in the gameplay video you can see little numbers pop up as you hit things. im fairly certain they represent critical hits
also this is a very good read
We've not (yet) convinced any other ex-Blizzard North employees to throw down with our full interview, but we're still asking. One of the guys we tried to get on record was Mike Huang, and while he wouldn't leap through our seven question hoop, he did post some interesting thoughts on his blog.
"When I left Blizzard in '03, Blizzard North had done quite a bit of pre-production work on Diablo III, as well as some protoyping on the 3d-game engine. Today at the Blizzard Invitational in Paris, they announced the release of Diablo III. Since much of the work we had done on Diablo III was concept and prototype work, seeing the development they've done over the last 5 years was very interesting; while some of the concepts we were developing definitely looks like it made it through to the version of the game they displayed, some of the design choices they appear to have made seem counter to the decisions the original Diablo team members would have made had they remained on development of the title -- the most apparent change that I can point to is the appearance of "floating numbers" as seen in the gameplay video -- this was a feature that Blizzard Irvine continually "suggested" during development on Diablo II, which Blizzard North refused to implement -- with development now located within Irvine, the decision to add floating numbers to the game isn't one which surprises me.
One of the design choices which again shows Blizzard Irvine's hand in the changes made is the re-appearance of the Barbarian character class -- the original design documents for Diablo III included a set of all new character classes, with no reappearance of old character classes (our reasons for this was simple -- since we were enhancing and improving the skill system, we didn't want to try and adapt old skills into a new system -- we'd rather create all new skills for the new character classes. The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago.
One of the reasons why the Barbarian return shocks me so much is that I always felt that the Barbarian character class was the most broken of the classes in Diablo II. The Barbarian's ability to Leap, for instance gave him advantage over other classes which had to walk around the barrier -- it is the showcasing of this skill in the video (during which a bridge crumbles away, leaving no way to cross the gap) which makes me wonder if they have an alternate way for other characters to cross the gap or if all the characters have Leap now.
Of course, going 3D means that a lot of the things that were hard to do with sprites (such as actual armor looks being reflected on the character) is much easier using polygons and textures, as well as real 3d lighting. The use of a physics engine (Havoc, according to the game specs) is also a nice touch.
While I have more or less given up on the PC as a gaming platform, I'm glad to see that Blizzard is still committed to releasing titles that aren't first-person shooters; such a shame that we won't be seeing this title on the shelves for another year or two at the earliest."
I agree that "floating numbers" never felt diablo. There was something about just knowing if you knocked dust in that demon when watching his health bar just drop that felt MMMMmm:thumbsup:. Adding dmg numbers to it just makes it feel more....mmm generic? mathematic?
Cant think of the right way to describe it but the other guys who find the numbers to their disliking know exactly what im talking about. It takes away from the natural feel of the game. However, as long as it can be toggled on or off i have no issues with it:P.
Seth
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Get real, folks, the diablo you all knew is dead, a few years ago i said right here in this forum that D3 had a pretty good chance of being blizzard first bust (i was flamed to death ofc), and what you know, its not even beta and its already looking that way.
I think you'll see an option to have it displayed or not though. WoW had the option for it's floating combat text, I can only imagine they'd follow suit for this game.
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You must find the courage to step through this gate...
The thing that bothers me is WHY do we need to know how much DPS a weapon can do?
In Diablo and Diablo 2, you were one shotting everything in massive waves up until Hell difficulty so that's a pretty good idea of how much damage I'm doing. Enough to kill whatever steps in front of me.
The thing that bothers me is WHY do we need to know how much DPS a weapon can do?
In Diablo and Diablo 2, you were one shotting everything in massive waves up until Hell difficulty so that's a pretty good idea of how much damage I'm doing. Enough to kill whatever steps in front of me.
"How many whacks does it take to cleave a demon in half? LET's find out! One...uuh one:D"
The floating numbers? Hmmm... IDK. I would have to play the game and see how much they would ACTUALLY annoy me as opposed to casting immediate judgement. In some games it works fine, but D3?:confused:
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i fear that Diablo died with Blizzard North
also this is a very good read
We've not (yet) convinced any other ex-Blizzard North employees to throw down with our full interview, but we're still asking. One of the guys we tried to get on record was Mike Huang, and while he wouldn't leap through our seven question hoop, he did post some interesting thoughts on his blog.
"When I left Blizzard in '03, Blizzard North had done quite a bit of pre-production work on Diablo III, as well as some protoyping on the 3d-game engine. Today at the Blizzard Invitational in Paris, they announced the release of Diablo III. Since much of the work we had done on Diablo III was concept and prototype work, seeing the development they've done over the last 5 years was very interesting; while some of the concepts we were developing definitely looks like it made it through to the version of the game they displayed, some of the design choices they appear to have made seem counter to the decisions the original Diablo team members would have made had they remained on development of the title -- the most apparent change that I can point to is the appearance of "floating numbers" as seen in the gameplay video -- this was a feature that Blizzard Irvine continually "suggested" during development on Diablo II, which Blizzard North refused to implement -- with development now located within Irvine, the decision to add floating numbers to the game isn't one which surprises me.
One of the design choices which again shows Blizzard Irvine's hand in the changes made is the re-appearance of the Barbarian character class -- the original design documents for Diablo III included a set of all new character classes, with no reappearance of old character classes (our reasons for this was simple -- since we were enhancing and improving the skill system, we didn't want to try and adapt old skills into a new system -- we'd rather create all new skills for the new character classes. The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago.
One of the reasons why the Barbarian return shocks me so much is that I always felt that the Barbarian character class was the most broken of the classes in Diablo II. The Barbarian's ability to Leap, for instance gave him advantage over other classes which had to walk around the barrier -- it is the showcasing of this skill in the video (during which a bridge crumbles away, leaving no way to cross the gap) which makes me wonder if they have an alternate way for other characters to cross the gap or if all the characters have Leap now.
Of course, going 3D means that a lot of the things that were hard to do with sprites (such as actual armor looks being reflected on the character) is much easier using polygons and textures, as well as real 3d lighting. The use of a physics engine (Havoc, according to the game specs) is also a nice touch.
While I have more or less given up on the PC as a gaming platform, I'm glad to see that Blizzard is still committed to releasing titles that aren't first-person shooters; such a shame that we won't be seeing this title on the shelves for another year or two at the earliest."
ty for that link
But considering I haven't noticed it until now, it shouldn't be too big of an issue.
Cant think of the right way to describe it but the other guys who find the numbers to their disliking know exactly what im talking about. It takes away from the natural feel of the game. However, as long as it can be toggled on or off i have no issues with it:P.
Seth
I don't think in the game options.
But I truly didn't see it at first...very small change.
Sentence of the year:
"WoW, It's like a disease"
I think you'll see an option to have it displayed or not though. WoW had the option for it's floating combat text, I can only imagine they'd follow suit for this game.
yea dps eww they'd better not drop mf!
Sentence of the year:
"WoW, It's like a disease"
The thing that bothers me is WHY do we need to know how much DPS a weapon can do?
In Diablo and Diablo 2, you were one shotting everything in massive waves up until Hell difficulty so that's a pretty good idea of how much damage I'm doing. Enough to kill whatever steps in front of me.
Words I hate in Gaming Culture:
Epic
Hardcore
E-Sports
"How many whacks does it take to cleave a demon in half? LET's find out! One...uuh one:D"
The floating numbers? Hmmm... IDK. I would have to play the game and see how much they would ACTUALLY annoy me as opposed to casting immediate judgement. In some games it works fine, but D3?:confused: