Everything that we, as a community, believe needs to be fixed or improved in D2R

Introduction - What is this, why is it being done etc.

Hey guys, @Udyret had a cool idea today:

Udyret wrote:

if we made a community effort to crowdfund development of the missing things and things the community agree would be good additions to the game. like for example currency tab, fixing lobby, fixing chat, improve underused zones etc. do you think blizz would do it?

We agreed that crowdfunding wouldn't work, but then discussed the idea of crowdsourcing the main issues instead, to compile a report of sorts to send to Blizzard. I've tried doing this before, for example when @Schnorki compiled the issues with chat; this was sent to Blizzard but I received no response or acknowledgement. That doesn't mean that others haven't had success though - for example MrLlama's community and r/Diablo were both able to successfully get their demands across in a document, which was eventually received by the dev team.

So we can make a start on that guys if we want to. We're here because we love talking about D2R, and there are definitely pain points that we all feel need to be addressed as a matter of priority. diablo2.io doesn't have a large number of people, but I still think we can pull together on this one and produce something. What we'd like to see is this topic evolving into a well-formatted, detail-rich and concise series of memos to Blizzard about the things we think are broken in D2R and need fixing urgently. I can then attempt to contact Blizzard again with the completed topic, so that they have everything available to them in one place.

This would make the task of beginning to fix these issues easier for the dev team. Perhaps they don't have the resources, perhaps they're triaging and blocked by more pressing things, maybe they cannot make sense of reports due to lack of detail/information/reproduction steps. If however they have proper reports with steps to reproduce, details, logs, this cuts the time required to get fixing significantly, they can make dev tickets and get stuck into the problems easier.

If you're interested in this idea and want to help, leave your comments below. In the meantime, I'll start getting a 'report template' together so that we can standardise people's memos to Blizzard and the info required for it to be accepted. Idea would be to take replies from this topic and then merge them into the original post to form the complete 'document'. If Blizzard ignore it again, we can at least say that we tried our best.

For now, some guidelines:

• No ridiculous shit like asking for bigger amazon buttocks, totally new features like ranked arena, et cetera. Keep it to urgent fixes and improvements to the game as it is now. No grand new feature ideas basically, we're wanting to improve on the already amazing work they've done - not to change it radically.

Feel free to post whatever's on your mind now guys, with the knowledge that things will all be consolidated/presented at the end.

Commonly cited as being critical issues with the current game, not including new features:

• Proliferation of farming bots that break ToS which are available publicly (cracked) or behind a paywall
• Alleged but unsubstantiated reports of item duplication exploit(s) in the wild and a destabilised economy
• Spam bots in lobby, spam bots whispering you, spam bots creating and entering games
• Difficulty finding any real (non-trade or spam) games using the lobby, particularly bad on consoles
• Maximum number of characters slots available to players isn't enough for most
• Chat system is broken in several ways and has well-documented issues

Commonly asked for new features, iterations, additions, and other small 'QoL' requests:

• Stackable runes, gems, and consumables, combined with access to a 'currency' tab in the stash to house them
• /playersX command available in online bnet play
• Configurable loot filter for players (beyond the scope of modding)
• Disable direct ctrl+click vendoring and/or dropping of items that are currently equipped, or the option to disable
• More granular filtering in the lobby to let players specify/tag their game type, leading to better discoverability
• Another end-game challenge comparable in difficulty to ubers or dclone

Other common themes/concerns:

• No real interactions with the community outside of streamers/youtubers and PR partners
• Fewer than expected announcements, blue posts, updates, communication in general from Blizz

Honestly, the (in my opinion) main issues with D2:R are more than just well known and understood by Blizz and the Dev team. They've admitted to the same on multiple accounts. They merely choose not to give a damn. Knowing that, I can't help but not see any true benefit to this effort but I guess trying never hurts.

Specifically, I'm referring to..
- Spam bots still being rampant after 20+ years, despite multiple claims of "oh yeah, we'll totally fix that!" over the years. The same applies to farming bots I suppose.
- Chat still being more than broken in D2:R, even more so in combination with the above spam bots whispering you over and over, constantly creating new channels that you get auto-switched to, making sure you have to constantly go out of your way to fix your chat to show so you can actually see something of value (if you can..that itself is likely still gonna be blocked by the other bugs).
- The lobby being utterly and completely useless to find any sort of games as it is flooded with irrelevant trade games and 38 hour old ad-games for d2honor and whatnot (which in itself proves once again that Blizz folk neither actually play themselves nor give a hoot or those blatant farmer-site-commercial-games would not be there for days at a time without being closed).

