Hellgate London Beta - Sept 17

[Pren]

All I read about are folks maxing mad amounts of stamina with gear that has +stats on it just to wear legendary items. I don't care enough to get into the nitty gritty, but I hope they can improve and make me give a damn.

People always want to make the diablo comparisons, but they don't seem to really know what diablo was either.

this is exactly what diablo 2 was. particularly worse after the expansion, and jacked into the stratosphere by 1.10. Kill things in three hits instead of two, or have two-three times the hp so you don't get one shotted?

Forgive my ignorance, but it seems that Nightmare and Hell (or whatever they call the 3rd difficulty level) aren't in the beta at all. Which means there's a lot more to the game beyond just acts 4 and 5 not being available. Think heroics and raids over just 5 man pugging. Nightmare and Hell are completely different games in diablo.

You can get through diablo 1 using entirely white items, at lvl30, in hell difficulty. you can beat normal without using any stat points. you can beat diablo 2 in normal without using any stats or skill points, meaning auto attack.

Now, you can kill nightmare baal untouched and get ass raped by a pack of fallen in act 1 hell.

It doesn't seem like HG:L is on the road to being like that, but diablo is just like a mmog. leveling up to a significant level and beating normal is just the start of the real game.

Which is silly because a game like that doesn't have the depth to spend 200 hours near level cap doing item runs just to do item runs better.

I didn't like the demo at all, but I'd like it if the game was good and successful.


Edit: In diablo, nightmare and hell flat out made a lot of character builds completely nonviable. I mean you could beat normal with anything, fucked up specs were done for flavor and fun (tentacle rape druid was highly successful in normal.) Increased monster density, life (when something takes x3 as long to die, a pack becomes far more than x3 as dangerous because you can't as quickly remove targets), resists/immunities, available skills, and even improved ai, drastically up the challenge. the website also said that the levels would be a lot bigger in nightmare and hell, too.

the fact that the difficulty levels aren't in the beta is kind of, well, troubling. because we all know that unbetaed content is garbage in online games.

[Fish Bone]

Originally Posted by Pren

the fact that the difficulty levels aren't in the beta is kind of, well, troubling. because we all know that unbetaed content is garbage in online games.

I don't know about that. IIRC Diablo 2 beta was only act 1 and you could only be a barb. At least the portion of the beta that I participated in. There may have been other stages I missed out in, I don't remember, too much gin between then and now.

Don't get me wrong I have serious concerns about the difficulty, grouping mechanics, skill tress and a number of other things. I just don't think that just because the public hasn't tested the rest of the content that it's going to suck.

I canceled my pre-order but may pick the game up around launch. I'd like a casual dungeon crawler but the subscription model bothers me. It just doesn't seem to offer enough value for the money but still manages to leave out enough features to frustrate the non-subscribers.

[Quineloe]

Diablo 2 wasn't exactly an onlinegame and it's 10 years old now. Public Beta testing was almost unheard of back then.

[Fish Bone]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

Diablo 2 wasn't exactly an onlinegame and it's 10 years old now. Public Beta testing was almost unheard of back then.

Well I always played with realm characters and it was pretty much as online as Hellgate, except the chat rooms have been replaced with hubs. Obviously that's over simplifying it and we all know the other differences.

My point was that a game tuned for solo to small group play doesn't necessarily require the same kind of beta testing as your standard MMO.

[Rum]

Originally Posted by Pren

Forgive my ignorance, but it seems that Nightmare and Hell (or whatever they call the 3rd difficulty level) aren't in the beta at all.

they are in but you needed to be selected for high end game play and sign another NDA.

[Faith]

New patch today it seems. I really hope I missunderstand the elite thing. You have to beat the game THEN you can make an elite char? wtf?


__________________________________________________ _______________
Greetings all!

We’ve got some big changes, and we mean BIG. This patch represents a lot of the elements we’ve been testing internally. We know that we’re closing in on the end of our test, so get ready for some real fun the rest of the time!

Not only do we have a ton of changes and tweaks and tuning, we have a load of new things. You’re going to see MANY of your suggestions and feedback represented in this patch – so THANK YOU for the thousands of hours you’ve put into Hellgate: London. And speaking of new things…

We’re testing our Halloween event specials in this patch! You’ll be able to try out the quests, do some trick or treating, and even build your own pet! We want to make sure that everything is ready for our big launch on Halloween, so you get to see what we’ve got in store now!

See you online!

The Hellgate: London Team

-----

New Features and Improvements
Lots of new things you’ve never seen or have been waiting to see.

