BlizzCon: Saturday's Diablo III Q and A Coverage

From 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM PST two of our own, Mockery and Silversurfnstud (who informed me was quoting nearly all of this word-for-word via text messaging!), was hitting up the BlizzCon Q&A panel for Diablo III. As you can guess, it was filled with plenty of fresh information, many of which about subjects I am sure will tickle many of your fancies, if you are not ashamed to admit you have "fancies". The Live Chat, it would seem, is constant and up-to-date on all the recent information from the BlizzCon, second only to a live video feed, so I would suggest everyone gets over there on the Home Page for coverage of the Diablo III artwork right now!

Regarding the functionality and gameplay of PvP in Diablo III, employees were at the ready with a good amount of detail on some things that may have been of concern to fans for some time, since so far we have recieved very scant detail on PvP in Diablo III. In Diablo II, many were set-off by the lack of equal PvP experiences across the characters and builds. Blizzard, however, wants and is planning for all of that to change in Diablo III:

Quote from "Blizzard" »
We plan to support PVP better, we are going to develop runes and skills and so they don't make the characters too weak and we try to consider PVP when working on those skills.

So there you have it. They are, indeed, concerned heavily about PvP in Diablo III and how to improve it from the last installation of the series. Furthermore, to shorten the gap between PvM and PvP players, they have also stated that they are focusing on designing the whole experience so that PvM builds will also work for PvP well, and vice versa. This should greatly lessen the need to fill up your account with multiple characters for PvP and PvM distinctly, as was the case most of the time in Diablo II.

Next, a question came about the existence or planning of implementation of a map editor in Diablo III. A good search of our board will show that some other fans were concerned or prospective about this in the game. Until now we have had very little (or, perhaps, no-) official confirmation or declination of its existence in the game so far. However, Blizzard was quick to respond:

Quote from "Blizzard" »
No, we don't intend to do a map editor since all of our environments are randomly generated and that would be very, very difficult to do and it doesn't cater to a map editor.

From the somewhat limited (but beautiful) gameplay videos and pictures we have seen so far of dungeons and areas sprung up another inquiry about their design regarding their similarity to Diablo II's area and dungeon design. Although we have openly seen examples of such places so far in Diablo III, they were no less keen to replying:

Quote from "Blizzard" »
There will be open fields and tight, tight corridors to test all different play styles.

Here's to hoping that this means that most, if not all, players will be happily accommodated in the game with the various and diverse designs of open areas, narrow passageways, and dark dungeons!

Next came a query about the position of the Horadric Cube reappearing from its glory days in Diablo II in Diablo III. If you will recall, the Cube was used to transmute, or combine, varying amounts and types of items in Diablo II to make new, hopefully more useful, items. It also served as a valuable extension to your inventory space. Regarding its implementation in Diablo III, Blizzard had this to say:

Quote from "Blizzard" »
For the horadric cube, we really like the way you could take items and combine them. We weren't happy with the exact way it was done in Diablo 2. While we want to keep the essence of that mechanic, the actual implementation will likely be different.

Some of the fans and our own members may have been tracking along with all the latest (and even the older) Diablo III gameplay videos and cinematics and been wondering about the similarity of some sound effects to those of older games. It would appear that the developers have been using some of the sound effects from older games as placeholders in Diablo III until they are ready (or reach the production stage/cycle) of puting in the appropriate new sound effects for the new game:

Quote from "Blizzard" »
Some sound effects from old games are currently in the games, but they're mainly just placeholders. But I do have plans to pay tribute/respects to sounds from the older games, just can't say what those are going to be.

In regards to the continued implementation of the gambling feature in Diablo III from Diablo II, Blizzard did not explicitly state if it would or would not be in the upcoming game, but did give a rather nebulous answer, none the less (which they are, as we all know, very good at doing):

Quote from "Mockery »
[They'] still want something other than killing to obtain items.

And lastly, a bit on the comical side, one questioner asked about the continued appearance of the Cows in Diablo III. Of this, Mockery was able to recall from one of yesterday's gameplay videos of the Barbarian something of interest:

Quote from "Mockery" »
They showed a barbarian whirlwind attack yesterday, and to demo it, they had him killing lots of cows. So I'd venture to guess, yes.

While this may or may not actually confirm a whole level devoted to the psychotic, man-killing bovines, it would seem so far that fans can count on some of their favorite past-time farm-able enemies returning in the latest installation in the Diablo universe. (If you are still wanting, say, a rainbow-shooting unicorn monster, nothing has been confirmed- yet :hammy:)

Once again, a reminder to check in with the Live Chat on the Home Page of this website would most likely be beneficial to the curious. It's proved informative and fun so far, so go on over and follow it! I'm sure Mockery would not mind the added company.

Comments

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