Diablo III - why are they torturing us?!

[Timmy Dee]

So who's got any idea when the game will be released? Would we believe the heretics that say the delay is caused by it being released on consoles as well?

Blizzard have denied that this is the cause, but they have certainly intimated that the game is going to be released on consoles.

Discuss. (Also discuss all things D3.)

[njpaddy]

When I built my pc 4 years ago, I had hopes that D3 was 2-3 years away. It's too late to care now. By the time Blizzard releases D3, my pc will be too old to run it and I have no plans to upgrade my system. Rather than wait for D3, I picked up Skyrim last month. It took me time to get used to the RPG gameplay, but it made me forget about D3.

[Timmy Dee]

I was in the same boat - I only JUST bought a new PC yesterday in preparation for D3. I have been looking at PCs since 2010 in anticipation of the game's release, but now it seems it may just be upon us.

I've got Skyrim on Xbox, but the Diablo series really has nostalgia value for me. It was always going to be a must-buy for me, and not just because my comp was 8 years old and the mobo was just about fried :S

[Badger & Bengall]

It is torture! Ever since I saw the Wizard class I've had it in the back of my mind, slowly eating away at my patience.

To tide myself over, I played (and finished) Skyrim and Dark Souls. Now I'm anticipating a NZ Diablo clone called Path of Exile which is in beta. It looks like it could be fun. Other PC games to note are remakes of XCOM Enemy Unknown and Jagged Alliance. Plus there are the free-to-play games Neverwinter, Salem and Mechwarrior Online.

What class are you lads trying first? My order is Wizard, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Monk. I'm not big on pure melee classes so I probably won't try the Barbarian.

[Timmy Dee]

Yeah wizard for me too, Leigh. I'd like to go for the Monk second as he seems an awesome support-class character, which would be good in a multiplayer situation. Who didn't love the paladin in D2?

The universal chest idea for the easy tfer of loot between characters is terrific.

[commanderkeen]

D3 is in closed beta right now, so release is probably this summer.

Here is a review from another forum which I frequent:

I haven't gotten to runes and such, but the customization doesn't look too overwhelming. The most enjoyable part for me so far is the atmosphere Blizzard has been able to build. The art in the game is fantastic and the voice acting is top notch...

...I beat the beta. It looks like there are 5 main bosses in the game. The beta goes until right after you beat the first one. I'd say it took me 2-3 hours to get to the first boss. It looks like there will be 4 difficulty levels, which will change a lot of stuff during each play through.

One thing I noticed is that crafting is really good. The weapons and armor I crafted were better than anything I picked up, however I was playing on normal so I do not know if crafting scales with the difficulty. I really like the skills and passive perks. You can quickly change your character from an AOE DPS, direct DPS, tank, healer, etc just from going to a shrine and swapping out skills and perks. That means you don't have to spec a certain way and be stuck.

[Timmy Dee]

Blizzard has been spouting Q1 2012 for a little bit now....my local game store, the pranksters that they are, have posted the release date as 31/3/2012 the last day of Q1....I certainly hope their date isn't EARLY!

I want it sometime in Feb, but we'll see. Beta testing is still ongoing as commanderkeen points out...it's been going on since September, so surely it's gotta stop sometime. Right?

[Badger & Bengall]

+1 on the Universal Chest. The number of times I'd join a session with my Necromancer, drop items somewhere away from the current players, log out/in with another character just to find that someone has taken my gear or the session is full was ridiculous.

The Paladin was my best character, but the Sorceress was my favourite.

[Timmy Dee]

Ah what I did was create a password protected game and stay in there for 10 mins killing stuff.

Once you're in for 10 mins+ on a D2 game, the game becomes stable, and you can exit and re-enter as many times as you like PROVIDED you aren't out for more than a few minutes at a time. That way I could swap loot amongst my chars and nobody was in there to steal them cos of the password.

[oc_in_fw]

I have only played the original Diablo- moved to Mac, and not much of a gamer any more.

[maxman]

Blizzard is one of the most frustrating companies out there.
It's a good thing they don't make shaving gear or I'd despise them forever.

I'm looking forward to D3. I've always liked the series.

[SalvadorMontenegro]

This thread pretty much sums up why I eschew PC gaming. I don't have the money to upgrade every three months. I would love to play Diablo III, as I loved the first two. I would have loved to have played Starcraft II, as I loved the first one. Not for the money it would take to upgrade my PC from 2009, though.

I'd be thrilled if it came out on consoles.

[Edcculus]

I don't plan to buy it, but I can definitely kill the rumor that its going to be on consoles, at least for the first release. The info I have says Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Macintosh.

I've heard t here are some holdups in the distribution chain, but I did hear something about Febuaury or March, but it could be even later than that.

[njpaddy]

I was in the same boat - I only JUST bought a new PC yesterday in preparation for D3.

