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Diablo 3 Beta [Beta withdrawal underway!]

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ToD_

Member
I really like the way injected SMAA looks with this game. It's like the in-game AA minus the blurriness, yet not artificial looking like the sharpening filter.

It works fine with the beta but I hope this won't get detected as a hack with the retail release. Someone please test this for me ;)
 

TylerD

Member
These were translations from several interviews conducted on Jay's Taiwan press tour.

Source: http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-taiwan-press-conference

-The PvP system is still in a period of change and there is no definite schedule for its launch but the PvP system will be a completely open game mode. However, skills in their nature will remain the same, such as damage output, stun period, for example, may be reduced in PvP.

-Nothing specific has been decided regarding public testing of the PvP mode but do not rule out a similar system to World of Warcraft’s Patch Test Realm (PTR).

-It is hoped PvP mode will be in the game by the end of 2012.

-In PvE mode there will be no means to kill other players as that ruins the fun of the game.

-If demand is high they will consider having a Chinese interface with English audio.

-The expansion pack will provide new places, equipment and increase the difficulty but there will be no increase the level cap.

-There will be no ladder in Diablo 3.

-Skills should be similar as they are in the beta, possibly minor fine tuning will only be required.

-Character customization was a little more elaborate to begin with. Initially 8 or 9 hair and beard colours were designed for the Barbarian but once in game it made such a tiny difference and when wearing a helmet the differences could not be seen at all so they decided against this level of customisation.

-Dyes will allow you to customise your equipment. An invisible dye on body armour will make your character look as if they do not have body armor on.

-The third artisan (Mystic) will return but her role will be useful.

-The interface will not change but possibly minor tweaks.

-Jay has not beaten inferno difficulty, as a solo player or in a 4-player multiplayer game

-If a player was to read the lore, interact with the environment, access 80% of the game content then you are looking at 15-20 hours to complete normal difficulty.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
-If a player was to read the lore, interact with the environment, access 80% of the game content then you are looking at 15-20 hours to complete normal difficulty.

15-20 hours when doing almost everything you can do in the game, including reading lore? Sounds like the actual game is pretty short. 8-10 hours, perhaps? Ok, that's on normal (easy), but still.

And what does "interact with the environment" mean? From what I played of the beta, there was really no interaction beyond smashing barrels and such.
 

jinutsu

Neo Member
-If a player was to read the lore, interact with the environment, access 80% of the game content then you are looking at 15-20 hours to complete normal difficulty.

If the beta was truly 1/3rd of Act I.. it took me an average of 2-2.5 hours to fully explore all maps and optional dungeons. That puts Act I at 6 - 7.5 hours and the overall game at 24 - 30 hours. If you only accessed about 80% of that content then you'd be pretty close to his estimates. It sounds like it is pretty accurate.

Also, the difficulty level of Inferno really intrigues me. I hope it truly is that hard. The spoils better be good though... otherwise people will rage.
 

Valnen

Member
If the beta was truly 1/3rd of Act I.. it took me an average of 2-2.5 hours to fully explore all maps and optional dungeons. That puts Act I at 6 - 7.5 hours and the overall game at 24 - 30 hours. If you only accessed about 80% of that content then you'd be pretty close to his estimates. It sounds like it is pretty accurate.

Also, the difficulty level of Inferno really intrigues me. I hope it truly is that hard. The spoils better be good though... otherwise people will rage.

It is possible Act 4 could be really small again like it was in D2?
 

Island

Member
I stopped playing with the ambient occlusion enabled and just turned the gamma down and I have been very pleased with the results. Tried some of the darkd3 settings and it just doesn't look that great to me. After watching the art of Diablo 3 presentation from GDC and seeing/hearing why they made the art decisions they did I have a greater appreciation for it.

Link?
 

LordCanti

Member
These were translations from several interviews conducted on Jay's Taiwan press tour.

Source: http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-taiwan-press-conference

-The PvP system is still in a period of change and there is no definite schedule for its launch but the PvP system will be a completely open game mode. However, skills in their nature will remain the same, such as damage output, stun period, for example, may be reduced in PvP.

