There was a recent conversation on Battle.net where people worried about mismatching armor and everyone looking the same. Bashiok had a few words to comment about these ideas. First was with the subject of mismatching armor looks. Whether it be from wearing various armor types or that one strange off-colored piece, Diablo II had characters constantly walking around looking like they got dressed in the dark. With Diablo III, the aim is to get pieces to be more cohesive with one another so nothing stands out as particularly odd-looking.
Official Blizzard Quote:
That's not a feature or desired feature. I think what was being said was that applying color shades to items and making them a mess of bright purple or bright green is not very visually appealing, and so we'd like to avoid that. And we have, we do have dyes which alter gear color, but it's allowed in very measured and specifically tailored ways so that it doesn't look so garish.
Beyond this matching of armor, people commented on how many varieties of looks there will be, for fear of everyone looking the exact same at high-end levels. Blizzard has mentioned a few times that their plan is to involve multiple types of items at end-game. Uniques, rares, crafted items, and set items will all have their place on high level characters. However, even with the numerous amounts of items in the game, it is only safe to assume that many people will have the same look. After all, with the set amount of item looks, most people will be wearing the highest level armor which means people will look somewhat similar as Bashiok states.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Well, there are a finite number of items, so being able to interact with potentially millions of players and never see two people who look alike unfortunately isn't too realistic. In addition, there are only a certain number of set looks per class, and so eventually there will be points where all the highest end players have the highest end set. That's where dyes, and even runes come in, among other things, to visually distinguish individuals. It would be awesome to have unlimited amounts of art going in to the game, but there has to be a line somewhere. Hopefully we can keep that line moving every once in a while though.
Perhaps the most interesting comment to point out in his statement is the fact that "runes and other things" will help our characters look different. Awhile back, there was mention of certain skill choices changing the look of your character. Not their actual appearance but how they look while fighting the Denizens of Hell. Even the Runestones we place in these skills will change our appearance. As Bashiok points out, even two Wizards with the same skill set will possibly have different runes inserted into these skills and this will change the overall look of these two characters while playing together. Their actual appearance will not change but their skills will look unique to each of them.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Assuming you're not standing around just admiring each other you'll be out and about killing stuff. Since each rune alters each ability in a visual (and usually mechanical) way, even if you and another wizard look exactly alike it's pretty unlikely you'll have the same skills chosen, but if you do, you're even less likely to have the same runes socketed.
Customization of characters in Diablo III appears to be a focus whether it be from skill choice, trait distribution, or armor choice and physical appearance. We can all hopefully look forward to many combinations of characters to play with.
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Cool. I hated when ppl looked the same and had the same gear in LoD. In classic it is more diverse since the best items are rare items.
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I didn't think about how much runes will change things for variety end game. Where in d2 every frenzy barb or metero sorcerss had the exact same build and play the dame two summon wd can both focus on pets but choose different runes and be very different
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You gotta remember that another important part about builds are the new Core Attributes. So some builds may take certain items just to try to increase those certain attributes to a high number.
Exactly. Especially considering that certain spell levels unlock the next rune level, as minor point differences in very similar builds would also effect rune levels.
Let's face it, we've all been addicted to Diablo II. And Diablo III is way more customizable in terms of character development, a.k.a. the core of the game. Now take that, and add a more tactical and thought-provoking combat system, new resource systems, better means of crafting, better vendors, dedicated PvP, and other new systems, Diablo III is shaping up to be one Hell of a game.
Let's face it, we've all been addicted to Diablo II. And Diablo III is way more customizable in terms of character development, a.k.a. the core of the game. Now take that, and add a more tactical and thought-provoking combat system, new resource systems, better means of crafting, better vendors, dedicated PvP, and other new systems, Diablo III is shaping up to be one Hell of a game.
Pun intended.
Alas 'cept story wise, but that's another aspect which will go off topic.
An easy way to take the edge off the 'everyone looking the same' is simply to have a variety of 'highest' end level sets of armour. Then people can have a bit of choice in what they look like.
That would require more models, and this is time and resource consuming. Both of which could be spent on improving other, more major aspects of the game. Also, the other armor (low end, etc.) will still look the same, and this is the more commonly used armor, hence variation amongst players is still less. However, perhaps 1 or 2 choices present maybe an ideal solution, rather than having a variety, or none at all.
