- sanctus
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Member for 15 years and 15 days
Last active Tue, Oct, 4 2011 09:19:54
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Oct 8, 2009sanctus posted a message on Auras to Return in Diablo III?I don't see what all the hubbub is about.Posted in: News
So they want to add support to a class. Big deal? If you're not already aware the Barbarian has retained his combat shouts from Diablo 2, such as battle cry which increases the defense of the party.
They never said how the auras would work, or how instrumental they would be in a particular class design.
Every class will have some sort of support. If it's not auras and battle shouts, it's buffs, debuffs, or area of effect support like a wizard's slow time ability.
Relax. -
Oct 1, 2009sanctus posted a message on Diablo III, the Female MonkSo it's basically short hair with long bangs.Posted in: News
Hot. -
Sep 30, 2009sanctus posted a message on Ready the Speculation Wheel: Diablo III Monsters and that Elusive MMONext-gen MMO is in fact their unannounced next-gen MMO. For WoW job postings, they simply have the tag World of Warcraft. Cataclysm is anything but a next-gen mmo. It's still Warcraft, it's still very much last generation.Posted in: News
There's another posting I saw on there that raised an eyebrow or six.
It's not labeled as next-gen mmo, or WoW, or Starcraft, or D3.
3D Production Artist
United States-CA-Irvine
Unannounced Game Title
Apply
Oh the implications are staggering! Yet another game in development over at Blizzard! What could it be! Warcraft 4? Blackthorne 2? Rock N Roll Racing: The Revival!!?? Only Blizzard knows.
Production artist would imply that this particular game is still very early in development: conceptual stage early. -
Sep 29, 2009sanctus posted a message on What Do YOU Want To Know About Diablo 3?Posted in: NewsCan we still manipulate iTunes from within the game with the stroke of a hotkey we set up ourselves?
Winamp has been doing this for years. It's called global hotkeys, and it works with every game. I still use iTunes since I have an iphone, but for gaming Winamp has no equal. It's lightweight, hotkey controllable while minimized to your system tray, and the community plugins make it incredibly versatile.
Anyway, getting off course here...
My questions:
"You said that the siege beast in the early gameplay trailer was not, in fact, a boss. It looked pretty dynamic when the barbarian was insta-gibbed by being grabbed and his head being bitten off. Will actual boss fights contain events of this nature? Can bosses instant-kill you in this more scripted way, or is it going to be all hack n slash like the previous Diablo games?"
"On that note, will killing bosses ever require more than hacking and slashing? Will there be more strategy involved in Diablo 3?"
"Are there any situations, through scripts or spells, where a player briefly loses control of his character in combat? Such as, bosses who mind control in World of Warcraft." -
Sep 18, 2009sanctus posted a message on Blizzard's Next MMO Will Have "Broader Appeal".Really? WoW is easy?Posted in: News
So... how many hard modes have you completed on Heroic Raid difficulty? -
Sep 15, 2009sanctus posted a message on Blizzard's Next MMO Will Have "Broader Appeal".I cannot for the life of me imagine Blizzard putting out a game like the Sims. It just doesn't fit into the game library.Posted in: News
Lets conquer planets and destroy alien races as we delve into the dark secrets of the ancient Xel'Naga while making tenuous pacts with rebellious alien factions pursuing their own hidden agenda!
Lets engage the demonic hordes as mankind dwindles on the verge of utter extinction or assimilation! Lets take the fight to HELL!
For the Horde or for the Alliance! Let's bring honor to our faction whilst fighting back against the horrific Burning Legion, the Lich King and his dark undead army of corpses, frost wyrms, and cultists!
Lets try on this pretty new outfit. Oooh look this one comes with a bow tie! Oh I could TOTALLY accessorize with this brand new sofa that compliments the new clothes I bought today! Ooooo look at those SHOES!! Must have! Now lets go mingle with the local players and maybe have a barbecue together! Yippee hurray!! -
Sep 11, 2009sanctus posted a message on Why Blizzard Could Soon Return to Game Consoles.I guess people forgot that Diablo 1 was ported to Playstation 1. It played just fine. Diablo to consoles is not a stretch by any means.Posted in: News
RTS like Warcraft or Starcraft however, is another matter entirely. RTS games do not have a positive history on consoles, most notably due to the control scheme and interface. -
Jul 10, 2009sanctus posted a message on A bit of cool info about loot systemIt's news to me. I'm sure it's news to other people as well. Good post.Posted in: News
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Jun 30, 2009sanctus posted a message on Diablo 3 Loading ScreensPosted in: NewsQuote from "RoBHnK" »I jizzed in my parts after reading this, so sexy....
