PC Diablo III

Prometheus

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Any Diablo fans looking forward to the launch of this? As soon as they stop making WoW patches lol
 
I am looking forward to it to be honest. I have loved every Diablo title so far so I am looking forward to getting back into another one. I just hope they have Battle Net up and its free. I doubt it though, considering how much money they made off WoW..
 
Looking forward to the release alot!
I absolutely loved the two first titles, so this one won't be any worse i hope :P
Darker and more sinister, bloody fantastic
 
well there was talk that they were going to make the gameplay like the other two title but make the environment lighter, more like WoW. I know there was a petition going around for them to redo the graphics completely and make it all darker like it should be. I'm not sure if that petition passed though. Anyone know anything about that?

oh i I highly doubt BattleNet will be free. It'll prolly be $15 a month just like WoW is. If thats the case then I prolly wont buy the game.
 
Man, I am really stoked for this game to come out. For those wondering, the game will be free! They say it on the official Diablo III site linked from Blizzard. Also, I hope the gameplay will keep to originality and SLIGHTLY blend in some things new. Too much new isn't that great....especially with a game like Diablo.



~Insanctified
 
I don't really see how they are coming up with more stuff for diablo, i mean in diablo 2, you killed mephisto, diablo, and if you had the expansion baal. What else could they possibly come up with?
 
I don't really see how they are coming up with more stuff for diablo, i mean in diablo 2, you killed mephisto, diablo, and if you had the expansion baal. What else could they possibly come up with?

Plenty of Christian devil names and such left, so I doubt they'll run out of adversaries any time soon. I don't get why some people are complaining about the look of this game being too light and "WoW-like" though. The first part of the gameplay demonstration seems to be very much in vein of the 2 first Diablo games in my opinion.
 
I'm adamently awaiting the game to come out! I cannot wait.. I was hooked ever since I played Diablo 1 on an old friends computer. Ever since, I was hooked on everything Diablo. Lol.

Ansem Casto said:
oh i I highly doubt BattleNet will be free. It'll prolly be $15 a month just like WoW is. If thats the case then I prolly wont buy the game.

I read something somewhere from Blizzard I thought that assured us fans that it would indeed be free. And even though this is off topic, I heard Starcraft 2 was going to remain free as well, so it wouldn't surprise me if they left it free. Maybe they'll keep their word?

I don't really see how they are coming up with more stuff for diablo, i mean in diablo 2, you killed mephisto, diablo, and if you had the expansion baal. What else could they possibly come up with?

I hear Belial or Azmodan's going to get to join in. Besides, there's other lesser evils that could be added into future Diablo games as well as other Christian devils like Sir Kenneth mentioned.
 
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Yeh

I am looking forward to it, but like Gotenks said, they are running out of things to come up with. I probably won't play it if you have to pay, I just don't have the money to pay for an MMO right now.
 
This game is about to be SO beasty!
I still play diablo 2. I've beaten 3 times already too.
When I saw that clip of the gamplay.. It was a wrap!
Haha. They need to quit lagging on it!
 
I don't know what we should be expecting from D3.

They have just launched the 1.13 patch for D2. This has been the biggest dissapointment in the gaming industry ever.

1/3 of D2 characters are Paladins - 1/3 are Hammerdins (the most OP build in D2), 1/3 are Smiters, and the rest are other builds. The patch has done -nothing- to nerf smiters and/or hammerdins, except for a minor change that made hammerdins no longer ignore Magic Immune monsters. Ohbtw Magic Immunes are unbelievably few in D2. And they'll let their OP mercs that all have the same gear kill them easily. Lightning Sorcs have been nerfed, increasing the pain of Lightning Sorcs without the Infinity runeword which is impossible to make w/o duped runes and doing absolutely nothing to those who have the runeword. No changes whatsoever to the Javelin and Spear skill tree. Why does it have "and Spear" in the title? There are 2 spear-exclusive skills which ARE COMPLETELY USELESS. I wanted to make a spearzon for the next ladder season... No changes to the Martial Arts skill tree either. Dragon Talon is still OP.

