In a recent interview with Diablo III lead content designer Kevin Martens, AtomicGamer.com went a little farther than the general-purpose game highlights that non-fansites are so ready to post. Yes, it covered all the development bases like the classic isometric view, the scalable system requirements and gameplay complexity, and randomness (word of the week here at DiabloFans), but after all that came perhaps the most interesting and complete topic: questing and quest stories.
Atomic asked what the team believed needed real improvement from Diablo II to Diablo III, and, without hesitation, Martens replied, "The questing and story." Kevin continued:
Official Blizzard Quote:
I think we’ve added way more quests, more variety of quests. We’ve randomized the quests, and have these sort of quests that are self contained. For example, if you enter a dungeon in Diablo III, there might be somebody standing at the entrance, like a treasure hunter, saying, “Hey, I heard stories about the Idol of Rygnar is hidden somewhere in this dungeon. Help me find it and you can share in the reward.” Then you go through the dungeon and protect this guy. Then you’ll find the idol and you’ll get the reward. People will turn on you…you’re never quite sure what is going to happen. We’re adding all those random elements all over the world. There is way more quest content overall than Diablo II, period.
Over five distinct acts, including Lord of Destruction, Diablo II offered only twenty-seven unique quests, some of which were optional and not all of which were that interesting. Most quests consisted of stumbling upon a monster or item or otherwise being debriefed in a long-winded, impersonal dialog with a town NPC. Then out you went, into the wild, and, with relatively minimal effort or brain power, the quest was completed.
Most interesting of note with quests in Diablo III--besides, of course, the obvious randomized quest upgrade--is that NPC's will actually go on adventures with you from time to time and take a hand in the journeys so essential to the gameplay. Mischief, betrayal, and adventure combine to form quests that aren't quite as repetitive and linear as those of Diablo II. But who can tell how effective these quests will really be until release?
Better storytelling.
Last year's Blizzcon gave us just a taste of some of the ways storytelling will be improved from previous games. Drooling as the minutes tick away while you watch dialog scroll by in town isn't the greatest way to spend your time in an action RPG. Story elements--history, character, etc.--are now shown through interaction and events in the dungeons we explore. Fully-voiced lore books collected on the field will play as you continue to explore, and field NPC's will add more to the mix, including the usual dialog, interaction with elements in the levels, themselves, and more.
Unfortunately, if you were reading the interview in the hopes of finding release date information, Blizzard has countered us yet again. However, Martens echoed earlier Blizzard sentiment this year: 2011 is still the plan.
When they say that 2011is still the plan do they mean the release of the game or the Beta?
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I agree with feminism. I don't think that it's right that for every dollar a man makes, a women gets 70 cents. Why do I only get 30 cents and some chick gets the rest?
Release, but I doubt it's going to happen at this point. I'm betting on first quarter 2012 and beta this year some time. They've said late 2011 and I think some financial schedule showed last quarter 2011.
I wouldn't take anything that Blizzard says as completely factual, but I wouldn't take it with a grain of salt either. What happens 8 months down the road is hard to predict, so they might say that they want to release it this year, but that might not happen.
Hopefully, it does. If it does, than 2011 will be the best Christmas I've had in years.
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I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
I am really looking forward to see just how many quests there are and how many are "random".
Me too. I can't wait to check that out.
Something else I'm hoping for is randomly generated hidden rooms. Kinda like how D2 had them. With destructible environment it could be really awesomely done.
One I'd love to find is a hidden passage in tristram cathedral leading to the old Butcher's Room. :biggrin:
The thing about the hidden rooms was that I always knew where they were. That's probably because there was only two types of hidden room blocks in the level templates for the prison in act one.
They should make them harder to find and have the rewards inside more worth your time
I always just enjoyed them, even if I knew going in I'd come out with a small pile of gold. It was satisfying to have that feeling of opening something no one else had in a long while.
Perhaps he was speaking generally, but I just want to get this out of the way out of the gate: F*$# ESCORT QUESTS. No more hapless AI's hell bent on their own destruction(and failing the quest without your politely requesting it).
