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Quote from d3maniac2012

Please do not reply without reading my full post and no flaming/trolling as well as fully explain your build / link.

Quote from MonkManD3

This one is a Male Demon Hunter 3D model, which is SICK!!

Diablo III lead technical artist Julian Love sheds details on how different classes will interact with the game world, what developers learned from the closed beta, and even potential plans to port the game to consoles.

BlizzCon 2011 is a celebration of all things Blizzard Entertainment. The game publisher and developer was on hand at the fan festival to reveal the latest information on the much-anticipated role-playing game, Diablo III. With a new early 2012 launch time frame, attendees were able to get quality time with the new game over the two-day event. And for those who already play World of Warcraft, Blizzard is offering an incentive to those who purchase the new Annual Pass by offering a free digital copy of Diablo III next year.

“I think it’s a great value,” said Julian Love, lead technical artist for Diablo III. “For a lot of people who are already playing, and are already planning on playing World of Warcraft long-term, they have a chance to get a free copy of Diablo III. It also maybe solves that problem of, ‘Am I going to have to give up on one game to play the other?’ Well, you can have both.”

Love said the extra development time will allow the team to work on polishing the game for delivery, which includes much of the end-game content for long-term players. Blizzard spent time connecting with fans to provide clarity about what the developer is doing in respect to the end game, which includes things like the Infernal level and some of the itemization things that will change with regard to legendary items once the game has been beaten.

“BlizzCon is really critical to us from that perspective, because it gives us the possibility of putting a very unfinished game, or some sections of it, in front of our audience — the audience that’s really passionate about what we’re going to do,” said Love. “It gives us the opportunity to tell us exactly what they feel about it. It also lets us stand in the background sometimes and observe them and see, ‘They don’t really get this thing that we thought everybody would get,’ in which case we go back to the drawing board.”

For those who didn’t attend the sold-out BlizzCon, the beta is allowing the developer to fine-tune every aspect of the RPG.

“We get to find all those things that are maybe not working as well as we would like, things that are confusing to people,” said Love. “It’s also given us a chance to look at the way the skill system works and to re-evaluate how complicated that is. We’re trying to find that balance of usability and freedom of exploration, but also a sense of ownership and feeling like this is a class that you’re going to invest in. We have to do that in a way that doesn’t make it too complicated, as well.”

Love said the beta has also allowed the team to learn which systems might be too complicated early on in the game.

“We want to try to take that complexity of the game, which is very rich indeed, and introduce it slowly over time so that you don’t hit some phases where the game is just overwhelming to new players,” added Love.

One advantage that the long time span between games that fans of the franchise have had to patiently wait for is the advances in technology that Blizzard has been able to take advantage of with this new game.

“If you think back to Diablo II, that was a game that was mostly based on sprite technology,” said Love. “To be able to revisit the idea of doing a Diablo world, but having the opportunity to do it with 3D graphics, that was pretty big. It seems like it’s old hat that we’re talking about 3D technology, but for this particular franchise, it’s actually a big deal.

The other thing that we have available to us is physics and things like cloth simulations and stuff like that that allow us to provide a deeper sense of reality and a visceral impact to the world. Rather than just killing a monster, you can kill a monster and then send him flying across the screen.”

Love said the team has been able to tune the physics for different classes. For instance, when the barbarian hits a monster, he really goes flying, whereas when the wizard witch doctor does it, it’s not going to be the same effect. This helped the developer differentiate each of the classes. But when it comes to choosing a favorite class, that’s where things get complicated for Love.

“My job, and my team’s job, is to take those classes, make the special effects for them, and be really involved in the skill design which represents what those classes do,” said Love. “It’s their actions; it’s who they are. We really can’t do that effectively if I can’t fall in love with each and every one of them along the way. If you pin me down and make me pick, I think it’s going to be the wizard, mostly because I’m such a big sorceress fan from Diablo II. That’s the kind of class I like to play.”

For those players who choose to play as the wizard class, Love advises they explore the world. He said there’s a lot of stuff to do in the game world, and the best way to find things is to explore and then exploit your discoveries.

“The wizard class is all about flashiness and power, so there are plenty of options to do that,” explained Love. “We have so many skills per class. If you think about it, we’ve got some between 22 and 25 skills, roughly, per class. Then you’ve got five skill runes that change each one of those skills, plus all the passives.”

While the PC game’s launch has been delayed until early 2012, there’s already a small team of three exploring the console potential of Diablo III. The key to whether this RPG makes the jump to consoles will be the controller. If the team can perfect console controls as it’s done with the PC game, then Diablo III will make the jump down the road. For now, Love and his team are perfecting the PC experience so that fans have plenty to keep them coming back for more.

Quote from Phrayed

So I am hoping the boss progression in the original game goes something like:

Act 1: (Insert Random Awesome Boss here)
Act 2: Belial
Act 3: Azmodan
Act 4: Diablo

The game will take you through and eventually drop you in a very evil setting to fight Diablo, but it would still be on Sanctuary.

