If this past week has been the calm, today surely was the storm as Bashiok responded to three threads on the Battle.net forums following Kaivax's minor Blue post yesterday on Diablo 3's music. In Diablo 2 when an item drops its title remains unseen unless you mouse over it, or press the Alt key. Pressing Alt has the added function of showing every item title on screen. This feature helps the player instantly take quota to what has just dropped anywhere on screen.
Diablo 3 brings options to this feature allowing the player to choice when they'd like to view item titles, and even what key they'd like to use:
Official Blizzard Quote:
We have a few different options you can pick from to display item names while they're on the ground.
The default option is that names will show for 10 seconds when the item drops, and then the name fades out. You can hit Alt again to show them for another 10 seconds. (Diablo III default)
You can also forego showing item names automatically when they drop and choose to just use Alt to show item names while it's held down. (classic functionality)
You can also choose to always show item names, and hold Alt to hide them. (I'm not sure how useful this is, but it's there)
There's also an option to make Alt toggle showing item names on/off. (my personal favorite)
We're also looking to bring back the /nopickup option from Diablo II, but it's currently a nice-to-have feature and so may not make initial release.
Additionally you can rebind any and all keys in the game, so you can easily make something like the Tab (for example) key show item names instead of Alt, if you prefer.
A special thanks to CherubDown for bringing this Blue to light promptly.
Rebinding to any key is great, but what about a mouse button or tilt wheel? Many mice now have programmable hot keys which help free up your alternate hand. For now this remains unknown, though hopefully in the not to distance future Bashiok will return with an answer:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Good question. I don't know and don't use a mouse with a tilt wheel. I can try to find out.
On a related topic item title filters were mentioned. Such a filter would allow the player to choose what type of items would be seen on screen when viewing item titles with the Alt function. For example, a player interested only in legendary items could filter out all other item classifications from the Alt key function. These types of filters won't be making their way into the game. Reason being, between the ability to salvage items from anywhere, and a larger inventory, picking up most items you see could pay off.
Official Blizzard Quote:
That's not an option currently and as far as I know we don't have any plans to implement. I think the argument against such a thing could be that since you're able to pick up and immediately salvage/sell any items without going back to town, as well as just having a great deal more storage space, means there's a good reason to pick up everything. I suspect that may not hold true for all levels of play, but we'll see.
Auto gold pickup still remains. This feature can be seen as early as the 2008 Gameplay Trailer. At 6:45 in the trailer you see the Barb walk past two small gold drops, missing them slightly. On his return trip at 6:53 you see both gold stacks be picked up, while his mouse cursor was clearly guiding him forward. Auto item pickup on the other hand has been denied, reason being it would lesson the choices available to the player.
Official Blizzard Quote:
No, we want players to be clicking on items still to pick them up. Gold is auto-pickup because there's never a reason to not pick it up, but creating 'loot vacuum' mechanics for actual items removes several layers of player decision and interaction.
In Diablo 3 this would be a lot easier to clean up.
Without any direct clarification, Skill Slots have been somewhat of a blurry topic concerning their limitations. Bashiok helps clear this up with a brief post adding to another member's prompt response:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Q u o t e:
From information I had read, it sounds like you can have all of the "high level / tier" abilities if you save your points, but it has been mentioned that the first tier items have little, to no cooldown, and the "top tier" ones have "lengthy cooldowns."
So take that as you wish, but it would lead me to believe that if you have only high end cooldowns, it might suck when you have nothing to cast
Right, so for example, the three final skills of the barbarian tree all currently have 2 minute cooldowns. There are ways to augment those cooldowns slightly of course, but you're still going to want a mix of skills that complement each other.
Last, and surely least we have a pretty standard response, or lack there of, regarding the unannounced Trading System. This infamous system will likely be revealed at the Blizzard Beta meeting July 27th along with a slew of other information leading to the Beta release targeted sometime in Q3.
Official Blizzard Quote:
We haven't made any announcements yet regarding trade systems, but it's something we'll be prepared to reveal soon™.