-Nothing specific has been decided regarding public testing of the PvP mode but do not rule out a similar system to World of Warcraft’s Patch Test Realm (PTR).

-It is hoped PvP mode will be in the game by the end of 2012.

-In PvE mode there will be no means to kill other players as that ruins the fun of the game.

-If demand is high they will consider having a Chinese interface with English audio.

-The expansion pack will provide new places, equipment and increase the difficulty but there will be no increase the level cap.

-There will be no ladder in Diablo 3.

-Skills should be similar as they are in the beta, possibly minor fine tuning will only be required.

-Character customization was a little more elaborate to begin with. Initially 8 or 9 hair and beard colours were designed for the Barbarian but once in game it made such a tiny difference and when wearing a helmet the differences could not be seen at all so they decided against this level of customisation.

-Dyes will allow you to customise your equipment. An invisible dye on body armour will make your character look as if they do not have body armor on.

-The third artisan (Mystic) will return but her role will be useful.

-The interface will not change but possibly minor tweaks.

-Jay has not beaten inferno difficulty, as a solo player or in a 4-player multiplayer game

-If a player was to read the lore, interact with the environment, access 80% of the game content then you are looking at 15-20 hours to complete normal difficulty.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
 

Aesthet1c

Member
Exploding palm, haha I really don't like Monk all that much, but I have a weakness for abilities like this. So cool.

The monk was definitely my biggest surprise during the beta weekend. He never appealed to me at all, but once I started getting a handful of abilities and got to teleport punch monsters, I was blown away by how much fun he was. It really made me debate my choice as maining a Barbarian on release.
 
The monk was definitely my biggest surprise during the beta weekend. He never appealed to me at all, but once I started getting a handful of abilities and got to teleport punch monsters, I was blown away by how much fun he was. It really made me debate my choice as maining a Barbarian on release.
Funnily enough the reverse happened to me. I was having a tough time deciding whether to be a Wizard or Monk. I was disappointed by the Monk, but loved the Barbarian which I had written off as the class I'd be least likely to play, now it's going to be second after the Wizard.
 

Boken

Banned
Ladder doesn't make sense in Diablo3's end game focused world.

Perhaps special inferno challenges might happen in place of ladder.
 

SamuraiX-

Member
I never understood the fascination with PvP in DII. Just a bunch of guys running around and abusing glitches.

No ladder is a shame though.

Ladder doesn't make sense in Diablo3's end game focused world.

Perhaps special inferno challenges might happen in place of ladder.

I wouldn't mind this.

I'll take more campaign-based challenges and quests over stuff like PvP any day.
 

whyman

Member
Ok im not an old school diablo fan and i know very little about the genre but i played the beta and liked it. Got some questions if anyone has time to answer them!

-The expansion pack will provide new places, equipment and increase the difficulty but there will be no increase the level cap.

Why no increase in level cap? This seems stupid to me as i feel gaining xp and leveling is a big part of the game.

-If a player was to read the lore, interact with the environment, access 80% of the game content then you are looking at 15-20 hours to complete normal difficulty.

Kinda short but ok i guess. What i wonder is, can i explore the world after i finish the game or do i have to start like a "new game plus"?
 

hitsugi

Member
I never understood the fascination with PvP in DII. Just a bunch of guys running around and abusing glitches.

Sorry, but no, it wasn't. The expansion ladder had its share of broken items and eventually some people did use auto-juv programs, but glitches?
 

Trickster

Member
Why would you need a ladder in Diablo III?

To not end up playing a game where everyone runs around with the best of the best gear. Go play diablo 2, some of the best items in the game are worth next to nothing because everyone have 5 of them sitting in their stash. It's really dull playing that kind of game imo.

Not having it makes little sense to me, they know from diablo 2 that it's something people want...
 
Ok im not an old school diablo fan and i know very little about the genre but i played the beta and liked it. Got some questions if anyone has time to answer them!



Why no increase in level cap? This seems stupid to me as i feel gaining xp and leveling is a big part of the game.



Kinda short but ok i guess. What i wonder is, can i explore the world after i finish the game or do i have to start like a "new game plus"?

