Keep the faith everyone

[drinkturps]

Keep the faith everyone

Only a few months ago people on this board were talking about interesting items that they have found, advise on character builds, amusing stories whilst playing the game, legitimate PK hunting techniques and general happiness with the world.

Since the new ladder has started it has become so despondent. People are leaving the game completely, TPPK, chicken, bots, dupes and all manner of hack related incidents appeared to have taken over the majority of this forum.

I'm hoping that this is a phase and when the botters and the legit character(s) finally fill up the ranks of the level 99's I'm hoping that cheaters will finally leave leaving the genuine players behind. Maybe I'm asking for too much.

Consequently I'm also losing faith in public games. I don't have the commitment to play as a part of clan/group due to odd working hours but I am getting a rewarding experience by making a private game and soloing through the game like it was meant to be played. Don't rush, don't trust anyone (well maybe just for killing Duriel and Diablo!). Make a half dozen high level characters for yourself which are all your own doing and be proud. By the time you've done this, things might just be back to the way they were a few months ago.

Keep the faith all and here's hoping to a better future.

 

[viamede]

Can I have a witness!!!!

AMEN. :worship:

...things do seem a bit down lately...sadly its mostly the hardcore game that suffers...you rarely see anyone that isn't using mh and usually with chicken never mind the god-mode hack...results in HC players running around nuttier than softcore players because they don't even lose XP and gold as they never die.

Ignore the ladder...game with yourself and friends and be proud of whatever you accomplish because their are precious few doing it legitly any more.

 

[STINGER]

I WILL game publicly and I WILL hit 96-97 as beeyond that I dont know if i can handle, and I WILL do most of it publicly and I WILL refuse to bow down and go private full time due to pathetic pieces of chit!

Now with all that "I WILL" stuff, I fully understand ppl going private and staying there, I am jsut the type that doesnt allow ppl to rule them. i may choose to not run in a game wiht a BS Necro, or Necro with no minions or a GA Zon....etc but I also at times choose not to game with other potential legit PK builds, the obvious Artisians of Whale probably maxed out with the ETH weapon Barb, or the barb that runs around town with nothign but BO sticks out and for some reason no armor.

i msy bite the big one wiht a TPPK but i would rather tst my paranoid skills than always be private!

 

[Chiller_babe]

Yes there are still isolated islands of shining "legitness" left fighting off the hoards of darkness. KTA, GAT, Misfits, AB all apply depending on where you play.

In a weird kind of way this forces us to form tighter bonds and friendships with the people we do trust and play with. There is also a kind of satisfaction in sticking two fingers up at the script kiddies (or adults) and playing the game.

Anyone remember that? Just playing a game for fun :lol:


Mind you I don't think drinking turps would aid your (or anyone elses) HC playing :scratch:

Where d'you play matie - just fill your friends list - and there should be someone to play with whenever you are on :thumbsup:

Most importantly - whether you prefer Mashing Beasties or Mashing Players

HAVE FUN

Chill

 

[viamede]

Well I have been gaming public and private. Little risk of pking of any sort in Asia anyway. Just leaves me feeling empty to have everyone around using MH and doing stupid things that I know they wouldn't try if they were not cheating. So often I would rather private game unless I know the people I am gaming with or I want to level faster in a big game. If I find someone playing legit I will quest with them as I like the company but that's usually at low levels. Few people want to actually quest the game anymore.

I've pretty much soloed my necro alone (I only partied to help a zon through Maggot Lair oddly enough) through to trav in NM thus far and have enjoyed doing all the quests including gathering all the body parts in act3 twice now even though I could have rushed him through. No one seems to want to quest like that anymore.

Anyway its all been said before...but I don't avoid public due to TPPK just because I would rather not see people taking pride in cheating their way through the game.

 

[PhatTrumpet]

Well, single player is just as fun as it ever was. Only thing you miss out on is a couple crappy runewords, few out-of-reach upgrading recipes, and a couple unfindable elite uniques.

