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Diablo III - Launching May 15


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So what happens when you can't go online? It's going to happen whether due to maintenance, problems on the Blizzard servers, or if they keep the current system of D2 where you won't be able to create a game if you are suspected of botting behavior.

 

What if somebody had a way of running the game better, but it requires either tweaking .ini of .config settings(or equivalent thru a third party application)? Under the NO MOD rule, even simple changes to files could get your account banned. I see the company approach as too restrictive and disrespectful towards a customer.

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D3 will require a constant internet connection and there will be no character customization. No skill trees, no Single Player(except thru online), no LAN, no character customization. No interest in the game.

That just ruined the game for me.

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It's looking to be a kind of baby mmo. I've been reading a lot of debates across the net regarding Blizzard's decision to only make this a permanent net game, but for me, I was actually looking forward to this mainly as a MP game.

Yeah, but what if you didn't have a nice stable net connection? Or the D3 servers get swamped & become unstable? Can't play your new game 'cause someone's running a DDOS attack against Blizzard?

 

Apparentlly, we'll be able to sell items ingame and actually retrieve it into real life!

 

Err... lol are we going to have to pay taxes on this kind of income?

What do you think Gogo? ;) Do you think the/any government would pass up the opportunity to charge people more tax? Assuming that they find out how much you've been "earning" of course.

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It's looking to be a kind of baby mmo. I've been reading a lot of debates across the net regarding Blizzard's decision to only make this a permanent net game, but for me, I was actually looking forward to this mainly as a MP game.

Yeah, but what if you didn't have a nice stable net connection? Or the D3 servers get swamped & become unstable? Can't play your new game 'cause someone's running a DDOS attack against Blizzard?

I'm thinking the same thing. Also, I usually fire up a game when there is no internet connection. This would just backfire on me.

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D3 will require a constant internet connection and there will be no character customization. No skill trees, no Single Player(except thru online), no LAN, no character customization. No interest in the game.

That just ruined the game for me.

 

Sniff, me too :(

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Wont be surprised if someone mods it to be playable offline as well.

 

As seems to be the nature of things its is probably safe to assume that at some point the game will be cracked and made to run without the constant connection to blizzards servers.

 

Personally, I'm not too put out by the constant interent connection thing anyway seeing as if I played this it would most likely be online anyway (like with I do with sacred 2) so I would need the interent connection anyway.

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Wont be surprised if someone mods it to be playable offline as well.

Probably, but apparently Blizzard aren't going to be shipping the server code with the retail game, so in order to mod/hack it they'd have to re-engineer all of the server-side code.

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Just went down in my estimation. I only have mobile "broadband" (more like mobile wait-a-lifetime-for-it-to-do-anything-band) I'm not entirely sure I can rely on being online all the time. The wind may change, or a crow may fly through the signal. I'll still be buying it to give it a go, but I think I now have more reason to keep levelling my characters in Sacred 2.

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I really don't mind being online when I want to play online, but not being able to play SP if there is no connection is just terrible.

Diablo 2 gave me tons of fun, but I really don't know whether I like the setup of blizzard for this sequel.

 

A nice article on story and skills, translated and slightly altered from an article on tweakers. net:

Diablo III story and skills

 

In the person of Chris Metze Blizzard has had a real lore master in the house for many years, monitoring the back stories of the Blizzard series, the main lines along which the history of the series proceeds. This lore master descended from Blizzard's ivory towers to come down at Blizzards own theatre where two dozen European guests were explained the story of Diablo III. According to Metz, an excellent, albeit occasional distracted narrator, Diablo III is still all about the struggle between good and evil, represented here by the High Heavens and the Burning Hells.

 

These two forces, represented by angels and demons, have fought each other in the Eternal War long enough for both sides to have soldiers tired of the fighting. These renegades from both camps together founded Sanctuary, a beacon of peace in a universe full of struggle. In the quiet of the Sanctuary angels and demons even began mixing, and there arose the Nephalem, a new and mortal race. Well before the start of the first game humanity evolved out of the Nephalem.

 

 

Three evil brothers

 

These peaceful conditions would persist until trouble emerged within the Burning Hells. After a civil war the three Prime Evils, Diablo, Mephisto and Baal, were exiled. Unfortunately Sanctuary was chosen as a place of exile. To not immediately ruin this peaceful society, archangel Tyrael made sure the three exiles were encapsulated in as many Soul Stones as possible and hidden in remote parts of Sanctuary. Obviously not the brightest of ideas. At the beginning of the series, in the first game, it’s Diablo, Lord of Terror, living in a cave beneath the town of Tristram, to be defeated. At least, temporarily.

