be soft, with a bit caramelization. Mashed potatoes with fried onions are awesome! And yes, real mashed potatoes (starchy potatoes plus milk, twice as much of what you believe to be the right amount of butter, as well as freshly ground nutmeg), not those terrible potato flakes!

I've made home made potato chips before.

 

[snickersnack]

Correct, don't use that terrible gravy powder to make gravy! I strongly recommend to put fried onions on mashed potatoes instead. Not fried to a crisp though, it still has to be soft, with a bit caramelization. Mashed potatoes with fried onions are awesome! And yes, real mashed potatoes (starchy potatoes plus milk, twice as much of what you believe to be the right amount of butter, as well as freshly ground nutmeg), not those terrible potato flakes!

Years ago, I was on a mashed potato kick, and I made some that were caramelized garlic and onion, some that were tomato and basil, and some that were cheddar and bacon. The tomato and basil might sound weird, but it worked. The other two were obviously good.

The best gravy I ever made was using roasted beef bones, onions, garlic, and carrot to make the broth, which I reduced a lot. Then the gravy was a butter roux + 1 part broth and 2 parts milk. I need to do that again.

I must be pretty hungry to derail this thread so much... I was planning on making some baked potatoes to go with steak and broccoli later, but that might have to be mashed potatoes instead.

 

[Gorny]

Onion Rings.

Just because.

 

[LouB]

I'm not a fan of Mayo, so in my mind the only way to ruin potatoes is to make potato salad with Mayo.

 

[coju]

picked it up. Changed my vote. Y’all doing sc or HC? And joining the purediablo clan?

 

[Dredd]

Glad I'm not the only potato fan here! Mash is my favorite (and I typically make them similarly to Krischy, minus the nutmeg and with lots of pepper) but twice-baked potatoes are a close second...

... which goes really good with stuffed cabbage - and now I know what I'm making next weekend (I have brisket to barbecue first)!

picked it up. Changed my vote. Y’all doing sc or HC? And joining the purediablo clan?

Our latest victim, haha, EXCELLENT! SC for me as I am a drunken menace. I'll probably join the clan eventually, but for now I just kind of want to experience the story and my first non-beta character on my own (Sorcs forever).

 

[Grisu]

I like it how the thread got from D4 to mashed potatoes in a heartbeat

Tell uns undecided people how it is (the potato dish... And D4)!

 

[Nagisa]

I've been living under a rock and didn't even realize this existed. How intrusive are the MMO aspects? A little ironic for someone with like 10k hours of FFXIV, but too much forced coop is probably the only thing that would keep me away. I don't mind seeing people in the overworld really, but if progression can be aided at any time by randoms just going about their business, then it's a bit off-putting for me.

 

[Gorny]

I've progressed through Act 1and into Act 2 all by myself. Though having.

I'm not finding it really intrusive at all, but then again I've played WoW for years and also Fallout-76 since launch, so I'll try to break it down this way:

I haven't had any issues and have progressed through the story and into Act 2 by myself. I'm a largely casual after work player, but I joined this site's clan. I also have a friend from work playing and a few other friends playing.

That said, unless grouped together, you're pretty much on your own. You'll see other players milling about in various towns and out in the open world. So it will happen that you get into a particularly tough battle and some random player happens to cross paths with you and possibly take the pressure off you if you're being overpowered, which happens. It's also good for when you happen to enter a random event area and are either running out of time to complete the event, or running out of time to earn bonus for completing an event in addition to completing it.

You're under no obligation to stay with someone that crosses paths with you, you can do your own thing.

Dungeons are instanced. So in that respect, you are completely on your own unless you're partied with others. Another point here, I don't know how joining a party in mid dungeon would affect things as I haven't done that yet. I'm guessing it's as in D3 and people can port to you. Though for boss battles, I do not think someone e can party up and join the boss fight you are on if they were not there when the battle started. You are sealed in the room with the boss once you start.

