Edit: for some reason the [url] tag isnt working..
1. This article has already been analyzed- it's old news. If you noticed, the author is a guest. That alone says it all. And what's more, we've got real news from real people in this post which basically sums things up: [URL="http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14863"]http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14863[/URL]
2. New users (users with roughly <= 10 posts) are not able to post working links or images. This was done to prevent spam and advertisement bots from posting porn, advertisements, and the like.
But thanks for the report, since you probably didn't know this was already covered and I shouldn't expect you to- I don't think the search function would have been specific enough to find it in this mess of new announcements and posts
Bashiok shared some details straing from Lead Tech Artist Julian about what they are doing with the Havok Physics engine. This is a clear sign that Blizzard is listening to fan feedback this early in the Diablo III development. Big kudos to Bashiok and Julian.
Bashiok: Our lead tech artist Julian and I talked a bit yesterday about some of the effects and fading, and he gave me some more insight as to how they're working and being changed. We also went in to some of the questions you've all brought up, and so I'll hit some specific points too (with quotes!).
Fan: "...or just disconnecting corpses from the physics engine when they come to rest, and have them fade out"
Bashiok: Aside from my previous comment of this not being nearly as fun (it would also look/feel kind of lame), Havok already knows when an object has come to rest and so they already have a lower cost when they're still. Additionally with the proposed method there is no reliable way to determine when or even if a body will come to rest. In a single player game with a class that maybe doesn't use a ton of skills that interact with corpses in a significant way this could work, but in a multiplayer game there could potentially be hundreds of corpses piling up as they've never come to rest due to all of the player skills firing off.
We're also taking extra care to minimize the ability of a player to impact the performance of another player, as was sometimes maliciously done in Diablo II.
Fan: I am wondering why you just use an object's age and don't specify a complexity and priority attribute for each object. By combining these two with the age method you would be able to fade out highly complex physics and low priority (tiny) objects earlier.
Bashiok: I'm just going to quote Julian from an e-mail at this point so I'm not rewriting his words and acting like I know what I'm talking about here - "Because most objects in the game that use the age method aren't different enough in anatomical complexity for this to yield significant benefits. The size of objects generally isn't a factor. It is the number of unseen physics meshes that the technical artists add to these things that matters and they tend to be pretty similar from actor to actor. This is largely due to the anatomical similarity of living things in nature..."
Most things have appendages, a back bone, head, etc.
Julian also made the point that while we have our new system for determining the number and age of a physics actors, we still have the old tried and true "disappear after n seconds" method. We can actually choose which actors use which system, so our intent is to make sure that a destroyed table won't make a corpse disappear, for instance. The corpse probably being the more important of the two to keep around.
Quite a few of you were discussing options, sliders, ways to control how long something takes to disappear, etc. and that may be a possibility. The current setting, which is around 20, is just our initial implementation. There's always the possibility for that number to change, or for it to potentially be variable by the player. We do want to keep the game options uncluttered and consistent as much as possible though. -- Source: Battle.net
it used to be very good, but it has been now updated like once a week...normally I will find info, and it is posted here a week later (I understand, I dont spent 10 hours searching for new d3 stuff, i look what other people post lol)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Not Even Death Can Save You From Me" ~ Diablo (II)
No complaints here about the blood and chunks Diablo 2 had a little bit... but not enough for me. Diablo 1 seemed to have more blood and mucus spurts than D2 had.... (Thinks back to killing goatmen, having them fall down to their knees, holding their necks trying to stop the bleeding before fainting to the ground)
Thats funny, The Older days of Modern Technology! You cant get that anywhere anymore. I tell you though, just got back from vacation, and EVERY mall and Gamers store i stopped in, i ask them about Diablo 3 and what they've heard. and well this time, No luck still. Everyone is saying about 2012. I hate to think that. BTW, i think the Gore in Diablo 3 is pretty freaking Sweet. having a Rib cage on one side of the screen, and a spinal cord on the other. haha, Can't beat that.
