nogwart
5081
:) Got it. You guys cracked me up.
rowe33
5082
Including the console players but no such luck!
What are we hoping for here? It just looks like a 20th Anniversary presentation. Is there supposed to be some sort of announcement?
Yeah, all the rumours flying around were for Diablo 4, and that would be the logical place to do it.
I still donāt really understand what we need a Diablo 4 for, rather than another expansion. Is there an obvious limitation in the engine Iām not aware of?
I would happily welcome another expansion, if they were to announce one.
Maybe they can beef up the character models and textures as well - as nice as the art style is they were dated on launch even. :)
RichVR
5087
The Khazra death cries sound like Jim Breuer doing Goat Boy.
Engine limitation? No. But a Diablo 4 would obviously have a lot more content than any expansion pack is likely to have. So we may not āneedā one, but it sure would be nice to have four new acts to play through, instead of one.
rowe33
5089
I canāt wait to see the fucked up marketplace and insane loot distribution they try to implement this time!
Real Money Auction House 2.0
Appearance Loot Boxes, only 30 D4Ducats each!
$1.99ā¦ 50 D4Ducats
$4.99ā¦ 350 D4Ducats
$9.99ā¦ 1000 D4Ducats (best value)
I donāt think there is too much wrong with the graphical and physics engine, but the game could definitely use a loot system overhaul. How much of the current loot math is baked into the engine is anyoneās guess.
At the end of the day, D3 still suffers severely from a lack of meaningful decision making when it comes to loot. Primary stat, CHD, CHC, socket and all resist are the best rolls for every piece until well into endgame when one or two may swap primary stat for elemental damage (ammyās usually). The only thing that shakes this up is the odd set bonus which will buff an alternate damage type (crusader thorns). But alternate damage formula are few and far between (none of the elemental stuff ultimately matters in that regard).
There is also far too much reliance on weapons as the DPS engine. Damage is a function of your weapon, regardless of the type of damage. All āspellsā scale from the weapon DPS. There is rarely a case where the BIS weapon isnāt simply the one with the highest DPS roll. Until you get the legendary weapon that was designed to complement your set items, anyway, then the best DPS version of that weapon is BIS.
Attack speed? Meh, who cares. Armor? Who cares. Axe vs Sword? Who cares.
They have done a great job with the set items and accompanying legendaries, I think, but how much of that design work is limited by the underlying engine, I wonder? If they built a chest piece that had 10000 armor as an affix, would it even matter? Probably not - the engine does just not weight armor benefit (or other affixes) highly enough. Shit would probably still one-shot you in high torments because of the engine math. Can that be even be changed without a re-write of the entire loot system? Probably not.
So I donāt think itās the graphics engine that will form the pillar of a new Diablo, it will be a new combat and loot engine. And that will warrant a 4 at the end of the title, rather than a colon.
Iād buy stash space for money.
Maybe instead of Diablo 4 we could get Torchlight 3 :)
KevinC
5094
Apologies if Iām being pedantic, but those arenāt engine issues, those are game mechanics/calculations. The engine is handling things like network synchronization, rendering of the graphics, multithreading various tasks, etc.
Iām just pointing that out because the changes you mention can all be done without a new engine thankfully, but it would require major reworking of the fundamental mechanics of the game. And if you want to start over and completely redo the mechanics of the game, thatās when itās probably a decent time to come up with a sequel and start fresh. If thatās what you already meant and weāre just using different terminology to talk about the same thing, then I humbly ask that you please accept my previous apology because Iām not trying to be an annoying nerd. :) (EDIT: After re-reading your post, sounds like thatās likely the case. Sorry, thatās my bad for trying to read and reply in quick bits and pieces while at work)
Iām with you in that I feel like (and have from the start) that Diablo 3 lacks a lot of meaningful decisions, from leveling to loot to builds to you name it. It makes for a very convenient and light casual experience where you can pop in for a few days of a new Season, get your set and maybe a new legendary, and be ādoneā with the game and happily shelve it until the next one. Nothing wrong with that at all if thatās what you want out of the game, but I definitely fall more on the Path of Exile side of the spectrum. And since Iām a selfish bastard, I would like to see Diablo incorporate a lot of that crunchiness combined with Blizzard production and polish.
rowe33
5095
I just want my trap assassin and necromancer back!
Syzygy
5096
Two reasons I doubt that itās going to be a Diablo 4 annoucement:
-
Purely from the amount of jobs that Blizzard is advertising for Diablo versus other titles, even those more in maintenance mode clearly shows that Diablo is not receiving as much attention as other titles. If they were truly ramping up for a full numbered release I think weād be seeing more openings.
-
Josh Mosqueira left his position as Game DIrector for D3 a few months back. Heās the guy who did an excellent job with the initial D3 console ports, then went on to lead the design changes that happened for the expansion after Jay Wilson left the team. Based on Joshās track record, I think itās likely that if D4 was happening, that he would be offered the Game Director position on D4. Most likely what happened was that Josh didnāt feel challenged leading a game thatās mostly going through minor updates the past couple of years.
What I bet we are going to see instead is an updated high-definition Diablo 2 release, potentially with the D3 backend for multiplayer. Reasons:
- That would make sense as an āanniversary eventā announcement
- It would make sense why Bill Roper and David Brevik were recently at Blizzard: http://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/david-brevik-bill-roper-blizzard
- Thereās still a die-hard community playing D2. Many die hard players feel the D2 loot system is still unsurpassed to this day.
D2 with D3 engine would be insta buy for me.
RichVR
5099
Without town portal and identify tomes, hopefully.
So when is this conference thing where an announcement may or may not be made? I keep thinking this thread bubbled up because we finally know the answer.