Fix those 3 and the game will immediately become MASSIVELY superior and will actually not scare off newcomers at every turn. But I sadly long since stopped believing they ever will. And you can't tell me they don't know about these, for decades in some cases..DECADES..

I still love the core game itself and would continue to like to see as little change to that as possible (although even I wouldn't mind a new, actually hard, difficulty being added). But for the true experience-breaking issues that really should (have) be(en) addressed (decades ago)..I sadly have no hope left. I mean hell, they go out of their way to make things WORSE. At least in the original, you had the option of non-b.net multiplayer, allowing you to play with friends while staying away from spam bots. Now? Nope...forced into bot-laden BS.

--

I realize this is probably a fair bit more negative than you were hoping for (sorry about that) but that's just what Blizz turned me into when it comes to them and their (in)ability to ever actually address real issues in their games.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

I realize this is probably a fair bit more negative than you were hoping for (sorry about that) but that's just what Blizz made me. :/

Np man, we want all perspectives here. Make people really think if they want to commit to this or not.
As a long-time disappointed Blizz fan I'm not hopeful either, but I personally don't want to stop trying, or give people the opportunity for others to do so.

Hear you on the botting/spam situation, that really is a decades-old bug that seemingly hasn't been dented at all by Resurrected.

A huge QoL would be being able to remove recently socketed runes from items, as long as they do not formed a rune word (to avoid re-rolling). Boosting mobility for non sorc-classes, specially druid, amazaon and necro, so ladder start has a more diverse number of builds instead of only sorcs.
And of course, do something against RMT, bots and spam.

1. the lobby needs a complete rework as it is almost completely useless in its current form, At this point going back to the LOD lobby would be far superior but as a number of mods have already proven there is no reason no to improve upon the LOD lobby.

2. stacking consumables- I know not all will agree but I don't feel it would be game changing and I really do not see why forcing playing to have 2-3 chars full or runes/gems is a better system.

3. add a decent mele claw with CB

4. confirmation of no loot filter. While there is a level of filter I would consider in the realm of fair game play. and be ok with, it's not what most people are after. What most people want would force everyone to use it or be at a major disadvantage which is simply not ok.

---------------------------------
The next few are just something to think about and discuss, may be good changes.

4. the suggestion above about boosting mobility is interesting and worth looking into but likely cannot be done without changing the feel of the game.

5. consider having torch class determined by the class of the character that makes the final blow.

6. add another uber event or some new endgame content that makes leveling more efficient but more dangerous

My hope is that Blizz is saving some QOL stuff for upcoming seasons.

I'm keeping my expectations extremely low so that I'm not disappointed though...

Bigger amazon bu-

Damn, nevermind.

More seriously:

40 character slots is more than just "QoL" at this point in my opinion, it would be a must... Hell, I'd call that the bare minimum. 20 was already tough with just non-ladder, but now that we have ladder as well... I had to delete most of my mules (and throw away stuff), wtv I guess it wasn't selling anyway... But now I'm at the point where I'm lacking character slots for actual characters.

And it would be such an easy fix too. And it would 'look' better for the game;

There's no reason why I could create like 70 characters (plus mules) 22 years ago, and now I can only have 20. Server space probably cost like 5% of what it cost back then, there's no excuse for that...

Even if the limit was freaking 100 I'd be like "Why is there even a limit, when there wasn't 22 years ago?" but at least 100 is viable; 20 is way too little.

So yeah, that'd be my #1 "easy fix" QoL.

There would also be stackable currencies, but honestly if I could just create mules (without struggling having enough slots for actual characters) I wouldn't mind that as much.

- Allow a left click option for move only.
- Removal of the spamming ad bots.
- Better lobby system. Allowing to filter out games that are dead or trade games. Annoying to try and find actual games or the games that have been up for 10+ hours because one person never left. Force player out of game after 1+ hours of inactivity.

Biggest issues I can think of that would make D2R as a whole better.

