^ Exactly. I play a set of toons solo and another set with selected friends (only played with those friends to keep levels the same). It's quite fun, just feels "right" if you know what I mean. Need to go back and play now that I think about it.
As long as you have self control, who cares what dup methods exist. Who cares what cheats people use. It's pretty much a single player game, unless you coop with some friends. If you guys don't cheat, it doesn't matter if some other person does. It has no affect on you.
I certainly get that, but is this a game that is supposed to have some type of player-based economy? Or at least the mechanics in place to make it work, and the content-need (end game content that needs or requires rare end-game gear) for it?
If not, then who cares. If so, then that kinda thing removes the economy. For some (not saying that's me), they get into the trading and accumulating massive (though ultimately worthless) wealth in these games.
I am curious about this game since Diablo 3 gets boring a while after each new patch.
Are you able to respec, or do you need to start new characters each time you want to make a change?
All skills and devotion points can be respecced (for a price of course) but the stats are permanent. The price for skills and devotion points starts off really small and you can actually revamp your entire build for pretty cheap, but if you have to respec your entire build more than once, you're looking at a ridiculous amount of iron. Besides, I believe the fun lies in making new builds and trying them out as you level up. If you just want to take a max level blank slate then try out every build with that one character, then I'll wager you will get bored in less than a week.
Which game has the hardest, deepest, most complex combat out of all these games? Grim Dawn, PoE, or Diablo 3? I haven't played any of them yet.
There is no real setup in place for anything other than player to player trading. I've never traded personally. There are no requirements for specific gear, no matter how much some people think Ultimate requires perfect gear. There are many people who have beaten Ultimate with self found gear by that character. That said, there are some cool things you might be able to do certain gear.
I think the fun is just trying tons of different builds, and see how they do. I also pass on gear I've found from other characters to make those characters stronger than they'd otherwise be if I used only items they found.
All skills and devotion points can be respecced (for a price of course) but the stats are permanent. The price for skills and devotion points starts off really small and you can actually revamp your entire build for pretty cheap, but if you have to respec your entire build more than once, you're looking at a ridiculous amount of iron. Besides, I believe the fun lies in making new builds and trying them out as you level up. If you just want to take a max level blank slate then try out every build with that one character, then I'll wager you will get bored in less than a week.
How do I save a game? Does this game auto-save only? If so, how do I know when my progress has been saved?
Are you able to reload a saved game from a particular time?
It auto saves. I think you can go into the general settings and adjust how long between auto saves. It also will automatically save when you log out.
The only way to save a particular point in time is if you go into the save files and make a copy of them.
Been playing since Build 24 and I don't ever recall an option like that.
Every time you exit the game, it will automatically save your game. Quest progress is really the only thing saved as you will always start back out in one of the three major "towns" with everything you found before you quit. Enemies, chests/breakables, and secret areas will all be reset upon exiting and loading your character. Some secret areas have multiple spawn locations so if you found it before you quit, it may not be in the same place the next time.
Also, the two rogue dungeons do not allow you to town portal out of them and since they both require a very rare item to access them, it will be a waste if you exit the game before you complete them.
Which game has the hardest, deepest, most complex combat out of all these games? Grim Dawn, PoE, or Diablo 3? I haven't played any of them yet.
I tried it, seems nice in many ways and the grind is addictive at least, but I didn't like how all I ever did was hold Q and occasionally W. I got to level 14 but think I will try some other stuff.
Don't you think level 14 is awfully early to make that judgement. You are at best, 2-5% done with the character. Like most RPG's, the early levels don't have a lot of skills developed, so you won't use a lot. Of course you can build high level characters that use few or many skills too.