Diablo III --Impressions start on page 36 --

[Blackjack]

THE END IS NEAR!!!!!!  

Reminder - Beta Ending soon
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4768349224#1

This a reminder for all beta participants, the Diablo III closed beta will officially end tomorrow morning (May 1) at 3:00 a.m. PDT. At that time, beta servers will no longer be available for play.

Thank you so much for your insight and feedback during this critical stage of Diablo III's development. We look forward to seeing you online -- or at one of our midnight launch events -- on May 15!

Although I'm OK with the UI, hotkey/skills assignment, many, maaaaaaany people are not. So I'm curious if any last second changes might occur in that regard. I think probably it's too late, but maybe they'll pull a Hellgate: London and have a big update on opening day.

I suspect by the time I get online late Tuesday, May 15, everyone here will already be Level 32.  I'll catch up soon enough... 

[Blackjack]

Some Hardcore tidbits from forums:

Hall of Fallen Heroes (when you die in Hardcore)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4796050495?page=3#42

Yeah, it's called the Hall of Fallen Heroes, and it's in the game. People in the beta who have lost a hardcore character can check it out. It shows what the character looked like when it died, how long it played, what level it was, what killed it, and some other stats.

Presumably the full game will have a listing like that.

He reiterated absolutely, positively, no restoration of dead hardcore characters for any reason whatsoever. Not even if you die in real life while playing, and that caused your hardcore character's death. (I made that up, but isn't that COLD? )

Also to reiterate, a dead hardcore character cannot and will not be restored for any reason whatsoever. At all. Ever. You take the risk of your character dying for any number of reasons that may be beyond your control, and that is part of the risk you take when playing hardcore.

If you believe there are some circumstances in which a dead hardcore character should be restored, you may want to avoid playing a hardcore character.

[Harkonis]

you also have to beat normal to unlock hardcore

[TK-421]

So I preordered this and already have it downloaded. 

Unfortunately, I realized after that fact that I will be out of town on release day and won't be getting back until the 19th

I wonder how mad the wife would get if I played it on my laptop while we are vacationing?

[Harkonis]

I'm not sure people realize you can click and drag things around on the hotbar just like in the past if you enable the option to do so.  People are so caught up on the changes they haven't seen you can still access the old way.

[stimpy]

I preordered the boxed version. Any benefit to getting it downloaded and installed before it arrives?

[leo8877]

I preordered the boxed version. Any benefit to getting it downloaded and installed before it arrives?

Just time really.  You don't have to wait for UPS.

[Blackjack]

I wonder how mad the wife would get if I played it on my laptop while we are vacationing?

It's a great co-op franchise for couples. I remember in the original Diablo, the guild I was in (Alliance of Divine Harmony, that is, until Ultima Online stole everybody ) had at least a couple of husband-wife couples who played the game together frequently. So the key is to get her hooked on it too. 

If your wife thinks gaming is the Devil, or turns into Kathy Bates in the movie Misery when you so much as talk about playing Diablo, then I would probably not play it on vacation. 

Just keep in mind you have to be online at all times to play D3. Not sure you'd really want to burn wireless broadband minutes on it, for example.

[Blackjack]

I preordered the boxed version. Any benefit to getting it downloaded and installed before it arrives?

Just time really.  You don't have to wait for UPS.

"Installed" is a bit of a misnomer, as I understand it. You can download the installer file (which I've done) when you buy the digital edition from Blizz, but it won't let you actually install D3 until the game server in your region is active. I think I posted a Blizzard community rep post about that a while back:

Update: Bashiok got a question on Twitter if those with US digital pre-order could start to play on EU servers when they open up. But no they have to wait for the US servers to open up for their game to install, so no sneak peak play on the EU servers for US digital-copy pre-orderers.

Even if you bought it on disc, you might be able to just enter the key from the manual and d/l the client that way (whenever you receive the pre-order). Whether that would be quicker than letting one's disc drive grind through several DVDs, I can't say.

