Diablo III Wild Speculation and Rumor Mongering Abounds

[Ice Cream Emperor]

For me TQ also lacked the feel of really fighting off hordes of mobs.  I feel that was probably just an engine limitation for them but it still made a huge difference in gameplay.   I think they also had some stupid shit restricting you from getting phat lewts by killing bosses repeatedly.  As others said the static maps were a bit of a problem too.

Yeah agreed on all this -- though one advantage of the game not being an online multiplayer thing was that you could mod the crap out of everything without much concern. By the later patches I would play with mods to increase drops, because they had reduced them to a truly not-fun degree. As for bosses, I'm pretty sure it worked like Diablo, where your first kill gets you better loot, and then it gets bumped down to a lower plateau of loot -- but doesn't move any further from that point on.

I agree that static maps were a major issue, but I can't say that the randomness of maps in Diablo 2 was actually what kept me replaying the game -- I mean, that seems a bit farfetched, and I replayed the crap out of TQ. I'll take 32+ distinct class combinations over random maps anyday for replayability, since for me the replayability of a Diablo clone is all about trying new character builds.

And finally, if anyone wants to jazz up their TQ experience with that whole 'killing a whole lot of mobs' I suggest looking for 4x or 8x mods, which pretty much do what you might expect in terms of mob numbers -- including bosses.

[Murgos]

Rumor going around that external Beta testing will start/be announced on August 1.

Apparently, the press is invited to a Diablo III event to discuss the beta at the end of July with an embargo on news learned at the event that lifts Aug 1.

e: Living up to the thread title ITT.

[apocrypha]

Someone who appears to be a Blizzard insider has leaked a long Q&A about Diablo 3 here.

That's the Google cache since the original was pulled in under 24 hours. No guarantee how legit the info is or if the rapid yanking of it makes it seem more or less credible, but it's an interesting read anyway, if you like that kind of thing.

[Malakili]

Even if that is all 100% legit its kind of uninteresting to me.  Not really anything we couldn't have guessed ourselves aside from a few specifics that are effectively unimportant.

[birdsguts]

I dunno the PVP bit and the reverse time spell, if true, are pretty interesting to me. It gives you a window into how far they are going with the spells this go around. Pretty interesting. The PVP version of the teleport too. Clone.

[Simond]

Yes, lots. Why do you think Animation has taken off like it has now that 3d is acceptable vs hand-drawn & painted cells over static backgrounds. 

Pixar made some great movies and all of the other studios started thinking as long as their movie was 3d it would be just as successful?

Not just Pixar/Dreamworks-style animation. Basically all 'traditional' animation is CGI nowadays; in fact, I don't think anyone actually makes animation cels any more.

[FieryBalrog]

  The loot was the most authentic part of torchlight.   What exactly did you find wrong with it?

The fact that is was all about enchanting and not about finding anything?

Or the fact that you got way too much of the generic stuff- a complaint that also applies to a lesser degree to Diablo 2 single player.

But my main problem with Torchlight is that its just fucking Diablo 2 in cartoon world. Its an almost slavish recreation by people who really liked making Diablo 2 the first time around. The problem is I played that game already, and it was better (more varied environments, better loot, better bosses, more classes, multiplayer, and at least a decent story with cinematics).

Although Torchlight definitely scores on the pet!

Seriously though, was there a need to keep in the archaic identify scroll mechanic? Or how about the exciting townportal->spam buy potionz->drink mad potionz gameplay that plagued D2 as an action game? Stuff like that just tells me they were barely even thinking about the formula, and were just trying to hash out a quick knockoff of their own game (of course, the Schaefers were not the only ones responsible for Diablo 2, something that often gets overlooked).

[Typhon]

Clicking in here hoping to see some Diablo 3 news (and not more pissing from people who don't even like Diablo-style games) and, instead, getting more on the off-topic Torchlight conversation (from someone who doesn't really seem to like Diablo-style games) - two weeks after the most recent post and a month and a half after the post you are responding to...  well it's just disappointing.

[Malakili]

Clicking in here hoping to see some Diablo 3 news (and not more pissing from people who don't even like Diablo-style games) and, instead, getting more on the off-topic Torchlight conversation (from someone who doesn't really seem to like Diablo-style games) - two weeks after the most recent post and a month and a half after the post you are responding to...  well it's just disappointing.

There is supposedly some big announcement coming August 1, so I don't think anything interesting will come up until then.

[Paelos]

I'm pretty sure every time we bump this thing with nothing new, Yegolev dies a little inside.

[Teleku]

If that we're true he'd be 6 feet in the ground by now.

[Yegolev]

I'm pretty sure every time we bump this thing with nothing new, Yegolev dies a little inside.

