[PC] Diablo 3 - Deel 2

[psychoclown]

Navigatie

Algemene Info Character Classes Aanvullende Info Content System Requirements tweakers IRC channel Diablo 3 Vorige delen: Deel 1

Algemene Info

Diablo 3 We’re developing Diablo III to be the definitive action role-playing game, and a true continuation of the Diablo series. Players will create a hero from one of five distinct classes, such as barbarian or witch doctor, each equipped with an array of spells and abilities. As these heroes adventure through rich and varied settings, unraveling an epic storyline and engaging in combat with hordes of monsters and challenging bosses, they’ll grow in experience and ability and acquire items of incredible power. The game takes place on Sanctuary, a world of dark fantasy. Unbeknownst to most of its inhabitants, Sanctuary was saved some twenty years ago from the demonic forces of the underworld by a few brave and powerful heroes. Most of those warriors who directly faced Hell’s armies -- and were fortunate enough to survive -- went mad from their experiences. And most of the others have buried their haunted memories and pushed the horrors from their thoughts. In Diablo III, players will return to Sanctuary to confront evil in its many forms once again. Diablo III will be a fitting sequel to Diablo II, with the easy interface, fast-paced action, and visceral gameplay that Diablo players have come to expect and enjoy. It will also include many new features that will take the Diablo action-RPG experience to the next level. We look forward to going into much more detail on our plans for Diablo III as development on the game progresses. What’s new about Diablo III compared to the previous Diablo games? Exciting new classes like the witch doctor bring new gameplay options to the table. Returning classes, like the barbarian, have been completely redone with new skills to give them a feel unique to Diablo III. New customization options will provide for an even greater level of character specialization than the previous Diablo games, allowing the player to create unique characters brimming with power. Diablo III is powered by a new graphics engine that can display characters and hordes of monsters in lush, fully 3D environments. Powerful special-effects systems and Havok-powered physics allow the player to lay waste to Hell’s minions in spectacular ways. Also, Diablo III builds on the random environments of the previous Diablo games by introducing a host of new ways to create random scripted events throughout the game. This creates a dense and exciting world alive with quests, NPCs, dynamic encounters, and viciously challenging new monsters and bosses. Diablo III’s environments add a great deal of interactivity to the game, including destructible elements and environmental obstacles that can be turned against your enemies. In addition, Diablo III will benefit from Battle.net upgrades that will provide some exciting new features for players. Cooperative online play remains a primary focus, with multiple enhancements being planned to make connecting with your friends easier and cooperative gameplay even more fun. We’ll have more details on all these aspects as well as other exciting new features at a later date. Storyline Two decades have passed since the demonic denizens, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, wandered the world of Sanctuary in a vicious rampage to shackle humanity into unholy slavery. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils directly, the memory fades slowly and the wounds of the soul still burn. When Deckard Cain returns to the ruins of Tristram's Cathedral seeking clues to new stirrings of evil, a comet from the heavens strikes the very ground where Diablo once entered the world. The comet carries a dark omen in its fiery being and it calls the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world against the rising powers of the Burning Hells – and even the failing luminaries of the High Heavens itself.

Character Classes

Barbarian: I came to see firsthand the barbarians, those near-legendary, immense, relentless, dual-wielding furies of the combat dwelling upon their sacred Mount Arreat. Instead, I stand here looking at a mountain that has been torn asunder by some extraordinary force. The sight, I must confess, is incomprehensible. Yet what I see before me cannot be denied.... Skills - Battlecry - Furious Charge - Hammer of the Ancients - Whirlwind Witch Doctor: Most believe the fearsome witch doctor of the umbara race a legend, but I have seen one in battle with my own eyes. And it was difficult to believe, even then. I was fortunate to befriend the witch doctor I saw in battle, and, through him, his tribe: the Tribe of the Five Hills.... Skills - Horrify - Wall of Zombies

Aanvullende Info

Features • Five powerful character classes to choose from, including the barbarian and witch doctor. • Brand-new 3D graphics engine enhanced with spectacular visual effects and Havok physics. • Numerous indoor and outdoor areas detailing new regions in the world of Sanctuary. • Interactive environments with dangerous traps and obstacles, and destructible elements. • Randomly generated worlds bolstered by scripted events for endless and dynamic gameplay. • Vast assortment of fiendish monsters, with unique attack patterns and behaviors. • New quest system and character-customisation options for the ultimate action RPG experience. • Multiplayer functionality over Battle.net with support for cooperative and competitive play. New Type of Items - Minor Lethality Rune - Minor Power Rune - Ancient Medallion - Minor Energy Rune - Chipped Star Topaz - New "star" variant - Elixir of Vitality I - Elixir of Willpower I Inventory Blizzard said they have plans for making the inventory much better. In the video we can see room for 30 items. It seems each item will have it's own reserved space with no size variations, similar to the bag system of World of Warcraft. The Barbarian, however, has only 12 item spaces "active" or "available", other 18 being "grayed out". This means characters in D3 will be able to carry variable sizes of bags. If you look at the bottom of the inventory space, there are 4 grayed out slots for bags, similar to World of Warcraft. The icon for these bags is the same as the main inventory screen icon. Skills - Battlecry - Furious Charge - Hammer of the Ancients - Horrify - Wall of Zombies - Whirlwind

[ Voor 165% gewijzigd door psychoclown op 15-08-2008 15:26 ]

[psychoclown]

Content

Screenshots [img width=120 height=80]http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss16-thumb.jpg[/img width=120 height=80] Wallpapers Links • Official Diablo 3 Site - Alles over Diablo 3 waar je de komende weken steeds meer te weten zal komen. • Deckard Cain's Journal Lore - Storyline van Diablo 2 en Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. • Diablo 3 Cinematic trailer 720p - Cinematic trailer van Diablo 3 in 720p, 48MB groot. • Diablo 3 Gameplay video 720p - Gameplay beelden van Diablo 3 in 720p, 568MB groot. • tweakers IRC channel Diablo 3 - Hier kun je slowchatten over Diablo 3.

System Requirements

System requirements zijn nog niet bekend gemaakt. Zodra ze beschikbaar zijn zullen ze natuurlijk hier te vinden zijn.

[ Voor 109% gewijzigd door psychoclown op 15-08-2008 10:39 ]

[Anoniem: 266358]

Zo vind ik dat diablo 3 er eigenlijk uit zou moeten zien. Deze graphics horen veel meer bij de diablo wereld. Donkerder en grauwer

(Heb alleen geen idee hoe ik het plaatje moet verkleinen vondt ze op http://www.diablofans.com/forums.)

[ Voor 21% gewijzigd door Anoniem: 266358 op 29-06-2008 17:43 ]

[Anoniem: 263816]

Ook erg interessant dit..

[Angeloonie]

	[color=white]Blabla.[/color]

Knutselen in PS voor een Topicstart is leuk

Helaas past hij hier niet

[Anoniem: 182205]

Hehe....

zo'n 2 weken geleden al geannounced op www.diabloii.net!


Maar lijp die HQ intro filmpje.... en dan die barbarian dat effe uit elkaar gerukt wordt


can't wait



Dit lijkt me zo'n fukking vette map worden... en kijk de datum eens in de map

[ Voor 67% gewijzigd door Anoniem: 182205 op 01-07-2008 18:21 ]

[Kwastie]

Er schijnt een demo van Diablo 3 te zijn geleaked. Het is weliswaar een demo maar volgens mij valt het onder warez, dus ik post geen link. (mocht het wel mogen dan mag iemand anders dat doen).

Ik kan niet bevestigen dat het om een echte demo gaat of om een Hoax.

Dit is volgens hun het bewijs:



Maar als je goed naar het plaatje kijk zie je overal waar diablo staat het 'korrelig' is. (ik denk dus dat het fake is:))

[ Voor 34% gewijzigd door Kwastie op 03-07-2008 16:39 . Reden: Image toegevoegd ]

[Bulls]

Anoniem: 232926 schreef op vrijdag 04 juli 2008 @ 12:59:
Misschien een beetje voorbarig om nu al een petitie te beginnen over de graphics van een spel dat nog een jaar tot anderhalf van de release verwijdert is.

Niet mee eens! Het is juist nooit tevroeg om er iets aan te veranderen voordat de hele game al designed is in een bepaalde style. Als je hierover begint te zeuren wanneer hij al gold is ben je lang en breed telaat.

Aan één kant had ik al verwacht als D3 gemaakt zou worden dat het WoW graphics zou krijgen.
Misschien doen ze het om een breder publiek te trekken en het ook voor jongere gamers aantrekkelijk te maken. Maar Diablo is niets voor kindjes.

dit is mijn favoriet

[Loona35]

Gamespot

GameSpot: What were you hoping from the Blizzard Invitational?

Andrew Park: I was hoping Blizzard would finally take the wraps off of Diablo III, and it happened. It wasn't exactly the best-kept secret in the game industry, but it's good to finally get that out there.


Diablo III is finally here.

GS: Do you feel Blizzard will be criticized for its conservative design approach with Starcraft II, Lich King, and Diablo III?

