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| Hits: 1803Diablo 3: "Show Some Class!"
Prize: Blizzard Signed Diablo 3 CE Edition Game Box and Mini Tyrael Statue
Instructions:
With BlizzCon13' coming later this year and the real possibility of having an expansion shown one of the new things could be is a new class. That's what I want to see from you! I want you to step up to the plate and create a new class and a few things to go along with it.
What I require at minimum (more couldn't hurt):
- Class Name*
- Archetype style (caster, ranged, healing, tank, hybrid)
- At least 3 unique spells and/or abilities, but more are always welcomed.**
- Any artwork or lore you like behind it (if you can draw great, if not provide some lore to it)
*Can be named anything but keep it clean.
**Can model your spells after D1, D2, or really anything out there, but I'm looking for new ways to do old things. Copying may not win me over.
- The contest is open to US and Non-US residents.
- You can only have one entry, BUT YOU CAN EDIT YOUR POST any amount of times before the end of the contest.
- Contest starts Thursday January 10th, and goes to Thursday January 17th. I will pick a winner on the 18th and announce him or her that day.
- Please post all submissions in this thread.
- EDIT: I have opened this up to the forums of Diablofans. The thread there also doubles as an entry thread. Thread link to Diablofans.
GL, HF
RTG Podcast (Patch 1.0.7 Preview) and Signed Diablo 3:CE & Mini Tyrael Statue Contest!
In the weee hours of Saturday morning for me, Sibcoe and myself did a Patch 1.0.7 Preview. It's going over what going in and what each change can lead to in the future for the game. many good things here.
Also, I know what's it's like to start a new community. Sibcoe is doing a great job and doing a lot for his guys. That is why I have lent one (1) of the Signed Diablo 3:CE & Mini-Tryael Statues to help the community as a whole and give more people that may not have a chance to win it. His contest announcement can be found below, GL!
Dueling / PvP Tournaments
I am currently laying the ground work for tournaments (rules, bracket creation, sign-ups, etc.) to get as much done as possible before the PTR, let alone Patch comes out. I am also going to actively go after some people for advice and to help in making these things special, fun, and a great addition to the site. There is most certainly ways you can help, yes you out there! I have created two new forums to aid in this.
If you have an idea, or would like to help, let me know on the forums in the "Tournament General". Want to make this work!
Lastly, I have added Ventrilo channels to see how this can be done. Remember, 1v1 may be done at first, but 2v2, 3-man, 4-man, and even 2v2 teams are all options. Don't knock it to you try it!
Blue Post Info.
We got some clarifications and more news about different aspects of Patch 1.0.7!
Wyatt Cheng on 1.0.7
Looks like they're doing EVERYTHING people suggested so far.
Give this game a years time and it will have become the game we would've liked to see on release.
Wyatt: Thanks! We've certainly all seen people leave the game and come back. One of the interesting things about being a non-subscription game is that this is okay - there are a lot of really fun games out there! Our job is to make sure that when you do come back, you are coming back to a fun experience. What I want to see is when people do fire up D3 again they think to themselves "Wow, this game is better than I remember" or "I really loved the game before but I [insert issue here] so I quit playing. But now I see they fixed my issue and I love playing again!". I love seeing comments like that on sites such as this one (/r/diablo) and definitely reaffirms the team's desire to continue working to make this game as good as we can :)
Thanks for stopping by but please don't let another 7 months go by without posting! You'll find the rabble rabble pitchforking can be kept to minimum with tiny replies like this. Keep up the good work.
Wyatt: This subreddit is a wonderful community where people talk about builds, publish research, advertise new videos, spread news or just share the latest "TIL". It's a fun, constructive, unique community. I think the communication and ideas shared between players can often be richer when the developers aren't overly involved.
That said - increased communication is a great idea, and it's something we're always thinking about ways to do better.
except monster density....I'm so sick of act 3.
Wyatt: Unfortunately increased monster density in Act 1 and 2 in Inferno difficulty did not make patch 1.0.7. It is absolutely something we would like to improve, and it is still on the list for the future. I spend most of personal play time in Act 3 as well: Keeps 1, Core, Tower, Bridge, Fields. It's a matter of degrees, it'll never all be balanced 100% equal in all zones everywhere you go - but they need to be comparable within a certain tolerance, and we're definitely outside that margin right now.
"We're also increasing the base pickup radius by a small amount." Easily the best change.
Wyatt: Just to make sure we're setting expectations correctly, the radius increase is modest. As mentioned in the blog, for melee characters who are very particular about saving their health globes, we wanted to make sure we didn't increase the radius so much that melee characters picked up health globes unintentionally.
