Today we started our Sword of Justice comic book giveaway! Make sure to check out the official thread for information on how to enter! This contest will end Saturday, April 28th at 11:59PM EDT.
Unlock #6 - The Order
Explore this chilling excerpt from The Order, an upcoming novel recounting Deckard Cain's struggles against the forces of evil alongside his mysterious young charge, Leah. This story takes place years before the event of Diablo III.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Cain smelled something foul like rotten meat. Another room loomed through an archway before him, pitch black inside. He heard movement and a low, guttural snarl accompanied by the scraping of rock. Feeling exposed in the candlelight, he flattened himself against the wall and moved as quietly as a ghost to a corner between two bookcases.
The thing that emerged from the archway was so huge and incomprehensible that at first Cain had trouble processing the sight of it. It appeared to be made of human limbs and torsos all rolled together, along with a forest of jutting spikes of what looked like rock and timber. Two long arms ended in clubs rather than hands and sprouted the same shards of wood and stone. At least three separate heads grew from putrid, swollen flesh, white-filmed eyes rolling blindly in their sockets.
The monstrosity moved slowly and laboriously, and it had to duck to clear the arch, over ten feet off the floor. Its dripping shoulders nearly touched both sides of the opening as it leaned into the library, grunting with the effort. It seemed to have one main head in the center of its chest, and as it swung in Cain’s direction, those eyes fixed on his face.
The creature paused as if studying him. Then it opened its
primary mouth and roared, the stench of its breath washing over Cain as the mouths of the other heads screeched in unison.
The candle flickered and nearly went out. Fresh panic rose up in Cain as the creature took a lumbering step toward him and threatened to knock over the table and send them into darkness. He slipped away from his hiding place and went for the door, but the monster moved with him and reached out a long clubbed limb as if to smash him into the floor.
The thing that emerged from the archway was so huge and incomprehensible that at first Cain had trouble processing the sight of it. It appeared to be made of human limbs and torsos all rolled together, along with a forest of jutting spikes of what looked like rock and timber. Two long arms ended in clubs rather than hands and sprouted the same shards of wood and stone. At least three separate heads grew from putrid, swollen flesh, white-filmed eyes rolling blindly in their sockets.
The monstrosity moved slowly and laboriously, and it had to duck to clear the arch, over ten feet off the floor. Its dripping shoulders nearly touched both sides of the opening as it leaned into the library, grunting with the effort. It seemed to have one main head in the center of its chest, and as it swung in Cain’s direction, those eyes fixed on his face.
The creature paused as if studying him. Then it opened its
primary mouth and roared, the stench of its breath washing over Cain as the mouths of the other heads screeched in unison.
The candle flickered and nearly went out. Fresh panic rose up in Cain as the creature took a lumbering step toward him and threatened to knock over the table and send them into darkness. He slipped away from his hiding place and went for the door, but the monster moved with him and reached out a long clubbed limb as if to smash him into the floor.
Darkness Falls. Heroes Rise - Witch Doctor
Today starts the first day of the Witch Doctor on the Diablo III promotional site. You will have until Tuesday to unlock the Witch Doctor sigil for your own. With this, also comes to release of the short story for the Witch Doctor, make sure to check it out!
Jay Wilson Q&A
Jay Wilson was in Korea today taking care of some press events and interviews! Up first we have a quick translation/summary of the Q&A that can be found over at inven.co.kr. (Please keep in mind these are translated)
DiabloFans Quote:
How was the players feedback on the Open Beta?
Overall pretty positive but it was more of a hardware stress test.
Any feedback from the Korean players?
Yes but we had too many to pick out one and tell you. Lots of feedback about the difficulties and spell effects.
Any surprising elements that would blow people’s minds?
Don’t assume there should be a tragic / surprising element in the story.
Many people have said the delay of the release was not because of asia, what did you mean by that?
There was a rumor in the west about game rating problems in Korea was causing the Diablo release to be delayed but I just simply said that wasn’t the case.
There was an option to limit the framerates in the game, what’s the reason for that? Was it because of Starcraft 2 causing performance issues?
I am not really fitted to tell you the answer, our programmer Jay Patel will be able to answer that.
Is the Arena you are developing a lot different from the one we saw at Blizzcon 2011? What about just regular field PvP and other PvP methods?
There are changes to the Arena compared to the blizzcon version but it won’t be too different. We excluded PVP simply because it was not ready and we are also preparing many other things. However it is hard to reveal that in such an early stage of development.
Developers don’t want Diablo 3 to be PvP centered game, what they believe is the game is more PvE co-op heavy.
Many players are wondering about how you will fight things like Maphacks as they were already developed through the beta.
These things will be less useful than it was in Diablo 2 than Diablo 3 as it will only show things like Dungeon Entrances and not where all the monsters are on your map. We are also working to prevent these kinds of hacking tools.
Any support for apps for the community?
It is a good idea but currently nothing official.
Many people say the new rune system is over simplified compared to the stat and skill distributing they had in Diablo 2.
