D2R Plans

[Crudesash]

I was wondering what people were planning in regards to D2R, and how it will affect your play moving forward.

I think, and I may change my mind once it is live, but I think I want to play online, depending upon how many characters we can create, and how many stash tabs will be available. If we wind up with just one stash tab, it'll mean a little more work, but still doable.

For me, there is the flexibility of being able to play the same character on both my PC and my laptop without playing file tag, and maybe the PS4 if I'm so inclined, but I'm not sure how the game will feel on a controller; I've heard reports that it played smoothly with one, but that is definitely something one needs to experience on their own.

The downside to playing online is starting from scratch, but I don't have a really huge catalog of items...I imagine for a lot of folks here that's a big consideration. Does anyone know if work has begun on updating things like Gomule to incorporate the shared stash? We can create unlimited offline characters but in just the few months I've been playing I've already found enough for a dozen mules at least. At some point it would be way more cumbersome to scroll through tens upon tens of mules looking for the one that has that specific item, I would assume.

In any case I'm looking forward to the modernization of the game. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[Miron]

I will be playing SP since it will allow me to import chars to D2R.

As you said, the biggest consideration for me is the stash size. I really hope they will make it big enough or even better, allow the player create more tabs if necessary. Right now it's about 10 tabs (?) so the options for me are:

1. Hope for ATMA to work with D2R files.

2. Fresh start - not really an option, don't have time and motivation to start all over again.

3. Continue with SP chars but 'empty'/'half empty' stash - I will be forced to pick few items to keep and leave all the rest .

Simultaneously continue with old D2.


4. Keep D2R for tournaments only.

5. Find some method for twinking and transferring items between D2R and D2.

 

[Crudesash]

Well, since the save files are transferable, one could create mules and thus have everything available in D2R...but for some people that could be hundreds of mules. I think it will be easier for players with large collections to see if Gomule and/or Atma can be upgraded to with with D2R. And then you just keep your stashes as they are. In theory you could still just have the stashes, create a mule from them as needed, then import that character into the D2R folder, since the current D2 is still going to be active.

if I had to guess, I am going to say we’ll go live with 1-3 shared stashes only, but I would not be shocked if players get an extra stash for beating Baal in the ladder. Whether we would get the same perk offline, I don’t know.

 

[Edu]

They said they'll make modding easy so I'm sure there will be ways to increase the stash for single player pretty quickly.

I'm excited about having the fresh restart. I'm going to play online to start with, to enjoy the sense of community and have some fun. Eventually I think I'll drift back to SP.

I look forward to seeing if there will be tournaments here, I never joined any in the past but loved reading about them later on.

 

[Kartongen]

I really hope I am wrong, but I'll put my money on a handful of stash tabs with the possibility to buy more, microtransaction style.

I have a fairly old computer, so I will double check the specs closer to launch. (I know they are out, but can't be bothered to crossreferens until it matters.)
But given my computer can handle it, and no bad surprises come out, I might go full D2R.

 

[Crudesash]

Well, Blizzard has been very careful about any MTX that gives players an edge, even those not necessarily related to player power. They had the opportunity to sell stash tabs in D3, and yet chose to leave them as rewards for seasonal play. If they decide to open up ladder runewords to SP, they might see an extra stash tab as a good incentive for ladder players, and I imagine it would push a lot of players online if only to get that extra tab.

 

[Gynli]

Full transition to D2R if :
1. ladder runewords can be enabled
2. gomule is updated allowing me to mule-off for grail/ or stash tabs are big enough for the grail.
3. No major bugs



Oh and the only merit for online play is the trading for me. So unless there is enough population for active trading, i dont see myself playing online anytime soon...

 

[Kartongen]

@Crudesash68 I just fear Activision might be tempted by the monetization aspect of it. Then again, D2R might not get a bit enough playerbase where microtransactions are worth it...

Something that I think will happen, and that while understandable will annoy me greatly, is that one will probably have to have a internet connection to play singleplayer. (The usual argument for this is copyright protection iirc.)

A major bonus for me is that online play (akin to TCP/IP) should be simple, so I wont have to mess around trying to get hamachi to work (for my friend).

 

[Crudesash]

@Crudesash68 I just fear Activision might be tempted by the monetization aspect of it. Then again, D2R might not get a bit enough playerbase where microtransactions are worth it...

Something that I think will happen, and that while understandable will annoy me greatly, is that one will probably have to have a internet connection to play singleplayer. (The usual argument for this is copyright protection iirc.)

A major bonus for me is that online play (akin to TCP/IP) should be simple, so I wont have to mess around trying to get hamachi to work (for my friend).

From what I’ve read so far, you’ll only need to go inline for updates, but they may ask you to authenticate now and then, or at least some feel that way. After over a decade of playing online with WoW and D3, it doesn’t really faze me.