I think it's something people are going to be pretty psyched about, if not passionately indifferent.
To this our own CherubDown responded accordingly:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Q u o t e:
You think only 2 different opinions will come out of the reveal? You should know this community better by now.
No, no, of course not. I totally expect a veritable rainbow of positive reactions. From joy, to elation, to admiration, all the way down to a mild pledging of undying fealty.
Seeing as this Trading System will be one of the most important features in the game, surely a wide range of responses will echo around the community upon it's announcement. It will need to stand up to the expectations of tens of thousands of fans, bringing simplicity, efficiency, and player immersion together in a nice organized package; in Blizzard we trust.
In other news Thursday July 21st in San Diego, California Blizzard will be making an appearance at Comic Con 2011. At the event Blizzard, and companies licences with them will likely announce new unseen merchandise for Diablo, Starcraft 2, and World of Warcraft. The entire event runs from the 21st through the 24th, with the 20th being preview day.
Special thanks to Medievaldragon for bringing this Diablo related news to light.
“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” - Albert Einstein
I think the most interesting news from all of this the info on the barb's skills. I find it very interesting that all of his top tier skills have 2 min cooldowns. They had mentioned there were ways to help balance out the use of low level and high level skills from player's choice. You won't really be able to pick all three top level skills if they all have 2 min cooldowns.
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As for the two minute cool downs, I suppose that's one way the team is trying to balance each skill so there are few unused skills in different builds. I recall multiple occasions where they addressed how they're trying to make each skill viable, instead of the top tier skills being the ones everyone flocks to. A two minute cool down, deducible or not is sure a way to make this happen.
“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” - Albert Einstein
I think the skill tier is fitting and works well. As a fan of D&D 4E I know how limiting uses on powerful abilities can really add strategy to player choice, without making a character feel weak, while also letting the spammable skills really define the feel of the character. I am pleased with this news and GJ to Winged for pulling all of this together!
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If that made sense to you, Bravo! I think I even confused myself...
The fact that there's 2 minute cooldown is really really really disapointing. With a 2 minute cooldown it better be like a F'ing nuke. Two minute cooldowns are just such a bad idea for Diablo. People will only use it for "special" occasions (at least that's how I'll play) and the skill will rarely get used. I'd rather just have the same spell, weakened, and have it be a 10-15 second cooldown -- that way I could use it in nearly every encounter; and really use the skill and have in a regular rotation, or use it as an opener. I just think that these "2 minute" skills will just be an *oh sh!t* skill that people use when they are about to die ... lame, just lame.
Two minutes is not really that long. You will probably be able tocast it once per monster grouping.
In addition, it's actually fixing the very problem you explained. If to could spam top level skills, then people would only choose those and make most of the skills useless. The fact that it is limited drives plaerys to choose a wide arrange of skills instead of just the top few like in D2.
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Two minutes is not really that long. You will probably be able to cast it once per monster grouping.
In addition, it's actually fixing the very problem you explained. If to could spam top level skills, then people would only choose those and make most of the skills useless. The fact that it is limited drives players to choose a wide arrange of skills instead of just the top few like in D2.
Yes, It introduces a skill and judgment aspect to the game that hasn't really been seen before. And look at what the Wiki has for top tier Barb skills. 2 of them are very clearly nukes and the third is a situational skill. I've said this before but I'll say it again: The low level skills are the bread and butter attacks, as you get higher level skills they become increasingly situational and will only be needed occasionally, but when used for their purpose are extremely effective.
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If that made sense to you, Bravo! I think I even confused myself...
I see what you are saying. But it can still be the "best" or "top" skills and have it be 10, 20, or even 30 second cooldowns. I wouldn't consider that spamming at all. Even at 10 seconds, the other 9 seconds would be filled with the lower skills... you'd be spamming your lowers skill 9X more than the top tier one(s).
I disagree about 1 cast per monster grouping. At least I hope I'm not just running around for 2 minutes in between every battle, that would be very boring. I just feel at a 2 minute cooldown it will REALLY only be used every 10 minutes because people will wait for the "perfect" time to use it. And that's just not a fun way to play the game IMO.
