The Diablo3 Thread of Heavens and Trembling

[echo]

I like that.

BTW, seeing as though Blizzard likes to announce release dates a month or 2 before release, do you guys see this releasing early next year? With the incoming Beta and a little tweaking I think it may just be a possibility.

Also, anyone notice how much Westeros (From Game of Thrones) looks like Sanctuary? Specifically the Wall when you compare it to the LoD intro.

[Zoop]

Well, they did say they're aiming for a late 2011 release, meaning they should be almost done. Knowing them, early 2012 shouldn't be far off.

[Nferno]

You can check out a video of the character creator and some UI screenies here http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2436-Heroic-Ragnaros-Nerf-Diablo-3-Data-Secret-Level-TCG-Artwork

[The_Furry_Cat]

Heard that some group's busy making it possible to play Diablo 3 beta without having to login. I will.... nvm.

[Mikit0707]

WTF Blizzard? We're all still waiting for Diablo III and China already has expansion packs for Diablo V? I am disappoint.

[Nferno]

WTF Blizzard? We're all still waiting for Diablo III and China already has expansion packs for Diablo V? I am disappoint.

I bet you it still doesn't have LAN play.

[CyniKill]

I lol'd when I saw it has GFWL.

[Zoop]

I'm actually very interested to know what is actually on the disk. :P

[Cleric]

So a friend told me that it won't have skill points, meaning that all characters of the same class will level-up the same way, and the only customisation comes from items and runes. Can anyone confirm this?

[Chainsaw]

So a friend told me that it won't have skill points, meaning that all characters of the same class will level-up the same way, and the only customisation comes from items and runes. Can anyone confirm this?

If this is true, it'd be the last nail in my "I'm not buying this" sign.

[Cleric]

If this is true, it'd be the last nail in my "I'm not buying this" sign.

Well let me say after playing through this game on a couple characters, I have made some observations about the changes and my playing experience. Some aspects that were added to the game have been an upgrade to Diablo 2's mechanics, but several are a step in the wrong direction. However, as it stands. I believe this game is not worth the time or money.

Picking up cash in Diablo 2 was tedious at best, and the new system of automatically picking up money as you pass by it was for the better. Saving me some time from getting carpal tunnel earlier. Carrying of teleport scrolls has been changed into saving you from carrying a tomb, thus freeing up a wopping 2 slots from your pack. You can also sell from anywhere in the game, which is kinda a plus. The new craft system seems like it got disenchanted straight out of world of warcraft, and is almost identical to the Enchanting from WoW, except rather than skill yourself up, you must find items to skill your blacksmith up.

The classes seem very Diablo 2 like except for the fact that they all have a Rage/Energy/Mana mechanic taken directly from WoW. Seems like all that time creating WoW paid off for this game. I sure am glad that Diablo 2 was out long before WoW. Now we will talk about some of the negative features.

I believe the things I'm going to mention now are the reasons why I won't purchase this game as is. There is absolutely no customization or diversity in this game, period. In diablo 2 I had three different sorcs on my account. Each had different skill set, level of skillls that I perfered to play with them, stats that I purchased to customize my characters to my playing style, and gear that suited my needs.

However, in this game every barbarian can be like every other barbarian in a matter of seconds. There are no skill trees to vary your character apart, nor stat points to vary how you wanted your attributes. These basic things that the Diablo game always had gave it a high replay value, and made it fun to try the same class with different builds. This game doesnt even give the courtesy of a Talent tree to specialize skills you perfer over other players. Only your gear makes the difference, and that is pretty restrictive as well.

Overall, I'd say that this game is what World of Warcraft would look like in 3rd person. The changes in graphics, and slight modifications that easy gameplay from Diablo 2 do not outweigh the horrible lack of cu

link

[GeometriX]

You guys should really read NAG - it's a pretty informative magazine.

No skill points. No stat points. Your skills and stats rank up automatically as you gain levels. New skills are unlocked as you gain levels. Classes are customised by choosing which skills you want assigned to your class (total of six active, three passive), and by putting runes into skills to change their behaviour.

