Hey Folks! Tonight we are down three folks and contemplated not recording at all… eventually deciding on the recording to save ourselves from a mega show. The original intent was to record a fairly short show, but ultimately we ended up chatting away for the full time regardless. Tonight we talk about Diablo IV again and some of our frustrations. This weekend Grace got to play the game in the Open Beta so we start out with their opinions and devolve from there. After that Tam talks a bit about his experiences with Triangle Strategy. Finally, we talk about Adepticon and all of the news coming out of it for new miniature gaming releases.
Eighteen Books read out of my Twenty Books Yearly Goal
Good Morning Friends! This year has been extremely unusual in that I have been consuming more books than I have likely ever consumed in a single year before. Previously I needed to do a disclaimer because the year I burned through ten Dresden Files books in rapid order might have completed. However, now that I have reached the point where I have finished eighteen books out of my original goal of twenty books for this year… I am absolutely certain that I’m treading undiscovered territory. The weird part about this is that I have always loved books, and will never turn down a chance at going to a used bookstore. However my entire life I have struggled with some general feelings of anxiety over how slow I actually read. Granted I’ve not proved this wrong time and time again this year, but I still feel like I do not read anywhere near as fast as my wife does. She is I think on book 38 of the year for reference.
Libby App Screenshot showing three library cards on my account
This rapid transformation has been due to a few different variables clicking into place. Firstly we “discovered” the Libby App, or in truth were painfully late to that party. This gives you easy access to all of the books and audiobooks available in your local library collection. In my State there are effectively three Library systems: The Tulsa City-County Library, the Metropolitan Library System covering the Oklahoma City area, and the OK Virtual Library which allows smaller rural libraries that can’t afford their own access to sign on to a collective system. Recently we got the third of these accounts and now in theory have access to the collections of all of the libraries in our state. This has been deeply beneficial because not all of these accounts are created equal and some systems have had books that others did not. Even more common is that the hold lines for a given book may be shorter out of one of the collections than they are out of our “home” TCCL collection. Granted we are now also paying $50 a year for our OK Virtual Library account and $75 per year for the Metro Library account… but we figure the money goes to supporting the public library system in general which is another win.
The Kaiju Preservation Society – John Scalzi
When last I updated you on my book journey, I was about a third of the way through The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. I have to say this is probably the best book I have read all year to this point, and it is very unlikely that another is going to dethrone it. It feels like the love of Kaiju seems to be one of the common GenX traits, and I grew up watching the original Toho Godzilla films broadcast each summer during “monster movie” weeks from my local “pre-Fox” UHF channel. Now I just desperately want the KPS to exist and for me to somehow end up as an IT Guy for it. This was precisely the sort of read that I needed following Red Seas Under Red Skies. The Locke Lamora novels are so dense with plot elements and I have never really understood the concept of a “light read” until this point, but I was desperately in need of it. I guess I should warn you that this is very much also a novel about the pandemic and how it changed society set against the pastiche of giant Monsters. There are just so damned many things I loved about this read, and I realistically burned through it in less than a week at my oftentimes sluggish before-sleep reading pace.
Truth of the Divine – Lindsay Ellis
I only really know about this book series in the first place, because I have always loved Lindsay Ellis and her long-form video essays. While other YouTubers were securing book deals to talk about themselves… she pitched a handful of science fiction novels. Axiom’s End was excellent and I have described it many times as X-Files meets WikiLeaks meets E.T. but with a cast of adult characters. It is so rooted in the early 2000s internet nonsense that it was this weird delightful trip down memory lane, as well as setting up some of the more interesting extra-terrestrial interactions I had seen in a while. The problem with the first novel however is that Linsay is a researcher at heart, and the novel was so filled with random Apocrypha of the early 2000s, and random bits of information that take a while to click into place tightly.
