They have to monetise it, which is totally fine, as long as it's not some silly pay-to-win service. Path of Exile's cash shop, and similarly how other games work like Last Epoch, where you can buy epic bank space and cosmetics is the best approach. They'll not be able to run the game purely on game and expansion sales alone; that's where they failed from Diablo 3 after they took the RMAH servers down and they ended up with no money being generated by the game to fund additional development.
The new quarterly update is out.
Introduction
Skills and Talents
Sorceress Enchant System
Endgame Progression
TLDR:
They are making characters stronger and items weaker, so a players power is not so dependent on items.
More in-depth talent system with a proper skill tree (actually a tree), that has a more fluid progress with meaningful choices for players.
Sorceress enchant system that changes how spells are used depending on whether they are active skills or enchantment skills.
Still hard at work on endgame progression and system, but no further information or announcements on it until Q2 next year.
Next update will look more closely at itemisation changes that they are bringing in to Diablo 4.
Introduction
Skills and Talents
Sorceress Enchant System
Endgame Progression
TLDR:
They are making characters stronger and items weaker, so a players power is not so dependent on items.
More in-depth talent system with a proper skill tree (actually a tree), that has a more fluid progress with meaningful choices for players.
Sorceress enchant system that changes how spells are used depending on whether they are active skills or enchantment skills.
Still hard at work on endgame progression and system, but no further information or announcements on it until Q2 next year.
Next update will look more closely at itemisation changes that they are bringing in to Diablo 4.
Loving the itemistation changes they have made; I think they are doing a great job and listening to the community is developing paying off. I'm still a bit concerned that all we are going to wear at end-game is uniques/legendaries and rare's are going to take a back seat much like how Diablo 3 is. I love that they have acknowledged this in the Item Qualities section, but the problem I see is that any legendary effect will realistically put a rare item to shame because the legendary-guaranteed stat is too good to pass up - like on the example they gave in the screenshots; if you have an ability that can constantly knockdown enemies, then the legendary stat to deal 46% additional damage to affected monsters will instantly render any rare null and void no matter the stats of it.
I really liked Diablo 3 game play and characters, but the story was "meh" and the itemisation was God awful.
I can see Diablo 2 Resurrected pulling loads of interest though, but there'll also be a 12 - 18 month gap between that coming out and Diablo 4.
I can see Diablo 2 Resurrected pulling loads of interest though, but there'll also be a 12 - 18 month gap between that coming out and Diablo 4.
Diablo 2 was always really easy. It'd be nice if they added further difficulty levels like they do with D3. You can kind-of get it with x8 in D2.
Diablo 4 I'm hoping and expecting it to be difficult, either by default or with scaling difficulty from their variant of how they are going to doing rifts. I missed the difficulty of D3 before they introduced Loot 2.0, and I'm hoping they aren't scared to introduce really hard challenges in Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 I'm hoping and expecting it to be difficult, either by default or with scaling difficulty from their variant of how they are going to doing rifts. I missed the difficulty of D3 before they introduced Loot 2.0, and I'm hoping they aren't scared to introduce really hard challenges in Diablo 4.
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Guess you didn't play D3 on release then
Yeah I did, I played since beta. Got up to Act 4 pre-nerf, but couldn't get Diablo down before the nerfs. I liked the difficulty, but the itemisation was poor.
Aye, I still play now and again on Diablo 3, but the itemisation is dead and in these types of games I like grinding for those 1 in 10000 items where the planets align and you get this insane item. With all of the game revolving around sets and legendaries that have pre-rolled stats, it took too much of the fun away. It's a shame really, as nearly everything else in the game (other than that story which is a bit weak) such as the game play, art, music, and voice acting are all outstanding.
I think he got world first on hardcore Inferno; there was probably a few people who did it on softcore. Definitely agree on the gold, I ended up farming blue 1 handers for cash for a while to make some money back and running the wall in Bastion's Keep. Still, I wish they just toned the difficulty down a smidge and sorted the itemisation out (dex/str on wands
), but instead they made it even worse. People moan about Jay Wilson's Diablo 3 being awful, but personally I think it actually got worse over time, and Loot 2.0 completely destroyed any real semblance of item grind.I'm expecting mid 2022 alpha, late 2022 beta, and a Q1/Q2 2023 release.
I originally expected a Q3/Q4 2022 release window, but with Diablo 2 Resurrected coming by Christmas, and coronavirus causing some development delays, I'm putting my expectations back a few months since they'll be also using D2R to help scratch peoples itches and buy some more time. Although, I can't see it being any later than Q2 2023 as they've been working on the game since at least Q4 2016. Diablo 3 took 6.5 years from concept to creation and they were creating a new 3D game, whereas Diablo 4 will be using Diablo 3 as a base so a lot of the engine would have already been done.
Yeah, came out May 2012 with a development start Q4 2005, so around 6.5 years.
As mentioned, I'd expect D4 to be equal to or less than since they are using D3 as a base, and development began in Q4 2016; adding a few months for covid issues, we're looking at Q4 2022 to Q2 2023 for a release.
As mentioned, I'd expect D4 to be equal to or less than since they are using D3 as a base, and development began in Q4 2016; adding a few months for covid issues, we're looking at Q4 2022 to Q2 2023 for a release.
Won't even get close to be honest, at least not at the start; Path of Exile has an amazing in-depth end game. They'll also have to compete with what GGG offers every 3 to 4 months in terms of content, which means they need a good micro-transaction model around the game to support development but not make it pay to win.
The new quarterly update out for June 2021.
Introduction
Character Art (Art Director)
Character Art (Lead Character Artist)
Character Art (Associate Art Director)
They have gone through the character designs, and have a bunch of videos that you can watch with some close-up shots of how the models and animations look - and, in my opinion, they look fantastic.
Introduction
Character Art (Art Director)
Character Art (Lead Character Artist)
Character Art (Associate Art Director)
They have gone through the character designs, and have a bunch of videos that you can watch with some close-up shots of how the models and animations look - and, in my opinion, they look fantastic.
New quarterly update for October 2021.
Introduction
The Sound Design of Diablo IV
Some really cool stuff in this update on how they are recording the sound and a bunch of YouTube videos on how they make them. Definitely worth a look if you're interested in the audio.
Introduction
The Sound Design of Diablo IV
Some really cool stuff in this update on how they are recording the sound and a bunch of YouTube videos on how they make them. Definitely worth a look if you're interested in the audio.
I liked this quarter's update - the paragon board sounds pretty cool. It's definitely got some similarities to the skill system from Path of Exile, but enough differences to make it stand apart and still look fun to use. Really loving the skill VFX changes as you upgrade or change the skill. I wonder if you can dodge attacks due to the combat improvements and whether it applies to monsters animations also - with Diablo 3, once the animation fired from a monster you were hit regardless of whether you moved out of the way or not, but with the new system it looks like you could dodge it if you're moving.
Quarterly update time for March 2022
Discussing environments in the game and art style. There's a YouTube video also.
Discussing environments in the game and art style. There's a YouTube video also.
Yeah, agreed; they look superb. The videos are good but the screenshots really highlight the detail in the environments.
Disgusting business practices? wtfCompletely disagree with you there good Sir.
POEs free to play model is the best there is.
Yeah it a great model. Other than some premium stash tabs that I'd say are essential and would knock you back about £15 for 5, there's nothing else on there that's required. It's either quality-of-life stuff like currency/map/fragment tabs or character/skill skins. They even give away a bunch of MTX skins every 3 months as you complete league objectives. I hope Blizzard do a similar model for Diablo 4 and not the absolutely trash and predator cash MTX model that is in Diablo Immortal.