It might be worth revisiting the D3 system requirements page too:
http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-system-requirements
*Minimum hard drive space is 12GB for the full install (I believe 7.6GB is the size of the installer file)
*Broadband is now required (first two games played fine on dial-up, I can attest), and they caution that not all wireless Internet connections will qualify as such, so the game's performance on wireless Internet connections will vary.

[Blackjack]

And finally, the Wizard gets his/her launch trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVkhApwmvcg
*The female wizard's voice is getting some grief. The male wizard sounded fine to me, fwiw.

Although many D2 favorite spells are back (hydra, blizzard, meteor etc.), they don't look the same, and the "don't change from D2 at all" crowd hasn't been happy about that. So just keep that in mind if you were a D2 sorceress fan.

[wonderpug]

The female wizard is voiced by the same person who did Azula in the animated Avatar series.  As long as you're cool with "I am insane with power" voicing I think she nailed it.  Wise and calm magic sage, she is not.

[Zarkon]

And the Auction House system is outlined here:  http://us.battle.net/d3/en/services/auction-house/how-to

In a nutshell:

$1 fee for equipment.
15% fee for commodities
15% fee for cashing out to Paypal, as well as the 3.9% or whatever Paypal charges.

[jersoc]

you also have to beat normal to unlock hardcore

i think you just need a level 10 char now

[Crabbs]

you also have to beat normal to unlock hardcore

i think you just need a level 10 char now

It's still up for debate if the level 10 was for Beta only or if that will carry over to release. I've tried to look for clarification but haven't found a direct statement.

[Harkonis]

you also have to beat normal to unlock hardcore

i think you just need a level 10 char now

It's still up for debate if the level 10 was for Beta only or if that will carry over to release. I've tried to look for clarification but haven't found a direct statement.

I'll look for the quote, may have been a video interview but the dev was very clear that they wanted you to have to go all the way through normal.  They are trying to cut down on people doing Hardcore before they know their way through the whole game.

edit: I found both versions, both from dev's.  They apparently recently changed it to level 10.  Seems like an odd choice.

[Crabbs]

you also have to beat normal to unlock hardcore

i think you just need a level 10 char now

It's still up for debate if the level 10 was for Beta only or if that will carry over to release. I've tried to look for clarification but haven't found a direct statement.

I'll look for the quote, may have been a video interview but the dev was very clear that they wanted you to have to go all the way through normal.  They are trying to cut down on people doing Hardcore before they know their way through the whole game.

edit: I found both versions, both from dev's.  They apparently recently changed it to level 10.  Seems like an odd choice.

I agree, that it's an odd choice, and it's been contradictory. I played mainly HC in D2 and really thought that running through Normal was a good way to familiarize oneself with with bosses before diving in HC. I'll probably still run through Normal before I go HC again (at least to the point that I'm familiar with what to expect.)

[Blackjack]

This was Bashiok's late February post about why they were requiring one Normal play through to unlock hardcore:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4062878642#10

This is the way it worked in Diablo II and we like it. We want players to give the game one play through to experience the story, the flow, the boss fights, and the baseline difficulty before risking a whole character on a single death. Players interested in Hardcore mode will have plenty of time for that. But we're happy with it being a setting you have to unlock first.

If in fact, they changed their minds, it could be because of that thread going on for 61 pages and mostly being people arguing about the merits or non-merits of requiring a playthrough, and of course attacking each other over it.

Personally I've got zero interest in hardcore. Real life sucks. I could walk outside my office, get hit by a falling tree (which has happened here in my area several times in recent years) and die. But I don't want that in my Diablo games. 

However, I'm all for giving people their choices as long as it doesn't hurt my own gaming experience. So if all the hardcore masses wanna play hardcore from L10, or L1, or even risk dying if they make a wrong choice on the character selection screen, more power to them. Give them their fresh meat and let people have one less Diablo 3 thing to have a negative, angry disagreement about.

[Blackjack]

Hey, check out this Gamespot interview with Blizzard's Jay Wilson -- has lots of footage I don't recalling seeing before. The Witch Doctor's "stack of zombies" (or whatever it's called) is pretty funny.

http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/new-tv-commercial-for-diablo-3
*I couldn't figure out the Gamespot embed link, so check it out at Inc Gamers.

