The latest financial call was just a few hours ago and Activision Blizzard announced some interesting things. Here are the highlights:
- Diablo III has sold over 14 million copies across all platforms
- Reaper of Souls should be out next year on PC and PS4
- WoW subs have dropped by 100k
- Heroes of the Storm will be showcased on BlizzCon
- In North America, Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game for the first 9 months of 2013
Ask the Devs About Game Design and Tech
We posted yesterday about interviews we'll be able to get during BlizzCon, but our interviewees have switched! Now we have Game Designer Travis Day and Tech Director Jason Regier! Looks like we can ask about game mechanics! You can drop your answers in the news comments below, or in our dedicated forum topic.
Update on Legendary Transmogrification
Unidentified Legacy Legendaries will not be Transmogrifiable.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
I wanted to jump back into this thread to provide an update concerning our plans for unidentified legacy Legendaries and how they will interact with the upcoming Transmogrification system in Reaper of Souls.
We've already mentioned that Legacy items (items that drop before the expansion or pre-expansion patch goes live) will not unlock unique item appearance, but they can be Transmogrified.
At this point, we're currently planning that unidentified legacy Legendaries will also not provide new item appearances for Transmogrification. Our reasoning is this: even old Legendaries will be following new rules once we release Loot 2.0 and we want Transmogrification to reflect what new items you've gotten after that point.
We've already mentioned that Legacy items (items that drop before the expansion or pre-expansion patch goes live) will not unlock unique item appearance, but they can be Transmogrified.
At this point, we're currently planning that unidentified legacy Legendaries will also not provide new item appearances for Transmogrification. Our reasoning is this: even old Legendaries will be following new rules once we release Loot 2.0 and we want Transmogrification to reflect what new items you've gotten after that point.
Smart Drops and Crafted Items
More clarifications were given on the topic of Smart Drops and Crafted Items.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Set items that are clearly designed for a particular class, such as Natalya's Reflection for example, will only roll the primary stat associated with that class. So, Dexterity for Nat's, Strength for Immortal King's, and so forth.
By class specific do you mean items that are only equippable by that class, or items that were designed for that class as well?
I originally meant items that were only usable by a particular class, but I asked for some clarification from the design team as your question hadn't occurred to me. This philosophy does extend to set items that have class-specific features.
from how you stated it, this means that the archon recipes that are crafted will be geared towards the crafting class.
Archon recipes are an exception to the rule, because they already have a basic stat guaranteed when crafting. They will continue to work this way in the pre-expansion patch. Good observation!
So will loot 2.0 update the legendary recipes my blacksmith already knows, or will it require me to obtain new ones?
Loot 2.0 will not alter any existing items or recipes that you currently have (what you have now will become "legacy" items after the patch). There will be new items and recipes introduced for you to acquire in game.
This will make crafting much much better. But having a 100% chance of "smart drop" from crafting almost seems like overkill. I guess it really depends on the material costs, but if crafting is always going to have better loot for your character than the drops you get (which presumably will have a much smaller chance at being a smart drop), it will kinda take away from the looting of rares wont it?
Bear in mind that an item dropping as a "smart drop" means it will roll stats that are generally more useful to you. That doesn't necessarily mean every smart drop is automatically going to be an upgrade, particularly if you are looking to stack certain stats or affixes.
Rare loot drops are not guaranteed to be smart drops either, and you can expect to also find some items that may be more useful for different characters while you're out adventuring. Crafting is a bit more of a tailored method for acquiring gear, and the gear produced from it reflects that.
By class specific do you mean items that are only equippable by that class, or items that were designed for that class as well?
I originally meant items that were only usable by a particular class, but I asked for some clarification from the design team as your question hadn't occurred to me. This philosophy does extend to set items that have class-specific features.
from how you stated it, this means that the archon recipes that are crafted will be geared towards the crafting class.
Archon recipes are an exception to the rule, because they already have a basic stat guaranteed when crafting. They will continue to work this way in the pre-expansion patch. Good observation!
So will loot 2.0 update the legendary recipes my blacksmith already knows, or will it require me to obtain new ones?
Loot 2.0 will not alter any existing items or recipes that you currently have (what you have now will become "legacy" items after the patch). There will be new items and recipes introduced for you to acquire in game.
This will make crafting much much better. But having a 100% chance of "smart drop" from crafting almost seems like overkill. I guess it really depends on the material costs, but if crafting is always going to have better loot for your character than the drops you get (which presumably will have a much smaller chance at being a smart drop), it will kinda take away from the looting of rares wont it?
Bear in mind that an item dropping as a "smart drop" means it will roll stats that are generally more useful to you. That doesn't necessarily mean every smart drop is automatically going to be an upgrade, particularly if you are looking to stack certain stats or affixes.
Rare loot drops are not guaranteed to be smart drops either, and you can expect to also find some items that may be more useful for different characters while you're out adventuring. Crafting is a bit more of a tailored method for acquiring gear, and the gear produced from it reflects that.
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Posted Nov 6, 2013Haters: Game is dead.
"Diablo 3 sold over 12 million copies"
Haters: Game is dead.
"Diablo 3 sold over 13 million copies"
Haters: Game is dead.
"Diablo 3 sold over 14 million copies across all platforms"
Haters: Lol. Only 1 million copies.
That's what I see from haters >_>
Anyway, congrats! Diablo 3 future looks good.
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Posted Nov 6, 2013Every time they tell us everyone hates it.. another million sales
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Posted Nov 6, 2013-
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Posted Nov 7, 2013It looks like it sold well under a mil on each non-pc platform. When you realize that margins on console are much worse, you realize that it probably barely penciled out relative to dev costs, unlike WoW, which makes something ridiculous like 20x dev costs on a constant basis.
This is despite the console version being much superior to the PC by all accounts.
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Posted Nov 7, 2013I was jk.
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Posted Nov 7, 2013Many of these million brought the game due to how good D2 was and also the incentive to make money.
What I want to know is how many are still actively playing.
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Posted Nov 7, 2013Well, I'm inclined to agree with you. Since weapon damage is so important, it would help when seeing other characters' models (to either brawl with or team with) to tell what weapon they're carrying. However, there is the fact that weapons that are transmogrified have to keep the animation of the original weapon.
For instance, my Plvl 75 Monk carries a Skorn. I would LOVE to change his look so that his model appears to be carrying two cool fist weapons, but the animation has to be the same. So I may leave his weapon look as is, unless on the off chance that staves or Daibos use the same Monk animation as a two-handed axe, in which case, I may switch the look out for that if I find one of those I like.
I think the primary lure of Transmog, though, comes from people not liking how it looks to equip a bunch of legendary armor choices from all over the place, and then looking like you're wearing a "clown suit." It's disappointing that weapon model can't be changed out for whatever we want, but at least a character's armor look can be changed.
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Posted Nov 7, 2013I'm mindblown...
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Posted Nov 7, 2013I mean we already knew most of those would be in the game, but there's something about seeing it in an almost finished state and imagining yourself using those features that makes the hype skyrocket
Like the clan feature, I didn't really care much about it, but now that I've seen it (with the 3D char model below it) I'm kinda excited to try it out... Images and videos are quite powerful
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Posted Nov 7, 2013I'm not even sure I think it's okay for Legendaries to be turned into "other" Legendaries... but I think people are way past that (and probably have embraced that idea already)..
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Posted Nov 7, 2013I plan to turn my pants into Vile Wards. >.>
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Posted Nov 7, 2013Now monks fight with their KNEES!!
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Posted Nov 8, 2013I loved D1 and D2(even pre LoD). I hated D3 at release. It has improved so much since release I decided to try it again and, I love it. With all the incoming changes and the expansion I'm sure I'll be hitting the Diablo 3 pipe for a long time.
I'm happy this game is finally shaping up to be as amazing as it should have been.