Storytelling in Diablo III
Do you remember the intro to Diablo II? First thing you see is a one minute long conversation by our friendly camp keeper Warriv. With Diablo III the game designers are taking a big step away from that way of story development. The main philosophy they have for storytelling is the concept of Play, don't Tell. What that means is that long drawn out conversations slows down the gameplay, something they want to avoid in Diablo III. Instead they will focus on bringing in storytelling on-the-go. Conversations will be kept rather short and spread out. When possible they also want you to be able to play while listening and a video example was shown where a player engage fighting monsters while listening to story details told by a quest character.
Something that lore fans definitely will enjoy is lore books. Lore books are books found within the world that tells a story. The author of the book will read out loud what is written and provide additional flavor to the game while you keep fighting monsters. This is another example of the opt-in storytelling that they want to include for Diablo III.
Creating the environment
In the panel we got to follow the team as they explained how you take an idea and make a concept, how you take that concept and make it to a 3D environment with all the flashy effects that we see in the game. The example is from an area called the Bastion Keep. A huge fortress that will be under heavy siege from the demon horde.
Step 1 is the concept art. The picture that sets the feel for the area with materials, shapes, colors and all kinds of detail. The team works hard to get every detail just right so that it is easier to translate into the gaming world.
Step 2 is when the modellers start their work. A graybox (non textured 3d model) is created so that you can see how the models look in game.
Step 3 is when the textures are added, this adds colour and material into the game and it's starting to look like something from the actual game.
In step 4 the tech staff gets to add in lighting and particle effects which makes the world come alive. Destructible objects are added to enhance the gameplay feel.
It's really amazing to see how much thought is going into every part of the game.
Monsters(Written by Zhar)
Words cannot describe how impressed I was with Blizzard's new take on monsters. After everything from monster development to AI was covered in the panel, I knew Blizzard's new direction would be a good thing for Diablo III.
Not to say they're not keeping the hordes we grew accustomed to in Diablo II, or the memorable encounters of Diablo I. It seems they're trying to strike a balance between the two, which was quite evident in gameplay videos, and panel discussion.
The Balance
Load up this video, and fast forward to 2:35. Notice the monsters? They seem to have struck a good balance between hordes of cannon fodder, and interesting combat. There is one easily identifiable "boss monster" to focus attention on, accompanied by hordes of lesser monsters to keep a fast pace, and destructive feel to combat. Even normal encounters seem to have this feel to them, with the new fallen hierarchy, or the Cultists who transform into demons. It's this dynamic blend of monster types, as well as behavior and scripting that will keep encounters fresh and interesting.
Encounters
The panel also discussed various ways encounters will be initiated. For example, zombies suddenly popping up while walking through swampy areas as mentioned, and ghouls scaling cliff walls has been shown in several gameplay videos now. Before, skeletons popping out of barrels were the only "surprise monsters" we ever encountered. Now, it seems as if we'll be running into more and more encounters where we will not be able to initiate it ourselves, we will be kept on our toes, and always on the lookout for ambushes. There also seem to be several special monster encounters, such as a thief monster who, while difficult to catch, gives out very good loot.
AI and behavior
Monster behaviors were also briefly discussed. One monster in particular was used as the example, the "Gravedigger". As the name suggests, this monster is usually found in graveyards, and is in a passive state before the player draws near. He will mind his own business, dig graves, and shuffle around the cemetary. Upon drawing closer, the Gravedigger will go into an alert stance, picking up his shovel as if it was a weapon, looking around, and moving more erratically. Upon drawing even closer, the monster would attack the player. However, Blizzard found that most players wouldn't let him stay alive long enough to experience all of his animations. Thus, a balance was found between monster flavor and gameplay pace. Keep in mind that this is a massive change from the previous games, in which if a monster was on screen, it was almost guaranteed it was either attacking you at range, or closing the gap to engage you in melee combat.
Changes to monster AI have also been made. Previously, monsters would pursue the player endlessly, making it difficult for certain classes to put distance between themselves and their enemies. Now, with minuscule delays between attacks, pursuit and run/stop movement players will be rewarded for movement. It will be possible to micromanage your character to avoid damage and maximize efficiency.
