Wow, your post is riddled with assumptions and fallacies.Quote from time4war
The title says it all...
I'm over this bullshit they're about to release, I hope something changes.
Firstly, you're mad because you're waiting for the game, and that has ruined your enthusiasm? That makes no sense, haven't you every waited for anything in your life? What do you do between seasons of a series you're watching? Or a movie that get's announced only to have it's release date pushed back? Not to be a prat, but patience is a part of growing up, you learn to deal with small things like waiting. If you don't get something now, then its pointless to throw a fit, screaming 'I don't want it anymore'.
Secondly, how exactly do you know you will be hitting the level cap in two weeks, unless you plan on playing non stop for two weeks, in which case I'm happy for you, since the rest of us need to do mundane tasks such as sleep and work. Apparently the time needed to finish hell will be equivalent to the time it took to finish hell in D2, which is quite a bit.
And how are you planning on destroying inferno? At Blizzcon they stated that you will need to farm hell gear just to survive inferno. So good luck 'destroying' it. And you plan to do all of that on hardcore? Watch some of the Blizzcon videos where they get two shots, then make that claim.
Also, you plan to farm for four years? You know they will be releasing extra content in that time, right? Just checking.
Lastly, 'zero competitive play'... Are you blind, or did you fail to see the deathmatch arena's available at launch. If you call that zero, then I don't know because it's one more PvP mode than D2 had (unless you count toggling it on an 'option'). And are you deaf, or did you fail to notice them saying at Blizzcon that they intend to put in a duel system sometime after launch?
You know, people like you abolish my hope in humanity. You jump on your high horse, saying things like "they pushed the release back, that's distasteful" "we will be done with it in two weeks, then destroy the hardest difficulty" "I'm so over the bullshit they've made, they better change it". You seem like the obnoxious type who go out of their way to anger people.
And for what exactly? If that's how you get your jollies then go insult minorities with some racial slurs, at least then you'll get a good kick out of it.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Followers
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Yeah. They will use the same model with character name + id code.
There's a quote about it somewhere that I can't bother to dig up atm :>
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You created a pyramid! I'm proud of you.
Watch out though, seems like Diablo is guarding it on the top.
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Gorillaz - Amarillo
http://open.spotify.com/track/6wmcBujtfEfVQr5kQPk7ZE
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Great, because D3 will have graphics.
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We have yet to get any solid information about exactly how magic find will work in Diablo III, but the loot system in co-op where each player only sees their own drops have raised some concerns in regards to MF. The original poster painted a scenario where a powerful character would do all the work and kill all the monsters while the other party members stack MF to increase their drop chances and sit back to collect the loot.
It's very likely that magic find (MF) will be restricted to very specific uses. It would work on a per player basis, so if I have some MF it would affect what drops I see and not yours. For the sake of co-op we don't ask that you damage an enemy to receive experience or drops, only that you're within a close proximity. Asking every player to damage an enemy in order to receive experience or loot encourages really disruptive behavior that undermines the intent of co-op. So the situation being described could be a problem, but...
As I said it's probably going to be fairly heavily restricted to specific sources and amounts. As an example, completely hypothetical, let's say that the only magic find available is from placing a diamond gem in a head slot. It's useful because of the amount it provides, but maybe other gems in a head slot provide things like bonus XP, bonus gold, etc. Then it's not a choice of power vs. MF and building characters around the system, but a choice between interesting bonuses that will probably change through the career of a character. Anyway, that's just a thought on how it could work. It's still under consideration. We like the idea of having some way to improve your chances to find magic items, but not as a driving statistic for characters.
It's also worth pointing out in this case that enemies in Diablo III are more sophisticated. You'll find them targeting characters in your group they perceive as weaker, keeping distance, and cooperating to try to kill you and your group. So having one person run ahead to face pull everything, let alone be able to solo everything in a multiplayer game, probably isn't going to work out too well.
While this tells us little about how MF will work and does not completely counter the potential for co-op MF abuse we do get some insight in the thoughts of the developers. They don't want the trade-off when picking up MF to be reduced battle power. Instead they want you to weigh MF against other similar type stats such as bonus XP, bonus gold or similar. Following this philosophy would mean that there should be almost no incentive to abuse the mechanics in the way described since stacking MF would not gimp your character in battle. If you can fight as well with MF as without then why would you want to stay out of combat?