Someone else can take a stab a the level cap question, but you can replay any quest or Act in Diablo 3. Finishing the game unlocks the next difficulty level, though, which is the real reason to finish the game. The world isn't persistent, it's randomized every time you play, so there isn't really an existing world for you to "go back to" when you finish. You're exploring a reset world every time you start a new quest.
 

hitsugi

Member
To not end up playing a game where everyone runs around with the best of the best gear. Go play diablo 2, some of the best items in the game are worth next to nothing because everyone have 5 of them sitting in their stash. It's really dull playing that kind of game imo.

Not having it makes little sense to me, they know from diablo 2 that it's something people want...

Right.. Unlike hostile (which I can understand complaints about), I don't think I ever met a person that openly disliked the ladder system. I loved it. Kept things.. fresh, you could say.
 

chris-013

Member
Every x time everyone can make a new "ladder" character who can only share items with characters in this ladder.
When the ladder end, the character become a normal character and you can make a new ladder character, etc...
 

mxgt

Banned
I approve of no increased level cap if it means more meaningful content for the current cap instead of grinding more levels and unbalancing current content.

This ain't WoW, level cap increases aren't always necessary.
 
Interesting addition from the comments on that post:

RoShin222 said:
A nice tidbit about Inferno difficulty that was missed in the translation, thought you guys might be interested:

Jay Wilson: “When we’re testing the highest difficulty level, we don’t force testers to level-up from scratch each time. Their chars receive randomized equipment of 0.5~1 lvl under the boss’s level. After 20 attempts the boss was still undefeated. We hope the most difficult bosses will be really, really hard to beat, as we know from experience never, NEVER underestimate our players (well said..).
We set the difficulty based on how our most skilled staff felt to be adequate.
Then we MULTIPLY THIS BY 2 upon release
”
 

Sothpaw

Member
I thought it's been pretty obvious that their focus has never been PvP, and it wasn't going to be available for 6+ months following release.

I would rather they not spend any development time on PVP at all and just focus on giving us as much great PVE content as possible.

You guys want PVP I suggest you check out DOTA 2. Diablo PVP is pretty terrible and will never be balanced. Once you get into DOTA you will not give a single crap about Diablo PVP. Then again, you might not give a single crap about Diablo in general but that's another issue.

Sorry, but no, it wasn't. The expansion ladder had its share of broken items and eventually some people did use auto-juv programs, but glitches?

He is probably referring to desync.
 

WallJump

Banned
Someone else can take a stab a the level cap question, but you can replay any quest or Act in Diablo 3. Finishing the game unlocks the next difficulty level, though, which is the real reason to finish the game. The world isn't persistent, it's randomized every time you play, so there isn't really an existing world for you to "go back to" when you finish. You're exploring a reset world every time you start a new quest.

I am new to Diablo after having played the open beta (loved it!). I was wondering what the real incentive was on upping the beating the game multiple times to up difficulty level if the game was the same every time with different loot. This pleases me greatly.
 

lordy88

Member
whats the end game of d3 supposed to be?
grinding the lower difficulties to get gear/lvl to beat the higher ones?
thats it?

Here's the thing guys.

In theory, the Diablo 3 team believes that the endgame as a whole will be much different than that of Diablo 2's, mainly because the Diablo 3 team is confident that item duping will not be a problem. Let's analyze why that would affect things:

Diablo 2 endgame: All players had access to high-end equipment, and the 'search of items' was little-to-none. You were forced to trade up in order to establish the high-end loot for your characters There were some Mephisto/Baal runs involved, but I would imagine about 98% of all the loot acquired by endgame characters was obtained through duping methods. This created an immense item pool, and forced the Diablo 2 team to reset the ladder frequently in an attempt to re-invigorate the community for the item hunt.

Diablo 3 endgame: With no duping expected (who's knows what the case will be), the high-end loot hunt will be forever in action (or at least for a MUCH longer time than the Ladders continued for in Diablo 2), as as the best loot will be A) incredibly difficult to find and B) Require users to slay super tough monsters to get, which takes using high-end loot to kill, which is what you're trying to get in the first place...and you see the difficulty here.

