Bashiok Answers Gameplay Video Concerns

Bashiok rolls his engines to answer a few concerns from the Diablo III Gameplay Video.
Q u o t e:
Here are some smaller information I gathered from watching Diablo 3's gameplay video. Some may be obvious but have not been posted, so here it goes!

Undead Comes Back for Revenge

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/9872/crawlingtorsc813de9.jpg

At 8:13 of gameplay, an already dead creature comes back to life. A zombie of the undead!
Bashiok: This is the detached torso of a Walking Corpse. After death the torso of the Walking Corpse has a chance to survive, detaching itself and crawling after the hero.
Q u o t e:
Critters

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5757/critters1409zl6.jpg

14:09 of Gameplay - Besides from there being cute bunnies in Diablo 3, critters don't die. Man, I always liked killing critters in Starcraft. This image is the Witch Doctor throwing a random fire ball which directly hits a critter, but the critter receives no effect.
Bashiok: This was unfortunately a bug that existed in the build that was being used to record the gameplay video. Those critters die, and there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a bunny corpse flung across the screen. It just wasn't working for the demo, which stinks.
Q u o t e:
Leader doesn't die until new spawns come?

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/2990/leaderdoesntdie1525jy4.jpg

15:25 of Gameplay - That same leader of the post above this one, leads the Witch Doctor and Barbarian to the hill where it was the supposedly "nasty trap" they got caught into. But this leader was not able to get hit or damaged in any way until after the new enemy spawns came.

Frozen

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4686/frozen1530nx5.jpg

15:30 of Gameplay - The Witch Doctor and Barbarian are frozen by the same group leader. It shows 2 red effects on the bottom left of the screen, one looking image looking like a time thing (forgot what its called lol) which may show how long the effect lasts or just slows target down, and second being ice image, which is for the completely frozen effect. Also when frozen, your whole skill bar goes red. (Frozen effect seems dangerous for Hardcore players !)
Bashiok: It was a scripted event to pretty much have a cool way to introduce the female Witch Doctor and Barbarian, so yeah, it wasn't necessarily indicative of something that would show up in the actual game.
Q u o t e:
Jumping/Dodging?

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/1478/jumping1653kl5.jpg

16:53 of Gameplay - During the end of gameplay, the Siegebreaker Assault Beast boss makes his entrance by slamming through the wall, charging against the players. They all jumped. Either its automatic jump reflexes, which seems kind of weird, or theres a jumping button.

Another part when the jumping is really seen as, what's really going on?
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/8464/dodgeagain1738rc5.jpg
The Siegebreaker charges at the Witch Doctor at 17:38 of gameplay. The Witch Doctor clearly dodges the attack somehow. I would assume, this cannot be automatic reflexes because that would make no sense. Just let him stomp on the damn player, or are the players really dodging somehow?
Bashiok: This is a knock back effect when the Siegebreaker would use its "charge" type ability. It effectively damages your character and pushes them away from the charging path.

Blackdoom: What is the point in posting ideas and suggestions on her asking for this or that to be in the game, or saying those things should or shouldn't be in it. I doubt anyone from Blizzard... at least anyone from Blizzard that matters, is reading any of the posts here, and even if they did, they most likely do not give a rat's ass about what their fans think. Hell in a post, or somewhere I read it, not sure where, they said they make the games and things in the games around what they like, and want to see in a game, not what the fans want. It would be great if they did give a $!@% though, there have been some awesome ideas on here, but they just do not seem like people who care what their fans want. They are in it for the money from what I've seen, even though they seem that way, I am not saying they suck or anything, Blizzard is still the best! Anyway, anyone have proof that blizzard (someone, or a group of people that matter and might carry some kind of decision making weight) actually cares about what we think? An e-mail, a link, past posts, ect...
Bashiok: Aw, of course we care! A large part of my job is specifically to ensure that the valid concerns, comments, and critiques are brought to the appropriate people's attention. That doesn't mean that every idea or suggestion is something we agree with, or are going to base changes on though. There's a point where, as a game designer, you have to stick to your guns and know that your choices and direction are what's best for the game and ultimately those that will be playing it. There's a point where you have to be confident that you're making the right decisions. So at the end of the day you're staying true to your vision and design, and doing what's best for the game.

A good example of us paying attention though was the concern and thread about corpses not sticking around long enough. I read that thread, brought it up, and some discussion was happening on it. Later our lead tech artist Julian was reading through the replies, and got some ideas of how we may want to keep corpses on screen a little longer. Now we're playing around with some changes that shouldn't have a huge performance hit, while still keeping the corpses on screen for variable amounts of time. Hopefully it works out.

Would any experimentation for corpse decay have happened had it not been brought up on the forums? I don't know, maybe, but we're not just dismissing good, valid, and well reasoned concerns.

As I said not every suggestion, comment, or idea is going to be considered, but we're definitely watching and reading.

Thanks, jinx_spam

Comments

  • To post a comment, please or register a new account.
Posts Quoted:
Reply
Clear All Quotes