Diablo 4 and the future of ARPG's

Graveblade

What do you think some modern and old ARPG's could or should bring to the table for a Diablo 4?

Do you perhaps have any interesting ideas for mechanics, features, balancing or perhaps perspective on what would be cool to have in the game?

Also,

How do you think the ARPG genre should or could move forward?

Personally speaking, I would like to see a Diablo 4 actually take more of a mature, darker perspective on the Diablo universe, slow down the combat, have it less arcade like, more weight to the combat and widen the perspective for larger boss fights and such. This is unlikely, but my personal preference.

To me, diablo 3, while I did enjoy it from time to time, just feels too shallow and arcade like for me personally. Despite the colorful art style of Diablo 2, I always found Diablo to be a much more serious and mature universe than how it is presented in diablo 3, I see it more like how diablo 1 was. The cinematics certainly represent this, but imo, the game itself does not quite do that seriousness justice though perhaps they simply were not taking it that way on purpose.

As for the ARPG genre in general, Lost Ark seems interesting and it seems to bring some interesting things to the table. I suppose main contender for ARPG's atm has got to be PoE, which some people love and I can certainly see why having played hundreds of hours myself, though grouping is pretty lackluster in it which is kind of a shame.

I think there needs to be a perspective change in the ARPG genre, something a little bit unusual and interesting and I am sure if Blizz are working on a Diablo 4, they have spent a ton of time wracking their brains over potential new features and what could be done different from Diablo 3 and other ARPG's to to rattle the current state of the genre. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for sure, providing they are actually indeed working on it.

Aeander

I think the ARPG genre should move forward in a few ways.

- Character creation systems akin to those of other RPGs should be standard.

- Future ARPGs need to consider tech trees that are compelling in both short term and long term. Diablo 3's runes and passives are extremely compelling in the short term and have a very tangible effect, but aren't especially interesting in long term progression. Path of Exile's grids are the exact opposite - compelling to level long term but horribly boring at early levels and lacking in immediately tangible effect. In the future, I think we'll need more games like Last Epoch that combine systems similar to both of these.

- More group content. Perhaps something akin to much more difficult raids which don't trigger Hardcore deaths.

Myrdynn

I think its time that skills and gear definitely have levels, some of the other games upcoming are having this, and I think its great to just be able to have that much more customization

amazing the best AA (alternative advancement system) is still from EQ and it was 20 years ago

there needs to be more than farm to max level and then just grind gear

TheDarkrayne

More randomization is key for me and the most important improvement I'd like to see. Diablo 3 really lacked it. Bless them, they did try with the Rifts but it didn't work at all; they all still felt the same and predictable. PoE's lootable maps are the kind of thing I want to see; random areas, large pool of tiles and themes, difficulty modifiers 

The bounties system and adventure mode were a step in the right direction for getting you to change things up but it also just didn't have enough options.

If you're going to go for randomization you need to go big, really big, or you might as well not bother trying.

Also, I do not want to see any content in an aRPG that requires a group to complete and can not be done solo. That is not for this genre. Scaling based on number of players, sure.. but I do not want to see any content, loot, cosmetics or achievements inaccessible for solo players.

alkarionlog

ask this after we play lost ark, then blizzard will have a hell of time to get to that, with we know they can't, so i'm betting d4 will be even more a let down then d3 is

Palebane

I’ve been playing Grim Dawn for the past couple of weeks and am completely engrossed. It is really awesome so far.

Part of me thinks that they could do more with the genre in general, but part of me believes that this kind of thinking is possibly what has led to the stagnation. Why mess with a working formula kind of thing. I think the obvious answer for me is just more options. Let players tailor the experience more, whether that means more character customization, less convoluted progression, random vs static maps, or whatever else players prefer.

boris20

Palebane said:

I’ve been playing Grim Dawn for the past couple of weeks and am completely engrossed. It is really awesome so far.

Part of me thinks that they could do more with the genre in general, but part of me believes that this kind of thinking is possibly what has led to the stagnation. Why mess with a working formula kind of thing. I think the obvious answer for me is just more options. Let players tailor the experience more, whether that means more character customization, less convoluted progression, random vs static maps, or whatever else players prefer.

Grim dawn is a great game. I agree, sometimes more is not a good thing. Grim dawn has a working formula with letting modders mod. If the base game gets old, i simply find some mods and replay the game in a different way. 

Niburu

We only need Path of Exile

AAAMEOW

I didn't play lost ark, but I heard it is like a full mmorpg.  So my question is why play an arpg with limited content when an isometric mmorpg gives much more content.