AP: I have yet to see any challenges leveled at Blizzard's conservative approach ever stick, and I include all remarks I myself have ever made in there, too. The company has been successful for as long as I can remember and has legions of loyal fans. Take Diablo III, for instance--if Blizzard had drastically altered the formula by making the sequel into, oh, I don't know, let's say a massively multiplayer game like World of Warcraft, that could've alienated a huge portion of the fans. Also, in the case of Diablo III, while I like the new art direction, I'm positive the game will scale well to lower-end hardware as pretty much all Blizzard games have, and because I know Blizzard is smart enough to realize that a great part of the Diablo series' longevity is due to laptop gaming.

GS: Based on what we learned at the event, how do you feel about Blizzard and its lineup in the future?

AP: Blizzard is a company that used to take the wraps off only one or two games at a time, so I think it's a very interesting development that we're now seeing what looks like an actual product lineup revealed publically--three games out in the open, plus a fourth one waiting in the wings. You could speculate that this change in approach might have something to do with the Activision merger. I hope this might be a sign of things to come--the start of a more candid approach for the traditionally tight-lipped studio to talk about its projects in the future.

[Anoniem: 57485]

Wat zie ik nou op Gamespot???

[psychoclown]

Update:

Fansite exclusive Concept Art:

Blizzard Comment over de classes in D3

quote: Bashiok

Yeah, I think you guys hit the nail.

We’re setting out to create unique, interesting, and diverse classes that each have their own style and flavor. Most importantly this isn’t just a basic look at each individual class, but how they compare to each other and overlap (or hopefully, don’t).

When you up the number of classes more and more you’re eventually going to begin down the route of homogenization, they start to bleed into each other’s core abilities and styles which really just detracts from each individual class’ recognizability and distinction within the game.

In addition, by limiting the number - and I say limiting not because it’s a low number, it’s the number of classes in Diablo II and a good one at that, but because we’re not going crazy with it - we can focus on making each class really impressive, both visually and through the way they each feel and play.

Interview Kotaku met Lead Designer Jay Wilson:

Kotaku: In that case do you think that this might work in your favour, that WoW players, for example might be persuaded to try Diablo III?

Jay Wilson: Yeah, actually, I do think that. I think players like things that they are familiar with and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them saying: “Oh, this class is like the warrior in WoW. Cool, I wanna play that!” Especially if it’s going to get them into the game. I think we gain as much as we could lose, people love to see something familiar and the reaction to Whirlwind was a great example.

The Man Behind Diablo III Talks Plot, Lore and Battle.Net

Blizzard Comment op PK en PvP

quote: Bashiok

We're - in general - not big fans of griefing for any game. It's really only "fun" for one person, and that definition of fun isn't generally something we're going to want to encourage. It's far more positive to encourage and support meaningful and skillful options and systems within a game, than a mechanic for people to instantly turn against one another for no meaningful gameplay reasons.

I definitely remember running with my friends, and someone toggles it, and bam everyone is dead and your one friend is laughing. Ok, ok, good joke I guess, and then you run back and *bam*, you've toggled it to get them back. After a while everyone usually agrees to a truce because it's just a waste of time. But I also remember running with random players and losing extremely nice items because of it, not cool. I'm sure that it was a feature that was right up some people's alleys, I won't deny there are some that would enjoy nothing more than to see others frustrated, but is that truly something that should be encouraged through design - if not directly opposed?

We have a large focus on cooperative play for Diablo III, and the mechanics and design decisions related to multiplayer are likely going to be based on supporting and encouraging it as much as possible, and not breaking it down.

That doesn't mean that PvP won't have its own focus, but those are details and features we aren't yet discussing.

[Pheno79]

Fallen Shamans zijn natuurlijk ook terug !
Een Blizzard medewerker op de diablo forums heeft opeens deze avatar



En zo sijpelt er steeds wat nieuws naar ons

[Pensmaster-B]

SpoTs schreef op dinsdag 15 juli 2008 @ 16:52:
[...]


Ik wil graag geen science fiction in deze thread!
Misschien is het leuk om een poll te maken wie welke class gaat spelen? Aangezien er nu al 6 classes zijn aangekondigd ( Barbarian, Sorceress, Shaman, Paladin, Amazone, Necromancer )

Ik ga waarschijnlijk gewoon weer voor de Sorceress. Mijn favo character!

[psychoclown]

Update:

Bashiok Answers Gameplay Video Concerns

Here are some smaller information I gathered from watching Diablo 3's gameplay video. Some may be obvious but have not been posted, so here it goes!
Undead Comes Back for Revenge
http://img261.imageshack....2/crawlingtorsc813de9.jpg (link doet het niet..)
At 8:13 of gameplay, an already dead creature comes back to life. A zombie of the undead!