All-in-all, the endgame will consist of the endless item hunt, and Blizzard does not expect this hunt to end rather quickly. Think of it this way. In order for all players to be content with the current pool of items, each player would have to find their own godly high-end loot to fill out their characters ON THEIR OWN. Not to mention players would then be searching to complete sets, work with other item builds as well, etc. Without duping involved, this should take a very, VERY, long time.

Just my two cents on the matter. Do I actually believe this to be the case? Well, given that we are going to always-online approach, it better damn be. No duping would make this game better than a fried Twinkie with hot fudge.
 

Kak.efes

Member
Can someone link me a Daiblo 3 faq, or guide? Just a compendium of information out so far, as I haven't been following, or updating myself on anything related to its release so far.
 
PvP wasn't implemented very well in diablo 2, but it seemed like they were making progress in 3. And what better end game content than going at it against other players to see who is "better"? Sure, there'd be a lot of unbalanced stuff, but if you could choose to fight against your own class only (and possibly custom options) I could see it being very popular. I just can't believe after the arena footage we saw months ago, they still "hope" they'll have it added by the end of 2012.
 

whyman

Member
Thanks to all who explained how end game work. As a player who will never play the game more than max two times (probably one and then the expansions) i dont understand the appeal of it. With the same quests over and over again it will get boring fast.
 

lordy88

Member
Thanks to all who explained how end game work. As a player who will never play the game more than max two times (probably one and then the expansions) i dont understand the appeal of it. With the same quests over and over again it will get boring fast.

Diablo has always been about the item hunt, not the quests. Killing enemies in awesome ways just to spin that loot wheel one more time...

I am new to Diablo after having played the open beta (loved it!). I was wondering what the real incentive was on upping the beating the game multiple times to up difficulty level if the game was the same every time with different loot. This pleases me greatly.

Difficulty increases. You get new items. Side-quests change.

Think of it like the end of the main-quest in Pokemon. You finally got all of these awesome Pokemon now, but there's no-one left to kill.

In Diablo you just honed all of your skills at level 30, with that cool sword and armor you just found. But after finishing normal, you'd think that's all there is.

But wait! Now you can replay it, with tougher monsters, different side-quests, and you keep unlocking MORE skills, all the way to level 58! And even when you get your very last skill, now you still need to find that right build that works just for you. Not to mention that you keep finding better items that keep motivating you find more, and more, and more...

When you're "done" with that, you have four more classes to do it all over again with.

It doesn't end. Ever.
 

Sothpaw

Member
PvP wasn't implemented very well in diablo 2, but it seemed like they were making progress in 3. And what better end game content than going at it against other players to see who is "better"? Sure, there'd be a lot of unbalanced stuff, but if you could choose to fight against your own class only (and possibly custom options) I could see it being very popular. I just can't believe after the arena footage we saw months ago, they still "hope" they'll have it added by the end of 2012.

They have changed skills dramatically since the arena videos were released. While the skills are now much more fun in PVE, the changes most likely destroyed the fun of PVP. The PVP system is probably a total mess right now and Blizz needs time to make the PVP worthy of a Blizzard game.

At the end of the day, Diablo 3, like WOW, is a PVE centered game.

Can someone link me a Daiblo 3 faq, or guide? Just a compendium of information out so far, as I haven't been following, or updating myself on anything related to its release so far.

www.battle.net
 

Cipherr

Member
I thought it's been pretty obvious that their focus has never been PvP, and it wasn't going to be available for 6+ months following release.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻


┬──┬◡ノ(° -°ノ)


This is selfish, but I am glad. Im bitter to this day about the hamfisted attempts at PvP in WoW that damaged the PvE side of it on numerous occasions. This at least gives me good reason to believe they are looking to do it right this time. Especially the part about changing abilities like stuns and just giving them different effects or durations for PvP. They were very reluctant for some reason to do a lot of this in WoW, instead of giving lots of skills 2 rulesets for PvE and PvP, they took an axe to those skills overall. Sometimes crippling their PvE effects in order to assist balance in PvP.






....


Fuck PvP.
 

Whooter

Member
533386_10150714992408095_95872238094_9333256_1263428503_n.jpg


I have to show this to my GF.

Why am I just now noticing that that cover looks like Deathwing?
 
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