So far everybody has missed the real news in this announcements- mike morhaime announces diablo 4!!! Lol he just said that blizzard won't be able to put out full fledged sequels every year, but for some reason decided that there was a diablo 4. This is far from a formal announcement. More like a slip of the tongue or theoretical proposition.
I would be fine with patches/big fixes annualy, and expansions after about 2.5 years, maybe 2 expansions. And then of course after about 5 years of that(including the expansions) d4. Jk.
I'm not completely against universal bonuses on items. I just feel they were used gratuitously in D2, especially post 1.10 with runewords and such. Implemented as merely good items instead of the best (hoto, enigma, etc) universal bonuses have a place because eventually you will want to give it up for something better. Especially if, as was speculated earlier, your equipment determines your stats. This would make it extremely difficult, due to stat distributions, to have the universally good items be end-game caliber equip; simply because its good for everybody means its not the best for any individual.
For instance say there is a +1 all skills amulet with +5 strength and +5 energy, and also a +1 wizard skills amulet with +10 energy. If you are a casting wizard it will be obvious which you will choose as mana is your most precious resource and most effective method of dealing death to demons and undead.
As with most things in life, quality of execution >= quality of idea.
What I want to know-- how many trick or treaters knew what the pumpkins were supposed to be? IMO, nothing would be cooler than having a 6-year-old say "Hey did you carve that Diablo pumpkin? You know I play that game..." Satisfying.
However, at the same time, maybe kindergarten is a little early to expose kids to nude impaled corpses and the like...
enh, who cares. they've probably seen worse at school.
Maybe I'm not quite getting my idea explained correctly. I don't really want D2 style cinematics every time I face a boss. I think something more along the lines of in-game, triggered events of a boss. Like coming up on the siege breaker biting a city guard in half. Or the countess adding a bit of blood to her bathwater. Nothing too involved or lengthy, just something that completes the feeling that we are fighting demons from hell. And maybe a sense of scale would be nice.
Just pointing out that both of the sources were from before blizzard announced D3. So now we're down to 1 unannounced game, the mmo. I hope its a new franchise or starcraft, as a D3 expansion or 2 would still qualify as not expanding the trilogy but expanding the franchise. In my opinion diablo becoming an mmo doesn't really add anything. However playing a terran marine is very different from playing the race. Blizzard has enough rep points and mmo experience to launch a new franchise should they wish. The game would not be ignored just because it doesn't get diablo or starcraft slapped on the box.
I guess that's closer to what I imagined... 2 or 3 seconds where you can't control your character and the boss enters/does something creepy. Then right in to the action. Dramatic emphasis and a sense of scale and terror are going to be pretty important to blizzard this time around.
In Theory- Baal. To me it seems like the lord of destruction should be able to, well, destroy any of his opponents.
In Practice- Nobody. The three prime evils are more or less equally powerful. Hell being the land of chaos, if one of the brothers were stronger than the others don't you think he would have offed the other 2? Ruling hell by yourself sounds much more appealing than having to deal with 2 other people. And the idea of a non-aggression pact seems... ridiculous. These are the most vile, despicable, foul demons in all of existence. If there was an opportunity to manipulate, connive, back-stab, or cheat the way to power none of them would hesitate to do anything to succeed. Kill your brothers? Yup. Poke out their eyes with their own horns and shovel their brains out through their eye sockets? Just another day in hell. Demons don't have morals.
Maybe the first time you confront a boss (when the quest is active) there should be a brief cut scene to help you get a feeling for what the hell you are fighting. Nothing too long or crucial to the story, but a little intro to make you realize why you should be terrified of this guy. Imagine walking in on (an example, first thing that came to mind) Nihlathak turning a live barbarian prisoner into one of his undead skeleton pawns. The scream of terror and anguish as flesh is ripped from his bones... blood still dripping from the skeleton as it walks toward you... Maybe Nihlathak utters a line or two, something appropriately creepy and deranged. You'd take him more seriously then wouldn't you?
So basically, when the soulstones were smashed the essences of the prime evils were sent to the abyss. Common knowledge. Do a little research. Whether the abyss is a big deal to prime evils? Better question. Dunno.
Ps- forty, did you get that from my post in the 3 headed demon thread? If so, its always good to see my work be recognized =). If not, o well.