The Dungeon Crawl that Rules them All by Jonathan Marx
September 24, 2008 - The announcement of the impending release of Diablo III marks the long-awaited return of a classic franchise. For those of you unfamiliar with the Diablo series, it almost single-handedly gave rise to the dungeon crawl/action RPG genre.
The game's combination of interesting, varied, and challenging enemies, random dungeons, gory visuals, unique heroes, loads of loot, a solid set of multiplayer features (almost unheard of at the time), and an interesting, overarching storyline made the Diablo games utterly addictive. In fact, I'm only mildly ashamed to admit that a good portion of my college career was spent around Tristram in Diablo and cooperatively over Battle.net in Diablo II. Nevertheless, they weren't perfect. Constant inventory management and a repetitive combat mechanic eventually made the games tiresome. Thankfully, Blizzard has had more than seven years to iron out the wrinkles and do more than just rehash a tired system and ailing genre.
Those of you pale-faced warriors who slogged through level upon level and quest upon quest in Diablo and Diablo II (and, of course, the Lord of Destruction expansion) don't need a story explanation. However, the rest of you missed out on a rather interesting world. The events in Diablo III occur some twenty years after those of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Mephisto, Bhaal, and Diablo, the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction, also known as the Three Prime Evils were defeated by the heroes of the previous games with the help of the sage advice of Deckard Cain and the intervention of the Archangel Tyrael. However, Tyrael ended up destroying the Worldstone, which served as a shield for the mortals of Sanctuary from the immense power of both Heaven and the Hells. The destruction of this great artifact has left the people vulnerable to the resurgence of evil and the machinations of the Prime Evils.
To make matters worse, there are precious few mortals remaining that remember the absolute evil and terror that was wrought upon the lands by Diablo and his brothers. Those who do linger are considered old, insane doomsayers. As such, most consider the stories of Deckard Cain and the heroes of old to be little more than myth, legend, and exaggerated ramblings of demented minds. Needless to say, the return of evil to the world of Sanctuary will be swift, surprising, and terrible.
To help tell the more expansive story of Diablo 3, dialogue and voice acting will be increased and greatly improved. In the original games, dialogues played out much more like monologues. Players would advance the games' story through quests and errands and glean a bit more information by having NPCs talk at them rather than with them. This time around, PCs and NPCs will interact with each other through give and take conversations. This will allow for a PC's personality to be fleshed out much more readily. By greatly expanding the amount of voice acting devoted to them, players will learn all about their character's race, class, civilization, and individual motivations.
In addition to the greatly expanded sound features, the visuals have received a major overhaul. Unfortunately, the more vibrant art style has been a bone of contention for a very vocal minority that feels the mood of the Diablo series will not be appropriately portrayed. Nevertheless, the developers at Blizzard assure us that the visual direction of Diablo III is in fact true to the original. The devs even went so far as to point out that the first two art styles they began working with were thrown out because the extremely dark and brooding atmosphere they were creating was more a figment of their memories rather than what the previous games actually portrayed. Consequently, the folks at Blizzard, despite internet petitions from a few angry fans, have decided to go with a world full of vibrant colors that juxtapose nicely with the ominous environments. Blizzard promises that this art style both reinforces and refreshes the original look, while still maintaining the horror and terror of its predecessors.
Moreover, Blizzard has created an original, proprietary 3D and physics engine for Diablo III. Players can now hack through enemies and watch the parts fly, spurting with blood and detritus, while transitioning from move to move with fluid animation. Plus, environments are now largely destructible, which means players will be able to use their surroundings to slaughter the horde of enemies that await them.
Diablo III will still take advantage of the withdrawn, isometric camera established in the other games, in order to give players a better sense of scale and epic feel. In other words, players will have no control over the camera. Fortunately, the previous games never suffered from camera issues. As such, leaving the camera work in the hands of the CPU shouldn't be a problem.
