Consoles are basically computer at this point anyways, why not bring the games over? Imagine playing it on a GIGANTIC HD tv in your living room. I'd love it.
Ha ha, my 37" LCD came WITH a VGA port in back so I AM playing Diablo 1/2 in my living room! I also have a Microsoft wireless desktop that I sit on a wooden panel across my lap so I play from the comfort of my reclining sofa. I love it. I'll never go back to sitting at a desk in front of a monitor. Throw in a full sized Dolby 5.1 setup (not some lame htib) and it's Diablo like you've never seen/heard it. Diablo 1 on the playstation wasn't bad at all, I thought it worked well when I played it. But the new game obviously needs many more hotkeys for skills but I'm sure it can be done, and I wouldn't mind it, tho it'll be the pc version for me.
I was here just 20 minutes after the announcement this morning. hallelujah. We've waited and waited, now we know for sure. I can deal with that. Now it's development time. What I can't deal with are people complaining about the first initial gameplay video. We wanted overhead view with 3d graphics. And now we learn that is exactly what blizzard is going to give us. Why the bitching? What is wrong with you people? WoW? It looks nothing like it. It looks like a 3d rendering of the overhead view we know and love. Of course the graphics aren't as gritty, hello they are 3d textures instead of software drawn sprites. Of course there will be roundedness to them. But look at how lively the environment is. The torches, the flowing water, the rats, the billowing of curtains when the barbarian swings his axe, the demons crawling up the side of the bridge. The HUGE structures, the giant chandeliers with burning candles that glide by as you progress. It's everything we all wanted and more. Blizzard applied a delicate touch to Diablo and afaic, came up with a winner. Not too much, not too little. Just right. And why the hatred for WoW anyway. We think we've waited a long time. I bet a lot of WoW players are the same guys that paid for BBS games like MajorMUD. If anything, Wow isn't an mmorpg, it's a GMUD, graphical multi user dungeon, and those guys have been waiting longer than we have for a new game
diablo3.com not found here in Canada, I hope this is it. I can't take the tease any more. Even though it'll be two years before we potentially see, I just want some content, announcements, whatever, anything new Diablo.
Wow, I need to check in more often. This thread is bloody HUGE. But what I can't believe is the warring and pissing that goes on between fellow members. Aren't we all here for the same reason? The domain shift is an obvious thing, and as close to an official unofficial announcement as you can get. Why after so many years would somebody just be sitting around an office thinking 'hmm I think I want diablo3.com today. no reason, not working on the game or anything, just woke up this morning. looked at my eggs and decided I wanted this domain', yeah right. And we won't likely see any official Diablo 3 information until they've milked Lich King, so I personally believe we've got years yet before we see/hear anything.
hmm maybe in the not to distance future it could be remade, in all its glory. though i'd like d3 first lol
Actually, that's sort of being done. There's a mod for NWN that allows you to play D1 with the NWN engine....don't know if it's still being worked on though. Ah just checked, YES it's still being worked on, though I haven't tried it http://nwn.tolitz.com/
there's the link.
It also includes Hellfire content as well.
Diablo Hellfire was an expansion to Diablo. It was made by Sierra, not Blizzard. It's pretty much crap, though the Monk class would be usefull, simply for the item find....
God no, it was hardly crap. Two whole new areas, multiple quests, new items including the awesome Bovine Plate armour. The new area beneath the cemetary is just awesome. Hellfire just about doubles the content of the game! How can you call that crap?
Let's see how Diablo II fairs against Diablo I (Yet again, IMO)
Gameplay - Diablo I is better
Slower paced and eerie. Less clutter and a lot more manuevering and other different tactics. Diablo II was run and kill.
Music - Diablo I is way better
So creepy. The first part of the labyrinth was great. Only instrument I recognized was drums. Everything else was screams, groans, struggling victims, and monsters. Diablo II was like a damn opera. Oh and by the way, the best music from Diablo II was in Tristram - because it was from Diablo I and it was/is legendary.
Monsters - Diablo II is better
Diablo II wins this simply because of the diversity of all the monsters, but on the average, Diablo I had more nostalgic enemies.