We put more focus in variety instead of freedom of making whatever character you want. Diablo 2 had freedom of builds because there were so many skills to choose from but it had a select few definitive builds that worked really well. However in Diablo 3 there are fewer skills but have many options to customize them. Each class has about 20 ~ 25 skills and each skill have 5 runes to choose from and that leads to infinite amounts of builds.
Are you going to add public channels or clan/guild support or will it be just like a messenger type like Starcraft 2?
There are currently no plans to make any kind of guild system and our goal is to make a Blizzard experience in to one whole experience so you will be able to chat with your friends playing WoW, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.
The release date is so close the players don’t think you’ll have time to implement the feedbacks you get from the Korean players(April 25th Korean Diablo 3 OBT).
The goal of tomorrow’s beta is this, one is hardware test for the Korean servers and two is to just show it off. We’ve already received enough feedback from players during the G-star and many players e-mailing Blizzard Korea.
Many players are discussing about the Inferno Difficulty since Diablo 2’s Hell just had reduced resistances and that was it. Will there be any type of special feature just for the inferno mode? Also can you solo it?
It will be a lot different from Hell mode in Diablo 2, such as a monster creating a wall to stop the player from fleeing from the monster or blocking off ranged attacks with the use of the wall. The AI will move significantly different also you will be able to solo it even though the difficulty will be a bit easier with co-op it is not a must.
What’s the expected gameplay time for Diablo 3 from normal to inferno?
Just like MMORPGs it is hard to give a time that will be spent playing this but most testers we had took a few weeks to complete them.
Can you play without internet access?
That is not possible as Diablo 3 will be online
The game release and test overlaps with the game Blade & Soul (NCSoft & Team Bloodlust), have you played the game before?
I played the game twice and it was a fantastic game, I really hope the English version gets released soon. I am a bit sad that the test starts tomorrow but I have to go back to America tonight so I won’t be able to play it. I think Korean players are lucky that they will be able to enjoy two fantastic games at the same time.
You said the Korean market is very important, do you have anything more to say before the release of Diablo 3 in Korea?
We hope May 15th would come sooner. We’ve developed for this for 6 and a half years and we hope the players will get in there and really enjoy the game. We’ve already released some info on the game but there are still plenty of content that wasn’t revealed so we hope you have a wonderful experience.
Jay Wilson at Playerscut.com
Playerscut.com has another great yes or no interview, this time with Jay Wilson. Make sure to check out some of their other fun activities with Jay which can be found here and here!
Zarhym on PvP
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We want PvP to be incredibly challenging and fun, but we want to avoid turning it into a truly competitive leagues/ladders eSport. We just don't think Diablo gameplay is very conducive for that type of controlled environment where balance is paramount.
That said, we want to develop PvP as an engaging and rewarding system. What we don't want to do is take a traditional eSports approach to PvP, where balance will become so important to a competitive ranking system that solo and cooperative gameplay feel a bit neutered as a result.
We want your characters to feel totally imba. Then we want you to enter some Arenas, send the scorched remains of other players' corpses flying, and let the satisfaction wash over you -- until your opponents take similar care of your hero, that is.
That said, we want to develop PvP as an engaging and rewarding system. What we don't want to do is take a traditional eSports approach to PvP, where balance will become so important to a competitive ranking system that solo and cooperative gameplay feel a bit neutered as a result.
We want your characters to feel totally imba. Then we want you to enter some Arenas, send the scorched remains of other players' corpses flying, and let the satisfaction wash over you -- until your opponents take similar care of your hero, that is.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Estimated Lvl at the end of each difficulty
In my actual experience (admittedly, with a full build that reflects where the game was in difficulty a month ago), I had to push my demon hunter up to level 32 to get out of Normal, and up to 55 to get out of Nightmare. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Twitter
If one of my friends has +50% magic find and deals the final blow to a boss, will I get 50% more items?
Also final blows, damage done, etc. don't effect drops, just if you were in-range when the kill happens. (Source)
They say Inferno is soloable. What about soloable in a full game?
No. Well unless something is broken. You have to stick together to survive. (Source)
wait, so you can't play solo on inferno mode? 4-man only?
What? No, you can play it alone. If you're in a multiplayer game though if you run off by yourself you will die.(Source)
What happens to our exclusive Banner Sigils if we change our Bnet email? Had to change mine to a safer one recently.
I'll find out, but during the two week grace period before launch I'd recommend just doing them all again with your new addy. (Source)
In my actual experience (admittedly, with a full build that reflects where the game was in difficulty a month ago), I had to push my demon hunter up to level 32 to get out of Normal, and up to 55 to get out of Nightmare. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
If one of my friends has +50% magic find and deals the final blow to a boss, will I get 50% more items?
Also final blows, damage done, etc. don't effect drops, just if you were in-range when the kill happens. (Source)
They say Inferno is soloable. What about soloable in a full game?
No. Well unless something is broken. You have to stick together to survive. (Source)
wait, so you can't play solo on inferno mode? 4-man only?