The colors won't cover your face like they did in D3 and you will get to actually arange the colors on your character's gear instead of looking like a clown with red helm, blue armor, green boots etc. Of course some people might find that hilarious but at least you are given the choice to select the color combinations which you like best. (Lol I can see people making characters to look like flags :D)
This sounds like Bliz hedging because everyone's gonna look the damn same once we're level capped. Sounds like they definitely know there's a final "end came" set.
Bashiok: "..and so eventually there will be points where all the highest end players have the highest end set." That's just flat disappointing. This long in development and the talent of artists you'd think they could move past a gear "set" mentality. I really didn't like that about WoW, and I'm sure not looking forward to it here either. Colors really don't mean much to me, having a unique model is where it's at.
Again, I go back to what they did in Wall-E: create 1000's of robots from around 50-100 different modular elements, or "robot parts." Why can't they have modular 3d textures that are randomly spawned as the gear drops, much the same as stats?
Anyway, meh.
Edit: Nice article Scy, thanks!
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Because all gear has to be modled and then tested on the characters to make sure it looks right. They are not creating random robots that can look like anything. All of these armors have to fit on a human form. Considering reality and the limited types of armors that have existed, there is not a lot of room for crazy random stuff. I think 18 full (6armor pieces) and unique sets types is preety good. And keep in mind that the are not actual sets like d2.
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Plus, who knows how long it will take to reach those final sets? Sure, in Diablo II it was easy to snag an Enigma and a HotO, but that's because the game is broken and runes are everywhere. A lot of the runewords in D2 would take you forever to obtain if everyone was legit.
In Diablo III, where cheating and duping are eliminated (hopefully), we can expect to see some struggle when it comes to getting all the gear to make you as godly as possible, and on top of that, there will probably be more items introduced via patches that will keep things interesting and different.
I would love to see D3 play out like this: Every day it seems like I'm changing to a better piece of armor - knowing that I'm slowly crawling up the ladder of perfection.
Not to mention working towards a level 14 gem or something equivalent. It would probably take even longer to get all top-level gems than getting top-level gear.
Official Blizzard Quote:
That's not a feature or desired feature. I think what was being said was that applying color shades to items and making them a mess of bright purple or bright green is not very visually appealing, and so we'd like to avoid that. And we have, we do have dyes which alter gear color, but it's allowed in very measured and specifically tailored ways so that it doesn't look so garish.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Well, there are a finite number of items, so being able to interact with potentially millions of players and never see two people who look alike unfortunately isn't too realistic. In addition, there are only a certain number of set looks per class, and so eventually there will be points where all the highest end players have the highest end set. That's where dyes, and even runes come in, among other things, to visually distinguish individuals. It would be awesome to have unlimited amounts of art going in to the game, but there has to be a line somewhere. Hopefully we can keep that line moving every once in a while though.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Assuming you're not standing around just admiring each other you'll be out and about killing stuff. Since each rune alters each ability in a visual (and usually mechanical) way, even if you and another wizard look exactly alike it's pretty unlikely you'll have the same skills chosen, but if you do, you're even less likely to have the same runes socketed.
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This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Definitely looking forward to see all the different looks max level players will have.
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Makes me grin. Hopefully this Diablo game will be regularly patched and paid attention to.
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Pun intended.
Alas 'cept story wise, but that's another aspect which will go off topic.
But yes Diablo III is looking to be a great game
That would require more models, and this is time and resource consuming. Both of which could be spent on improving other, more major aspects of the game. Also, the other armor (low end, etc.) will still look the same, and this is the more commonly used armor, hence variation amongst players is still less. However, perhaps 1 or 2 choices present maybe an ideal solution, rather than having a variety, or none at all.
D3 aint out yet
Bashiok: "..and so eventually there will be points where all the highest end players have the highest end set." That's just flat disappointing. This long in development and the talent of artists you'd think they could move past a gear "set" mentality. I really didn't like that about WoW, and I'm sure not looking forward to it here either. Colors really don't mean much to me, having a unique model is where it's at.
Again, I go back to what they did in Wall-E: create 1000's of robots from around 50-100 different modular elements, or "robot parts." Why can't they have modular 3d textures that are randomly spawned as the gear drops, much the same as stats?
Anyway, meh.
Edit: Nice article Scy, thanks!
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In Diablo III, where cheating and duping are eliminated (hopefully), we can expect to see some struggle when it comes to getting all the gear to make you as godly as possible, and on top of that, there will probably be more items introduced via patches that will keep things interesting and different.
I would love to see D3 play out like this: Every day it seems like I'm changing to a better piece of armor - knowing that I'm slowly crawling up the ladder of perfection.
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