I'm considering locking this thread until August 1.

Also:

[Sheepherder]

I'm pretty sure every time we bump this thing with nothing new, Yegolev dies a little inside.

He and Schild are weeping on each other's shoulders as we speak.

[Yegolev]

[TheWalrus]

I've not seen that Bale. Thats hilarious.

[Yegolev]

He has seen you and thinks the same.

[Amaron]

I'll just post this here.



Note the url.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, odds are beta gets announced sometime in the next month.

[Musashi]

Delicious.

[K9]

[Outlawedprod]

There is a rumor all over the internets that there will be some type of real money auction house.

[kildorn]

There is a rumor all over the internets that there will be some type of real money auction house.

The bullet seemed to say two AH systems, one normal, and one where you paid and got real money for items, and blizz takes a cut.

That seems... really really odd.

[Paelos]

There's no way that's true. Of course, I said that when rumors said Blizzard was revamping the WoW old world...

[Amaron]

That would pretty much guarantee a no buy from me.

[NiX]

There's no way that's true. Of course, I said that when rumors said Blizzard was revamping the WoW old world...

This rumor stems from a beta leak. See screenshots below:

[Ratman_tf]

 

[Amaron]

We've seen doctored screens for Blizz stuff before but that's pretty bad looking.  Maybe enough screaming prior to release will get it removed.

[Hawkbit]

If it's real, and if it's this far into development, then no.  I doubt any amount of tears will stop it. 

But I have a hard time fathoming how they're going to balance their precious arenas when players can buy gear.  Seems counter-intuitive from Blizzard's stance in the past.

[Velorath]

If it's real, and if it's this far into development, then no.  I doubt any amount of tears will stop it. 

But I have a hard time fathoming how they're going to balance their precious arenas when players can buy gear.  Seems counter-intuitive from Blizzard's stance in the past.

If they're getting a cut from the sales, there's a little less incentive for them to balance it.

[Velorath]

And it looks like they're going the Ubisoft route with the "you always have to be online to play" DRM.

Remember when you first heard stuff like how either Steam or StarCraft 2 require you to be online for authentication purposes? That the process to play or utilize either service offline can be a bit circuitous, but at least it's still possible to be offline. But, Diablo 3 differs in that you must be online to play at all -- not just for authentication.

Executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo notes that the wealth of improvements and features Diablo 3 brings to Battle.net necessitate the always-online requirement. Specific additions that he refers to include:

A persistent friends list.

Cross-game chat via the RealID system.

Persistent characters that are stored server-side (no more having to play online once every 90 days, nor item duplication cheats).

Persistent party system.

Player-versus-player and public game matchmaking.

Dynamic drop-in/out for co-op

Larger item stash that gets shared among all of your characters (at the moment, up to 10)

The auction house, outlined here.

The Achievement system and detailed stat-tracking, both of which feed into the final point:

The Banner system, a visual way to display your prowess in the game. Banners start out like emblems, where you can choose from an array of symbols, patterns, and overall shape/design. Then, you can tweak its appearance through Achievements and other accomplishments. Examples Pardo cites include whether the character is in Hardcore mode, how many Achievements have been earned, how many PVP victories, and so forth. Additionally, the Banners also have gameplay features; in-game, rather than use Town Portal, you can click on a player's Banner to instantly teleport over to said player.

While Pardo recognizes that people sometimes want or need to play offline (such as internet outages, or playing on a laptop during an airplane flight), he notes that the increased security, plus benefits like the above, outweigh those other concerns. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that."

Edit: Also, AH stuff is confirmed.

[Reg]

I can't believe that Blizzard has gone ahead and used up all of the goodwill they've generated in decades of game making.  Unless something changes, I don't see myself buying this game.

[Evildrider]

Well at least with that AH thing going, I won't have to worry about the Chinese farmers in SWTOR!  

[Azuredream]

he notes that the increased security, plus benefits like the above, outweigh those other concerns.

No. Fuck you.

[Velorath]

he notes that the increased security, plus benefits like the above, outweigh those other concerns.

No. Fuck you.

In other words, they need everyone's characters stored online because hacking and duping would fuck up their new real money Auction House.


Edit: To be honest I'm finding this all kinda funny.  For weeks a ton of people have been getting excited that there was a press embargo on some Diablo 3 news that would be lifted on August 1st, which most people assumed would be the announcement of the beta.  So come 12:01am PST all the obsessive Diablo fans are F5'ing various news sites only to be rewarded with news like this.

[Evildrider]

I hope this seriously bites Blizzard in the ass hard.  I don't understand how developers can even think this is a good idea.  They can't even stop gold sellers in WoW.  This is like them building a game just for them.