Diablo III is doing hardcore mode wrong. … Let me get the most glaringly obvious point out of the way. Diablo III requires an internet connection to play. This means lag. This means that you WILL die due to circumstances which are beyond your control. No internet connection is 100% reliable. Sometimes the Blizzard servers cock it up, and this will happen no matter what premium you pay for your connection. Therefore, as enticing it is to take a hardcore character seriously, the fact that you are at the mercy of the internet connection turns what should be a test of skill and caution into a veritable lottery. If your name gets pulled out of the hat you win a one way trip to permadeath.
— The Mighty Viking Hamster
LotRO guides to the Undying title recommend against always running the easiest, safest content. If you have out-leveled the content, you are getting very little experience, while you are almost always safe enough on blue content. You are in a race with lag spikes and random perversity; given enough hours, your character will die due to no fault of your own, so if you want to achieve X before dying, you must reach it before “enough hours.”
: Zubon
Sad that survivor titles are more about luck avoiding lag than skill playing the game.
I’d say skill playing the game would still be involved. Even if you don’t lag you still have to never die.
man. i got the survivor title in vanilla Guild Wars and that was the most frightening experience i’ve ever had in gaming. Internet would cut out for a second and i’d be sitting there nervously wondering if i would log back in and have to re-roll and try all over again.
With that in mind i’m totally never playing hardcore D3. I don’t think my heart could take the stress!
There were no titles in vanilla Guild Wars. They were introduced with Factions. :p
He might have got it in vanilla Guild Wars after the release of Factions. That was pre-change and pre-heroes.
What is “pre-change” supposed to mean? It’s an online game, it changes frequently. As it is, “vanilla” should not be used in that case at all, since it refers to an unchanged, pure state of something.
Factions already eased up Prophecies, since it introduced a load of new skills the first campaign wasn’t balanced for. A classic case of powercreep.
I lost my first hardcore character to error 3007 Only 2 hours in so it wasnt that bad.. I took on a group of elite then error screen and d/c. Character death. The problem is I have a very stable connexion uaually so I cant imagine someobe without even trying that.
Reading people’s commentary, it feels like the lag is a feature. “Hardcore mode is about lag not skill!” is a great way to console yourself/save face when you die. Confession: I lost my barbarian after eight hours and it was ENTIRELY MY FAULT.
Granted, the skill involved is mostly caution and patience.
It was entirerly my fault. I know now to double check if I’m joined in the global chat channel before leaving town( it prevents error 3007 for mr). They’ll fix the priblem eventually I’m sure Still a bit frustrating.
Thanks for the quote and link. Got quite a lot of people checking out my blog. I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad. Still have to find my footing with this blogging stuff. Some feedback is good I guess.
With regards to your commentary: I am not one who vies for such titles but I guess those who do need to keep in mind that lag and server stability are always issues where online games are concerned. These issues are understandable in an MMO which inherently requires an always on internet connection. Diablo III could have easily been developed with an optional offline mode for single player so it’s hard to take kindly to such imposed risks.
The question, do you expect to die to lag or to making mistakes/fighting a tough mob combo? I.e. if only 1 death out of hundreds is due to lag, does it really matter? Considering the difficulty of D3, I think lag is the least of your worries.
I’ve played alot of D2 HC online for years, and I don’t actually recall dying to lag at all (I do remember dying to mistakes though). And that was on dial-up back then hehe.
On Diablo 3 doing hardcore wrong: The only wrong that I’m aware of is the lack of a ladder. Diablo 2 had this which is what “kind of” gave a point to playing hardcore characters. Lag was an issue then just as it is now. Oh, you wanted to play hardcore single player? For… the challenge? So why can’t you just play a normal character, which I believe tracks your deaths in your profile, and if you die then just, you know, make a new guy? Oh you don’t want to play on the internet? Well you should’ve looked into the game before you bought it, because it was known prior to release that you would need to connect to the internet to play.
Unfounded complaints are unfounded.