Guilds

* While only subscribers can start one, anyone may join a guild
* Subscribers may create a guild by purchasing and using a Guild Herald, available from vendors
* Guild leaders can invite new members through the Guild panel (default hotkey is “G ”) or through the “invite to guild” button on the radial menu activated by right-clicking on a player in their buddy list or in person
* Guild members can communicate in their own private channel using /gchat


Player vs. Player Mode

* Players can Duel or elect to play Free-for-All PvP.
* A player can initiate a duel by right-clicking the portrait of the group member they wish to duel and selecting the “Duel” option if they are both in an adventuring area. Players can also use the /duel [playername] command to initiate a duel.
* Players may also toggle their PvP mode through the /pvp command. While PvP is activated, the player may be attacked and harmed outside of Stations by any other group members who are also flagged for PvP.


Achievements
These are meant to be long-term goals for all players. Players start with a few new goals in their Achievement Log (default hotkey is “J”) and can unlock more as they play.

NPC Tweaks
In general, the vocal responses given by NPCs have been tuned so that they tend more towards the serious and “normal” in nature.

Gossip
We’ve added a large amount of additional details on the people and places in the game through gossip told by various NPCs in the world. NPCs with something gossip to tell will have a purple “ ” icon above their head.

Tuned Game Progression

* Level and monster progression is now much more thematic in nature. While this does not affect the overarching layout of the world map, it does make each act feel more defined and focused.
* Bigger levels in Nightmare Mode increases the time players spend in each area, giving the game a more expansive feel at higher difficulty levels.
* Several new level varieties have been added.
* Players will now receive a completion message upon finishing an Act.
* The experience required to level between levels 30 and 50 has been rebalanced.


Interface Features

* Many general UI improvements have been made.
* The Chat Window has been updated with 4 tabs for different channels: Global, Local, Party, and Guild
* There is now an assignable Hotkey for toggling the Chat window which is set to the tilde key ( ` ) by default
* Color-coded player names that represent different game modes and character status
* The /played command displays the player’s total play time for the character
* The /screenshot command may now be used to take screenshots
* Several icon updates


-----

Subscriber Only Features
These are new features available for our subscribers on day one and represent just the tip of the iceberg as to what we’re working on. There’s still all the things we’ve had in previously (Guild creation and naming, Hardcore Mode, etc.) but we wanted to specifically point out the new stuff.

Elite Mode

* The demons are tougher, deal out more damage, move faster, travel in larger groups, and have more champions at the ready. Numerous tweaks to the overall balance and progression of the game make this an extremely challenging mode.
* Elite Mode is unlocked only to subscribers who have also beaten the game at least once. Once the mode is unlocked, new characters may be designated as Elite through a toggle in the character creation screen.


Themed Events and Items
Halloween (October 31 – November 4)

* Nemo, Master of Festivities – This special NPC can first be found in Covent Garden Station.
* All Hallows’ Quests – There are a pair of special quests available, including one that is repeatable for continuous fun.
* All Hallows’ Treats – Delicious and devious, these different delights do everything from temporarily boosting stats to altering the appearance of the devourer.


* All Hallows’ Visage – A Unique Helm that has not only very special properties, but as well a look unlike any other helm in the game.


* Zombot - A special pet just for the All Hallows’ celebration. This amalgam of meat and metal is sure to frighten and delight those players that are willing to put in the time to find all the necessary pieces in order to construct him.



Additional Character Slots
Hellgate: London Subscribers now receive 24 character slots.

Expanded Stash
Your storage locker has an additional 6x8 area. Perfect for packrats!

-----

Balance, Bugs and Everything Else!
You wanted fixes and tweaks – well, here they are.

Graphics

* Improved memory usage and long-term stability
* Improved multiplayer stability
* Improved station performance and stability
* Improved multi-monitor compatibility
* Texture Detail option now behaves more predictably
* Improved DX10 initial load time
* Improved performance in DX10
* Improved appearance of motion blur in DX10
* DX10 smoke now scales better with multi-GPU
* More noticeable get-hit effect, prevents “always grey” when getting frequently damaged by small amounts
* Tweaked FOV limits to avoid excessive fish-eye
* Antialiasing now supported for ATI 2x00 series cards
* Initial settings detection is now more effective
* Fixed several loading screen bugs
* Fixed issues with “Low” Shadow Detail
* Fixed overly shiny characters when Shader Detail is set to “High”


Sound

* New version of FMOD
* Sound initialization improvements
* Tweaked several sound effects volumes


Skills
Several skills and descriptions have been rebalanced and updated.