 

[maxicek]

Assuming it runs on my computer, I will start from scratch in Single Player. Possibly as an untwinked 99er, but I'm not sure I have the patience to go much higher than 95.

Full transition if/when @Gynli 's conditions are met

 

[Glurin]

From what I’ve read so far, you’ll only need to go inline for updates, but they may ask you to authenticate now and then, or at least some feel that way. After over a decade of playing online with WoW and D3, it doesn’t really faze me.

If you ask me we're getting way too dependent on the internet for entertainment. It's kind of interesting watching people when the internet goes down for an hour or two though.

"Crap, internet is down. I can't access my social media to see the latest gossip about some celebrity I don't actually care about. I'll just watch some TV shows till it comes back....oh, all my shows are on Netflix. Guess I'll just put in a movie...no, wait, all the movies I watch are on Netflix too. Well, maybe I'll just look at some Youtube videos.....oh, right. What was I thinking? Alright, no problem, I'll just play some video games....crap. Those require an online connection just to start up. Ok, ok. Don't panic. I can just use my tablet to access my cloud storage and read an e-book....DAMN IT!!!"

 

[Edu]

For me it all started when Half Life 2 required a Steam authentication to play.

I thought it was bonkers at the time and it still rankles with me every time a single player game requires this.

 

[CaseyJones]

My plan is to stay 1.14d for now. I will wait until the 'what ifs' are all known and then decide. I too suspect an online connection to launch similar to playing solo for D3 and that would keep me from moving over. Also I play on a linux computer and unless D2R runs fine under wine out the gate, I won't play for awhile anyway.

 

[Crudesash]

I think it would be a comfort to a lot of folks if Blizzard was a little more specific about what it meant by the “occasional” need to go online. To me, the intention was you’d only go online for installation and patches, but some took it to mean periodic authentication. As I understand it, the game should be accessible offline , unlike D3 where you always play online (except on consoles).
I’m just counting the minutes, really. The hype grabbed me and hasn’t let go yet.

 

[Pax1990]

I have a question regarding d2r and this forum:

will d2r be supported. so we can continue in the untwinked 99er thread with a old character imported to d2r?

 

[maxicek]

@Pax1990 - Yes, of course

Given the information currently available, D2R will be treated as just another patch. It is very unlikely that we will see another patch for D2 as we play it now, so it will be a straight continuation, not a fork. In rules terms, this means D2R will become the "current patch." Anyone who stays in 1.14d will be a time traveller. As per the comments above, I expect many of us will be split for a period.

So I expect that tournaments will be run across both versions, with people just having to state the version they are using, as they do now. As usual the host determines the exact rules (as long as they comply with the overall SPF rules).

Knowing the SPF, if D2R means runtimes are 0.01s slower, they will keep runners in 1.14d

 

[Pax1990]

@Pax1990 - Yes, of course

Given the information currently available, D2R will be treated as just another patch. It is very unlikely that we will see another patch for D2 as we play it now, so it will be a straight continuation, not a fork. In rules terms, this means D2R will become the "current patch." Anyone who stays in 1.14d will be a time traveller. As per the comments above, I expect many of us will be split for a period.

So I expect that tournaments will be run across both versions, with people just having to state the version they are using, as they do now. As usual the host determines the exact rules (as long as they comply with the overall SPF rules).

Knowing the SPF, if D2R means runtimes are 0.01s slower, they will keep runners in 1.14d

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer. Iam super happy to hear this. I wouldnt want to give up this community and the 99er project for d2r.

 

[hackedagainanda]

I plan to upgrade once its released but I occasionally travel out to the country with no Internet Connection so I'm hoping to only need an IC for updates and initial download of the game. I think my computer should be able to handle the game on max settings but medium graphical capabilities should be fine, lord knows I don't play D2 for the graphics.

 

[snickersnack]

Full transition to D2R if :
1. ladder runewords can be enabled
2. gomule is updated allowing me to mule-off for grail/ or stash tabs are big enough for the grail.
3. No major bugs



Oh and the only merit for online play is the trading for me. So unless there is enough population for active trading, i dont see myself playing online anytime soon...

Pretty much this for me. I have a newish computer, so I preordered the game without worrying about system reqs, and I'll certainly play it. How long I'll play it depends a lot on how nicely it meshes with how I play SP now. I'll start an untwinked character and see how it goes. If muling works more/less how GoMule works (either in-game or through a muling program), then I'll probably go 100% D2R SP.

I might play on bnet, but I'm not sure. I don't really want to do a full restart, but that may change by the time D2R comes out.

 

[Kitteh]

I will be moving to D2R for sure. I plan to have a fresh start and currently I'm thinking that I will take it as a good time to move towards playing only untwinked characters, or at least primarily untwinked, with some twinked builds that are item specific. Maybe another 99er.