The sequel is no different, including random screenshots at the head of some of the chapters of AOL chatroom-like interfaces with discussions related to the events of the novel. Thankfully coming off of the “light read” of KPS, I was ready for more nonsense detail and this book delivered. I’ve described this story as Enemy Mine meets Pretty In Pink meets the Iran-Contra scandal. Essentially we get to know so much more about the Amygdalan species, their cultures, and how widely different their personalities can be. There is a somewhat creepy relationship that bothered me a bit in this book featuring some sorta fucked up power dynamics, but if you can look past that the book is centered around a very imperfect human being trying to make the best of a sort of fucked up situation that they have been thrust into. I will absolutely read the third book which is set to come out later this year.
The Shadow of the Gods – John Gwynne
I have no clue who suggested this book to me, but it is essentially my first playthrough of Skyrim or at least feels a lot like that. In that very first playthrough, I was a Nord warrior that aligned himself with The Companions of Whiterun, and the whole dynamic of that group, feels deeply similar to the Bloodsworn from this novel. They are a band of warriors known throughout the land by their “Battle Fame” and one of the core characters is a former slave a “thrall” that just happened to find their way into the group. The novel shifts back and forth between a few perspective characters that weave in and out of the narrative and give us a view into different points in the plot.
I will say at the first… this novel maybe felt a little “Too Norse” for my tastes. I mean I have always loved all things Norse… but this was a lot and forces you to get used to a number of very specific terms for things. However about halfway through the novel my brain got used to it all and was able to spend less time trying to imbibe words, and more time focused on the story as it evolved. I am absolutely going to continue forward in this series, but I would throw it in the “heavy read” column and it was maybe a mistake rolling straight to this after Truth of the Divine. In truth, it was chosen in part because my hold came open and it was available. I think I am going to need some lighter fare for the next book.
Hexed by Kevin Hearne
So originally prior to divine into Truth of the Divine, I was originally planning on rolling into the second book of the Iron Druid Chronicles series. I think I am probably going to pick back up that plan because the first novel in that series was fairly light. I could use a bit of formulaic fiction for the moment to sink into like a warm blanket. Unless something changes and one of my holds comes open, I am likely going to start on this one tonight. It has been interesting how quickly this whole “always reading a book” thing has become a habit. I’m kind of mad at myself for not doing this sooner, but really… it is the easy access to books that have made the key difference. Then there is also that subtle pressure of knowing that once I start something… I have to finish it because I have a very limited amount of time that I can borrow the book. In past years I had a night table full of partially read novels, and being forced with a timetable helps me actually keep moving forward.
The only negative of this whole thing… is that I have all but stopped watching television or any of the big series. I have yet to start the new season of The Mandalorian for example, and I still need to sit down and finish The Bad Batch. It is like I have shifted all of my energies that used to rapidly consume series… to rabidly consuming books.
Good Morning Friends! First I wanted to start off with a quick notice that if you have the Battle.net client, you can begin preloading the Diablo IV Open Beta now. Technically you could begin preloading yesterday afternoon, but suffice it to say by the time you read this post it will still be available for loading. The Open Beta itself begins tomorrow at 9 am PDT, and I fully expect that the servers are going to be wildly overloaded again. I would not take off work to play in this beta, because more than likely the first 24 hours are going to be unplayable. However, I do suggest that if you have been interested in Diablo and ARPGs in general, you give this game a spin to determine if it works for you personally. I definitely do not hate this game, but when I shared my thoughts earlier this week I largely shared that it just was not the game I was expecting it to be. Since it is a rather expensive purchase and since the refund policy on Battle.net is not as clear and hands-off as it is on Steam, you might as well try it while it is free.
Sometimes content lands in your lap. This happened to me last night when my good friend Wininoid asked me why exactly I thought Diablo IV was more of an MMORPG than an ARPG. This caused me to really clarify that stance, and I thought this morning I would share some of those thoughts with you. You can of course just read the short-form response, but you can only cram so much nuance in a 500-word reply.
The Character Creator
A fairly robust character creator
I guess first let’s start with the character creator. This is not exactly something that I associate with an ARPG, though I would dearly love them to offer more options. Please note that none of the things that I am going to highlight in this post are necessarily bad things, just what I would consider trappings of an MMORPG. In MMORPGs, I absolutely expect to have a pretty robust character creator, and the Diablo IV options would align to the bare minimum that I would expect for that sort of game. I created a “beefcake murder hobo” as I called it but one that aligned well enough with my sensibilities. Black hair and a beard, and has some sort of nonsense going on over the left eye… which is effectively the minimum requirement for being a “Belghast”. ARPGs would be so much better if they offered character creation options, but given that most do not… and even more, have gender-locked character classes… I am going to throw this in the bucket for MMORPG traits.