For people worried about skill overlap- most of the skills (roughly 60) will be passive skills. Passive skills can do a few things- modify the character, modify a skill, modify a range of skills, and modify the enemy. For skill mods there can be no overlap because skills are class specific. Of course there will be some similarities between class's skills, there always are (amazons charged strike and sorc's charged bolt from d2) but a few skill overlaps will not change how one class plays compared to another. For the other 2 types of passive skills, who cares if multiple classes have a +defense passive? It doesn't affect the actual game mechanics and play. I say Mo skills mo betta. Blizzard knows what they're doing. Don't expect a barbarian casting disintegrate.
The cathedral was indeed constructed by the horadric monks after the capture of diablo and is built on the site where jered Cain buried the soulstone containing his essence. It was used for a few hundred years (are the diablo timeline on the official site for exact numbers), during which the monks built expansive burial chambers and underground tunnels for the deceased monks. This is where the zombies come from, dead horadrim reanimated by diablo. As the horadrim disbanded the monastery fell into disuse, and was abandoned until king leoric repurposed it into his seat of power. I believe that should cover most of your questions, at least the ones that have been answered.
I think I just had my first serious eyes-rolled-back-in-head, lip biting, fangasm. D3 LOOKS AWESOME!!! I'm normally a patient person but Blizzard: CAN HAS NAO PLZZ!!? I practically fell out of my chair when all the possibilities of the skill runes hit me. That adds so much depth that is VISIBLE in the game play, not just in number charts and skill trees. The possibilities are practically endless, and that makes up for a lot of things that Blizzard has made some iffy decisions on (auto skills? plz. we're big boys and girls, we can make our own decisions)
There is a secret I can withhold no longer. It is for the good of the community and myself that this secret be exposed. For the past 13 days i have been dying slowly inside due to a demon-massacre and phat-lewtz deficiency. I contracted this horrible disease after letting my computer get more than friendly with a dirty, nasty, tramp of a program called Lenovo Live Update (or something like that, who remembers a hooker's name anyway?). We tried some things that I thought sounded pretty fun, like new power management software and fancy new video card driver. Heck, she even let me download her wireless interface! But the next day I knew something was wrong. My screen kept burning with "error 25: critical error while loading direct3d" whenever I tried to touch my Diablo II. So I took some Google search, but that got me nowhere. I rolled back my drivers, but that got me nowhere. So I went to the source- nVidia, but they didn't have my drivers. I had to go comb through Lenovo looking for the newest bottle of drivers I could find. But it didn't help. I went as far as uninstalling my Diablo II and then trying to put it back on, but all it did was make the burning worse. I caved and contacted the Blizzard doctors. It was incredibly embarrassing, I felt so naked with all my computer specs right there in front of them. It took the Dr's a few days to respond, and my hope was beginning to sprout in the presence of such knowledgeable professionals. But my hope was misplaced, and it shriveled and died when the anticipated reply finally came. There was nothing they could do. Support didn't cover my computer's problem. I was on my own against an enemy not even the doctors knew how to fix. So I took a chance. I saw a couple friends who have dealt with stuff like this before, and he told me to put my Diablo II in a virtual box. I thought this sounded kinda weird, but hey, a Diablo II in a box is better than no Diablo II at all. So i found a virtual box and some Windows 98 SE to put it on, but the box just couldn't handle my Diablo II. It's just too much for one little virtual box padded with 98 SE to handle. So now the only option I have is to pray that Diablo III comes out before it's too late. And it may already be too late for me.
Hokay, so, after trolling the arreat summit unique index here are some references to real life or actual ancient mythology:
Cerebus' Bite (druid pelt)- named after the 3 headed dog that guards the way to hell.
Titan's Revege- (amazon javelin) named for the Titans of Greek mythology, the beings that ruled before the gods.
The Grim Reaper (war scythe)- do i really need to explain this one?
Pompeii's Wrath (crowbill)- reference to the Italian city buried by a volcano (it even has % to cast volcano!)
Athena's Wrath (battle scythe)- Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom.
Blade of Ali Baba (tulwar)- reference to the character from Arabian Nights, fittingly, Ali Baba was a rather successful treasure hunter, thus his sword has some pretty dirty mf.
Medusa's Gaze (aegis)- Medusa is a gorgon, a being from Greek mythology whose gaze turns men to stone, (she also happens to have a wicked snake hair-do)
Dracul's Grasp (vampirebone gloves)- a reference to the father of all vampires, Dracula.