If that's not enough... play D1 (there's no run/walk toggle option).

 

[HCTwinJava]

I WILL game publicly and I WILL hit 96-97 as beeyond that I dont know if i can handle, and I WILL do most of it publicly and I WILL refuse to bow down and go private full time due to pathetic pieces of chit!

here are some thoughts:

not all players have the time to level a char to 96-97. I almost always stop at lvl ~85, and then start a different char from lvl 1 or continue to play other mid-lvl chars.

not all players have the time to rebuild a mid- to high-lvl char after PK'ed, and getting TPPK'ed could be extremely frustrating exp to some ppl.

not all players need to play in pubbies. In private games, you do all quests on your own, you have all the loot, you play the game at your own pace. I have 3 PC's running the game, so I can quest, rush, mule, or do whatever, all in the same game. 2x exp, 3x difficulty. Even when I play SC, I don't always go pubbies. If my friends and I want to play together, they can either join their chars, or come to my house to take over my idle chars. Isn't it fun?

season 2 pubblies are much, much less interesting than season 1 pubbies. That's my observation. In last season, I went out to join pubbies many times, for I like to play with others. but season 2? how many want to "walk" to baal, or actually do a few quests with their own untwinked chars?

 

[Afro AmeriZON]

I haven't had much involvement in season 2 ladder. I've only started a melee enchantress which only is lvl20 which i've kind of abandoned so far because I have nothing in the new season and I don't really MF run, so she can only leech until I can get a hold of a bow(to hold me over until I can go melee) and leeching is not fun at all.

A couple weeks ago I made my first 1.10 bowazon and she was doing ok(made it to lvl62), I was in NM baals and I am usually pretty cautious about them but the time I actually let my guard down and got careless, POW tppk wind druid took me out. Ironically my zons name is DriveBy_Shootin and it looks like I'm the one who got gunned down. She was untwinked other then a skystrike and 4% manald a friend had given me.

Since then I hadn't and was actually going to uninstall the game but I played last night and quested in publics...and we actually quested in pretty much every public game I joined(accept for the ancients). It took from about 3pm-11pm but I was level 30 when I went to bed and had a good time completely untwinked.

By the way, I have a question, off topic, this has never happened to me before but I still have the full staff from act2 in my inventory, how does this happen?? :scratch:

 

[SonOfRah]

hmmm, I've worked out that I will need to kill roughly 7 million monsters in act3 hell or higher to get Khali-Shi to 99.... or roughly 175 million monsters in normal...

Might do some of that in my spare time. ><

 

[Afro AmeriZON]

hmmm, I've worked out that I will need to kill roughly 7 million monsters in act3 hell or higher to get Khali-Shi to 99.... or roughly 175 million monsters in normal...

Might do some of that in my spare time. ><

Quill rats beware!! :thumbsup:

 

[viamede]

On further thought I do recall a friend cowing my necro up a level or two before I did act4 normal.

Also recognize that most characters cannot solo hell especially in classic. I could never have got my LF Zon through even act1 hell alone (heck it was a big effort to even get to stony alone before help arrived).

 

[kurg]

I mainly play private games with a friend and a few keys apiece.

What I noticed in the few pub games I joined (hell diff) was that the non baal-run games nobody was ever partied. Apparently its either baal runs where you party, or solo-8 games which is how d2 originally started (classic v1.01-v1.06 anyone?)

 

[ConnerMacleod]

I'm sorry but this will never happen. The ONLY way this will ever happen is if Blizzard magically goes through a "transgenderal change". Meaning, they gotta grows some male reproductive organs and BAN keys.

Why won't they do this? Because like all companies, decisions are made from the top down. The current management at Blizzard North is hearing from their bosses in the Vivendi family that they have to protect their company's bottom line. With 2 games scheduled for release very soon, they are not going to tick off their core clientelle, which happen to be kids between 13 and 17 who have limited disposable income and purchase 5-6 new games per year. This same market segment also has the largest amount of cheaters in the game. They just like to cheat, whether they believe it to be an honest way to play or not.

