Portals Still In?

It was during Gamescom last year that we officially learned that http://diablowiki.com/town portals " class="wiki-link">http://media-diablofans.cursecdn.com/attachments/16/736/wiki2.gif" alt="DiabloWiki.com - town portals "/> town portals were being completely removed from Diablo III. Now, this was something that was being tossed about for some time since Diablo III's development. As it has been mentioned, there was one main reason that the development was looking for a way to remove them. They had decided that town portals just made it too easy for the game's action to be avoided. At any time in Diablo II, minus the DiabloWiki.com - Rite of Passage Rite of Passage quest, a player could simply click on a scroll and instantly remove themselves from any present danger. They could restock their potions and continue their attempt to defeat whatever foe was giving them problems. Because of this mechanic, many monsters had to be scaled up to compensate for this retreat by being able to kill players within one to a few hits. Overall, this one simple mechanic caused many more issues through other various systems.

With Diablo III, many new systems have been put into place to keep the action in ARPG, Waypoint locations have been significantly increased to help minimize any walk time between areas and towns when you needed a quick portal. Checkpoints were also added for a player to respawn at after death. Along with these quick ways of transportation, DiabloWiki.com - Health Globes Health Globes were also added, removing the necessity to constantly go to town to restock on potions. With these three mechanics in place, it appeared as though most of the town portal's uses were covered without any of the disadvantages they caused. However, it appears through Blizzard's constant iteration process, it seems like this still is not enough for the loot heavy, quick-pace game that is Diablo.



Official Blizzard Quote:



We've always been trying to see if we can create a better system than town portals, making waypoints the main travel back to town mechanic. But, it's looking like it's just simply more fun and a quality-of-life-nicety to be able to jump back to town from anywhere even if waypoints are all over the place. Plus it's not really that hard to avoid the few pitfalls that TPs in Diablo II had.

Also I never said you can just use them anywhere anytime as much as you want. :)
As mentioned, they have added yet one more way for players to come in and out of a town and back to action. Although, Bashiok did not specifically say that this system was town portals. In fact, he even adds that this other system still avoids the problems that they created in Diablo II. All we know right now about this system is that it is still limited as Bashiok noted. You will not be able to spam them or even possibly use them to escape danger. So just how does this system work?

On a related note, it was also mentioned, by a user, about the ability to quickly join others without town portals. In Diablo II, any person joining a game could instantly join their friends in the fight by one of the players opening a portal for them. Without this system, even the closely placed waypoints still seemed to be too much of a hassle for players to go through. In Diablo III, players will still be able to group up instantly when wanting to join the fight.

Official Blizzard Quote:



There is actually a mechanic that allows you to jump from town (one-way) to any other player in the game.

The last bit of news we got included just one more piece of the puzzle that town portals have created. With their official removal, Blizzard also added a new item to the game. The scroll of wealth was an item a player could carry around in their inventory. This scroll could be used on an item and give the player gold in exchange. This helped alleviate the need for players to go back to town to dump off loot without missing out on any potential gold. However, it seems that this item was short lived.

Official Blizzard Quote:



We haven't had those for a while, although we do have another mechanic to sell items while out and about.
While the actual scroll is no longer in the game, players will still have the ability to sell items while deep in a dungeon without having to go back to town. Will it require another item, a trait, an NPC, or some other device to allow players to do such?

With all of these changes still going, it is clear to see that the Diablo III team is still hard at work perfecting the game. However, do not let this trick you into thinking that our coveted Diablo III will never be released or that it is doomed to continuous push-backs. Blizzard always continues progress on their games up until release and then after.

Official Blizzard Quote:



We'll be developing the game up until release, and then likely well after. ;)

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