Bashiok: This is the detached torso of a Walking Corpse. After death the torso of the Walking Corpse has a chance to survive, detaching itself and crawling after the hero.

Critters

14:09 of Gameplay - Besides from there being cute bunnies in Diablo 3, critters don't die. Man, I always liked killing critters in Starcraft. This image is the Witch Doctor throwing a random fire ball which directly hits a critter, but the critter receives no effect.

Bashiok: This was unfortunately a bug that existed in the build that was being used to record the gameplay video. Those critters die, and there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a bunny corpse flung across the screen. It just wasn't working for the demo, which stinks.

Leader doesn't die until new spawns come?

15:25 of Gameplay - That same leader of the post above this one, leads the Witch Doctor and Barbarian to the hill where it was the supposedly "nasty trap" they got caught into. But this leader was not able to get hit or damaged in any way until after the new enemy spawns came.
Frozen

15:30 of Gameplay - The Witch Doctor and Barbarian are frozen by the same group leader. It shows 2 red effects on the bottom left of the screen, one looking image looking like a time thing (forgot what its called lol) which may show how long the effect lasts or just slows target down, and second being ice image, which is for the completely frozen effect. Also when frozen, your whole skill bar goes red. (Frozen effect seems dangerous for Hardcore players !)

Bashiok: It was a scripted event to pretty much have a cool way to introduce the female Witch Doctor and Barbarian, so yeah, it wasn't necessarily indicative of something that would show up in the actual game.

Jumping/Dodging?

16:53 of Gameplay - During the end of gameplay, the Siegebreaker Assault Beast boss makes his entrance by slamming through the wall, charging against the players. They all jumped. Either its automatic jump reflexes, which seems kind of weird, or theres a jumping button.

Another part when the jumping is really seen as, what's really going on?

The Siegebreaker charges at the Witch Doctor at 17:38 of gameplay. The Witch Doctor clearly dodges the attack somehow. I would assume, this cannot be automatic reflexes because that would make no sense. Just let him stomp on the damn player, or are the players really dodging somehow?

Bashiok: This is a knock back effect when the Siegebreaker would use its "charge" type ability. It effectively damages your character and pushes them away from the charging path.

Blackdoom: What is the point in posting ideas and suggestions on her asking for this or that to be in the game, or saying those things should or shouldn't be in it. I doubt anyone from Blizzard... at least anyone from Blizzard that matters, is reading any of the posts here, and even if they did, they most likely do not give a rat's ass about what their fans think. Hell in a post, or somewhere I read it, not sure where, they said they make the games and things in the games around what they like, and want to see in a game, not what the fans want. It would be great if they did give a $!@% though, there have been some awesome ideas on here, but they just do not seem like people who care what their fans want. They are in it for the money from what I've seen, even though they seem that way, I am not saying they suck or anything, Blizzard is still the best! Anyway, anyone have proof that blizzard (someone, or a group of people that matter and might carry some kind of decision making weight) actually cares about what we think? An e-mail, a link, past posts, ect...

Bashiok: Aw, of course we care! A large part of my job is specifically to ensure that the valid concerns, comments, and critiques are brought to the appropriate people's attention. That doesn't mean that every idea or suggestion is something we agree with, or are going to base changes on though. There's a point where, as a game designer, you have to stick to your guns and know that your choices and direction are what's best for the game and ultimately those that will be playing it. There's a point where you have to be confident that you're making the right decisions. So at the end of the day you're staying true to your vision and design, and doing what's best for the game.

A good example of us paying attention though was the concern and thread about corpses not sticking around long enough. I read that thread, brought it up, and some discussion was happening on it. Later our lead tech artist Julian was reading through the replies, and got some ideas of how we may want to keep corpses on screen a little longer. Now we're playing around with some changes that shouldn't have a huge performance hit, while still keeping the corpses on screen for variable amounts of time. Hopefully it works out.

Would any experimentation for corpse decay have happened had it not been brought up on the forums? I don't know, maybe, but we're not just dismissing good, valid, and well reasoned concerns.

As I said not every suggestion, comment, or idea is going to be considered, but we're definitely watching and reading.

[psychoclown]

Update:

New Diablo III Screens/Artwork/Wallpaper

Screens

Wallpaper

Artwork

Changelog

Updates: • 28-06-'08 - Opening tweede deel Diablo3 topic nog aan flinke updates onderhevig. • 29-06-'08 - Sectie Content toegevoegd. • 30-06-'08 - Sectie Algemene Info uitgebreid. Plaatje van Witch doctor gefixed. Sectie Aanvullende Info toegevoegd. Topic over 2 posts verdeeld. • 31-06-'08 - TS Code opgeschoond. • 03-07-'08 - Aanvullende Info sectie vernieuwd/updated. Character Classes aangevuld. • 25-07-'08 - Wallpaper toegevoegd aan de Content Sectie.