Bashiok gave us some more interesting replies reinforcing what he stated in his first post:
Cacophony97: So there may or may not be a slot/gem combo that only does weird non-power related bonuses? Like, it can never have attack, precision, defense, etc, only MF, gold find, XP bonus?
Bashiok: We could potentially break gems out to more than just armor/weapon/shield, yeah.
Cacophony97: What about gem finding or rune finding?
Bashiok: It's been talked about (internally) a fair amount. We'll see.
Will we see something similar in Diablo III?
With
The second post was a clarification on how the skill tier system is designed. Bashiok explained why there's level restrictions put up if you can just respec later and pick only the higher tier skills:
Nice discussion. So yeah, skills are tiered out for progression. Not only as a reward as you level up, but also to ensure we're not dumping the entire game on a new player. Early tier skills tend to be cheap or free to cast, and have fairly straight forward mechanics and uses (do damage to enemies). As the tiers progress we introduce more complex systems, avoidance, mobility, maybe skills that cost a little more, or require a bit more finesse to pull off well. Then we get to the end of the tiers and these are usually the biggest, most expensive, and visually impressive. The tiers do start out simply and progress toward the bigger and 'cooler' spells. As they should. We can also design and tune the beginning of the game with the skills available in mind, which really helps to ensure those first few hours aren't frustrating.
Anyway, as I said, the end tier skills also tend to be the most expensive. While I'm sure there will be builds that take all the end tier skills, people will still need to pick skills throughout the tree to create a solid character, and we're designing the skills to ensure they can continue to be as viable as possible regardless of character level. Some first and second tier skills will scale really well and I don't doubt will be bread and butter for a number of builds.
And just an FYI repeat of info - The leveling progression is designed that you'd have all your skill tiers unlocked before you finish Normal.
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Item linking:
Bashiok very clearly stated (even including emoticon representation) that he would be surprised to not see item linking in Diablo III. It was not in Diablo II, but is now considered standard in any online game where loot plays a big part. (hint: Diablo)
We really want item linking through chat, I think it's one of those things that is universally agreed upon. I'd be shocked if it wasn't in for ship. And I'd make a face like
There needs to be a way to show people in the game an item you just got without opening trade or dropping it.
Quest items:
Quest items are now stored directly within the quest itself. They don't take up any space at all.
Skill point-hoarding:
Perhaps the most interesting post was made in a thread where a user expressed some concern that removing skill requisites to move up in tiers would encourage point hoarding, something that Blizzard wants to avoid in Diablo III. Bashiok replied that respeccing is what will counter that issue.
Respecs aren't nailed down, but it's very likely they'll be introduced through questing and one awarded to you. So that's one for each difficulty (probably).
I think it's awesome people are trying to plan out builds already. I think it's crazy to think about going through half of the game without taking a single skill. I'll admit I haven't tried it, but I can't ... I don't know, it just doesn't really seem doable. This isn't Diablo II. I remember going 20+ levels before spending anything.
If your goal is to level as fast as possible, I don't see how point hoarding until level14 would actually grant you any benefit with the ability to respec. Even if it's not until later. Having spectral blade until you can respec into teleport isn't going to kill it for you. Not having a skill for the first 14 levels, I think, might.
When I have some free time (haha) I'll try to test it and see how well I do with no skills and no traits. Ugh. Sounds painful.
Bashiok actually decided to give the test a shot and shared his gameplay experience with us. He created and played a Barbarian and Wizard through level 1-6 without picking up any skills or traits. Although the tests were rather limited he found himself in some trouble, especially with the wizard. The conclusion he came to was that the experience didn't feel very good. For the Barbarian the first levels were no real trouble since it is a class designed around using his weapons. But even then, approaching level five it got tougher. With the heavy spell-using Wizard it was a lot worse. Dying because you could only use your weapon swing was not fun and slowed down the leveling pace.
I talked to Jay briefly about point hoarding yesterday and he brought up a couple good points. First of all is that the balance of availability of respecs should be that there is no incentive to hoard points. Hoarding points isn't fun, and if that means having respecs be more common, so be it. I think the better point he made though was that runes have a dramatic effect on skills, and one that likely can't be fully realized by theoretical builds. An example he gave was Magic Missile is a tier 1 skill, but fully runed will rapid fire projectiles easily make it end game viable, and cheaper to cast than other higher tier skills. With skill points alone very few early skills can boast late game efficiency, but high level runes can sometimes (not always) change the rules.
