Still not sure about this game...

[Der Kunstler]

Still not sure about this game...

I am new to this type of game after playing historical wargames the past several years. My first impressions on this game are:

1) I love the ability to gradually upgrade and find items - very addictive. I like the music and the creatures and places are very creative.

2) So far I don't like the game save system. You have to save the game in order to leave it. Then it only gives you one save. You can't have several saves for where you are at different points in the game. So, if you realize you've made an incorrectable mistake, you have to start all over at the beginning. Plus, when you reload the save - it's not even saved like it was because all the monsters are back again in the levels where you've been. This has resulted in me having to leave my computer on all hours until a quest is finished. I would think people would use this as an exploit to find items over and over again and build experience on the same levels. Is this what people usually do? Comments?

 

[LorveN]

I would think people would use this as an exploit to find items over and over again and build experience on the same levels. Is this what people usually do? Comments?

Oh,man. If you only knew
thats the only thing people do! Just running through the game once, doing all the quests etc wont give you enough exp to reach higher levels anyway. You are pretty much bound to do that. Popular is to rush act bosses because they have higher drop rates, in order to get good items. Many people rush them hundreds of times every day...
This is what d2 is like. You may like it, or leave it
(Or unless you play Single Player, you wont see it that much. but the truth is out there )

 

[RTB]

2) So far I don't like the game save system. You have to save the game in order to leave it. Then it only gives you one save. You can't have several saves for where you are at different points in the game. So, if you realize you've made an incorrectable mistake, you have to start all over at the beginning. Plus, when you reload the save - it's not even saved like it was because all the monsters are back again in the levels where you've been. This has resulted in me having to leave my computer on all hours until a quest is finished.

You can have different save points, but that requires copying your save file into multiple files, and keeping older ones as back-up. Incorrectable mistakes that also completely kill any chance of you completing a quest are very rare.
The game saves whenever you use a Waypoint or Town Portal IIRC, and also every 15 or 30 minutes. Monster positions aren't saved, because it takes up far too much space, and allows you to complete Nightmare and hell difficulties, by allowing you to kill more before reaching the end.

I would think people would use this as an exploit to find items over and over again and build experience on the same levels. Is this what people usually do?

There is no way you can do Nightmare or hell difficulty without doing the same area a couple of times for experience and items.

 

[Diab]

Well, if you're playing online, the game is periodically saved on blizzard's servers, even if you don't save it yourself, by choosing the 'save and exit' option. I believe it's something like every five minutes that an autosave like this takes place.

If you're playing on singleplayer, I would think that you can back up your savegames that are stored in the 'saves' folder, with your character name as part of the filename. I'm not sure if this works, though.

As far as incorrectable mistakes go, you just have to learn not to make them. With quests, it's very rare, but you can encounter some sort of bug that prevents you from completing them.

Also, if you've gotten past an area, there are sometimes "waypoints" that you can activate. Once you've activated it, you can use it to get to that area from any other waypoint, including the one in town, even after you've rejoined the game.

Town portals are also a nice way to get to town for anything. You can only have one up at a time though, so if you decide to bring a second one up, the first one disappears. They disappear once you've gone through them in both directions.

 

[Der Kunstler]

So it's important to finish each level more than once then in order to beat the game - geez - how long does it take to finish this game on sp - a year?

 

[logger120]

So it's important to finish each level more than once then in order to beat the game - geez - how long does it take to finish this game on sp - a year?

that depends on your free time and devotion to the game. normal difficulty can easily be beaten solo in a single day. but the first few times will take a little longer (also depends on the character). Nightmare and hell difficulties will usually take a good bit longer because of the leveling up aspect takes longer. but apperently you can reach character level 99 (which is way beyond beating the game) in either 38.7 or 387 hours (the comma confuses me, im thinking 387) check it out http://www.diabloii.net/strategy/x-articles/ladder-dip-dancer.shtml. you could do it solo in an couple days, weeks, or months. that will be largely up to you.
gl

 