So, kinda imagine a health globe dropping a melee range, we increased pickup by LESS than that. I'd tell you the exact number but I don't remember it off the top of my head and it'll be in the patch notes anyways. The bump is small.
I'm confused about the ruby. Did they change bonus from +damage to +IAS when applied to weapon. And what is this Marquise do?
Wyatt: Sorry for the confusion. The new Ruby gives flat damage increase, much like the existing rubies do. However, because of the way the math works out, the higher your attack speed, the more your character benefits from a flat damage increase.
For example, let's say Your attack speed is 1.1 If a Ruby adds 20 damage to your weapon, then it is adding 22 DPS to your weapon. However, if your attack speed is 2.4, then that same Ruby that adds 20 damage to your weapon is going to add 48 DPS to your weapon. Essentially, flat damage benefits higher attack speeds.
Our goal with the tuning on the new Ruby is that if you have high attack speed, and/or your skill build leans heavily on skills that don't crit (such as Hydra), then you may prefer the flat damage granted by the Ruby over the Critical Hit Damage provided by the Emerald. The exact tuning point has gone through some internal testing but we'll be monitoring things on PTR as well. I expect some clever theorycrafters will figure out some breakpoints for when to use one gem or another.
I'm so happy they didn't mention One With Everything.
Wyatt: One With Everything is not changing in 1.0.7. We still recognize it as an issue, but 1. We do not want to make any change that invalidates the existing gear people have acquired. 2. We have to weigh the cost of any change vs. the benefit of doing so. Does One With Everything feel mandatory to many monks? Yes (though not as much as it used to be). Is fixing it urgent? No.
I love the changes! Only thing...how should it be possible to get 5 stacks before you get to Rakanoth in Act 4?^
Wyatt: I did not mention it in the blog but Nephalem Valor should carry over from Act to Act.
The Patch Notes represent a collated list of the things that have changed in a patch. When choosing which changes to list in a Patch Preview, it's the design teams opportunity to provide some additional commentary, insight or explain the reasoning behind the changes.
Dueling in other acts? Quing in other acts?
We've actually discussed adding a dueling NPC to each Act hub to help address the concern you've brought up (though that may not make it to the PTR).
| | Hits: 1798Diablo 3: "Show Some Class!"
Prize: Blizzard Signed Diablo 3 CE Edition Game Box and Mini Tyrael Statue
Instructions:
With BlizzCon13' coming later this year and the real possibility of having an expansion shown one of the new things could be is a new class. That's what I want to see from you! I want you to step up to the plate and create a new class and a few things to go along with it.
What I require at minimum (more couldn't hurt):
- Class Name*
- Archetype style (caster, ranged, healing, tank, hybrid)
- At least 3 unique spells and/or abilities, but more are always welcomed.**
- Any artwork or lore you like behind it (if you can draw great, if not provide some lore to it)
*Can be named anything but keep it clean.
**Can model your spells after D1, D2, or really anything out there, but I'm looking for new ways to do old things. Copying may not win me over.
- The contest is open to US and Non-US residents.
- You can only have one entry, BUT YOU CAN EDIT YOUR POST any amount of times before the end of the contest.
- Contest starts Thursday January 10th, and goes to Thursday January 17th. I will pick a winner on the 18th and announce him or her that day.
- Please post all submissions in this thread.
GL, HF
Patch 1.0.7 Preview
Update: Nephalem Valor will persists through Acts -
Patch 1.0.7 is currently under development and many of the changes included in that update will soon be on the PTR. Before we hit you with patch notes, though (and a new client to download), here's a preview of what's coming.
- Dueling
- Class Updates
- Crafting Additions
- Monster Power Changes
- Monster Affix Changes
- Quality of Life Improvements
As Jay discussed in his PvP update, patch 1.0.7 will introduce dueling, allowing players to test their mettle against fellow Nephalem. Here's a quick rundown of how dueling will work in Diablo III as well as some insight into our design philosophy for the system.
How it Works:
- To duel another player, you’ll need to speak with Nek the Brawler at the inn in New Tristram
- Speaking with Nek will take you and your party to the Scorched Chapel, a new zone designed specifically for player combat
- This zone has custom geometry and features four different areas: the church, the graveyard, the river, and the lake
- Dueling currently supports up to four players in a Free-For-All format, which means you can battle your friends either one-on-one, three-player FFA, or a full four-player FFA
Our intent is to provide players a safe, opt-in location where they can fight one another for bragging rights (or maybe science) without the potential for griefing as it existed in Diablo II.
The game doesn't keep score and there are no objectives. We wanted dueling to be as simple and straightforward as possible, so we created a minimalist system -- we know that even without rewards and objectives, some players just want to beat each other up. Some matchups may be one-sided, and we don't expect that battles will be necessarily balanced. But that's okay, because dueling in Diablo III is more about kicking ass and taking names in a no-holds-barred sort of way, and this design certainly allows you to accomplish that.
