We should be getting both information on the finalized rune system in an article from Jay Wilson soon™. On top of that, we will also be getting a patch soon™ as well.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
You said its working in game final form bla bla. WHERES THE SITE WRITE UP EXPLAINING IT?!? It's only, you know, probably the most central pilar of D3 gameplay. Stop slacking and let us know so we can argue endlessly over how amazing/horrible the system is.
We'll be posting information on the next patch pretty much as close to the patch release as we can manage. Soon.
Do you think they were almost done, but decided to all go get sno-cones and play a few rounds of backgammon first? But now, called out for their slackerly ways, will finish it post-haste?
It doesn't matter, man. It's not worth spending time trying to justify our processes, just stuff happens when it happens, we can maybe drop some hints, sometimes, other times we may not, but ultimately it's done when it's done and that drives some people INSANE. Can't be helped.Somehow saying "soon" makes people less insane, or even giggle. It's like magic.
We'll be posting information on the next patch pretty much as close to the patch release as we can manage. Soon.
Do you think they were almost done, but decided to all go get sno-cones and play a few rounds of backgammon first? But now, called out for their slackerly ways, will finish it post-haste?
It doesn't matter, man. It's not worth spending time trying to justify our processes, just stuff happens when it happens, we can maybe drop some hints, sometimes, other times we may not, but ultimately it's done when it's done and that drives some people INSANE. Can't be helped.Somehow saying "soon" makes people less insane, or even giggle. It's like magic.
Thoughts on Skill Trees
Bashiok responded to a thread on the Battle.net forums in regards to adding skill trees back to Diablo III. Primarily, it was brought up that letting players choose whatever skills whenever they want will reduce re-playability.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Wow, people really don't like the OPs post. Well, if we're killing replay value by not making people have to level completely new characters just to try out a new build, we are ok with that.
Leveling characters is cool, and some people legitimately enjoy that process (me!), and we agree it can be fun and would still like to find ways to reward people who enjoy leveling additional characters, but being required to do it just to try out some different skills is no longer acceptable to us. That's a level of masochism we just don't care to revisit. We thank the 90's for their contributions to game design, and the 'crush the player's soul' dungeon master mentality, but we're moving on. We have this crazy notion that games shouldn't punish you for trying to enjoy them.
Fact of the matter is though that the longevity in Diablo II was not made by leveling characters. You can get a character to 80 in a matter of hours. The longevity was from experimentation, customization, and the randomized item drops needed to perfect them. And that's amazingly even considering that a huge portion of the item hunt was completely ruined due to the mass proliferation of what should be insanely rare items. Longevity in Diablo is from exploration, character customization, and more specifically, killing monsters to see what they drop - not leveling.
You can also add to this that in Diablo III killing monsters to see what they drop will not be made lucrative by explicitly predictable means, such as boss runs. Exploring entire areas, even playing from start to finish of each act, uncovering all the nooks and crannies is intended to be the way you'll be playing Inferno. You can pretend you're leveling a new character each time, if you'd like.
Leveling characters is cool, and some people legitimately enjoy that process (me!), and we agree it can be fun and would still like to find ways to reward people who enjoy leveling additional characters, but being required to do it just to try out some different skills is no longer acceptable to us. That's a level of masochism we just don't care to revisit. We thank the 90's for their contributions to game design, and the 'crush the player's soul' dungeon master mentality, but we're moving on. We have this crazy notion that games shouldn't punish you for trying to enjoy them.
Fact of the matter is though that the longevity in Diablo II was not made by leveling characters. You can get a character to 80 in a matter of hours. The longevity was from experimentation, customization, and the randomized item drops needed to perfect them. And that's amazingly even considering that a huge portion of the item hunt was completely ruined due to the mass proliferation of what should be insanely rare items. Longevity in Diablo is from exploration, character customization, and more specifically, killing monsters to see what they drop - not leveling.
You can also add to this that in Diablo III killing monsters to see what they drop will not be made lucrative by explicitly predictable means, such as boss runs. Exploring entire areas, even playing from start to finish of each act, uncovering all the nooks and crannies is intended to be the way you'll be playing Inferno. You can pretend you're leveling a new character each time, if you'd like.
Poll Recap - Monster Drop Rates
Our community is full of opinions and people definitely like to share them. This poll asks whether or not you like the idea of rare monsters having better drop rates than bosses. Primarily, for the use to help curb boss runs since random loot can be better. Most of the community is happy with this decision to help increase the use of the entire game instead of just bosses when it comes down to grinding for loot. In second place, some users just do not care one way or the other. If you would like to share your opinion on the matter, feel free to stop by and cast your vote.
Beta Screenshots
In the first screenshot, we see a
Monk attacking Captain Daltyn with a Lashing Tail Kick. In the next screenshot, a chandler is released onto a horde of zombies earning our Monk the "Bringing Down the House" achievement. In the last screenshot, the Monk has used Blinding Flash on a Wretched Mother to stop her from spewing forth another zombie.
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Posted Feb 15, 2012-
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Posted Feb 16, 2012What? You mean Diablo fans weren't already insane?
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Posted Feb 16, 2012''You can also add to this that in Diablo III killing monsters to see what they drop will not be made lucrative by explicitly predictable means, such as boss runs. Exploring entire areas, even playing from start to finish of each act, uncovering all the nooks and crannies is intended to be the way you'll be playing Inferno.''
That's just stupid. I'd rather farm bosses for months rather than blowing crates and stuff for weeks. Having the same % chance to find the best loots from crates/weakest mobs along with bosses simply makes no sense. Known objective > stupid random killing.
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Posted Feb 16, 2012By making useless to make new chars I really think that the replayability will suffer a very strong decrease. In D2 each build behaved as a different class (bowazon is completely different from a javazon that is completely different that a pikeazon, that's 3 classes on one).
I think that there may be some problems with the new desgin such as low-level games becoming incredibly scarce in comparison to high-level ones, people stop playing just after leveling each character once to max level and sudden change of all characters in one class to the most overpowered build in the current patch (and re-changing after new patch).
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Posted Feb 16, 2012If any of the numbers that have been released are accurate, the vast majority of people that play Diablo 3 will never get even a single character to max level, or even play the game past normal difficulty. If this is the case, there is really no type of character development that will effect the average player in the way you're describing. Yes, maybe the small percent of people that buy the game and play it over and over at max level (I believe this was less than 10%?) may find that remaking characters is not as exciting, but their whole idea with this game is to make lots of things to do at max level other than just grind bosses.
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Posted Feb 16, 2012-
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Posted Feb 16, 2012-
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Posted Feb 16, 2012That being said, if there are really unforeseen consequences, D3 *should* be able to revert this with a patch
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Posted Feb 16, 2012Don't get me wrong. I do love leveling. But sometimes, I just want to try out a new thing without going through the entire same process.
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Posted Feb 17, 2012I myself am an altoholic and I may just find myself making more than one witchdoctor for the endgame. I'd rather have two toons (with unique names) that play very differently. The alternative isn't super fun. Storing different sets and having an inventory swap fest. Sure I'm probably gonna do it at the start, but eventually I'd probably level another guy just because it's fun... and it's great to have another personality I can inhabit without having to waste time tampering with one I already do enjoy using.