NO GLITCHES AT ALL HAVE BEEN FIXED, except for "an item dupe glitch". Playing Hardcore is not an option for any players since they can be killed by other players from the safety of town due to the "Town Portal Player Kill" exploit, which is rarely used w/o a program which has a TPPK script that does it in 3~5 frames. Shoot missle, open town portal, enter town portal, declare hostility. Dead. "Drop Barbs" can still crash your game by simply being next to you. Fend and Smite are still bugged, and so are some Bow skills.
Holy Shock and Holy Fire auras can still be "stacked" so that the character who has 2 Dream runewords or 2 Dragon runewords can have as many auras as they can, instakilling anyone.

So yeah, I don't know what to expect from Blizzard.




























But from the looks of it, the game seems pretty awesome! XDDDDDD
 
Rumor: Leaked Diablo 3 promotional video shows off 'followers'



The video embedded after the break was purportedly leaked from Blizzard Entertainment's Korean arm, and shows a longer look at Diablo 3's follower system, in which players can hire characters to help them with all of the hacking and slashing. As you can see in the video, there are a few different follower classes to choose from, including Enchantress, Scoundrel and Templar. The UI screens hint that you'll be able to equip weapons and rings on these characters, as well as choose various skills for them to use at different levels.

Their appearance will also evidently change over time, though it's not clear whether that's determined simply by level, by equipment, by skills chosen or some combination of all three. Earlier builds of the game suggested you could hire more than one follower, but this glimpse shows only one at a time.

The original poster of the video on YouTube reports that Blizzard has now "officially released" it after confirming the leak, but there's no sign of it on the official website yet, and we haven't heard anything official. If we do, we'll let you know.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/12/r...motional-video-shows-off-followers/#continued
 
Is it just me or does it seem like this game is going be like WOW?

Blizzard you already destroyed SC with SC II, You killed Warcraft series with your WOW (in my opinion) Please do not kill the Diablo series by making it another WOW. This was my last hope for you guys, I havn't bought a game from you guys since Warcraft 3... played Starcraft II and WOW both I really didn't enjoy. So please... Don't kill Diablo...
 
Diablo 3 Artbook and an interesting WoW pet named Murkablo

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Various details have popped up on the internet regarding possible items that will be available with Diablo 3 Collectors Edition. For beggining, in the May issue of ImagineFX Magazine, new artwork was revealed showing Demon Hunter class. If you land your eyes on the picture below, you can notice that the armor looks more details then ever.


Also within the article, it was mentioned that Blizzard plans to release Diablo 3 artbook which possibly could be one of the goodies that will come together with the Collectors Edition of the game. Together with this, a new companion bet was added in the World of Warcraft PT Realms and his name is Murkablo which sounds familiar with Diablo's name. Now after community did alot of investigation work, it looks like this could be one of the goodies that will come together with Diablo 3 Collector Edition and will reward your WoW toon with a cool looking Diablo style pet.


 
Though I care little about Blizzard overall, Diablo II has been a good friend when I needed to kill a lot of time and has been fun. I haven't looked too closely at Diablo III buuuut I think I'll try it out later.
 
Bashiok revealed more information regarding Item upgrades, Gear sets and Cube generally.

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We wrote earlier today about some questions that Diablo's Community Manager Bashiok answered and shared with us. Now he continued answered even more questions and gave out some really cool information regarding Item upgrades, Gear sets and Diablo's Cube.

Official Blizzard Quote:


Q: Without being able to upgrade the item to the next tier, does that mean the lesser tier item is salvage garbage?

A: Right, going back to the tier thing which I believe was a misunderstanding of me referring to the visual sets. It doesn't have to do with item stats at all really, just cohesive armor looks.

There are better and better items as your progress through the difficulties and they can roll out more affixes as they go higher. So to answer your question, yes, worse items would be sold for gold, salvaged for crafting materials, or otherwise 'traded' away.

Q: So you cannot spend gold to have a merchant upgrade and stack on a better affixes?

A: You can certainly make items better, adding extra sockets, upgrading gems, adding enhancements, adding affixes, etc. But the fact of the matter is that you can do all of those same things to higher level items, so they’ll always be better.



Q: If so, why not? If a player thinks a weapon or a piece of armor looks cool and wants to keep it over an uglier yet better weapon isn’t that a kink in the fun factor?

A: We think upgrading items and changing the look of your character is fun. You could also easily slip into a feedback loop where you’re putting time and gold and effort into these items. You would very likely reach a point where you don’t want to have the same sword anymore, but could you justify swapping it out and starting over on upgrading a new weapon to get it to the same place?

