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[Diablo 3] New info. Beta gameplay and real money auction house.
Skab
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Classes!
(portraits link to official info)
Newest Info
New official runestone page: http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/runestones.xml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7AD8KlTLCo
The big list of what we know so far
- Set 20 years after the events of Diablo 2.
- Diablo will be returning. Belial confirmed to be present in Act 2.
- Four Acts, three difficulty settings like Diablo 2. Dev team shooting for a longer game than Diablo 2.
- Male and Female versions of each class.
- Armor Dyes! 15 different colors, applies to certain sections of armor. Some rarer and harder to find than others.
- Potion bar removed, replaced with small (1 - 5) hotkey bar. Can now also set 3 skills to mouse. RMB, LMB and a button switching between two RMB skills.
- Mobs now drop Health orbs. Walking over one replenishes a fixed amount of health depending on which type/size (small/med/large etc) you collect. Bosses drop them at certain points during fights.
- Potions still around but not chugable like in D2. They now have a cooldown (~8 secs currently)
- Elixirs are back! Provide a 300 second bonus to that stat. Multiple ranks.
- Inventory system is 1x1 or 1x2 per item; still working with a finite space.
- Interactive environments!
- A much larger world to explore! Here's a world map.
- Town portal scrolls as they were in the past are gone, but apparently are currently around in some form or another. ID scrolls are still around, and we also get Scrolls of Wealth, which let you instantly sell items anywhere.
- Multiple kills yield combos for bonus experience!
- No manual stat allocation.
- Level cap is 60.
- Respecs!
- Diablo 2 runes/runewords are gone. Runes are now skill runes, which you socket into your active skills to change their properties/behaviors.
- Skill trees are gone. Active skills are now ranked into teirs which are simply unlocked by leveling, and you choose 7 active skills from your pool of available skills to use in your build. Passive skills are known as Traits and are a separate set of skills all together. You gain a Trait point ever other level, and Traits can have 1, 3, or 5 points put into them, depending on the Trait.
- Shared Stash.
- PVP is now done via the PVP Arenas system. See Here and video here
- Gems now work similar to how runes did in D2, minus the Runewords. There are 14 gem levels - only the first 5 levels ever drop, anything else must be made by a Jeweler [ url]http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/data/570/gem_levels.png[/url]
- Runes are now Skill Runes. See here.
- Crafting is an actual crafting system now, which uses the Artisans. The Artisans are people (Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Mystic) who join you on your quest as you progress through the game, usually after saving/helping them. (Think how we got Cain in D2.) See spoiler below for more info and a vid.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlTu2yCdkCIDiablo III Caravan FAQ
Q: What is the caravan?
A: The caravan is a persistent group that follows the heroes across Sanctuary, providing a centralized hub for players to find quest givers, crafters, and other important NPCs. As your character moves through the world so too will your loyal band, setting up in specific locations to remain close by should you need them.
Q: Who are the artisans?
A: In order to access the professions in Diablo III, you’ll need to gain the loyalty of various artisans through your travels in Sanctuary. The blacksmith, mystic, and jeweler will each provide unique services over the course of the game.
Q: What do the artisans offer?
A: Skilling up your artisans will unlock unique recipes, granting your character access to benefits that may not be found anywhere else in the world. The blacksmith crafts weapons and armor, and can add sockets to some items. The mystic creates scrolls, potions, magical weapons, spell runes, and charms, and can also enchant items. The jeweler crafts gems , amulets, and rings. The jeweler can also remove gems from socketed items and can combine gems to improve their quality.
Q: How do I find the artisans?
A: Finding the artisans will be part of the main quest. Each artisan has been fleshed out to include their own story and quest line.
Q: How do I use the artisans?
A: You’ll collect loot as a reward for slaughtering the forces of the Burning Hells. Unwanted items can be salvaged in your inventory, converting these goods into raw crafting materials—higher-level items are salvaged into higher-level materials. You’ll then take those raw materials and hand them over to the artisans, putting them to work crafting or enchanting for you. Upon returning to the caravan after a lengthy foray, you may also find that the artisans have been hard at work plying their trade for your benefit.
Q: How do I salvage my items?
A: Players will find an item while progressing through the main quest that will allow them to convert unwanted gear into crafting materials from the inventory. This item will not take up any inventory space. This should be a more satisfying option for offloading unwanted loot than the alternative—dropping things on the ground or making frequent trips to a vendor.
Q: Why are you including crafting professions in an action game?
A: Professions add depth to the item collection gameplay that drives the action of Diablo III. We want to provide players with an alternative way to acquire gear, potions, and other randomly found items. We also want to provide additional forms of customization for players—adding jewels, enchants, or sockets to existing gear allows players to further tailor their characters. Many rare crafting recipes and materials are only found as world drops, enhancing the item acquisition process by increasing the diversity of items dropped by monsters.
![http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/data/570/gem_levels.png[/url]](http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/data/570/gem_levels.png[/url]){kind=link}
Media
Screens
Gameplay (Blizzcon '10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmB140BKPII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6553gm0mBw
Wizard, Monk, and Demon Hunter Trailers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31VpcWV2R9E&NR=1&feature=fvwp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTRK6t8ZXn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WByqPqwBrzs
(If I missed something, let me know.)
