bitnine at [unixtime wrote:1187460139[/unixtime]]You see, the part of that quote which makes me uneasy is where the guy basically says, "I choose high Wis because at level 12 I'll be able to jump onto a better ability track when this one starts to dry up." Can I hit a dev with a stick and yell at them for this? Because this is sort of specifically one of the things that should be avoided.
Well, that sort of thing probably can work, provided that
(a) all low-level ability tracks dry up around the same time,
(b) the resources you invested into the low-level ability track could not have been spent on anything other than a low-level ability track, and
(c) "level" here means character level, not class level
If you managed all of those, then I think this would just mean that you have to adapt your schtick as you advance in level. I can see some people might not like the flavor of that, but I don't see an inherent balance issue. Unless I'm missing something..?
Of course, that doesn't mean that they'll actually meet those criteria...
RandomCasualty at [unixtime wrote:1187464553[/unixtime]]Diablo 2 is a perfect example of what not to do in an RPG.
Seriously, I don't even know why people liked that game. It's pretty stupid. You take one ability, pump it up, then you just get in game and spam it. There aren't any tactics beyond the obvious. Your character is totally one-dimensional and boring. Not to mention you had no plot choices at all, and just went from point A to point B killing everything that moves.
God, that game sucked.
Well, it's not a traditional CRPG. Really, I think it's as much an action game as anything else, and lots of character options and tactics (let alone well-designed ones) are not actually required for a good action game.
Randomized content and a choice of which skill you pump up gives it better replayability than a lot of games, the UI is better than a lot of games, and it's got solid ongoing support.
And to be fair, CRPGs rarely offer meaningful plot choices or more complicated game objectives than "go to point B and kill anything that stands in your way;" that's hardly unique to Diablo. And the amount of non-interactive story stuff the typical player actually cares to sit through is a lot smaller when you've got an online multiplayer game, especially if a lot of players don't know each other and aren't on their first play through the game.
There are a lot of bad design choices in it, particularly from the perspective of character balance and flexibility, but there's also a lot of stuff in the game that's fairly well done.