Cabalists

* Drain Life now deals a significant amount of damage, but costs 100% more power per second and returns less health to the Cabalist
* Cabalist beam skills now properly stop casting when the Cabalist runs out of power


Evokers

* Arc Legion damage has been increased by 25%, but costs 50% more power per second
* Flameshards has been reworked significantly: Each shard now has a small radius (1.0 meters), greatly improving the skill’s effectiveness. To balance this change, Flameshards power cost has been increased by 46% and individual shard damage has been decreased by 24%.
* Drain Power now returns less power per second
* Spectral Lash damage has been decreased by 13%
* Firestorm no longer provides an initial bonus to Ignite Attack Strength at rank 1


Summoners

* Fire Elemental health has been slightly increased
* Fire Elemental Ignite Attack Strength has been reduced by 75%
* Fire Elemental power cost has increased by 25%

* Spectral Elemental health has been slightly increased
* Spectral Elemental Phase Attack Strength has been decreased by 17%
* Spectral Elemental Phase Attack Duration has been reduced to 5 seconds
* Spectral Elemental power cost has been slightly increased and now correctly scales up with the Summoner’s level

* Force Elemental health has been slightly increased
* Force Elemental Stun Attack Strength has been reduced by 25%
* Force Elemental power cost has increased by 30%

* Storm Elemental Shock Attack Strength has been increased by 100%
* Storm Elemental Shock Attack Duration has been increased to 4 seconds from 2 seconds
* Storm Elemental Shock Attack Damage has been increased to 100% from 25%
* Storm Elemental power cost has been decreased slightly
* Storm Elemental health has been decreased
* Storm Elemental damage has been decreased significantly


Hunters

Marksmen

* Sniper Stance now increases Weapon Energy Consumption by 300% while firing


Engineers

* Tactical Mode and Advanced Tactical Mode have switched places with Armor Retrofit and Master Engineer in the Engineer Drone skills tree
* Bomber Bot damage has been increased significantly
* Bomber Bot Phase Attack Strength and Duration have been slightly decreased
* Concussive Crash power cost has been decreased to 5
* Concussive Crash has a decreased initial Stun Attack Strength but now properly scales up with the Engineer’s level
* Molotov Assault power cost has been decreased to 10
* Concussive Crash and Molotov Assault now have 10 second but separate cooldowns


Items

* All Swords have had their damage reduced by 10%; however, Shield Overload-modified damage now correctly deals damage to a target’s health if the damage exceeded the amount of shields.
* Increased the range and accuracy of all Hunter machine guns (non-splash, non-beam)
* The Weapon Energy Consumption system for beam and streaming weapons has been somewhat rebalanced. At ¾ of a full bar, the weapon’s damage will begin to decrease until the bar reaches 0, where the weapon will deal only 25% of its maximum damage.

* Rebalanced the ratio of Unique, Legendary, Rare, and Enhanced items within the subset of magical items. Players will still find the same ratio of magical to non-magical items.
* Rebalanced the ratio of Legendary and Rare Mods
* Rebalanced the benefit of Luck

* Decreased XM107 and XM237 Firefox Launcher damage by 10%
* Decreased XM107 and XM237 Firefox Launcher Interrupt Strength by 45%
* Decreased XM803 Zeus Rifle damage by 15%
* Decreased XM923 Zeus Rifle damage by 5%
* Decreased Nanodyne Venom Lance damage by 20%


Crafting

* Items can now only be upgraded a maximum of 5 times each
* Item upgrading now costs significantly more scrap


Monsters

* The Eyes of Oculis summoned by Oculis the All-Seeing have had their damage increased by 60%
* Fiend Master damage has been increased
* Emperor Gulkar’s damage has been increased significantly
* Defilers now perform their fade skill less often


Various Bug Fixes
Lots of little things, with some notable ones worth specific mention:

* Engineer Drones now properly save their attribute assignments and items
* Inhibitor Bots now properly slow their targets
* Pets can now be unsummoned in town
* “Tripping the Rift” – the radar will properly disappear after completing this quest
* “The Final Test” – all eligible players in the party can now speak to Murmur to complete this quest
* Truth portals no longer disappear in multiplayer when other players enter the portal
* Quest drops should now properly drop for all players in the group in the appropriate instance
* The Auto-party feature will now only group players playing the same mode
* The Mini-game has been somewhat adjusted
* Footsteps in 1st person now play properly and respect the floor material
* Fixed a bug causing the camera to change positions upon zoning
* Fixed Ravagers getting out of sync
* Fixed bugs preventing players from resurrecting after dying
* Pets now disappear from an instance when the owner leaves

__________________
Bill Roper
CEO
Flagship Studios

[Faith]

Oh and despite liking the game;

1) PvP. So I have to group with someone and ask them nicely to step into the instance/station and flag for PvP to get some action?