Combat in Diablo III will be reminiscent of that found in its predecessors, but it will be tweaked just enough to make it far more interesting. The game will still be somewhat of a click-fest, as the controls will focus on the mouse. However, the various powerful skills you will acquire will be activated via a skill panel that is mapped to specific hot keys and even to the mouse wheel. That means the activation and use of abilities will be highly accessible and absolutely integral to the combat system. Interestingly enough, the devs have done away with the potion system that was a hallmark of the series. In other words, players will no longer need to load up on potions and pump the function keys to keep their character healthy in the face of impending doom. Now players will simply have to forge their way through levels and plunge themselves head on into battle, as health orbs are dropped by monsters after death, forcing players to seek out fights rather than avoiding them.
Currently, two of the five classes to be included in Diablo III have already been announced. Fans of the franchise will be happy to know that the barbarian class returns with all its might and duel-wielding glory. The barbarian will also maintain many of his better class skills, such as the leap and whirlwind abilities, with which to decimate foes. The witch doctor is a very distinct character from the barbarian, as they tend to stand a bit back from the fray and allow minions to do the dirty work. In fact, the witch doctor seems to be quite similar to the role the beloved necromancer played in Diablo II, but with a few added bonuses. Like the necromancer, witch doctors have summoning abilities but can also spread disease and plagues, as well as control the battlefield with mind-controlling powers.
All the classes will be able to be customized to allow for gender; however, that's about it. Fortunately, the sheer amount of random, rare, and epic loot drops should begin to distinguish your hero as you progress through the game. Graciously, the developers have not slacked in emphasizing loot collection. The loot feature alone should result in hours of replayability.
Furthermore, each class will have its own set of quests in addition to the standard storyline quests. That means players will be able to play the game several times with different characters and have a unique experience. Add to this the fact that the dungeons, monsters, and even scripted events (yes, different events will occur at well known points) will also be randomly generated, and we've got literally hundreds of hours of gameplay in front of us in the single-player campaign alone.
Outside of the single-player experience, players will also be able to play with each other cooperatively over Battle.net. Not much is known about multiplayer features yet, as Blizzard has kept those details under wraps. However, it appears that four players will likely be able to play co-op. Optimistically, there will also be PvP features too, but that's still just a hope and a prayer.
Diablo III should be a must-have title for both PC and Mac. The game will release for both computing platforms worldwide at a yet to be announced date. You see; the folks at Blizzard don't like to be tethered to an artificial street date that may lead to the hasty release of an unfinished game. However, expect Diablo III to launch around November of 2009, and expect it to be epic!
I don't think their estimated release date is that far off.
I'm also liking the WD more and more every time I see new screens of him. I ALWAYS start with a barbarian / warrior class in every RPG (D1, D2, WoW, etc.) but I think I may start with a different class this time :). I thought I was excited when SC2 was announced but I'm infinitely more excited about this game.
1. This article has already been analyzed- it's old news. If you noticed, the author is a guest. That alone says it all. And what's more, we've got real news from real people in this post which basically sums things up: [URL="http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14863"]http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14863[/URL]
2. New users (users with roughly <= 10 posts) are not able to post working links or images. This was done to prevent spam and advertisement bots from posting porn, advertisements, and the like.
But thanks for the report, since you probably didn't know this was already covered and I shouldn't expect you to- I don't think the search function would have been specific enough to find it in this mess of new announcements and posts
Next Diablo 3 class will make players hate Blizzard
Diablo 3 dev: 'Game previews only risk developer egos'
Top 10 Monsters You'd Hate To See In Diablo III
The Voice Of Deckard Cain, Private Carmine Talks About Roles In ‘Diablo III,’
The End of the Art Controversy?
Diablo III will have “its own unique needs” for the new Battle.Net
INCGAMERS: Diablo III Interview
Top Twenty Spoken Phrases from the Diablo universe
Hungry? Why Wait? Grab a Barbarian!
I don't think their estimated release date is that far off.
Wow, these are amazing. I'm loving the added gore to this franchise :). CAN'T. FUCKING. WAIT!!!!
AusGamers: Diablo 3 Jay Wilson Interview
No Guns, No Spellbooks, No DX10
New Death Mechanic and Town Portal
Rumoured Battle.net 2.0 Additions (added 04/10/2008)