As far as loot dropping, the same mechanics apply as were in Diablo 3, you only see your own drops and no one can pic your stuff up. I'm guessing you can drop stuff you have already picked up and then others can see it and pick up, but I'm not sure and have not tested this

 

[Cattleya]

I've been living under a rock and didn't even realize this existed. How intrusive are the MMO aspects? A little ironic for someone with like 10k hours of FFXIV, but too much forced coop is probably the only thing that would keep me away. I don't mind seeing people in the overworld really, but if progression can be aided at any time by randoms just going about their business, then it's a bit off-putting for me.

The main campaign is mostly instanced. So, you'll see people while you're traveling from place to place (or doing side quests) but you don't see other players when you're doing the main story bits. (This is most obvious when you hit the end of a story segment and suddenly see a few other players phase in around you.)

The world uses multiple instances, and they keep the areas pretty sparsely populated. Events seem to be the most likely place where you work with other players while leveling. (People are often drawn towards events when they see them up.) Still, I had a side quest I was doing and when I got to the kill target, it was dead and the quest item was on the ground. Another player must have done it right before I got there when I was in range for loot. (I also sometime will see random loot in the world if someone has recently killed some stuff.)

I haven't hit end game content yet, so I can't speak to that. At the very least, it looks like grouping will be the most efficient way to play by a decent margin like in D3 when it comes to the end game grind.

 

[John Remedy]

I'm guessing you can drop stuff you have already picked up and then others can see it and pick up, but I'm not sure and have not tested this

Dropping loot for a party member means they can see it and pick it up. That's what TRM and I have been doing to avoid messing with the trade screen. I'm not sure if 'public' players can see it.

 

[ffs]

I’ve picked up D4 and gotta say I don’t think it’s all that bad. Not in the endgame yet but fun so far.

If anyone else around here plays feel free to PM me to connect on bnet.

 

[coju]

It’s pretty fun. I’ve got my wife to play which is fun!! It’s a bit of a step up from us playing Jeopardy and monopoly on the PlayStation.

She said it was way easier than It Takes Two; which it is.

She also said she could see how this would be addicting.

 

[Gorny]

Shameless plug, see sig.

Thank you.

 

[John Remedy]

My wife finished the campaign today as an Earth/Bear Druid, with me as a Frenzy/HotA Barb. I'm not sure how much she'll enjoy grinding in WT3/4 (her first Diablo game) but she had a blast, and enjoyed the cross-platform aspect, so she could play with me on PC while on her PlayStation. She may go back to Horizon: Forbidden West now, but we'll see

 

[ffs]

I’ve picked up D4 and gotta say I don’t think it’s all that bad. Not in the endgame yet but fun so far.

Now in the endgame and still having fun.

My main char is a Barb currently at lvl 92, not seriously pushing for 100 (so far) but got there just from grinding quite a bit for gear upgrades. Astronomically rare drops aside (i.e. Shako, Grandfather) he's well geared now in light of the current state of the game (things are still in flux and Blizzard makes changes frequently), and I feel I've now had the "full" D4 experience with that particular character.

Overall, the game has a number of issues currently, but those are mostly QoL things and certain mechanics being too impactful. Those should be relatively easy to address and I expect Blizzard will do so in the foreseeable future. In general, I'm very surprised how well made the game is. Graphics and generally the open world are stunning, the first playthrough was amazing, and characters have a good "feel" to them. The game strike a good balance in taking you by the hand first and but letting you go super crazy with grindy endgame stuff later on.

I'd say it's really a mix of D2, D3 and PoE, and a surprisingly good one at that. Many skills and general build archetypes are directly taken or clearly inspired from D2. Combat action and skill use/feel is similar to D3. And endgame progression and goals is a more casual "light version" of PoE (which remains the game for the most hardcore theorycrafting ARPG addicts, but the very complicated endgame optimization made it less accessible for more casual players).

