Miss the BlizzCon 2014 panel earlier which explains what’s planned for Diablo 3? You’re in luck because here’s the full panel.
Thanks Fmulder.
Watch the BlizzCon 2014 “What’s Next for Diablo 3” Panel
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I love the improving of the a1 new tristram layout.
I have the feeling the “glory days” of Blizzard are coming to an end.
I kind of feel sorry for the people on the stage presenting stuff and people not really being excited at all, this pretty much mirrors all the blizz fans currently.
I also find the people from the audience asking questions disturbingly odd folks.
The presenter is seriously awful. And I don't know why they're all awkwardly standing up.
But the content is pretty good.
I think it's a connection thing. It's like when politicians wear white open collar shirts, no tie, sleeves folded up and when they point they point with their hand clasped, thumb forward. I think it makes them seem more casual – hey guys, we're just like you….
Ironically, the Bliz devs are *exactly* guys just like you. Assuming you are an average middle class 18-40ish suburban gamer. They'd have a much harder time acting like they were not like you.
If that's true, then it's quite easy to put the problem behind Blizzards inability to really reinvent themselves into one simple statement:
They've lost all sight of the outside view on the gaming scene they once had, when they were still gamers first, developer later.
I find people actually physically going to blizzcon kinda odd (those not living in california or something like that).
It's the same thing as physically going to a football game or a concert. You do it to experience the event and meet people who share your interests. Some people are more into it than others.
59:40
“We didn’t like the rune system in particular because it requires you to open a web site to look at all these arcane knowledge.”
Lamest design decision ever!
Yeah, it's not like recipes for runewords could simply drop in-game. Oh wait… 🙂
How so? Wyatt is absolutely right in saying that the information in question should've been available in-game, not outside of it. They did give complex crafting a try in 2.0 by having legendaries and sets require corresponding legendary crafting materials and normal-quality items, and we all know how that went.
They wanted it to fail along with lazy arse players, that crafting system created actual reasons to go out into the world of sanctuary and do something else besides a mofo rift.
White items need to have a use in this game and that crafting system gave them one.
With a few tweaks it could have offered a real alternative to the mindless rifting we do now, something the game desperately needs.
The thing is that blizz don't want you to repeatedly create games to refresh specific monster pack to respawn to farm specific ingredient. They said it some time, that is why they dropped "unique material" part of crafting.
I don't think they wanted it to fail, but it is clear that they want crafted items to have the same random element to them as item drops do. That alone isn't a problem, but when you pair that with the additional levels of RNG involved in obtaining all the crafting mats, you end up with a very random and very frustrating system. They didn't want to make the crafted items less random, so they changed the crafting process instead.
As much as I liked having a reason to play adventure mode, restarting games in hopes of making quest mob X spawn, and cluttering up my precious stash and mules with legendary crafting mats and white items, wasn't my idea of fun.
The whole issue of not wanting to require players to use an external source for game info is viable… but of course D3 had dozens of legendary materials that required external info to know where to harvest them. And since launch most skills have had proc rates that are crucial to know about for efficient/effective play, which are entirely hidden in-game. And there are things like demon hunter sentry frame rate breaks, etc.
It's impossible to make a functional, complex video game without lots of tings like that… and while it's a good idea not to have them be major obvious, confusing (to noobs) features (like runewords or legendary materials), I fear the D3 devs use that excuse as justification for things most of us would call "dumbing down" and removing complex or intricate features of great value to hardcore players.
The reason why this system failed is that they tied the drops to specific monsters. In D2, a rune could drop ANYWHERE and from ANYTHING. It was a side bonus for regular playing. They can create a tab with the enchantress that could list the recipes and ingredients required. You would know exactly what you need. Add a plan drop for that recipe and you have another item to search for. Recipes not found are greyed out. The key to this system is to not tie it to a specific monster or even a specific area.
I think the best solution would be a mix. I'm imaging material drops being tied to mob types and/or even specific mobs (, when widely spread, like Fallens for example), with purples playing a special role in combining multiple drop lists to a larger material drop pool and a higher chance of dropping at least one or even more materials, as a more enticing retake in the long run.
Considering "Ancient Items" and their 30% stat boosts, combining the revival of materials with a revival of using white items as a base ingredient in crafting, could be a good cheap and easy mirror method of still bridging the power gap until the final occurance of the long awaited ancient drops. But the roleplayer in me would rather prefere a range between -10% and 20% gain in values, instead of directly mirroring the 30% increase, to account for white base items of lower qualities. (Which nobody would use to craft with, as it would mean creating a crafted item worse than the "normal" craft of the item without the brimbamborium of gathering base items and special materials for them. But roleplayer ^^)
I am actually fine with legendary materials being tied to certain unique monsters.
My issue with it however is the abysmal drop rate and spawn rate of the special monster. If you want to have such low drop rate and tie it also to the special monster which also as a low / random spawn rate, at least have ALL the mobs in said area to have a chance to drop the material.
On T6, the targeted unique champion monster MUST have a 100% drop rate of said material and if he doesn't spawn, the area that he resides in should have at least a 1 – 5% drop rate of the material.
a month in between seasons, oh it’s gonna be so dead lol.
Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff. Love that they're adding new areas to the world. Opens up possibilities of seeing stuff that wouldn't necessarily be in story mode. Caldeum being expanded in time to include the Yshari Sanctum for instance, or the Courts of Justice in Heaven?
Wyatt, it's not how the rifts look and feel that makes the game have strong replay ability it's actual new game modes…….
You can repackage that stuff all you want, it's still the definition of insanity, the same thing over and over.
You need to do more, this eye candy tweaks are not enough.
I watched the panel yesterday and have talked to some bliz guys, including a 30m interview with Travis Day. My impression is that the upcoming patches are a lot of incremental changes. Improving Rift maps, adding one new tile set and a few new monsters, a few more legendary items, a few new sets, etc.
But nothing that really changes up the game, or adds complexity or new things to do. I asked Travis about plans to make bounties more compelling, to enable rift racing or some static rifts for competitive times, to make campaign mode viable, etc… and to everything he was like, "we've talked about that, but nothing to announce yet."
My hope is that they're working on big stuff like those (and more) for the expansion. Along with another class, etc. And until then we're just getting a bit more content in patches, to tide us over. *hope*
I was also really hoping for something, anything, to change up gameplay from rifts…
I don't even mind rifting but to make it the exclusive thing to do… At least up the drop rates a bit in adventure/story modes.
One part of me is happy they are finally cracking the static maps and randomizing them, but one part is of me is also mad about it because 3 years ago the whole internet has been telling them that it is a shit idea for D3 and they still did it.
Static maps are clearly much less work than random ones. In D3V only the fortress levels of Act 3 even approached the randomness of anything from D2.
Did he really say you could get the Tristram Fields layout in a GR? Does he even play this game? You cant get half the GRs that you can get in regular rifts.