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The games have not been novelized. These are stories that are considered canon by Blizzard, but are not based on the acts of Diablo II or its expansion.

The importance of these books however is that material from them will be very likely used to develop Diablo 3. Now we will be exploring the world of sanctuary more thoroughfully than in the previous games, and NPCs will be more talkative of their past experiences.

I got a feeling we will find Zayl the necromancer in Diablo 3. Whether as a playable character or as a NPC giving quests.

As I said in a thread a few weeks ago, World of Warcraft quests and locations are based a lot on stuff that didn't exist in Warcraft II and III. Some came from the books which are considered canon by Blizzard.

Hammerfall and Durnholde and the Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad existed in Warcraft: Lord of the Clans. Kalecgos and Anveena in the Sunwell Plateau, Jorad Mace and Tyri in the Celestial Ridge (netherstorm), Dar'Khan in Eversong Forest -- those characters are from Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy manga.

The dragon aspects, Caverns of Time, The Nexus (Coldarra) -- those existed only in Warcraft: Day of the Dragon. Not in the games. Only Alexstrasza and Deathwing existed in Warcraft II RTS game.

Most of the Burning Crusade quests are based on the book by Christie Golden World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde.

Aegwynn at Theramore beside Jaina Proudmoore -- which showed up in the comic book World of Warcraft# 6 ... that's from Keith R.A. DeCandido's book World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred. It is said Aegwynn is in-game disguised as the night elf named Pained right in front of Jaina Proudmoore NPC.

Tirion Fordring and his son Taelan existed only in Chris Metzen's eBook Warcraft: Of Blood and Honor. He is now the founder of the new Silver Hand in the MMO.

Rhonin is only from Warcraft: Day of the Dragon and War of the Ancients Trilogy -- he is now an NPC in the MMO. He leads Dalaran in Northrend in Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

The point of this newspost is that we might find a lot of details in the Diablo novels that we might recognize on the fly in Diablo 3. To those who don't read the Warcraft books, most of what happens in World of Warcraft means bleh ... but to those who read and know their stuff, once you see Kalecgos, or find Grim Batol in Wetlands, or experience Old Hillsbrad, or the Ata'mal crystals questline -- people gets excited.

Quote from "Bimbette" »

Excellent post, indeed! Thank you very much for sharing this with us. I always love the opportunity to add to both my physical and digital libraries, and am ever appreciative of being pointed to worthy additions.

Welcome. Robert emailied me to inform me he had decided to post it. I have built communication with various Blizzard book writers over the past five years, and it is nice to get an email from them unexpectedly at times informing new stuff. Sometimes I get to know about upcoming novels a year or six months in advance, which is cool to share with fans, as well as updating follow ups and Q&As.

Hope to see a new book from Robert soon.

Bashiok: One of the larger things to think about when balancing game sizes is that with mechanics that encourage players to stick together, only so many players can be doing these huge over-the-top type abilities without it turning into a visual mess.

---- That means while a normal Battlenet game can support let's say 32-60 players in a single game, it just become too crowded visually. Imagine all these players in a single spot casting. You won't be able to see things on-screen with all those graphics hitting every area of the screen. And there wouldn't be enough mobs for a crowd of big people. So the game is made to accomodate a handful of players per game. Or if there are way too many players they would be going ahead of your group and wipe most NPCs. by the time you catch up, there is nothing for you to kill or loot.

A small group guarantees you all stick together, and find enough mobs to kill / loot. That's how I view it.

In an MMO, everyone spreads around, and mobs spawn every few minutes. There are quests everywhere too.

The guy who created that battle.net forum thread has heard of people who think it is an MMO, and himself is still in doubt whether true or not. I know. Some people gets confused (without calling names or insulting people please).

I had given him a heads up that he could get banned. He apologized, but didn't seem to have learned not to confront and challenge a moderator.

For those who love to troll, flame, or simply call people names such as idiot, moron, etc. know that you are walking on thin ice. You can break the ice and drown. Moderators are sharp and eager to hit the flush button. Don't give them the pleasure. Stay on topic, be nice to fellow members, and you'd have earned everyone's respect.

Once Diablo III closed beta starts, forum members will have the benefit of participating on fansite contests to win a spot on closed beta. Troll and flame, and you get banned. Was the joy of trolling worth losing a chance at participating on a Diablo III closed beta contest? I doubt that.

Atrumentis recently told me -- based on observations of his, what the cinematic teaser showed at WWI -- the location could possibly be Ureh. Points at Diablo: Kingdom of Shadow.

Personally, I liked what I saw in Paris on a helluva big screen. Games need to evolve and grow along with technology. Nowadays sprites is a thing of the past. Now all is 3D. The most visible difference besides the 3D models and 3D-illumination is that there is no longer a light-radius around the character.

In a dungeon, everything 15 yards away was dark and out of line of sight. However the outdoors didn't have this in Diablo II, so I don't mind seeing colorful outdoors in Diablo 3. Outdoor scenarios in Diablo 3 look neat in my opinion.

I am not sure if Diablo 3 should keep the light radius in dungeons however. You saw that big bunch of mobs coming at the Barbarian. I would rather see this bunch running at me from afar, allowing me to prepare to decide what to cast beforehand, than getting the @#$ scared out of me seeing them get to me within the 10-yards light radius.

I played yesterday my Barbarian again and reached the Chaos Sanctuary, and killed Diablo. I noticed the trouble I would get into with this light radius at times. I would attempt to escape a bunch of mobs by moving away just to find another group of mobs. I got surrounded and killed many times. If I could see beyond that light radius, I could prevent aggroing more mobs than I can handle.