@pit - I think you are not accounting for the amount of time it takes to kill each group you run into. Fights are much more strategic while still keeping the hack n slash. Yes, you will probably use 10-20 attacks per monster group and it will probably take 30 secs - 2 mins to clear each group.
If you are waiting every 10 mins to cast a 2 min cooldown spell, that's fine but you can also optimize it and cast it every 2 mins.
Again, this is minor compared to the varying other 6 skills you choose. This cooldown is supposed to restrict it's use because of how powerful it is. Diminishing it's power and making it more spammable makes it no different from lower level skills. You suggested 30 sec cooldowns but maybe they already have those on mid-high skills.
Either way, I'm just glad they are putting in balances to make each skill a possible choice in builds.
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Also guys keep in mind there will possibly be ways to lower those two minute cool downs, or any cool downs for that matter. Between Runestones, Traits (passives), and maybe even Gems there could be ways to reduce cool downs. Some kind of Synergies could have been a factor also, but they've been outed as it seems.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Synergies aren't being planned for nor are they expected. It's sort of a funny question, because broken down you're essentially asking "Are the skill trees in Diablo III going to be boring and require incentive to spend points in skills no one wants?" Ideally the answer to that is no. There are some other things going on too that make sure synergies even less of a necessity. Clear separation of active and passive skills, respecs, ... and MORE!
“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” - Albert Einstein
Good point winged. If you want to design your character off of these top skills, you will probably be able to with trait and rune choices. However, you will be missing out on other possibilities. Which again, only helps create viable build possibilities.
BTW- for monster occurrences, I'm saying 2 mins to clear an entire hallway for example, not a 5 monster grouping.
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I see what you are saying. But it can still be the "best" or "top" skills and have it be 10, 20, or even 30 second cooldowns. I wouldn't consider that spamming at all. Even at 10 seconds, the other 9 seconds would be filled with the lower skills... you'd be spamming your lowers skill 9X more than the top tier one(s).
I disagree about 1 cast per monster grouping. At least I hope I'm not just running around for 2 minutes in between every battle, that would be very boring. I just feel at a 2 minute cooldown it will REALLY only be used every 10 minutes because people will wait for the "perfect" time to use it. And that's just not a fun way to play the game IMO.
Only silly people will. Though i agree 1~5 minutes cooldowns are kind hard to get used to. Imo they should keep 10~20 seconds cooldown max. I can't imagine whirlwind with cooldowns =/
In my opinion cooldowns should add to the strategic approach and let lower tier skills to be much more useful than in D2.
Not many low level skills in D2 were useful once you reached higher levels.
I wonder if the 2 minutes cooldown will apply in PvP too and how this will affect gameplay.
A build focused on lower tier skills would be able to spam more attacks while a build focused on higher tier skills would have to wait (and survive) for 2 minutes to use its most powerful skills.
Still the first one should try to quickly finish the opponent before the 2 min expires or may risk to get hit and then quickly finished.
Going nearby healt orbs spots would offer your opponent a nice target area
In 2v2 or 3v3 this will lead to needing a great amount of skill, timing and teamplay.
I like the news on the Alt options and gold autopickup.
Well, we have some stuff to talk about for a while. Thanks Winged, nice work!
So take that as you wish, but it would lead me to believe that if you have only high end cooldowns, it might suck when you have nothing to cast
Right, so for example, the three final skills of the barbarian tree all currently have 2 minute cooldowns. There are ways to augment those cooldowns slightly of course, but you're still going to want a mix of skills that complement each other.
Even for High-end skills don't you think two solid minutes is a bit long? with such a high cooldown it might not be used at all, always thinking that the cooldown is too high that if you use it RIGHT NOW you might need it right after. I remember long cooldown stuff in WoW such as trinkets and similar cooldown length things were often times passed up because they weren't used that often.
