Preview GamesRadar preview Diablo 3

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Diablo III

<a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/diablo-iii/preview/diablo-iii/a-20080801111854458065/g-2008063084756359080">GamesRadar have a preview as well as a bit of Q&A on Diablo 3</a>. Here's a bit:
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<blockquote><b>The Environment</b>: Destructible environments are the order of the day, and they go hand in hand with the 3D engine. Some of it’s eye candy, like furniture that splinters after bearing the brunt of a magical attack, doors that can be blown off their hinges, and ancient bookshelves that spill dusty tomes (and their individual pages) onto the floor as they collapse. But some of it’s tactical, too: the Barbarian, for instance, can slam a wall in the Forgotten Tombs to make it collapse on and eliminate a crowd of walking dead. When he lunges into a wall, rubble falls away from the edges. Bits of concept art suggests a city desert environment with cave-like apartments, an Arabian palace dungeon reminiscent of Diablo II’s Lut Gholein, and the dilapidated town of New Tristram, which isn’t nearly as shiny as its name suggests.
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<b>The Witch-Doctor</b>: If you’re going to call inter-Blizzard shenanigans with World of Warcraft, here’s the place to do it. The use of pets and pestilence - not to mention the Horrify skill, which is practically a clone of WoW’s Fear - make the Witch Doctor a close cousin of the minion-controlling Warlock. But he sounds like a great match for players who want to do indirect damage and control mobs for the party. Personally, we were sold by three little words: Wall. Of. Zombies.
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<b>Why co-op focus is good</b>: Our co-op focus is something that we’re really proud of. I think Diablo and Diablo II were always focused on co-op, but they unintentionally did things that harmed the co-op game. We’ve really learned from that and are getting rid of [those things]. How we do loot drops is a big change for us. It used to be in Diablo II that everyone fought over the loot - the Barbs and the Paladins usually managed to win that fight, and we changed that system completely so that essentially whatever drops, drops individually for each player. So, when a monster dies, if you’ve got three people in the game, it can actually drop three different things, one for each person, and then people just see their own drops, so if you see it on the ground, you can pick it up. Overall, not only is it more friendly to cooperative play, it also doesn’t encourage people to fight - it encourages people to work together. What we found is that it actually encourages a lot of trading.
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<b>Sticking to the gameplay</b>: It really becomes hard to decide what’s sacred and what’s not, so for us on the design side, one of the things that was most important was to be the voice of reason and say, “These are the things that actually matter” and to boil things down to their simplest form. For example, there was a lot of conversation like that when we first talked about, "Should we make an isometric game? Should we make a first-person game? Should we make a third-person game? Should we make an MMO? Well, what do we want to play?" And we want to play a true Diablo and Diablo II sequel - we wanted to keep that gameplay going. So that kind of made a decision for us.</blockquote>
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Destructible environments are cool. Still hoping the individual loot system is an option you can turn off. Not everyone plays with retards who fight over everything.
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPGWatch</a>

 

[Mech]

Cause opening up a trade window is such a BITCH.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

After every battle, in order to trade with every player in your team to see if they got anything worthwhile before you decide whether to press on or not? Yes. Certainly a lot more of a bitch than simply picking up an item that only your character can use anyway. It'd be better if you could at least see what had dropped but the stuff that wasn't "yours" you couldn't pick up. That way you at least know something possibly interesting was dropped. At the moment, if something cool and shiney drops that you don't want (or can't use, as Blizzard have said that will still happen), you'll leave it only to find out later that someone may have wanted it.

If you can see what drops, you can make a decision whether you want it or not without having to ask everyone "Hey guys, what dropped for you?" and slowing the game down or you're having to ask everyone whether they want an Axe with +4 this and +3% to something else and then passing it around so everyone gets a chance to look at it. Unless the inventory size in Diablo 3 has increased dramatically enough to allow you to hoarde all the loot and sort it out in one go back at town.

Personal loot that only you see is a good idea for playing with a group of unknowns that you don't trust. It's a horrible idea for playing over a local network or with a group of players that are part of the same clan.

