First of all, I didn't think I would ever be doing threads like these anymore, but I just couldn't help myself. The announcement revived all habits in me.
I will if I could to a small sum up of the interviews.
I can do a summary of the french one when i come back from work in a few hours.
Edit : I just read it quickly with my phone. There are some interesting informations about difficulty, the open world, the lore and community aspect of the game. I’ll probably do a full translation. Should I put it in the comments or create a new post?
I can do a summary of the french one when i come back from work in a few hours.
Edit : I just read it quickly with my phone. There are some interesting informations about difficulty, the open world, the lore and community aspect of the game. I’ll probably do a full translation. Should I put it in the comments or create a new post?
Wow, that's amazing! Whatever you decide, it's free world But I will make sure I put bullet points under each interview, later today...the day job is just getting in the way.
I can do a summary of the french one when i come back from work in a few hours.
Edit : I just read it quickly with my phone. There are some interesting informations about difficulty, the open world, the lore and community aspect of the game. I’ll probably do a full translation. Should I put it in the comments or create a new post?
Wow, that's amazing! Whatever you decide, it's free world But I will make sure I put bullet points under each interview, later today...the day job is just getting in the way.
Thanks. Keep it within this thread. Have all collected is what I've would have done if I translated something. Hope to see this thread being edited with more interviews if needed during this year.
- They aren't still sure whether one should permanently die during a PvP battle
- There will be many different top 500 LBs, so that every player would have a bigger chance to make some of these
Basically I am 99% sure the developer means the a la Conquest D3 type of competition with such LBs.
So, let's say there are 100 x Conquests in Diablo 4 each with its own top 500. This means 40-50k players would make these since the deal with the conquests is that one player usually focuses on a small number of these. And you can't practically aim to place in all since each LB objective would make you sacrifice time from the others, so that casual players have bigger chance to make these.
That would be fun, but I hope they plan to add more competition besides the Conquests too.
At last, i'm back home ! (I had the opportunity to leave early today )
This post is a direct translation of the judgehype interview, with the same structure and all.
----
I had the opportunity to interview Game Director Luis Barriga and Art Director John Mueller. They talked about many things, including lore and storytelling, multiplayer, leveling and gameplay.
Lore
Blizzard is keeping the story a secret by choice. Diablo IV is the beginning of a chain of events that will take place in a longer story.
The main story will be told through all of the game's content. Some members of the Diablo IV team worked on open worlds (WoW for example) and Blizzard believes the community will bring a nice gameplay experience around the main story. However, random generated content (translator's note : it feels like they're talking about random events like quests, more than random maps for dungeons) are going to be a challenge to implement.
Blizzard wants to eliminate what they call "Monster's social network" : the fact monsters tell the players what they are going to do right before they do it (think Asmodan). And no, you won't find important people's books everywhere on the floor. Developers believe it is very important for the story/lore to be mysterious, and they want to do everything they can to do that in Diablo IV.
Open world / Multiplayer
The number of players playing together at any time will vary depending on areas and what the players are doing. However Luis doesn't want Diablo IV to turn into an mmo because the game would lose it's core/style/essence.
Trade between player is supported : some items can be traded, other can't, and some can only be traded once (or more, not sure yet).
There will be 5 regions. You can visit them in any order and at your pace. However, some select parts of those regions will have differents level requirements. It won't be possible to do everything at lvl 1. Each region will have its own story, told by the environment the player is moving through. (tn : the last part of the sentence is accentuating the fact that stories will be told in different ways like quests in town, random encounters and such).
The regions won't be random, but the dungeons will 100% be.
Players will be able to teleport between waypoints in Diablo IV, just like in Diablo II and III.
The game will reward exploration in different ways : hidden treasures for example. Many developpers worked on AAA open worlds and they bring their experience to the game. They love exploration and really want to make it exciting. For example : the Blizzcon demo is limited to 15 minutes of playtime, but there is 2 hours worth of content available.
Community
Luis Barriga didn't feel as much social interaction in Diablo III as in other Diablo games. There will be more interactions in Diablo IV due to the open world, even if dungeons are limited to the party doing them. However, players will be able to freely choose if they want to take part in the multiplayer aspect of the game or not.
PvP
PvP is a major aspect of Blizzard's vision for Diablo IV (tn : vision as goal and not some divine or mystic stuff. Or is it?)
Gameplay
Blizzard wants to avoid having a different experience fighting a boss in different difficulty levels (Master). Boss will mostly be balanced around a level bracket, but if a player is skilled, he/she can fight them earlier.