To me, currently the least enjoyable aspect is the D4 community even when engaging just passively just reading/watching content. PoE had a similar problem. Idiot content creaters being idiots, basically. It takes some time to sort through all the trash guides pushing poor builds, over-/underhyping classes or builds and complaining like teenagers about things that aren't really that much of a big deal,. You'll get a lot of those things on YouTube und various websites. One gets to the good information eventually, but it takes some effort and also a bit of own D4 gameplay experience to differentiate between the useful and the useless content.

Generally a super nice game. Not sure about the longevity of it, only time will tell ... but don't expect me around much for D2 around here in the near future.

 

[maxicek]

Content creators endlessly trying to push stuff for views or likes seem to be the curse of all games these days. Even D2R. I was trying to find out what they changed with WW and that is a minefield. Life was much easier when you could just ask @RTB or @onderduiker

 

[Timinator]

Content creators endlessly trying to push stuff for views or likes seem to be the curse of all games these days. Even D2R. I was trying to find out what they changed with WW and that is a minefield. Life was much easier when you could just ask @RTB or @onderduiker

Just remember, for a few of these guys, content creation is now there full time job. That's not to say there aren't people who won't just give you the information or the bulletpoint version. Its about balancing things, and if those creators aren't for you, just tell Youtube, don't recommend this channel to me and you won't see it again.

A good content creator will break things down, have timestamps so you can see what you need, if you need the deeper dive its there. Not all of them all or padding/click bait/excess personality.

 

[snickersnack]

Now in the endgame and still having fun.

My main char is a Barb currently at lvl 92, not seriously pushing for 100 (so far) but got there just from grinding quite a bit for gear upgrades. Astronomically rare drops aside (i.e. Shako, Grandfather) he's well geared now in light of the current state of the game (things are still in flux and Blizzard makes changes frequently), and I feel I've now had the "full" D4 experience with that particular character.

Overall, the game has a number of issues currently, but those are mostly QoL things and certain mechanics being too impactful. Those should be relatively easy to address and I expect Blizzard will do so in the foreseeable future. In general, I'm very surprised how well made the game is. Graphics and generally the open world are stunning, the first playthrough was amazing, and characters have a good "feel" to them. The game strike a good balance in taking you by the hand first and but letting you go super crazy with grindy endgame stuff later on.

I'd say it's really a mix of D2, D3 and PoE, and a surprisingly good one at that. Many skills and general build archetypes are directly taken or clearly inspired from D2. Combat action and skill use/feel is similar to D3. And endgame progression and goals is a more casual "light version" of PoE (which remains the game for the most hardcore theorycrafting ARPG addicts, but the very complicated endgame optimization made it less accessible for more casual players).

To me, currently the least enjoyable aspect is the D4 community even when engaging just passively just reading/watching content. PoE had a similar problem. Idiot content creaters being idiots, basically. It takes some time to sort through all the trash guides pushing poor builds, over-/underhyping classes or builds and complaining like teenagers about things that aren't really that much of a big deal,. You'll get a lot of those things on YouTube und various websites. One gets to the good information eventually, but it takes some effort and also a bit of own D4 gameplay experience to differentiate between the useful and the useless content.

Generally a super nice game. Not sure about the longevity of it, only time will tell ... but don't expect me around much for D2 around here in the near future.

That's good to hear. In a few weeks, I'll be "done" with a couple of large projects and I'll have some time for a new game. I put off getting D4 partly because I knew that it'd be a distraction that I don't need right now.

Just remember, for a few of these guys, content creation is now there full time job. That's not to say there aren't people who won't just give you the information or the bulletpoint version. Its about balancing things, and if those creators aren't for you, just tell Youtube, don't recommend this channel to me and you won't see it again.

A good content creator will break things down, have timestamps so you can see what you need, if you need the deeper dive its there. Not all of them all or padding/click bait/excess personality.

This right here. "Covering" new games is a job/business move, so I can't fault them for trying. Many/most of the games youtubers I watch deliver good entertainment, and that's not the same as good technical content, but there are a few that manage to do both.