Official Blizzard Quote:
Update - 11/18
We've recently completed a revised version of the Diablo II 1.13 patch that removes the increased stash size. A larger stash will unfortunately no longer be a feature included in patch 1.13 due to the previously mentioned concerns. As higher priority work continues on Warcraft III we're hoping to complete our quality assurance tests for the 1.13 patch in the next few weeks. But as always, the types of issues that may appear and take higher priority are rarely foreseeable. We continue to plan a release based on our best intentions.
If it is indeed true that increased stash size is now no longer in the picture (see Patch 1.13: Larger Inventory for Diablo II), every top request made by fans when Blizzard ran its fan-request patch marathon (see Tell Blizzard Your #1 Diablo II Patch Note) earlier this year has been denied so far, with the possible exception of skill resets, which we have received no further conformation or details on since it was hinted at:
- 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 [highlight](now debunked)[/highlight].
- 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.
- 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.
As far as why the expanded stash upgrade was also nixed, it was apparently due to outdated hardware and software, as hinted at before:
Official Blizzard Quote:
The service is designed specifically for the requirements of the game. Meaning that specific hardware has and continues to be used because the game was designed to run on it. The limitations now are that this hardware is pretty old, the storage capacity is more than enough to hold the data from an increased stash size, but at peak load can the service and database actually handle the ability to record all the data without fault? The feeling is probably not.
Now, that's only a reasonable doubt. If we were to throw caution to the wind and see if it works anyway the teams that would be responsible for cleaning up the mess are hard at work on completing the new Battle.net for StarCraft II. We're just not willing to bet the manpower that it will work and potentially impact one of our next major game releases.
The question then comes up that why don't we just upgrade the hardware? As I sort of hinted at this isn't off the shelf hardware and we can't simply throw in some new parts and hope it all works. It would be months of work, again, by teams of people that we simply aren't willing to remove from their current tasks.
Yet again, Blizzard raises the pretense that the patch could be expected in the next "few weeks" and is now on hold due to more "higher priority" issues concerning Warcraft III patching, when progress was said to pass over to Diablo II's patch (see WCIII Patch is Up- Diablo II Patch 1.13 Soon to Follow?) since the PTR went live for WCIII some time ago.
On the flip side, this may mean the patch will come along sooner without complicated additions to work in to massively-outdated server technology and software.
Whether this patch will continue to hold the nearly decade-faithful player base of Diablo II in sway is yet to be seen, but in light of recent events, it may be that this news will meet a frothing pot of dissatisfaction for those who have been waiting for months for not only this patch, but years for basic fixes for many issues with Diablo II.
(Astion first posted about it- see here for the original thread.)
I guess the whole point of the update was they were still figuring out whether or not they were going to have the larger stash in. I'm not one to get pissed easily, but this is ridiculous from Blizzard; they should have said nothing about the patch. Their first mistake was telling all of us about it and getting our hopes up.
I concur. This is pretty much what I'm thinkin'. No more bots or spam or hacks. That's the biggest plus I can see coming from this patch.
1.10 was were they introduced synergies not 1.11. All that did was give us ubers, crap runewords and random bug fixes.
I agree, Bashiok cannot be blamed for the news that he delivers, he just happens to be the spokesperson. But, to me, Bashiok's statements have come to represent Blizzards attitude as a whole when it comes to Diablo fans. I was reading through Bashiok's posts in the Blizz Tracker section. A person made a statement indicating that it was "strange" to announce a game 3 years before it will be completed (I agree). Bashiok responded:
A few threads later, someone was inquiring about a graphic in some video from D3, Bashioks response was:
So, they announce the game early because they "want us along for the ride". They want to "show us what they're working on". Of course they never show us a damn thing that they are working on until it has been thoroughly filtered and hyped up at Blizzcon. When anyone asks about anything specific, the response is basically, "STFU, you'll find out when the game is released, and you'll get the game when we give it to you!!"
I barely even bother reading interviews anymore. The only information provided is vague and generally unimportant. When anyone asks a real question the responses are "Oh, I can't talk about that, but it's gonna be cool!" or "Oh, we're looking a lot of different things that we can't tell you about, but it's gonna be cool!".
What's the deal?! You would think that we were trying to pry national security information from a CIA operative. It's a video game. We are interested in knowing what it is going to be. How are we supposed to be an integral part of the development process if they never tell us anything?!
And what is the freaking hold up?! Torchlight was produced by a couple of guys in 11 months. I understand that the scale of the games is different, but Blizzard has infinitely more resources and teams of people. What on earth are they doing? Make the stinking game already! Or, at least make a freaking D2 patch! Do something.
Your quote analysis is a little baseless, IMO.
Your conclusion is plucking all the right strings however....
I can't imagine Bashiok meeting up with Leonidas. There wld have been serious trouble.
THIS IS SPARTA!
its all psychological. we are, in a way, trained. Give a rat a pellet for pushing the button. then again, then again. after a while, u give a pellet every 2 times, then 3, then 4, then once in a while. make it random. before you know it, the damn rat is psychotic and has carpol tunnel before it gets half a pellet.
right now, the blizzard grasp is loosinging on us. I know this totally sounds like bs, and i know we arnt trained, but go with it. Connect how it works to how we stand.
we were addicted through there games. we got spammed by vids early on and news. now, once in a blue moon we get something. the news is the pellet, and blizzard is the biznatch lol.
people have been saying it, we are run thin, patience is gone. Bliz really needs to rethink this strategy of thiers. i mean, they can be gerks about it cuz we will all be buying the game, but its best to keep a postive, happy fan club.
imo, being a narcisitic asshole, move all the wow pple to diablo 3 for a MONTH. think of the stuff that can get done. pump this game out in the next 6 months, and have it ready for summer. what more could a company want than to destroy a million plus peoples summers?
we arnt sheep blizzard, we have gone through hell twice, can we get a little pat on the back?
