"I think that Diablo is such a unique Action RPG in terms of the sense that we let these players play these bad-ass heroes, they have these great skills, and they have all these awesome items. The combination of epic heroes and epic loot is, for me, at the heart of the Diablo experience."
Ive heard the exact same thing on the blizzcon before release, on the making of DVD and on several interviews before launch.
This Game is seriously going nowhere. In order to make Itemization meaningful they would have to drop focusing Mainstats. They would have to drop weapon damage related Abilitys. In short they would have to turn this game 180 degrees around. They will not do this. Instead we will get the same old in a new dress.
There are a lot they could do to make items more compelling for now without revamping the whole system (like making secondary affixes stronger, and making the effects of off-class stats more compelling [dex, str, int]).
I wouldn't even mind if they kept the whole item revamp to the expansion (considering it's as huge as they say it is, and not just "less items drops and stats now roll between 190-250 only" as they hinted previously).
They've also shown they have a clue on how to make Legendary items better and making other Gems viable (with Rubys on weapons), so it's just a matter of following that same trend again
November? That's 5 freaking months..... on TOP of all the time that has passed since the last big content patch... AND that's a positive expectation. A more realistic one would be next year's March.
First time since launch that I'm actually hugely disappointed with a Diablo 3 related news.
I just hope skill and rune changes don't take this long as well, this game desperately needs more of those to keep things slightly fresh.
"When asked if it would be done before BlizzCon 2013 he stated, "it'll be a while, it's certainly not before BlizzCon," which is happening on November 8 and 9 this year."
CERTAINLY not before Blizzcon. This will prob. mean not at all in 2013. I'm just guessing ofc.
Unfortunately, this is not a big surprise if one looks back how long they have needed to include previous patches. Although I am not a friend of conspiracy theories and contrary to their message that their development teams are separated, it seems like the development of the console version needs more resources, that is team members, and as a result we have to wait even longer. Yes, quality needs time but this is a huge setback.
Well it's supposed to hit consoles September 3rd. Thinking logically, we all know what blizzard is like. The release date for console d3 has probably been discussed for months and months in the dev apartment. It's also nothing like blizzard to announce a date and then suddenly realise "oh damn, we need more people working on this to get it out on time!" which is kind of what you're making it sound like. If they announce a release date for it, then it must be pretty darn close to completion. In fact they're probably just doing the finishing touches on it and fixing bugs and glitches here and there. Nothing so serious that needs people taken off the PC dev team to work on.
I don't think tin-foil hats is necessary for explaining this. It feels as though they just want to add the itemization patch to the expansion, and who knows when that will be.
If it's not going to be in the expansion, then maybe they're working on more than what we've been told? What I mean by that is that maybe they're overhauling the stats system for classes as well as fixing item stats.
But then again, maybe they've had setbacks and things need re-doing.
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Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
Unfortunately, this is not a big surprise if one looks back how long they have needed to include previous patches. Although I am not a friend of conspiracy theories and contrary to their message that their development teams are separated, it seems like the development of the console version needs more resources, that is team members, and as a result we have to wait even longer. Yes, quality needs time but this is a huge setback.
It's also nothing like blizzard to announce a date and then suddenly realise "oh damn, we need more people working on this to get it out on time!" which is kind of what you're making it sound like.
I don't think tin-foil hats is necessary for explaining this.
You should have read more thoroughly. I wrote seems in italic letters and said before that I do not like tin-foil hat theories. Ergo I am aware of the different development teams. I thought this simple allusion became clear but I was wrong.
No no, you're right. I did read that though, and I took it into perspective when typing my first response. When i said tin foil hats weren't necessary I wasn't addressing you, I was talking about this discussion in general. I apologise if I came across like that though, because it was certainly not intended.
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Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
Such a shame. Guess it's time to take a prolonged break from D3. The inflation will continue to rise, and whatever they have in store for us before the itemization patch, it seems that most/all of the current items will probably become too cheap or even useless when they decide to implement this huge overhaul of the system. And If it will take them almost a year to do this, chances are slim that we will see any other major unannounced improvements before it.
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"Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the small death that brings total obliteration."
On topic: I expected nothing else, to be honest. Can't really say I'm disappointed; I would just have been very surprised if they did the itemization overhaul in the next patch.
For me, the major thing that i hope when i/if i invest in the expansion, is to hope that BLIZZARD ACTUALLY FIX RUBBERBANDING! Been in since 1.03 patch and still getting it, even after a hot fix that made the problem worse.
I rarely get rubberbanding on characters without really high movement speeds, so perhaps the solution is to remove run speed skills like sprint. I bet that would be "popular" ;-)
Even on my super fast Tempest Rush monk or my WW barb I never experienced rubberbanding. I'm playing over wifi, btw. I have heard of rubberbanding for about a year now but never met anyone who actually had any rubberbanding issues since 1.03.
On topic: I expected nothing else, to be honest. Can't really say I'm disappointed; I would just have been very surprised if they did the itemization overhaul in the next patch.
For me, the major thing that i hope when i/if i invest in the expansion, is to hope that BLIZZARD ACTUALLY FIX RUBBERBANDING! Been in since 1.03 patch and still getting it, even after a hot fix that made the problem worse.