And that's all I could find in the uniques. There were a couple more references to "Grim" or "The Reaper" but I didn't feel like those merited a specific mention
I think I just had my first serious eyes-rolled-back-in-head, lip biting, fangasm. D3 LOOKS AWESOME!!! I'm normally a patient person but Blizzard: CAN HAS NAO PLZZ!!? I practically fell out of my chair when all the possibilities of the skill runes hit me. That adds so much depth that is VISIBLE in the game play, not just in number charts and skill trees. The possibilities are practically endless, and that makes up for a lot of things that Blizzard has made some iffy decisions on (auto skills? plz. we're big boys and girls, we can make our own decisions)
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I would be fine with patches/big fixes annualy, and expansions after about 2.5 years, maybe 2 expansions. And then of course after about 5 years of that(including the expansions) d4. Jk.
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For instance say there is a +1 all skills amulet with +5 strength and +5 energy, and also a +1 wizard skills amulet with +10 energy. If you are a casting wizard it will be obvious which you will choose as mana is your most precious resource and most effective method of dealing death to demons and undead.
As with most things in life, quality of execution >= quality of idea.
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However, at the same time, maybe kindergarten is a little early to expose kids to nude impaled corpses and the like...
enh, who cares. they've probably seen worse at school.
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In Practice- Nobody. The three prime evils are more or less equally powerful. Hell being the land of chaos, if one of the brothers were stronger than the others don't you think he would have offed the other 2? Ruling hell by yourself sounds much more appealing than having to deal with 2 other people. And the idea of a non-aggression pact seems... ridiculous. These are the most vile, despicable, foul demons in all of existence. If there was an opportunity to manipulate, connive, back-stab, or cheat the way to power none of them would hesitate to do anything to succeed. Kill your brothers? Yup. Poke out their eyes with their own horns and shovel their brains out through their eye sockets? Just another day in hell. Demons don't have morals.
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Ps- forty, did you get that from my post in the 3 headed demon thread? If so, its always good to see my work be recognized =). If not, o well.
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Seriously though, if you look at their records, palin could practically get biden pregnant. Hilarious!
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There is a secret I can withhold no longer. It is for the good of the community and myself that this secret be exposed. For the past 13 days i have been dying slowly inside due to a demon-massacre and phat-lewtz deficiency. I contracted this horrible disease after letting my computer get more than friendly with a dirty, nasty, tramp of a program called Lenovo Live Update (or something like that, who remembers a hooker's name anyway?). We tried some things that I thought sounded pretty fun, like new power management software and fancy new video card driver. Heck, she even let me download her wireless interface! But the next day I knew something was wrong. My screen kept burning with "error 25: critical error while loading direct3d" whenever I tried to touch my Diablo II. So I took some Google search, but that got me nowhere. I rolled back my drivers, but that got me nowhere. So I went to the source- nVidia, but they didn't have my drivers. I had to go comb through Lenovo looking for the newest bottle of drivers I could find. But it didn't help. I went as far as uninstalling my Diablo II and then trying to put it back on, but all it did was make the burning worse. I caved and contacted the Blizzard doctors. It was incredibly embarrassing, I felt so naked with all my computer specs right there in front of them. It took the Dr's a few days to respond, and my hope was beginning to sprout in the presence of such knowledgeable professionals. But my hope was misplaced, and it shriveled and died when the anticipated reply finally came. There was nothing they could do. Support didn't cover my computer's problem. I was on my own against an enemy not even the doctors knew how to fix. So I took a chance. I saw a couple friends who have dealt with stuff like this before, and he told me to put my Diablo II in a virtual box. I thought this sounded kinda weird, but hey, a Diablo II in a box is better than no Diablo II at all. So i found a virtual box and some Windows 98 SE to put it on, but the box just couldn't handle my Diablo II. It's just too much for one little virtual box padded with 98 SE to handle. So now the only option I have is to pray that Diablo III comes out before it's too late. And it may already be too late for me.
majik
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Cerebus' Bite (druid pelt)- named after the 3 headed dog that guards the way to hell.
Titan's Revege- (amazon javelin) named for the Titans of Greek mythology, the beings that ruled before the gods.
The Grim Reaper (war scythe)- do i really need to explain this one?
Pompeii's Wrath (crowbill)- reference to the Italian city buried by a volcano (it even has % to cast volcano!)
Athena's Wrath (battle scythe)- Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom.
Blade of Ali Baba (tulwar)- reference to the character from Arabian Nights, fittingly, Ali Baba was a rather successful treasure hunter, thus his sword has some pretty dirty mf.
Medusa's Gaze (aegis)- Medusa is a gorgon, a being from Greek mythology whose gaze turns men to stone, (she also happens to have a wicked snake hair-do)
Dracul's Grasp (vampirebone gloves)- a reference to the father of all vampires, Dracula.
And that's all I could find in the uniques. There were a couple more references to "Grim" or "The Reaper" but I didn't feel like those merited a specific mention