Does that mean there will be different difficulty levels in Diablo IV? Not confirmed but it seems like it (and we should expect it). Luis clearly said "Master" during the interview (tn : if that is not clear, this bit is the writer talking to us readers)
The game will feel different from Diablo III. Game devs don't want to make the same game with a different skin.
Gameplay will also feel different. For example, the difference between left and right click attacks is increased. They don't want the game to be a constant firework while exploring Sanctuary.
Class balance won't be "nerf everything" or "buff everything". It will be more nuanced. This way doesn't yield good long term results.
Progress/leveling
There will be 5 classes. No mention of other classes being added later on.
Blizzard has some ideas for lategame content, but doesn't have anything to annonce yet. They don't want to use the word "raid" because the word has meanings that wouldn't suit Diablo.
Some example of ingame events : an important (tn : lorewise or big? can't tell, but the french word used here -important- mostly mean lorewise) monster appears in the open world and players can participate in killing it in multiplayer. the player meets an npc that needs his help right here. Those are only two example, there are many more. Devs are working on a way to add bounties in Diablo IV.
Other
There will be no announcement regarding pets or compagnons (tn : french word can mean both, so I can't really tell if they are talking about cute zombie goat following you or a templar-like npc).
There will be expansions after the game's release
Blizzard is very (VERY, emphasis by the game director) excited about crossplay (between pc, playstation and xbox), but can't confirm anything for now.
Internet connexion is required to play. Luis feels like this was not used enough in Diablo III : an average gameplay session contains 1.1 player. They are convinced it will be higher in Diablo IV due to the open world, pvp and trading.
---
End of the translation : if something isn't clear, feel free to ask
Edit after some thoughts : about the companion part, it most likely means templar-like npcs. I think they actually use a different word for the goats and other small pets. (yes I like the goat)
Devs are working on a way to add bounties in Diablo IV.
This is new.
I hope they change their mind about adding it. I see they have statistics on gameplay sessions, I hope they have statistics on botting too, because in D3 bots completed way more bounties than the real players. And adding the most botted feature from the previous game into your new one is L-O-L S-O-S stuff. Seriously, this has to be a joke right? Tell me the developer joked about it...
Devs are working on a way to add bounties in Diablo IV.
This is new.
I hope they change their mind about adding it. I see they have statistics on gameplay sessions, I hope they have statistics on botting too, because in D3 bots completed way more bounties than the real players. And adding the most botted feature from the previous game into your new one is L-O-L S-O-S stuff. Seriously, this has to be a joke right? Tell me the developer joked about it...
why would someone else botting for bounties effect your gameplay in anyway? Because they’ll get better items than you at a faster rate?
Players botting X simply means X is not a fun game activity.
The Diablo 4 developers have to focus on creating fun activities the players will enjoy doing themselves, not emulating with bots.
Bounties can not be a fun activity as long as they force the same objectives on players over and over again. To have different objectives they need in-game AI for that. And I doubt they are building one.
So, if non-AI bounties drop in Diablo 4 these are going to be boring as the D3 bounties and people would bot them.
I think I heard they said 'more classes will / might come in expansions".
If this is even mentioned it's either in rhykkers video at blizzcon or (most probably) Quint69. Or maybe I misunderstood. If not then during q&a at the panel. Can't seach for it now.
Players botting X simply means X is not a fun game activity.
The Diablo 4 developers have to focus on creating fun activities the players will enjoy doing themselves, not emulating with bots.
Bounties can not be a fun activity as long as they force the same objectives on players over and over again. To have different objectives they need in-game AI for that. And I doubt they are building one.
So, if non-AI bounties drop in Diablo 4 these are going to be boring as the D3 bounties and people would bot them.
So your argument is that it’s basically a boring end-game feature that they shouldn’t repeat because of how monotonous it becomes? Ya I can agree with that. I also hated Rifts. Even if they constantly became harder, it was still really boring. The “end-game” for diablo has always been to farm for loot in different ways. And/or PVP eachother. At least in D2. That’s also why D3 sucked so much, no PVP.
Personally im hoping they make the world insanely huge and have parts constantly change and we can just explore the whole world over and over farming for stuff. That would be enough for me. They don’t have to invent any new endgame features to keep me playing.
I think I heard they said 'more classes will / might come in expansions".
If this is even mentioned it's either in rhykkers video at blizzcon or (most probably) Quint69. Or maybe I misunderstood. If not then during q&a at the panel. Can't seach for it now.