 

[sabishii]

"Should we make an isometric game? Should we make a first-person game? Should we make a third-person game? Should we make an MMO? Well, what do we want to play?" And we want to play a true Diablo and Diablo II sequel - we wanted to keep that gameplay going. So that kind of made a decision for us.

...VATS, lol.

 

[RGE]

"Hey guys, what dropped for you?"

Yeah, I thought about that too, and then I hadn't even considered that stuff might get left behind due to lack of space in the inventory. Then again, perhaps it's easy enough to see what's good and what's crap, except in a few grey areas?

Hard to say without playing, and perhaps the individual loot will only come into play after defeating bosses? In D2 each major boss used to drop several items the first time you killed it, but there was nothing stopping other players from robbing you of that special treasure drop. If individual loot is restricted to bosses and other high points during a session, then I think it'll be just fine. Seems like a natural thing to discuss loot after killing a major boss or finding a treasure.

 

[Nightjed]

Destructible environments are cool. Still hoping the individual loot system is an option you can turn off. Not everyone plays with retards who fight over everything.

i suppose you never played diablo 2 in bnet, everytime a rare, unique or rune dropped it was everyone for himself, everyone just dropped whatever they were fighting (often causing deaths of the weaker classes, specially annoying in hardcore) and made a run for the item, then came 30 minutes of bitching by every player followed by everyone leaving to make a solo game, i dunno if separated loots are the best solution but they HAD to do something about it, it made the game unplayable on line/lan unless you were playing with ppl you could choke physically later

edit: oh, and dont forget that each character had specially rare loot every time he/she killed an act boss, who was charged the "special rare chance" was determined by who hit the boss last, and that usually meant long range characters never got their loot unless they went to kill the boss solo

what im most interested about is why they keep comparing it with wow rather than with diablo2, i dont think wow addicts will leave their 8000 hour characters for diablo 3, so they should target diablo fans that managed to stay clean

 

[Black]

ot everyone plays with retards who fight over everything.

Don't make me rage on you, DU. This system is so much better than the previous one, which favored pick-it hacks and twitchy retards.

 

[bert]

ot everyone plays with retards who fight over everything.

Don't make me rage on you, DU. This system is so much better than the previous one, which favored pick-it hacks and twitchy retards.

Agreed with Black.

A party member would stand still, not doing anything while he had his thumb on the alt key and his mouse hovered over where the loot is going to be. At least with this new system, there shouldn't be any problems with people ninja looting things that you might need.

 

[J1M]

After every battle, in order to trade with every player in your team to see if they got anything worthwhile before you decide whether to press on or not? Yes. Certainly a lot more of a bitch than simply picking up an item that only your character can use anyway. It'd be better if you could at least see what had dropped but the stuff that wasn't "yours" you couldn't pick up. That way you at least know something possibly interesting was dropped. At the moment, if something cool and shiney drops that you don't want (or can't use, as Blizzard have said that will still happen), you'll leave it only to find out later that someone may have wanted it.

If you can see what drops, you can make a decision whether you want it or not without having to ask everyone "Hey guys, what dropped for you?" and slowing the game down or you're having to ask everyone whether they want an Axe with +4 this and +3% to something else and then passing it around so everyone gets a chance to look at it. Unless the inventory size in Diablo 3 has increased dramatically enough to allow you to hoarde all the loot and sort it out in one go back at town.

Personal loot that only you see is a good idea for playing with a group of unknowns that you don't trust. It's a horrible idea for playing over a local network or with a group of players that are part of the same clan.

No, it's going to take you 2 seconds to shift-click the item and link it in the chat window.

Why would you want the ground littered with even more crap you don't want to pick up?

If you are going to put thought into something don't stop halfway.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Yeah, I thought about that too, and then I hadn't even considered that stuff might get left behind due to lack of space in the inventory.

... or because they just didn't notice it. It's shocking I know, but stuff does get left behind even with loot highlight - except this time, only the person who missed it will have the chance to notice it rather than anybody else cleaning up through the area later. Loot sweeps will have to be conducted with the entire team looking for anything they individually can see, instead of just the individual with the most free inventory space or the weak character looking for scraps.

