Ryanrocker

The Toyota Camry my dad drives has been running for 19 years

Hmm, I heard about similar problems about a month ago on the official forums. It appears that over in Europe/UK the IP addresses change everytime you boot up? If you don't find a solution soon, I'd send a quick little email over to support@grindinggear.com. The last time I asked them a question they got back in about 3 hours, and their support one of the nicest I've dealt with in a long time. Hoping to see you in game

That's always the worst feeling for me. After playing a hardcore character, playing them in softcore just doesn't give the same experience imo

The game will be coming out of Open Beta in October, and it's a non-steam game Awesome! Yup, you never ever have to touch PvP if you don't want to. It's definitely more of an 'extra' to the game

Hehe, this is almost exactly what happened to me. I was just completely blown away by how good the game is if you put in the effort to understand the complexity of some of the mechanics. What's one of your in game names, that way we can add you

Just wanted to give those of you who don't mind Steam a heads up that Sacred 2 Gold Edition is $10 right now. I think I'm gonna pick one up, if only for stability issues with my hard copy

Yup, and currently there is an 'extra' HC mode called Onslaught. The monsters move, attack, and cast 20% faster than in the regular leagues

Heh, maybe they should have talked to said core audience before taking the financial risk mentioned in the quote above

This is what I am most confused about

Our online family

I don't think Birne is underestimating how INVESTED people have become to the Sacred series. Without a doubt, almost no one will argue that they loved the games when they played them and would love to see similar (and better) versions and sequels come out. There's certainly a lot of heart there from those who play. What I think Birne is getting at is the AMOUNT of people who are invested. I agree with him on this point here. Earlier you said that DarkMatters has about 27-30 thousand members. I'd wager about 2,000 of them come from something completely unrelated to Sacred (guild wars, Ogame, etc.). And even saying that maybe Clan DA has the same (doubtful because we are a lot of duplicates over there), and then the SIF, you're only looking at somewhere around 100,000 caring players. I'm sorry, but heart can only carry you so far with a triple 'A' publisher and the economy. Am I being pessimistic? Yes. But I am being pessimistic because the facts scare me.

Happy Birthday Knuckles, hope it's a great day for ya

Honestly I think this is the root of the problem. DS never asked/researched what kind of game their already established fan base wanted. Unfortunately, I also do agree with birne from a game developer point of view. The game can't be drastically changed at this point from what DS has come up with. The basic mechanics (no open world, etc.) will be staying the same, but hopefully they can take our feedback so far and put it somewhere positive

Couldn't agree more birne. Going back to the drawing board would mean tons of lost time and money put into the production cycle, something that is ALWAYS behind in the gaming industry. What we saw in that image preview was probably a few weeks off schedule/budget already. We might see some changes to the way the combat arts work (more than 1 or 2?) but nothing that would change the world or huge features like you said. Keep in mind that it's not just as simple as creating a game that people want. If they go back to the drawing board and start up from scratch, there is no way in hell they'd make enough revenue to cover the costs for almost two full production cycles. They somehow have to try and tailor the current product to suit the feedback they've been getting. In the competing games, I would take out Sacred and put in Path of Exile. PoE has a MUCH bigger player base than the Sacred Series had, but that comes in part because the game is free to play. Also, there is basically a Titan Quest II with Grim Dawn, made by Crate. Although they are an indie studio, I feel the game is gaining popularity quite quickly. Definitely agree about Torchlight getting better and better each time.

Welcome to Dark Matters I haven't played in awhile, but doesn't the scorpion have the sand debuff that lowers your attack rating significantly? Perhaps this is what is happening?

My drop rates make no sense to me...I was farming the Ledge with 75% item rarity gear and literally got no blues, and then the second I take all the gear off I got 2 unique drops in a row? What madness is this GGG?

So far I've been following guides for all of my builds so far because that skill tree is just daunting for new players. But yesterday after my latest death, I decided to try out planning my own build with the offline skill tree. And man was that just one of the best things I've ever done! Never in a game have I had to check the most optimum path of getting to a certain skill, or hell even being able to choose about 100 skills! The customization is amazing when it comes to builds and really just blows me away

I saw the sale on the premium tabs early in the week and decided to wait for regular tabs to go on sale, but now I'm reconsidering. Do you label them for item categories and whatnot? I just wasn't sure if it was worth double the price of the regular ones

Now that I think about it, is it even possible to have all 90? I mean we only get 4 stash tabs to start with, and I'm not sure how many character you can make for mules but that seems like a lot of space needed

I notice they don't mention the T-Shirt you can get by completing all the challenges in the 4 Month League Chrona, will you be trying to complete these challenges? I think the unique item one will probably be the hardest for me.