[Derr_Hans]

Kwam did tegen op hun diablo3 website, een beeld die ze maken en kan bestellen via een site..

"Overthrown" depicts a mighty barbarian atop the conquered Diablo, shouting towards the High Heavens in vicious triumph.

Zoals je kan zien, weet je iig dat Diablo terug komt en dat zijn harses er wel mooier op geworden is

[psychoclown]

Update:

D3 Team takes on Art Controversy

D3 lead designer Jay Wilson sat down with the folks over at Mtv's Multiplayer to go through some examples of player-modified D3 screenshots. Jay talks about how the effects were created, how they resemble earlier art design passes on D3, and what's wrong with using that darker, grittier, desaturated style of art for the final game. It's a fascinating read, and here's one example, with Jay's comment above the shot in question:

Jay Wilson, Designer of “Diablo III”: The key thing to remember here is that this has been Photoshopped. This isn’t created by the engine. Though it looks really cool, it’s almost impossible to do in a 3D engine because you can’t have lighting that smart and run on systems that are reasonable. If we could do that, we probably would in a few of the dungeons.

Now in terms of the actual texturing, this texturing, where they grayed out everything and it’s very flat and the monsters are all kind of a similar tone — that does not play well. It’s very boring to run through more than a couple of times, and it’s very difficult to tell creatures apart and pop them out of the environment. So those things don’t really work for us. A lot of the lighting stuff I think is very cool, but it’s also not very doable for us.

One other interesting tidbit, when discussing this shot. Emphasis added:

Wilson: A lot of this change is adding noise to the screen. If [the characters] weren’t centered on the screen — like find the witch doctor. Especially think about him as a friend [in co-op play]. Standing over there, you can’t even tell the difference between him and the zombie. And that’s another player, and when you can’t tell the player apart from the creature, that’s horrible.

You’ve got to think that there’s potentially up to seven other people in addition to yourself, and several dozen monsters. All that noise just translates into unplayable, especially when this starts moving. This texturing was actually very similar to one of our previous art styles. But when you started moving and the whole screen just kind of shimmers, you can’t really tell anything that’s going on.

Slip of the tongue, or confirmation of 8 players in the game? The designers said it would likely be just 4-5, for better gameplay/party size, during the WWI panels.

Remember to check out the Diablo 3 Media Coverage archive for all interviews and previews related to Diablo 3 from all over the net.

---

Battle.net 2.0 - The Next Generation Gaming Network

There has been a lot of mentions about "Battle.net 2.0" recently, by us or by Blizzard (Blizzard reps have called it Battle.net 2 before). Either worded just like that, or perhaps that's just us being dramatic. Still, Battle.net 2.0 sounds a lot more posh than "Battle.net upgrade for StarCraft II", and regardless of what you want to call it, it is a huge update to Battle.net, and Blizzard have promised us a completely dedicated focus to the online component of their games.

I have done some rather extensive research about Battle.net updates, and made a couple of preview articles about what probably will be the next generation gaming network. The content includes a history of Battle.net itself, strengths and areas for improvements, confirmed Battle.net 2.0 functionality, rumours, and likely features as well as a host of quotes from Blizzard regarding the topic. You can grab the first part here:

• Battle.net 2.0 - The Next Generation Gaming Network

---

[psychoclown]

Update:

Weer wat leuke interessante Updates vandaag, enjoy reading .

---

Diablo 3 Achievements vs. Steam/WoW's

Bnet User: The current WoW achievement system is very disappointing. Steam achievements are attainable by players at any time, and although difficult to get do not lock players out if they have not got games at release. This reminds me of the badge system in City of Heroes which I found to be very pathetic and annoying. Goal oriented players would actually ignore them because some of the badges simply we not possible to attain because you had work on Halloween in 2005 or some bull$!@%. Achievements should be difficult, but not impossible, and large to show actual "achievement." Not trivial and for everything. For example, get to level 99 in Diablo II. Difficult, but attainable in any patch, no trivial matter either. Or even kill Baal. Something like kill Andariel in normal or get a damn War Bear in WoW that will not be available after the patch are not achievements, they are trophies. Get to 70, sure. Attend Blizzcon 08? No.

Wake up guys, goal oriented players like to have goals that are possible and really really hard, not impossible.

Just my two cents.

Bashiok: Steam achievements are generally based around small, situational, skill, or long-term goals in short "round" or level based FPS'. So obviously achievements in an MMO are going to be vastly different, and can cover a much wider range of goals from small and fun, to long and involved, and yes even to the impossible.

For us completionists we're going to be frustrated by not being able to have everything. But part of the system is specifically to show off where you've been, how long you've been playing, and what you've accomplished. I'm going to have to deal with the fact that I wasn't everywhere or did everything at some point in time. I'm going to have to focus on the goals I can achieve instead of those I can't. There's no point crying over milk that was spilled two years ago that I just found all dried and crusty under my refrigerator.

That's World of Warcraft though. It's a persistent world and moves and evolves and changes with patch to patch, and expansion to expansion. There's a lot more area for there to be achievements that were attainable at one time, but due to that evolution of the game - are no longer possible.

Diablo III isn't an MMO, it doesn't evolve in the same way, and so there's far less chance for there to be an achievement rendered impossible due to game updates.

---

Bashiok: Secret Cow Level

Wondering how Blizzard's D3 CM Bashiok felt about the Secret Cow Level? Wonder no more:

Yeah, who doesn't like fighting cows running around with halberds?
I disliked the secret cow level from a design standpoint though. It actually angered me that it existed at one point, maybe it kind of still does.

I'm not a designer, at all, but in my opinion and from a design standpoint I think the secret cow level was a failure. For a long time it was one of the most lucrative ways to level, and one of the best places to MF. For an easter egg, something fun and whimsical, to overshadow the entire rest of the game was a huge problem, and one that existed for far too long. It was a fun idea, a cool nod to the rumors that spawned it, but in execution it was just... game breaking in some ways.


Some players disagree, and say they didn't like when v1.10 nerfed the cow level slot machine. Bashiok begs to differ:
Well of course, everyone wants everything made easier for them, and that's effectively what it was. This barrel of fish that not only acted as cheesy way to pull the slot machine lever, but almost rendered the rest of the game unnecessary.

The oversight, I believe, existed in the requirement for the current difficulty to be beaten as well as the Cow King kill. It's easy enough to avoid the King or just have the level opened by other characters, and I can only guess that the amount of replay potential of the actual game was extremely undervalued.


What does it matter where players level up?
Because you're playing a game, and it should be respected that you're playing that game. The cow level was not part of the game, it was an easter egg that made leveling and item finding far easier than the actual game. I'm inclined to almost call it cheating.

---

New D3 Concept Art

Sons of the Storm.com, a site that features the work of several of Blizzard's talented artists, has posted a ton of new artwork, much of it never previously seen on Blizzard's site. Unfortunately, the great bulk of it is Starcraft 2 or World of Warcraft-related. Fortunately, of the two pieces of Diablo III art they put up, one of them is new. It's concept art of some unknown city, possibly Caldeum, with the recurring theme of red sails overhead. It's lushly atmospheric, wherever it is, and we've added it to our D3 World Art image gallery.

---

[psychoclown]

Update:

Een aantal opmerkelijke updates.

---

Diablo III Art Director Quits, Game Remains The Same

Blizzard has confirmed to MTV Multiplayer that “Diablo III” art director Brian Morrisroe has decided to leave the company.
A company rep says his departure won’t change the look of the game.
Here’s what a Blizzard representative told Multiplayer via e-mail:

Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup technology company (outside the game industry), which is why we’ve posted about the open position. This change won’t impact the game…we’re really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring onboard will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward.

Morrisroe’s departure, which incidentally comes after much controversy surrounding the game’s colorful new art style, prompted Blizzard to put up the job listing, first reported by Kotaku earlier today.

When I sat down with lead “Diablo III” designer Jay Wilson last week to talk about the team’s design choices and his thoughts on fan-altered screenshots, he told me that Morrisroe was the one who spearheaded the franchise’s design changes. Specifically, I asked who we should blame for the rainbows. Wilson said:

“If you want to blame anyone for the rainbows, you’d blame our art director Brian [Morrisroe]. Because Brian is more the person who drove the art style into where it is. But it didn’t really come directly from him. What he brought to the art team was concepts and ideas — the idea of contrast, the idea of using color more, the idea of going for a more stylized look. Because what we were looking at before was more photo-realistic. Really trying to get something that looks like a painting — that was his goal. But the actual result of that came from the art team. And a lot of the environment guys, and some of the texture artists, they’ve all kind of chipped in to try and get the feel of something that was very unique.”

---

D3 Art Direction Disarray?

Diii.nets kijk op de zaak wat als het waar blijkt te zijn zeer groot nieuws kan zijn zeker na die artstyle oplaaing.

As the Kotaku piece points out, Brian Morrisoe was Diablo III's art director as recently as the WWI, where he headed the Environmental Art Panel, and did some media, such as this interview with CVG.