 

That "temporariness" set the tone for Diablo II. There, Diablo manages not only to escape, he also liberates his two brothers. Enough for another game full of struggle, in which Mephisto and Diablo are defeated, but Baal escapes. That escape is central to the expansion of Diablo II, which inherits the nickname of Baal: Lord of Destruction. It would take the archangel Tyrael again to restore peace.

 

 

That has to go wrong...

 

The start of Diablo III marks the end of yet another peaceful period lasting twenty years. In the realm of the Diablo franchise such a thing can never be forever, unfortunately. The first message of doom comes from veteran Deckard Cain, a gray man who in previous games had lessons for the heroic adventurers enabling them to fight the three brothers. Cain has been wandering for decades, searching the quiet sanctuary for old stories. He managed to compile the stories into the Prophecy of the End Days. Cain predicts that the Lords of the Burning Hells are ready for a final attack on humanity, an attack that should mean the end of the Sanctuary.

 

End of times

 

The game begins with an initial indication of the end of time: a huge fireball on Earth ends. Fallen star who is the beginning of the end? The star will in any case that New Tristram, built on the foundations of the ancient, flooded with the dead who have risen from their graves impact. Fortunately, the same Deckard Cain is around you at the beginning of the game by giving advice. Although he actually usually leaves it to Leah, his niece who he is training. Leah serves as the connecting link between the scholar and the player. With the advice of Leah and Cain the player must take on the Risen King, whose resurrected form is condemned to serve Diablo.

 

The first steps in Diablo III New Tristram puts you just outside the camp. On the way to the gate of the settlement you encounter your first battles with the undead that threaten the resort. If you show as a worthy fighter, you are allowed in the settlement and you’ve begun your battle against evil. But before we go deeper into the fight with the various classes, first a generalization about combat in Diablo III. Compared to the previous times we were allowed to start the game, Blizzard has made a subtle change. The makers have limited the number of buttons on your Hotbar to six. This means that together with the two buttons on your mouse you will have access to eight different skills to use. That's less than before and less than the total number of spells that you can learn during the game. So you will have to choose which spells your character should be able to utilize.

 

 

Wyatt Cheng on Skills and Runes

 

Responsible for this change is Wyatt Cheng, one of several Blizzard employees of Asian origin. He is charged with designing skills and runes. "The reduction has a surprising amount of influence, in a way that suits us very well," Cheng said. "We reduced the number of skills you can place your Hotbar from seven to six. This seems a limitation, which it is of course, but it leads to greater variation. When there were seven skills, it lead to virtually similar characters. Everyone chose the same skills. Now you are more selective and are required to think through about what skills to use. Hence, greater diversity emerges. "

 

 

Five colors

 

"Furthermore, we have again incorporated Runes with which you can upgrade the skills you learn during the game. The Runes come in five colors: crimson-red, indigo-blue, golden-yellow, alabaster-white and obsidian black. Each skill can be combined with a Rune of any color. Hence, there is the standard form of a skill and five variants, provided you have the right rune to create the desired effect. Finding a Rune is as unpredictable as finding any object, which is as random in Diablo III as you would expect from the series. Also, we gave the Runes a thematic effect, although we are not very strict in it. Red Runes for example, will usually add damage, and yellow influence efficiency. "

 

 

Strengthen the weaknesses

 

"I'm very curious about the upcoming beta test. Since I am responsible for skills and runes, I am actually responsible for the balance between the different classes in the game. We will obviously gain a lot of data from the test, we can see exactly which skills and runes players choose and how often they use certain skills. This gives me valuable information about the balance. When people think about that balance, they always start right on the skills that are too strong. But I 'm really mostly interested in the opposite. My aim is not so much to nerf the strong skills. They are widely used and are therefore perhaps good as they are. I just want to know why all those other skills are used less frequently, and find a way for those skills to become just as popular as so called overpowered skills. If something is overpowered, then we hear that all too often. If something is underpowered, you will never hear of it, hence we have to actively retrieve that information from the data."

