Thought this might deserve its own thread. As I posted below:

It's much worse than the connectivity issues.

Game play has been altered.

My old 99 'zon was in a hell game with a friend on Saturday about noonish, and we both noticed the level of difficulty had dropped dramatically, and items dropped from kills were more along the lines of what you'd see in normal or nm level. In fact, I kept checking the screen to make sure I hadn't made a nm game by mistake.

I've since confirmed this with a number of other players, who've noted the same issue. Hell isn't hell anymore.

I've played this game since '01, and I know how hell is supposed to play, how it's supposed to "feel". It's now far too easy. I took another friend into a hell game to show him what was happening, and he noticed the spawn from my faith bow were killing monsters in the temple in act 5. In fact, we mostly just stood back and chatted while the merc and spawn killed stuff around us. We've made numerous games (together and also myself with others) --- same issue.

Another thing we noticed about this, in hell games made with 90+ characters, the vendors in all acts are selling armor and other items for low levels, most are for levels 3-25. Very few if any for higher levels, and even of those the highest I've seen were for level 65. I have NEVER had that happen before.

I made a new barb, figuring that hell was pointless to play anymore, and while leveling in normal act 1 cold plains, there was a HUGE swarm of the little red "Fallen" guys (who are revived by the shamans). There must have been at least 40 or 50 of them. I managed to kill them, and the shamans. Then they began to revive --- but there were no shamans anywhere around. They simply popped back up (without the sound you hear when they come back to life).

The connectivity issue will be resolved. It's aggravating, but I'm much more concerned about these other issues.

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Q u o t e:
You say the connectivity issue will be resolved.

How do you know that?

Please pay attention to what we have all been saying.

We want to hear something from Blizzard about what they have done and what they are going to do about it.

You are minimizing the gigantic problem by saying it will be resolved.

D2 has become Legacy status now. And these CI's and FTJ's may stay as normal play..

Even before the 24 hour maintenance recently, if DClone walks in a game of yours withing 4 minutes there will be a CI.

Happens every time.

Also, you are playing Non-Ladder by the way you sound.

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I am very much aware of what you all have been saying. My point is that the issues I found with the game itself are a much bigger problem.

Even IF the connectivity problem isn't resolved, and I have every belief that it will, the game itself has been altered. The disconnects seem to happen in clusters, several in a row; sometimes it's random. Either way, at times I am able to enter and play in games for a considerable length of time without being disconnected. So while the disconnections are frustrating as hell, the fact that the game play as been altered as I describe (and I've since found more that proves my point) makes the game worthless, IMO. THAT is what I really want them to address.

i play useast ladder. i have several high level toons and i haven't noticed any difference in gameplay. or in monster difficulty.

are you sure that you havent just forgotten how easy stuff is to kill if you are equiped with high-end gear?


edit to add:
as for drops, in the last few days i havent noticed high level items dropping any less. ive found many elite uniques (lol, although not many of them were worth keeping, ie. alma negra, mang song staff, etc)

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Q u o t e:
i play useast ladder. i have several high level toons and i haven't noticed any difference in gameplay. or in monster difficulty.

are you sure that you havent just forgotten how easy stuff is to kill if you are equiped with high-end gear?


edit to add:
as for drops, in the last few days i havent noticed high level items dropping any less. ive found many elite uniques (lol, although not many of them were worth keeping, ie. alma negra, mang song staff, etc)

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No, I haven't forgotten :)

At first I thought maybe I was imagining it ... but have since confirmed with a number of other players who are experiencing the same thing. I will say that today I'm haven't experienced any disconnects, so I'm interested to see if what I mention above has changed too. I'm going to get on various character and see what the level of difficulty seems to be. Early this morning I was on for about 30 minutes and it was still too easy; the two other players who joined my game agreed. But at least we were able to stay in the game.

Maybe it was related to disconnect issue (or something they did to 'fix' it). I've also wondered if it was a (hopefully temporary) change to discourage bot runs and / or ad bots.

ive asked some others that i regularly play with, no one else seems to be having the issue you describe.

monster difficulty seems the same. monster drops seem the same.


anecdotally: i found a fathom this afternoon (both high qlvl and tc) which can only fall in the more difficult areas in hell

by the way, when you say you are going to check out your other chars to test difficulty level. are you talking about just subjectivly how it feels? or are you using any methodology that can compare the before and after?