What the Kotaku piece doesn't mention is that there are several other D3 art team jobs listed on Blizzard's jobs page. None of them are recent additions, but it would seem that Blizzard is having trouble finding/keeping art talent on D3? Also note that Jay Wilson, Diablo 3's Lead Producer, handled the fan screenshot deconstruction. Why the head designer, and not one of the art directors?

Given this state of affairs, it's hard not to speculate (as several emailers have) that perhaps the controversy over the game's art direction wasn't just amongst the fans. Perhaps different factions within the Diablo 3 team had their own strong opinions on how the game's art should look, and when push came to shove, some of the crew left. Or were asked to leave? Happily, as Blizzard often points out, the production of a game as large as Diablo 3 is handled by a large team, and no one is indispensable. Let's hope they get talented job applicants and can plug them into the openings and carry on smoothly.

---

‘Diablo III’ Designer Discusses Possible Return Of Cow Level

Misschien wel het meest opmerkelijke interview gezien die reactie van Bashiok over het Secret Cow Level.

One of “Diablo” fans’ favorite things about the franchise is the secret cow level from “Diablo II.”

If players gathered the right combination of items, they could open a portal to a level filled entirely with weapon-wielding, bipedal bovines, with a chance to get special loot.

So I asked lead “Diablo III” designer Jay Wilson the obvious question: Will there be a cow level?

This is what he said…

Wilson: [laughs] We don’t really know at this point. I really like the idea of secret stuff that ‘Diablo II’ put forward, but it’s not the kind of thing we would decide this early. But if we have something, I can assure people will be happy with it.

I will say the thing I liked about the cow level was that it wasn’t just fluff; there was stuff that you could do there that actually had purpose within the game. The thing I didn’t like about it was that it almost replaced part of the game. And so, if we looked to add something like that, we’d be a little smarter about it. We would want it to have a function within the game, but we wouldn’t want it to replace any core content, which is something that I think the cow level really did.

‘Diablo II’ had a lot of little oddities to it that made the experience not as usable. I certainly wouldn’t want things like, ‘Don’t kill the cow king because we’ve got to keep the level open!’ We would avoid scenarios like that. The secret of a cow level is a cool secret. The secret that you’re not supposed to kill the king because you’ll ruin the cow level forever — that’s a bad secret. So we would try to get rid of some of the bad ones.

---

[psychoclown]

Update:

Ureh Confirmed - New Artwork Update

---

---

---

Bashiok on Spell Visuals and Game Conventions

Bashiok answered a few queries today. To a poster who complained about the obscuring visual fireworks created by various Diablo 2 skills, Bashiok explained the D3 Team's design philosophy.

Keeping the visuals distinct and "readable" is an extremely important focus for us, and as has been stated quite a few times, relates to a lot of the art style and direction choices.

You need to be able to read the scene, tell monster and player apart, and not have it turn into a mess of spell effects. While we're really aiming for over-the-top skills and effects, it's going to be a constant goal (and likely struggle) to keep those in line so that in a multiplayer game it's going to retain its readability.

It's fine for things to get chaotic, it will happen and we want there to be mass-mayhem and slaughter, but we're trying to keep the game playable even during the chaos. It's a balance.

Other fans are hungry for more content, and are already wondering if we'll see the goods at Blizzcon. Will we get a gameplay movie? Bashiok deals with one such fellow with Roper-ian grace, acknowledging, inspiring, and redirecting him so smoothly he never even feels the PR knife slide in.
Well, you'll just have to wait and see!

In the more immediate future a few of us are heading out to Leipzig for GC next week. We'll be joining our friends from the Blizzard Europe office to meet and greet the fans. If you happen to be passing through Germany and also happen to have a ticket to the convention, be sure to stop by and say hello.

Other forum goes are not so easily put off, and a follow up question is quickly posed, asking what sort of information we'll see released to coincide with that major German gaming event. Not a whole lot, apparently:

From what I gather I think I would equate it more to our presences at similar booth-style conventions, ComicCon and GenCon Indy in years past, for instance. We have a booth, usually some gaming stations set up, and we talk with people about the games and hold interviews. I fully expect some good interviews with Jay to come out of it, but I would more or less expect that to be the main focus of information coming out of the show regarding Diablo III.

Stop by and say hi though. I think I may be the only Blizzard person there with a goatee, so I should be easy to spot. I'm scheduled to be there every day to chat up fans about the game.

