First thing I should probably say:
Sigma looks to have been quite the undertaking. Congrats on getting it out.
...
So, I haven't played Median XL since around when Laz moved on to Skyrim modding.
In other words- it's been a while, and I missed pretty much all of Ultimative.
That said, I've been dabbling with 1.3 for the last month or so, and this feedback will include some of that.
Feedback
* I've been admiring the streamlining of crafting and progression (farewell candles of meditation, et al.). Things like Terror Summoner dropping a Dark Tome, Ubers accessed by boss-death auras, and so on.
From what I've seen thus far (just hit a4nm), Sigma seems to be improving it even further, with creature kills simply opening a red portal (e.g. Mephitso, for K3K challenge). If so, I heartily approve.
* I only just skimmed the SU list, but a
lot of them leaped out at me as
oooh, dis gun be good. Can't wait to get my hands on them
(In other words, well done. Hopefully they'll live up to the hype, as it were.)
Though with the incompatibility of PlugY, getting the right item for the right character might be a problem, since I'm SP without a second PC around.Edit 2: Many thanks to
ChuckNoRis and
Shyshek for pointing out that you can run 2 instances of Diablo and host a TCP/IP game for yourself to trade between characters.
* I love that there are 'Transmute' and 'Reveal Map' hotkeys, and the item filter's quite useful as well.
* Also am quite appreciating the buff icons, helps me make sure I didn't phantom-cast.
- On that note, any chance that the buff icons could give you a 'at a glance' warning when they're running out? Somehow I ended up starting with a True Neutral'din - which was actually a damnfool thing to do, give how much I hate babysitting cooldowns, but the aesthetic appeal was too great... but I'm digressing - and I'd really like to be able to use my RMB for something other than a visual indicator of when Demiurge/SA are running out; especially considering the related note on Neutrality buff duration, below.
- Also, and this isn't any kind of big deal: given that I'm running without plugY in a looter ARPG I'm not familiar with, I'm being very conservative with my stat points atm. So much so that I need Demiurge up to equip half of my gear. Any chance that it can be made castable in town?
* An interesting note regarding True Neutral'dins - You have 3 paths: VoJ/VoR, buffs, summoner.
Between the duplication and the playstyle, I'm not a fan of the first, and I found most summons to be painfully flimsy in 1.3, so I went with buffs. Here's the note: +skills is an actively detrimental modifier for me. I gain nothing but ~2% faster speeds on Rapture while bumping my upkeep cost on Demiurge/SA rather significantly. Might become less of an issue once I start getting stat charms, but it's such reversal of the norm that I thought I'd point it out.
* I'm
loving the removal of Town Portal scrolls.
- I'm okay with the 5s cooldown before respawn as a tradeoff. That said, I'm not sure if this is possible, but any chance the cooldown could start immediately and you can only respawn once it finishes - rather than starting when you press esc? This'll probably become more intuitive as I go, but I find myself staring at the screen waiting for the countdown to start before remembering to press esc way too often atm. :sweatdrop:
Bugs
*
Maybe I'm missing it, but can't seem to find a way to change fullscreen map to minimap.* You can't interact with 2nd-4th rows of your belt, just mouseover them. Not a big deal, just idk if intended.
* Not sure whether this is actually a bug, but: Neutrality sets Demiurge and Sacred Armor to a static 20 second duration, replacing rather than adding to the default scaling duration, and - I was dismayed to find - unaffected by +%C/B/D duration.
If this is the intended functionality, maybe change the tooltip to 'sets duration to 20 sec' instead of 'increases'?
* Not sure if this is actually a bug, but Sorc's Immersion's new projectile seems rather finicky about hitting moving non-massive targets?
edit: * Again, not sure if bug: As per note re +skills, is Demiurge's % resurrect as Seraph
supposed to be a self-synergy?
Think that's all for now.
Cheers.