That said, this sounds super cool, and similar to what a lot of games seem to be doing these days. I'd thank Warhammer for it, but the randomly encountered quest concept might pre-date them. Now with Rift and Guild Wars 2, this seems to be the status quo. Same locations, randomly generate content.
Well it sounds more like you'll just have him following you, and I hope to god those kinds of questgivers can't die. When I heard it, I thought he was talking about something like the quest shown at Blizzcon, where the guy tells you whats up and asks you to kill some cultists, but its not like he was in danger of dying.
What happens 8 months down the road is hard to predict, so they might say that they want to release it this year, but that might not happen.
I tried not to, I tried to approach it with an air of indifference. But technicalities don't matter right meow.
I just hope that, when I'm doing a side quest where I do have to escort somebody, that they don't deliberately try to take on huge monsters with lots of bulk. There's nothing I hate more than somebody being a dumbass, which:
1) Disallows me from completing the quest
2) Causes me to save their ass because they're fucking retarded
3) Ultimately, discourages me from even trying to complete it
If I could make him hide in a corner, like a Command < Stay, then that would be cool. I just don't want them to die while I'm trying to kill 20 guys and he's over there up to his neck with Fallen Berserkers.
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I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
I think overall they have made the right decisions on the way to go with DIII and this interview sheds some light on their reasoning. I'm a bit of an optimist but it would take some effort for these guys to come out with something that I would utterly despise. They have a challenge to keep me playing DIII as long as I have DII, but if anyone is up to the task it's them.
I think having the random quests and what not setup the way they do may actually allow them to release content updates easier. They could literally focus on creating random content "tiles" and drop them into the available pool. Granted this is speculation, but I could see something like that happening easier. At worst, it will keep people like me interested for a long time.
Ultimately i'm super-happy about them sticking with the isometric view and despite the long, somewhat loosened, debates about how the game looks; I think it looks amazing. I can't stop drooling over some of the environments we see in the various movies and screens.
Just as a side note regarding the quests: Diablo isn't really known for having quest failures. I'm sure it's something they could, and may have, implemented. But quests in the Diablo games have always been a matter of do until complete or die trying. I'm not sure how a quest failure (like an NPC dying) would fit into the ARPG model anyhow - but I suppose we will see.
I think overall they have made the right decisions on the way to go with DIII and this interview sheds some light on their reasoning. I'm a bit of an optimist but it would take some effort for these guys to come out with something that I would utterly despise. They have a challenge to keep me playing DIII as long as I have DII, but if anyone is up to the task it's them.
I think having the random quests and what not setup the way they do may actually allow them to release content updates easier. They could literally focus on creating random content "tiles" and drop them into the available pool. Granted this is speculation, but I could see something like that happening easier. At worst, it will keep people like me interested for a long time.
Ultimately i'm super-happy about them sticking with the isometric view and despite the long, somewhat loosened, debates about how the game looks; I think it looks amazing. I can't stop drooling over some of the environments we see in the various movies and screens.
Just as a side note regarding the quests: Diablo isn't really known for having quest failures. I'm sure it's something they could, and may have, implemented. But quests in the Diablo games have always been a matter of do until complete or die trying. I'm not sure how a quest failure (like an NPC dying) would fit into the ARPG model anyhow - but I suppose we will see.
In my 1st play threw witch was crazy hard by my self I did enjoy the depth of the quest. If you did not complete a certain quest you would not advance threw the game, hence the dye trying, and I did a lot of that! Running into dungeons numerous times just to get my gear back; Good Times! Another thing to point out is how you moved into different quest it keeps you in the story and lore of the game. Having one or two long quest active at a time makes you explore the world and keeps you out of grind spots. It makes fun game play!
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DO WORK! -Eurynom
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Atomic asked what the team believed needed real improvement from Diablo II to Diablo III, and, without hesitation, Martens replied, "The questing and story." Kevin continued:
Official Blizzard Quote:
I think we’ve added way more quests, more variety of quests. We’ve randomized the quests, and have these sort of quests that are self contained. For example, if you enter a dungeon in Diablo III, there might be somebody standing at the entrance, like a treasure hunter, saying, “Hey, I heard stories about the Idol of Rygnar is hidden somewhere in this dungeon. Help me find it and you can share in the reward.” Then you go through the dungeon and protect this guy. Then you’ll find the idol and you’ll get the reward. People will turn on you…you’re never quite sure what is going to happen. We’re adding all those random elements all over the world. There is way more quest content overall than Diablo II, period.