Having played the game a little bit, I got a good feel for the skills progression and customisation. Essentially, they've removed the linear skill progression and made it more open. Taking all the runes into account (which change the behaviour of the skills quite a bit), there are over 120 active and 20+ passive skills per character class. Since you can only assign six active skills at once, I'd say there's quite a bit of space to create your ideal class. That's not even including the equipment customisation and selection, which, despite the claims of the above-quoted person, is actually more open than that of D2.

Yes, the skills system is more forgiving, more accessible and more open. That doesn't mean that the game is any less fun to play.

[FreakKing]

link

<stands up>
Hi, my name is FreakKing and I've never played WoW. <gasp> Does this still mean I won't enjoy Diablo III?

You guys should really read NAG - it's a pretty informative magazine.

(o.O) To be honest, I actually forgot about the magazine.

Yes, the skills system is more forgiving, more accessible and more open. That doesn't mean that the game is any less fun to play.

This is what I wanted to know. Thanks!

<sits down>

[Chainsaw]

link

D:

[hideinlight]

Basically you can't just level one skill, or up a dozen skillpoints for lvl30 skills.

[Yuri]

Just read this now, and it's pretty huge for us in deep dark africa. There has also been alot of comments from Aussie players agreeing with this, so it seems pretty legit


http://diablo.incgamers.com/

Latency no longer a Factor in Diablo 3 Combat?

I know, it almost sounds like a dream, but it appears that it?s true!

According to a few sources playing the F&F Beta, it seems that Blizzard may have found a way to completely remove the delay of character combat actions resulting from network latency. This is further evident in many of the gameplay streams and youtube footage, in which nearly all combat actions appear to be instantaneous as if played in single-player. From what we understand, this only applies to combat actions, and not other gameplay functions, such as looting, chests, salvaging etc. The exception being big lagspikes, which will always cause a delay.

This has been corroborated further by F&F beta players who live in Australia. They are reporting that they are not seeing any delays in their combat actions, while having at least 200ms latency.

F&F sources have it that Blizzard are using a new method of client/server communication that provides a secure and tamper-proof method of using the local client to handle its own calculations, while sending the data to the server for verification. The Client doesn?t require the server to respond, hence removing Latency from the equation. The exact technical information of how this works is unknown, particularly how it protects the game from tampering with the client, however it is believed that the server checks all the data that comes from the client, and if it detects tampering it disconnects the client. This eliminates the need for the client to have to wait for a response from the server, and runs as business as usual unless the server doesn?t like what the client has sent it.

This is huge news, particularly for players in Australia, New Zealand and other high-latency regions that don?t have localized servers. Diablo 3 combat looks very fast-paced and the slightest delay would make the game feel rather broken.

If this turns out to be accurate, huge props to Blizzard for getting rid of the plague we call high-latency!

Update: More F&F Beta testers have further corroborated this information. Naturally we can?t confirm this as 100% fact as we have not experienced the Beta, however it seems that all combat actions are instant despite your latency! All rejoice! (AU and NZ players especially!)

[GeometriX]

Man, I called the **** out of that.

[SnowWar]

That guy from the quote that Cleric posted does not even really know the game. lol



Jump to 12:30 in the vid
Talking about latency and mentioning of Aus, NZ & SA and guys playing from there with feedback.

[FoX]

Ok that's good to know that the combat will be lag free, but the item drops will still lag? so by the time my stone of jordan drops I'll be 2 screens away, so we'll have to kill-wait-loot next monster repeat?

[MonGooS]

Ok that's good to know that the combat will be lag free, but the item drops will still lag? so by the time my stone of jordan drops I'll be 2 screens away, so we'll have to kill-wait-loot next monster repeat?

You shouldn't have more than 300-800ms delay, which is only 0.3-0.8 seconds. I don't think you will have a problem with running 2 screens before your loot drops, unless you plan on running it with 56k internet and 20 second delay. :P