There is, however, something to be said for characters at very end game, and wanting to diversify in their look beyond what’s already available, but that’s not an immediate problem and something we could potentially address if we feel it necessary.



Also Bashiok did an explanation about design changes of tier sets and when and how player will switch tiers from one to another.

Official Blizzard Quote:

[The item tiers] are distributed through difficulties with each difficulty dropping items of a specific number of visual sets. So, for instance, in Normal you may see set looks one through five dropping. In Nightmare you may see the visual sets six through ten. etc. Just an example, I'm not sure how exactly they were decided to be broken out.

Horadic/Salvage/Whatsoever Cube?

Official Blizzard Quote:

It has a name. It is not Salvage Cube. The name does include Cube, though. The name is sort of a spoiler, which is why we haven't revealed it yet.

The name of this cube might be revealed during Blizzcon 2010 when Jay Wilson named it the Nephalem Cube.

http://www.gamersbook.com/scene/news/diablo-3-items-and-gear-explained/

Update#1

Diablo 3 Randomization And Black Soulstone Concept

More info about world and dungeon randomization together with Black Soulstone concept picture that was take in the Diablo 3 section of the Blizzard's museum.

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Bashiok recently gave a clear answer regarding Diablo 3's randomization. As it seems, the exterior maps of the game will mostly be static although there will be many locations where different mini events will occure. On the other hand, dungeons will be completely randomized as we have already seen in Diablo 2 so each time you enter the Dungeon, it will provide you with an unique feeling.

Bashiok wrote: "The exterior landscape will for the most part be static, but with pockets of randomness (this doesn't include monster spawns which are still quite random). You'll always know where the towns and roads are, and know the edges of the map. We felt that exploring the exteriors to find landmarks and quest areas wasn't very compelling. It's also more productive for co-op to be able to say to a friend 'Let's meet at this shrubbery' and everyone knows how to quickly get there every time. Dungeons are more linear in the way that content is encountered, so they can be randomized quite a bit and you're not very likely to be just running around aimlessly. Iif you do hit a dead end you're at least assured you encountered plenty of battle (and thus loots) on the way.

So while the exterior is largely static, within that defined landscape there are literal square holes (from small to huge) and within those empty square holes a great number of possible pieces can be dropped in. And they're chosen randomly. So you may play a few games and always see empty terrain in the same place, but on your next playthrough you'll instead have a broken down wagon appear and a quest giver that needs you to go kill a unique fallen shaman who stole his tools to fix it. And maybe the playthrough after that the sqaure puzzle piece is a short dungeon to explore with a big chest or mini-boss at the end. Ideally it'll encourage exploration of the exterior zones over and over, hoping to find that a rewarding adventure has appeared.

Dungeons on the other hand are completely randomized, same as Diablo II.* All of the halls and rooms and all the bits are shuffled around and it's all different every time. Some of the rooms themselves will offer unique quests if they're rolled up, and in some cases individual rooms themselves have those square chunks missing and within those randomly chosen rooms a number of random events can occur.

It's a bit involved to explain, but very simple in practice (I believe some images of the square puzzle pieces were actually shown at a BlizzCon?).

*Some small "dungeons" are completely hand crafted and won't include randomization of layout at all, but these are generally things like wine cellars or other underground areas of a few rooms or less."


Together with this news, various Diablo and Blizzard fansites wrote about the "Black Soulstone Concept" that was seen in the Diablo 3 section of the Blizzard's museum. Although now it is confirmed that this Stone is part of the Diablo's lore, noone can be 100% sure to claim what it represents. Due to few people, this concept unites Diablo, Mephisto and other bosses. Help us find the answer ;)!


Under the concept art is written: Black Soulstone Concept / Bernie Kang / 2010

http://www.gamersbook.com/scene/news/diablo-3-randomization-and-black-soulstone-concept/
 
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Blizzard Posted More Info About Diablo 3 Monk Class

New details about Monks revealed directly by Blizzard Entertainment

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Blizzard's Community Manager Bashiok posted many new details regarding Diablo 3's unique Monk class and his resource system named Spirit. During the BlizzCon 2009 event, when this unique class was shown for the very first time, almost none new information was published. Till now ! ;)

Q: Does spirit naturally deplete after not being used for some time?

A: Spirit is static. It doesn’t regenerate, and it doesn’t degenerate. Punching demons and using melee skills builds Spirit, and most monk skills spend it.

Q: Is it true the Monk’s auras function more like the Barbarian‘s war cries now?

A: The barbarian shouts are powerful, limited duration buffs that you must re-cast once they wear off. Monk auras are permanently active until you enable a different aura, or die.

Edited A: I'm sorry, I'm dumb, auras are not permanent. That was old info. They're short, powerful buffs. They can absolutely be runed. Like all skills.

Q: Will the UI allow for keeping track of which combo you’re on? His combo skills are really exciting but I’m worried it’ll become too much of a chore playing the entire game counting out my attacks in sequences of 3. It would be unfortunate to unleash a 2nd tier hundred hand attack at range expecting to dash forward because you miscounted.

A: We don’t want tracking of combo stages to be so important that there needs to be a UI element to keep track. It should be that if you’re up on your game you’re tracking combo stages and it helps you get a slight edge, but if not you’re kicking ass anyway and will probably do fine. Also, we have made changes to skills so they’re consistent; such as making all stages capable of a dash. We don’t want the situation you’ve described to be an issue.

Q: Do charges expire, or can I hold onto my level 3 charge until I want to unleash it?

A: It will reset after a time, but it’s a good amount of time.

Q: I think what Bashiok means is that if the first part of 100Fists was a dash, then the second and third parts would also include a dash.

A: The final stage on combo skills is still usually the powerful topper. I was specifically referring to a movement component not being tied to a specific stage of a combo skill (if it exists). There is some spreading out of mechanics to ensure really important pieces like movement and damage mitigation can’t be ‘missed’ because you counted wrong. But doing damage is doing damage, for the most part, so big combo finishers still very much exist on the third stage.

Q: What about shouts and armors?

A: The Diablo III barbarian has only ever had one true shout, and a couple others which have similar limited duration buffs. But, multiply that by 5 for runes and we have 15 shouts, compared to Diablo II’s ... six? I think.

Granted every rune doesn’t change the mechanic of the shout, but most do. We’ve covered most if not all the Diablo II Warcry tree shout skills through rune effects.


http://www.gamersbook.com/scene/news/blizzard-posted-more-info-about-diablo-3-monk-class/

Update#1

Diablo community manager "Bashiok" has once again taken to the official Diablo III forums to address questions about follower mechanics, class resources, item colors, armor variety, and more.

On followers being a waste of development time:
I don't mean any offense, but you don't represent the majority of people that will play the game. For better or worse. People here, logging in with their Diablo II keys to talk about an unreleased product - - on an essentially hidden forum - - do not represent the vast majority of people that will play the game. Which doesn't mean we don't want the game to appeal to you or be a lasting game you'll want to play as long as you played Diablo II, it very much is our intent to be, but we have a broad range of Diablo fans to appeal to.

Looking at Diablo II the amount of people that bought the game, never logged on to Battle.net, and never went beyond Normal are not insignificant. In fact, they're a substantial portion of the people that bought copies throughout the life of the game. The same goes for StarCraft II. Many (maybe most) people play through the story on normal difficulty, they MAY jump into multiplayer for a bit, and then that's about it. Putting effort into ensuring their experience is a solid one is not a waste of time because some other people completely skip the story and go straight to the 1v1 ladder.

Followers fit in with that 'average' use of games very well, but their intent is to also help people expand beyond their initial intent of beating it on Normal, and then shelving the game. If the followers can get a player excited about co-op because they like playing with another character, that's a win. We also think they just add a lot to the experience up front, which is important.

And, they're memorable characters. I don't think the scope of who these people are needs to end because their health doesn't scale so we can ensure the end-game is pure and there's less visual noise in multiplayer games. We don't have any plans for them beyond what we've announced, but, I wouldn't be surprised if they became meaningful in other ways in the future. Even if they're not, if someone enjoyed playing along with them, enjoyed the dialog, and liked what they add to the single player experience (which is pretty significant) then that's not a waste of time.

...

Normal is super easy. It's intentionally super easy. You will die, but you can essentially slap on gear and not think too much about it, and probably beat the game without too much trouble. There will be many people though that will get a good amount of damage and utility by keeping their follower along. But, realistically people aren't going to actively refuse the help of a follower as they play through the game the first time.

I can beat the game on normal without gemming any items. That doesn't mean gems are a waste of time as a system. One happens to be required more at higher difficulties, one happens to be more useful and fun when playing alone in Normal. There's nothing that says all of our mechanics have to be useful at all times through all difficulties and classes or else it's a waste of time, and in fact, that'd probably make things super boring.

...

Followers were originally going to be available during co-op, and actually are right now because of a bug in the current build we're playing. And it's crazy. If you're unfortunate enough to also have a witch doctor, it's insanity. Eight characters running around plus all of the potential pets. It's complete chaos. That's the biggest reason they aren't going to be available outside of single player.

We also love that they're these strong, vocal, named characters that have a place and point in the world. They have objectives, they have opinions, and when you're by yourself it's awesome. They'll chime in and offer a comment on something, and it just does that much more to bring the world to life. But, in a co-op game, we all pick the Templar, and all of a sudden there's this character in the world cloned four times, with the same voice, saying the same things... and it gets real weird real fast. Also they do tend to talk a bit, and having four followers all piping in at different times can be pretty annoying when you're trying to talk with your friends.

There is actually the situation where you can have a follower and then re-run the quest where you pick them up, which could be a little weird, but we have some creative solutions we think keep that specific paradox from unraveling the spacetime continuum.

Followers have been a feature and we've known who these characters were going to be since before we announced the game, and while they haven't been in active testing that entire time, we're pretty well informed in how we feel they'll play out best. Of course, iteration is the name of the game. I don't really see the current plan changing, personally, but I'd be willing to be wrong. I just don't see a potential for (clean) alternative options outweighing the pretty massive negatives that these rules correct.​
On followers being in the single player game only:
It encourages co-op by giving people that are going to be playing the game alone from the start many of the thoughts and process that go into playing with another person. Seeing someone else on screen. Thinking about their items and skills. Hearing them talk. That all sounds silly from a lot of our perspectives, because, we all play co-op and who needs a primer? Well, a lot of people, and that's where this encourages co-op. More people playing co-op means more people in a mindset of an online community, and that has many far reaching benefits for all players.

True, if you want to hear every line of follower dialogue and really toy around with them you'll need to play by yourself. I think though you'll have plenty of time when your friends are not online to load up an alt character you solo with, and hear all of Lyndon's biting puns.

...

Followers will not stay alive easily past Normal, and if they're not alive you aren't going to be getting their bonuses. I'm sure people will try to game this, and ideally they will fail. If not we will ensure followers are not part of the end-game MF equation. They are not intended to be, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure they cannot be.

...

Because it's not much of an investment. Again, it's really only going to be useful for Normal. The items you find and give them you can easily remove and salvage. Respecs for them are going to be cheap. There's no upkeep cost for them. It's just not a real investment (aside from emotional... that Enchantress! /swoon)​
On followers, again:
Well, followers are essentially a flavor bonus to those playing through normal the first time by themselves. It provides some story elements, but more importantly it gets the idea in their head of playing with another person. You come across each of them pretty quickly in Act 1, and then they help you throughout the rest of the game if you'd like. They aren't required to beat the game on Normal, even if you're playing by yourself. Feel free to leave them behind if you like. But they are pretty awesome.

They're also tuned so that they become very weak starting in Nightmare, and then are completely unusable in Hell. Even if you're playing alone, you will probably not be using Followers past Normal - - you can try but they're going to just be one-shot back to back. They're there as a bit of flavor, to help get people into the mindset of co-op if they're a bit reluctant, and... that's about it. They won't be usable at end-game, and they'll never replace the abilities and power that another player can bring.

...

Followers are for solo-players in Normal and maybe into Nightmare. That's it. If you have a friend to play with you won't even be able to bring them with you.

...

Normal is not hard. You don't need a follower. I think they're cool and why not bring them along. They're essentially wandering DoTs most of the time (that talk). From a mechanic perspective I don't know why any level headed person would refuse to take them. (maybe though that's why this is an issue for you... ;)

On the note of eating crow, a lot of people yesterday were really upset that followers were going to be required for the entire game (somehow based off a video of Act 1 Normal it was able to be discerned how the entire game would be balanced). Then there were quite a few people defending it and trying to make sense of a video without any context. Both people were wrong in their arguments, thus, that's why I said that.​
On class ability resources:
Wizard uses Arcane Power which regenerates quickly on it's own, and has a finite cap. The witch doctor has Mana which regenerates slowly, and uses skills to actively recover it. They're fairly similar in concept but the fast regen of Arcane Power plays well into the burstyness of the wizard.