Items -(Written by ScyberDragon) Armor There are eighteen levels of armor from the first "naked" look to the top level. Changing from Diablo II is that the looks of the gear will not go back to the basic looking models when starting in the new difficulties. The eighteen levels will be increasing from Normal through Hell so your character will increasingly look more awesome. Part of this is also the thematic armor for each class. While every class can wear all armor, it will look different depending on who is wearing this. A full helm look on the Barbarian may look like a crown on the Monk. Tying in with this, the actual icon of each item will also look different depending on what class you are playing so that it matches how it looks when equipped. Lastly on armor, dyes have been stretched to about twenty colors. These dyes will be bought, crafted, and dropped by monsters is varying rarities. Some examples of new armor sets were shown including my personal favorite of a Witch Doctor having a helm with moving tentacles on it.
Crafting Alongwith items, crafting through Artisans is seen as means to compensate for items that do not randomly drop for you. With the random drop system of Diablo, it is possible to clear an entire area or Act without a single pair of boots or gloves dropping for you; this is where Artisans come in. The UI for the Artisans have all been created to be a set standard to help ease confusion from one to the other. With flavor pictures added to the UI to help signify each Artisan's trades. There are still the same three Artisans will be in the game.
Mystic - The mystic is still in charge of all forms of magical crafting. From enchanting weapons to selling charms, she will be dealing with aspects to help the magical side of your character. Tying in with this theme, the Mystic's wagon was shown with a more naturalistic theme with softer features. On a side note - Identifying has been added to the Mystic's abilities leaving up curiosity to Deckard Cain's role.
Blacksmith - The Blacksmith, still in charge of weaponry and armor, will boast a harsher looking more sharper wagon. Donned in wood and metal, the shop will continue to grow with bigger and badder items
Jeweler - The Jeweler will be adding, removing, and combining the fourteen different levels of gems. His wagon will boast a more ornate look since the gems themselves will be harder to display. The range of gems starts from; chipped, flawed, normal, flawless, radiant, square, flawless square, radiant square, round, flawless round, radiant round, star, flawless star, and finishing at radiant star with only the first five levels dropping and the rest needing to be crafted. There are six different types of gems, all the same form Diablo II minus skulls.
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www.myspace.com/mpotatoes for all your Trans Siberian Orchestra listening pleasure
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Damn it. Evidently, I haven't been paying as much attention as I thought, because I was under the impression that gems were gone. I'm happy to be mistaken, of course.
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‘I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL WE ALL HAVE AIDS!’—The importance of calling them ‘mercenaries.’
Let me axe you guy something. In the first video of the panel, they're pointing out how long the text intro with Warriv was and how they felt in retrospect this was a bad way to begin the game. I can see the their point actually cause it is a lot of text with nothing accomplished by it really. But I also like this about Diablo. I like sitting back and listening what an NPC has to say for the first time. And I even love the subtitles that go along with it. I can't watch tv without subtitles so this naturally appeals to me. But I find it just as immersive in a game to have them just talk long walls of text at me that I would to have them talk to me in an ongoing quest. I don't see why they couldn't combine the two ways of progressing the story more.
I like sitting back and listening what an NPC has to say for the first time. And I even love the subtitles that go along with it. I can't watch tv without subtitles so this naturally appeals to me. But I find it just as immersive in a game to have them just talk long walls of text at me that I would to have them talk to me in an ongoing quest. I don't see why they couldn't combine the two ways of progressing the story more.
Well technically this does kind of work both ways. I mean, I know that when I find a book/find an NPC, I WILL stop and listed to their whole conversation before running on. Why risk some death sounds muting the speech I want to hear? So in a sense, it'd be just like D2 except for the actual text for me. Now as far as subtitles, I'm afraid you're in the minority here, but perhaps they'll be added as a display option? It's not uncommon in games.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
Hopefully there will be some kind of subtitle option even for lore books found throughout the game. But sometimes when interacting with NPC's, you just like to sit back and relax in those moments and hear what they have to say. This changes obviously after you've played the game already, but for me, it's a part of really feeling the game's atmosphere and seeing what people are like in this world. The first time playing through D2, I enjoyed talking to every single NPC about every topic possible.
Hopefully there will be some kind of subtitle option even for lore books found throughout the game. But sometimes when interacting with NPC's, you just like to sit back and relax in those moments and hear what they have to say.
There's probably not going to be as many of that, and as they said, it doesn't seem like there will be 1 minute monologues any more. Hopefully more shorter speeches make up for it for those of us who do enjoy other things than mashing demons all the time.
This changes obviously after you've played the game already, but for me, it's a part of really feeling the game's atmosphere and seeing what people are like in this world. The first time playing through D2, I enjoyed talking to every single NPC about every topic possible.