Additional Info:
- If you die in the dueling world, you will be resurrected in the dueling zone
- Death is not permanent in the dueling zone, even for Hardcore characters
- You don't take any durability damage while in the dueling zone
- When you're done dueling you can take a portal out or use your Town Portal to return to town.
In terms of class balance, we focused on improving the Wizard and the Monk this patch.
Wizard
The Wizard is seeing a damage buff to skills such as Arcane Orb, Blizzard, and Shock Pulse. We're also making other small changes such as allowing Illusionist to reset the cooldown of Slow Time and increasing the slow effect of Temporal Flux from 30% for 2 seconds to 60% for 3 seconds.
Monk
The Monk is getting a big damage buff to all Spirit Spenders. One of the most common uses for Spirit is to recast Mantra of Conviction-Overawe for the 3 second bonus. While this is totally legitimate, we want to provide alternate uses for your extra Spirit. As a result, we are greatly buffing all the damage-dealing Spirit Spenders to try and provide an alternate use for your Spirit.
Although the Wizard and Monk are receiving the most changes this patch, that doesn't mean we feel the other classes are perfect. Other classes have received more substantial changes in previous patches, and we still have lots of ideas for the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, and Witch Doctor, but constantly changing class skills can often do more harm than good.
One of the most common requests we get from players is that they'd like to find more items (through drops or crafting) that are as awesome as those that they can get from the Auction House. The Auction House has its advantages: you get to pick the exact stats that you want, it can be thrilling to find a bargain, and if you find a cool drop that your character can't use, the Auction House provides a way to earn gold to put toward an item you prefer. But it has some downsides. The biggest downside is that some players find it more rewarding to collect items from slain monsters or crafting.
Patch 1.0.5 and the Infernal Machine event were successful in this regard, particularly with the Hellfire Ring reward. The Hellfire Ring is account-bound, and all the reagents to make it are also account-bound. So, you can't just go to the Auction House and buy a ring that someone else had found or made—you have to farm the reagents and ultimately craft the Hellfire Ring yourself. And as you play through the event more, you have additional opportunities to roll new Hellfire Rings with potentially better stats (or stats that are more suited to your play style and needs).
New Crafting Recipes
We feel like the Hellfire Ring was a good first step and would like to introduce more items like it. So, working off this design, in 1.0.7 we're adding a new set of Rare crafting recipes that will create account-bound gloves, pants, wrists, a chest piece, and an amulet.
These new items will have six affixes and feature a primary stat (Str, Dex, Int, Vit) that extends higher than what is currently available in the respective slots. The items will also require an account-bound crafting reagent called Demonic Essence, which drops from Elite monsters in Inferno. Much like the reagents in the Infernal Machine event, the chance of getting a Demonic Essence will increase at higher Monster Power levels. Currently we are planning for a 20% chance to drop at Monster Power 0, and each Monster Power will increase the chance of Demonic Essence dropping by 15% (MP1 will be 23%, MP2 will be 26.45%, etc. up to 80.91% at MP10). These are the numbers we’ll be going to PTR with and are subject to change.
The Archon Armor recipe (the chest piece) can be purchased from Squirt the Peddler for 1.5 million gold. The other plans will drop randomly in the world, but also have a 50% chance to drop off the following bosses when you have five stacks of Nephalem Valor:
- Skeleton King
- Spider Queen
- Maghda
- Zoltun Kulle
- Ghom
- Cydaea
- Rakanoth
- Izual
New Gems: The Marquise
In addition to new items, we're also adding a new tier of gems for those who really want to push their character farther. The new tier is called "Marquise" and most of its stats are in line with the current gem progression.
We also took the opportunity to modify the Ruby effect in weapons. At the moment, the Critical Hit damage bonus provided by the Emerald is a clear choice for anybody looking to do more damage with their weapon. The new tier Ruby is a significant bump up that should make it the preferred choice for those who favor attack speed over Critical Hit chance, or for those who use skills which do not benefit as much from Critical Hit such as Sentry and Hydra.
Players often ask why their Sentry or Hydra doesn't inherit their Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage. The answer is that we want players to be able to build their characters in different ways, and we would rather Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage weren’t always automatically the right answer. While this is not something that will change overnight, "different stats for different builds" is a high-level design goal and introducing a very strong Ruby is a step in the right direction.
The current design is that these gems can be combined at the Jeweler for a substantial reagent and gold cost (3 Radiant Star gems, 20 million gold, and 1 Demonic Essence), and the designs will drop randomly from level 63 monsters around the world.
