Bashiok: While the crumbling bridge could be taken quite literally, it was intended to get the idea across that Diablo III will have more interactive and responsive environmental hazards. Of course if such obstacles existed in the way they were displayed every class would need some way to proceed. At this time we aren't announcing any additional class abilities though.Whether all classes will have an ability to traverse obstacles like the Barbarian did, or if they will have to use alternate routes.
Bashiok: It used the same "tile set" as the Tristram Cathedral dungeon including a specially made entry room. It was a static and specifically crafted dungeon especially for the demo, so yes it includes the look for Tristram Cathedral, but it's not a true piece of the game as you would play through it.Is the demo dungeon really Tristram Cathedral? The screenshots are under the Tristram entry on the website, but it's got a different name in the demo. Is it really a test dungeon all around, including the name? Is is it akin to the mini dungeons of Diablo 2, same texture set, randomly generated and individually named.
Bashiok: Hey, are you kind of kid who reads the last page of a mystery first? Who pesters the magician to tell you his tricks? Who sneaks downstairs to peek at his Christmas presents? Nooooo... of course you're not. That's why I'm noooot goooonna teeeeell yoooou!I've read comments from different developers that the remaining character classes will be entirely new, others indicating there are other classes that have been re-envisioned and revamped. Which is it? Fans are commonly assuming at least the pure caster like the Sorc will return. The Lore guys have also made a point of emphasizing the look and attitude of "veterans" from D2.
Bashiok: What I said was: "... we don't plan nor have any armor items at the moment that are class specific - although the bonuses and stats may be better suited to a certain class - anyone can pick up any chest/shoulder/leg/etc item and wear it. However, there are some weapons/off-hand items that are class specific."Characters can use any and all types of items, barring class specific ones (if I remember an early post you made correctly.) Yet no requirements are listed on the items in the demo. Too early to see the complete package, or change in item requirements?
No changes to this yet, there just weren't any drops that were class specific. We essentially "hand placed" every drop that happened in the video. We knew people were going to dissect and scrutinize every detail, and everything that drops in that video was purposefully and specifically chosen to be dropped... everything.
Fun fact: I played as the female barbarian for the recording.
Bashiok: Well the way we imagined the final fight going down when thinking about the flow of the presentation was to have a few heroes killed off, and thought it would be cooler to see someone get ripped in half by a giant demon than just fall down. While it was an event made for the presentation it could definitely be worked in to the actual end-product. We try not to spend time on anything that can't be incorporated in some way. If there's a mockup or some cool flavor added in somewhere to show something off, we want to build it so that it can actually be used.The awesome biting off of heads and such...does it relate to game play in some way, or is it a visual effect?
Bashiok: They're for the most part static. With the outdoor environments we felt we could get a lot more out of them by crafting large and visually impressive scenes, which random map generation really just doesn't allow for all that well. By that same token one of the main goals with Diablo III is to flesh out Sanctuary, to make it feel more like you're in this living and breathing world. With towns shifting around everywhere you do sort of lose a sense of cohesion, and an attachment to the places you're visiting.Outdoor environments. Are they for the most part randomly generated like the dungeons? I've been getting the impression there are more static areas , excluding cities, in the outdoors as opposed to the dungeons.
On a very slight technical note - for random map generation you're essentially creating a bunch of rooms that can all fit together in various ways. It works quite well for a dungeon which is essentially a series of rooms any way. For an outdoor environment though it tends to make it either fairly bland, or fairly linear just by how the edges have to line up. You're either running zig-zag patterns to find the map edges, or you're running down a narrow pathway. Neither are extremely compelling, and at the same time you're losing the visual grandness that could come from a fully hand-crafted and artistically realized environment.
That said, the outdoor areas aren't completely static.
"every item drop was hand placed"? I'm guessing they're having fun by placing a staff (caster) and a bow (ranged) and watch us puzzled about which class stays and which not... Anyway, it pretty much confirms there will be a caster and a ranged class, even if we dont know anything specific.
as for the "biting the head off" ability, i think fatalities arent hard to implement at all. Especially since there arent any healers around, its not hard to have the program calculate killing blows and make them look as spectacular as we saw.
1) Venturing above ground will be very static but a richly painted canvas nevertheless. We will not get random areas like the Black Marsh or Cold Plains.
The randomness of the maps in D2 aids replayability. I take the point that quality graphics has won out over random tiles with the same edges in order to allow seamless joining. I am ambivalent here. Bring on the richly drawn maps. But how soon will these same maps begin to be repetitive when replaying?