I guess we're a rare breed, the kind that goes "Oh man, I just found Radament! I need to... go back to town to listen to all the updates speeches!"
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
I guess we're a rare breed, the kind that goes "Oh man, I just found Radament! I need to... go back to town to listen to all the updates speeches!"
LOL Right?
I love running around getting my kudos from everyone. And sometimes they'll even have a retrospective analysis on what you just did. Like the info you get on Radamant after killing him is pretty damn interesting.
i liked how there were the monologues, but i'd prefer dialogues instead, like mini cutscenes explaining the quests or at least giving me thanks after i've been the hero.
I love running around getting my kudos from everyone. And sometimes they'll even have a retrospective analysis on what you just did. Like the info you get on Radamant after killing him is pretty damn interesting.
Yeah, but it was kind of cumbersome. I can understand why the large majority of players don't exactly value this a an essential part of Diablo gameplay. It's flavor, but robo-talking on autompilot with everyone just isn't all that immersive. Thought whether the new system is better or not we'll have to see.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
I love running around getting my kudos from everyone. And sometimes they'll even have a retrospective analysis on what you just did. Like the info you get on Radamant after killing him is pretty damn interesting.
Yeah, but it was kind of cumbersome. I can understand why the large majority of players don't exactly value this a an essential part of Diablo gameplay. It's flavor, but robo-talking on autompilot with everyone just isn't all that immersive. Thought whether the new system is better or not we'll have to see.
Granted, the NPC's were spaced so far apart and many would be like, "Sorry, I know nothing about that. You should ask Drognan though." But still on the first playthrough I enjoyed it. And on multiple playthroughs I was free just to skip it.
So when do we think this game is gonna be released? Obviously "when it's done" but do we think based on all the new content they're showing, all classes revealed, most of the game systems revealed, a beta is coming anytime soon? like in the next 4-6 months? It just feels like they've got a ton of work done since last Blizzcon.
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"A wizard is never late Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early.
He arrives precisely when he means to."
"Losers always whine about their best, winners go home and Fvck the prom queen."
I'm really, really excited for the game now. I mean, even more excited than I was before, this Blizzcon just opened my eyes to a much bigger picture, but it also seems like they're winding down a bit on production, especially since the feedback from the D3 demo was awesome.
I'm stoked to work with the crafting system, I love how they made the randomization of drops so that you could go to the artisans if you wanted to, and in those really rare situations, you would have to shell out money, and in the new economy, it'd feel like you'd have to break the bank to get a weapon that would "fill the gap", so to say.
Good job, Blizzard. Definitely pre-ordering, but not until I hear it from you guys.
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I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
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Do you remember the intro to Diablo II? First thing you see is a one minute long conversation by our friendly camp keeper Warriv. With Diablo III the game designers are taking a big step away from that way of story development. The main philosophy they have for storytelling is the concept of Play, don't Tell. What that means is that long drawn out conversations slows down the gameplay, something they want to avoid in Diablo III. Instead they will focus on bringing in storytelling on-the-go. Conversations will be kept rather short and spread out. When possible they also want you to be able to play while listening and a video example was shown where a player engage fighting monsters while listening to story details told by a quest character.
Something that lore fans definitely will enjoy is lore books. Lore books are books found within the world that tells a story. The author of the book will read out loud what is written and provide additional flavor to the game while you keep fighting monsters. This is another example of the opt-in storytelling that they want to include for Diablo III.
Creating the environment
In the panel we got to follow the team as they explained how you take an idea and make a concept, how you take that concept and make it to a 3D environment with all the flashy effects that we see in the game. The example is from an area called the Bastion Keep. A huge fortress that will be under heavy siege from the demon horde.
Monsters (Written by Zhar)
Words cannot describe how impressed I was with Blizzard's new take on monsters. After everything from monster development to AI was covered in the panel, I knew Blizzard's new direction would be a good thing for Diablo III.
Not to say they're not keeping the hordes we grew accustomed to in Diablo II, or the memorable encounters of Diablo I. It seems they're trying to strike a balance between the two, which was quite evident in gameplay videos, and panel discussion.
The Balance
Load up this video, and fast forward to 2:35. Notice the monsters? They seem to have struck a good balance between hordes of cannon fodder, and interesting combat. There is one easily identifiable "boss monster" to focus attention on, accompanied by hordes of lesser monsters to keep a fast pace, and destructive feel to combat. Even normal encounters seem to have this feel to them, with the new fallen hierarchy, or the Cultists who transform into demons. It's this dynamic blend of monster types, as well as behavior and scripting that will keep encounters fresh and interesting.