Terrain/the world - Diablo I is better
Diablo I was made to be creepy, and what better way to make it creepy than to enclose the character in a single labyrinth with limited retreats and plenty of areas to explore in the meantime. Diablo II was too open. It ruined the "trapped" feeling
Skills - Diablo II is better
Again, Diablo II was more diverse, this time with skills, so it wins this one hands down.
Characters - Diablo II is better
More diverse again.
Multiplayer - Diablo II
Need I say more?
For all those points that you list D2 as being better...well every single one of those is basically improvements upon what was started in D1. D1 was/is a smashing great game, Sierra's addon makes it much more exciting. I just started playing again, my one char's save state was right in front of the big D himself, lol! I had saved it waiting for my g/f to be home so she could watch me beat it and I never did. I just hammered him tonight with her here, I'd beaten the game before but this was the first time with the Hellfire ending so that was pretty cool. A buddy and I used to play multi years ago on the Playstation....it wasn't much fun for him cause I was a sorceror he was a warrior. Once I started spamming that chain lightning, more often than not he was the one who ended up dead. Why did Blizzard allow for friendly fire damage anyways I still think melee chars are too weak against elemental damage even in D2. Armours should come with built in elemental DR to make melee chars tougher, and I hate equipping a big two handed maul that has a high damage rating but constantly missing....maybe I just don't know how to set up barbs properly, it's still easier to just spam fireball away than to be a melee char. Anyway, I'm back to D1 for a while, I missed the throbbing soundtrack and the haunting voice when you encounter those 'story books'. Still cool stuff even now.
Hell yeah, and I still return to it from time to time. As for the complaint about monsters running away, that's easy to overcome, just use a sorcerer and grab every chain lightning book you can find. The game is horribly balanced towards the sorcerer, you can just walk along nuking everything, but its also cool. I love the pounding music, sounds great on a fine sound system, my one complaint about D2 is they really mellowed the music out. Also Vanilla D MUST be played with the hellfire addon, I'd love to get a hold of an original copy just for collecting purposes (why the hell didn't Blizzard snag the license and stick it in the BChest is beyond me). My only gripes with D1 is the annoying 'uh uh uh' sounds when you are getting hit, they get on my nerves, and playing a melee char and having to click for every single swing. Stay away from that supposed 'hellfire fixed' addon, at first I thought it would be cool having the 'supposed' bugfixes, but I thought it was kind of dumb having ultra unique gear dropping right off the bat in normal difficulty. I'm a Diablo freak to the end, I love both games, and the novels, in fact I don't even delegate time for any other PC franchises except for Need For Speed and Command and Conquer.
WARNING LARGE POST
First off, I would love to congratulate, and to thank each and every poster on this board. It is SO great to see the thought and speculation put into this game. I think it says WORLDS about Diablo 3 when there is this much lively debate about a game that is a sequel to a game released over 7 years ago. I do not believe there is any other gaming franchise that enjoys this type of fanaticism when we haven't been given the slightest clue from its maker that it exists even in prototype form. That being said, and after having read the bazillion posts on this site, here are my own thoughts on how Blizzard should handle our next game.
To MMO or not to MMO. This is a toughie. We all know software makers' complaints about how internet piracy eats into their sales. And serious fans have to understand how alluring a subscription service is to a gaming company. Even consoles aren't exempt from the issue. It doesn't matter that Blizzard has made untold profits from WoW. That is no reason for them to make a Diablo game at a loss, simply because another game makes money. Everybody wants to be successful at what they do, software programmers are human beings too, with aspirations and passions. I wouldn't want to go to work knowing that my productivity is being heavily eroded by thievery, no matter how successful my employer is in its other ventures.
So, how could Blizzard make a Diablo MMO without sacrificing the virtues of a Diablo game? Pay to play is fine, but without an initial purchase price. Make it a free initial game, that way the people themselves can decide whether to continue paying and playing, or if they do not like the game, they are only out their initial monthly fee. Those that love the game and wish to enjoy it for longer periods of time pay for longer. Then it becomes a matter of making sure the game keeps players interested...the better it is, the longer people will play, the more money Blizzard makes. What I have a problem with is paying 50 bucks + monthly fee, and possibly finding out the game sucks, now you're out a substantial amount of money, and Blizzard laughs to the bank.