They don’t deny it in this interview. It was more in a sense : they didn’t say anything so we don’t know what they might be, how many there will be, often they will be released. I’m pretty sure I also read or heard somewhere that there will be new classes.
Yes, this is achieved through superb procedural randomization of tiles/zones/areas, not by static bounties.
Static bounties are good for new players to the game - say, those below level 20, because they force them to go to a predefined path, namely where the bounty objective is. And for the new player is good to be forced to do things, because he himself doesn't know WTH he is doing at all. But the rest of the players DO know.
Why force experienced players into bounties? We know D3 lacks depth and was full of wrongly designed stuff thus it had a bounty system, but why force such system on us in so enormous and unique world like this of Diablo 4? Why force the player to go to a place X and not let the player find place X himself and do the event happening there NATURALLY (if he chooses to), not FORCED?
Absolutely no reason for such type of game to be forced on experienced players. This is a bad and lazy design.
Diablo is about randomized content, not static content. That is one of the major driving forces for the Diablo player base - the RANDOMIZATION of maps, battles and items dropping. If the developers want to do bounties properly they have to develop an AI to learn from each player preference and offer him bounties he enjoys, not to force on us static missions!
i 100% agree. I spent years playing D2 and D3, and I felt like D2 was way more fun for a lot longer and I never did bounties in D3 because it was so boring. Barley held my attention for a couple hours, let alone months-years of continual play lol. I probably didn’t even play D3 for much more than a year before I quit out of boredom. A huge part of D2’s staying power was the trading and community. Which blizz is also bringing back in D4.
Blizz also said they are adding tons of ‘random events’ that will happen not only in the ‘Open World’ we share but also in any ‘dungeon’ you enter, which are also randomized. So that along with trading/open world will make the game a lot more fun in the end-game. But I’m sure they’ll also add another endgame feature or 2 that could also potentially be fun. I’d be satisfied if the game released with the features it has now with a bit more detail to stats. I’m excited to see all the many changes and additions over the next 2 years.
I did Bounties a whole lot, just to try to get shards so I could gamble. I played solo and normal rifts only when I had to. Greater rifts I might have tried 2 times on my own, rest of them were me standing at an entrance to get paragon stuff and loot from other players. This resultet med In missing out wings and pets along with portraits in D3, and when those things started to trend (not getting the things) I just gave up.
No rewards, no randomization, no good loot. I have never hold an ancient item in Diablo 3 I think. Do they glow differently?
Anyway. Glad to hear they will fix so solo can enjoy the game. And I really hope randomization is key this time.
First of all, I didn't think I would ever be doing threads like these anymore, but I just couldn't help myself. The announcement revived all habits in me.
I will if I could to a small sum up of the interviews.
First of all, I didn't think I would ever be doing threads like these anymore, but I just couldn't help myself. The announcement revived all habits in me.
I will if I could to a small sum up of the interviews.
Lots is lost in translation using google. Any french and german speakers that can comment on if there's any new info in those last two articles?
I can do a summary of the french one when i come back from work in a few hours.
Edit : I just read it quickly with my phone. There are some interesting informations about difficulty, the open world, the lore and community aspect of the game. I’ll probably do a full translation. Should I put it in the comments or create a new post?
Wow, that's amazing! Whatever you decide, it's free world
But I will make sure I put bullet points under each interview, later today...the day job is just getting in the way.
Thanks. Keep it within this thread. Have all collected is what I've would have done if I translated something. Hope to see this thread being edited with more interviews if needed during this year.
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
The new information from the German interview is:
- They aren't still sure whether one should permanently die during a PvP battle
- There will be many different top 500 LBs, so that every player would have a bigger chance to make some of these
Basically I am 99% sure the developer means the a la Conquest D3 type of competition with such LBs.
So, let's say there are 100 x Conquests in Diablo 4 each with its own top 500. This means 40-50k players would make these since the deal with the conquests is that one player usually focuses on a small number of these. And you can't practically aim to place in all since each LB objective would make you sacrifice time from the others, so that casual players have bigger chance to make these.
That would be fun, but I hope they plan to add more competition besides the Conquests too.
At last, i'm back home ! (I had the opportunity to leave early today
)
This post is a direct translation of the judgehype interview, with the same structure and all.
----
I had the opportunity to interview Game Director Luis Barriga and Art Director John Mueller. They talked about many things, including lore and storytelling, multiplayer, leveling and gameplay.