Overall, we've been very happy with Monster Power. Players are playing at a variety of Monster Power levels and upping the challenge. Different builds are of varying effectiveness at different Monster Power levels and we’re seeing a lot of build diversity there.
We do think there are two clear areas where we can improve: making Monster Power available in Public Games, and increasing the XP bonuses for players in Inferno.
Monster Power in Public Games
When the Monster Power system was first introduced, we were wary of making it available for Public Games for two reasons. One, we didn’t want to reduce the pool of games that players could be matched into. And two, we wanted to avoid the potential group tension that could occur if somebody joined a Public Game at a Monster Power level higher than what they’re ready for. (For example, you wouldn’t want a severely undergeared character to join your Monster Power 6 game and constantly die. That can be very hindering to an otherwise powerful group.)
What we realized is that 1) choosing a Public Game and ending up in a game by yourself, but at the Monster Power you want is still preferable than not being able to play in a Public Game at all, and 2) undergeared characters can pretty much roadblock groups in Inferno anyway (if they really want to). We feel that the damage we’re doing to public games by not supporting Monster Power is greater than the potential damage we’d be doing by increasing Public Game waiting times or exposing Monster Power groups to possible leechers.
So, in patch 1.0.7 we're going to be rolling out Monster Power support in public games. You need to have the Monster Power option enabled to use it, of course—same as for making private Monster Power games. Once the feature is enabled, you can choose a Public Game and set a desired Monster Power level from the dropdown. From there, the game will work to match you into a group with the same Monster Power level selected.
Experience Bonuses in Inferno
We're increasing the experience reward for playing on Monster Power levels 1-10 in 1.0.7. Before I go into what's changing, though, here’s a little note on design philosophy. . . .
People often ask what the intention of Monster Power is. Am I supposed to just turn the Monster Power up as high as I can until I die? No, not really. Just because you’re able to beat something doesn’t mean that it’s optimal. In fact, we think there’s a real risk that if the most efficient path for XP or item farming involves playing on the highest Monster Power setting available regardless of the gameplay experience, then the game might actually become a lot less fun for a lot of people.
To take an extreme example: What if we made every monster on Monster Power 10 worth 5000x more experience? In that case, killing even one monster in Monster Power 10 would be worth hours of play at Monster Power 1. But is that what’s best for the game? Players who are looking to be efficient would likely play on Monster Power 10, but they’d be forced into a smaller number of defensive builds. Many players are able to kill things on Monster Power 10 already, but it might require them to use a skill build they don’t enjoy as much and the game can start to feel extremely tedious as you spend a lot of time attacking a monster that takes forever to die. We don’t want to overly-incentivize players into that kind of play style, and making Monster Power 10 the most efficient would undoubtedly cause this to happen.
We believe that Diablo shines when you can spend the majority of your time slaughtering hordes of enemies and then having that punctuated by the occasional difficulty spike either in the form of a particularly challenging set of normal monsters (like an elite pack) or a boss. With that in mind, what we want to do with Monster Power is set the reward so that there are incentives for playing at a higher level, but not make the incentives so powerful that players feel like they need to make the game less enjoyable in order to achieve a faster reward rate.
In line with all of that, we’re currently planning to increase XP bonuses for Monster Power levels to the following values:
- MP 1: 25% (up from 10%)
- MP 2: 50% (up from 20%)
- MP 3: 80% (up from 30%)
- MP 4: 120%(up from 45%)
- MP 5: 165% (up from 60%)
- MP 6: 215% (up from 75%)
- MP 7: 275% (up from 95%)
- MP 8: 340% (up from 115%)
- MP 9: 420% (up from 135%
- MP 10: 510% (up from 160%)
These numbers are still being worked on. We're going to monitor how things play out on PTR and make adjustments as necessary.
And speaking of monsters, we're making some changes to a few affixes this patch:
Reflects Damage
We've adjusted the Reflects Damage mechanic. Monsters with this affix will now pulse a damage reflection shield on and off. While the shield is down, the monster does not reflect damage. When the reflect shield is on, the monster will Reflect Damage the way it does now on live. The shield has a strong visual associated with it so you’ll know it is reflecting. (We’ve also made it so that pet damage is no longer reflected back to the player.)
Molten and Plagued
We've made changes to Molten and Plagued, too. Molten often feels like one of the more threatening ground-based damage effects, and Plagued feels a bit low. So, we’re reducing the damage from Molten packs and increasing the damage from Plagued.
Finally, we’re making some other quality of life improvements to the game that we hope you can all appreciate.