I rarely get rubberbanding on characters without really high movement speeds, so perhaps the solution is to remove run speed skills like sprint. I bet that would be "popular" ;-)
Even on my super fast Tempest Rush monk or my WW barb I never experienced rubberbanding. I'm playing over wifi, btw. I have heard of rubberbanding for about a year now but never met anyone who actually had any rubberbanding issues since 1.03.
On topic: I had HOPED they would have implemented the changes soon but guess I hoped in vain.
Off topic: Bagstone ... now you have met someone who has had & continues to have rubber banding issues with EVERY game ... using my Barb/WW/Sprint. It seems to have gotten worse since 1.0.8 Of course Blizz just says it's the customers hardware/net connection problem. Gave up a long time ago expecting them to actually fix the problem ... since they are in denial that the problem actually exists.
Okay guys, I stand corrected. I seriously thought rubberbanding is the Bigfoot of D3 - everyone's talking about it, but no one has seen it. I believe you now, but I don't think it's related to this topic (developers who work on itemization and developers who look into fixing rubberbanding are not interchangeable).
Let's bring this back to topic. What was it again? Oh yeah, our grief about itemization not making it to live in 2013.
My problem is that the console versions apparently have a working (as in viable) itemization model. That had to be in the works for some time already for them to have set a firm release date in early September, well before BlizzCon. So why exactly can't the PC dev team start the ball rolling with the base system that the consoles have? It makes literally no sense at all to force the PC users to wait unless it's purely for profit from the console sales based on hyped up hope.
Sure the AH system is part of the mix, but in all seriousness, if itemization were changed to a more viable model, something the console versions apparently have mostly ready, if not already in the final stages of completion, then the AH wouldn't really be an issue for most players since "self found" would be something attainable for the most part without spending your entire life at the keyboard.
It seriously boggles the mind why if there is a known working iteration of itemization (which includes what appears to be legendaries that can drop in multiple difficulties giving players scaled versions and far more variety than they have today) that it can't be applied in any way to the PC version. They use the same skills. The same runes. The exact same stat allocation and modifier mechanics. So why do we have to wait until likely next year for this?
It seems that despite the changes to leadership that the PC dev team simply has no direction whatsoever that they're going in. It's either that or like the tin foil hat theorists are saying they're waiting on profits from the console versions first to milk the cow dry. I really hope it isn't the latter, but there's just no plausible explanation as to why the former is happening either.
I think a single word sums it all up best: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
Completely bummed by the news. Then I realized if they are seriously taking another 5+ months, and not knowing how long they've already spent on the update, they are doing it right. Counting launch and 1.04, this will be their 3rd iteration on items. They DON'T want to have to re do them again.
So it sucks we'll have to wait this long, but I have full confidence it'll be the best update D3 had seen yet.
Then I realized if they are seriously taking another 5+ months, and not knowing how long they've already spent on the update, they are doing it right. Counting launch and 1.04, this will be their 3rd iteration on items. They DON'T want to have to re do them again.
That is totally, 100%, how I feel.
Am I disappointed it won't happen sooner? Fuck yeah!
Am I willing to grin and bear it so that the third time is the charm? Absolutely. Because if they have to do it a fourth time that would be disastrous news.
Do I hope we get some other small patch in the meantime, perhaps some more ability, rune, passive tweaking? Yeah, would go a long way to tiding most people over.
Can't say I'm happy about this. However I still firmly stand by my theory of expansion 1 being announced at Blizzcon. I also still firmly believe the console version has nothing to do with this. Most likely because I'm out of tin foil.
they waste several months to release an "itemization fix" patch but they do all the work behind closed doors. They release it, it sucks, and we have to wait for another year to have something semi-decent that comes mostly of players justified rage posts in their forums.
Btw, knowing how Blizzard works, "certainly not before Blizzcon" in my mind translates to June+ 2014.
Tweaking numbers/stats on items is not a 5-9 month job.
Of course it's not, but "tweaking numbers/stats" isn't going to give us a very good itemization "fix" either. That's probably why Blizzard didn't just lock five guys in a room and slop whatever number tweaking they did onto the PTR on Monday morning.
Tweaking numbers/stats on items is not a 5-9 month job. Im sure basic programmers could do this in a weekend.
Everything in D3 just take so long. Not really sure why.
If they just adjust numbers, there I will be "disappoint"
Well, im not sure what else there is they could do but adjust numbers.
Since theres no skill trees and +skill items the game basically forces most characters to stack the same basic stats. Which functions the same for all skills on all characters.
They say they want all items to be useful. So it basically means making them possible to roll the same ilvl60+ stats as everything else.
They could hard cap crit and bring in a new stat with a +50/200 damage increase to a specific skill. That would be a major step in improving itemization. That would be as close to +skills as we could get.
.
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http://diablo.somepage.com/news/1569-items-20-revamp-in-d3-wont-happen-before-blizzcon
Thoughts?
Sorry if this has been posted already. Couldn't find anything about it. And thanks for telling me about it Mth
Ive heard the exact same thing on the blizzcon before release, on the making of DVD and on several interviews before launch.