[jersoc]

you also have to beat normal to unlock hardcore

i think you just need a level 10 char now

It's still up for debate if the level 10 was for Beta only or if that will carry over to release. I've tried to look for clarification but haven't found a direct statement.

I'll look for the quote, may have been a video interview but the dev was very clear that they wanted you to have to go all the way through normal.  They are trying to cut down on people doing Hardcore before they know their way through the whole game.

edit: I found both versions, both from dev's.  They apparently recently changed it to level 10.  Seems like an odd choice.

they made it level 10 so players don't accidently create a HC right away

[Harkonis]

you also have to beat normal to unlock hardcore

i think you just need a level 10 char now

It's still up for debate if the level 10 was for Beta only or if that will carry over to release. I've tried to look for clarification but haven't found a direct statement.

I'll look for the quote, may have been a video interview but the dev was very clear that they wanted you to have to go all the way through normal.  They are trying to cut down on people doing Hardcore before they know their way through the whole game.

edit: I found both versions, both from dev's.  They apparently recently changed it to level 10.  Seems like an odd choice.

they made it level 10 so players don't accidently create a HC right away

I didn't mean odd as in 'why level 10?' I just meant odd as in why not make you complete normal first.  Their logic was sound in the first place, then it seems they back pedaled due to squeaky wheels.

[jersoc]

because people want to play HC right away. why does it matter? I never get the point of people who hate choice. getting lvl 10 takes like 20 mins if that. so someone who wants an extra challenge right away gets it. and if you don't want it, you don't have to pick it. everyone wins!

also, preload if you are getting a physical copying: http://us.media.battle.net.edgesuite.net/downloads/d3-installers/589acdb4-c660-318a-b993-01528fad7da6/Diablo-III-8370-enUS-Installer-downloader.exe

[Purge]

Lvl10 makes sense, since:

you're talking about YOU - how many idiots are there out there, who would assume that the character they're making is "Hardcore". It means that it's their second character, and that they've played enough of the game to know what it's all about, including the minimum level to get passive abilities and several runes.

Anyone complaining about it can only be doing this one thing:

1) Starting the game, front to back with the intent of ONLY EVER PLAYING ONE character, and that character being hardcore.
2) There is no 2.

They're restricting your choice only to prevent most people from discovering permadeath on their first character, with no reasonable warning. How many times have YOU read a manual before getting a game like Diablo? Just like playboy, it's not for the articles.

Consider getting to lvl10 on a non-hardcore character an achievement and move on.

[Roguetad]

I like that they're going to have a hall of fame for hardcore characters, complete with stats and information about how they died, what level they were, etc.  It's a nice touch.  Regarding the requirements to unlock hardcore, I'm all for giving players the freedom to enter at their own risk right from the start.  I'd add some idiot warnings during the HC character creation process though, once at the beginning of the process, and again before hitting start.   

[Blackjack]

This is historic -- Harkonis and I actually agree on something!   If that can happen, then I bet a peaceful reunification of South and North Korea can also happen! Or are those not comparable?  

Though if they really did backpedal, I'm fine with it at this point. I'd rather give people one less thing to gripe about and try to get them to focus on enjoying D3 in whatever form they prefer.  

[Purge]

People are going to gorge themselves at the teats of Diablo. Bitching and moaning are just what they do until their mouths are full with his big, shaggy nips.

[Roguetad]

People are going to gorge themselves at the teats of Diablo. Bitching and moaning are just what they do until their mouths are full with his big, shaggy nips.

I'd prefer to think of Diablo in this analogy as female...since it could probably assume whatever gender it wanted.  I think you're right on, about people losing themselves in shaggy nips once the game goes live.

[Blackjack]

While we all attempt to claw our eyes out to forget the visuals suggested above  , check out a New Zealand site's Q&A with Blizzard's Jay Wilson:
http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games/156898.Diablo-III/features/138928.20120501.Blizzards-Jay-Wilson-on-Diablo-III/page1
Good difficulty level question...