 

 

Room for variation

 

But isn’t it boring, if everything is so thought out and balanced? "That we obviously try to avoid. We're even consciously taking into account any alternative playing styles. With every skill we try to create a particular Rune with a somewhat contradictory effect. With Runes we allow a Wizard to deal some damage in melee, though it actually is not the intention of the class. The same goes for the Demon Hunter, another class based on spellcasting. We want to allow the skills of the Demon Hunter to be tweaked by Runes, resulting in melee skills. Obviously, these tweaks will not turn a class around. We will only sacrifice a small part of the Rune-options, but we find it important to allow for such diversity. So I would also implement the option to build a Barbarian who can throw axes, no longer a melee class. With every class we have these alternative options to consider." Cheng hopes to achieve a higher sense of simplicity in the upgrading of characters in Diablo III, while the system depth is maintained.

 

Source (Dutch)

Edited by Timotheus
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D3 will require a constant internet connection and there will be no character customization. No skill trees, no Single Player(except thru online), no LAN, no character customization. No interest in the game.

 

Geez no.............if that is correct, then I am well gutted ! :(

 

No character customization. No skill trees, no Single Player = no fun ! I am so very sad at this news as D3 was a game that I really wanted.

 

If all of that is a fact, then I won't be buying it. Full stop.

 

Steve.

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Online only... :sick:

 

Just heard the news (yup, I'm living under a big rock right now) and sadly, the online only thing seems pretty much set in stone. Quite sad, as I've been sort of waiting for DIII, even though some of their latest design choices seem strange (no skill points, eh?), and now, possibly months from release, they give me this...

 

Meh. As I never even play MP, naturally I've absolutely no interest in a MMOG, be it full-fledged or just a "baby" one, so I'll probably skip on the game, unless of course some sort of "offline hack" appears. Looking at the reactions on the net, it looks like I'm not the only one.

 

Still, a bummer.

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I don't like the online only, as it removes the option of playing purely offline for those who need/want it.

 

Still regarding the talk about disconnects and losing internet etc. that would be there even if the game had offline mode. Obviously playing online after loss of internet is never possible whether the game is D2, Sacred 2 or D3.

 

Offline mode is only a benefit for people who choose ALWAYS to play 'offline'. And they should have such an option for sure. It is removed because of DRM, which by definition sucks... and partially because of improved security, which is a valid reason, just not enough to justify the cost of no offline to be honest.

 

Further, it isn't really a question of singleplayer or multiplayer, as singleplayer can be played online and multiplayer traditionally could be played offline (LAN and stuff). Details I know, but probably doesn't help the cause against stupid game companies when it is being mixed up.

 

 

The biggest ****storm for me regarding Diablo 3 is not the online only part though, it is the real money trading. I mean, what the frak?

Edited by Shadout
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I dont see the problem with the real money trades, as there's no one forcing you to buy anything.

 

To be honest I like the idea of having the chance to earn some cash by selling gear I don't need, making money from playing? should be every gamers dream IMO...

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I dont see the problem with the real money trades, as there's no one forcing you to buy anything.

 

To be honest I like the idea of having the chance to earn some cash by selling gear I don't need, making money from playing? should be every gamers dream IMO...

+1

 

Took the words out of my mouth post right out of my fingers :D

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I don't see that.

By making it money-based, it kinda stops being a game.

People who stay out of the trading will still be affected, as the games gold-economy will be affected by it*.

 

As far as selling items, the money you might be able to make from it would be minuscule at best. At least compared to the time spent.

 

 

*Unless you play HC mode that is. No real money trading there. Which suddenly made me interested in HC for the first time ever.

Edited by Shadout
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no character customization.

I think that's going a bit far, there'll be as much character customisation (possibly more, to an extent) as there is in Guild Wars. GW didn't have skill points (though it did have stat/attribute points) & D3 has skill runes...

 

These peaceful conditions would persist until trouble emerged within the Burning Hells. After a civil war the three Prime Evils, Diablo, Mephisto and Baal, were exiled. Unfortunately Sanctuary was chosen as a place of exile. To not immediately ruin this peaceful society, archangel Tyrael made sure the three exiles were encapsulated in as many Soul Stones as possible and hidden in remote parts of Sanctuary. Obviously not the brightest of ideas. At the beginning of the series, in the first game, it’s Diablo, Lord of Terror, living in a cave beneath the town of Tristram, to be defeated. At least, temporarily.

Either that's a really bad translation of something from English into Dutch & back into English again or they've changed the backstory again. The Prime Evils were exiled to Sanctuary & then hunted down & imprisioned in 3 soul stones.

