DiabloFans

[...] It turns out that in order to get the Monk and a number of other features for Blizzcon [highlight]we just slapped a lot things into a special effects[/highlight] kit that were not meant for how often they showed up in the game and made the Blizzcon build a little messier than we had intended it to be. However, [highlight]the way we tend to go about doing this kind of thing is to make everything too big on purpose to make sure that we've gone far enough. Once we realize that we've done that, we go through a period where we sort of pull things back.[/highlight] [...] That's the mode we're in right now, tightening some things up.

[...] the red outline is still something we're adjusting, at this point I don't think we have too many plans of changing it. I wouldn't say that it's finished. The thing that we're looking at with the red outline specifically is to find that balance of player selection notification relative to different levels of combat. [highlight]We want to make sure it's working while you're engaged with a lot of mobs, while at the same time maybe not being so loud while you're fighting with just a few.[/highlight] It's a matter of adjusting that balance over time till we get it where we feel it's just right. Definitely the tendency there is to error on the side of supporting gameplay and making sure that the game responds really well.

Overall, what we're doing with Battle.net right now is more or less we're involved with a lot of the discussions and right there along side with Starcraft 2, watching what they're doing and taking notes on what they're doing that we could translate to Diablo. Obviously letting that team know the kinds of things we're going to be interested in doing. [highlight]I know for a fact that we're going to do some kind of achievement system.[/highlight] The specifics of that I can't really divulge right now. [highlight]But really it's a matter of letting Starcraft 2 go first and pave the way for us to follow.[/highlight]

Acutally I think that the quote that you're referring to, Jay was actually talking about a deficiency with Diablo 2 where it was actually the Sorceress who had to make that kind of compromise. She had to lower a lot of her damage down in order to gear up on magic find, but part of the problem there was that other characters in the game couldn't make that kind of trade and be successful. So it sort of led to a case where everybody plays a Sorceress character to have a magic find character. What we're trying to do with magic find is eliminate those kind of strange decisions to make but also [highlight]not have the game lead to "If I want a magic find character, I must have X class"[/highlight]. That we don't want to do. [highlight]While we haven't finalized the details of magic find just yet, we're aware of the effects on Diablo 2 and we're looking to either negate or minimize them.[/highlight]

[...] I think we have a plan that facilitates high level content. What I think you're really getting at there is replayability, and [highlight]what that gets down to is the way we're exercising randomness within the game[/highlight]. We've put a lot of focus towards what kinds of randomness are really beneficial in supporting replayability and what things are just, heh, not all that important or not all that awesome. One of the things that we have in the system that we have is something that we call - well, we have a really technical name for it - [highlight]sub scenes[/highlight][.]


What it comes down to is we can sort of like create a hole in the world that's like a socket that we can fill with just about anything that we want. It could be empty ground with a bunch of monsters on it, it could be a giant canyon that a really elaborate scripted event happens, it could turn into a caravan walking across the desert that you have an escort quest on. [highlight]The point being is that this hole in the earth can randomly, at any time become something totally different. It could even be a doorway to a whole new dungeon that you've never seen before. So, the fact that the world is able to change things up and actually deliver different events, stories and quests is what's really going to make the game a lot more replayable at the both the low and high ends.[/highlight]