New D2R version available for pre-order in China

I feel that there might be a little misunderstanding.
I'm in no way trying to defend or trying to justify Blizzard.

And you're right, the server costs are—or at least, should have been—included in the price. I wasn't trying to provide justification. I just mentioned it because, presumably, they'll be spinning up a few more servers in China.
I wasn't trying to justify anything. I just observed that, business-wise, it makes sense. Precisely because it makes them more money with little added value and almost no work.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 4 months ago

Ungern wrote: 4 months ago

Servers cost money, and someone will have to pay for them.

That's not an argument. Haven't you already payed for the game ? The cost for servers is included in the price.
Keep in mind D2R is "just" a remade game, so it cost way less money than a from scratch game.

Those items are just an opportunity for Blizzard to easily make more money with almost no work.

leox wrote: 4 months ago

That is unspeakable word, I am thinking they probably change blood color to green to fit china scene.

And delete the Necromancer class, and some undead enemies.

It's possible to translate from Chinese to English from the main Chinese Diablo 2 page.
Text from the page below the first image on the front page.

《暗黑破坏神II》重制版预购礼包正式上线
8月27日前预购，即可免费获得额外储藏箱。使用网易支付还可限时额外享受10元优惠。

Translation


Diablo II Remastered Pre-Order Bundle Now Available
Pre-order before August 27th to receive a free bonus stash.
For a limited time, use NetEase Pay to enjoy an additional ¥10 off.

Important context here:

D2R was never available in China; they were always playing our local western version of D2R. Now, through a local partner, they are releasing this custom version with of course certain P2W elements.

That said, there is zero guarantee that this ends up in our western variant of D2R.

A lot us unknown here.

Ungern wrote: 4 months ago

The set appears to be a modified version of Sigon's, so no issue there.
[..]

Running it through a translator, it actually seems to be far more than that.
Similar in style and such, yes. But far more potentially impactful.

Skill, solid life leach, a hefty amount of scaling AR, IAS, MF and probably most importantly a

Meditation aura on top, all while not blocking a weapon or shield slot and having no level requirements (all you need is to hit 65 str without it it seems) make it an insanely good leveling set for countless builds. In many cases far superior to anything we've had so far.

The real question however, which the screenshot doesn't answer, is which set bonus requires how many pieces. If the

Meditation aura can be obtained without the full set and by using only say 2 or 3 pieces, the whole thing has a very real chance of becoming a new BIS choice for quite a few builds. 75% MF on

Boots beats the hell out of war travs. The gloves offering 20 IAS and esp. the

Belt offering nearly 800 AR at higher levels similarly make either of those a perfectly valid, if not ideal choice for a number of builds as well that would still benefit significantly from having their own

Meditation aura.

I really don't mind gaming companies allowing you to buy stuff directly off them, so long as it is either purely cosmetic or merely an alternative to obtaining it in-game. After all, they're really just replacing farmer sites at that point and they do have running cost to keep the game alive. So go for it. But having a functionally exclusive (not to mention superior) item set that you cannot obtain by any means other than to pay them for it, i.e. textbook P2W ... yeah, f off. That trend is definitely enough to kill a game for me.

I was working from a wonky machine translation.
I can see your point. The translation I read didn't mention the

Meditation aura, and, since I don't really care that much about MF, I misjudged the

Boots. It's on me.

Given this new perspective, I must say I agree. It is, or has the potential to be, a really pushed set. I changed my mind.

That said, I still think that two SoJ are more egregious than the set. I guess time will tell.

Schnorki wrote: 4 months ago

Running it through a translator, it actually seems to be far more than that.
Similar in style and such, yes. But far more potentially impactful.
[,,,]

Side note, after translating the rest:

Seems they're listing out the D2:R features in general so the "extra storage box" may simply refer to the shared stash, rather than them getting bonus tabs? Doesn't seem to be a specific extra increase/advantage listed out.

Though if Google is to be believed, the Chinese version of Mosaic sure scares the hell out of Harry Potter I guess..

Schnorki wrote: 4 months ago

Seems they're listing out the D2:R features in general so the "extra storage box" may simply refer to the shared stash, rather than them getting bonus tabs? Doesn't seem to be a specific extra increase/advantage listed out.

This is apparently posted on the official page:
Notice the "1 / 7". I don't think it's been confirmed whether it will actually be possible to have up to 7 stash tabs, or if someone was experimenting with a setting and included the wrong screenshot...

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 months ago

[..]
This is apparently posted on the official page:
[..]

Well, nevermind then.

Q&A Session is worth a read.

http://reddit.com/r/Diablo_2_Resurrecte ... launch_qa/

Quite a shame for Blizzard to admit that it struggles with cheating and has to delegate anti-cheating measures to an external company.

Worse, we can fairly assume that anti-cheat will be applied to Chinese version only, and our global BN will remain infested by bots.

Matt: [..] I believe

Armageddon is already one of the game’s strongest skills [..]

Matt: [..] Now, you get a personal stash tab plus three additional shared stash tabs, which is sufficient. [..]

Are we talking the same game? How intense has this guy played d2r?

This "Matt" person also confirmed in the Q&A that Mosaic will be re-balanced. But there was no confirmation if that applies only to the Chinese servers or if it will be a global change (and/or later). Patches are normally pushed out around ladder season resets, but it sounded from the Q&A as if seasons might not be aligned between China and the rest of the world. We've been on season 11 for 1½ months, and it sounded from one of the answers like China will be getting season 11 at some later date (they didn't specify when exactly). Perhaps they misspoke and meant that Season 12 will start at the same time everywhere (reset should be in 1½-2 months). Not sure.

Matt wrote:

Now, you get a personal stash tab plus three additional shared stash tabs, which is sufficient. On top of that, pre-orders grant an extra stash tab, and you can purchase up to three more, adding a total of four additional tabs. This is more than ample storage for Diablo II: Resurrected.

I wonder if we'll get that too and how much it will cost.

He does say this:

Matt: Thank you for your question. From our perspective, there are no separate versions; there’s no so-called international version or Chinese version—it’s all one game. Whether it’s Runes, items, or class balance, the Chinese server and the international server are identical.

...which seems to imply that the changes to Mosaic would be universal.

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 months ago

This "Matt" person also confirmed in the Q&A that Mosaic will be re-balanced. But there was no confirmation if that applies only to the Chinese servers or if it will be a global change (and/or later). Patches are normally pushed out around ladder season resets, but it sounded from the Q&A as if seasons might not be aligned between China and the rest of the world. We've been on season 11 for 1½ months, and it sounded from one of the answers like China will be getting season 11 at some later date (they didn't specify when exactly). Perhaps they misspoke and meant that Season 12 will start at the same time everywhere (reset should be in 1½-2 months). Not sure.