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.
loll new character ? it's a jok ?
As for those modders, they don't spend countless hours game play testing on multiple machines like Blizzard no doubt has to.
That being said, give me my damned 1.13!!
Edit: Wait, the resolution is being changed in this next patch?
1280x800 to 800x600 is not a pleasant downgrade...
I guess an increased stash size or changed resolution must appear quite awesome 4u...
No I don't care about changed resolution...
I want see skill balanced and useless skill remake. It's all I hope from patch...
Its perfectly understandable that not everybody got a wild imagination as mine...^_^
Good to keep expectations low (and *cough* realistic)...this way you won't be too disappointed...:P
I don't care abt resolution either...:)
no
i will have hope!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ive also stopped caring :(......maybe some cool new info would get us excited again but that does not seem to likely anytime soon
1) Removes all (100% + forever) hacks and all bots on Battle.net. Remove glitch rushing and remove TPPK from Hardcore
2) Re-do skill system (perhaps removing synergies, perhaps not) increasing the total # of viable builds
3) Fixes rune drop rates
4) Some new game mechanic involving a gold sink?
5) Something big..........
Why is it so hard for Blizzard to increase the stash size when basically every D2 mod out there does just that?
This was stated a while back as an impossible feature.
They had to redo alot of graphics to get it working when they changed the resolution from D2 to D2LOD.
Those mods that change the resolution, they just zoom out a bit, increasing the amount of pixels on each side. (Correct me if im wrong)
Well thats obviously an advantage for everyone with a high resolution.
I don't really know what that means on their end, though. I'm not a commercial game developer.
This is truly the only issues with this. Otherwise, hacker can do it, they can.
Good point. I'm pretty sure it's final though, if they can't augment the stash's capacity they sure can't give us a bigger resolution, stop dreaming about it it just won't happen.
I honestly think that there is only maybe 1 guy working on this patch, and he happens to be the slob/drunk/stoner that Blizzard keeps there only for people to laugh at. The rest of the team is most definitely working on the next Warcrap patch.
:cute:..perhaps...^_^
Either that or the whole team is just 1 guy with a bipolar personality, 1 minute he's the crazy genius programmer and the other minute he's a sweet 5 year old girl that loves to draw with Crayola colour crayons. So in a kind of sick perverted way...the team consists of more than 1 person :).
To continue with my highly probable theory, if the patch takes so long to complete, it's simply because the team has been composed in majority of 5 year old sweet little girls (since 6 months) in comparison to computer programmers :).
Either way you look at it, it's sad that they are having this much trouble with a stash increase but yet they can implement Diablo clone, anni, ect without a hitch.
# 08.21.2009 - Classes - Monk
# 08.21.2009 - Environments - Borderlands
# 05.22.2009 - Bestiary - The Fallen Ones
# 02.26.2009 - Bestiary - Unburied
# 10.10.2008 - Classes - Wizard
... wow. Don't you see a pattern here? 02-->05-->08-->?11?