This Game is seriously going nowhere. In order to make Itemization meaningful they would have to drop focusing Mainstats. They would have to drop weapon damage related Abilitys. In short they would have to turn this game 180 degrees around. They will not do this. Instead we will get the same old in a new dress.
Really, really "disappoint"
There are a lot they could do to make items more compelling for now without revamping the whole system (like making secondary affixes stronger, and making the effects of off-class stats more compelling [dex, str, int]).
I wouldn't even mind if they kept the whole item revamp to the expansion (considering it's as huge as they say it is, and not just "less items drops and stats now roll between 190-250 only" as they hinted previously).
They've also shown they have a clue on how to make Legendary items better and making other Gems viable (with Rubys on weapons), so it's just a matter of following that same trend again
November? That's 5 freaking months..... on TOP of all the time that has passed since the last big content patch... AND that's a positive expectation. A more realistic one would be next year's March.
First time since launch that I'm actually hugely disappointed with a Diablo 3 related news.
I just hope skill and rune changes don't take this long as well, this game desperately needs more of those to keep things slightly fresh.
"When asked if it would be done before BlizzCon 2013 he stated, "it'll be a while, it's certainly not before BlizzCon," which is happening on November 8 and 9 this year."
CERTAINLY not before Blizzcon. This will prob. mean not at all in 2013. I'm just guessing ofc.
I don't think tin-foil hats is necessary for explaining this. It feels as though they just want to add the itemization patch to the expansion, and who knows when that will be.
If it's not going to be in the expansion, then maybe they're working on more than what we've been told? What I mean by that is that maybe they're overhauling the stats system for classes as well as fixing item stats.
But then again, maybe they've had setbacks and things need re-doing.
Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
Even on my super fast Tempest Rush monk or my WW barb I never experienced rubberbanding. I'm playing over wifi, btw. I have heard of rubberbanding for about a year now but never met anyone who actually had any rubberbanding issues since 1.03.
On topic: I had HOPED they would have implemented the changes soon but guess I hoped in vain.
Off topic: Bagstone ... now you have met someone who has had & continues to have rubber banding issues with EVERY game ... using my Barb/WW/Sprint. It seems to have gotten worse since 1.0.8 Of course Blizz just says it's the customers hardware/net connection problem. Gave up a long time ago expecting them to actually fix the problem ... since they are in denial that the problem actually exists.
Let's bring this back to topic. What was it again? Oh yeah, our grief about itemization not making it to live in 2013.
Sure the AH system is part of the mix, but in all seriousness, if itemization were changed to a more viable model, something the console versions apparently have mostly ready, if not already in the final stages of completion, then the AH wouldn't really be an issue for most players since "self found" would be something attainable for the most part without spending your entire life at the keyboard.
It seriously boggles the mind why if there is a known working iteration of itemization (which includes what appears to be legendaries that can drop in multiple difficulties giving players scaled versions and far more variety than they have today) that it can't be applied in any way to the PC version. They use the same skills. The same runes. The exact same stat allocation and modifier mechanics. So why do we have to wait until likely next year for this?
It seems that despite the changes to leadership that the PC dev team simply has no direction whatsoever that they're going in. It's either that or like the tin foil hat theorists are saying they're waiting on profits from the console versions first to milk the cow dry. I really hope it isn't the latter, but there's just no plausible explanation as to why the former is happening either.
I think a single word sums it all up best: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
So it sucks we'll have to wait this long, but I have full confidence it'll be the best update D3 had seen yet.
That is totally, 100%, how I feel.
Am I disappointed it won't happen sooner? Fuck yeah!
Am I willing to grin and bear it so that the third time is the charm? Absolutely. Because if they have to do it a fourth time that would be disastrous news.
Do I hope we get some other small patch in the meantime, perhaps some more ability, rune, passive tweaking? Yeah, would go a long way to tiding most people over.
What's the worst that can happen:
they waste several months to release an "itemization fix" patch but they do all the work behind closed doors. They release it, it sucks, and we have to wait for another year to have something semi-decent that comes mostly of players justified rage posts in their forums.
Btw, knowing how Blizzard works, "certainly not before Blizzcon" in my mind translates to June+ 2014.
Me too. Don't really understand blizzard at all.
Tweaking numbers/stats on items is not a 5-9 month job. Im sure basic programmers could do this in a weekend.
Everything in D3 just take so long. Not really sure why.
Of course it's not, but "tweaking numbers/stats" isn't going to give us a very good itemization "fix" either. That's probably why Blizzard didn't just lock five guys in a room and slop whatever number tweaking they did onto the PTR on Monday morning.
Well, im not sure what else there is they could do but adjust numbers.
Since theres no skill trees and +skill items the game basically forces most characters to stack the same basic stats. Which functions the same for all skills on all characters.
They say they want all items to be useful. So it basically means making them possible to roll the same ilvl60+ stats as everything else.
They could hard cap crit and bring in a new stat with a +50/200 damage increase to a specific skill. That would be a major step in improving itemization. That would be as close to +skills as we could get.
.