---

Changelog

Updates: • 28-06-'08 - Opening tweede deel Diablo3 topic nog aan flinke updates onderhevig. • 29-06-'08 - Sectie Content toegevoegd. • 30-06-'08 - Sectie Algemene Info uitgebreid. Plaatje van Witch doctor gefixed. Sectie Aanvullende Info toegevoegd. Topic over 2 posts verdeeld. • 31-06-'08 - TS Code opgeschoond. • 03-07-'08 - Aanvullende Info sectie vernieuwd/updated. Character Classes aangevuld. • 25-07-'08 - Wallpaper toegevoegd aan de Content Sectie. • 04-08-'08 - Fixed Skills links gelukkig door iemand op photobucket gezet. Skills UI pic niet kunnen redden. • 15-08-'08 - Nieuwe Wallpaper toegevoegd.

[ Voor 13% gewijzigd door psychoclown op 15-08-2008 10:39 ]

[psychoclown]

Pedr0 schreef op woensdag 20 augustus 2008 @ 15:02:
Nieuwe screens, http://www.insidegamer.nl/pc/diabloiii/screenshots

Sommige lijken rechtstreeks uit de gameplay trailer te komen imo

Update:

Blijkbaar ook met de nieuwe Artwork dus hier alleen de nieuwe/betere quality screens.

---

New Artwork

---

[Anoniem: 182205]

Mijn voorspelling:

Drop in Westmarch, een verlaten area met mobs. Om het zo maar te zeggen, je begint in een soort van 'Tristam' op 't moment dat je naar de kerker moet lopen zoals je in de preview movies ziet... Je begint dus in de kerker...

Nadat je hier de kerker boss verslagen hebt, kom je daarbuiten de Siege tegen.. na het verslaan hiervan kom je uiteindelijk terecht in Bramwell. Hier kun je een aantal sub-bosses verwachten..

> Duncraig > Kingsport > hier verwacht ik een huge boss waarvoor je 5 man nodig hebt om de ' Tristam quest ' te kunnen triggeren en uiteraard teamplay.

> Tristam rond lvl 15 > monastery rond lvl 22 met een gangenstelsel van levels 1-16 floors anyone?

Act 2

Lut Gholein > Gea Kul > Caldeum (boss) > Tur Dulra > Ureh Town + end boss (median 2008?.. )


Hoe ik act 3 moet indelen... Denk zelf vanaf Ureh helemaal naar beneden toe, en dan naar boven.

Act 4 links boven start in Entseig om vervolgens langs dreadlands naar Arreat's Crater te lopen. (3 foto's hierboven dat IS Arreat's naar mijn idee )

Act 5 de 5 eilanden linksonder in beeld ( Elk eiland heeft zijn eigen boss) Shakarta, Skovos en Philos.. ) en op 't laatste eiland een mix van de 3 bosses?


Wat denken jullie?

[psychoclown]

Update:

Bashiok on Health Orbs and PvP

Door de laatste blizzcast zijn we weer on a roll dus de forumcomments sijpelen weer binnen

On Health Orbs, a poster asked if the orbs could heal party members even if the character who grabbed it was at full health already. And received some good news in reply:
Bashiok: That's how it works!

We're also playing around with some alternate functionality for when/how they're picked up while you're at full health, as well as some visual tweaks. Regardless we're going to make sure it's as fun and balanced as possible.

As for PvP, some commenters brought up some of Jay Wilson's comments from Leipzig, in which he said that they had big plans to improve on PvP in D3, but that a return of the in-game hostility option was not among them. The initial poster agreed with that change, but these are the b.net forums we're talking about here, so you know angry, Blizzard-slamming comments were just around the corner. Amidst the slavering cries of "only losers play WoW," and "Care Bear D3!" Bashiok pointed out the fairly obvious issue with enabling PvP: only the people who can duel or want to gank are going to turn it on.
Bashiok: When/Why would you choose to enable PvP in your game if it was an option? Would it be before you were max or near-max level, or twinked?

If not then you're essentially looking for a dueling game, and wouldn't a dedicated PvP focus provide a more logical option than a blanket PvP-on/PvP-off option which no one would enable until they were powerful enough to defend themselves?

A rebuttal is offered, earning another reply from Bashiok:
Bashiok: "One would choose to enable PvP for the rush of not only having to defend against scary monsters lurking around corners but defend against scary players lurking around corners"

Would they? Players don't generally opt-in to situations they don't think they have a chance to win.

---

2 New Screenshots

Blizzard released two new screenshots (along with some photos from the WWI) with yesterday's BlizzCast #5. Interesting lightning on these; much more of a salmon or peach tinted lighting than we've seen in previous dungeon shots; perhaps these are from a newer build? Both shots are attached below.

---

[psychoclown]

Update:

Diablo 3 Timeline & Media Update

Blizzard heeft vandaag een Diablo Timeline online gezet op de Diablo 3 site.
Erg tof om te zien dus zeker checken, Diablo Timeline.

---

4 New Screenshots

---

4 New Artworks