Also want to add, the ability to permanently disable various chats. Like trade chat, I keep getting random messages from that and have to do /channel leave all the damn time. No one uses it for trade, it is just a bugged/forced channel

I doubt the current Blizzard will do anything, but I'm more hopeful about the future Blizzard, under Microsoft leadership.
So, to future Blizzard CM:

Communication
Blizzard could really use one or more people that will interact with the community daily: three weeks into ladder and I heard nothing from them.
What's even happening behind the door?
Do Blizzard have a team of developper to expand the game?
Does D2 in maintenance mode from now on with a few RWs each ladder and a patch to fix and tweak every year?
Why Blizzard didn't delete the workaround to make 2.4 ladder only RWs and those RWs already made in non ladder after 10 days?
How could we know the answers if Blizzard dont say anything for weeks?


Bots & DClone -no longer- Event
After actually doing something to kill bots for good, both those clogging us with RMT nonsense in near to useless lobby rooms and those making the market worse for anyone playing the game,
someone should look into why asian streamers were able to make 10 DClone Events last week while americans streamer had to team together to make a single one in 2 weeks.
While I do enjoy a rare community event or two each week, those number make them routine. It should happen everyweek at most, not multiple time a day!

There are some possible changes, like, not exclusive to each other:
- Ladder only Event,
- Costlier than 75 to 125 SoJ,
- Costlier over time,
- Costlier after each spawn,
- Costlier if it happens multiple time in a short period,
- And cheaper if not during a long period,
- Worldwide so european console players can enjoy an event from time to time,
- Or let console players connect to asian or american servers (I feel sorry for those guys, they keep asking for invite from asian and american players at every event...)

Dont get me wrong: I enjoy the changes made to the spawn mechanics, but I think Blizzard overdid it.
By making it server wide while not changing the cost, the DClone Event is neither special nor the outcome (the

Annihilus Small Charm) valuable anymore.
If Blizzard intend is to keep the Event the same, the outcome should change to no longer be just an item, but also a ressources for crafting.
There is many ideas shared in this thread, and most are reasonables: Link


Storage
The mule system that we have use for two decades now is long obsolete.
After introducing shared stashes Blizzard should finish what they have started.
Storing item in character that we will never play was -and still is- cumbersome, slow, and prone to error (making the thing even more annoying).
It's not that hard to make more stashes and they already gave us 3 with D2R: why not give us 20 shared stashes instead of keeping items in those 20 characters stashes?
It has been ask so many times to make Runes and Gems stack, and they should at least do in the stashes.
This should free characters slots too, so players can play ladder without having to delete theirs mules (and items).


There are others issues but those are the main issues for me right now, that can be solve without altering the core D2 gameplay.

I know this is probably a longer shot than most, I'd like to see a rework/rebalancing of items. Specifically to bring Sets/Uniques closer to value/usefulness as the high end runewords.

95% of sets/set items in the game are useless beyond starter gear. There are TC87 Uniques which should be the rarest in the game that see absolutely no play and are utterly worthless.

MFing in general doesn't even feel worth it these days, seeing as how most uniques/sets don't sell/trade at all, the few that are useful usually only go for a

Pul-

Ist, and only a very miniscule fraction of uniques hold any significant value.

If Bliz doesn't want to solve the botting problem, then at least balance out the economy and game for the rest of us who choose NOT to bot.

QoL Changes

- Loot Filter: Critical
- Open to stacks (Runes/Gems)

Storage:

- 3 Personal Stashes + 1 Shared ; this math is far greater potential than the inverse

Chat / Lobby

- Simple - it is extremely broken especially the lobby

Agreed with most of things mentioned above, but I would like to see some additional changes to the game that weren't mentioned.

- Lock button to lock your gear (to avoid selling it to the vendor. accidents do happen)
- Token for imbuing items (as an alternative to crafting and its always fun to roll some rare items)
- Token for socketing items (as oppose to creating a throw away character just to get an item socketed)
- increase quantity for tome of identity/portal (running back to the town in mid-game just sucks)
- Stash dedicated to crafting or some QoL around crafting.

Tetra wrote: 2 years ago

Storage
Storing item in character that we will never play was -and still is- cumbersome, slow, and prone to error (making the thing even more annoying).
It's not that hard to make more stashes and they already gave us 3 with D2R: why not give us 20 shared stashes instead of keeping items in those 20 characters stashes?

I like this idea, but with a twist: instead of having 20 (max number of characters) personal and 3 shared tabs, just remove the personal ones and give us 20 shared (or 23, so the purists don't compain about nerfing). By doing so creating new characters (mules) would be much less needed (but not completely pointless - there is still character inventory).

Th3ory wrote: 2 years ago

Storage:
- 3 Personal Stashes + 1 Shared ; this math is far greater potential than the inverse

That'd make muling even more rampant!