Gameplanet: How do you extrapolate a difficulty curve for the rest of the game from something like the beta?

Wilson: There are two sides to difficulty. One is the capabilities of the player, and the other is the capabilities of the monsters. So what you do is categorise those capabilities: [those categories] are really evident in our skill system now. When do you start introducing primary spamming skills? When do you start introducing area of effect skills? When do you introduce movement? When do you introduce defensive abilities? When do you introduce what we call tertiary abilities such as auras and shouts?
...
On the monster side we did the same thing. We have this big list of categories, of things that monsters can do. There’s a heavy-hitter – a monster that does a lot of damage. There are tough monsters, there are fast monsters, there are monsters that I call “beehives” which are essentially summoners and things like that – they produce [other] monsters. There are monsters that do AOE [area of effect damage], then there’s about seven sub-categories of AOE: point-blank AOE is not as effective as ranged AOE; circular AOE is more powerful than line AOE.
...
So then you guess where all those things need to fall throughout the game, and then when you play the game and see all your guesses are wrong, you adjust them.

And it's kind of fun to know what classes might've been like:

Gameplanet: Now that you know what’s made it into the box, what are some of those ideas, perhaps for example classes, that didn’t make it?

Wilson: There were no classes that we did that didn’t make it in. There was no work there. Other than – and we’ve talked about it before – the original Demon Hunter was more of a Ranger, and we actually did have the Ranger working, we had an ammo resource system and it was terrible! We used the scoundrel follower, who was built at the time, he was actually the character that we used. He wasn’t meant to be the character, he was just a stand-in because he used a crossbow. So there was that one.

Early on, there were a few of us that were really hot on doing an Illusionist. It was a really interesting kind of pet class. But then a bunch of people said it kind of sounded like the “fairy” class – not in a positive manner! – so that kind of dropped off.

While they've got an internal team looking at a console version, he seems adamant about the PC market:

I don’t see us going away from the PC market. No one at Blizzard thinks the PC is dead, or at least, I’d be shocked if someone did – we make a good living off the PC. What I often like to say is, I really appreciate the game industry telling everyone the PC is dead, and the gaming press saying the PC is dead because it’s really cut down on our competition, and a key to why we’ve been such a runaway success is because, who is competing against us?

But there are more PCs out there than all the consoles put together. It’s certainly a market worth going into, worth being in. I don’t see us going away from it. I don’t think they need to be afraid.

And fwiw, he's said repeatedly in video interviews he's excited about Torchlight 2, thinks there's plenty of room in the market for both games, and can't wait to play Runic's game later on.

[CeeKay]

I like that they're going to have a hall of fame for hardcore characters, complete with stats and information about how they died, what level they were, etc.  It's a nice touch. 

that actually sounds pretty cool.

[Blackjack]

Bashiok's babbling:
Upcoming patch to revamp 3 Monk attack animations, may add ability to use wider variety of weapons

So, all of that background and info said, we still have plans to make even more changes and improvements in patches released fairly shortly after release. In a patch we plan to change Exploding Palm, Way of the Hundred Fists, and Fists of Thunder so they don’t hide fist weapons. Since the idea is that these skills are about the monk using their fists, it just makes sense to allow fist weapons to continue to show.

In addition, as we continued to refine the monk class and our design philosophies for itemization, our ideas about what weapons make sense for the monk have changed over time. To see that philosophy shift through we’re looking at simply giving monks the ability to wield more types of weapons, complete with full animation support for their skills.

Attempting to explain how relative parity in skills leads to more diversity in D3 character builds (woah, it's like, heavy, dude)  

I'd pull quote these but something about the Blizzard forums won't let me 'select' text to copy there in iPad.  

