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.
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- optaboy
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Aug 2, 2011
optaboy posted a message on Runic Revision?Posted in: NewsQuote from Yinmaren
Quote from PantheraOnca
Quote from Yinmaren
This entire thing is getting out of hand.
/snip
ETA: In the search for simplicity they've made something completely foreign and alien.
Whoa dude. Go have a beer, sit down, close your eyes for a few mins, and then get back to thinking about diablo or whatever.
The descriptions given weren't crystal clear, but I think the system JW was hoping would get in would be a good one.
Think of runes as acting like charms in d2, except you've got a 6 slot box that can only hold charms. Ok, so that covers the stat bonuses.
From what JW said, it sounded like the stat bonuses applied to your character, rather than the spell. I could have misinterpretted that. Either way it doesn't really matter. Either you or that skill have a bonus just for having ANY rune in that skill.
Ok, so now we go for the rune effect. It seemed to me like JW never said that the effect was randomized and that sixen (was it sixen? i'm terrible with voice recognition without a face to put to it) thought the effect of the rune was randomized while it SEEMED like JW was only referring to the bonuses being randomized. I think they were talking passed each other a bit.
Even if the particular effect is randomized, you'll have about a 20% chance of getting the right effect (there are about 5 different rune effects right?) and then you can worry about stats after that.
I'm assuming that's the perspective most players will take as it would seem the effect has a bigger impact than however many point bonus the rune would give.
With a high level rune (lets say lvl 7 is the highest, i dunno where i'm getting that from) all i'll REALLY be looking for is the right effect until i have all my skills with a lvl 7 rune with the right effect. Once i have that i'll start worrying about stats.
Really, runes are just small charms+. they're not foreign or alien, but another mechanic to allow for character and playstyle customization.
I don't think you have runes right.
Runes fundamentally modify your skills.
All I'm saying is that this system is weird. It seems arbitrary.
ETA: Runes in this game are going to have the same problem as last game. Incredibly rare runes are going to drop incredibly rarely. Zod, etc.
Comparing runes to zod is silly because you are ignoring the Mystic rerolling the level 7 rune as many times as you have gold which is much easier to find than another lvl7 rune. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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Haha I love this schedule. Don't get me wrong I think its real but it just goes to show how off target Blizz has been.
End of 2011 we should have had Heart of the Swarm and D3 while in 2013 we should get Legacy of the Void and D3 Ex1.
More like 2013 Heart of Swarm and D3 EX1 2014 - 2015.
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The problem with +Health Globes is that late game you'll have monsters that can take out massive chunks of health per hit which means you'll always be running to find a globe even if each globe can fully restore health. You'll end up running into packs of monsters just to get the health boost which is not good for ranged combat classes.
Then you've got boss fights which makes it even worse.
The only thing I can think of is that INT should give a +health regen bonus. Things like +magic res wont help with melee opponents and aren't as universal as dodge or armor. Health regen at least gives a similar buff as globes while allowing WIZ/WD to keep out of melee range of monsters.
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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.
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How do people get confused by this?? When he says "on a whole" he's saying the GRB is delaying the SK release of the game while the other regions are as normal....
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Lets just hope that its a really really detailed manual
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Its a pity because I wanted to raise an issue with Bracers not showing up on the Monk model when equipped. I zoomed in on the monk with no bracers/bracers and he looked exactly the same.
I thought every item would be reflected on the actual in game model. Is this a correct?
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Well I preordered it from mightyape, one of the only aussie bookshops that sold it, and on the 12 dec they told me the release date has changed from 13th Dec to 10th Jan.
Really pissed me off that they changed it last minute. Looked everywhere else and all australian shops are saying they have no stock until January.
What the hell is the publisher doing seriously as all other books I've bought are sold same day as US release date.
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D2 just has marius going crazy until the dark wanderer came and burned down the inn and Marius following afterwards.
D3 has Cain saying the end times are coming and the first sign will appear in the heavens with "Justice" falling upon the world in his narration mode cinematic sequence. It then proceeds to show the falling star (Angel of Justice Tyreal) and Cain dropping in the crater.
Seems both D2 and D3 setup the start of each game the same way. I just wish they had more recap of previous events including the destruction of the worldstone, etc... Instead of straight into the new plot.
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Been playing it since Friday and the world is simply jam packed with detail and feels so alive.
I've done exactly 2 quests from the main story line and basically done side quests for the last 15 hours. Leveling based on your actions is great and even crafting your own items from mining ore to crafting elven armor then refining and enchanting is much better than I expected. Didn't even plan on spending perks on smithing but once I started I was hooked!
Got my kahjit Stealth Archer Thief almost all decked out in Elven Armor. Now after having nearly stolen every valuable item in 3 towns I'm looking for a Thieves Guild so I can find a Fence to sell all my ill-gotten goods
Also looking forward to killing dragons so that I can enable my lightning breath dragon shout!
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Just feels like you should have to slog it out in Inferno to build Inferno items.
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The database from patch 5 already has all the item conversions from every low level to the highest level inferno parts.
Its not really the 1% chance that is the issue. I actually think its fine. Its more that you can salvage every white item in normal to make the common scrap and then keep converting that stockpile into higher level mats.
Unless the conversion ratio is really high. E.g. 100 common scrap = 1 assorted fragment people can just pound away in normal and Nightmare to get all mats for crafting.
Blizzard has stated that the ramp from normal to nightmare is smooth but the ramp from nightmare to hell will be much higher. This means that people who find hell or inferno too difficult can get the items anyway and probably are already able to craft an item from hell or inferno before they even reach that difficulty. Especially if they are creating multiple characters to nightmare.
Auction house is one thing but even without trading the possibility that you can get inferno items without playing inferno could be a worry.
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Here is a screenshot from diablofans: New Blacksmith Recipes
My concern is that if you can convert common scrap -> assorted Fragment and then assorted fragment -> Reusable parts and finally Reuseable parts -> Valuable Component then people don't have to face the dangers of the higher difficulty levels to get the highest level crafting items.
There seems to be conversions for all mat types for all rarity levels from normal to inferno.
This combined with the new base 5% chance to salvage a current level item to the next highest and a 1% change to salvage a current level item to 2 levels higher salvage will make it too easy for people to get the best mats without the effort.
Anyone else concerned that this just got mainstreamed?
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Actually I remember from the stream when dev gave an example about cashing out he said something like:
"You can take the $6.50 and put it in your e-balance or you can cash out and have $6.50 on your paypal account."
Now I'm pretty sure that was just a slip of the tongue and he just forgot to mention the paypal transaction fee and not that you'd get the full amount of the sell price.