The demon hunter resource is still under wraps, although the basic premise has been talked about quite a bit.​
On item colors:
Runes: Purple
Legendary Items: Orange
Rare Items: Yellow
Set Items: Green (Set items and Lore items are also green, but these are not equippable in D3.)
Magical Items: Blue
Normal Items: White
Junk Items: Gray


...

That looks correct except sets are not their own item type.

Legendaries can be a part of a set and have set bonuses. There's no separate item type for sets. They're all orange.

(Quest and lore items are green.)​
On the results of their internal testing:
Well, I can say from feedback and testing we've made the decision to pull the Talisman from the initial release of the game.

It was a cool idea at its core, but right now it's just really too basic and doesn't provide anything you can't get from the armor and weapons you're equipping. It requires a lot of the player to invest time and energy into finding and storing yet another type of item just to add player stats. When they do all that, it's just to do something pretty boring that they can already do with awesome things like armor and weapons. Originally the Talisman had a much deeper design, but it proved very ambitious and it got whittled down over the years to a very basic +stat per single square. We like simplicity in our designs, but charms became superfluous in their purpose.

We really like the core idea, but we don't want to stop everything and spend a large amount of time trying to fix the Talisman, although we do have some great ideas already. So, it'll very likely come back in some form or another after the game ships. And be awesome.​
On the variety of armor:
Diablo 2 did not have 15 [tiers]. It had 5. And those were mostly recolored versions of each other with extra pieces stuck on to make them look different.

Not to knock Diablo 2. The number of looks it had are amazing considering what it took to render them out.

...

I don't think this is being compared accurately to what Diablo II or even other games offer as far as visual upgrades to a character. 18 tiers, times 5 classes, times 8 armor slots is 720 unique pieces of armor in Diablo III. That's not counting weapons, or alterations to make each armor piece fit both genders. Oh, and right, the dozen or so different colors you can dye each of those pieces.

I also hope this isn't being confused with actual diversity in item drops. You're still going to be finding tons of items with varying quality levels and stats, but the best are going to always be pushing your character's aesthetic 'impressiveness' forward.

...

Numbers-wise, yes, absolutely Diablo II had more "unique looks" per act. From a viewpoint of actually considering what's available in Diablo III, we've got a ton more items for you to find, and they're all unique, and amazing looking.​
And on rune effects:
The Diablo III barbarian has only ever had one true shout, and a couple others which have similar limited duration buffs. But, multiply that by 5 for runes and we have 15 shouts, compared to Diablo II's ... six? I think.

Granted every rune doesn't change the mechanic of the shout, but most do. We've covered most if not all the Diablo II Warcry tree shout skills through rune effects.​
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103559-diablo-iii-forum-activity-lots-of-follower-discussion.html
 
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Latest Blizzard Insider talks a bit about Diablo III’s upcoming beta

In the latest issue of Blizzard Insider, Blizzard has let lose on a few Diablo III beta details, most of which are already known thanks to a press event not long ago, but there’s some interesting bits in there as well. Pity these interesting tidbits don’t announce a date for the beta. It’s rumored to be sometime in September, with the firm itself confirming during its recent investors call that it would happen during the quarter. Thanks, EvilAvatar.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/06/latest-blizzard-insider-talks-a-bit-about-diablo-iii%E2%80%99s-upcoming-beta/
 
Diablo III Collector’s Edition announced, full game free for WoW subs

Blizzard’s announced the collector’s edition of Diablo III at the opening ceremony of Blizzcon tonight.

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It’ll contain:

  • The Art of Diablo III
  • Collector’s Edition Soundtrack
  • Two-Disc Behind the Scenes DVD/Blu-ray boxset
  • Diablo Skull and 4Gb USB Soulstone
In-game items include Aesthetic Artifects, a Fetish Sharman pet for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II Battle.Net portraits.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime also announced that subscribers of the also just-announced WoW Annual Pass will get the full game for free.

