DiabloFans

I, for one, am excited about the Monk class. Trading defense for speed is more my style anyway, and a cross between a paladin and an assassin?! <3 Sinadin

While Mockery is enjoying the footage that we won't be able to see for a few hours...

I am actually really excited about the Monk class. It seems that they're doing it right, from what I'm seeing and hearing. Here's for hoping for EPIC!

Well, I figure I'll actually post on topic now.

I, for one, have mixed emotions about the tetris-style inventory. On the one hand, people are right, it was innovative, it was something that Diablo more-or-less started, and it has been used in many other games as a standard for inventory control. That being said, the old style is outdated.

In a game that's based around itemization, around "drops", the old system (I feel) hinders gameplay moreso than helps it. But this assessment is based solely on the old system.

Now, I know that they are re-vamping everything, but I really can't make any valued judgement until I actually play with it. You see, there are several variables that will make or break the system:

1) Finite inventory space: I agree with a finite amount of inventory space, but at what cost? In Diablo II, we were forced to create dozens of "mule" accounts just to hold everything. I know I wasn't the only one who created <Account_Mule1>. Yes, in many other games "mule" characters are viable... but more often than not, you're only creating one charactor. So why the need for twelve characters in a game whose focus is "itemization"?

In Diablo II we saw the advent of gems and runes, and in Diablo I the small items were potions. Carrying a plethora of these "small" items gets in the way of what the game is focused around, which are items. Again, the point being made here is the relationship with the near infinate amount of items with the horribly low finite item space.

2) Gameplay speed: Blizzard has said time and time again that this is an action RPG Hack and Slash. In general (and again, taking from the context of which Baishok has spoken) that this is supposed to be a fast game. That you're supposed to be able to jump in and feel accomplished after having played an hour. But there are drawbacks, as they always are. In Diablo II, the gameplay speed was determined with how many potions you can keep on you at all times, and if you've shelled out for an Enigma for the teleport. The mechanics of the game have been sullied by hastily crafted patches that have destroyed the game from what it could have been. In Diablo III, however, the health // mana orbs have been created in place of potion hot-keying and a waypoint system was added to help progression along without having to retrace ones' steps in addition to other factors we've not yet discovered. Because of this, it seems that Blizzard's intentions are clear, this is a fast-paced game.

So where is the speed and rapidity of moving around items in your inventory to make room for items, having to run back to sell every five minutes because necessary items are taking up precious space for others you've just found? I understand some sort of catharsis is necessary during gameplay, but don't do it with a faulty and outdated inventory system.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not totally against the tetris-style gameplay, and I'm not against ways to slow down the game, but what I am against is rehashing old and outdated systems that have been attached to a game like a smiley-faced dingleberry that looks all fine and dandy up close, but it's still annoying and pulls at your bum-hairs.

[Sometimes serves sugar-sprinkled bullcrap as candy to children to get them off my lawn] Oath~

(( By the way, Seth, what happened to my previous post? If there's a copy of it somewhere, can you PM it to me? ))

Quote from "pgmek" »

It look so damn COOOL!! I love Blizzard. Just love

But anyway I got a question to all of you. What do you think about outlining the hovered monsters? In this demo we can see that when someone hovers the monster it's being outlined in red color. It look ugly imo. It's useless. Hope I could disable this in Video settings

This was a feature used primarily in both of the original Diablo games, and in most games that allow you to "hover" over a monster. Essentially, this was originally used in the first two games because of the ambiance being being so dark and vapid my eyes would fall out from being over-dilated. It was a "monster marker" to show where the monster was when the environment would get in the way of the view. I think Baishok made mention of this last year when the whole "Art Direction" war was going on. It's just a way of outlining what you're targeting and where the monster is when the view is blocked.

At least, that's what my fuzzy memory is telling me. I can't always trust it sometimes. Like that time I thought I was from a post apocalyptic future.

[Is constructed from tin cans and engine parts] Oath~

(( I know this is off topic, sorry Seth =D ))

[[ No problem, I just moved it ]]

I'll take that bet, Lt Venom. Past performance indicates future results. In this case, most Blizzard titles are pushed back beyond their intended release date for several reasons, and I have a feeling Diablo III is going to be one of them. I mean, looking at where they are conceivably at (Given their last progress report marker, the numbers of current employees working on the D3 development team, ect ect), I have a feeling we'll see it around late Q1, early Q2 of 2011. This is my current speculation.

The way I see it... you win some... you lose some.

As Baishok said... if you had to put at least a single damage on every mob, because of the way the creature and monsters behave (and the numerical amount at any given time), all classes would require some sort of AoE... and the game would be bland and less-than-fun.

On the flip side, leeching does pose a problem to people who believe that everyone should work hard to get from 1 to cap.

Hopefully, with additions like the skill-reset feature, the amount of leechers will be lessened by a lot. People will have at least one of every class, and maybe one more as a mule (in addition to the hopefully obvious cross-character stash).

Not everything that resembles WoW is evil, and in this case, a skill-reset is a good reason for keeping leechers down.

I also like the item-drop idea. Everyone gets their own loot. It benefits both the benevolent, and the selfish.

My biggest concern is people rushing and screwing up the economy making good rare items useless.

Though a good concern.... with all games, the more time alloted, the worse any economy will be. This has to do with Supply and Demand on a monetary level. Take any MMO. Most mobs will drop currency. Most rewards will net currency. Most items will sell for an equivalant amount of currency. Without some sort of constant gold sink, the amount of currency in the playerbase will forever increase, thus making it more and more worthless.

The more of something that exists, the less value it will hold.

Either way, I'm sure they'll work out all the bugs. Blizzard has been known to do things the right way, or at least have a very good reason for doing it their current way.

I just now got mine in! This is truly epic! Thanks for producing such a great soundtrack! I'm going to look for more stuff by you guys in the future!

10/10

Edit: Seraph, may I trouble you for a picture to use as an album cover for my Zune? I would greatly appreciate it!

Seraph, are you a part of the Eminence Orchestra? I noticed you used "We" a lot... I'm curious as to your affiliation with that team.

My Preorder still says "Processing".... and it's the 2nd... I wonder what's going on

They updated the Starcraft song on the sample tracks! I like it a lot!

Legendary Edition will be released November 1st... but the Regular edition comes out on the 22nd of November.

You can sample the tracks on this by checking out:

http://www.echoes-of-war.com/?media/sample-tracks

Check it out!

#14 AcidReign - Any interest in a Guild system? (Online)

#14 AcidReign - Is there any interest to stop players from "rushing" others through the Acts in Diablo III? (Online)

#31USNSEALs - Pertaining to that, Diablo II didn't have much storyline or that feeling you get when you read a book; it had cinematics between Acts, but maybe a few minutes, as compared to the roughly 5 hours of gameplay.How will Diablo III be more immersed in the story, the feeling of being in an entirely other world and learning that world every minute, as opposed to fighting monsters for a quest with a short story you received from an NPC and a cinematic between Acts?

#81 MajorMoose Will Diablo III have bosses/unique monster encounters that are multi-layered? By this I mean having the bosses/uniques use different attack abilities and tactics as you get their health lower.

As soon as I get it, I'll upload // post it

Such animosity... And here I figured people were actually starting to get along (Now that it seems that ShelledFade isn't stirring up trouble any longer)