Everything i'll say has been said, but i'd like to post it to keep this going in the hopes that devs take note.

- Lobby system is pure garbage. Most games I see have been deserted. Would be nice if we could categorize them (trade/mf/rush/grind/etc).
- We need a currency tab. runes, gems (all sizes/colors), keys, essences, tokens...this could easily be done on one tab and would get rid of the need for several mules. Even just the ability to stack these items would be huge.
- Character limit is dumb. Data storage can't be too much of an issue. This would be the biggest fix they could do right now. I can't imagine it would take a ton of effort and it would change everything, espeically in ladder.

Trang Oul wrote: 2 years ago

Tetra wrote: 2 years ago

Storage
Storing item in character that we will never play was -and still is- cumbersome, slow, and prone to error (making the thing even more annoying).
It's not that hard to make more stashes and they already gave us 3 with D2R: why not give us 20 shared stashes instead of keeping items in those 20 characters stashes?

I like this idea, but with a twist: instead of having 20 (max number of characters) personal and 3 shared tabs, just remove the personal ones and give us 20 shared (or 23, so the purists don't compain about nerfing). By doing so creating new characters (mules) would be much less needed (but not completely pointless - there is still character inventory).

Th3ory wrote: 2 years ago

Storage:
- 3 Personal Stashes + 1 Shared ; this math is far greater potential than the inverse

That'd make muling even more rampant!

We have done the math - it is far more advantageous to do 3 personal vs. 1 Shared when you are capped at 20x chars per D2R

Key. The box space is insanely more expansive. Trust me - you aren't muling more frequently as you can hold far more per mule. Sure, you need to mule maybe more frequently from the onset, but easier than you think

I think people leaving comments in this topic should realize that noone with any power to influence D2R development is going to read through their ramblings. Two reasons Llama's and reddit's doc got to the dev team: it was concise and statistically relevant. Most of you guys are just making Teebling's work harder. What you should instead do is list 3 to 5 items, which, in your opinion, need to be addressed ASAP, with minimal elaboration on your reasoning, because, again, nobody cares. @Th3ory got it right.

My list of issues to address (in random order):
1. Lobby (make it more functional)
2. Chat (get rid of bots, improve stability, add timestamps to messages)
3. Loot filter (at least a rudimentary one)
4. Help Cain remember how to ID items in the Cube, fucking stat
5. Resource stacking/Currency tab (not vital)

1. Loot Filter
2. Rune/Gem tabs or just general currency tab.
3. A5

Frenzy merc needs a serious Attack Rating boost...
4. Increased character limit
5. New endgame thing to aim for, similar to ubers.

Th3ory wrote: 2 years ago

Trang Oul wrote: 2 years ago

Tetra wrote: 2 years ago

Storage
Storing item in character that we will never play was -and still is- cumbersome, slow, and prone to error (making the thing even more annoying).
It's not that hard to make more stashes and they already gave us 3 with D2R: why not give us 20 shared stashes instead of keeping items in those 20 characters stashes?

I like this idea, but with a twist: instead of having 20 (max number of characters) personal and 3 shared tabs, just remove the personal ones and give us 20 shared (or 23, so the purists don't compain about nerfing). By doing so creating new characters (mules) would be much less needed (but not completely pointless - there is still character inventory).

Th3ory wrote: 2 years ago

Storage:
- 3 Personal Stashes + 1 Shared ; this math is far greater potential than the inverse

That'd make muling even more rampant!

We have done the math - it is far more advantageous to do 3 personal vs. 1 Shared when you are capped at 20x chars per D2R

Key. The box space is insanely more expansive. Trust me - you aren't muling more frequently as you can hold far more per mule. Sure, you need to mule maybe more frequently from the onset, but easier than you think

I even would prefer it. make one shared tab and the rest personal. would be more oldschool

- better Lobby system. It is near impossible to find games you are looking for.
- More stash space or a currency tab
- increase character limit

Might as well add another obvious one here that's been asked plenty of times by plenty of people:

- /players 8 for online play.

With everything online being as broken as it is (no games, nothing but spam, no chat ability, maintenance during euro prime time every bloody week...[srsly, wtf?!]) AND no ability to bump up diff/drops yourself, honestly, the ONLY thing making online in any way possibly superior to offline play is this site here for real trading. And much as I love this site...that's a pretty pathetic reason to dictate choice of game mode.