A cinematic scene from the campaign of Diablo III, called “The Black Soulstone,” was introduced by Blizzard’s Chris Metzen. As of yet, there’s been no date other than “it’ll be done when it’s done,” according to the VP.



BlizzCon 2011: Diablo III panels touch upon consoles, Book of Cain, gameplay, random dungeons


Blizzard held Diablo III panels today at BlizzCon, which focused on the lore in the RPG, and well as the game’s Auction House, gameplay mechanics,

skills, and crafting.

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Random Dungeons

Before we get into the nitty gritty of the panel Q&A, one interesting thing noted, was that the majority of dungeons in Diablo III will be random – something mentioned briefly during BlizzCon 2010.

“A change from Diablo II to Diablo III, is that there’s quite a bit more story moments in the dungeons themselves, so in a completely random dungeon, as in one that rolls randomly out in the world, very often you’ve got a unique entry point, say the Isle of Ragnar,” offered lead content designer Kevin Martens.

“There’s a guy named Boltar who’s a treasure hunter, he gets into these old ruins and can’t get through on his own. So it’s an escort mission, and it concludes at the end on it’s own. There’s random dungeon in between, but there’s a set starting location and a set final room and the question concludes.”

“In other locations, like you’ll see in beta, we have some levels that have very little randomness, like the Templar levels. You acquire the Templar on that level, he’s got his little story moments and an open room, but even in there we have some randomness in between the start and the final room.”

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Angels and the Book of Cain

During the panel, VP of creative development Chris Metzen announced that an eight page preview of the Book of Cain, which is full of Diablo III backstory, lore and art, has been released online by the book’s publisher, Insight Editions.

According to Metzen, the team at Blizzard was in need of a way to streamline the various stories and plots in the Diablo universe, as it was developed across numerous writers, games and books. As the team delved deeper into Diablo III development, the need to organize new ideas and concepts was great in order to build continuity in the game. Thus, the idea of the Book of Cain was born.

While those who read Book of Cain will not come across any major world changes, some have been made to the lore, and Metzen hoped some of the purests wouldn’t get too upset. Other goodies of note in the book, and the game, will have an extended focus on the Angels and not just the Demons. The Diablo universe is an eternal conflict between High Heavens and Burning Hells over the Worldstone , so it only made sense to include both sides.

In Diablo II, Angels were in control over Pandemonium, where the Worldstone, also known as The Eye of Anu, exists. It can be used to create worlds without end, and control over the Worldstone is ultimately the reason behind the war between the High Heavens and Burning Hells.

Different sides hold the area over different times, as the Angels and Demons power waxes and wanes, and the different forces will build over time and in a larger capacity than in Diablo II.

The lore panel went on to discuss the various Angels present in the lore, and how each one relates to the World of Sanctuary, and the Demons were touched upon as well.

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New areas to Sanctuary

Metzen went on to show off new areas for Sanctuary, such as Caldeum, the Jewel of the East, where a child emperor rules from the throne and struggling for survival. Lucky for him, the mercenary group from Diablo II, the Iron Wolves, were protecting him for a bit alongside the Zakarum priests, but now the former have been kicked out of the palace and replaced by new guards.

Caldeum is also the “trading center of the world,” and the hub has three major groups making their home there, each vying for a slice of power in some way shape or form. The town will have its rich and poor areas.

The Dahlgur Oasis, a farming region for Caldeum and rich with water, was also shown, full of palm trees, and it contrasts with the harsh desert areas players will encounter in Act 2 of the game.

Blizzard went on to say in the panel that areas seen in Diablo II won’t be visited again, as Diablo III consists of almost all new areas.

“We started in new Tristram to set the early tone and theme and memory. And for new players it brings in the history,” said Martens. “But while events are in the regions as the same, but the levels are different. Same with the Barbarian lands around the Arreat Crater. Same, but changed so much it’s not recognizable.”

If you are a major Diablo lore buff, you’ll want to read over the transcript posted on IncGamers.

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The Auction House

During a panel on gameplay, lead designer Jay Wilson touched briefly upon the game’s Auction House.

According to Wilson, auctions have been tweaked for use of both Smart and Advanced searches, and player will be able to purchase and sell items like.

Gold, gemstones, pages, crafting items, and dyes were just some of the examples highlighted as stackable goods.