By the way, I love the smell of toasted Diablo in the morning. And with a Barbarian.

Quote from "USNSEALs" »

I got word at 5:19:36 AM CST that allegedly Diablo III is estimated to release in March of 2009.
I'm not saying this is true, nor am I acting like one of those jackasses who kicks it with the CEO of Blizz every Friday and shares a few girls on Saturdays. All I'm saying is that from this exact minute of 5:31 AM CST on July 13th back to June 28th has been disguised as a 16 day journey, but it's been a fucking 200 year epic. I want this game out tomorrow. I want to not see it coming. I want some random buddy I got in the military to come from Naples, Bahrain, Sydney, Tokyo in the middle of the night, repel my damn wall through my window with a grappling hook, and jump on me screaming "I SAW DIABLO III AT BEST BUY! WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING!?!?"

So what I wanted to do is two things: #1 See if it's possible at all to get this confirmed if even by "That sounds about right"
#2 To let everyone know, if this is true, there is some hope that it is soon to come because I'd damn well expect the same and would be mad as hell if a brother on the frontlines was holding out on me

I don't expect too many responses that will be helpful or project answers, but all I need is one.

Blizzard never discusses a release date after a game announcement. The game is ready when it is ready. It's been their philosophy for quiet a while. I don't know what source you got March 2009 is a release date. To me that is a fallacy until Blizzard makes a official announcement. No offense.

Starcraft 2 was announced on May 2007. It is been a year and two months. I was at Paris, and we were told the single player is 1/3 done at this point. When will Starcraft 2 release? When it is ready.

It reverberates within when I think of Knaak's words. He said on my interview that Blizzard had great plans for Zayl the Necromancer. Could he have meant a new novel? Or did he mean Zayl would be in Diablo 3? If so, as an aged Necromancer -- 20 years later, since the Barbarian is the same guy. Or would Zayl be a quest NPC in Diablo 3?

Ponders. Ponders.

If all he meant was a new book, I think I have seen an interesting pattern.

Starcraft: I, Mengsk (by Graham McNeill)
World of Warcraft: Arthas (by Christie Golden)
... maybe Diablo: Zayl ?

I have a feeling there will be a class that may have some healing abilities, or a mercenary with healing abilities. Most likely mercenary since they recently said there wont be a tank/healer class in this co-op gameplay.

Quote from "MMtech" »

All I want to know is a smegging release date - even if it's just an estimate.

By the way, is this showing up in episode 4 or 5? You say 5, but the next episode is 4.

The next episode i 4 indeed. It is already in production, so our questions won't make it. These questions will be for episode 5 instead.

Quote from "Kwic" »

So please, anyone knows when will the blizzcast 5 be? Date? (if it's known). Will be grateful, thanks.

BlizzCast is a Blizzard in-house podcast. It has no specific release date. It is not like a specific day of the month. It is not necessarily a monthly podcast either. As with all the games, the next episode is ready when it is ready. The next episode will be #4. No ETA. The first episode was on January 10th. Second was around February, and the third one took about two or three months.

By the way, I am wrapping up question submissions at this point. the last hour I have been reading through all the 16 pages, handpicking certain questions. From that batch I can only pick two. Of course, I will still request a Q&A with the remaining questions. But only two can be submitted for BlizzCast Episode 5. Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread.

Quote from "Kwic" »

So please, anyone knows when will the blizzcast 5 be? Date? (if it's known). Will be grateful, thanks.

BlizzCast doesn't have a specific release date. Episode 4 is the next one on queue. Hopefully this month or the next. These questions will be for BlizzCast 5 which is far ahead in time.

Alright, I will close this thread. Any comments may be shared on the original thread here. Atrumentis PM me to bring up this theory. I have the novel right in front of me, and the description lightly resembles the artwork. We don't see the color of his robes, but the sword is unmistakeable.

Each angel of the Angiris Council is described by Richard A. Knaak in the book. Each of them has different clothing/armor colors, signs and shapes.

These are the five members of the Angiris Council

Angel Imperius: Majestic angel with robes of royal red and a shining breastplate upon which the image of an upturned sword blazed.

Angel Auriel: Female wearing softer blue robes. She's the most animated and merciful of the five.

Angel Itherael: Gray-clad angel who doesn't look male nor female in aspect.

Angel Malthael: Black robes and black breastplate.

Angel Tyrael: you know him

Too early to speculate, we will have to wait until Blizzard shows what new ideas they have. Maybe they device a new system or measures to benefit that range of players who enjoy PvP in a way that won't grief or disappoint other type of players.

Quote from "Edwoki" »

MD would you assume the game will come out in the next 6 months or year?

This game might take up to year or two. It is not easy to date a Blizzard game. It is ready when it is ready. If we take Starcraft 2 as an example, it started development after August 2003. That's nearly 5 years of development. It was announced May 2007. And a year has gone, and at WWI it was said the single player is 1/3 done. Now apply the same timeline to Diablo III, and compare.

Quote from "Chelletje" »

I also saw a "Small Bag" drop which didn't make it to this list. I guess you need bags for more space just like WoW too.

Kazo sent me two more screenshots, which I haven't updated. I have gotten a lot of PMs on MSN and ICQ from fansites keeping me busy. I am also exporting some video into a USB-drive before returning the macbook to the rentals. One of the screenshots shows the bag loot -- so that pretty much gives away what might be in plans for the inventory system. WoW Bag system is pretty cool in my opinion. Diablo II's system was very limiting. It's time to improve and expand.