Lore
Open world / Multiplayer
Community
PvP
Gameplay
Progress/leveling
Other
---
End of the translation : if something isn't clear, feel free to ask
Edit after some thoughts : about the companion part, it most likely means templar-like npcs. I think they actually use a different word for the goats and other small pets. (yes I like the goat)
Thank you for the translation, Aksjer!
This is new.
I hope they change their mind about adding it. I see they have statistics on gameplay sessions, I hope they have statistics on botting too, because in D3 bots completed way more bounties than the real players. And adding the most botted feature from the previous game into your new one is L-O-L S-O-S stuff. Seriously, this has to be a joke right? Tell me the developer joked about it...
why would someone else botting for bounties effect your gameplay in anyway? Because they’ll get better items than you at a faster rate?
Players botting X simply means X is not a fun game activity.
The Diablo 4 developers have to focus on creating fun activities the players will enjoy doing themselves, not emulating with bots.
Bounties can not be a fun activity as long as they force the same objectives on players over and over again. To have different objectives they need in-game AI for that. And I doubt they are building one.
So, if non-AI bounties drop in Diablo 4 these are going to be boring as the D3 bounties and people would bot them.
Thanks for the translation.
I think I heard they said 'more classes will / might come in expansions".
If this is even mentioned it's either in rhykkers video at blizzcon or (most probably) Quint69. Or maybe I misunderstood. If not then during q&a at the panel. Can't seach for it now.
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
So your argument is that it’s basically a boring end-game feature that they shouldn’t repeat because of how monotonous it becomes? Ya I can agree with that. I also hated Rifts. Even if they constantly became harder, it was still really boring. The “end-game” for diablo has always been to farm for loot in different ways. And/or PVP eachother. At least in D2. That’s also why D3 sucked so much, no PVP.
Personally im hoping they make the world insanely huge and have parts constantly change and we can just explore the whole world over and over farming for stuff. That would be enough for me. They don’t have to invent any new endgame features to keep me playing.
They don’t deny it in this interview. It was more in a sense : they didn’t say anything so we don’t know what they might be, how many there will be, often they will be released. I’m pretty sure I also read or heard somewhere that there will be new classes.
Yes, this is achieved through superb procedural randomization of tiles/zones/areas, not by static bounties.
Static bounties are good for new players to the game - say, those below level 20, because they force them to go to a predefined path, namely where the bounty objective is. And for the new player is good to be forced to do things, because he himself doesn't know WTH he is doing at all. But the rest of the players DO know.
Why force experienced players into bounties? We know D3 lacks depth and was full of wrongly designed stuff thus it had a bounty system, but why force such system on us in so enormous and unique world like this of Diablo 4? Why force the player to go to a place X and not let the player find place X himself and do the event happening there NATURALLY (if he chooses to), not FORCED?
Absolutely no reason for such type of game to be forced on experienced players. This is a bad and lazy design.
Diablo is about randomized content, not static content. That is one of the major driving forces for the Diablo player base - the RANDOMIZATION of maps, battles and items dropping. If the developers want to do bounties properly they have to develop an AI to learn from each player preference and offer him bounties he enjoys, not to force on us static missions!
Skelos_bg
i 100% agree. I spent years playing D2 and D3, and I felt like D2 was way more fun for a lot longer and I never did bounties in D3 because it was so boring. Barley held my attention for a couple hours, let alone months-years of continual play lol. I probably didn’t even play D3 for much more than a year before I quit out of boredom. A huge part of D2’s staying power was the trading and community. Which blizz is also bringing back in D4.
Blizz also said they are adding tons of ‘random events’ that will happen not only in the ‘Open World’ we share but also in any ‘dungeon’ you enter, which are also randomized. So that along with trading/open world will make the game a lot more fun in the end-game. But I’m sure they’ll also add another endgame feature or 2 that could also potentially be fun. I’d be satisfied if the game released with the features it has now with a bit more detail to stats. I’m excited to see all the many changes and additions over the next 2 years.
I did Bounties a whole lot, just to try to get shards so I could gamble. I played solo and normal rifts only when I had to. Greater rifts I might have tried 2 times on my own, rest of them were me standing at an entrance to get paragon stuff and loot from other players. This resultet med In missing out wings and pets along with portraits in D3, and when those things started to trend (not getting the things) I just gave up.
No rewards, no randomization, no good loot. I have never hold an ancient item in Diablo 3 I think. Do they glow differently?
Anyway. Glad to hear they will fix so solo can enjoy the game. And I really hope randomization is key this time.
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
I just added two more to the OP.
TVMuch
Added one more from AusGamers.
Two more from ausgamers again:
https://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3622735
https://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3622635