2) I really hope there is something more in store if they want me to pay a sub.

[Fish Bone]

EDIT - NVM, asked my question at the same time the patch notes were being posted.

[Pyros]

Seems like a rather huge summoner nerf, stability fixes and some UI changes, guess with this patch the game will be ready for release. Just suck a bit since I wanted to play summoner but well.

[Agraza]

Originally Posted by Pren

People always want to make the diablo comparisons, but they don't seem to really know what diablo was either.

this is exactly what diablo 2 was. particularly worse after the expansion, and jacked into the stratosphere by 1.10. Kill things in three hits instead of two, or have two-three times the hp so you don't get one shotted?

Yea, no. I had several characters that went on to be successful in hell difficulty both pre and post expansion and before and after the 1.10 patch. There was a horde of gear available. There weren't class distinctions on most of it like in Hellgate, just varying stat requirements, almost all of which were easily met and usually required your offensive stats in large numbers. You put in tons of STR, DEX, and less often, INT to wear armor and weapons. Vitality was almost entirely just hitpoints/stamina.

Gear was usually pretty easy to wear, but difficult to obtain. I might have had to dump points into STR for a few turns every now and then to put on a new piece of armor, but that was usually because that armor was a big step up, and considering STR armor was best for STR characters, it wasn't a sacrifice.

Many specs did go out of style in nightmare and hell and that upset me, but there were still a handful of viable specs for each class in Hell difficulty. The issue then wasn't that your spec wasn't viable but that there were environments your particular build didn't handle well. My necro couldn't do X while my barbarian couldn't do Y. This might be because of poison immunity, physical immunity, etc. in certain areas. It didn't cover the landscape and completely destroy your build's capacity, it just made you rely on others for a few areas.

I know what D2 was like. Players put the least amount of points they could into item wearing and found gear with lower requirements so they could afford to dump points into Vitality for a cushion. In HG:L the best guardian gear requires massive amounts of stamina, despite the mouseover on strength saying "invest in me to wear armor", and the mods require massive amounts of willpower to apply. You're forced to do what is not intuitive, which means as you level you find your preferred stats becoming irrelevant.

[chu]

The one and only one thing that kills this game for me right now is the fucking atmosphere. EVERYTHING IS THE SAME. And it wouldn't be so bad if the only setting available wasn't a very unattractive and unfun setting. This game would fucking own if it had most of its game set in a nice sunny environment like Nagrand or STV.

The skill system and the item system has a lot of potential,even with all the negatives that Quineloe points out. I agree with those but without knowing what its like form 20 to cap, it's not important right now.

Also, this game is robbing people if they are going to charge money. It's not even a multiplayer game. I've soloed to 13 now without grouping once.

[Quineloe]

Here we go with the classbreaking nerf. It's going to be huge fun to log in one day and realize most of your points are now only half as good as the other choices. I hope Bill gets it into his head that this mandates talent-unlearning.

I agree with those but without knowing what its like form 20 to cap, it's not important right now.

As far as I've observed, the item requirements climb faster than your attribute points because there's 9 or 10 slots. If every level each slot requires 1 more attribute point, yet you only gain 7 attribute points per level. This is something you don't observe at all in the first levels because you have more attribute points than the items require to be equipped (and yes, you find epics errr legendaries as early as level 4)

By level 50 you'll be using level 30 loot because you can't equip the upgrades you keep finding.

[Sharmai]

*
* Fire Elemental power cost has increased by 25%


* Spectral Elemental power cost has been slightly increased and now correctly scales up with the Summoner’s level


* Force Elemental power cost has increased by 30%

OH MY GOD... WHY!?

Elementals already cost a absoulte fuckton of willpower... ANY elementlist build has to put ATLEAST 3 points into willpower per level and if they want to actually do a FULL elementalist build they ALREADY have to put EVERY point into will power.. EVERY SINGLE STAT INTO WILLPOWER....


INCREASEDDD????

[Niafix04]

hgl isn't so bad.

YouTube - Hellgate: London - Arlo

[Zbkuk]

I want to like this game. I really do. I loved diablo2. But it just isn't gripping me at all the same way diablo2 did. All of my gripes about the game have already been mentioned by others, so I'll just say that I think this game has potential, but I certainly won't be buying it for a few months. It needs polish, badly.