This is sucky sucky fucky fucky...I like most of these changes, except the removal of the CoJ...
Now that the Stone of Recall exists, we found that keeping the Cauldron and Cube in the game detracted from the benefits of returning to town to sell items, salvage, craft, and interact with the townsfolk. It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out.
This is 100% the opposite of what they said months ago!!! "We would like to keep the "action" in "action roleplying" when we designed Diablo 3. You will always be in the action." Hence the fucking reason they added the CoJ and Nethelam or what ever it's called into the game...to keep the players busy "slaying demons" and not having to go back to town!
This can't possibly have delayed the game! This is minor changes. Even if each of those changes (7 or 8 I think) took 1 month each to change, it should have been finished by now anyways!! Remember they have different teams for some of those stuff, it probably just the programmers that is gonna have a hard time with the changes...still not even 7 or 8 months worth of dev time.
And still no news about the runes-system? That's not cool. Not even a simple outlay?
Jay Wilson is game director for Diablo III and the Inventor of Meat. He believes that Kate Beckinsale is the greatest actress that’s ever lived.
Just trying to add a bit of comic relief? That's not even funny...
Fuck WoW, fuck Korea. Just release Diablo 3. JUST Diablo 3. Not Diablo 3 with added agendas with WoW. It's sad that Blizz know that everybody complaining/QQing about this and D3 as a whole will buy the game no matter when they release.
I'm 100% for the fact that they want to release a bug free game no matter how long it takes, but this...fuck.
//rant off
//happy face initialized! :Thumbs Up:
So who will be playing Torchlight 2 and Grim Dawn before Diablo 3!!!
I have a sneaking suspicion this is all an experiment hosted by a group of psychology phds studying how long they can tease people with a video game until people snap and a line is drawn... Step out you lab coats, I caught you.
I must say I'm liking the changes. The previous stats with uniform attack, precision and defense just felt kinda dull to me. There's almost no way of knowing "this is a Monk weapon" since most weapons were equally good on all classes..
Apart from that I feel most of the other changes are adequate.
I'll just relax some.. obviously a shitstorm of upset fans scream of delays and whatnot... meh
After reading Jay's update it became clear to me that they have a big problem with project management. I'm not talking about tweaking the game or changing things up but when it comes to them rewriting core game mechanics over and over again its clear that they fail in even setting out high level design philosophies.
At the start of the project they should have spent alot of time developing the high level gameplay systems and play expectations. E.g.
1. Focus on keeping the player in combat and streamline systems to achieve this.
2. Give character leveling a clear benefit from 1 - 60. No matter how you change the game level progression should always matter.
3. Introduce artisans that each provide a fundamental benefit to items/stats/skill progression. Whenever you build an artisan assess what their benefits are and how much they overlap with other systems.
4. Diversify skills and promote build experimentation.
etc.
What we are seeing is that Blizzard seem to focus more on prototyping every system they can think of and playing through each than working on the actual concepts and design fundamentals. This would still be fine if it can be iterated quickly but we are seeing them spend an insane amount of of development budget on creating assets, coding, thoughout the whole game for every prototype just to see if they work in game. This takes months and months to build each system just for people to test it for a few weeks before they realise it sucks.
Now my big concern is not so much these updates (besides mystic because this poor lady has been modelled, built, voice acted and productionized at release quailty just to be scrapped because they realise adding +10 to attack is the same as a rare drop modifer) but what is going to happen with the skill/rune system.
I remember way back they had skill points but they said it prevented people from build experimentation so they needed to change this to skill unlocks. The benefit however with skill points was that every level up people had something to do. Especially that stat allocation is out.
When they introduced the skill unlock system to replace points I could see the benefits to experimentation but I saw a huge issue with level progression because once you hit level 30 suddenly leveling up means nothing to the player and all the focus is on itemization.
My biggest fear is that the devs have never addressed this and even when fans have stated "what do we do once we've unlocked all the skills at level 30?" The devs simple shrugged and said "Its all about the item hunt now and it'll be fine!!".
I can almost guarrantee that they've realised that leveling between 30 - 60 is having very little meaning in the game as is and that they are now going to now backflip on skill points and reintroduce them to at least some level.