Blizzard said no loading screens and I. Jizzed. In. My pants. -
Apr 27, 2009sanctus posted a message on How Long Is Too Long For Game Development?I don't care how long it takes for a company to develop a game.Posted in: News
I am tired of the market being saturated year after year with terrible, unpolished games. I would rather wait and play an awesome game 5 years from now, than play that same game tomorrow before it's gone through it's complete, polished development cycle.
It's a problem from publishers mostly. Developers generally want as much time as they can afford to make their game. But publishers push release dates because they will only spend a certain amount of money on a project in order to maximize their capital. Other times well, developers just suck, and their project shouldn't have been green lighted in the first place lol.
Thank goodness Blizzard doesn't have this problem. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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But I think it's important, not only in game design but playing the game, to retain a subjective perspective about features, instead of objective.
"Is this a feature I could enjoy if it was entirely unique to D3? Does it alter my experience positively?"
rather than...
"I don't like this feature because it was in WoW, and I don't like playing WoW."
Blizzard has a lot of good ideas, many of which are already implemented in their current games. Games like WoW, Starcraft, Warcraft 3... uh, Rock N Roll Racing? I say, good on them for taking their own ideas and reusing them when appropriate.
One important thing about progressive game design is that you don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes the wheel is already round. You can't make it rounder.
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My farm actually makes our own growing kits. Of course we call them "logs". But they are basically a bag full of sawdust, secret corporate stuff, mushroom spawn, and love. Mostly love.
We have thousands. Some of our customers prefer to grow the mushrooms themselves if they have the space for it.
I'm personally not a fan of oyster mushrooms, but I love shiitake. How to cook shiitake? Saute it with garlic and onions, and then use it with steak. Or you can throw it in soup, or pasta, or chili, or fry it with burgers. Doesn't have to be anything special. Personally I like to throw them in the slow cooker with whatever happens to be in there. After 5 hours of slow cooking, the flavor is really just... great.
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http://diablofans.com/news-pics/diablo3-rainbow-shirt1-large.jpg
So instead of combining a tome of town portal in the horadric cube for the cow level, let us put our heads together and think of an item worthy of teleportation to such a divine world. Well, considering the content matter surrounding the creation of the pictured shirt, I have an idea:
Obsidian Shard of Unrelenting Shadowy Darkness and Monochromes. Put this item in your fancy horadric cube, and be transported to a world like no other.
I'm going to dub this world Jubilation.
Lets highlight some features:
- The color palette of Jubilation is very specific: PASTELS
- Instead of bipedal cows, we are fighting against the colorful unicorn menace! The unicorns, although menacing, are always cheerful, and instead of galloping around like you may expect them to... they hop! As though they are skipping through Jubilation with glee!
- Players spells and attacks forgo their usual graphical effects in place of rainbows!
- The final boss in Jubilation will be a giant sun beaming with happiness. Or perhaps a giant teddy bear named Cuddles. This is up for debate.
Character flavor text/speech upon entering Jubilation through the portal:
Barbarian, male
- "What is this... wonderful place?!"
- "Look! Unicorns!" (girly laugh ensues, followed by clearing of the throat) "I mean... let's kill!" (followed by deep thunderous cackle, ending nervously/awkwardly)
Barbarian, female
- "What terrors await us? Pink beasts with mighty horns?!."
- "Everything is so colorful. It reminds me of Azeroth. Wait, what's Azeroth?"
Witchdoctor, male
- "This place sickens me."
- (muffled noises of choked back vomit) "Whew, that was a close one."
Witchdoctor, female
- "I don't like it here."
- "It tastes like happiness. Disgusting."
Wizard, male
- "Surely only the Lord of Terror could summon such a horrible realm!"
- "The magical energies feel different here." (queue spell casting sound effect) "Rainbows!"
Wizard, female
- "Personally I wouldn't have gone with this shade of green."
- "Whomever the dark master of this world is, I *will* stop him. And then I'll ride that unicorn over there!"
This is a serious suggestion.
Add your ideas below.
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I always choose the melee characters. Maybe it's because I work with my hands a lot. I'm a hands on kind of guy.
Wait...
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The rarity of the item should be determined by your level, the difficulty level, and the difficulty of the quest.
I'm sure Blizzard would use some sort of complex formula for this. They love using formulas.
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Not a bad idea.
There is a snag though. Considering the amount of custom games players will cycle through, we're potentially looking at hundreds of character slots needed just for custom games.
And then there's open and closed bnet.
It's not impossible, but we'd have to start looking at a completely new character selection front-end for such an implementation. Like... a drop down list, or something lol.
Or it could be context sensitive. Like if you hover over or select a custom game, there could be a pop up that displays the characters you currently have saved for that particular custom game. Or something.