[LorveN]

that depends on your free time and devotion to the game. normal difficulty can easily be beaten solo in a single day. but the first few times will take a little longer (also depends on the character). Nightmare and hell difficulties will usually take a good bit longer because of the leveling up aspect takes longer. but apperently you can reach character level 99 (which is way beyond beating the game) in either 38.7 or 387 hours (the comma confuses me, im thinking 387) check it out http://www.diabloii.net/strategy/x-articles/ladder-dip-dancer.shtml. you could do it solo in an couple days, weeks, or months. that will be largely up to you.
gl

it was 38,7 hours (~1½day)
However, that was in 1.09. I have 2 chars at lvl99, which I made in 1.09. Making a char in 1.10 and drag it all the way up, ooh! That takes more than 38.7 days. Actually, for me it would take more than 387 days too.
In 1.09 you could do cows cows cows cows, and hey! they died in one hit, no matter how many!! Besides, they also gave more exp, and were almost not dangerous at all.
Nowadays baalruns seem to give most exp, but those take a lot longer time, and are much much trickier, since some things can actually kill you. Getting to lvl99 is a matter of will

 

[Fallen Creation]

Now, if only we had foreseen the changes in 1.10 and made lvl99 characters in 1.09 cows without spending stat/skill points...

 

[Der Kunstler]

Well, I must not have the right playing style or something because I've been playing at least 6 hours a day for a week and just got to the end of Act II where Duriel kicked my a**. I'm suffering from eyestrain and I'm getting carpel tunnel in my mouse finger! I don't see how you could possibly beat this game in one day unless you happen to be Data from Star Trek. Maybe I'm going back to camp selling my stuff too much.

 

[druliusCleaver]

With my first sp char, it was classic DII in the first few months after it came out, my necro couldn't get past Andariel. She'd kill all skellies with one blast of poison, and kill every clay golem with one smack of those claw arms... I quit the game for a few months because I felt it was unfair to make the Act Boss so much harder than anything up to that point.

But, I checked out a few strat guides and other internet resources and eventually gave it another shot, many other shots. The key to success turned out to be something I thought of on my own out of my personal experience playing the Andy run over and over, gettting killed all the time. Now here I am still playing battlenet after multiple purchases of newer games...

With Duriel, Try to open a tp before he gets to you, then you can use it when you run low on health pots. Come back through the regular entrance, usually he guards the tp you used, and the tp will still be up for you to use again. This tactic should work in Normal, but in NM and Hell Duriel has much better regen and it takes too long to make the round trip to town.

I think a player's first char or two will always take longer to play than the ninth or tenth, just because you are learning. Selling lots of loot is one of those things a new player just needs to do until the player learns what types of items the town merchants will find valuable. Then, the junk can be left on the ground and play speed through the quests will increase.

there are many reasons to play on Bnet instead of SP, three of which are listed here.

First, you can perfectly mimic your SP experience by passwording your game when you make it.

Second, there are more items, and more things to do, especially for a Ladder char.

Third, if you get stuck, you can always ask for help here or find a game to join where they are doing the quest you want and tag along. -Don't do this in public games with your drop quests like Hellforge, because you won't get any of the drops...


-walk don't run is great advice. I'm going to start using it. In Hell mode my lvl 79 sorc needs to keep that in mind when the nasties start swarming.

 

[Der Kunstler]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Xoltotun]

I am new to this type of game after playing historical wargames the past several years. My first impressions on this game are:

1) I love the ability to gradually upgrade and find items - very addictive. I like the music and the creatures and places are very creative.

2) So far I don't like the game save system. You have to save the game in order to leave it. Then it only gives you one save. You can't have several saves for where you are at different points in the game. So, if you realize you've made an incorrectable mistake, you have to start all over at the beginning. Plus, when you reload the save - it's not even saved like it was because all the monsters are back again in the levels where you've been. This has resulted in me having to leave my computer on all hours until a quest is finished. I would think people would use this as an exploit to find items over and over again and build experience on the same levels. Is this what people usually do? Comments?

If it's any comfort, I'm a newbie as well (been playing for only about a month and a half!), and I didn't understand the game's saving feature (or lack thereof) at first either. The key is to hit all the waypoints which are scattered throughout the levels. When you activate one, you'll understand how it works. Basically they allow you to teleport from the town/village you're based at (I'm sure you're still based at the Rogue Encampment) to areas you would normally have to slog through each time you started up the game. Good luck.