2) Non-class specific armour. Some modifiers will be more useful for some classes (perhaps e.g. "+10 to mana") and some armour just won't make sense for some classes. So that hasn't changed. But this means we now won't get the Barb helms and the necro shrunken heads and the druid pelts.
Can anyone suggest why this has happened? What is the good of this?
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I want to see heads getting ripped off and my character's arm getting ripped off and me having to limp back to town for repair to one leg and with a gaping hole in my abdomen. With a trail of blood in my wake too and some monster following behind, licking up my entrails....
Glad to hear that the disappearing path the barb had to leap/tele over was just an example of what is possible. Giving everyone teleport would suck.
*Out door areas will be mostly static, does not mean the whole world will be static and everything in it.
*There was no class specific armor in D2... everyone could wear any type of armor, it just looked different on the characters. It was noted previously by Bashiok that there would still be class specific weapons and such.
I am not too worried about the outside worlds being too static, I personally like the fact that a town will always be in the same place it makes more sense. That doesn't mean the landscape won't change. Its basically like it is now. The room with each boss is static but getting there might not be.
Where "something of interest" should be either a quest that tells a story, a new boss or good loots.
Incorrect. There was class specific in D2. Barb helms, Dru helms, Nec shields, and Pala shields.
I wouldn't be surprised if they bring back cs items and add more like helms for wd.
they said, there will be class specific offhand and mainhands...soo...you can take nec shields and pal shields off that list of yours, theyre only taking out the ugly druid helms and barb helms
My reason? well, imagine your walking around in the new D3 world of sanctuary, and lets say you just destroyed the monsters in "The den". And you want to help your friend do that in the next game. You get into that game, and you go to the same place the Den was last game, but its not there! The map is the same, but the content generated on it is different.
If this is the case, then I am perfectly fine with the outside world being static.
And it makes sense that the towns stay in the same area, why would a town up and move in a world, the developers are trying to make the game more immersive and are trying to make you feel a part of the world. Also in D2 towns never moved either.
yeah, I agree with this approach. I hope its not like TQ though, I couldnt replay that game through again cause everything was the same.
Even though d2 areas aren't really that random or different when you look at it closely, the enemy placement was and the loot was, so it kind of tricks you into believing its more random than it really is since each trip through is different in one way or another.
A semi-static world with random boss mobs or some random questlines from time to time should still hold that replayability while giving an immersive overworld.
Please do your home work before you make a response, D2-LOD had class specific weapons aswell as Armors read up please.
I also hope the environment isnt static, im hoping none of the areas are thats what made titan quest boring for me knowing where to go to farm a boss for items.
Also i dont really like the Graphic detail of the environment looks like a painted picture to me probly just me but thats what im seeing, the 3d rendered characters look nice.
Character/ class wise im hoping there is a caster class, but from the looks of it NO NECROMANCER #@!$!@$$#!$!#@$#@$!#@$#@$!%$#@!@#$!#@$$, i love my necro :(.
P.s darker dungeons please :P.
I was hoping that the biting-head thing was an actual ability that the monster had. That is, he used it every so often and every so often it would succeed (with varying degrees of difficulty depending on player skills/items, etc.). Further, I was hoping that this would be despite health; that is, that it wouldn't just be an "end move".
I think allowing for some monsters to have this ability would definitely make the manner of attacking bosses much more tactical and interesting. In previous Diablo games, especially on harder levels, battles tended to either be of the toe-to-toe type where you just drank potions as fast as you could or the type where you were low on potions and the enemy around in a circle trying to get your one or two potshots off here or there. Group dynamics changes this a bit but, surprisingly, not too terribly much.
Whereas if I was assured that Diablo could grab me by the throat and spit flames on my face, reducing my manly visage to nothing but a charred skull, and he could do this at any time, you bet your butt that last battle wouldn't just b a "smash and heal" extravaganza.
What your forgetting is that in D2, you just had dirt, grass, water, the odd tree (except for the jungle) and everything could be placed pretty much everywhere.
Now, with 3D, you need much more detail in everything, and if you want something to look good with detail, and play good, you're going to need to script it in some way, and not be completely random.
I'm sure they said stuff about random quests/adventures that would take place, and semi-random/random interiors would make this extremely usefull.
Yes, yes, I forgot about the class specific armor in D2. I just wanted to point out that every class could wear plate, leather, or cloth armor etc... So it's not like Necros have to wear cloth, and Barbarians have to wear plate. However, the same armor; I.E. Gothic plate looked different on every character though it was the same armor. That was all I was trying to point out. I also believe that while there may not be strict class only armor in D3, some armor will probably heavily favor certain classes by granting plus skills, or certain attributes that pretain to a specifc class.