- We're removing the incrementing resurrection timer on consecutives deaths. With the removal of enrage timers in the previous patch and the emphasis on players selecting their level of challenge via the Monster Power system, long resurrection timers no longer serve a useful purpose. It will now be a flat 5 seconds in Softcore. (The resurrection timer in Hardcore remains unchanged. :D)
- We're also increasing the base pickup radius by a small amount. The intention here is to ensure that players who are actively trying to pick up a piece of gold are able to get it. The current radius felt just slightly too small, such that even when you ran quickly past a piece of gold on purpose, you would sometimes fail to pick it up. We still want a meaningful pickup radius to be a gearing choice, so the buff to the base pickup radius is modest. Many players may not even notice. For those who are very meticulous with health globes, the new radius is still small enough that you can avoid picking up a health globe in melee range if you so choose.
These are really just a few of the topline systems changes we’ll be making in 1.0.7, and we hope you’re looking forward to them as much as we are. This patch will be on the PTR very soon, and we encourage you to participate, test out what’s new, and let us know what you think!
--Wyatt
| | Hits: 1697Diablo 3: "Show Some Class!"
Prize: Blizzard Signed Diablo 3 CE Edition Game Box and Mini Tyrael Statue
Instructions:
With BlizzCon13' coming later this year and the real possibility of having an expansion shown one of the new things could be is a new class. That's what I want to see from you! I want you to step up to the plate and create a new class and a few things to go along with it.
What I require at minimum (more couldn't hurt):
- Class Name*
- Archetype style (caster, ranged, healing, tank, hybrid)
- At least 3 unique spells and/or abilities, but more are always welcomed.**
- Any artwork or lore you like behind it (if you can draw great, if not provide some lore to it)
*Can be named anything but keep it clean.
**Can model your spells after D1, D2, or really anything out there, but I'm looking for new ways to do old things. Copying may not win me over.
- The contest is open to US and Non-US residents.
- You can only have one entry, BUT YOU CAN EDIT YOUR POST any amount of times before the end of the contest.
- Contest starts Thursday January 10th, and goes to Thursday January 17th. I will pick a winner on the 18th and announce him or her that day.
- Please post all submissions in this thread.
GL, HF
RTG Podcast
I was able to do another great podcast with Sibcoe of RedTeamGaming. We discussed with another commentator (Dan) about the AH, Dueling, PvP, and how they would effect each other. Also went over predictions for patch 1.0.7 and what we could see by the end of the year.
Ventrilo & Tournaments.
I am in the process of getting what would be required to run a decent tournament in Diablo 3. I have a good program for automatically setting one up in different brackets and keeping track of players. I just need to practice using it. I feel the need to jump the shark because a lot of people would like to do this and you can never be too prepared.
The Ventrilo Page has been updated with new info! I've said it before but the Ventrilo can be used for any game, just keep it civil. If your interested in using it just go to the Ventrilo Link up above and read about it.
Blue Post Info.
The original post here, has a lot of good thought. Also, we got mention of the first things we know that are going to be in Patch 1.0.7. The removale of the death timer!
Criticizing Diablo 3
Thanks for taking the time to craft such a constructive and well-intentioned thread. We really do appreciate the passion of Diablo III players like yourself, and you have some very fair points and feedback, so /highfive for that!
And how an old game had systems inspired already to lead into multiple diversities and that game is full of skill trees and is immensively popular, so those telling me skill trees & stat points is outdated, tell that to a 12 year old game still surviving and is massively going on updates still. It's only outdated if your skill trees/stats don't actually offer any equality between power & variation.
While we enjoyed allocating stats and having intricate skill trees in Diablo II (as well as the benefits they provided), we ultimately feel the current stat and skill system is better for Diablo III. We heavily iterated on the skill trees and stat points in Diablo III for quite some time, but we felt that they simply didn’t fit the direction we wanted to go with the game. They added artificial complexity to the game, but didn’t actually add much in the way of customization. They also often rendered a remarkable penalty, in that if you mis-allocated a stat point or skill the wrong way, or simply wanted to change it at a later point in time, you were out of luck, as you were locked to your original choice.
We strongly feel that in general, players will know whether or not they like a particular skill or play style only after they’ve had a chance to try it out for themselves. And while there definitely is some intrigue and fun to permanently committing yourself to a particular character design, it’s not what we envision for Diablo III. We want players to be able to experiment and find a combination of skills and runes that they enjoy and that fit them the best. We also don’t believe that the current skill system would really benefit from a free allocation of stats, either. We think that players can achieve a sizable level of customization through runes, and that this system fits in much better with the overall design of the game.
You speak of rares or magics and you'll just get laughed at, all everyone talks about is Legendary this that, mempo skorn, manticore blah blah, I haven't played and read enough to know that's all is being mentioned mainly for items and things, which still isn't even fully viable on the new Monster Power...? And one last thing I know Rares are still somewhat useful just as cheap trash gear now until you find your first Legendary and such, but past that you never look back really
If you haven’t played in a few months, you might have missed out on some of the item improvements we’ve made along the way. In terms of patch 1.0.4, you might want to check out the blog we did regarding Legendary Item Improvements as well as the various overall item improvements we made in patch 1.0.5.
Regarding the death timer: The incrementing death timer is actually being removed in 1.0.7.
Paragon Levelling - This is just an extension of your grind, I wouldn't call it an improvement as well, it's just an "illusion" of accomplishment past level 60 which grants nothing but extra "auto-allocated" stats. At first when I saw it being put in I was tempted to re-login and play, but to find out it's just more automated stats even, made it pointless. But after having the thought of just main stat & vit, why doesn't my Paragon levels just tunnel all those stats gained directly into main stat?
It is just a weaker form of levelling from 1-60, just without skills being unlocked. sigh...
The Paragon system was designed as a way to help address Magic Find/gear-swapping and the Magic Find stat in general along with offering an end-game character progression grind. The Diablo III end-game is fundamentally for people who enjoy making their character feel more powerful, investing time into slaughtering hordes of enemies, and hunting for loot. The Paragon system provides players with a predictable reward they can work towards. But for us, grinding alone is not enough. We like that there are still random item drops, you can change your build if you get bored, and it's all designed to complement a fluid combat system.
Infernal Machine - Serves like an event in any MMO it's a scavenger hunt and doesn't seem to thrilling just watching videos and streamers do it. I'm being honest here, it really feels lik an event being held in an MMO, except those FREE MMO's give these kinds of things seasonally and at a higher rate Diablo 3 will ever gain.
In terms of free additional content, we’d love to add more events similar to Infernal Machine to the Diablo universe, but whatever we add needs to fit within the scope of the game and needs to be weighed against other design costs. D3 isn’t an MMO, so it’s not going to receive regular content additions like an MMO (in terms of frequency and reward structures), but we’re definitely keeping our options open for the future, so don’t hesitate to let us know what interests you!
FFXIV:ARR For example the DIRECTOR even said to take WoW as a base test and improve on that and make it into their own style, and to study market trends to see what worked and get player feedback and ENGAGE IN CONVERSATION WITH PLAYERS in a LARGE scale not just a few random select individuals, through FORUMS, SOCIAL MEDIA, BLOGS & FREQUENT POSTS.
Pertaining to engaging in conversations with the players: we aim to do just that, and we’re dedicated to improving on this further. I for one am extremely active on our official social media channels (especially Twitter and Facebook), and have recently started branching out to other communities to try and connect a bit more there as well (including Reddit and DeviantArt). One of the things I think that it’s key to realize, however, is that while part of our job is indeed to be a presence on the forums and communicate with all of you, part of that job also entails stepping away from the forums so that we can gather feedback, communicate with the developers, attend meetings, moderate, draft up social media, write blogs: the whole shebang. The behind-the-scenes portion of our job isn’t easy to see, but hopefully the numerous improvements that have been made over the passing months shows that we’ve been listening and passing along feedback, and we plan to continue doing just that. :)
"Regarding the death timer: The incrementing death timer is actually being removed in 1.0.7."
could we please pick a direction and stick with it? sorry to complain but i had to get it out.
We feel that as the game has evolved and stands now, there are sufficient penalties associated with character death, so the incrementing death timer it doesn’t feel necessary anymore.
What's she's really saying is "Be glad we did anything for you. Regardless of what you may think, the changes were great and the game is big fun. Item choices are interesting, stat allocation is spot on, and if you can't see that then.. well, you're just not doing it right."
Yeah it’s… not really cool to try and paraphrase my words in order to twist the sentiment of my post. :-/
Design decisions are made with a lot in mind, and it’s an ongoing development process that often involves a lot of people. While I can try to offer insight into why we’ve made or are considering certain design decisions, at the end of the day, people’s opinions on it will undoubtedly vary from person-to-person, and since the folks here at Blizzard are gamers just like you, you can bet this passionate bunch has some varied opinions about all sorts of things relating to Diablo III.
While there are aspects of the game you’re bound to jive with, there are undoubtedly others that simply might not be your cup of tea (or blood, since we’re talking about slaying demons here). If you’ve noticed something that you think could be improved, we truly do want to hear about it, but bear in mind that while a lot of feedback we receive sounds really neat (and believe me, I’ve seen some incredibly awesome ideas floating around here), that doesn’t mean we have the bandwidth to do it all, nor that we necessarily believe that certain ideas are best for Diablo III. But as I’ve said before, we’re down to continue to improve it and make it the best game we possibly can.