Expansion one I was hoping for something like "Diablo 3: The High Heavens" where you must work your way into the High Heavens to fight angels. I am hoping there could be about three main bosses in the first expansion... Izual (or another corrupted/evil angel), a lieutenant of Imperius and then Imperius himself.

Expansion two I was hoping for something along the lines of "Diablo 3: The Burning Hells". I am hoping that this would also have three bosses, those three bosses being Mephisto, Ba'al and a resurrected (far more powerful, perhaps fueled by the black soul stone) version of Diablo.

Mechanics/Things I am hoping to see in the expansions:

1. The 'charms' system to come back and to have them do it as planned, without taking inventory space.
2. One/Two new classes per expansion.
3. 5-10 new character levels per expansion.
4. More PvP modes.
5. The continued implementation of random events around the entire world of Sanctuary. The more random events you add, the fresher it keeps the content.
6. Alternatives for socketing your items outside of just gems.
7. An enhanced follower system that allows them with you at all times and to be able to equip more gear than just weapon/shield.
8. More ways to customize your character without it becoming overwhelming. (Perhaps every 10 or 20 levels you get to choose a stat to 'specialize in'. For instance, you hit level 20 and you can choose Vitality... from then on you get a 10% boost to your Vitality)
9. Expanding of the rune stone system in terms of stats on runes and how they can impact your character.
10. More gear slots (if they can even think of any more)

Things I don't want to see:

1. More runes. I hope they cut it off at five. Any more would start to get ridiculous.
2. 'Stat points' and 'skill points'. They went this way, I hope they stick with it. Though I do really like my idea of being able to specialize in one specific stat and maybe even specialize in one specific skill. Specialization in one specific stat could increase it by 10%. Specialization in a skill could forever make it cost less to cast, do slightly more damage, etc.

Quote from viferno

Quote from Nightblaze1

Or you can just wait a little bit until you get the hard copy and than install it. Geez, people are so impatient.

I think we have all waited long enough to play it :P.

Quote from dnavarre

Closing the storyline...if it ever gets to the point where Diablo rides Deathwing into the future and becomes cyber demons and take on the crossbreed offspring of Kerrigan and Raynor, I quit.

Quote from Jaelzadeon

I have hope.

Quote from Zero(pS)

Quote from Nightblaze1

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Blizzard wanting to make money. Its just the way they make it.

- Separating Starcraft 2 into 3 different games instead of 1
- Using the excuse of shady 3rd person websites for the RMAH (which btw I am a fan of) instead of plainly saying that they want to generate a consistent income from D3
- Using D3 as a means of making money on WoW and not admitting it.

Like you said, if Blizzard took an honest and clear approach to the way they say these things, there will be a lot less complaining. =)

Are you 100% positive of that statement I mean, from what I've learned about human beings in my short life, I feel it would be exactly the opposite, with a ton of comparisons to D2 and to how "Activision corrupted Blizzard".

Quote from Se7endeadlysins

Nice idea for a topic.I was thinking of how the lore would progress in Diablo 3 and here`s an idea guys:

What if Diablo actually wins this time?And the humans and Azmodan loose the battle,but not the war.I think that would make for a great story line.Save the last fight with Diablo in the second expansion(yes i want at least 2)

Quote from MonkManD3

I haven't read the whole post so I might say things twice. Also the first part of the following I wrote like 2 hours ago, so I'm just gonna ctrl+c it and edit some.

One thing I do want from expansions, it's prolly to much to ask, but blizz must make the outdoor environments' outline non-static. Big task I know, but on the other hand, it shouldn't be nearly as random as dungeons (It can, but would be shitloads of work).

Where dungeons have, for arguments sake, 100 different rooms/areas-pieces in total, each dungeon consisting of about 10-15 of these random pieces.

The outdoor layout on the other hand, can't be done this way: Each Act/area have different environments, thus, each must have own separate pieces. Acts/areas can maybe have 10-15 different area-pieces max resulting in 40-60 different area-pieces in total for the whole game's outdoors.

Even this little randomization can make a worlds difference. I just feel when you're playing through the game for the 100th time, you'll most certainly know the exact outline of each Act, regardless of all the random events taking place within the outline.

Quote from Ethezial

Quote from Nightblaze1

You got to admit... this is a bit of a fail on Sam's part.

"We don't care about money... its all for our fans."

I will agree, that is kind of a fail. I mean I'm sure and do believe to an extent that they genuinely enjoy satisfying their fans, maybe because it makes the fans happy, but ALSO because satisfied customers are returning customers. He should have just been up front. Of course, we're a company, we're going to do these things to make money, it's what keeps this business going and making games for the fans.

I just don't see why people see anything wrong in promotions like these. They seem pretty standard to me. What's wrong with Blizzard making money? LOL I wonder sometimes if people expect that this company can run without money...