Along with the gameplay log Bashiok also gives us some interesting pieces of information. He cleared up that there will always be a rune for each skill that does nothing but improve the damage or efficiency of the base skill. There have been some questions about that runes changes skills quite dramatically and sometimes you might just want to keep the original effect. Would you have to keep that skill unruned? With a flat "power-up" rune for all skills that cause no problem.
Something that also seems to be making its return thanks to the skill rune system are builds focused on low level skills. It is something we often saw (and see) in Diablo II, especially after synergies was introduced and people will probably enjoy the customization opportunities that comes with it.
He also mentions that the designers have plans for some kind of tangible rewards for people who like to reroll characters, but no real info is given about what kind of reward we can expect. This would serve to give people a reason to actually reroll a character of the same class even though we have respeccing. For example Bashiok mentions giving +1 trait point for each Witch doctor you create after your first one turned 60 (a made-up example, not taken from the game). Source
A minor details to note is that Bashiok estimated the test to have taken about 45 minutes each, giving us a hint of gameplay length in the very early levels. Although that would probably have been much shorter given he was actually allowed to use skills.
If you wish to read the full post in its entirety click below:
I gave this a shot today. First I picked a barbarian, it's my go-to character, which in hindsight was probably dumb because being melee it's likely going to get along much better with no skills, but also the build in question (why I was testing this) was a wizard.
Keep in mind this play experience is based on ignoring skills and traits, and simply equipping items found or purchased. This is something that I argue is non-optimal, and so I'm testing it to prove a point, but hopefully in an objective way.
Ok, so with the barbarian. Start the game with sword and board, and this takes 1-2 hits (usually 1) for the softer zombies and 4-6 for the tougher ones. At level 2 I found another one hander (basic low dps club) and started dual wielding. This helped a bit. Finally found my first piece of armor halway through level 3. Pants! At some point I was back in town and was able to (barely) afford a new broad axe to replace the mediocre club I had picked up. And then I realized I could have bought a better weapon, but now had almost no gold. Dual wielding with some style now anyway, and hitting quite a bit faster as the APS of the club it replaced was pretty low. Venturing out I ran into my first champion (one strong guy with a couple affixes, and a pack of his friends that take on the same affixes), this time it was a Molten Teleporter. Grotesques. Tough because melee'ing molten means I'm standing in the fire trail and taking damage regardless of his actual attacks. I managed to take out two of the smaller guys, then died. First death at level 3. Almost died again trying to take out the remaining two (one of which was the actual champion), but prevailed. Plodded along until level 5 where I died participating in a random quest event. Managed to use a potion, but it wasn't enough. Died. Ran into another champion group, Carrion Bats, molten teleporter again!? No matter, they were fairly easy. Then I ran into a miniboss (?) and survived with only a few health. It was a close fight. Plodding along, then I ran into another champion pack which were clearly bugged as they one shot me every time. After throwing my corpse against their attacks five more times I decided to stop.
So, I wouldn't say that it was a tough experience, the melee nature of the barbarian and built-in toughness made it not too terrible. But keep in mind that was only until level 6. I'm sure going to 14 would have been increasingly painful. Using skills I'm positive I could have avoided all of those deaths (barring the bugged champions at the end).
Ok, so I swapped to a wizard. So again, playing, just wanding everything to death (weee), until I found a sword. Started slicing things in the face, not much difference attacks-per-monster wise, I just prefer it to wands. I ran into a medium sized pack of zombies aaaaand, dead. Level 2, first death. After finally clearing that pack out I was lucky enough to have a rare spawn, an easy rare, and lo and behold he dropped a very nice wand for me. I'm one-shotting everything at this point and I'm going along fairly quickly. No real trouble until I hit level 5 and start running into more champion packs, and a few more random quest events. All of which either kill me at least once or take me within an inch of my life. Definitely not too fun and a real slowing effect in my attempts to rush levels.
So I think the takeaways here are sort of muddled due to a very limited (and potentially flawed) test. I talked to Jay briefly about point hoarding yesterday and he brought up a couple good points. First of all is that the balance of availability of respecs should be that there is no incentive to hoard points. Hoarding points isn't fun, and if that means having respecs be more common, so be it. I think the better point he made though was that runes have a dramatic effect on skills, and one that likely can't be fully realized by theoretical builds. An example he gave was Magic Missile is a tier 1 skill, but fully runed will rapid fire projectiles easily make it end game viable, and cheaper to cast than other higher tier skills. With skill points alone very few early skills can boast late game efficiency, but high level runes can sometimes (not always) change the rules.