Regarding that last part I'm glad to hear you're socially active among the venues that most people check and see, but the forums here are equally as important, if not even more. It's quite disheartening to see these threads & many other things go without any response for pretty much half a month each time.
I know you all have to attend meetings conferences design shakedowns and whatnot, I'm not oblivious to that for sure, but it'd nice to get a check-in from you and the other CMs maybe once a week, daily is just asking too much. I've seen Blizzard's studio and HQ(pretty bold statement I guess), seen development teams and gone through development cycles, game design classes & studios and I know that job is extremely demanding from customers(i.e the players) and highly stressful with crazy crunch time and OT during certain phases of milestones and the like. But a simple drop-in weekly would be nice rather than silence for half a month to something else.
Maybe even just rumor debunking would be nice, or small tidbits of why the blog posts are delayed or something. Not asking for miracles or lies here just some communication.
With the exception of our holiday break and whatever time each of us take off for events or vacations throughout the year, we’re here, and we’re busy. Each week we have numerous blogs that go up concerning a variety of topics, and pretty much every weekday one or more of us are actively posting updates to our social media sites as and posting here on the forums. While what we post on might not always be the issue that concerns you most, I can assure you we don’t go months without posting (I’ve posted about a half a dozen times here today, and Lylirra is very active as well). But when time and schedule allows, I’m personally trying to squeeze in more time to post here and elsewhere on the “interwebs.” :)
As I said though, we’re definitely interested on continuing to improve communication with the community. One of the things we’re looking into is a better method to make sure that important “Blue” posts are highlighted, since I suspect many inadvertently are overlooked (which explains some of the repeat questions I see so often).
PTR For Patch 1.0.7?
PTRs are planned indeed :-)
So Vaneras, it must be a reasonably big patch with some serious tweaks if player testing is going ahead?
I am unfortunately not yet able to provide any specifics on the content that will be tested, but it does look to be a sizeable patch :-)
Also, the Diablo III PvP Update blog mentions that dueling is currently scheduled to release with patch 1.0.7, so hopefully (if all goes well) you guys should be able to get some testing done on that.
i'm starting to hate this game more and more >.>
Not a good feeling to have :-(
Please don't forget that it is never wrong to take a break from a game if you are not having a good time playing it... sometimes a break is all it takes for something to become enjoyable again :-)
I am still wondering why you do not better utilize PTRs. PTRs purpose is for in-game testing, right? So let us do the testing, jesus..!
Same goes with TDM, you guys made the decision on your own that PVP is not up to expectations, how about you let us make up our own opinion of it rather than just make your own assumptions.
Finally, how about a drawing board where you state what you are currently working on. A bit of transparency would not hurt anyone, would it? damage control?
You raise some good points, and these points have been raised by others as well, and I just want you to know that we are taking note of them. In regards to one about TDM, I believe I made a few comments on this not too long ago in another thread on that topic.
But to answer your question: Yes, the purpose of PTRs is for player-testing, and we will indeed use them for that purpose. (Keep in mind though, developers will not put content up for testing if they do not feel said content lives up to their design goals.)
In regards to transparency, this is a topic that we can agree that we should try to improve on. I honestly doubt that we will ever see something like developer journals or drawing boards as you suggest, mostly because of the heavy iteration process that constantly goes on in the development team, but it would be wrong of me to say that there is no room for improvement :-)
Just to clear things up - https://twitter.com/...412968469798913
(Diablo We're still busy working on the details, but we're hoping to have it out in the next few days. :))
This stands true, right?
I have not heard anything different since that tweet was made, so I believe this still stands true.
Blog Post Will be Done Before 1.0.7
We don’t have a release date to share at the moment concerning patch 1.0.7, but it’s being worked on as we speak. In terms of the details surrounding dueling, we’re working on a preview of the system and the patch as a whole (the format is pretty similar to this, actually, including being written by a dev) that should address the bulk of your questions. We’d rather share the information with you once the patch preview is ready, though, rather than dole out bits and pieces.
| | Hits: 1518On wards to the information!
RTG - Red Team Gaming Podcast
I had a great time the other day of discussing the positives of Diablo III and talking about what could be done. It was great to get back into the podcast game and look to do more in the future.
Blizzard Holiday Gift Contests Coming Soon
The contests are being written, cooperations are being made, and the time is approaching. Give it till mid next week for info and how to enter. the rarest items are just a few days away!
Blue Post Post Info.
The Art of Blizzard Book Launch and Art Exhibition
Just a few weeks from now will see the official release of The Art of Blizzard book, published by Insight Editions. The Art of Blizzard is a superbly high-quality tome dedicated to presenting and preserving the visual history of Blizzard and our Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises. With over 350 pages and nearly 800 individual pieces, including a never-before-seen look into some of our unpublished projects, this will certainly be a must-have collector's item to adorn even the most discerning of bookshelves and coffee tables.