A traditional Diablo game has an ending. You beat Diablo, and the game ends. We would have to let go of that type of single quested game in order for MMO to work. Once 500 000 people have beaten the Lord of Terror, the subscriptions end, and the game dies. A hack and slash MMO can work, they would just have to run multiple game settings with a limit on the number of people present in any single game, similar to something like Yahoo euchre where you can only have a set number of people in each 'room'. And the difficulty of beating an enemy should be dependant on how many people are in the game. Like if one person is running solo in a game, the enemies have X hit points. Once another person joins, the difficulty instantly increases. AND have it so that once a single player game becomes a multiple player game, it should STAY that way, so that you can't reap experience, then render a boss weak by having the second person disbanding. A five player game would STAY a five player game. And the difficulty should also correspond with the level of the highest player to have joined the game, no more 'leechers'. No level one players using level 50 players to mooch xp, as they would be instantly wiped out by the tough monsters, everybody has to work. A live Diablo environment is an exciting concept, lots of places to explore.
One thing I think should be changed is the amount of mobbing that needs to be done to get to higher levels. Make the boss battles longer, like in the old fashioned turn based RPG's, but make them highly rewarding with less mass monster mobbing, the rewards also dependant on the level of the game itself. Holy crap, I've just introduced another factor in the physics of the game. The Glvl, which is a culmination of the highest number of players ever in that particular game and the highest character level present in the game. Reward = Gamelevel = highestcharacterlevel + highestnumberofplayers. No more 'normal/nightmare/hell' games, the difficulty is now a dynamic factor(which only goes up, not down), and the rewards are as such.
I've already mentioned class specific quests in another post, I really think this is a cool idea, which would also have class specific rewards. No pets, I hate that idea, you shouldn't need a pack mule with town portal scrolls. Make spells that have increased damage + area of affect, and graphics that are increasingly nice to correspond with them. No more level 1 firebolt that looks the same as a level 20 firebolt. Keep the action fast paced without a 3D environment, the 3/4 overhead is just fine. Other than those things, go nuts, Blizzard, and give us fans something that will keep us engrossed for years to come.
Why bother with a new poll, elfen? The results have been OVERWHELMINGLY in favour of keeping the feel of what works. The isometric overhead view of the previous two Diablo games. That perspective keeps a more direct link between the player and the character. Remember, Diablo is an ACTION RPG, not an artsy fartsy type. I was just running my Necro through the Durance of Hate, and wandered across a pile of bloody corpses. I simply LOVE those tiny details in D1 and 2, bloodstains on walls, etc. They just can't be done the same way in 3D. The people have spoken. Give us an ultra smooth engine in the traditional 3/4 view with loads of little graphical details, and I am sure that NOBODY will be disappointed. Oh yeah, keep up the good work with those awesome cinematics, and Cain should definately be back, what would a Diablo game be without him identifying your goods?
Well, any activity is definately better than none, I suppose. I never had a problem with performance, either, but it's safe to say that once Blizzard gives us the slightest morsel of acknowledgement of the possible existance of development of Diablo 3, I'm sure the floodgates will open on this site. And as for 'plenty of other games', I think the newest game I have played is either Need for Speed Most Wanted or Dungeon Siege II, whichever was out last. I can try any number of games, such as the Final Fantasy games that I have been playing on my DS, but dammit I still turn back to Diablo 2 and spend hours on it, usually because I've found some new angle I want to take with my characters. It just never seems to lose its appeal. Thank you Blizzard, for this game.
well i know this thought might be a streach for everybody who is loyal to diablo2, and trust me i love d2 just as much as the next person... but listen to this... think about not having classes at all... now your all prolly think WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!! but think about it... have different types of basic skill... for example a skill that would be on both sides of heaven and hell: fire... now every lvl you gain you get a skill point (or more if you have a different system than the one i am thinking of) and let say you get abilitys based on the lvl you have in fire... for example you get firebolt at lvl 1, then somthing else at lvl 2 and so forth. and that would go the same for all skillz you can think of. and instead of having + to skillz on items you have +x% to dammage for skills. so if you want you could be a jack of all trades and a master on none or a master in fire spells, master in swords (all weapon types would have a different skill tree), and in assassination, and a little in defence or what ever. so the possiblitys would be just about endless...you could think about builds all day and you prolly wouldn't even scratch the serface... this system would be of course complicated, but it would give you the possiblety of doing anything you wish. comment on this please... i would like to know if this is just a stupid idea or if i have somthing going on here
ugh, it's stupid simply because you replaced s's with z's. God, I hate that.
Well, I'm not going to read all 75 pages of this, so I hope I don't reiterate TOO much of what has been said. Here's the list.
1.No 3d. As in, no fancy 1st person it just slows things down. Imagine some of the mobs in D2 made with 3D sprites and you get the picture. I've tried to get into games like Dungeon Siege and they just aren't fast paced enough. Forget about zoom even, don't need it, don't want it. Remember some of the cool little details in Diablo dungeons like bodies trapped in torture devices and things like that or blood spattered on walls? It's too resource intensive to do all that with a 360 degree aspect. So no 3d. Turning on 'perspective' in the video options was plenty of 3d for me. (I still think the Countess' Tower in D2 looks cool like that). In fact, the perspective option in d2 is more realistic than a lot of 3d games that are out where yes the landscape is fancy looking but things like tops of tall buildings don't 'move' independantly of the ground around them.
2.Character specific quests/areas. This would make replay value. Like Necromancers have to do quests involving Rathma lore and things like that. Barbarians have to travel into the Highlands to learn about their heritage and gain items/abilities. Make the game different for each class depending on their role in the world. I'm thinking of the DnD series of books where Raistlin Majere had to survive the 'Tower of Sorcery' in order to gain 'ultimate power'.
3.No pets or pack mules. They just get in the way of the action. If I wanted a virtual pet I'd play Black and White or get a Tamagotchi.
4.Make spells/abilities have different graphics when given skill points. Like instead of a seperate firebolt/fireball spell for the sorc, make it so that skill points invested into firebolt make the result larger and more fiery and give it more area of affect. Like level 1 firebolt is a simple fire missile, but level 20 firebolt is a massive explosion on contact dealing loads of aoe damage.
5.Don't skimp on the music. Use the same european orchestra to make the music that was used for the LoD add on (I've heard they have recorded D3 music already. YUMMY!). Sound quality is more important to me than fancy graphics. I love the music in Harrogath.
6.I'm not against pay to play as that is really the only way to keep piracy from eating your revenues. But expansions should be FREE and regular. Hell make the damned initial purchase free too. It'll pay for itself as long as you keep it interesting.
7.Bigger stash. Damn I hate trying to juggle a multitude of runes/gems/magic find gear, etc.
8.If D3 is an mmorpg make a good balance between single/multi. Is this possible? Like if somebody chooses to solo instead of party, maybe give them quests that give them abilities beyond a constant leech/partier. Maybe this goes back to point 2 somewhat. Or maybe that an area is harder for mp, but gives more experience if you do it single player. Or something. Give us introverts a leg to stand on!
Well I think that about sums it up because I think that most of us all want the same thing: D3 to be D2: Bigger Badder Uncut.
if you've ever played Bloodrayne, Hellgate looks like it plays much in the same way. Flagship's 'other' game in development is Mythos. Now THAT game looks like a right Diablo ripoff. But I can't blame them, it's what they've known and done for so long. But my loyalties lie with Blizzard and Diablo to the point that I have withdrawn interest from all other PC games, including Command and Conquer and Need For Speed. There's just too much that I want to do in D2 (I only started playing a couple of years ago) and even CD (still haven't done a Rogue or Monk) and not enough time (daughter, job) that Diablo is now my gaming life. Carlosseus, get the books man, they're a mere ten bucks a piece and Richard Knaak is one damned fine writer, you won't be disappointed. Oh, and as for Necromancers, their studies take up most of their lives, much like sorcerers so they don't develop social skills very well.