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Working on a console control scheme

While there is still no official word on a console version of Diablo III, Wilson did speak a bit about the potential behind the possibility. According to him, the team’s new hires looking into a console version, are testing how the controls would be implemented.

“The movement actually feels better on the controller,” Wilson said, and admitted that at the moment, “targeting is the issue,” being faced. Apparently, most of the schemes derived for choosing what to attack and loot require a reticule, which is something the team is not very fond of doing.

“Monster distribution and AI also feels a little bit different than it does on the PC version,” Wilson admitted.

Wilson said Blizzard “want to announce,” a console version until “we’re sure,” because “if it goes on a console,” it can’t compromise the PC game in any way, and should “feel like it was built for the console.”

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Crafting

As mentioned on more than one occasion since announced, crafting items in Diablo III will be preformed by three different Artisan NPCs.

The crafters will create items with a longer lifespan than ones put together in Diablo II, and will be able to create, enhance, and salvage items which you can then sell in the Auction House.

Here’s the crafters and what each one does, courtesy of G4:
The Mystic: The Mystic enchances items, those enhancements are random, but they can help you create aberrant builds, like a Demon Hunter with a one-handed shield and an axe (no ranged weapons. The Mystic also have 10 levels that they can advance through.

The Jeweler: The jeweler can combine gems (there are 14 different ranks of gems), add sockets to items, and can remove gems from items, allowing you to change armor and weapons dramatically. The Jeweler also levels up as you progress.

The Blacksmith: The Blacksmith can craft items from the raw materials you provide to them, and can eventually even create Legendary and Unique set items from recipes.

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Skills and difficulty levels

Skills will be more visual this time out, according to G4.
For example, Demon Hunters will have a bat which flies alongside and fights enemies. With the Barbarian , the class can summon the Ancients from Diablo II with the Call of the Ancients skill. The Ancients will fight with the Barbarian in a spectral form.

Enemies have been given visual skill revamps as well. One such change is the Goat Shaman who’s lightning shield can will reflect damage back onto you, or summon giant worms from the ground which will swallow you whole and spit you back out with extra damage dealt.

Blizzard is also looking to revamp players ability to swap skills, which would result less hot-swapping during combat.

As far as the game’s difficult level is concerned, Normal is the lowest level available. So, no “easy” mode.

Act I of the game will be the tutorial, where the monsters present have a low attack rate and awareness level. Also, in Normal mode, 70% of the game’s in-game items won’t be available – so this is something you may wish to consider when choosing a difficulty level.

Player abilities will also be limited in Act I, but as the Acts progress, the areas and the monsters will be more challenging.

As each difficulty progresses, and challenges get harder, by the time players reach Hell, Rare and Champion monsters will have up to four different powers.

Since the game also contains various customization options, there are many, many builds available in the game. Blizzard said at present, there are over 2.8 trillion possible in the game.

The studio also mentioned that followers will be end-game viable, which should make those who prefer to play solo, rather pleased.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/22/bli...nsoles-book-of-cain-gameplay-random-dungeons/
 
Diablo III features around 15,000 lines of spoken dialogue

BlizzCon 2011′s Sound Panel session offered a revealing look at the work that goes into aurally caressing your ear lobes

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At BlizzCon 2011, Blizzard revealed that Diablo 3 will feature between 13,000 – 16,000 lines of dialogue, with each of the character classes weighing in at 1,200 lines each and a number of speaking roles for NPCs. By comparison, both StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft featured around 3,000 lines of spoken dialogue.

Blizzard also talked of the more subtle use of acoustics through music and sound effects, for which the Diablo series has long been known and praised. To ensure that combat sounds remain fresh throughout all of that clicking you’ll be doing, Diablo 3′s character skills have been broken down into three component parts: a casting phase, an in-action loop and a final impact. Randomised effects will be applied to each of these phases to help increase the variety of sounds heard throughout the game.

The panel suggested that the first act of Diablo 3 will feature a homage to the orchestral melodies of Matt Uelmen, composer on Diablo 1 and 2, who left Blizzard in 2007.

Diablo III launches for PC and Mac next year, further coverage of this year’s BlizzCon event can be found elsewhere on the site.

Thanks, GameFront.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/11/01/dia...d-15000-lines-of-spoken-dialogue/#more-213344
 
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