Encounters
The panel also discussed various ways encounters will be initiated. For example, zombies suddenly popping up while walking through swampy areas as mentioned, and ghouls scaling cliff walls has been shown in several gameplay videos now. Before, skeletons popping out of barrels were the only "surprise monsters" we ever encountered. Now, it seems as if we'll be running into more and more encounters where we will not be able to initiate it ourselves, we will be kept on our toes, and always on the lookout for ambushes. There also seem to be several special monster encounters, such as a thief monster who, while difficult to catch, gives out very good loot.
AI and behavior Monster behaviors were also briefly discussed. One monster in particular was used as the example, the "Gravedigger". As the name suggests, this monster is usually found in graveyards, and is in a passive state before the player draws near. He will mind his own business, dig graves, and shuffle around the cemetary. Upon drawing closer, the Gravedigger will go into an alert stance, picking up his shovel as if it was a weapon, looking around, and moving more erratically. Upon drawing even closer, the monster would attack the player. However, Blizzard found that most players wouldn't let him stay alive long enough to experience all of his animations. Thus, a balance was found between monster flavor and gameplay pace. Keep in mind that this is a massive change from the previous games, in which if a monster was on screen, it was almost guaranteed it was either attacking you at range, or closing the gap to engage you in melee combat.
Changes to monster AI have also been made. Previously, monsters would pursue the player endlessly, making it difficult for certain classes to put distance between themselves and their enemies. Now, with minuscule delays between attacks, pursuit and run/stop movement players will be rewarded for movement. It will be possible to micromanage your character to avoid damage and maximize efficiency.
Items - (Written by ScyberDragon)
Armor
There are eighteen levels of armor from the first "naked" look to the top level. Changing from Diablo II is that the looks of the gear will not go back to the basic looking models when starting in the new difficulties. The eighteen levels will be increasing from Normal through Hell so your character will increasingly look more awesome. Part of this is also the thematic armor for each class. While every class can wear all armor, it will look different depending on who is wearing this. A full helm look on the Barbarian may look like a crown on the Monk. Tying in with this, the actual icon of each item will also look different depending on what class you are playing so that it matches how it looks when equipped. Lastly on armor, dyes have been stretched to about twenty colors. These dyes will be bought, crafted, and dropped by monsters is varying rarities. Some examples of new armor sets were shown including my personal favorite of a Witch Doctor having a helm with moving tentacles on it.
Along with items, crafting through Artisans is seen as means to compensate for items that do not randomly drop for you. With the random drop system of Diablo, it is possible to clear an entire area or Act without a single pair of boots or gloves dropping for you; this is where Artisans come in. The UI for the Artisans have all been created to be a set standard to help ease confusion from one to the other. With flavor pictures added to the UI to help signify each Artisan's trades. There are still the same three Artisans will be in the game.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
I love all the gem levels as well.
Twitter: @FreddyBushBoy
Crafting Sanctuary Panel:
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/user/Diablo3Inc?feature=mhsn#p/u/3/wxKZN9i_vWs
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/user/Diablo3Inc?feature=mhsn#p/u/2/P82-qwBZR9s
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/user/Diablo3Inc?feature=mhsn#p/u/1/PiVAQOZgKO0
Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/user/Diablo3Inc?feature=mhsn#p/u/0/2O21IsNtYOQ
Twitter: @FreddyBushBoy
‘I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL WE ALL HAVE AIDS!’—The importance of calling them ‘mercenaries.’
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Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
I guess we're a rare breed, the kind that goes "Oh man, I just found Radament! I need to... go back to town to listen to all the updates speeches!"
I love running around getting my kudos from everyone. And sometimes they'll even have a retrospective analysis on what you just did. Like the info you get on Radamant after killing him is pretty damn interesting.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
"Losers always whine about their best, winners go home and Fvck the prom queen."
but they seem to be giving alot more answer then the usual. no comment. or when its done kinda questions.
Is this just me or have other people kinda noticed too?
I'm stoked to work with the crafting system, I love how they made the randomization of drops so that you could go to the artisans if you wanted to, and in those really rare situations, you would have to shell out money, and in the new economy, it'd feel like you'd have to break the bank to get a weapon that would "fill the gap", so to say.
Good job, Blizzard. Definitely pre-ordering, but not until I hear it from you guys.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence