Greetings from a Potential Buyer - Questions Inside

Off Topic Introduce Yourself
1

This is a wall of text. TL;DR: hey, I’m a disgruntled Diablofan, looking for a new home.

I’ve been mentioned this game some time ago by a friend. I’m a big fan of the ARPG (or, how I call it, Hack&Slash) genre since Diablo I, and played all sorts of titles like Sacred, Titan Quest, Nox, Demon’s Souls, etc., so I’m always looking out for new releases.

Until recently, I’ve been waiting for Diablo III. I wasn’t too happy about a few random things here and there (graphic design, armor that changes look depending on what class wears it), but I could live with them all. Not every game will cater to your every whim. I was really looking forward to buying the game at release.

But the latest 3 announcements - real money auction house, removal of skill points, and no offline play - I can’t bring myself to look forward to that game anymore. It’s not what I expected from Diablo, and I’m not sure if that leaves any room for it to be a good game standalone, even. I’ve also noted that when I voiced my concerns, the community didn’t take it too kindly. Many people who agreed with me left all together, and most of the supporters remained and began to insult anyone who disagreed with them, calling us crybabies and the like. Not really a community I want to be a part of any more, there is a limit to how many Blizzard fanboys I can handle.

I’ve looked over the game and I liked what I’ve seen. I’m generally not terribly optimistic with low-profile projects like this, but the screenshots look good, the art style is much more appealing to me than that of Diablo III (or II) or Torchlight - it’s not cartoony nor is it so dark that you can’t see anything, just about right. Reminds me of DS2 and Gothic a bit. The UI design seems good, as well, and I liked the video. So here are the questions I ask:

  1. Will this game feature offline play? I’m OK with one-time activations like TL did, but I don’t tolerate continuous internet requirements when I prefer to play SP games in MMO downtime. I’ll probably want to play both SP and MP, but I want my SP to be offline.
    A follow up question, will this game have coop? Suppose me and a friend want to play together, can we do that in the full game?

  2. On the buy page, there are 3 versions, 2 of them provide beta access. Alpha access I believe would be to the current version of the game, so how far away is beta, even if it’s a very lousy approximation? I ask this because I prefer to space my payments so that I don’t spend too much money in the same month, and I assume the game may have a condition that if you do not buy the game prior to beta starting, you wouldn’t be able to gain access to beta later / the price will rise.

  3. Is this dev team in a healthy state? Wouldn’t want to pay for a game and then have the dev team disband the next day. I know nobody has proper insight to that except the devs themselves but maybe you could convince me that the game is alive and kicking haha.

  4. Will I be able to play this game without any additional add on service such as Steam?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

2

Welcome! D3’s recent announcements have met with mixed replies in these forums. But at any rate, we don’t tolerate disrespectful behaviour and insults, so you should feel more comfortable here.

As for your questions, can’t answer them all, as I don’t know, but I’ll try.

The game is not in alpha, but somewhere in pre-alpha. There’s no ETA yet. All I can say is that CE is currently dedicated to bringing us a playable version (alpha). Might take a while though. The game will be based on TQ engine, expect both coop (LAN) and single player (offline mode). No closed servers yet though, unfortunately. Too expensive. So, there’ll just be single player characters who can join multiplayer.

The dev team is very much alive afaik, regular updates, community interactions and screenshots with new stuff every once in a while, which seem to become more and more frequent.

Not sure on the Steam thing. We’re still waiting for an announcement on what will happen with the digital distribution of the preorders.

Last of all, if you’re not sure, just wait until you are. While CE can use the money, they don’t want you to feel uncomfortable over your purchase. I had no problems with it, seeing as I sorta “owed” them for TQ.

3

Pre-alpha, pretty far away then I guess.

Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m probably going to just stick around for now, especially since my finances are not too stable right now.

4

from January 2010

5

Welcome Equinox, there is certainly no pressure to pre-order Grim Dawn, being part of the forums is no purchase necessary. You should buy the game, if you decide to buy the game, when it’s right for you to buy the game.

I’m a big fan of the ARPG (or, how I call it, Hack&Slash)

I personally call aRPGs “Dungeon crawl loot-fests”. I think everyone has their own fun way to call the genre. :smiley:

6

Haha no problem, glad you stopped in. :smiley:

  1. Will this game feature offline play? I’m OK with one-time activations like TL did, but I don’t tolerate continuous internet requirements when I prefer to play SP games in MMO downtime. I’ll probably want to play both SP and MP, but I want my SP to be offline.
    A follow up question, will this game have coop? Suppose me and a friend want to play together, can we do that in the full game?

Yes, you can play offline and yes we will have coop in the full game exactly like Titan Quest.

  1. On the buy page, there are 3 versions, 2 of them provide beta access. Alpha access I believe would be to the current version of the game, so how far away is beta, even if it’s a very lousy approximation? I ask this because I prefer to space my payments so that I don’t spend too much money in the same month, and I assume the game may have a condition that if you do not buy the game prior to beta starting, you wouldn’t be able to gain access to beta later / the price will rise.

Alpha is actually not out yet, we’re working up to that right now. As far as ETA on the first release, it is tough to predict. We are a small unfunded team that relies on a certain amount of volunteer work from colleagues who have day jobs at other studios. This makes scheduling rather unpredictable. I’d guess alpha (which will be a limited gameplay mode) will be released about 5-8 months from now but, don’t hold me too it.

If you’re worried about putting your money down now, I’d suggest you just hold on to it until we get closer to releasing something. You can always follow development here and then decide to invest your money later if / when the time feels right.

  1. Is this dev team in a healthy state? Wouldn’t want to pay for a game and then have the dev team disband the next day. I know nobody has proper insight to that except the devs themselves but maybe you could convince me that the game is alive and kicking haha.

We don’t even have insight into that really. :stuck_out_tongue: I mean, things are going well right now. We encounter bumps in the road every once in a while but have continually been able to get over or around them. People are either working fulltime in financially sustainable situations or have day-jobs at other studios, so it isn’t as if we’re suddenly going to run out of money and vanish.

On the other hand, I could step out onto the street and get hit by a bus and that would probably make it tough to ever complete the game. Of course, I don’t leave the computer much, so that seems unlikely. So yeah, I can’t predict the future but things seem good at this moment. :wink:

  1. Will I be able to play this game without any additional add on service such as Steam?

Yes

7

Welcome aboard.
Hope you have as much enjoyment of this board as we all do. We are all one big happy family.

BTW
It seems that the recent announcements from Blizzard have made a lot of people angry, although not nearly enough in my opinion.
I myself didn’t care about the graphics style and all the other stuff, but the decision to force a constant Internet requirement literally means that I won’t be buying it. My Internet is shoddy, and some months I simply can’t afford it, so it is common for me to be without Internet for months at a time.
And I too have tried to express my concerns & frustrations only to be stepped on by others who have no compassion because they have wonderful Internet & so the decision does not affect them. I’ve been called “whiner”, “crybaby”, “thief” (because they assume that if I want an Off-line mode it must be because I want to hack Diablo 3 or whatever).
But never on this board.
This board is full of respect, even if someone disagrees. I find this board very enjoyable.
:smiley:

8

I almost feel word for word the same way as the OP and what he asked I know I was wondering so I’m sure others were as well. I’m glad to have got your honest input medierra (and the rest of the community). As time gets closer and money becomes more abundant, I look forward to becoming a Legendary Fan and supporting what seems like an excellent dev team and game.