Official Blizzard Quote:
The Diablo II 1.13 patch is on temporary hold while we investigate potential impact on the Battle.net service. As we moved closer to launching the patch concerns grew that an increase in the player stash size (a feature in the patch) could compromise the Diablo II Battle.net service. The hardware and configuration could potentially not handle the increased stash size gracefully under heavy load. Currently we?re investigating potential impact as it is one of the larger content features in the patch and we?re hoping it can remain a part of the release. If it does have to be removed it will require additional time to remove it, generate new patches, and test, which will add time before we can go live on the PTR.
We?re hoping to have our diagnostics and a final decision on how we?ll be moving forward decided by early next week and we?ll have an update for you at that time.
The patch has been delayed.
Again.
On the bright side, it looks like the increased inventory size previously suggested (see Patch 1.13: Larger Inventory for Diablo II) is planned to stay, although it is the cause of the delay. It also seems that a sincere promise on progress will be made next week- whether or not this will mean anything with regard to how they have handled the relaying of information and the keeping of promises in the past is yet to be seen (see WCIII Patch is Up- Diablo II Patch 1.13 Soon to Follow?).
UPDATE (10/01/09):
It would seem that Bashiok is on a reply spree for 1.13 today. It is confirmed that two of the three top requests for patch 1.13 will not be met:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Higher resolution, which we unfortunately just can't do because it would fundamentally change the game and require a huge development investment to have the game/servers spawn enemies farther out, have them aggro from farther out, and even then it increases travel time to the player... it's just a mess. Apparently increasing the resolution in LoD was this gigantic issue so I think the idea of increasing it again makes some of the old time programmers want to curl up in a fetal position.
And new end game content, which we do want to continue adding, but just wasn't possible for this patch.
So far, the following has been confirmed:
- Increased stash size, which is the cause of the current delay as they take hardware and server considerations in to thought, is so far essentially confirmed.
- No increased resolution- it would require "fundamental change" to the game and would have to account for faster player traveling issues (like being able to Teleport or Jump farther), spawning monsters on a larger scale around the player, and monster aggro would have to be taken in to account.
- No new end-game content. Bashiok noted that with this patch it would not be possible to add it, although there was no inkling of whether or not it would or would not be included with any future patch.
UPDATE (10/14/09):
Official Blizzard Quote:
Update - 10/14
The decision on whether or not to include the enlarged stash size has been slightly delayed. As mentioned previously it would require some additional weeks of development and would remove one of the most requested features were we unable to include it. If it were to be included the concern is that it could render Diablo II unplayable, and repairing the issue after the fact would draw heavily on development resources. Which is also something we obviously want to avoid.
We hope to be able to reach a conclusion and decision soon on the future of the 1.13 patch, and we?ll keep you updated as it develops.
No real news, just a rehashing of the previous statement made a week ago, except now he is not alluding to a dated announcement.
I demand change!
Well, the problem with making early skills too powerful, is that they will be too powerful too early. Imagine if Firebolt was as good as Meteor at level 20? You'd just get Firebolt to level 20 at level 21.
it's ok !!! Firebolt lv20 must be equal or little less to meteor lv1 !!
So it is to you to wait meteor to bring it lv20 !!
The problem with firebolt is: it's too poor compare to fireball, fireball do area damage + do more damage. So except synergy, what is the reason to use and put point in firebolt ?
Synergy is not a bad idea, just it's not correctly implemented.
Blizzard make synergies to balance skills and force players to put points in what they wouldn't put normally. Instead of rebalance skills, they put synergies. Well, the skills are doesn't balanced correctly anyway lol.
In d3, if skills are all useful, synergies will be useless.
Synergies suck.
Fire ball also requires more mana. I'm gonna post up some math stuff and we will figure out if firebolt is worth the investment or not.
Firebolt Vs. Fire Ball
Firebolt:_______Mana: 2.5 per shot
Fire Damage: 410-546______Average: 478 per shot
Fire Ball:_______Mana: 14.5 per shot
Fire Damage: 1641-1864____Average: 1752.5 per shot
Radius: 1 yard
Fire bolt does more damage per mana spent as it can do 2868 average damage for 15 mana over the 1752.5 average for 14.5 mana. It takes 6 casts to do this. Fireball has the advantage of radius however.
(These calculations are based on both skills being maxed and their synergies plus Fire Mastery is also maxed out. Synergies are each other and meteor.)
My conclusion is this: Firebolt for single enemies or groups up to about 5 monsters is sufficient. Fire Ball is for Groups of 4+ enemies, simply because of the radius.
sad...
I don't worry about what BLizzard will do ! I know they will find issue to have all skills useful and many kind of build.
If it will be same as what you said, I'm extremly enjoy !
Which is ironic, because they promised increased work on it- I really don't understand how they can patch their other games in a month or two and it takes Diablo II months even when they say they don't have other preoccupations.
It took 2 years to make Uncharted: among thieves, it's gonna take 8 months to make a patch for a 10 year old game ^_^! I don't know why but I think they're pushing it. My hopes, either they are getting close to completion or just stop right now and work on D3.
I hope they come up with a great surprise...like a new character....or the patch suddenly is canceled and an expansion is released in its place. Haha...that would be great... What a nice dream...