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I agree with feminism. I don't think that it's right that for every dollar a man makes, a women gets 70 cents. Why do I only get 30 cents and some chick gets the rest?
#1. Thank god for cool downs! This means you won't be able to spam whirlwind or hammers to destroy the entire game..YIPPIE!!
#2. Curious about the trade system comments. Is it possible that maybe only materials/salvageables will be placed on the AH and no legendary items can go up? This will increase commerce and gold spending but keep trading alive for the high end market, a mix of both worlds.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sometimes you don't always know where you stand... until you know that you won't run away.
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Diablo 3 brings options to this feature allowing the player to choice when they'd like to view item titles, and even what key they'd like to use:
Official Blizzard Quote:
We have a few different options you can pick from to display item names while they're on the ground.
The default option is that names will show for 10 seconds when the item drops, and then the name fades out. You can hit Alt again to show them for another 10 seconds. (Diablo III default)
You can also forego showing item names automatically when they drop and choose to just use Alt to show item names while it's held down. (classic functionality)
You can also choose to always show item names, and hold Alt to hide them. (I'm not sure how useful this is, but it's there)
There's also an option to make Alt toggle showing item names on/off. (my personal favorite)
We're also looking to bring back the /nopickup option from Diablo II, but it's currently a nice-to-have feature and so may not make initial release.
Additionally you can rebind any and all keys in the game, so you can easily make something like the Tab (for example) key show item names instead of Alt, if you prefer.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Good question. I don't know and don't use a mouse with a tilt wheel. I can try to find out.
Official Blizzard Quote:
That's not an option currently and as far as I know we don't have any plans to implement. I think the argument against such a thing could be that since you're able to pick up and immediately salvage/sell any items without going back to town, as well as just having a great deal more storage space, means there's a good reason to pick up everything. I suspect that may not hold true for all levels of play, but we'll see.
Official Blizzard Quote:
No, we want players to be clicking on items still to pick them up. Gold is auto-pickup because there's never a reason to not pick it up, but creating 'loot vacuum' mechanics for actual items removes several layers of player decision and interaction.
Without any direct clarification, Skill Slots have been somewhat of a blurry topic concerning their limitations. Bashiok helps clear this up with a brief post adding to another member's prompt response:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Q u o t e:
From information I had read, it sounds like you can have all of the "high level / tier" abilities if you save your points, but it has been mentioned that the first tier items have little, to no cooldown, and the "top tier" ones have "lengthy cooldowns."
So take that as you wish, but it would lead me to believe that if you have only high end cooldowns, it might suck when you have nothing to cast
Right, so for example, the three final skills of the barbarian tree all currently have 2 minute cooldowns. There are ways to augment those cooldowns slightly of course, but you're still going to want a mix of skills that complement each other.
Official Blizzard Quote:
We haven't made any announcements yet regarding trade systems, but it's something we'll be prepared to reveal soon™.
I think it's something people are going to be pretty psyched about, if not passionately indifferent.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Q u o t e:
You think only 2 different opinions will come out of the reveal? You should know this community better by now.
No, no, of course not. I totally expect a veritable rainbow of positive reactions. From joy, to elation, to admiration, all the way down to a mild pledging of undying fealty.
In other news Thursday July 21st in San Diego, California Blizzard will be making an appearance at Comic Con 2011. At the event Blizzard, and companies licences with them will likely announce new unseen merchandise for Diablo, Starcraft 2, and World of Warcraft. The entire event runs from the 21st through the 24th, with the 20th being preview day.
Special thanks to Medievaldragon for bringing this Diablo related news to light.
Official Blizzard Quote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoQ5goVpjyM
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Duly noted corrected for accuracy.
As for the two minute cool downs, I suppose that's one way the team is trying to balance each skill so there are few unused skills in different builds. I recall multiple occasions where they addressed how they're trying to make each skill viable, instead of the top tier skills being the ones everyone flocks to. A two minute cool down, deducible or not is sure a way to make this happen.