This again brings me back to how they neglect high level designs and the implications for each change and that their prototyping is actually a full production quality rebuild before they even test the concepts out which is why development is being so damn dragged out and frustrating the shizz out of everyone.
Great news everyone! D3 is going to be more like D2 oh happy day! OH HAPPY DAY! But when will it come! ohhhhh when will it come! lol if they keep it like this I do not care how long it takes! I am sooooooooooo happy theyère making it less like WoW and more like... Diablo!
I'm kind of stunned at the backwards planning here - simply at the stats level. Maybe this is me, but I were developing a system that was heavily reliant on math/statistics/etc, I get that working on paper first; then build up the graphics around it. This seems to have happened the exact opposite way around - make it pretty (it is) then deal with nuts and bolts last.
I get and understand the changes back to normal stats. It did not make sense that wizard DPS came from weapon DPS - that was a very weird choice. And looking back, I wonder why they even implemented that change in the beta - maybe as a test to see if that would quickly fix the problem they had, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel immediately? Perhaps.
Overall, these decisions are good. Though, I'm curious where your common scraps will come from without DEing whites, and I think it sucks that you have to go back to town to sell stuff. As if you cannot look at items in a dungeon and make intelligent choices there.
I find it extremely silly to say that users will enjoy talking to the NPC's in the town. Really? I know when I play Skyrim, i wait breathlessly for the merchants to complete their shpeel before selling stuff. Wait. No I don't. I try and make them shut up as quickly as I can.
The lack of information on the runes is a little weird, too. You'd think that would have, at least, been mentioned.
I played Hellgate: London (ugh, even shelled out the $ for a CE and a "lifetime subscription" And I really enjoyed the whole salvage an item on the fly. That being said, the only time i went to town was to close out one quest and grab a new one. If I were Blizz and I put all this work in my towns and NPCs I guess I would want to flaunt 'em as well. But this does come off a little forced.
I hate the fact that white items got downgraded even further....we all hated them before, but now....
At this point, as a fan and consumer I am beginning to question the ethics of Blizzard. This is far too much stick and not nearly enough carrot.
I thought the Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube was there to keep the combat flow ongoing. Removing them is like Diablo 2. Dude...i dont want to go back to town, i WANT ACTION, what's with this backward iteration!?!? what's the use in gold !?!? where can peeps find their salvaged items to upgrade their blacsmiths etc..!?!?
"It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out"
this has got to be a mistake/joke. Definitely not a good idea for me. Breaking up combat doesn't have to be in town, i can just clear the area and just stand there and check what i just got.
I have no hope in seeing a release until Q4 or even hopes of seeing a release if this continue. The hype is dying for me, i'll rather play some other games until you guys figure it out what to do with your Diablo 2 Expansion take-2, Diablo 2.5 or Diablo 3 w/e you wanna call it
I thought the Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube was there to keep the combat flow ongoing. Removing them is like Diablo 2. Dude...i dont want to go back to town, i WANT ACTION, what's with this backward iteration!?!? what's the use in gold !?!? where can peeps find their salvaged items to upgrade their blacsmiths etc..!?!?
"It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out"
this has got to be a mistake/joke. Definitely not a good idea for me. Breaking up combat doesn't have to be in town, i can just clear the area and just stand there and check what i just got.
I have no hope in seeing a release until Q4 or even hopes of seeing a release if this continue. The hype is dying for me, i'll rather play some other games until you guys figure it out what to do with your Diablo 2 Expansion take-2, Diablo 2.5 or Diablo 3 w/e you wanna call it
You people are ridiculous. All of the sudden it's 'omfg Q4 or 2013, it'l never come out!' when there's zero proof of that. All this with the exception of runestone / skill system is already implemented, and I can guarantee you the runestone / skill system isn't just sketched on someones notepad, it's most likely almost done. Just like these other systems, they don't want to talk about it until it's finished. Them not talking about it doesn't mean it's not two weeks away from being done, we have no idea.
All I'm reading is rants, fuck this i'm going to go play my beta.
