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From watching the gameplay video I can assume a few things about the targeting and skill usuage system in D3

1. You use your mouse to select an NPC for targeting.
2. Hotbar buttons on the bottom of the screen can be triggered by a key bind that automatically uses the skill when pressed. Also buttons on this hotbar can be triggered using the mouse.
3. Skills can be bound to the left and right mouse buttons as well, and you can use the mouse wheel to cycle through the skills. Possible support for additional mouse buttons seems likely.

All in all I think this is a huge step forward in terms of designing a very effiecient and fluid combat system. I imagine that skill use and management will be much more twitch based and intuitive in D3.

Quote from "synthaza" »

Oh come on, clipping is extremely common. I doubt you can find a 3d game void of clipping issues both large and small.

QFT

I said it before and I'll say it again.. this is more of a nit pick than anything else, and shouldn't even really be bought up in these discussions. I'm sure blizzard is aware of the clipping, and will try to fix it if they can, but if its not a glaring problem, it really isn't a big deal at all.

Quote from ".KILLING-HAZARD." »

wow i think uber shud write a book... that last line was magnificent

maybe if you like emo, turn of the century poetry with a hint of cheesiness thrown in for good measure.

Quote from name="biff exploder" »

diablo in directx 10 would be no different from dx9, Dx10 is a marketing scam from microsoft that didnt work too well, the games on DX9 look the same and run better.

+ you dont need that much money to make a good gaming machine these days ( unless you are running games on a screen that needs uber resolutions above 1680x1050)

D3 graphics are good, if you want to run a game that will put a 3000$ gaming machine to a test, run crysis, its pretty much the only game that needs one of those to run at max details.

DX10 utilizes shaders and rendering techniques that DX9 can not. I'm not saying that DX10 is the end all be all of computer gaming, however it does present a leap in technology over DX9. The real problem like someone already said, is that most people can't shell out thousands of dollars for a computer that is going to run a game in DX10, not to mention build their own computer, or know what kind of graphics card, processor, and memory to get.

Blizzard has always kept things fairly low-tech because they don't want to lose sales by alienating customers who have lower end machines. It just makes sense, and they still manage to put out amazing titles.

Quote from "MindLess" »

That's what bums me out.
I'd really love it if Blizzard truly tried to break the habit and somehow, using intense randomizers on lots of stuff, keep the player challanged.

I R the intense randomizers! I R the real CHALLANGE!

Seriously now, it would be kind of cool to have randomized strategies and abilities for boss battles. I'm not saying let a melee boss cast fire-ball or anything like that, but have a wide range of melee skills that a boss can use, and randomize those skills.

Have the boss use a set amount of those skills for an encounter then on top of that change the strategies the boss will use, not just over the time of the encounter, but every time you face that boss again. This will allow for a pool of skills to be matched up with a pool of strategies and then randomized, to create a potentially infinite number possibilities.

Quote from "Sargeant_Warden" »

I understand Bashiok's level, but he is the one who brought the complaints about the vanishing bodies to the dev's attention.

Also, what Bashiok is saying it %100 correct about the character models. Just tone down the Shoulder pads (and those blasted horns:P)

Those horns kick ass.

Quote from "Sargeant_Warden" »

This is a quote from Bashiok.



@whoever said shrinking shoulder pads wouldn't make it better: I don't think anyone would complain that should pads are too small. If they were shrunk, there would be no complaints, since no one really likes big pads. Not even Bashiok.

I think people would complain if the shoulder pads were to small, just like people complain now that they are to big. I don't really care if the make the shoulder pads a little bit smaller, however this really is more of nit picking than anything else.

Quote from "Kenzai" »

Im summing it up:

The D3 barb has armor parts that are so big and bulky that they even clash in some animations. When zoomed in, some armor parts like the horns on the girdle and the pauldrons stick out, and they look over-exaggerated almost like a smaller WoW-style shoulder pad. Also the shoulder pads are floating over the shoulders like if it wouldnt be a part of the armor.
Some environmental objects have somehow the same problem, so its not only about some specific equipment part of some class.

Diablo was always a serious game with totally immersive models, animations and environment so the D3 style models are affecting the Diablo feel in a bad way, for someone who cares about those graphical aspects.
Someone whos always concentrating on gameplay or something else thats not related with graphics wouldnt care, but there are lots of people who care about graphic style.

However, its possible to change/improve those models (and hopefully some animations and other things too, but thats irrevelant) without touching the art style and without raising system requirements. The laziest solution would be sizing some armor parts down (mainly the horns on the girdle and the pauldrons) but i doubt that this would be a good solution so its best someone comes out with a good, simplistic solution.

I think the best solution is to leave the art and the style as is. I've really yet to notice any kind of collision issues with the armor, and I've watched that HD gameplay trailer at least 20 times now. So I wonder where exactly you see this happening.

Your reasoning for saying diablo3 is less immersive is clearly only because in your opinion diablo1 and 2 are more immersive, Which btw, is pretty much impossible to know unless you actually sit down and play the game. So I'm going to assume that you are just saying D3 is less immersive... (I don't even think you really know what that word means.) because in your opinion diablo2 had environments, armor, and animation you liked and D3 doesn't.

The coherence of style, story, and design along with gameplay is what makes a game immersive, and I think we can safely assume Diablo3 is definitely not lacking in these respects. You might not like the style or the design, but that does not mean the game is not presented well or provides an immersive experience.

The simple solution is to just keep things as they are, maybe add shaders to the armor, and parts of the environment to give a more tactile quality to the surfaces. These things can all still be accomplished later on in development, and there might even be plans to do so, as such features are usually added in much later in the development cycle.

