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As far as why the expanded stash upgrade was also nixed, it was apparently due to outdated hardware and software, as hinted at before: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.)
Ya but if you look at the sales charts, D2 & LOD is still selling very well. I think it's the same people buying it over and over although sometimes I do see newbies playing d2 even today. The game is still profiting blizzard, so they will continue to support it.
I don't think the Diablo II suggestions/concerns were for Diablo II developers. You'll note that EVERY one of those suggestions made it into Diablo III.
Nietzsche would vomit
Balance bugs and glitchs is not enough for this patch to be worth the wait IMO and id say most of the population agrees this isnt enuff....even a few new items would be nice,...
What upsets me the most about this is the apparent lack of respect for their hardcore fan bases. They only have one legacy team to work on ALL the old games? Why not just put a team together just for this and make them work on it until its done? They are a large company and surely could afford to hire a small group of people to get this done in a timely (3 years?) manner. Quit being cheap and just get the job done!
Just because the inventory you find that not enough ? Blizzard waste time to do this f***ing not neccessary feature that so many people wanted.
If they doesn't try to satisfied those people, the patch would be already released. So they try and fail, so stop to crying please. Now I hope Blizzard will take care about the real important thing, the BALANCING !! I look forward to see finally the game balanced after 9 years...:thumbsup:
Yes maybe some new items would be nice, but first I would have to love to see many items I never see... All runeword is so lacked and unbalanced... I want see low level runeword and more good low level items and less high level overpowered items.
It's why I said Blizzard have big work to do for balancing this desorganized game.
Oh , if blizzard intend to do that, it's been a while that the patch would be released. Exp it's only a variable...
Well thats good to know.:D
Official Blizzard Quote:
We continue to plan a release based on our best intentions.
Blizzard Questionnaire!
1: Do you feel that Blizzard isn't treating it's fan bases equally and fairly?
Yes, I feel as if almost all the attention is going towards WoW, and the rest is going towards Starcraft. Us Diablo Fans are almost always the last to get attention, and when we finally do, it keeps getting interrupted and we get nowhere.
For my part, I think that empty promises can hurt as much as founded threats... blizz, you better make up for it or else I'm gonna blackmail your bipolar programmer someday!!
I guess i just want to say im pretty disappointed with the dely and the lack of new content. Lets just hope that the larger stash is now a shared stash, even if its only 5 or so tabs instead of the full 8.
What could be better than that? They would have mentioned it by now if thats a feature. I mean, I would have said, "Well, we couldnt increase the stash size bleh bleh bleh, but we did make it shared, which increases the size sotospeak."
Im a little worried that we have seen everything, all of the features. Unless its something radical, I feel like the team would have thrown us whatever they had when they biffed the completion of Stash.