Hard to say without playing, and perhaps the individual loot will only come into play after defeating bosses? In D2 each major boss used to drop several items the first time you killed it, but there was nothing stopping other players from robbing you of that special treasure drop. If individual loot is restricted to bosses and other high points during a session, then I think it'll be just fine. Seems like a natural thing to discuss loot after killing a major boss or finding a treasure.

I'm pretty sure it's in through-out the entire game. It's why enemies now drop one health globe which heals everyone nearby, rather than dropping individual healing potions (that means you've got to be following the pack and can't get left too far behind or wander into a different area - and if you need the health globe desperately but nobody else does, who knows what happens). The system's effectively a cop-out. If you're playing in a game with a bunch of people who want to steal all the loot from you anyway, they're not going to bother sharing or asking if you need something they don't want. They're just going to leave it behind.

The only difference now is that something special might drop for you every once in a while too. The question that arises from that then is whether more loot will be dropping or not. Play through Diablo 2 and only a few things drop "something for everyone". Most stuff drops one or two things, a bit of gold and a potion or an axe and some gold. Is gold now dropped individually piece by piece for everyone? If weapon or better item drops still occur on the same basis they do now, then most of the game, there's not going to be much loot to get and you'd be better off playing solo again anyway (assuming the group of strangers you're playing with behave in the same way they do now - IE not caring about you).

I'll steal what Nightjed basically said and say less loot = people leave to play a solo game. Why would I play co-operatively with a group of assholes and get only a handful of loot once in a blue moon, or miss out on the benefits of the health globe because some asshole ran ahead and picked it up before everyone had a chance to get near him, when I could play solo and get all the loot anyway?

No, it's going to take you 2 seconds to shift-click the item and link it in the chat window.

Why would you want the ground littered with even more crap you don't want to pick up?

If you are going to put thought into something don't stop halfway.

You're just butthurt because you play with retards and lose out. Believe it or not there are some groups of players out there who are more than capable of cleaning an area and sharing the loot and don't need to be molly-coddled into a system designed for retards. That's why I said making it an option would be nice. That way you guys can keep your butthurt system while the rest of us can physically choke people when they fall out of line.

 

[J1M]

I'll steal what Nightjed basically said and say less loot = people leave to play a solo game. Why would I play co-operatively with a group of assholes and get only a handful of loot once in a blue moon, or miss out on the benefits of the health globe because some asshole ran ahead and picked it up before everyone had a chance to get near him, when I could play solo and get all the loot anyway?

Monsters and drops are scaled to the number of people in the game. Sure, in a singleplayer game you will get 100% of the items dropping, but the quantity of items will not be higher and the quality will probably be lower. (Easier monsters)

Health globes come from monsters. If you are so far behind the group that everything is dead you won't need a health globe. PS: Potions exist too.

No, it's going to take you 2 seconds to shift-click the item and link it in the chat window.

Why would you want the ground littered with even more crap you don't want to pick up?

If you are going to put thought into something don't stop halfway.

You're just butthurt because you play with retards and lose out. Believe it or not there are some groups of players out there who are more than capable of cleaning an area and sharing the loot and don't need to be molly-coddled into a system designed for retards. That's why I said making it an option would be nice. That way you guys can keep your butthurt system while the rest of us can physically choke people when they fall out of line.

Ok, so you play with awesome people who are so awesome they don't pick up awesome items but do steal all the health globes and for some reason you have to go back and sweep an area for treasure because the shiny yellow text was too hard for these awesome players to see the first time... They should design the game just for you and not the huge number of people that play on battle.net.

I thought this site was supposed to support good game design?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Health globes come from monsters. If you are so far behind the group that everything is dead you won't need a health globe.

Awesome. So the asshole players who just want the loot drop (dude, do you have Griswold's armour?) won't even need to follow the group. They just hang back and wait for the items they want to drop and let you deal with the scaled up number of monsters. You guys go ahead and kill Bhaal, I'll just pick up the loot that he drops only for me.