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Hye! I'm an ex-WoW addict seeking to break the chains by engulfing myself in Diablo pudding. Or forums. I'm 25 years old. I grow shiitake and oyster mushrooms. They are of the non-magic variety. I look forward to contributing to the community in as many ways as possible.
Adios.
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Yeah, I would imagine this feature only to be accessible to open bnet characters. To keep things nice and tidy and in Blizzard's control, server-side realm characters shouldn't be able to access custom content.
However, the option to copy your realm character for use with custom games (essentially copying your realm character to an open bnet character slot) is a good idea. Some people just don't play open bnet. To make it easier for them, so, you know, they don't have to grind up a new character to play some custom games.
The thing that excites me the most about this type of feature is what happened with Warcraft 3. DOTA aside, there were some truly unique and fun gameplay experiences that couldn't possibly be offered in the stand alone Warcraft 3 game. With scripting and creativity, some players were able to do some really incredible things.
Some custom games that come to mind are Dawn of the Dead survival horror games, the Final Fantasy rpg maps, and of course Angel Arena, or Hero Arena, or Ultimate Whatever Arena; it went through a few names. There are of course other great examples of creative and intelligent scripting.
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Diablo is a franchise that would benefit greatly from player generated content. What I think they should do is something that is a good mix between Warcraft 3's map editor/scripting tools and City of Heroes' recently released Architect feature.
The logistics are simple. You can spend countless man-hours developing content for your players (which you should still do, I expect a robust story driven Diablo this time around!), or (also and) you can spend countless man-hours developing the tools for players to develop content for themselves and others. And get headlines like this...
http://kotaku.com/5216590/city-of-heroes-players-create-more-content-than-devs-in-24-hours
For the sake of simplicity, let's just call this feature Custom Games, like in Warcraft 3. Separate from any ladders or other multiplayer gametypes.
Lets highlight some of the ideal features:
*For reference sake, when I use the term map, it can be assumed that this is refering to outdoor areas, or indoor dungeons.
- Includes a fully featured map editor complete with rich scripting tools and functions
- Player can fully customize monsters by choosing their name, stats, special attributes, and aesthetic by selecting from a range of pre-defined skins and colors.
- Player can edit the loot table of any customized monster, pulling from a list of pre-defined Diablo 3 weapons, armor, and items. To prevent abuse, each monster rarity type will have their own item cap. Each item, depending on it's quality and rarity, will have a scored number value. You may only include items in the monsters loot table until you have hit that value cap. The cap can not be edited, but the rarity of the monster can, consequently increasing the cap. You can only have a certain number of monster rarity types per map area. For instance, the player may not fill their map with 100 unique-rarity monsters.
- Players may import their own skins and models for monsters and npcs, allowing for truly unique denizens on their created maps.
- Players may fully customize npcs by choosing stats, special attributes, and appearance options. Npcs can be made into vendors in which case the player may edit their sellable items. As with monster customization, npcs have an item cap so they cannot be loaded with rare and unique items. Each item has a pre-defined cost based on the quality of the item and stat weights.
- Players may create their own weapons, armor and items using their own imported models and textures or using predefined models and textures. Similar to monster loot tables, weapons cannot be loaded with incredible stats. Each weapon type, depending on the rarity you assign it, is allowed only a set number of stats. Each stat has it's own "weight" which, when added to the weapon, works towards the stat weight cap. You cannot exceed the cap. The cap is defined by the rarity.
- Players may fully edit the environments allowing placement of Diablo 3 assets into their created map.
- Players can control many aspects of the environment and script them to trigger based on events or scenarios. Players can control the lighting of any object, as well as the overall map lightning. This allows for complete control over the atmosphere of the created map. Aiming for that survival-horror feel? Totally possible with the right lighting and level design.
- Players can script events using items, assets, npcs, monsters, areas, time elapsed, and much more.
- Players can create story arcs that branch to and from different player created maps. Let's just call this feature a Tome for now. A Tome consists of all of the player created maps in a given story arc. When players download the Tome they are downloading multiple maps, and when they play the game they are seamlessly loaded between the maps when they entered the user defined areas that allow them to transition to the next map.
I will expand on these ideas a little bit later, I'm short on time right now. You guys can also expand on these areas.
A few things to keep in mind. While we want to have as much freedom as possible with generated content, do not overlook the limits and caps that need to be set in order to prevent players from abusing the creation tools and just making worlds that drop nothing but set items and uniques. This is incredibly detrimental to the online diablo community. Akin to dupe hacking. We all know what that is like, and we all hate it.
Also, while this feature is incredibly ambitious and perhaps so much that it couldn't possibly be fit in Diablo 3 before release, keep in mind there are opportunities for expansions. And content patches. And also dreaming and wishful thinking.
Feel free to add to what i've put here.