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Ha ha, my 37" LCD came WITH a VGA port in back so I AM playing Diablo 1/2 in my living room! I also have a Microsoft wireless desktop that I sit on a wooden panel across my lap so I play from the comfort of my reclining sofa. I love it. I'll never go back to sitting at a desk in front of a monitor. Throw in a full sized Dolby 5.1 setup (not some lame htib) and it's Diablo like you've never seen/heard it. Diablo 1 on the playstation wasn't bad at all, I thought it worked well when I played it. But the new game obviously needs many more hotkeys for skills but I'm sure it can be done, and I wouldn't mind it, tho it'll be the pc version for me.
http://www.diabloii.net/wiki/Diablo_3
just in case anybody has forgotten some of the tidbits. And what is this probably bogus claim on planetdiablo? It's dated April 1st (haha) but they seem awefully sure of themselves
http://www.planetdiablo.com/features/articles/d3-04012008/
http://nwn.tolitz.com/
there's the link.
It also includes Hellfire content as well.
For all those points that you list D2 as being better...well every single one of those is basically improvements upon what was started in D1. D1 was/is a smashing great game, Sierra's addon makes it much more exciting. I just started playing again, my one char's save state was right in front of the big D himself, lol! I had saved it waiting for my g/f to be home so she could watch me beat it and I never did. I just hammered him tonight with her here, I'd beaten the game before but this was the first time with the Hellfire ending so that was pretty cool. A buddy and I used to play multi years ago on the Playstation....it wasn't much fun for him cause I was a sorceror he was a warrior. Once I started spamming that chain lightning, more often than not he was the one who ended up dead. Why did Blizzard allow for friendly fire damage anyways
First off, I would love to congratulate, and to thank each and every poster on this board. It is SO great to see the thought and speculation put into this game. I think it says WORLDS about Diablo 3 when there is this much lively debate about a game that is a sequel to a game released over 7 years ago. I do not believe there is any other gaming franchise that enjoys this type of fanaticism when we haven't been given the slightest clue from its maker that it exists even in prototype form. That being said, and after having read the bazillion posts on this site, here are my own thoughts on how Blizzard should handle our next game.
To MMO or not to MMO. This is a toughie. We all know software makers' complaints about how internet piracy eats into their sales. And serious fans have to understand how alluring a subscription service is to a gaming company. Even consoles aren't exempt from the issue. It doesn't matter that Blizzard has made untold profits from WoW. That is no reason for them to make a Diablo game at a loss, simply because another game makes money. Everybody wants to be successful at what they do, software programmers are human beings too, with aspirations and passions. I wouldn't want to go to work knowing that my productivity is being heavily eroded by thievery, no matter how successful my employer is in its other ventures.
So, how could Blizzard make a Diablo MMO without sacrificing the virtues of a Diablo game? Pay to play is fine, but without an initial purchase price. Make it a free initial game, that way the people themselves can decide whether to continue paying and playing, or if they do not like the game, they are only out their initial monthly fee. Those that love the game and wish to enjoy it for longer periods of time pay for longer. Then it becomes a matter of making sure the game keeps players interested...the better it is, the longer people will play, the more money Blizzard makes. What I have a problem with is paying 50 bucks + monthly fee, and possibly finding out the game sucks, now you're out a substantial amount of money, and Blizzard laughs to the bank.
A traditional Diablo game has an ending. You beat Diablo, and the game ends. We would have to let go of that type of single quested game in order for MMO to work. Once 500 000 people have beaten the Lord of Terror, the subscriptions end, and the game dies. A hack and slash MMO can work, they would just have to run multiple game settings with a limit on the number of people present in any single game, similar to something like Yahoo euchre where you can only have a set number of people in each 'room'. And the difficulty of beating an enemy should be dependant on how many people are in the game. Like if one person is running solo in a game, the enemies have X hit points. Once another person joins, the difficulty instantly increases. AND have it so that once a single player game becomes a multiple player game, it should STAY that way, so that you can't reap experience, then render a boss weak by having the second person disbanding. A five player game would STAY a five player game. And the difficulty should also correspond with the level of the highest player to have joined the game, no more 'leechers'. No level one players using level 50 players to mooch xp, as they would be instantly wiped out by the tough monsters, everybody has to work. A live Diablo environment is an exciting concept, lots of places to explore.
