Diablo II Patch 1.13- More Delays, Hopefully a Brighter Future

In spite of the overbearing continued responses from fans all over the web, any news on the patch announced last spring was as commonplace as hamsters on Pluto. Today, we have finally gotten an update, but it might not be one that many will enjoy to see:


Official Blizzard Quote:



The Diablo II 1.13 patch is on temporary hold while we investigate potential impact on the Battle.net service. As we moved closer to launching the patch concerns grew that an increase in the player stash size (a feature in the patch) could compromise the Diablo II Battle.net service. The hardware and configuration could potentially not handle the increased stash size gracefully under heavy load. Currently we?re investigating potential impact as it is one of the larger content features in the patch and we?re hoping it can remain a part of the release. If it does have to be removed it will require additional time to remove it, generate new patches, and test, which will add time before we can go live on the PTR.

We?re hoping to have our diagnostics and a final decision on how we?ll be moving forward decided by early next week and we?ll have an update for you at that time.

The patch has been delayed.

Again.

On the bright side, it looks like the increased inventory size previously suggested (see Patch 1.13: Larger Inventory for Diablo II) is planned to stay, although it is the cause of the delay. It also seems that a sincere promise on progress will be made next week- whether or not this will mean anything with regard to how they have handled the relaying of information and the keeping of promises in the past is yet to be seen (see WCIII Patch is Up- Diablo II Patch 1.13 Soon to Follow?).

UPDATE (10/01/09):

It would seem that Bashiok is on a reply spree for 1.13 today. It is confirmed that two of the three top requests for patch 1.13 will not be met:


Official Blizzard Quote:



Higher resolution, which we unfortunately just can't do because it would fundamentally change the game and require a huge development investment to have the game/servers spawn enemies farther out, have them aggro from farther out, and even then it increases travel time to the player... it's just a mess. Apparently increasing the resolution in LoD was this gigantic issue so I think the idea of increasing it again makes some of the old time programmers want to curl up in a fetal position.

And new end game content, which we do want to continue adding, but just wasn't possible for this patch.

So far, the following has been confirmed:


  1. Increased stash size, which is the cause of the current delay as they take hardware and server considerations in to thought, is so far essentially confirmed.
  2. No increased resolution- it would require "fundamental change" to the game and would have to account for faster player traveling issues (like being able to Teleport or Jump farther), spawning monsters on a larger scale around the player, and monster aggro would have to be taken in to account.
  3. No new end-game content. Bashiok noted that with this patch it would not be possible to add it, although there was no inkling of whether or not it would or would not be included with any future patch.
Thanks goes to D3luxe for finding this first (see his thread here).

UPDATE (10/14/09):


Official Blizzard Quote:



Update - 10/14

The decision on whether or not to include the enlarged stash size has been slightly delayed. As mentioned previously it would require some additional weeks of development and would remove one of the most requested features were we unable to include it. If it were to be included the concern is that it could render Diablo II unplayable, and repairing the issue after the fact would draw heavily on development resources. Which is also something we obviously want to avoid.

We hope to be able to reach a conclusion and decision soon on the future of the 1.13 patch, and we?ll keep you updated as it develops.

No real news, just a rehashing of the previous statement made a week ago, except now he is not alluding to a dated announcement.

Comments

  • To post a comment, please or register a new account.
Posts Quoted:
Reply
Clear All Quotes