Open World and Passive Player Interaction
Other players in the world with me, with no ability to play solo
Next up we are going to flow into a “twofer” in that this game features an Open World with at least theoretical seamless shifts between towns and the surrounding areas. More than this however when you are out in the open world, you are surrounded by other players who are also taking part in content alongside you. The game features permissive tagging, in that you can help fight creatures and you will both get credit for the kill and your own copies of any rewards that come from those fights. Of note what I mean is that without formal grouping, you can actively participate in content with other players and there is no way to turn this off that I am aware of. You cannot venture forth into the world completely alone and you will always be at least indirectly impacted by the actions of other players and be competing at least passively for kills.
This is not something that I associate with ARPGs. Occasionally there are shared hub environments like the cities in Path of Exile, but once you start venturing forth you are doing so only with your party. Passive interaction with other players is a tenant of the MMORPG genre, so I am throwing this trait in that column both for the big open world with seamless zoning and the forced existence of other players in your world. Of note I consider Lost Ark to be an MMORPG, not an ARPG because it also has all of these traits and there have been folks calling Diablo IV a Lost Ark clone.
Respawning Mobs and Events
An event that respawns on a regular interval
Here come another two traits that are connected. In an ARPG you generally clear maps from one side to the other and the only time you ever see something respawn is when it is directly connected to some sort of a ring event. In Diablo IV while you are venturing into the open world, everything respawns. If you stand still in an area long enough, the same static spawns will keep popping back up. This has led players to just hang out in the location that a named mob spawns, and farm it over and over. This is absolutely a trait that I associate with an MMORPG because traditionally an ARPG is more map-based with its own population of spawns and you can clear from one side to the other without seeing any of it repopulate. Sure there are ways to FORCE a respawn in an ARPG, but these generally are centered around discarding your current map and forcing an entirely new map with all of its spawns to appear, not just single packs.
The other piece of this is that Diablo IV has zone events that happen in fixed locations and on a reoccurring schedule. In the above screenshot, there is an event centered around filling the pillar with blood by killing monsters on top of specific pads. If I roam around that same area long enough, I will keep encountering the same event. Again if there are players in that area you all can participate in that same event or even stand around and farm it over and over. This again is a behavior that I associate with an MMORPG and not an ARPG.
Hub and Spoke Side Quests
A side quest asking me to go to a location and kill something
This one gets a little hazy to be honest because it isn’t like I’ve not encountered this behavior in ARPGs before but it is more the totality of the features rather than a single trait in particular. Diablo IV progresses in a hub and spoke model when it comes to questing. The central quest will lead you to various areas of the map, and once appearing in a town a bunch of blue exclamation marks will show up offering you side quests that continue to force exploration of the surrounding area. These quests align with the central tropes of an MMORPG such as:
Kill X Monsters
Collect X Drops
Go to Location and Kill Specific Monster
Go to Location and Collect Specific Thing
Take Item from Point A to Point B
In truth, MOST quests in any game align with that model, but again it is the totality of traits and not any single trait. The same could be said for The Witcher 3, because its questing also feels very MMORPG at times.
Predictable Equivalent Loot
Loot drops from a named monster, that effectively aligns with the same types of drops every time.
This one is probably a little esoteric but hopefully, you can follow me. When you kill named monsters and open chests in Diablo IV, you seem to get roughly the same loot quantity every single time. For example, every time I killed this monster I got an amount of coin, two yellows, two blues, two whites, and the potential for a single legendary item. Chests similarly drop roughly the same items every time and the only real difference is based on what type of chest you are looting. Fixed loot tables and the regularity of loot drops absolutely tick the MMORPG checkbox for me.