This announcement is very interesting and all, but to not address in any way what I believed were the announcement's most anticipated topics, Jay makes the whole announcement fall flat. They're changing a lot of different things about the game mechanics and doing so very late in the game (after failing to meet an already proposed deadline last year in fact). But we all were looking for two things: tell us about runes (since that was, at one time, the last big system change to hash out) and tell us (at the very least) whether you are still on track for the release date window of "early 2012". Jay did neither. Now, we are all left to wonder and speculate about both. At a time when Jay should be putting an end to the speculation by being more specific, he chooses not to address these issues and fuels further speculation. I'd like to think that since Jay didn't change the release date window, the current window is still on the table. But when he makes a point of stressing all the reasons they aren't announcing the release or releasing the game now, he makes it seem as though the current window shouldn't be on the table. So which is it?? I guess I should have expected this kind of vagueness, but it has to end sometime - doesn't it??
One thing that doesn't make sense is the fact that they removed the:
1 - Mystic (identify items)
2 - Cauldron of Jordan (sell items anywhere)
3 - Nephalem Cube (salvage items)
Before:
Walk in dungeon - find item - identify item (scroll) - sell item (CoJ), salvage it (Nephalem Cube)
3 mechanics used in dungeon
Walk in dungeon - find item - go back to town, identify (Mystic) - sell item (CoJ), salvage it (Nephalem Cube)
3 mechanics used in town
After:
Walk in dungeon - find item - identify item (yourself) - go back to town, salvage or sell item (Smith)
1 mechanic in dungeon, 1 in town
This is just a simple thing that bugs me...before, you could have done everything at one location, now you must do one thing here and another there. It's time wasting.
Blizz (Jay) initially stated that they want to keep the player in action, hence the addition of the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube and less time wasting. Now Blizz (Jay) states "It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out.", hence the removal of the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube and more time wasting.
It's not that I dislike this idea completely, I just don't see the change as better as before.
This is 100% the opposite of what they said months ago!!! "We would like to keep the "action" in "action roleplying" when we designed Diablo 3. You will always be in the action." Hence the fucking reason they added the CoJ and Nethelam or what ever it's called into the game...to keep the players busy "slaying demons" and not having to go back to town!
This can't possibly have delayed the game! This is minor changes. Even if each of those changes (7 or 8 I think) took 1 month each to change, it should have been finished by now anyways!! Remember they have different teams for some of those stuff, it probably just the programmers that is gonna have a hard time with the changes...still not even 7 or 8 months worth of dev time.
And still no news about the runes-system? That's not cool. Not even a simple outlay?
Just trying to add a bit of comic relief? That's not even funny...
Fuck WoW, fuck Korea. Just release Diablo 3. JUST Diablo 3. Not Diablo 3 with added agendas with WoW. It's sad that Blizz know that everybody complaining/QQing about this and D3 as a whole will buy the game no matter when they release.
I'm 100% for the fact that they want to release a bug free game no matter how long it takes, but this...fuck.
//rant off
//happy face initialized! :Thumbs Up:
So who will be playing Torchlight 2 and Grim Dawn before Diablo 3!!!
I smell shit spewing for a certain person's mouth...
That was good...
Apart from that I feel most of the other changes are adequate.
I'll just relax some.. obviously a shitstorm of upset fans scream of delays and whatnot... meh
At the start of the project they should have spent alot of time developing the high level gameplay systems and play expectations. E.g.
1. Focus on keeping the player in combat and streamline systems to achieve this.
2. Give character leveling a clear benefit from 1 - 60. No matter how you change the game level progression should always matter.
3. Introduce artisans that each provide a fundamental benefit to items/stats/skill progression. Whenever you build an artisan assess what their benefits are and how much they overlap with other systems.
4. Diversify skills and promote build experimentation.
etc.
What we are seeing is that Blizzard seem to focus more on prototyping every system they can think of and playing through each than working on the actual concepts and design fundamentals. This would still be fine if it can be iterated quickly but we are seeing them spend an insane amount of of development budget on creating assets, coding, thoughout the whole game for every prototype just to see if they work in game. This takes months and months to build each system just for people to test it for a few weeks before they realise it sucks.
Now my big concern is not so much these updates (besides mystic because this poor lady has been modelled, built, voice acted and productionized at release quailty just to be scrapped because they realise adding +10 to attack is the same as a rare drop modifer) but what is going to happen with the skill/rune system.
I remember way back they had skill points but they said it prevented people from build experimentation so they needed to change this to skill unlocks. The benefit however with skill points was that every level up people had something to do. Especially that stat allocation is out.