One thing I think should be changed is the amount of mobbing that needs to be done to get to higher levels. Make the boss battles longer, like in the old fashioned turn based RPG's, but make them highly rewarding with less mass monster mobbing, the rewards also dependant on the level of the game itself. Holy crap, I've just introduced another factor in the physics of the game. The Glvl, which is a culmination of the highest number of players ever in that particular game and the highest character level present in the game. Reward = Gamelevel = highestcharacterlevel + highestnumberofplayers. No more 'normal/nightmare/hell' games, the difficulty is now a dynamic factor(which only goes up, not down), and the rewards are as such.
I've already mentioned class specific quests in another post, I really think this is a cool idea, which would also have class specific rewards. No pets, I hate that idea, you shouldn't need a pack mule with town portal scrolls. Make spells that have increased damage + area of affect, and graphics that are increasingly nice to correspond with them. No more level 1 firebolt that looks the same as a level 20 firebolt. Keep the action fast paced without a 3D environment, the 3/4 overhead is just fine. Other than those things, go nuts, Blizzard, and give us fans something that will keep us engrossed for years to come.
1.No 3d. As in, no fancy 1st person it just slows things down. Imagine some of the mobs in D2 made with 3D sprites and you get the picture. I've tried to get into games like Dungeon Siege and they just aren't fast paced enough. Forget about zoom even, don't need it, don't want it. Remember some of the cool little details in Diablo dungeons like bodies trapped in torture devices and things like that or blood spattered on walls? It's too resource intensive to do all that with a 360 degree aspect. So no 3d. Turning on 'perspective' in the video options was plenty of 3d for me. (I still think the Countess' Tower in D2 looks cool like that). In fact, the perspective option in d2 is more realistic than a lot of 3d games that are out where yes the landscape is fancy looking but things like tops of tall buildings don't 'move' independantly of the ground around them.
2.Character specific quests/areas. This would make replay value. Like Necromancers have to do quests involving Rathma lore and things like that. Barbarians have to travel into the Highlands to learn about their heritage and gain items/abilities. Make the game different for each class depending on their role in the world. I'm thinking of the DnD series of books where Raistlin Majere had to survive the 'Tower of Sorcery' in order to gain 'ultimate power'.
3.No pets or pack mules. They just get in the way of the action. If I wanted a virtual pet I'd play Black and White or get a Tamagotchi.
4.Make spells/abilities have different graphics when given skill points. Like instead of a seperate firebolt/fireball spell for the sorc, make it so that skill points invested into firebolt make the result larger and more fiery and give it more area of affect. Like level 1 firebolt is a simple fire missile, but level 20 firebolt is a massive explosion on contact dealing loads of aoe damage.
5.Don't skimp on the music. Use the same european orchestra to make the music that was used for the LoD add on (I've heard they have recorded D3 music already. YUMMY!). Sound quality is more important to me than fancy graphics. I love the music in Harrogath.
6.I'm not against pay to play as that is really the only way to keep piracy from eating your revenues. But expansions should be FREE and regular. Hell make the damned initial purchase free too. It'll pay for itself as long as you keep it interesting.
7.Bigger stash. Damn I hate trying to juggle a multitude of runes/gems/magic find gear, etc.
8.If D3 is an mmorpg make a good balance between single/multi. Is this possible? Like if somebody chooses to solo instead of party, maybe give them quests that give them abilities beyond a constant leech/partier. Maybe this goes back to point 2 somewhat. Or maybe that an area is harder for mp, but gives more experience if you do it single player. Or something. Give us introverts a leg to stand on!
Well I think that about sums it up because I think that most of us all want the same thing: D3 to be D2: Bigger Badder Uncut.