A sequence of lucky drops in Path of Exile
In a traditional ARPG, it is a complete crapshoot that you are going to get on any given map. The potential for drops is more tied to a specific zone and less to specific encounters… apart from intended zone bosses. Drops are very feast or famine and you live for those big loot explosions. I’m sharing an example of a very lucky explosion of loot from Path of Exile for reference, but I saw something like this maybe once in every ten maps… rather than something that was predictable on every single outing. Sure it is mostly just a difference in methodology because it isn’t like I am getting MORE loot… I am just getting it all at once rather than rationed out in equidistant drops. I definitely associate predictable loot as an MMORPG trait.
No Map Overlay
Map Overlay Shown in Last Epoch
Now this one is more of something that it is lacking and less something that it features. I have come to associate ARPGs with playing with my map up at all times so that I know where I am going. This is more a case that the individual combat interactions are less important than the totality of clearing a map or finding a specific exit. When I am playing Path of Exile, Last Epoch, or Diablo II… I am essentially playing with the map overlay at all times. My eyes are sort of fuzzed out a bit watching what is happening with the actual encounters but also the lay of the land at the same time.
A More Hand Drawn an Immersive RPG style map in Diablo IV
This is not something that you can do with Diablo IV. When you bring up the map you get the traditional MMORPG opaque “hand-drawn” feeling map with fog of war for areas that you have not discovered yet similar to World of Warcraft. This sort of map is absolutely something that I associate with MMORPGs because while helpful, it is nowhere near as mechanically functional as the overlay. ARPGs tend to be more about mechanics and combat interactions than immersion and roleplaying… and Diablo IV absolutely seems to be trying to focus on immersion and story over raw mechanics. Again these are things that I chiefly associate with the MMORPG more than I do with the ARPG.
Factions Grind and Alternative Currency
The Purveyor of Curiosities Vendor allows you to spend “Obols” gained through events and quests.
Every region of the game has a faction associated with it. Completing quests and events in the area rewards you with a currency called Obols and standing with that faction. Over time you gain benefits by raising your ranks with that faction at specific predetermined break points. The currency is used to buy items from a gambling merchant located in each area called the “Purveyor of Curiosities”. While this maps pretty closely to Kadala and Blood Shards from Diablo III, the gaining of factions with groups of NPCs and the collection of alternate currencies are absolutely things that I primarily associate with MMORPGs. Faction grinds in general… are not something that I generally see in ARPGs. Instead, I am more used to trying to keep doing harder and harder content for better rewards, rather than accumulating an amount of renown to unlock something.
None of this is Necessarily Bad
Completing a Stronghold with Other Players
Again I am not necessarily saying any of this is a bad thing. However, these are the reasons why I have said this is more akin to an MMORPG like World of Warcraft than an ARPG like Path of Exile. We also have no clue at this point what the end game for Diablo IV is going to look like. I am not thinking it will really scratch the itch for the folks who live by the schedule of the Diablo II Ladders, Diablo III Seasons, Path of Exile leagues, and eventually Last Epoch Cycles. I might be completely wrong however and there may be systems within systems that we have yet to see. What I see is an MMORPG masquerading as an ARPG, just like Lost Ark is doing the same thing. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have World of Warcraft redone in the Diablo universe… and in truth, I guess we now have that answer. To be fair Diablo Immortal did most of these things so I legitimately should have set my expectations accordingly.
Completing some of the story content in Diablo IV
I don’t even think that Diablo IV is a bad game. There were absolutely some parts of it that I really enjoyed. However as I said at the start of this post, sometimes content falls in your lap. After getting the question from my friend I decided to further expand upon why I think Diablo IV is an MMORPG, and I think at this point I have done so. I would have liked to have seen something that more directly continued the lineage of Diablo and created a product that could compete with the current king of ARPGs… Path of Exile. Ultimately I am getting that in the form of Last Epoch, but I wanted to see what Blizzard had to offer in that genre as well.
I highly suggest that you don’t take my word for any sense of finality. This weekend you have your chance to get into the game free and try it out. Maybe it clicks in ways that I did not expound upon, and I would love to hear your thoughts after having played it yourself. I am likely going to be playing some more of it myself. I suggest you save the rush and preload it today. I think I am probably in the minority with the amount of side-eye I am throwing at the game, because for the most part everyone seems to be enjoying it.