For those of you in the Southern California area, Gallery Nucleus will be home to a gallery show celebrating the release of The Art of Blizzard. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, January 12, 2013 from 7:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m. Nucleus will be displaying over 60 pieces of artwork from some of your favorite Blizzard games, and the exhibition will run until February 3. Additional details to be announced atwww.gallerynucleus.com. A $5 entrance fee will be collected at the door, but costumed guests get in for FREE!
In addition, Nucleus will be among the first to offer advanced copies of The Art of Blizzard book for sale. Supplies will be limited, so guests should come early to secure their copy. Several of our artists will be in attendance giving painting demos, signing books, and meeting with attendees.
If you have the means, we hope to see you there, and if not we'll let you know as soon as the book officially launches and where you can order or pick up your own copy.
Community Spotlight: 2012 Retrospective
This week's community spotlight takes a look back at the fan art we've featured over the past year. Feast your eyes on all the gorgeous digital paintings, masterfully-crafted costumes, catchy melodies, and more from 2012 below.
Fan Art
Songs, Lyrics, and Covers
Cosplay and Replicas
Don't forget to check out our official Fan Art gallery as well as the winners of the "Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise" Portrait of Champion art contestfor even more amazing Diablo III fan creations.
| | Hits: 2379DE Site Fixed
Looks like site issues have be corrected tonight after 3 days of work, many emails and $100+ bucks today. Issues came from a corrupted extension. No one should have had any issues if they came to the site the past three (3) days, but please do a maleware scan just incase.
I worked with ( www.sitelock.com ) to find, fix, prevent this from happening again.
SiteLock will also be doing daily scans for anything out of the ordinary and alert me to any issues. You can see the daily passing of these scans at the bottom of the website in the footer so you and I know it is 100% clean.
Everything above combined with password changes, clearing out old files, and better back-up management should ensure that the site is safe from this point on.
I only want a safe place to express my thoughts on Diablo III, and more important a safe place for you to come to. There are too many shady sites out there, and I always aim to improve.
Thanks for understanding any issues at this time.
BlizzCon 13?!
It appears that we'll be getting a BlizzCon this year. It was stated many times from different Blizzard sources that BlizzCon was dearly missed last year, but was too busy with 3 IPs in the works (2 releases) plus the Blizzard Tournament. This year is primed to be just as busy in announcements.
Dred's Early call outs (guessing for guessing sake):
- In-game Cinematic preview of next (last - I'm saying it!) WoW Expansion w/gameplay
- Cinematic preview of 1st Diablo III Expansion w/minor gameplay
- In-game cinematic preview of StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void w/bare minimum gameplay
- Cinematic preview of "Titan" w/bare minimum gameplay
Great Community Commentary: RTG - Red Team Gaming
Red Team Gaming (done by RTG Sibcoe) is a great commentary podcaster on DIablo III. He does a few series on Diablo III, but the "State of the Game" series is what I got hooked on. I have reached out to him and am working somethings with him in the near near future. Give him a look over, goes other games as well, in the ARGP genre.
Daily Blue Post Info.
PvP in Diablo
While this is not true for everybody, we totally acknowledge that a lot of people feel this way. Because PvP is so extremely important to quite a few people, it is important to us that the PvP systems we will implement actually work well and are fun to play, and we did not feel this was the case for Team Deathmatch mode for the reasons explained in the blog.
In regards to Diablo II, that game was never really designed as a PvP game, but over time a PvP culture developed around the duelling system that resulted in a lot of people putting a lot of effort of that game into creating and gearing duelling characters. This should hopefully become possible in Diablo III as well come patch 1.0.7.
Again, it is important to emphasise that PvP in Diablo III hasn't been scrapped. While Team Deathmatch mode might not happen in the format that was shown at BlizzCon, something else will.
Gold Spam
Just like the botters you mentioned, we take reports concerning gold spam very seriously and are continuing to take steps to combat it. As long as you are taking the time to report and block these users, then you are helping us ensure that we’re aware of which players are attempting to abuse the friend request system so that we can investigate them and take action against them.
We’re always looking to improve your online experience, and that includes the reporting system. Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback!
| | Hits: 1536Well I said it and it got done, imagine that!
Dred's Bite: A possible PvP Solution
This blog is a continuation of the first blog, Dred's Bite: Diablo III PvP. It deals with what PvP really is, and how to move forward. It also has possible suggestions other than pure deathmatch mode to get your brains thinking outside the box. There will be a third one dealing with PvP, the last mode I wanted to do but requires some UI elements and in general thinking about how to make balance (not force balance).
I hope you enjoy, and happy new year!