Ok, so you play with awesome people who are so awesome they don't pick up awesome items but do steal all the health globes and for some reason you have to go back and sweep an area for treasure because the shiny yellow text was too hard for these awesome players to see the first time... They should design the game just for you and not the huge number of people that play on battle.net.

Nope. I said it should be an option. People who are able to play together as a group shouldn't be penalised with extra dicking around designed for the lowest common denominator.

 

[FrancoTAU]

There's probably a better option between the old and new loot droppage systems. I don't know what that is, but both have big flaws.

 

[J1M]

Health globes come from monsters. If you are so far behind the group that everything is dead you won't need a health globe.

Awesome. So the asshole players who just want the loot drop (dude, do you have Griswold's armour?) won't even need to follow the group. They just hang back and wait for the items they want to drop and let you deal with the scaled up number of monsters. You guys go ahead and kill Bhaal, I'll just pick up the loot that he drops only for me.

Ok, so you play with awesome people who are so awesome they don't pick up awesome items but do steal all the health globes and for some reason you have to go back and sweep an area for treasure because the shiny yellow text was too hard for these awesome players to see the first time... They should design the game just for you and not the huge number of people that play on battle.net.

Nope. I said it should be an option. People who are able to play together as a group shouldn't be penalised with extra dicking around designed for the lowest common denominator.

lol, You bring up the most basic of game design "problems" as if they break the whole system. I get it, you have a rep here and have your back up, which is why a bunch of inane news posts just went up to push the visibility of this thread down. I still have to respond to your post though.

You won't get loot drops for monsters you aren't near for a kill, just like you won't get experience for them. It's so obvious, I shouldn't have to say it.

Yeah, I know you said it should be an option. You said a lot of other things too, which is what I objected and responded to. I figured you would understand that specifically making it an option would be the one thing you have mentioned that would actually encourage players to play solo in private games and then jack up the player limit. How you could miss this when it seems to be your big concern I don't know.

If it is not an option and you get the same loot whether you play with other people or by yourself it will encourage grouping, and co-op is a stated design goal for D3.

 

[J1M]

There's probably a better option between the old and new loot droppage systems. I don't know what that is, but both have big flaws.

I'd like to hear you elaborate on the big flaws of the new system. Thus far, I haven't seen any presented in this thread.

 

[Armacalypse]

You should be able to customize the system. So for example you could have equipment show for anyone so that the one who needs it can pick it up, while stuff that everyone needs like gems and runes will be dropped for individual players.

But if gold will actually be worth something in this game, and every piece of loot is worth something since you can sell it for gold, then I would use the new system when playing with friends. That way picking up all the loot on the run will go faster, while your friends can give you the items they think you might need when you are back in town.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

lol, You bring up the most basic of game design "problems" as if they break the whole system. I get it, you have a rep here and have your back up, which is why a bunch of inane news posts just went up to push the visibility of this thread down. I still have to respond to your post though.

You've really gotta get over the fact that I post news J1M. I know it hurts you deep, deep inside in that special little place that your Uncle used to touch as a child and made you cry but really... Get over it. First we had the "DU's burying VD's news items" conspiracy and now we've got the "DU's posting news to get out of an internet argument with J1M, even though he's happily gone twenty pages in every other internet debate he's ever been in on the Codex" plot. Yes, right now even this post is just an elaborate conspiracy to distract you from your life goals. Why, I might even post more news items tomorrow to bury this further!

You won't get loot drops for monsters you aren't near for a kill, just like you won't get experience for them. It's so obvious, I shouldn't have to say it.

So the guy that does want Griswold's Armour has to hope it drops for him. If someone else gets it instead of him, he has to trade for it. How is that any different to how the game works now? "Hey, I see you got Griswolds Armour, I'll trade you for it..." The only added annoyance is that when that last bit of armour you need to complete the set finally does drop, it may not be picked up by the person it dropped for because it's useless to them. So now you don't just have to hope for the right item to drop, you have to hope it drops specifically for you. You also lose the ability to scavenge for stuff that others leave don't bother picking up. In fact it seems to be the case at the moment that you won't even know it's dropped (you won't see it) so you won't even know to trade for it.