Good Morning Friends! Last night other than my habitual Tequatl was pretty much a night devoted to Last Epoch. While I have run up a Paladin to 68, there is some stuff about the build that I am not really feeling. So much of it depends on Shield Charge and right now with the movement abilities and rubberbanding… it just sort of feels janky. I think once Shield Charge is as smooth in this game as it is in Path of Exile, I will probably return to the build and enjoy it quite a bit. For now, I have shifted focus back to the class that I played during the test builds, the Acolyte turned Necromancer. Last night I finished the story that exists currently and began working on the Monolith in earnest.
I’ve been mostly following this Fire Necromancer build which I believe originally came from Aaron of the Action RPG channel on YouTube. Ultimately it shifts your Skeletal Mages, Bone Golem, and Exploding Zombies into fire damage and then buffs everything with Dread Shade and gives you permanent Wraiths. Aaron has a unique in the game now that is designed to go with this sort of build, and when you find it you can shift up a little bit and go into a build that can give you up to 4 full-size Bone Golems. I think that is my ultimate hope to find Aaron’s Will and shift into that sort of a setup.
At the moment I am just not really feeling Dread Shade. Like I get that this is probably the superior choice for the build because its aura buffs everything… including me. The problem is… I just can’t afford to stand anywhere near my pack of horrible children. This means that the Dread Shade isn’t of much actual benefit to my survival. I also keep forgetting to resummon it, because it disappears periodically when whatever it was attached to dies or when I shift zones. Since I don’t get an actual minion icon for it in the same row as the rest of my minions… I keep forgetting about it meaning that I am getting zero benefits from it most of the time.
Instead, I have decided to shift things up a bit and drop Dread Shade and pick back up Skeletons. I ran a Monolith this morning and managed to get enough points to make them useful. Essentially I am bouncing around to pick up all of the bonus skeletons, and then Dread Phalanx which makes them stronger but cuts the number I can summon in half, and Shambling Steel which makes them all melee. Combined this gives me four beefy melee characters that are pretty freaking fast… not as fast as my exploding zombies but still able to soak up any threats that are headed directly at me. This is ultimately what I did on the test realm and after switching it up, the build already feels comfier.
So at any given time, I have nineteen horrible children following me around. The full list includes:
1 – Bone Golem
3 – Skeletal Mage Pyromancers
4 – Skeletal Dread Phalanx
2 – Perm Wraiths
6 – Exploding Zombies (this is my spam ability)
3 – Skeleton Vanguard
This will in theory go up significantly when I pick up Aaron’s Will and can start fielding multiple bone golems on the field at once. In testing, I took the trait line that split my golem in half and gave me two less effective ones, and I did not go down that direction because when I did get multiple golems… I want them all to be the big tanky boys that I have currently.
What I need to work on more desperately now is my survivability. I am exceptionally squishy and failed a monolith echo last night for the first time in a while. Essentially if you look at my resists… they are pretty pathetic and the total lack of any physical resist and poison resist means that when one of those hits me… it effectively one-shots me. Having more bodies on the field to soak up more hate definitely helps, but I still keep to chain potions during dicey situations to keep standing which is not a position I want to be in long term. Part of the problem is I am still wearing some items from around level 6… so I hope as I dive further into the monolith I will start finally finding some reasonable upgrades.
I’ve realized that I am apparently in the minority in my feelings regarding Diablo IV. This is honestly probably a good thing because I want that game to be something that most people are going to enjoy. Personally, I think Last Epoch is more my speed. I do plan on giving it another shot over the weekend when the open beta happens and maybe trying a slightly different Barbarian build. I do want to try playing with some friends to see how the D4 group game feels. However, for me, the mix of Last Epoch and Guild Wars 2 seems to work extremely well. I still need to try some of the dungeons in Last Epoch. I’ve been stockpiling keys for a theoretical future date when I grab a friend and do them. Since they are a limited resource, it feels like I almost need to save them like I would a puzzle ring from Diablo III. Additionally the later I wait to run them, the better the rewards will likely be.