When they introduced the skill unlock system to replace points I could see the benefits to experimentation but I saw a huge issue with level progression because once you hit level 30 suddenly leveling up means nothing to the player and all the focus is on itemization.
My biggest fear is that the devs have never addressed this and even when fans have stated "what do we do once we've unlocked all the skills at level 30?" The devs simple shrugged and said "Its all about the item hunt now and it'll be fine!!".
I can almost guarrantee that they've realised that leveling between 30 - 60 is having very little meaning in the game as is and that they are now going to now backflip on skill points and reintroduce them to at least some level.
This again brings me back to how they neglect high level designs and the implications for each change and that their prototyping is actually a full production quality rebuild before they even test the concepts out which is why development is being so damn dragged out and frustrating the shizz out of everyone.
The tinfoil is alive and well!
Tinfoils Hats ASEMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Hate that i have to go to town to sell and salvage items now.
signed.
I get and understand the changes back to normal stats. It did not make sense that wizard DPS came from weapon DPS - that was a very weird choice. And looking back, I wonder why they even implemented that change in the beta - maybe as a test to see if that would quickly fix the problem they had, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel immediately? Perhaps.
Overall, these decisions are good. Though, I'm curious where your common scraps will come from without DEing whites, and I think it sucks that you have to go back to town to sell stuff. As if you cannot look at items in a dungeon and make intelligent choices there.
I find it extremely silly to say that users will enjoy talking to the NPC's in the town. Really? I know when I play Skyrim, i wait breathlessly for the merchants to complete their shpeel before selling stuff. Wait. No I don't. I try and make them shut up as quickly as I can.
The lack of information on the runes is a little weird, too. You'd think that would have, at least, been mentioned.
I played Hellgate: London (ugh, even shelled out the $ for a CE and a "lifetime subscription" And I really enjoyed the whole salvage an item on the fly. That being said, the only time i went to town was to close out one quest and grab a new one. If I were Blizz and I put all this work in my towns and NPCs I guess I would want to flaunt 'em as well. But this does come off a little forced.
I hate the fact that white items got downgraded even further....we all hated them before, but now....
At this point, as a fan and consumer I am beginning to question the ethics of Blizzard. This is far too much stick and not nearly enough carrot.
"It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out"
this has got to be a mistake/joke. Definitely not a good idea for me. Breaking up combat doesn't have to be in town, i can just clear the area and just stand there and check what i just got.
I have no hope in seeing a release until Q4 or even hopes of seeing a release if this continue. The hype is dying for me, i'll rather play some other games until you guys figure it out what to do with your Diablo 2 Expansion take-2, Diablo 2.5 or Diablo 3 w/e you wanna call it
You people are ridiculous. All of the sudden it's 'omfg Q4 or 2013, it'l never come out!' when there's zero proof of that. All this with the exception of runestone / skill system is already implemented, and I can guarantee you the runestone / skill system isn't just sketched on someones notepad, it's most likely almost done. Just like these other systems, they don't want to talk about it until it's finished. Them not talking about it doesn't mean it's not two weeks away from being done, we have no idea.
All I'm reading is rants, fuck this i'm going to go play my beta.
D3 Channel: OnetwoD3
1 - Mystic (identify items)
2 - Cauldron of Jordan (sell items anywhere)
3 - Nephalem Cube (salvage items)
Before:
Walk in dungeon - find item - identify item (scroll) - sell item (CoJ), salvage it (Nephalem Cube)
3 mechanics used in dungeon
Walk in dungeon - find item - go back to town, identify (Mystic) - sell item (CoJ), salvage it (Nephalem Cube)
3 mechanics used in town
After:
Walk in dungeon - find item - identify item (yourself) - go back to town, salvage or sell item (Smith)
1 mechanic in dungeon, 1 in town
This is just a simple thing that bugs me...before, you could have done everything at one location, now you must do one thing here and another there. It's time wasting.
Blizz (Jay) initially stated that they want to keep the player in action, hence the addition of the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube and less time wasting. Now Blizz (Jay) states "It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out.", hence the removal of the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube and more time wasting.
It's not that I dislike this idea completely, I just don't see the change as better as before.