[Purge]

So, a couple things, Diablo for a lot of people is about non-optimal builds. It's about finding some crazy-!@# build that no one thinks should logically work, and using your knowledge and skill of the game to defy logic and make it successful. So just switching skills between direct parities is probably not going to be a monumental discovery that will win you an award in character building. But, that's not where the real fun and challenge of character builds generally come in. It might be fun for you though because one skill is purple and one is yellow and you really love purple, and if that makes the game awesome, awesome. As you said there are plenty of bad choices to make, which means there are plenty of non-optimal - but still potentially viable - builds to attempt.The issue that you're taking though is actually one of customization. What you're saying is that by having these close parities between skills there's less choice, and in fact the exact opposite is true. If there are sharp distinctions (as you argue is superior) then there are sharp separations, and sharp separations means that very clear correct choices emerge. By having more parity it allows for more customization as it allows players greater freedom in choosing the skills they want to use, and not the skills they have to use because the math makes it so. Again though I'd argue that there's plenty of gray area in character builds, and that's where the true excitement and discovery comes from.Does that make sense?

[Blackjack]

I think Bashiok is just saying "everything sucks equally."  

No, I mean, I recall in D2 that my rogue generally just used Strafe, Multi-Shot and maybe one strong single-target attack skill, and then I basically didn't bother putting points in anything else. Blizzard eventually proclaimed "Strafe is too good," nerfed it, rebalanced other skills, and tried to get players more interested in trying a variety of stuff. I remember many upset players at the time of any re-balancing patch.

So for better or worse now, they seem more interested in getting all skills and skill-runes on a fairly even playing field so as to have more diversity in player builds and I guess get players to situationally change on the fly (whether by swapping skills out or just the rune-effects). Rather than, "oh, these 3 skills are the best in the game and I don't wanna use anything else."

I did feel that way (that several things were useful) a bit in beta. That certain rune effects were more useful to me solo (slowing targets down, or keeping multiple targets slowed) than when playing with a team. So I'd do a fair amount of swapping on the fly, and was glad they removed that "skills vending machine kiosk" that was present earlier in the beta.

[Knightshade Dragon]

Fire may still fall from the heavens, but uh....turns out the boxes have landed at some retailers already:

[PR_GMR]

Fire may still fall from the heavens, but uh....turns out the boxes have landed at some retailers already:

A Gamestop somewhere is gonna get robbed between now and the 15th. 

[CeeKay]

Fire may still fall from the heavens, but uh....turns out the boxes have landed at some retailers already:

A Gamestop somewhere is gonna get robbed between now and the 15th. 

I noticed the Disney girlie stuff in the corner and figured out that it was actually your bedroom 

ps.  you may want to spoiler that, Pete might have a fright over the state of that thumbnail.

[Knightshade Dragon]

Fire may still fall from the heavens, but uh....turns out the boxes have landed at some retailers already:

A Gamestop somewhere is gonna get robbed between now and the 15th. 

I noticed the Disney girlie stuff in the corner and figured out that it was actually your bedroom 

ps.  you may want to spoiler that, Pete might have a fright over the state of that thumbnail.

Barbie's Horse Adventure is a legitimate Xbox game, damn it!! 

(Seriously though, one of the guys who worked on Guild Wars 2 and I sat and talked about being a game tester - his story beat all as he was a tester on the aformentioned Barbie title)

[Qantaga]

I've been waiting 11 years, 10 months, and 4 days already...
   
However, these last 11 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes seem like an eternity.

[Blackjack]

On the lighter side, here's all the class laugh emotes and audio in D3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ua2dfVrao

On the darker side, what the hell is NEPHALEM VALOR BUFF you say? Answered...
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4241234476#1

Nephalem Valor is one of the major new systems in Diablo III and it kicks in at level 60. Keep in mind that this is still in testing and we’re still working out the details.

Here’s how it currently works internally: Rare and Champion packs already have great loot on them. By killing a Rare or Champion pack, not only do you get their loot, but you’ll also receive a buff granting you increased magic find and gold find. However, if you change a skill, skill rune, passive, or leave the game, the buff disappears. As an extra reward, if you kill a boss while this buff is active, you’ll receive extra loot drops from that boss.

The exact amount of magic find and gold find provided by the buff is still being reviewed, as is the amount of extra loot you get from a boss while the buff is active. We’re also playing around with whether or not the buff stacks, what the duration should be, and whether or not it should persist through death. We want to make sure the buff is strong enough to make staying in your current game more rewarding than creating a new game. At the same time, if the buff is too strong, it risks making shorter play sessions feel not worthwhile.