Skab on
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Posts
... also, because of the stupid work PC speaker, the woman speaking right now sounds like she belongs in The Peanuts cartoons. "WAH WAH WAH WAH." ".... what?"
Call?
Blizzard/Activision Conference Call
http://investor.activision.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=96008
It's an activision/blizzard quarterly results conference call.
It is literally a business conference call.
When they get to the diablo 3 stuff you'll hear.
Eh. It's mostly boring financial crap anyway, so you are really not missing much.
Edit:
Pretty much this.
I'll post shit when its announced since I'm bored and listening anyway though. So just watch the thread if you don't want to listen.
No that's me being tired. Thanks :P
Are they planning on talking about it? I mean, is it normal to talk about upcoming games in a quarterly results report call?
Edit: Also, some of the info in the OP is out of date. No item binding anymore, and the stat system is revamped.
"targetting Q3 for external beta testing of D3."
"Do not have an official release date or window yet but still pushing for this year."
Q3 starts in July, right?
Too bad blizzard q3 means november or december or beyond.
Pretty sure it's no where near that late in the year. July - Sept, if I recall.
Quoting myself since I got botp and this is worth knowing.
Even more glad to hear that they're finally officially admitting to aim for a release this year. 8 months to go and I funding just became available due to ME3 being pushed to Q1 2012.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
For Diablo 3, I want my first time playing it to be on launch with the real deal, rather than a limited experience where I'm replaying act 1 over and over for 3 months or something.
How so?
Say beta hits in July. It could only last 3 months, and the game could release in October.
D3 isn't going to need a very long beta. It isn't like, say, Starcraft 2 where it's going to require a huge amount of balance testing.
Edit: Maybe it would be possible if Q3 actually ended up meaning July, but I kind of doubt that.
Sadly pretty much everything you just said is unlikely or wrong.
The beta will last longer than three months, I suspect. It partially depends on how big of a deal they want to make the whole arena thing, but that remains to be seen. I'd prefer it was just a side feature that didn't require any real balancing; but my experience with WoW tells me otherwise. I have no doubt that we'll see endless nerfs and buffs that effect the actual game, purely for the purpose of balancing the shitty arena thing. No, I suspect the beta will last much longer, and primarily due to this "feature". Gee, I wonder where I stand on that subject?
Will it require SC2 levels of testing, or even WoW patch/xpack levels of testing? Probably not. But I still don't expect it to be busted out that quickly.
On top of that, this is blizzard. If they're trying to start the beta in Q3 which is Jul-Sept, the chances of it starting before sept are inordinately low. The chances of it starting before Q4 are low. Particularly when it sounds like they've just now started company wide internal testing.
Granted, we live in the day of launch day major patches so the beta can keep going for a long time after the game goes gold, but that still only buys them a bit of time to push the game out faster.
Even when you take away the history of Blizzard and game releases, you have to realize that like it or not, no matter how independent they are from Activision; Activision is going to have some AAA titles coming out this holiday season and releasing a game as massive as Diablo 3 on top of those other games will play into the release date decision. Particularly when you consider the current economic situation and how that will play into already lagging game sales.
The secrecy still surrounding the game, and most of its features, and lack of any real hype other than the inherent hype given that it's Diablo and Blizzard, makes me think that a 2011 release is even less likely. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise us at E3, or Blizzcon and start pushing hard. I would love a 2011 release; particularly now that ME3 has been pushed to 2012. That and Deus Ex were my only real fall games I'm caring about atm (at least off the top of my head).
I just don't expect it. At all.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
What exactly did I say that was wrong? Obviously, yes, it depends on when the beta starts, but if theyre already internally testing then the game is more or less complete as far as content go. From here out its tweaks, bug testing, balance, and polish. I doubt they would need 6 months of internal testing at this point before going to beta, especially considering they've been play testing plenty as development has progressed.
They have already said, and I quote, "PvP balance is not an integral goal to releasing the game." and that any changes/tweaks made to any skills for PvP will not affect that skill in PvM. They want the two game modes to be separate and do not want it to be an e-sport. Will it be in beta? Probably. But it isn't going to be something they will have to extend the beta over.
And most of the features HAVE been revealed, with the remaining handful being shown before beta launches.
While obviously not the same game, both D2 betas only lasted 3 months. Considering the type of game, I don't see how D3 would need much longer than that.
Now, maybe they'll find that one rune combination wipes their entire server cluster out. Or maybe it'll go smoothly. It's all speculation on speculation at this point, but you have to admit this is closer to something vaguely resembling a timeline than we've been yet.
I get trying to remain realistic and grounded and not get swept away in expectation building, frustrating growing hype, but let's not shit over everyone's parade too harshly either folks. :-D
I'm pretty sure the cut down D2 beta you're referring to was the server stress test that they allowed piles of people in on. I could swear that this was done after a fairly lengthy closed beta period, which included all of the classes annnnd I want to say all of Act 1, but I wasn't in it so if someone has a cite or better recollection feel free to update/correct me on that.
D2 beta had 2 parts. The closed beta, which was all of act 1 and all classes, and then an open stress test which was just part of act one and just the Barb. The whole thing lasted from April till June. Stress test part started around the end of May/start of June.