Yeah, I know you said it should be an option. You said a lot of other things too, which is what I objected and responded to. I figured you would understand that specifically making it an option would be the one thing you have mentioned that would actually encourage players to play solo in private games and then jack up the player limit. How you could miss this when it seems to be your big concern I don't know.

No, my big concern is added hassle for non-retarded groups of players who are able to sort this stuff out quite easily, without any added bullshit. As per the new loot system:

Yeah, so right now in a multiplayer game I'll see my items drop, if I don't want it or can't use it I'll need to pick it up and then drop it at which time everyone can see it.

So what happens when your inventory is full J1M? You start dropping the decent items you have and want to keep just to pick up more items other people can't see, just so you can drop them again for someone else to pick up? Hey, here's an idea, how about we just let someone else pick it up in the first place and deal with it back in town?

If it is not an option and you get the same loot whether you play with other people or by yourself it will encourage grouping, and co-op is a stated design goal for D3.

It's terrible, I know but some of us are able to play co-op using real co-op skills. We don't need a system that molly-coddles us into submission and forces us to ask inane "What did you get, anything I can trade for?" every time we kill something. At best it'll slow the game right-the-fuck down. At least in Diablo 2, you know when someone's being an asshole and you can deal with it.

 

[hpmons]

So the guy that does want Griswold's Armour has to hope it drops for him. If someone else gets it instead of him, he has to trade for it. How is that any different to how the game works now? "Hey, I see you got Griswolds Armour, I'll trade you for it..." The only added annoyance is that when that last bit of armour you need to complete the set finally does drop, it may not be picked up by the person it dropped for because it's useless to them. So now you don't just have to hope for the right item to drop, you have to hope it drops specifically for you. You also lose the ability to scavenge for stuff that others leave don't bother picking up. In fact it seems to be the case at the moment that you won't even know it's dropped (you won't see it) so you won't even know to trade for it.

Would either one of these (or both) make the system better?:
1. Be able to see what dropped for others, but not pick them up - if youre playing with friends, or hopefully even if youre not, youll be able to ask "Hey, could whoever got the Griswold Armour trade it with me?"
2. After a minute of not being picked up, the player-only loot becomes visible (and obtainable) for everyone. Thus if the right item for you did drop, you'll be able to pick it up if the other player wasnt interested.

 

[aron searle]

I said it should be an option.

It is an option fucktard.

It's called dropping loot you picked up on the floor.

 

[J1M]

lol, You bring up the most basic of game design "problems" as if they break the whole system. I get it, you have a rep here and have your back up, which is why a bunch of inane news posts just went up to push the visibility of this thread down. I still have to respond to your post though.

You've really gotta get over the fact that I post news J1M. I know it hurts you deep, deep inside in that special little place that your Uncle used to touch as a child and made you cry but really... Get over it. First we had the "DU's burying VD's news items" conspiracy and now we've got the "DU's posting news to get out of an internet argument with J1M, even though he's happily gone twenty pages in every other internet debate he's ever been in on the Codex" plot. Yes, right now even this post is just an elaborate conspiracy to distract you from your life goals. Why, I might even post more news items tomorrow to bury this further!

Looks like I hit a sore spot. Like I said above, I get that you don't want to look bad, but I still have to respond to your post.

You won't get loot drops for monsters you aren't near for a kill, just like you won't get experience for them. It's so obvious, I shouldn't have to say it.

So the guy that does want Griswold's Armour has to hope it drops for him. If someone else gets it instead of him, he has to trade for it. How is that any different to how the game works now? "Hey, I see you got Griswolds Armour, I'll trade you for it..." The only added annoyance is that when that last bit of armour you need to complete the set finally does drop, it may not be picked up by the person it dropped for because it's useless to them. So now you don't just have to hope for the right item to drop, you have to hope it drops specifically for you. You also lose the ability to scavenge for stuff that others leave don't bother picking up. In fact it seems to be the case at the moment that you won't even know it's dropped (you won't see it) so you won't even know to trade for it.

