DiabloFans

Patch 1.0.4 Information Coming Soon
The Diablo III developers have been hard at work on some exciting new features and updates for the game. Many of you have asked for more details, and we’re busily preparing several developer blogs filled with information on what’s coming in patch 1.0.4. In the meantime, here’s an overview of the information we’re planning to share here on the Diablo III community site in the not-too-distant future.

Please keep in mind that this list isn’t set in stone, but it should provide a useful preview of what we’ll be revealing in the days ahead.

• System Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng is preparing a high-level summary of some of the system changes planned for 1.0.4.

• Legendary Items, by Andrew Chambers
Senior Game Designer Andrew Chambers is working on a blog detailing all the ways we’re making Legendary items stand out.

• Magic Find Update, by Jay Wilson
Following up on earlier discussions, Game Director Jay Wilson will be providing an update on how Magic Find is evolving in patch 1.0.4.

• Class Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Wyatt will also be providing a preview of the changes we’ll be making for each class in 1.0.4 (and the philosophy behind those changes).

• Patch Notes, by Lylirra
Of course, this is all building up to the actual patch 1.0.4 release, and we’ll be releasing the full patch notes shortly before the update goes live.

We’re also planning to run some interviews and developer chats surrounding patch 1.0.4, and we’ll be sharing those on the Diablo III front page. Be on the lookout, as we’d love to get you involved in any live chats we host.

As always, your constructive feedback is very much appreciated. Stay tuned for the updates to follow!

Now that character profiles are available, it feels like a good time to once again go over how to properly set your forum posting character so you can have the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Well, even if it's just your own.
Once properly logged into the forums (with your Battle.net email address and password/authenticator), at the top right corner you should see a character listed -- this could be for World of Warcraft or StarCraft II. Just above that character's name should be your BattleTag nickname. Next to your character's name you should see a down-arrow. Click on that to display a variety of characters from any of the games you have associated with your Battle.net account.

If you are not already set to your Diablo III BattleTag, go to the bottom of the list where you should see an option to Manage Characters. Clicking on that will expand the list of your in-game characters and accounts. At the very top (for most folks) you should see the Battle.net icon, the Diablo III icon, and your BattleTag name with the associated hash and unique identifier numbers. Select that and you're all set! The View Profile link should now reside right underneath your name where you can check out your characters and their shiny gear.

As Konald suggested, you can change the posting character/game license by selecting the "V" arrow next to the character name. Look for Manage Characters near the bottom. It will bring up a list of characters and game profiles. Your Diablo III profile should be near the top of that list.

Click on the Diablo III icon and you should see the portrait change.

Go ahead and make a post to this thread with the Diablo III profile. It’d be cool to see your characters.

Sheol, the "V" drop down displays recently selected characters/accounts. You need to locate the Manage Characters option so it brings up a full list. Your Diablo III profile should be near the top of that list.

We actually held a Q&A with some of the Diablo III development team recently on Reddit. You can find the original thread where Wyatt Cheng (senior technical game designer for Diablo III), Andrew Chambers (senior game designer for Diablo III), and game director Jay Wilson answered questions from the community over on Reddit here and the transcript for it is here.

We enjoy doing these types of Q&As as time allows, and we hope to do more in the future. We’ll be sure to let you know when another is coming up so that you have time to prepare your questions in advance.

For the sake of some “shiny” discussion: if we were to hold a Q&A, what questions would you ask?


I'd ask them to consider my thread: http://us.battle.net...opic/6080263591
The thread's a compilation of the community's suggestions/opinions to improve D3 in future patches.
Constructive feedback threads like the ones from Muffins and Danov have indeed been passed along to developers, and we appreciate them very much. We make it a point to make sure that developers can easily keep tabs on those sorts of discussions, and I can also tell you that I personally bring up popular threads such as the positive monster affix thread during developer meetings. That doesn’t mean that developers groove with each and every player suggestion, of course. There are, after all, a wide range of changes players would like to see, and many of them we are actively looking into behind the scenes. Some suggestions, however, simply don’t jive with our gameplay philosophies, or aren’t a direction we’re currently interested in pursuing.

On the other hand, we often agree with the opinions we see players posting, but we might not be in a position to comment if and when specific changes are coming. While we realize many issues are incredibly important to the community, most do not have quick and easy solutions, and it takes time to fully investigate them, evaluate our options, and determine how we want to proceed. After that comes lots of programming, testing, retesting, and the full breadth of the production process. Changes can even (and often do) involve the art teams, sound teams, and more, and I can't emphasize enough that these changes are rarely "quick" or "simple." It's an ever-evolving process, and sometimes during that process, we even come up with other ideas and better solutions, which is part of the reason why we make an effort not to comment on what exact changes are coming until we've solidified them.

I like how you Italicized the word "better" because better is merely a point of view, what the company or the dev's deem as "Better" might not be better in the eyes of the playerbase I.E. your customers.

Was not intending to flame, just some food for thought I guess.
"Better" absolutely is a point of view, and that's part of why I italicized it. One of the cornerstones of our mission statement is "every voice matters." That's a big part of why I'm here talking with you.

We all have individual opinions on, well, just about everything. Movies, books, games, favorite dinosaur (velociraptor, btw ), you name it. And all of those opinions have value, but they are rarely shared exactly from person to person. And while every one of us is incredibly passionate about games, and Diablo III in particular, there are diverse opinions on what each person thinks would make Diablo III a better to them.

You’ll definitely want to stop by the Blizzard booth at gamescom 2012 to try out our newest games and witness the array of entertaining activities on our stage. But you’ll also have the chance to participate in our contests and quizzes to win some incredible prizes from our partners!

The lucky winner of the Blizzard Costume Contest will take home an XMG P502 PRO Gaming Notebook from Schenker, some awesome gaming gear from SteelSeries, and a Mega Bloks Deathwing’s Stormwind Assault set. Charm our judges in the World of Warcraft Dance Contest to win an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 6 Series graphics card, a Mega Bloks Goblin Zeppelin Ambush set, and SteelSeries gaming gear. Runners-up for both contests can also look forward to more SteelSeries gear, T-shirts from J!NX, Cryptozoic loot cards, Mega Bloks packs, and more.

The winners of the Mists of Pandaria Leveling Contest will walk away with a Mega Bloks Sindragosa and the Lich King set, while runners-up could also snag some swag from SteelSeries, J!NX, and Mega Bloks.

In addition to our contests, you could also be chosen to participate in the Blizzard quizzes happening several times each day for the chance to win some novels and calendars from Panini, as well as more amazing loot from our partners.

Head to the Blizzard booth to play our games for yourselves, and you can also try out the latest Blizzard licensed peripherals from Razer and SteelSeries.

Visit our Prizes page for details on the goods up for grabs, and check out our Activities page for more information on our contests and a full stage schedule.

We’ll see you next week at gamescom!