Chris: ALT-F4 LEGIT STRAT

Don't alt-f4, but all having it enabled accomplishes is emphasize using 1 shot-kill mechanics, as players cant just quit from sustained damaged situations they otherwise would succumb to, creating a false representation of difficulty.

*shrug* I really don't see a problem with utilizing alt+f4 or esc>exit.

Wow, Chris..buddy...that's the most bizarre line of reasoning I think I've ever heard out of a game dev. I mean, the fact that you allow this cheesy garbage in the first place is bad enough, but to admit you're consciously developing the game around it...I'm just flabbergasted. To say my confidence in you guys is shaken would be an understatement.

As much as the HC crowd around likes to beat their chests about how superior they are, I would certainly think you guys would be demanding something like this be removed. If I was a HC player that didn't use alt f4, I certainly wouldn't want to be lumped in with people that utilize a cheap way out like that. Makes it real hard for me to take any of the HC guys that shit on SC seriously.

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Chris wrote:

Maybe my explanation in the Raptr Q&A isn't optimal (I answered over 100 questions rapidly), but I stand by our reasoning that causes us to allow people to drop instantly.

We want our fights to have large swings of damage and to cause a rush of adrenaline in the player. If the game didn't allow you to drop instantly then we'd have to dumb down the fights so much. We've tried it.

In addition, it means that we're able to make hard boss fights that players can attrition if they choose to. If we had to design the act bosses so that players needed to kill them in one go without dying then they would be pushovers.

We have said this multiple times on the forum and in interviews before (as well as implementing the game to be that way) - our stance shouldn't be a surprise!

Unfortunately, this makes me somewhat question the development team if the only way you can think to increase difficulty is massive spike damage that one shots people, the best way to avoid is to alt+f4 out of the game. Is that really the only way you can think to approach a boss fight to make it extremely difficult, yet able to be overcome in one go by a skilled player?
I suppose it may be difficult since the skill ceiling in ARPGs is rather low. It is far more about just having the right combination of items/skills to overcome a scenario, rather than any kind of reaction based gameplay.
Either way, this feels like a weak excuse to me. Perhaps you should all sit down and try approaching difficulty from other angles instead of damage.

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CliveHowlitzer wrote:

Perhaps you should all sit down and try approaching difficulty from other angles in addition to damage.

FTFY

Clive, I don't think you're wrong, and I don't think Chris is wrong either. I think you need both. Seriously. The danger here is going too extreme down any one route.

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Chris wrote:

Maybe my explanation in the Raptr Q&A isn't optimal (I answered over 100 questions rapidly), but I stand by our reasoning that causes us to allow people to drop instantly.

We want our fights to have large swings of damage and to cause a rush of adrenaline in the player. If the game didn't allow you to drop instantly then we'd have to dumb down the fights so much. We've tried it.

In addition, it means that we're able to make hard boss fights that players can attrition if they choose to. If we had to design the act bosses so that players needed to kill them in one go without dying then they would be pushovers.

We have said this multiple times on the forum and in interviews before (as well as implementing the game to be that way) - our stance shouldn't be a surprise!

Alt+f4 hurts immersion though so why not make f4 a shortcut to insta warp back to town locking the player out of that map/instance as a tradeoff.

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Chris wrote:

It's not that we're actively attempting to make fights where we want people to alt-f4, it's that when faced with the choice of:

• Disable it and put a timer on exit
• Allow it, which means we have to be able to justify it

We vastly prefer the second option because it leads to fights that are honestly a whole lot more fun (for us, at least).

Maybe the best solution would be to avoid this type of question, but I am trying to answer honestly!

If you are going to approach it from this kind of mindset than why not just create an in-game ability that lets you teleport to town with a marginal start up? That way it becomes part of the gameplay to teleport out of a boss fight and back to town? An instant escape that isn't closing out of the game client.
I'd argue that town portals are already that, except for the delay of loading out of the area. I am not even really complaining about people Alt+F4ing really. It is just that, if you think the only way to design hard boss encounters is through massive bursts of damage, I am just disagreeing. I think you could approach it in other ways. There is more to life than damage. In fact, I think when you fixate too much on DAMAGE as the end all, be all of everything, that it hurts diversity everywhere in the game.
Run on sentence completed.

-EDIT-
Also, I should add that the adrenaline rush of alt+f4ing out of the game at hardly any life and surviving feels like an artificial high to me. It isn't the true adrenaline you'd get from a well designed boss encounter. It is a fraud.