-ed Also sort of on that point, there is always one rune for every skill that boosts flat damage or efficiency of the base skill. You're never forced to keep the rune slot unused because you don't want to change the base skill into something else. I had seen some confusion on that.
Of course the availability of respecs always brings up the question of rerolls and necessity of multiple characters. Personally I think you're going to want to have a PvE and PvP character of each class anyway, but beyond that we have plans for players that like and want to re-roll, and to reward that in a tangible way.
Anyway, hope this was enlightening to some degree. The game is still a lot of fun to play, even in such sub-optimal circumstances. It's been a while since I've just played from the start of the game and there's some really awesome stuff going in.
We also got some small pieces of info from the Diablo twitter. One was about the number of character slots per account and the answer was: "More than 10, probably less than 50".
About numbers of skill points received: it is not nailed down yet, but you will get at least 59 as you level to 60, with a possibility of more being added as quest rewards.
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Arenas are small areas separated from the rest of the world. There will be various arenas spread out in Sanctuary. Each of them will have a unique design with different scenery, features and terrain. You dive into the arena with your multiplayer character and battle out using all of the skills and gear you have accumulated.
Ranked arena matches will feature team-based combat where several players in each team fight in 'best-of' matches. Jay Wilson said the development team is still looking for the "magic number" of matches. They know they want more than 1 match so players will be able to react to the other team after encountering it once, but they do not want to draw out the matches with too many games. It appears that teams will be limited to four players in each, making the biggest match-up 4v4, but no official word on that has yet been made.
To participate in a ranked arena match you will use the Battle.net matchmaking system so that you get faced against opponents with similar rank. When you complete a match in the arena you will be awarded points based on your performance in regards to kills, accomplished objectives, wins, and other factors yet to be revealed. Those points will be used to advance within the ranking system and also brings us to the next subject: rewards.
PvP rewards
The battle arena will not be a place to collect armor and weapons. The PvP reward system will be focused on achievements, ranks and titles for your character. Blizzard also hinted that ears will be returning in some sort as a proof of your victories. As of today those are the only rewards (along with the bragging rights of beating down other people online) we know of, but more are to be revealed.
Balance in the arena will be focused around the 3v3 bracket, but ultimately the Battle Arenas are not made to fill a super competitive niche in Diablo, but rather a place where you have fun fighting other players. Blizzard has stated that the matches won't focus so much on individual builds, but your teams build as a whole. They have also stated that there are certain skills being added that will be much more useful in PvP than PvE. This will let more dedicated PvP players build their characters to focus solely on PvP.
With almost 97 billion potential skill and rune builds, and then factoring in items, the talisman system, and traits, character balance isn't likely to lend itself to an eSport, and in fact the PvP for Diablo III has always been designed a side game intended purely for fun. We know you like killing each other, so that's what it's there to provide.
In addition to the ranking system with team-based combat there will also be other type of PvP in the arena, such as 1-on-1 duels and unranked team battles where you can choose to fight your friends to determine who really is the best demon killing machine. More information on these game types will be available in the future.
With this system Diablo III PvP is taking a step in a new direction from the previous games. Jay Wilson also said that the battle arenas are just the first approach to PvP in Diablo III, and hopefully not their last, so we should be expecting more info on PvP in the future. Maybe they are thinking of some kind of world PvP, or maybe arenas similar to the WoW battlegrounds where killing the other player is not the only objective. Hopefully the Q&A panel will shed more light on it and answer all our questions regarding PvP.
Make sure to check out Blizzard's official page for PvP.
I myself can't wait to get my hands dirty in the arena!
Update: In the open Q&A we got some answers and clarifications regarding PvP versus PvE balance. The final answer is that PvE balance is never and in no way going to be affected by the PvP. The main focus of Diablo III is PvE and they intend to keep it that way.
It was also said that if you enter the arena with your hardcore character: be prepared for permanent death.
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The above is not really correct. Anaheim is 7 hours behind GMT (thus 9 hours behind GMT+2/Sweden).
Here are the scheduled key times converted to GMT (24-hour format).
Friday 22nd:
Saturday 23rd:
So the last Diablo panel (Q&A) ends 24:00 Saturday night GMT+1 time.