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I don't see that.

By making it money-based, it kinda stops being a game.

 

 

It does?

Yeah. I wouldn't consider gambling nor betting as games. Although the betting can be about a game or more often a sport (like the horse race picture).

 

The closest example to Diablo 3 you could have posted would have been something like Magic the Gathering card game though.

Which I obviously wouldn't really consider a game either - although one could set up rules within the system to make a game out of it - such as draft tournaments where people don't bring their own cards.

 

A game, as I see it (I realize there exists no decent definition of the word) is a self-contained closed system, build up by rules and goals. Closed system means it is internally balanced. You play by the same internal rules. Like in chess, which is obviously 100% internally balanced, something many games cant claim to be, white and black are totally equal. In other games its more a case of internally equal potential, where you in theory are balanced, but random luck or your own choices can upset the balance. Like the classic rock-paper-scissor game, where stone and scissor obviously isn't balanced against each other, but the system as a whole is.

 

In Diablo 3 (outside of HC), and in Magic (without drafting or similar), you don't have an internal balance. The 'game' is dictated by external influence. As if you could pay to use a 'Nuke hand-sign' in rock-paper-scissors (not entirely like this, because you can't buy anything in Diablo 3 which can't be gained for free) or buying a second queen in chess.

Edited by Shadout
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I don't see that.

By making it money-based, it kinda stops being a game.

 

 

It does?

Yeah. I wouldn't consider gambling nor betting as games. Although the betting can be about a game or more often a sport (like the horse race picture).

 

The closest example to Diablo 3 you could have posted would have been something like Magic the Gathering card game though.

Which I obviously wouldn't really consider a game either - although one could set up rules within the system to make a game out of it - such as draft tournaments where people don't bring their own cards.

 

A game, as I see it (I realize there exists no decent definition of the word) is a self-contained closed system, build up by rules and goals. Closed system means it is internally balanced. You play by the same internal rules. Like in chess, which is obviously 100% internally balanced, something many games cant claim to be, white and black are totally equal. In other games its more a case of internally equal potential, where you in theory are balanced, but random luck or your own choices can upset the balance. Like the classic rock-paper-scissor game, where stone and scissor obviously isn't balanced against each other, but the system as a whole is.

 

In Diablo 3 (outside of HC), and in Magic (without drafting or similar), you don't have an internal balance. The 'game' is dictated by external influence. As if you could pay to use a 'Nuke hand-sign' in rock-paper-scissors (not entirely like this, because you can't buy anything in Diablo 3 which can't be gained for free) or buying a second queen in chess.

 

 

Lots of stuff starts out as games, closed systems and easily managed.

 

But stuff grows. Hence for me, playing Poker is nothing but a game. But for some of my uncles, it's professional stuff, and they won't ever play it with me becuase I don't see it as a job, while they do.

 

The chess analogy you use is a matter of perspective as well. It can or may not be a game, but it depends on how far the perception goes. A child playing chess, game, maybe...

 

And for adult, depending on how far he wants to go with it, and if it connects to sponsors or not...game or job.

 

I see D3 as being a money grab.

 

Nothing wrong with that. I don't see any point in figgering out whether it's going to be considered a "game" or not.

 

What's important, to me though, is whether whatever it is entertains me or not^^

 

:)

 

gogo

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In Diablo 3 (outside of HC), and in Magic (without drafting or similar), you don't have an internal balance. The 'game' is dictated by external influence. As if you could pay to use a 'Nuke hand-sign' in rock-paper-scissors (not entirely like this, because you can't buy anything in Diablo 3 which can't be gained for free) or buying a second queen in chess.

You could use that argument against any form of trading (real money, in-game gold or bartering for other items), or twinking. But I don't think that many people (excepting the "purest" ironman/hardcore players) would say that trading with other players is a "bad"/unfair thing, so why does it matter how someone pays for an item from another player?

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so why does it matter how someone pays for an item from another player?

 

 

That's how I see this as well. People are finally gettng honest with how everying is really connected and possibly influenced :devil:.

 

So called "closed" systems only existed or were pereived that way because of limitations... with gaming through technology and reach... now with Blizzard playing this scenario out, the real reach of gaming is going to be seen and it's going to honestly impact our lives.

 

Maybe the only real "closed" things left is a game of checkers?

 

But who knows if someone's in the shadows pulling the strings eh?

 

:devil:

 

gogo

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