We expect this system will encourage players to stick with a skill build of their choice, select an area of the game they enjoy, and sweep it for rare and champion packs on their way to a boss, finishing off a run with a boss that’ll be worth killing. If you wanted a shorter play session you could be done at that point, but if you have more time, the path of least resistance would ideally be to stay in the same game and make your way towards the next boss.

What's funny is here I've been going around telling people they WANT us to experiment with runes and skills, and constantly adjust to different situations. Apparently... they don't.  

[Blackjack]

If you're keen on tracking Blizz officials' posts at the forums, a fan site called DiabloFan has a useful Blue Tracker Page (blue=posts by Blizzard, including posts at Blizzard's official D3 blog):
http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-tracker/
Here's one pointing out a Blizz Blog post about the international servers:

Introducing Global Play for Diablo III:
http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-tracker/topic/221915-introducing-global-play-for-diablo-iii/

In Diablo® III, you’ll be able to play on game servers in regions outside your own, with a few restrictions, using Battle.net®’s new Global Play functionality. Here’s how it works....

Diablo III’s global game servers are grouped into three distinct game regions:

The Americas - For players in the US, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.
Europe - For players in the European Union, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, and Middle Eastern countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Asia - For players in South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

In general, players will create characters and play in their “home” region, which is determined by where they live (specifically, the country of residence registered to their Battle.net account). Global Play gives players the ability to switch to any of the other game regions via the in-game options menu, either before or after they log in to the game.

Note that characters, items, and friends lists do not transfer across regions. Playing on a different region’s servers means you’ll be creating characters and friends lists specifically for that region, and you’ll be accessing the gold-based auction house for that region.

In addition, players will only have access to the real-money auction house (where applicable) when playing in their “home” game region. That means that, for characters outside of your home region, items cannot be bought or sold in any real-money auction house. The focus of Global Play is simply to give you the ability to play Diablo III together with your friends in any region.

Also maybe worth pointing out is friends lists don't transfer across the servers. A "global" friends list would certainly be handy if you like to play on each of the servers and have friends on each, but that's apparently not in the cards (at least, not at launch).

[Purge]

What's funny is here I've been going around telling people they WANT us to experiment with runes and skills, and constantly adjust to different situations. Apparently... they don't.  

This is at lvl60 - the only thing this does is removes a temp buff for finding items after beating bosses. It gives some value to trying to find an optimal build to stick with for that game session. It does NOT break the "experiment" thing - what it does is encourages people to find their balance and not depend on switching classes all the time.I see it as a mini-game to help tweakers and people who want to find the rarest of the rare to pick-and-stick-with a build, and work with a balanced party to basically "raid" for rare items - and encourage those folks to go through the game rather than constantly reloading the same level to farm a particularly easy-to-get-to-boss.

I applaud that. Well done, Blizzard - they're applying lessons learned from being the most successful (AFAIK) MMO company.

[Vidiot]

What's funny is here I've been going around telling people they WANT us to experiment with runes and skills, and constantly adjust to different situations. Apparently... they don't.  

This is at lvl60 - the only thing this does is removes a temp buff for finding items after beating bosses. It gives some value to trying to find an optimal build to stick with for that game session. It does NOT break the "experiment" thing - what it does is encourages people to find their balance and not depend on switching classes all the time.I see it as a mini-game to help tweakers and people who want to find the rarest of the rare to pick-and-stick-with a build, and work with a balanced party to basically "raid" for rare items - and encourage those folks to go through the game rather than constantly reloading the same level to farm a particularly easy-to-get-to-boss.

I applaud that. Well done, Blizzard - they're applying lessons learned from being the most successful (AFAIK) MMO company.

This is their solution to the farming runs people would do in D2.  This stops you from skipping right to the boss by adding an incentive to clear an area first.  Sure you could skip right to the boss, but it shouldn't be more effective than clearing the area that leads up to the boss.