Normal people pick up valuable items to trade for things they want. I would expect your super co-op buddies to be somewhat considerate and help you complete your set. You have stated that otherwise you would strangle them.

Yeah, I know you said it should be an option. You said a lot of other things too, which is what I objected and responded to. I figured you would understand that specifically making it an option would be the one thing you have mentioned that would actually encourage players to play solo in private games and then jack up the player limit. How you could miss this when it seems to be your big concern I don't know.

No, my big concern is added hassle for non-retarded groups of players who are able to sort this stuff out quite easily, without any added bullshit. As per the new loot system:

Yeah, so right now in a multiplayer game I'll see my items drop, if I don't want it or can't use it I'll need to pick it up and then drop it at which time everyone can see it.

So what happens when your inventory is full J1M? You start dropping the decent items you have and want to keep just to pick up more items other people can't see, just so you can drop them again for someone else to pick up? Hey, here's an idea, how about we just let someone else pick it up in the first place and deal with it back in town?

If your inventory is full, it is full. Drop a town portal and sell/store the stuff you are hording or leave behind the things worth less gold. Nothing new or different about this situation. In fact, the situation you describe would actually be less likely to happen under the new loot system because everyone would have the same number of items showing up, instead of a couple people being faster/closer to the drops.

If it is not an option and you get the same loot whether you play with other people or by yourself it will encourage grouping, and co-op is a stated design goal for D3.

It's terrible, I know but some of us are able to play co-op using real co-op skills. We don't need a system that molly-coddles us into submission and forces us to ask inane "What did you get, anything I can trade for?" every time we kill something. At best it'll slow the game right-the-fuck down. At least in Diablo 2, you know when someone's being an asshole and you can deal with it.

You seem to be claiming that you will never participate in the realm servers or public trading on battle.net. If so, your comments are not unlike the person who only played normal making demands for how the harder difficulties should be designed. It would make sense, all of the "problems" you have listed are not issues at all or actually worse in the system you propose.

 

[J1M]

Would either one of these (or both) make the system better?:
1. Be able to see what dropped for others, but not pick them up - if youre playing with friends, or hopefully even if youre not, youll be able to ask "Hey, could whoever got the Griswold Armour trade it with me?"
2. After a minute of not being picked up, the player-only loot becomes visible (and obtainable) for everyone. Thus if the right item for you did drop, you'll be able to pick it up if the other player wasnt interested.

1. This means a lot more shit on the floor. I would rather not know about a chipped saphire that someone forgot to pick up/didn't have room for than go through the hassle of reading through 5x more junk loot and trying to get people to backtrack for things like that. Nobody leaves behind things that actually matter like rares/uniques anyway. If they don't tell you about a good item, they don't want to share it.

2. The chances of someone leaving behind an uber item fit for your class and you actually running back to discover it are a lot lower than a new item dropping. Your time would be a lot better spent killing monsters. Keep in mind what will actually happen in games. How often in D2 do you go running through the worldstone chambers when you know someone has killed Baal to look for loot left behind? Never, you start another game.

 

[Xor]

The new loot system has promise. I'm kinda sick of getting nothing on Baal runs because four people in the game use pick-it.

Just remember, this is Blizzard. If enough people bitch about it, or they're convinced by someone it's a flawed system, they'll change it.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Would either one of these (or both) make the system better?

Depends, as I think there are a couple of issues with the proposed system. First and foremost, are you designing a co-op game or a single-player game that you just happen to be able to play online with a bunch of retards? The focus should be on making an MMO that is an MMO, not inventing systems that remove all the MMO aspects. Particularly when the whole point of co-op is to do precisely that, co-operate. People who can co-operate shouldn't be punished with needless extra hassle because of a system that was designed for the lowest common denominator.