One can only hope, especially with the direction they took the series with Sacred Citadel. Hopefully they can learn from the player feedback and do some good work for us

And it's certainly a huge challenge. Lost a 35 Templar and 20 Shadow today, but must rebuild!

Hey there guys, thought I'd share some thoughts about why Path of Exile will most likely be the game for me that fills up my Sacred 2 crave. With Sacred 3 looking worse and worse as the "next" big game for me to sink my teeth into, I have been meandering through other games and trying to find ones that can compare to the enjoyment I had from playing Sacred. I'm also here trying to raise awareness for the game, because as of now it's just me and Chrona and a handful of guys from the DA forums and I'd love to see more of you ingame I'll also post the official beta trailer down below as well. So without further ado, let me go into what I think are the similarities and differences between Path of Exile and Sacred 2... Similarities - You are able to level up individual skills, very similar to how the Combat Art rune system in Sacred 2 works. In Path of Exile, skills have their own experience bars, and level up as long as you character has them equiped. So instead of eating some CA runes to increase your skill, you fight more monsters to level it up. - Skills are found as drops, very similar to how you had to find Combat Art runes before you could use them. Only difference is that there is NO skill trader in Path of Exile like the Rune Master in Sacred, so you really have to find them through either drops, or choose from quest rewards. - Skills can be modified to have different effects, sometimes totally changing how a skill previously worked. This is similar to the Modification Point system that Sacred 2 uses, but instead of putting points into a lore/focus to get mod points, you slot "support" skills into your regular skills. - Wide character selection with 6 classes to choose from, although they are all humans. - Every single character class can be made into any fighting style you want. I found this similar to how the build design process in Sacred 2 works. In both games there are basically no character design limits. - Character level up system involves 1350 passive skills Although certainly a larger amount of passive skills than Sacred 2 offered, a lot of them are duplicates (IE +% life) so it's not actually that large. Also keep in mind that in Sacred you put points into skills after you selected them, whereas in PoE it is a one point investment. - Good closed multiplayer servers! - Leaderboard system that is relatively competitive, so if you like that side of things it's there. Sacred also had the leaderboard system under Ascaron on the official forums before it went down as I recall. - Hardcore mode! - Takes a decent amount of time investment to get to max level. 100 max level in Path of Exile and 200 max level in Sacred 2. The reason I bring this point up is because in games like Diablo 3, it's extremely easy to hit max level and a lot of people got burnt out from that. - Activated skills have awesome and interesting color/visual effects, very similar to how most of Sacred 2's Combat Arts were visually distinct. - 3 separate difficulty modes, where you have to beat the previous difficulty in order to unlock the next one. Sacred 2 uses the same idea except with 5 difficulties. Differences - The game uses a theme of an exile, so early game gear is meant to make you feel like one visually. Your armor will look like it's missing a few links or buckles early in the game. This is different from basically all the armors in Sacred which look pretty good visually I'd say. - There is a isometric, unrotational camera so you won't be glimpsing any far off horizons. Obviously different from the 360 view we had with Sacred. - The game is not one huge continuous map, but rather separate instances that you travel through. However, I do want to point out that the zones are truly random and unique every time you instance. In about 2 hours of running the same zone for experience, I don't think I encountered the same map structure twice. - Questing system is mainly fetch/kill quests and there only a handful of optional ones. Sacred 2 had over 500 quests. - The game is free to play, and they have said in their mission statement that they will be funding the game on supporter packs and cosmetic items. So there is no pay to win system. Other Thoughts - Finding groups to party with is just a click of a button and you are in the server/party - Loot allocation can be set by party leader - Crafting system that is extremely well thought out - No gold! Instead a currency system based around crafting is implemented along with a global trade channel. - The endgame is NOT endless grinding, but is instead what they call "Maps". These are special challenge dungeons that will reward you will slightly better loot. - There are leagues and challenges that they constantly update. For example a 4-month "Turbo" hardcore league just started. These leagues are interesting because it means everyone is back to level one and there is a fresh economy to start in. - Free to Play! So I hope you enjoyed reading or found out something interesting/new about Path of Exile from this post! Accounts can be made for free here http://www.pathofexile.com/ If any of you decided to play feel free to add me DARK_Rocker

I never really noticed it before, but you're entirely right. Just the entire art design looks so childish that it's a shame. As far as I know, the Sacred series has had a tone of humor to it and not some ridiculous cartoon look.