That being said though I think it's hard to argue that this game does not have a cohesive style, and is not presented well, or that the D3 armor is an more ridiculous looking than some of the necro armor, or even the barbarian armor for D2, not to mention that some of the color pallet's found on the armor in D2 were completely over the top.

My feeling is that you are holding on to some mental image of how Diablo3 should look like, and when Blizzards version didn't match your own, you felt that they had some how ruined the Diablo name. This of course is just your opinion.

Alright let me get this straight, The shoulder pads that we see in the gameplay trailer when the barbarian is talking to Cain are pretty much exactly what we see in the concept art section of the barbarian in terms of size, color, and visual appearance. Of course the model is not going to look exactly like the concept art, simply because one is a 2D drawing and the other is low poly 3D model, but they are very similar.

I can only assume that the horned girdle also started life as a concept drawing, and then was modeled and textured based on that concept. The idea is to stay as close to the approved concept as possible. This is how all asset creation works in the game industry. You have a kickass concept and then you do your best to translate that to the game, which I think they have done a good job doing for the most part.

Of course it would be nice to see some shaders for the different materials found on the armor, this would definitely add a tangible quality to the armor, and make the textures look less painterly. However it would also raise the min system requirements for the game. I'm sure Blizzard is mulling this decision as they are developing the game, and there's probably a strong possibility that these kinds of materials, and effects will be in the game on release.

So apparently you don't like the in game models but like the concept art which are primarily the same thing, or as close as your going to get in D3. The idea here is to make the assets that are being created as close as possible to the concept art, obviously there are technological limitations to doing this, but it is always the goal of the finished project to fully realize, visually, a world as it is imagined and conceptualized by the artists.

Quote from "Kenzai" »

Thats basically the same as WoW. You summed up what WoW has.

Look at D2 armor and tell me what you think.
You probably thought that shoulder pads have to be either giant like shit and ridiculously exaggeratedly decorated like in WoW or totally the same as real-life.

Man, take a look at the concept art of the barbarian, and tell me how much like WoW that looks. Take a look at the barbarian model and tell me that looks like a WoW model. It's not the same as WoW. I'm not describing WoW armor, I'm describing an overall aesthetic choice, that doesn't have anything to do with WoW.

Having exaggerated features on armor /= WoW. Just because in WoW every class has enormous should pads does not mean this is the case in D3. So far the only class with big, bulky armor that we've seen has been the Barbarian, which makes sense aesthetically for that character. So no I don't think the shoulder pads or any of the armor needs to be exaggerated, or decorated like in WoW, but I do agree that armor should reflect the character that's wearing it, and in this case the armor in D3 that we've seen so far on the barbarian is a good match for that character.

Honestly, from what I've seen so far in the concept art for D3, I can pretty safely assume that the armor designs are going to blow away anything that was in Diablo2.

Why the hell does everyone want realistic/ historically accurate armor in D3? Have you even seen the concept art of the barbarian? It's 100% BADASS. That being said, the armor we see in the trailer looks very close to the armor represented in the concept art, big shoulder pads and all. If you can tell me, truthfully, that the armor in the concept art for the barbarian looks lame then you need to get your head out of you ass, because artisticly, and conceptualy it looks awesome, nuff said.

Armor in D3 does not need to be:

A. Realistic
B. Historically accurate
C. Bound to the physical constraints of reality
D. allow for a wider range of motion... because its a fucking video-game.
E. Appeal to your limited scope of how armor or anything for that matter should look.

Armor on the barbarian in D3 should be:

A. Intimidating
B. completely badass looking
C. exaggerated, and visually interesting.
D. comprised of bones, skulls, iron spikes, leather, steel, and horns... because Barbarians are supposed to horrify their enemies, and look more badass than the demons/monsters they are slaughtering.

Quote from "Creepsville" »

But they will tell you that D2 has "realistic" and properly proportioned shoulder pads, while disregarding their hugeness.

It all boils down to two very basic things with these people:

1. They don't like change.

2. They'd like to think that they had a hand in how D3 will turn out in some capacity. They'd like to point to their screen and say "I made that happen."

These people want the fun they had in D2 to be teleported into D3 or else they are afraid that they will be chasing that fun feeling they had forever. They don't look at the new fun that D3 will bring to the table. They can only rage against D3 because it isn't D2.

I think you've just about summed everything up in this one post! QFTx9000!

Quote from "gamma11" »

hmm i just dont get why auto cast would be fun i guess... just seems lame as hell :-/

You'll see why.. and it won't be lame at all.

Basically in a sense, it allows the player more control over the flow of combat by making skill casting easier and more intuitive.

Quote from "gamma11" »

lol slow combat? u obv dont duel often... hotkeys make combat fast and competitive... if you have to click ona bar on the bottom of ur screen it will actually make combat slower.

No you don't understand. By having the hotkeys actually casting the skills instantly the combat will be much faster. I don't know how i can make you understand this. You don't have to click the hotbar on the UI to cast a spell, you can bind it to a key and cast it instantly, this will allow for more skills to be used in a more rapid succesion than what is possible in D2.

You obviously do not understand how much better this is than D2's system.

Quote from "Equinox" »

No, you haven't. Skills in DII are not instant cast.

This is why D3's skill system is going to be so bad ass... instant cast. Why else would they have a skill bar on the UI? well it's not specifically for binding skills.. no, it's for casting skills. So in addition to using your mouse buttons to cast, you can now use keybinds or your mouse cursor to instantly cast skills.

This is one of the huge improvements over the D2 skill/casting system.