What kind pc did you get? I haven't looked at pc's or components since I built mine. I'm so out of touch at this point I don't even know if it's worth replacing just the video card. I want to wait another year or two before replacing the mobo & cpu. Buying D3 will depend on the requirements. If I can squeak by (like Skyrim), I'll probably give in and buy it.

The old DOS FPS games of the '90's still have the most nostalgic value, but Diablo/Hellfire, Diablo II and even Hellgate London have had the most replay value for me in the past 10 years. I mostly play as the barbarian. I never get very far with the magic characters.

[jwcarlson]

I played and played for hours the Warcraft series (never played WoW though, and only WC3 for a bit), the StarCraft series, and the Diablo series. I played multiplayer SC2 and to my horror it's terrible from a sense that unless you dedicate your life to the game you're never going to be "good". Diablo II was so ridden with cheats and duplicated items it became unplayable. The single player modes of all of their games are still fun, however. D3 will most likely not get purchased by me anytime near release. I doubt I'll be able to play it on my laptop so that would mean I'd have to build a new desktop, which I probably won't do. My brother built his computer for it YEARS ago and he's in the same boat. His computer won't be able to handle the D3 so he'll have to upgrade or build/buy new.

I love PC gaming, so much more control than a clunkly console game. I have to be real, however, understanding that PC gaming is basically dead/dying.

[Timmy Dee]

What kind pc did you get? I haven't looked at pc's or components since I built mine. I'm so out of touch at this point I don't even know if it's worth replacing just the video card. I want to wait another year or two before replacing the mobo & cpu. Buying D3 will depend on the requirements. If I can squeak by (like Skyrim), I'll probably give in and buy it.

The rec specs for D3 are:

- 2 gig RAM
- Athlon x2 5600 or Intel Core 2 2.4 GHz
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 512 MB or ATi Radeon HD 4870 512 MB vid card

So I think if your comp can play Skyrim alright then you should be fine. I'm not sure of the rec specs for Skyrim, but I would imagine Skyrim is a much more power-hungry game than D3 (despite there being more happening on a screen at one time in D3).

I ordered a comp that should be ready next week. I didn't build myself this time, as I found a great deal at my local independent store (we don't have any good computer fairs around Canberra, so I would have had to order all the parts online and pay a fortune in shipping from various companies). I paid $1250 for:

- Intel i7-2600 CPU
- Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 mobo
- 8Gb (2x4Gb) Corsair XMS3 1600mHz RAM
- 1Tb Seagate SATAIII HDD
- Geforce GTX-550Ti 1Gb vid card
- 750w p/s
- low noise heat sink/fan
- LG 24x burner
- 23" LED monitor
- Logitech multimedia keyboard/mouse
- Windows 7 home
- wireless LAN adapter

After pricing all the parts, to build this myself would have worked out to be about $1k even, before shipping, and that's buying from 4-5 different online vendors to get the lowest price. The local store was a no-brainer when I saw their price list and good warranty cover.

I bought some Logitech Z2300 speakers not long ago, so I didn't need any speakers, and although it's not the fastest PC I could have ordered, it should be alright to last a year or two without upgrading. The best part is the RAM config - I had predicted they'd use 4 sticks of 2Gb to save money, but since the mobo has space for 4 RAM sticks, I can double the RAM myself down the track for maybe $40. Very easy and cheap upgrade.

[jwcarlson]

by Jay Wilson
Jan 19, 2012 9:00 AM PST


Systems Changes

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
+Barbarian damage

+Armor
Dexterity
+Demon Hunter damage

+Monk damage

+Dodge
Intellect
+Wizard damage

+Witch Doctor damage

+Health from globes
Vitality
+Health


We're dropping Defense, Attack, and Precision as attributes, Armor is taking over for what Defense used to provide, +Physical Resist will take over for Armor, and +Chance to Crit will fill in for Precision. Obviously these stat changes are one of the bigger systems changes we're currently working on as they have far reaching requirements to re-itemize and balance the game.



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.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4325...1_19_2012#blog


Sounds like we're going to be waiting awhile. :)

[Badger & Bengall]

That's one good thing about Blizzard's games - they don't force you to buy the best components on the market to enjoy it. I'll be playing it on my i7 laptop with no trouble.

Nice PC Tim. I'm amazed how cheap it was.

[Timmy Dee]

Son of a......

Cheers for the heads-up Jacob, but yes, a Q1 release is looking unlikely now.

[jwcarlson]

That's one good thing about Blizzard's games - they don't force you to buy the best components on the market to enjoy it. I'll be playing it on my i7 laptop with no trouble.

In all honesty, I think this is because it takes YEARS to get a game to market rather than a function of them actually wanting it to be this way. When it takes 5-6 years to release a game, obviously things are going to be "less new". :)

Son of a......

Cheers for the heads-up Jacob, but yes, a Q1 release is looking unlikely now.

Wouldn't surprise me one tiny bit if it was Q1... of 2013. Seriously.