Me as well. I cant live w/o good ol' d2 at 1920 x 1080 on my 52" LCD. And what if I have to CONTINUE to clean out my bot's stash every 6 hours instead of the 12 they promised a year ago? And what will I do if I cant play a new area after playing the same 6 for 10 years?!?!?!
I hate blizzard and their $20 = 10 years of amazing-ness gamer paradigm. (I dont play wow...)
---> As a side note I do play D2 on my 52" tv, but only at 800 x 600 obviously.
Interestingly, as my friend and I were discussing the other day, resolution in D2 is discussed differently than with other games. 800 x 600 in D2's sprite engine looks about ^3 as good as a 3d rendered game. The density of the detail is stunning, and the the sprite engine itself allows d2 to be just a series of badass pictures rendered 25 times per second.
To be honest, Im not sure how the graphics of D3 hope to be better. Torchlight looked like WOW's retarded friend to me, and I thought i was eeeeerrrrriiiilllyyyy like D3. Its too bad they didnt choose some awsome crazy nutz nextgen sprite engine for d3 8-D
2d has so much more character than 3d.
for torchlight, i disagree. i love the game, so their mgiht be some bias, but i prefer 3d. imo, 2d is almost gone. ur right, however, about the "wow-ish" graphics. it doesnt capture me. like, the game is pretty well paced, doin a lot of stuff at once, and stuff, but its wierd. something about it isnt 2d. 2d has me imediatly. cant drop it. torchlight, its like on the cusp. idk y. and they did steal a lot from d3. this could, however, be wat was in the original d3, not the current one.
food for thought. thats my opinion on torchlight, graphics, and the such.
im clueless on the d2 patch. i would chuckle if they just released a patch that actually did nothing. "hey joe, we need a patch out next week or we get fired" "ok, send a 1 kb file" "sweet, sounds good". before you know it, you have a blizz file with "hahaha" writen on it, thats it.
would be hilarious... then the pitchforks.
I honestly don't see any reason to download the patch now. No stash, no content? If I need to play a Diablo game, I'll just stick with Eastern Sun 3.00, which has done both MASSIVE stash and MASSIVE content beautifully.
Screw you Blizzard for taping a $100 bill to a fishing line and luring us for miles.
Sincerely, newly retarded fan.
Let blizzard work, they know what they do !
I got the habit to play with small stash in d2 normal (no expension)... So I don't care about increased stash... no more content ! why they'll put that in a patch of a very old game ?
You all complain about it, but blizzard is not forced to do that, they don't obtain cash for, they use resource for us and you all cry !!
For me I just want a balanced game (yes it was never balanced well as I hope) make useless skill usefull, and any skills must be attractive to invested more than 1 point in it. (not like static, teleport, and many passive skill...)
If its alot of stuff, i think you should sell now... when we will get closer to the patch item prices will drop so...
I wish they could implement some kind of a FG system in the battle net... but i guess thats a feature we wont see in d2. Maybe d3.
All I'm saying is, don't get our hopes up about something that cannot be delivered as promised. And, if our interest is supposed to be sustained, then be more transparent about what is going on. The ultra-secrecy is confounding to me. Why can't they be more interactive?
I don't know whether they do these things intentionally, I am seriously beginning to wonder. I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that unexpected hitches cause delays that could not have been foreseen. But their resistance to share meaningful information tends to make me believe otherwise. Do they refuse to share information because there is nothing to share? Are people dropping the ball? Is the whole team dropping the ball? Are these people really motivated to get work done in an efficient manner?
I don't know what is going on. But, I do know that in my line of work this type of performance would not be tolerated. Missing deadlines by years SHOULD NOT be the NORM. When you make a promise to your customers, your first priority should be to make good on that promise. Unfortunately for us, Blizzard does not seem to follow these philosophies. I suppose that they do not feel pressured to do so.
The problem is that they have us by the balls, and they know it!!
I understand.. and you are right, but I prefer a patch well done than a botched job to reach the deadline. Blizzard are the only company to afford that. Look all those games come from movies, all have a deadline and look what kind of game that done ! crap...
I know it's not correct to tease us like that !! it's a torture lol
I followed Fable for YEARS, thinking about how awesome it was gonna be. When it finally came out... it sucked. Hard. Maybe to some people that hadn't followed it from it's infant stages it seemed like a good game. But if you went back and looked at what it was supposed to be, it just flat out wasn't. Why? Because they realized that what they had promised would take a looong time to do right. Instead of pushing the release date back and working to release their vision in all it's glory, they chopped the game to hell, and released the aborted version. Look up Project Ego (Fable's original name) and see what I mean. It will anger you.
That being said, I agree that Blizzard just creates hype then leaves us in the dark, but I just tell myself to be patient. If they release it too soon, it will be like Fable and fall into obscurity. No one wants that. I want a game that will be fun to play years from now, not some crap slapped together to make a deadline. It will be worth it in the end...
Making the coding is easy, it's working with the servers that poses a problem apparently. So I guess, we as diablo fans are at the bottom of the blizz list when it comes to priorities. Like Seth said, it's not the fact that they weren't able to make increase stash work that pisses me off, it's the fact that there are other "priorities" more important than a patch that was supposed to be released for 6 months now and is still stalling. If you ask me, it's bad time management right there and they better make up for it...or they'll have a bunch of disappointed bloodthirsty Dfans.
True but I want to play until then lol. I'll sell off some of my stuff I guess. It'd be cool if they did implement a fg system but I don't think it will ever happen.
Like some others have said.. it's not necessarily that they can't do it. It's the fact that the server load would exceed capacity and that they won't spend the extra money to update servers for a 10-year-old game.