Lately, I didn't feel much desire to play the game anymore. And I couldn't put my finger on the reason why I am so hesitant to make a new character or play one of my existing ones. So I sat down and asked myself: What's the biggest demerit in Median XL?
The conclusion I came to were 2 things. 1) The pathfinding is sometimes buggy. 2) The sprint mechanic.
So these are the two things I want to talk about in what I hope is a respectful and friendly dialogue.
PathfindingThe first thing can be easily proven with a simple video like this:
https://streamable.com/h7jp05 I can't remember ever having an issue like that in the original installment of Diablo 2. Just casually walking/running and suddenly you're stuck. However in Median, this happens to me quite often. I wonder what exactly is the reason behind the pathing not working properly anymore. The conclusion I can draw from the video I took: It happens when you are walking, something stands in your way, which triggers the changing of paths. However it might have to do something with the mouse cursor not hovering over passable terrain in that exact moment where the pathfinding should be triggered.
I don't think this is intentional in any way, so some change to the pathfinding/walk mechanics in the past must've allowed for this to occur.
Why this is a problemThe reason is rather simple. It's annoying when you're in full speed with your goal ahead and suddenly you are stuck and have to readjust your mouse in order to progress. I agree, it's not game breaking on first glance. But with how regularly this issue occurs, it can be said that this elevates your annoyance level on a regular basis. Especially since it can happen literally anywhere where assets or corners can be found. Games that have this innate "mechanic" are usually not on the top of my list. Sacred 1 for example had this huge bug, too. And I didn't even pass level 15 because it annoyed me that much in sacred 1.
However there's more to it. Aside from it being annoying it impacts the way you play. On characters that aren't tanky, I had several deaths in ubers because of this issue because I simply couldn't run away in time. This in turn feels like it's an undeserved punishment, just because I didn't count in an issue that was never an issue in the base game.
As such I now stopped walking anywhere near anything that could possibly trigger this in order to solve that issue. And this causes another issue. I don't think it's okay for players to be forced not to use everything the map has to offer. Let's take bushes in Tran Athulua as an example. They were placed there so you can avoid arrowside. But being stuck on a bush which then forces you to get hit a hundret times over until you're dead just because you wanted to hide behind a bush is simply not fun. Those bushes thus are potentially more harmful than they are usful, since even just running in circles would give you at least a 100% chance to avoid arrowside. Even running in zigzag patterns would be more efficient for avoiding more than 95% of all projectiles. Having to constantly reconsider your positioning on less tanky builds is again, annoying. And I'm not talking about your position in relation to projectiles fired at you, but about your position in relation to the assets on a map that could potentially mean your death. Especially in areas where lots of assets like trees or rocks that you can't walk over can be found, this happens regularly just because your mouse is over another tree in the exact moment where your character is supposed to change its path automatically.
Malicious tongues would claim this is intended to weaken glasscannon builds, as this was not fixed in the 3 patches I've seen so far, even though I already mentioned it a long time ago, but I wouldn't go that far because I don't see a reason why any developer would willingly include a trap for players that aren't part of the spectrum of those 10% of the population with fast reaction times whereas those said players that do have good reflexes have an overwhemingly huge advantage. This would only serve to exclude a huge number of potential players, which is nothing any game developer would want.
Sprint MechanicLet's sum up what Sprint mechanic is at first, so we all get to the same level of understanding.
When you sprint, your character runs faster in exchange for your defense being reduced to 0 and your block chance being reduced to 1/3rd of its original value. The duration of your sprint depends on the amount of stamina you have with roughly 10 stamina being used every second. With 50 starting stamina, this allows you to sprint 5 seconds, but this can be increased by items like TU Boots or skills like Pinnacle. Stamina shrines however give you unlimited stamina for about 4 minutes. The exact values in this paragraph are estimated, so differences to my statement may apply.
Sprint can as such be seen as an avoid-button, which can be used to quickly get out of a dangerous place. Or at least, that would be the intended main use.
Why was this mechanic introduced?Let's keep it short and simple. I assume that this mechanic was introduced in order to not trap inexperienced players into sprinting all the time as this would negate their defensive mechanisms.
What are the problems of the sprint mechanic?First of all, the obvious issue I personally have with that mechanic: It slows you down compared to the original game. I know that the base speeds were increased compared to the original game to make up for it, however that's not the issue. The issue lies in the fact that you're not able to go at full speed
at all times. Aside from such typical game logic that doesn't make any sense (You slay demons that are 1000 times stronger than any mortal. But you can only run for 5 seconds? This in itself is just silly) there is the following issue:
Stamina Shrines. What I've noticed so far during my gameplay is that Stamina shrines are the only shrines aside from Experience shrines that I really look forward to for the simple reason that it finally increases my progress speed. But the issues comes when the stamina shrine runs out. Then you're back to square one and feel bad that you can't run all the time anymore, remembering the wonderful times back when you had an active stamina shrine, reliving those wonderful experiences in your mind as you crawl forward at snail speed. At least that's how it feels to me. And that's causing more frustration than it should.
I think it wouldn't be such a huge issue for me, if stamina shrines wouldn't exist. But removing stamina shrines would in turn make me want to discontinue playing this game because that makes the only option to progress quicker disappear.
Aside from that, this mechanic adds more complexity to the game. A level of complexity that only the top players can actually make use of. Sprint as a get-out-of-jail option as such is only available for the players that can actually make use of it, making the game less newbie-friendly, while granting an advantage to those who are already used to it. This level of complexity goes against the original idea of not trapping newbies, as it's another layer of game mechanics you need to understand.
But let's talk about whether the original goal of not trapping players into sacrificing their defense and block for speed was achieved.
To make it short: It wasn't. There's a hidden option that allows players to have sprint toggled permanently. Players take advantage of that of course and use it all the time so they don't have press ctrl at any given moment. As such, the idea that players don't get trapped into running all the time is not fulfilled because once they attack their stamina is refilled, and then when they move, they run again, negatively affecting their defense and block. They still use that option all the time.
So let's sum it up:
Aside from the player feeling let down when stamina shrines run out, this mechanic also doesn't achieve it's intended goal to not trap players into sacrificing their defense for speed and in addition to that it adds another layer of complexity that those inexperienced players have to learn before they can keep up with the top 1%.
As such I dare calling the sprint mechanic overall a failed mess.
The SolutionIf you asked me, I'd simply swap the walk and run animations, increase the base walking speed to that of the original run speed or slightly lower and ban running from the game by setting the base stamina to 0. This would solve all 3 issues at once with seemingly no effort at all.