In addition, it's actually fixing the very problem you explained. If to could spam top level skills, then people would only choose those and make most of the skills useless. The fact that it is limited drives plaerys to choose a wide arrange of skills instead of just the top few like in D2.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Yes, It introduces a skill and judgment aspect to the game that hasn't really been seen before. And look at what the Wiki has for top tier Barb skills. 2 of them are very clearly nukes and the third is a situational skill. I've said this before but I'll say it again: The low level skills are the bread and butter attacks, as you get higher level skills they become increasingly situational and will only be needed occasionally, but when used for their purpose are extremely effective.
I see what you are saying. But it can still be the "best" or "top" skills and have it be 10, 20, or even 30 second cooldowns. I wouldn't consider that spamming at all. Even at 10 seconds, the other 9 seconds would be filled with the lower skills... you'd be spamming your lowers skill 9X more than the top tier one(s).
I disagree about 1 cast per monster grouping. At least I hope I'm not just running around for 2 minutes in between every battle, that would be very boring. I just feel at a 2 minute cooldown it will REALLY only be used every 10 minutes because people will wait for the "perfect" time to use it. And that's just not a fun way to play the game IMO.
If you are waiting every 10 mins to cast a 2 min cooldown spell, that's fine but you can also optimize it and cast it every 2 mins.
Again, this is minor compared to the varying other 6 skills you choose. This cooldown is supposed to restrict it's use because of how powerful it is. Diminishing it's power and making it more spammable makes it no different from lower level skills. You suggested 30 sec cooldowns but maybe they already have those on mid-high skills.
Either way, I'm just glad they are putting in balances to make each skill a possible choice in builds.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Official Blizzard Quote:
Synergies aren't being planned for nor are they expected. It's sort of a funny question, because broken down you're essentially asking "Are the skill trees in Diablo III going to be boring and require incentive to spend points in skills no one wants?" Ideally the answer to that is no. There are some other things going on too that make sure synergies even less of a necessity. Clear separation of active and passive skills, respecs, ... and MORE!
BTW- for monster occurrences, I'm saying 2 mins to clear an entire hallway for example, not a 5 monster grouping.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Only silly people will. Though i agree 1~5 minutes cooldowns are kind hard to get used to. Imo they should keep 10~20 seconds cooldown max. I can't imagine whirlwind with cooldowns =/
You already have enough spells / skills to be used the higher tier skills are a added benefit for that BIG BANG.
Monk > Wizard > Barbarian > Demon Hunter > Witch Doctor
Nice news report too by the way.
Not many low level skills in D2 were useful once you reached higher levels.
I wonder if the 2 minutes cooldown will apply in PvP too and how this will affect gameplay.
A build focused on lower tier skills would be able to spam more attacks while a build focused on higher tier skills would have to wait (and survive) for 2 minutes to use its most powerful skills.
Still the first one should try to quickly finish the opponent before the 2 min expires or may risk to get hit and then quickly finished.
Going nearby healt orbs spots would offer your opponent a nice target area
In 2v2 or 3v3 this will lead to needing a great amount of skill, timing and teamplay.
I like the news on the Alt options and gold autopickup.
Well, we have some stuff to talk about for a while. Thanks Winged, nice work!
Official Blizzard Quote:
So take that as you wish, but it would lead me to believe that if you have only high end cooldowns, it might suck when you have nothing to cast
Right, so for example, the three final skills of the barbarian tree all currently have 2 minute cooldowns. There are ways to augment those cooldowns slightly of course, but you're still going to want a mix of skills that complement each other.
Even for High-end skills don't you think two solid minutes is a bit long? with such a high cooldown it might not be used at all, always thinking that the cooldown is too high that if you use it RIGHT NOW you might need it right after. I remember long cooldown stuff in WoW such as trinkets and similar cooldown length things were often times passed up because they weren't used that often.
Should create for some interesting strategies!
#2. Curious about the trade system comments. Is it possible that maybe only materials/salvageables will be placed on the AH and no legendary items can go up? This will increase commerce and gold spending but keep trading alive for the high end market, a mix of both worlds.