Diablo 3 System Changes
The anticipated System Changes have finally come in! Here's a quick summary of the changes:
- Scrolls of Identification are gone - players can now identify rares/legendary items without them.
- Button '5' is now dedicated to potions.
- The Mystic artisan has now been removed from the game.
- The Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube have been removed.
- The Stone of Recall is now a button at the bottom and has been renamed "Town Portal".
- The Blacksmith is now responsible for salvaging players' items.
- Common (white colored) items are no longer salvageable.
- Character Attributes have been changed. See below for details.
- Character stats are now placed in the same place as the inventory panel and the old dedicated stats panel has been removed.
Official Blizzard Quote:
While working on Diablo III we've been called out for messing around with systems too much, that the game is good as-is and we should just release it. I think that's a fair argument to make, but I also think it's incorrect. Our job isn't just to put out a game, it's to release the next Diablo game. No one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great. We trust in our ability to put out a great game, but we're not quite there yet. In addition to finishing and polishing the content of the game we're continuing to iterate on some of the core game systems. So all that said, I'd like to provide everyone an update on some of the systems we're currently working on.
We’re changing some of the systems we’ve gotten the most feedback on both internally and from the beta test, including crafting, items, core attributes, and inventory. We’ll go over those changes and the reasons for them. In addition we’re working on major changes to the skill and rune systems that we’re not ready to talk about, but I promise you we can’t possibly ship without a finished skill and rune system.
Let’s start off small: Scrolls of Identification are no longer in the game. Unidentified items and the act of identifying them is still very much part of the game, but now when obtaining an unidentified item you'll simply right click it, a short cast timer will occur as your character examines the item, and it will become identified. We love the double-discovery of finding a present and then unwrapping it, but we don't think it requires a physical item you have to find and keep in your bags to get the same effect. From now on you'll just be able to inherently identify all your items, no need to carry scrolls. Your character in Diablo III is just that badass now.
We’re also moving the fifth quick slot button, which is becoming a dedicated potion button. A dedicated potion button is something we went back and forth on throughout development. Recently it became apparent that players need to be aware of their potions for emergency situations. Our combat model doesn’t promote or even allow chugging potions in rapid succession, but they’re certainly useful when you run into a string of bad luck with health globes, or if you just get in over your head. This is one of our newest changes, so the button and mechanics don’t actually function in beta Patch 10, but that’s our intent and you’ll be seeing it supported in future beta updates.
The design team is currently looking at systems and cleaning them up, removing any superfluous system objectives and those that are beyond fixing. Thus, we're removing the Mystic artisan. As we look at the big picture, the Mystic simply wasn’t adding anything to our customization system. Enhancement was really just the socket and gem system with a different name, and it would prolong the release of the game even further to go back to the drawing board and differentiate it, so we’ll revisit the Mystic and enhancements at a later time. Removing her from the game took some time, but it’s nowhere near the efforts that would be required to flesh out a better customization system. We hope she’ll be able to join your caravan in the future, but for now we’re going to focus on the extensive customization options the game already offers.
We're also looking at systems we’ve created and making sure that the rationale that brought us to these designs still makes sense. The Stone of Recall, for instance, has a short cast time and allows you to return to town. Early on we said we wouldn't have town portals, as they introduced too many combat exploits, but we were able to resolve them. Because we have the Stone of Recall, though, we began to evaluate systems that were originally implemented to deal with the exclusion of town portals.
So we've decided to remove the Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube. They were implemented to allow for salvaging and selling items when there was no quick and easy way to return to town. Now that the Stone of Recall exists, we found that keeping the Cauldron and Cube in the game detracted from the benefits of returning to town to sell items, salvage, craft, and interact with the townsfolk. It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out. In addition, we've decided to just call it what it is and the Stone of Recall is now Town Portal, and is integrated directly onto the skill bar UI.
The Blacksmith artisan will now salvage items. With removal of the Cube we needed some mechanic in town that allowed you to salvage your items, and it just makes sense for the Blacksmith to offer it.
One other important change is that common (white) items will no longer be salvageable. We found that it caused a few itemization issues, but mostly this is due to a general philosophy shift on the importance of items. Previously, our thinking was that when an item dropped it should always be useful to you in some way, either the stats could be an improvement for you, or in the case of white items you could break it down and craft something better. Through a lot of play testing we have come full circle to the Diablo II methodology -- a lot of stuff that drops just isn’t worth picking up. Diablo II captured the loot piñata feel by dropping a lot of crap, mostly arrows and bolts, and we of course still very much want that feeling of item-explosions. To do that we need to be able to balance the value of items to how many we’re throwing at you.
This leads us to the last change I'll be detailing today:
We're changing core character attributes to Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality, and the benefits each stat provides is being broken down as:
- Strength
- Increases Barbarian damage
- Increases Armor
- Dexterity
- Increases Demon Hunter damage
- Increases Monk damage
- Increases Dodge
- Intellect
- Increases Wizard and Witch Doctor damage
- Increases Health gained from Health Globes
- Vitality
- Increases Max Health
This change makes the stats more intuitive and fixes some of the itemization issues we were running into. We want to make it clear that junk items aren’t worth picking up, and make it easy to identify other items as not for your character. We want to drop a ton of items, but to really pull off a sense of excitement when finding a great item, there needs to be non-optimal items, both for your class, and in general. By specifically targeting stats at classes, we can reduce the amount of item overlap, diversify our item pool, and create a cleaner, more exciting itemization system.
By and large these changes have little impact on which items you’re going to want. The item hunt has always been based on secondary stats and affixes, and we’re working hard to ensure build diversity is as large as possible by getting as many affixes into the game as possible (adding more item affixes is also something we’ve been working on). Simply including affixes that augment specific skills greatly expands the itemization pool and build possibilities.
Moving on, with the removal of the Cauldron of Jordan, Nephalem Cube, and by moving Town Portal to the skill panel, we're now displaying character stats directly on the inventory UI. Now you can see your stats go up and down as you try on different items. All the same info is available; we’re just streamlining the UI, making it more useful. It might seem insignificant but we're pleased with the results.
All of these are changes that will in one way or another be seen in the latest beta patch, and so we hope that those of you with access please try them out and let us know what you think in the Beta Feedback forum.
There’s a lot of work left to be done, though. We’re constantly tuning and making balance changes; it’s a massive task. Some of these changes can be seen in the beta, like changes to item rarity, the levels at which we introduce affixes, and how many affixes enemies can roll up. Some you can’t see in the beta, like balancing the difficulty of the entire game for four different difficulty levels, adding tons of new affixes, creating legendary items, filling out crafting recipes and itemization, working on achievements, and implementing Battle.net features. We’re also working on a number of other large systems changes -- specifically with the skill and rune systems. We're not quite ready to share what those are just yet, but we look forward to being able to do so in the near future.
We want Diablo III to be the best game it can be when it launches. To get there, we're going to be iterating on designs we've had in place for a long time, making changes to systems you've spent a lot of time theorycrafting, and removing features you may have come to associate with the core of the experience. Our hope is that by embracing our iterative design process in which we question ourselves and our decisions, Diablo III won't just live up to our expectations, but will continue to do so a decade after it's released.
Jay Wilson is game director for Diablo III and the Inventor of Meat. He believes that Kate Beckinsale is the greatest actress that’s ever lived.
Blue Posts
Bashiok as responded to acouple of clearifying questions about these system changes.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Keep in mind everything detailed in the article today is already in the game, and most of it is complete. Once you get Patch 10 and see that, I think it may sink in that these aren't theoretical changes we're still working on, they're changes we've completed. Obviously the potion button still needs a little work to hook it up correctly, and the character attribute changes need to be balanced and tested for itemization throughout the game, but overall these are changes we've already made.
I do not intend to impress that we're close to release, or infer any such "we're <-- this --> done" kind of statement, but most of these are fairly straightforward changes that are already complete and implemented. We do have more changes, skills and runes, affixes to add, more items, Battle.net features, testing, testing, and more testing etc. to do so we're obviously still not there yet, but none of the changes detailed today are theoretical or yet to be implemented. (Tracker / Forums)
It looks like these changes have been in the works for awhile now. Will the upcoming patch reflect these changes?
Yes, all of these changes are complete and will be present in beta Patch 10.
But white items still cost gold? Wont that make them worth something, making me to fill my inventory and later sell them in town
They'll sell for very little. It will quickly become apparent they're not worth the inventory space.
Why have items that are useless?
To make seeing a good item drop that much rarer/exciting.
Will the new Salvage method be included in the new patch?
Yup!
What about "upgrading" gems? since u removed the mystic, its not implemented anymore?
That's the Jeweler.
Jay's article says strength affects barbarian damage and dexterity, DH's etc... That's just core, rite? Weapons still add most?
Well there's the basic weapon damage, then if it has +Strength on it you *probably* wouldn't want that item as a wizard.
What if per chance the weapon damage is vastly superior? wouldn't that make sense to take it for secondary attribute?
Very possible! It won't always be an absolute "It has X I don't want it." You'll still need to evaluate.
Town Portal: Instant or cast?
It's the same as the Stone of Recall, just in a different spot with a new (old?) name. It's a 2 second cast I believe.
what? was just getting excited about stone of recall! U guys had me convinced that scrolls suck, and stones rock (no pun intended)
It's the same thing, we just moved it and renamed it.
Apart from that I feel most of the other changes are adequate.
I'll just relax some.. obviously a shitstorm of upset fans scream of delays and whatnot... meh
At the start of the project they should have spent alot of time developing the high level gameplay systems and play expectations. E.g.
1. Focus on keeping the player in combat and streamline systems to achieve this.
2. Give character leveling a clear benefit from 1 - 60. No matter how you change the game level progression should always matter.
3. Introduce artisans that each provide a fundamental benefit to items/stats/skill progression. Whenever you build an artisan assess what their benefits are and how much they overlap with other systems.
4. Diversify skills and promote build experimentation.
etc.
What we are seeing is that Blizzard seem to focus more on prototyping every system they can think of and playing through each than working on the actual concepts and design fundamentals. This would still be fine if it can be iterated quickly but we are seeing them spend an insane amount of of development budget on creating assets, coding, thoughout the whole game for every prototype just to see if they work in game. This takes months and months to build each system just for people to test it for a few weeks before they realise it sucks.
Now my big concern is not so much these updates (besides mystic because this poor lady has been modelled, built, voice acted and productionized at release quailty just to be scrapped because they realise adding +10 to attack is the same as a rare drop modifer) but what is going to happen with the skill/rune system.
I remember way back they had skill points but they said it prevented people from build experimentation so they needed to change this to skill unlocks. The benefit however with skill points was that every level up people had something to do. Especially that stat allocation is out.
When they introduced the skill unlock system to replace points I could see the benefits to experimentation but I saw a huge issue with level progression because once you hit level 30 suddenly leveling up means nothing to the player and all the focus is on itemization.
My biggest fear is that the devs have never addressed this and even when fans have stated "what do we do once we've unlocked all the skills at level 30?" The devs simple shrugged and said "Its all about the item hunt now and it'll be fine!!".
I can almost guarrantee that they've realised that leveling between 30 - 60 is having very little meaning in the game as is and that they are now going to now backflip on skill points and reintroduce them to at least some level.
This again brings me back to how they neglect high level designs and the implications for each change and that their prototyping is actually a full production quality rebuild before they even test the concepts out which is why development is being so damn dragged out and frustrating the shizz out of everyone.
The tinfoil is alive and well!
Tinfoils Hats ASEMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Hate that i have to go to town to sell and salvage items now.
signed.
I get and understand the changes back to normal stats. It did not make sense that wizard DPS came from weapon DPS - that was a very weird choice. And looking back, I wonder why they even implemented that change in the beta - maybe as a test to see if that would quickly fix the problem they had, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel immediately? Perhaps.
Overall, these decisions are good. Though, I'm curious where your common scraps will come from without DEing whites, and I think it sucks that you have to go back to town to sell stuff. As if you cannot look at items in a dungeon and make intelligent choices there.
I find it extremely silly to say that users will enjoy talking to the NPC's in the town. Really? I know when I play Skyrim, i wait breathlessly for the merchants to complete their shpeel before selling stuff. Wait. No I don't. I try and make them shut up as quickly as I can.
The lack of information on the runes is a little weird, too. You'd think that would have, at least, been mentioned.
I played Hellgate: London (ugh, even shelled out the $ for a CE and a "lifetime subscription" And I really enjoyed the whole salvage an item on the fly. That being said, the only time i went to town was to close out one quest and grab a new one. If I were Blizz and I put all this work in my towns and NPCs I guess I would want to flaunt 'em as well. But this does come off a little forced.
I hate the fact that white items got downgraded even further....we all hated them before, but now....
At this point, as a fan and consumer I am beginning to question the ethics of Blizzard. This is far too much stick and not nearly enough carrot.
"It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out"
this has got to be a mistake/joke. Definitely not a good idea for me. Breaking up combat doesn't have to be in town, i can just clear the area and just stand there and check what i just got.
I have no hope in seeing a release until Q4 or even hopes of seeing a release if this continue. The hype is dying for me, i'll rather play some other games until you guys figure it out what to do with your Diablo 2 Expansion take-2, Diablo 2.5 or Diablo 3 w/e you wanna call it
You people are ridiculous. All of the sudden it's 'omfg Q4 or 2013, it'l never come out!' when there's zero proof of that. All this with the exception of runestone / skill system is already implemented, and I can guarantee you the runestone / skill system isn't just sketched on someones notepad, it's most likely almost done. Just like these other systems, they don't want to talk about it until it's finished. Them not talking about it doesn't mean it's not two weeks away from being done, we have no idea.
All I'm reading is rants, fuck this i'm going to go play my beta.
and you have proof yourself this game will release according to what they say? all im saying is i dont care if this game release/late. The hype is dying down, that;s the truth. Doing all these things at the end, only puts people down and play something else.
yea go play your beta while it still last, probably going to be something different when it releases
yea, backward iterates. fun.
1 - Mystic (identify items)
2 - Cauldron of Jordan (sell items anywhere)
3 - Nephalem Cube (salvage items)
Before:
Walk in dungeon - find item - identify item (scroll) - sell item (CoJ), salvage it (Nephalem Cube)
3 mechanics used in dungeon
Walk in dungeon - find item - go back to town, identify (Mystic) - sell item (CoJ), salvage it (Nephalem Cube)
3 mechanics used in town
After:
Walk in dungeon - find item - identify item (yourself) - go back to town, salvage or sell item (Smith)
1 mechanic in dungeon, 1 in town
This is just a simple thing that bugs me...before, you could have done everything at one location, now you must do one thing here and another there. It's time wasting.
Blizz (Jay) initially stated that they want to keep the player in action, hence the addition of the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube and less time wasting. Now Blizz (Jay) states "It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out.", hence the removal of the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube and more time wasting.
It's not that I dislike this idea completely, I just don't see the change as better as before.