Over five distinct acts, including Lord of Destruction, Diablo II offered only twenty-seven unique quests, some of which were optional and not all of which were that interesting. Most quests consisted of stumbling upon a monster or item or otherwise being debriefed in a long-winded, impersonal dialog with a town NPC. Then out you went, into the wild, and, with relatively minimal effort or brain power, the quest was completed.
Most interesting of note with quests in Diablo III--besides, of course, the obvious randomized quest upgrade--is that NPC's will actually go on adventures with you from time to time and take a hand in the journeys so essential to the gameplay. Mischief, betrayal, and adventure combine to form quests that aren't quite as repetitive and linear as those of Diablo II. But who can tell how effective these quests will really be until release?
Better storytelling.
Last year's Blizzcon gave us just a taste of some of the ways storytelling will be improved from previous games. Drooling as the minutes tick away while you watch dialog scroll by in town isn't the greatest way to spend your time in an action RPG. Story elements--history, character, etc.--are now shown through interaction and events in the dungeons we explore. Fully-voiced lore books collected on the field will play as you continue to explore, and field NPC's will add more to the mix, including the usual dialog, interaction with elements in the levels, themselves, and more.
Unfortunately, if you were reading the interview in the hopes of finding release date information, Blizzard has countered us yet again. However, Martens echoed earlier Blizzard sentiment this year: 2011 is still the plan.
But it'll be 2012.
Hopefully, it does. If it does, than 2011 will be the best Christmas I've had in years.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
go summer 2012
But that's essentially what you did:
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Me too. I can't wait to check that out.
Something else I'm hoping for is randomly generated hidden rooms. Kinda like how D2 had them. With destructible environment it could be really awesomely done.
One I'd love to find is a hidden passage in tristram cathedral leading to the old Butcher's Room. :biggrin:
They should make them harder to find and have the rewards inside more worth your time
That said, this sounds super cool, and similar to what a lot of games seem to be doing these days. I'd thank Warhammer for it, but the randomly encountered quest concept might pre-date them. Now with Rift and Guild Wars 2, this seems to be the status quo. Same locations, randomly generate content.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the news team.
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I tried not to, I tried to approach it with an air of indifference. But technicalities don't matter right meow.
I just hope that, when I'm doing a side quest where I do have to escort somebody, that they don't deliberately try to take on huge monsters with lots of bulk. There's nothing I hate more than somebody being a dumbass, which:
1) Disallows me from completing the quest
2) Causes me to save their ass because they're fucking retarded
3) Ultimately, discourages me from even trying to complete it
If I could make him hide in a corner, like a Command < Stay, then that would be cool. I just don't want them to die while I'm trying to kill 20 guys and he's over there up to his neck with Fallen Berserkers.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
I think having the random quests and what not setup the way they do may actually allow them to release content updates easier. They could literally focus on creating random content "tiles" and drop them into the available pool. Granted this is speculation, but I could see something like that happening easier. At worst, it will keep people like me interested for a long time.
Ultimately i'm super-happy about them sticking with the isometric view and despite the long, somewhat loosened, debates about how the game looks; I think it looks amazing. I can't stop drooling over some of the environments we see in the various movies and screens.
Just as a side note regarding the quests: Diablo isn't really known for having quest failures. I'm sure it's something they could, and may have, implemented. But quests in the Diablo games have always been a matter of do until complete or die trying. I'm not sure how a quest failure (like an NPC dying) would fit into the ARPG model anyhow - but I suppose we will see.
In my 1st play threw witch was crazy hard by my self I did enjoy the depth of the quest. If you did not complete a certain quest you would not advance threw the game, hence the dye trying, and I did a lot of that! Running into dungeons numerous times just to get my gear back; Good Times! Another thing to point out is how you moved into different quest it keeps you in the story and lore of the game. Having one or two long quest active at a time makes you explore the world and keeps you out of grind spots. It makes fun game play!