If you're playing online and need to get your own special loot that only you can see and touch in order for you to feel fulfilled, then why are you playing online with these people? You may as well be playing single player (or a solo player online game). You get all your own loot and there's no retards to deal with. It's win-win. Why should those who can co-operate put up with systems designed to force those who simply don't want to? If the system ends up creating extra hassle above and beyond the inventory management and other in-game hassles you already have to deal with, then it's A Bad Thing™.

Another issue is that assholes are still going to be assholes anyway. They're not going to trade anymore than they already do. The only potentially added extra hassle now is that said assholes may be messaging you in-game with frequent "we trade?" every-time they suspect you may have gotten something they want. Being assholes, they're unlikely to do anything other than try to saddle you with a bad trade, clog your game down and annoy you. The people who join and spam "WE SELL GOLD - VISIT OUR WEBSITE" are bad enough. Now you'll have to deal with it on a daily basis in almost every game you play.

And for the most part, there are plenty of "trade games" that you can join anyway or you can create your own if you want to trade. In other words, trade systems already exist and people who want to do so, already use them. Trade only works when you have two people who are willing to co-operate to make a deal. It's not going to magically make the asshole (whom already doesn't co-operate), suddenly become less of an asshole. Besides, have you ever stolen all the loot yourself and had other's ask if you want to trade? They don't. Usually they just quit and look for the next game.

1. Be able to see what dropped for others, but not pick them up - if youre playing with friends, or hopefully even if youre not, youll be able to ask "Hey, could whoever got the Griswold Armour trade it with me?"

For the proposed Diablo 3 system to work, you need to know what the other person got or at least, potentially got. This heads off the "Wat did u get?" bombardment after every boss battle and a very long and tiresome trade process. I mean, have you guys ever tried to trade with assholes? It's generally not quick or easy and is more hassle than it's worth. Now add that game element to every game you play. These aren't people you want to be playing with in the first place because let's face it, if you're playing with retards, the last thing you want is to have to deal with them on a larger basis.

The other issue here is knowing when someone's being an asshole. If loot drops and it suddenly disappears, you know you're playing with assholes and you can address that issue. Over a local network there's the appropriate hazing. Even using a kick function would resolve that issue. If you don't know what's dropping though, then you're not quite sure the guy you're online with is really someone you want to be playing with.

2. After a minute of not being picked up, the player-only loot becomes visible (and obtainable) for everyone. Thus if the right item for you did drop, you'll be able to pick it up if the other player wasnt interested.

Something like this does need to exist. I'll go back onto the "what kind of game are you designing" point here though and say that assholes are still going to rush ahead of you into the next area to get loot / kill stuff. If they trigger a health orb and you miss out when you really need it, you'll be quitting to play by yourself regardless. If the orb only heals you when you're nearby, then it means you won't get a chance to sort out your own loot or even worse, you'll get left behind trying to trade with someone (thanks to the new system) while everyone else has moved on to the next area and you'll miss out on the XP instead. So the asshole's run ahead of you again and if you don't catch up, you're still stuffed. Given the way they appear to be pushing the health orb as a big thing to keep groups together, it potentially means everyone will be forced to follow the Leeroy Jenkins of the group.

To more specifically address the suggestion, if you're only included in the special "only for you" loot drop when you're nearby, it means you'll completely miss out. Again. Just like you do now. You won't even get the left-overs because you won't be able to see them. I don't know too many assholes who pick up flawed stuff that might actually be useful for you if you're a lower level character. Even a decent axe they left behind because they're only after Griswolds Armour won't be visible to you (what's trash for him may not necessarily be trash for you. I've been in plenty of games where people have joined only to do one specific quest for the loot. Do you really think assholes will be picking up trash just to drop it in order to be nice to you?).

The big issue I have with what's proposed and the design philosophy Blizzard are suggesting, is that it could potentially mean the assholes run the group. And now we're back to where we are already. We've added in extra systems which have only created more pain and hassle for those who played nice anyway and the assholes are still forcing everyone to quite and play by themselves.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going enrage J1M's inner child again by posting more news.