By banning keys, they will affect the sentiment of this market segment, and future releases will be affected in terms of sales. Like any starving company, it's important to appeal to all markets - so you rob Peter to pay Paul. In essence, they appeal to their non-cheating base by repeating the company line (Anti-Hack Policy) over and over, while they appeal to their cheating base by never CD Key banning anyone.

The serfs over at Blizzard are probably screaming that they hear every single day from people that the cheating has to stop, and they probably feel that the game should be cleaned up the way we want it. Because they live in the real world, they also have to keep their emotions in check or else the management, who MAKES these decisions to ban, will eliminate their income.

Nobody has autonomy in cases like this. There is no magic button down there at BN, they are run like any monolithic organization. Slow to make decisions, worried about their jobs and income, and just putting band-aids where necessary.

Say that there was someone in charge of the Realms. They make a decision to ban all keys using TPPK. The ban goes forward but mistakes are made and some people lose their keys through no fault of their own. Blizzard gets a billion complaints over the course of the next day and someone actually makes it all the way up the company ladder to the real decision makers. He/she probably has a reputation as someone difficult to work with, and everyone is in fear of that person. That person comes down hardcore on everyone in the department and makes a decision to reassign their desk to the Blizzard North Parking Lot. But this person all along had autonomy right? Sure, sure they did. Autonomy as long as the boss doesn't have to get involved.

So take heart, they may ban more accounts, they may actually ban some keys! But they will never ever take the actions necessary to clean up their free servers.

 

[TheCerberus]

Yes, Blizzard's hack policy if you're caught:
You MIGHT have your account closed.
You MIGHT have your CD-key TEMPORARILY banned.

 

[kurg]

Why won't they do this? Because like all companies, decisions are made from the top down.

A very good analysis. However, blizz could easily implement a server-side programming change to put an end to TPPK, which wouldn't affect their bottom line, on the contrary, it would give many people hope that blizz cares about their games, even old ones like this.

The bot problem could be solved in much the same way that yahoo prevents automated programs from signing up for e-mail accounts/groups etc. But that would require a bit more programming, and definitely a client-side patch.

Also, as long as they intermittently ban a few thousand keys of the most ardent hackers/dupers/botters (esp the ones that e-bay), they just guarantee a few thousand more sales, as the dupers will continue to function as long as they continue to make a profit. A new cd-key every month or so is just the cost of doing business for an e-bayer.

 

[ConnerMacleod]

Very true Kurg. But in all cases, the decision to proceed lies with one or two people at the top that must allocate the people to put in the time.

Since Blizz is now run by mostly people that were Pre-Diablo/Pre-Diablo 2, they are applying their Harvard and Wharton educations and not thinking about our needs. Go Go Almighty Dollar!

 

[drinkturps]

Further to what people have said on here. I thought I'd start myself a nice lightning javazon. I got a character going got myself to Tristram later on after making it to the Inner Cloister. When I was level 12, I made an open game and did the Tristram quest.

Well, what a mistake that was. People entered the game asking to party, all low levelish. "Make TP for Tristram Plz", I obliged. Some people entered through my tp, then bang "deeds".

Prior to this was a spammy bot (with flashy text colours) saying "buy stuff on a game which you can get for nothing for cash with cappyd2gear.whatthehell" *URL made up!*

This has happened just now! I think I'll stick to my private games. Sorry, I've just about had it with pubby games.

 

[baalos]

Stinger, I rarely play pubbies. It is not from paranoia. It is because I have found private games like those in the AB or old GAT, or with the friends I have met along the years playing this game. And in those games, We are not harassed by spambots, middle school kiddies with their maphack, or what ever hack, or I wanna be tough potty mouths.

I like my clean environment. Those are rarely found in pubbies.