What? No, you can play it alone. If you're in a multiplayer game though if you run off by yourself you will die.(Source)
What happens to our exclusive Banner Sigils if we change our Bnet email? Had to change mine to a safer one recently.
I'll find out, but during the two week grace period before launch I'd recommend just doing them all again with your new addy. (Source)
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
These things will be less useful than it was in Diablo 2 than Diablo 3 as it will only show things like Dungeon Entrances and not where all the monsters are on your map. We are also working to prevent these kinds of hacking tools.
Seems like a safe statement to make, but the maphacks I saw did show monster location. Maybe they improved the way monsters are loaded for retail? With the changes to "item farming" maphack isn't as important except for things like:
- finding champions fast (need monster location)
- finding random dungeon entrances (i.e. den of fallen)
- random top-world resplendent chests
- speed running to the boss after killing a few packs for nephalem buff
In which case, yes maphack is still useful and I sure do hope they prevent it as best they can.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Just like MMORPGs it is hard to give a time that will be spent playing this but most testers we had took a few weeks to complete them.
I thought the bets were several months for people to finish Inferno? Or are they just saying to finish Hell, in which case getting essentially to 60 and killing the boss? If that's the case, then this is good news. I was afraid of hitting 60 in 2 days. On the otherhand if this includes Inferno, then that super-sucks
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012It could just be a translation thing, But he could also mean maybe a few weeks per each?
Edit: it is indeed from normal -> inferno
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012I must say this bothers me a ton. Being an old school gamer and knowing that the internet has painfully turned into nothing but a large social networking including gaming... I just don't understand why Blizzard is going so backwards here. They are not just trying to stop guilds but they seem to be trying their hardest to prevent community of any type within Diablo 3.
For example I run a small community of gamers and there is about 2 dozen of us getting D3. We would have died and enjoyed creating a in game channel just like WoW, D2 and like 100's of other games where we can get groups with our friends and even talk and even share items that we get with a simple anyone want this before I vendor it or hell look what I just found and link an item and everyone is just amazed.
I really don't get why their hindering the community experience and were not asking for guilds but thats all they say is we don't want guilds and well sorry sir but no one asked for them we asked for custom channels
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012What the fuck? Either the translation is babelfish bad or Jay just totally answered the wrong question. I mean seriously the chat is WORSE THAN D2 and about the only thing chat related that he's bringing up is their Battle.net instant messenger shit that no one has ever asked about since we knew we would get it in any future Blizzard PC game.
ROFL Jay just took a huge dump on Bashiok's claim that Inferno was a matter of MONTHS.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012The title was just summarized it seems. it goes on (this part is from google translator) Public channel, a clan or guild plans on the same system?
ill add it in to make it more clear
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012What happens to our exclusive Banner Sigils if we change our Bnet email? Had to change mine to a safer one recently.
I'll find out, but during the two week grace period before launch I'd recommend just doing them all again with your new addy.
So 2 weeks before launch we will get a chance to remake missed banners on the minisite again?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012Sweet, thanks! Missed the damn DH... must redo or OCD explodes.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012A Korean game that isn't a P2P grind fest with an imbalanced Pay2Win cash shop? Or is it that Jay supports it? I don't know the details about this game but it's Korean and all their games boil down to the same issues so I'd love to know if this is their first exception ever.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012for in game, I found that Skype in the background, once you switch on push-to-talk is an awesome free voice chat... beats typing any day.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012Dude it's not "one" server. This isn't a server in existence that can handle several million concurrent connections to it. It's many many servers. They just host instances for you to join and this time more people can immediately join you instead of having to flip a more granular region flag. You can't compare it to an open world MMO. You give the channels a player cap like you do the game. If it's constantly full, you build up the infrastructure to handle more just like the game itself.
Obviously Skype is superior with friends or with a regular dedicated group but talking in a public forum with no leadership never works if only one person can speak at a time so text is generally preferred.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012Not really. I will not bother listing so many ways but IRC for example has been used for so long and their system is pretty much based on that. Even if the entire world not just regions were to use it you could have as much as you need. Also the custom channels were used by like 5% of the population.
Could also do something like /create channel Sexton and it would be like you are now in channel Sexton5189 for example. So no claiming Help General or you know if your group name is the same as 10 others no wars over the channel lol.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 24, 2012I've met beauty contestant winners, and American Idols ( I got some nice side boob action from Lisa Tucker), but I rather meet some chubby geek that looks like he touches kids. Is something wrong with that?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 25, 2012Does that mean that they do appear or they really don't appear?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 25, 2012WHAT?!
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 25, 2012That sucks....
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 25, 2012-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 25, 2012He's just saying not to assume. It's typical Blizzard play on words to get away from actually answering the question. Though it's a bit rude because the question isn't assuming anything. They asked if they even existed, not how many elements.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Apr 25, 2012I agree that this could be a translation issue.
I'm also thinking that this could be a trick, getting us to think it's going to be easier than it actually is.