DiabloFans

Quote from BenAlpha

Never thought I'd see my country's name in a bluepost (Israel) - cool.

I have a friend in Israel who I want to play with, but I'm from America. With Global Play, I realize I will be able to, but I'm not totally clear on how it works. Will my characters be able to play in both regions (only 1 region at a time though), or will I just be able to CREATE characters in each region, and they will each only be able to play in their respective region?

It seemed like the latter to me, but I wanted to be sure....

so for Eastern Time people in the USA, are servers going live at 3:00am?
ie is the North America release at midnight Pacific Time for our whole regeion?

I hope somebody else here enjoys a nice, dry golf joke....

Thank you Bashiok for offering so much on the matter of player choice. I have always trusted in Blizzard--sometimes blindly, I'll admit--but after playing the beta during the stress test and reading your responses, there is not a doubt in my mind that this game will be everything that it could ever be and more.
I did think the beta felt a bit linear, but it is like the first little baby-step of the game, and I can see how the system and mechanics support what may well be a true and significant innovation in RPGs and gaming in general, specifically in terms of player choice and what guides it.

I already pre-orded the game digitally... where will it show up if I've been given beta access?
(It already says "download game client," but it's just the ACTUAL game client, not the beta.)
Maybe that's all the evidence I need right there :-/

Agreed that the male Demon Hunter looks about as menacing as a 12-year-old Japanese girl. I would play as the female because she looks way more badass, honestly.
Part of it is his sulking posture. It reeks of self-pity.

Quote from lorien1973

The armor sets look a lot better when you see them from all directions.

I feel bad for anyone you date... Pleasing you must be an impossible task haha.

I thought the barb armor looked friggin awesome.

Yeah, the site must be getting totally slammed. Checking back later is the move.

My DH build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#acgkPl!beT!bYZZYY

I called it the "Demon Pillager" just because I tried to favor the most devastating skills damage-wise. I haven't played the Beta, so I'm sure there are plenty of strategic shortcomings. Just playing around really!

Quote from Corpsie

What they should have done and keep these changes but instead of unlocking as you level, make "skill runes" books or scrolls, with ranks that once use are permanent to your characters skills.

This way you still have the hunting for runes factor, you have no inventory issues because the items are 1 time uses, you still keep ranks on runes etc.

This idea has popped up a couple of times, and it had to have come up in Blizzard dev meetings. I don't see what the downside is to this. It's like having your cake... and eating it too!
The rune changes don't sit super well with me either. It has a Communist, "everybody gets the same no matter what" feel to it. Give us back the HUNT! That's what has driven Diablo for so long.

Scrolls would be super easy. If you don't want them taking up slots, make them non-tradable. If having ranks is too many items, make all scrolls of the same flavor the same item, but each one advances your rank +1. Or take out ranks altogether like you did and just make it 1 scroll per flavor of rune, just don't give them to everybody for free (leveling)!

Quote from hifiboi

If you're not intersted in picking up unidentified legendary items, then I think Diablo might not be the game for you.

Not necessarily true. I'll put it in D2 terms (assuming the logic still stands). There were 3 tiers of items within EACH class of rarity. Normal, Exceptional, and Elite. What if a "unique" exceptional item drops that would be a godsend for a lower level player, but the guy who gets the drop is beyond that and only needs "elite" items. Please correct me if the system is no longer like that.

Quote from Snaks42

But if the person doesn't care if you need it, having this system in place only makes it worse; Now you KNOW it dropped, and can't get to it lol.

Touche, salesman. Although I think most people are lazy by nature, not outright dicks. I reckon even if a guy ignores a drop, usually he's willing to grab it for someone else if they ask. Of course every once and awhile you got the lone wolf in your game who was there for the XP and MF bonus of multiplayer, but wanted nothing to do with other humans.

Overall it's not the end of the world. I just think that it could add a bit of comradery, help people have greater access to useful items that may otherwise be ignored, and give you a sense of comfort in that if a "Windforce" drops, you'll know hah.

I thought of a possible tweak on loot/drops that I wanted to run by everyone. In response to a Bashiok post:

Quote

There is also currently no loot management in place in Diablo III. If you were player two and you wanted that legendary bow, you would need to talk with that player one and hope that they are willing to trade it to you for either a price or even for free if you are lucky : )

But say Player 1 is more advanced and wealthy than Player 2 and has no need to even bother picking up the "legendary bow."
Unless P1 spoke up out of the goodness of his heart, P2 would never even know about the "legendary bow" that dropped.
P1 doesn't need the item, and doesn't care if P2 needs it (let's face it, not everyone will care), so the item goes to waste and disappears into the void of forgotten items with my old nerf guns and batman action figures.

Could there be some sort of in-game message that is displayed for everyone in the chat pane when Legendary/Uniques and Set Items drop:
"A mysterious Legendary Bow has been uncovered.

As long as you don't specify who found it, there won't be a concern of that player getting harrassed by some eager beaver amateur who wants the item. It just gives the opportunity for people to say "oooh who got the Pork Sword?!"

I'm no game designer, and I trust the D3 dev team, but I think that this would generate net positive player interaction and cooperation.
It also would wipe away the constant feeling that that shiny new item that you really need right now just dropped for someone else, but you'll never know.

I think that if you include a feature like that, there would be NO downside to the new loot system. Anyone else feel strongly about this?

There is also currently no loot management in place in Diablo III. If you were player two and you wanted that legendary bow, you would need to talk with that player one and hope that they are willing to trade it to you for either a price or even for free if you are lucky : )

But say Player 1 is more advanced and wealthy than Player 2 and has no need to even bother picking up the "legendary bow."
Unless P1 spoke up out of the goodness of his heart, P2 would never even know about the "legendary bow" that dropped.
P1 doesn't need the item, and doesn't care if P2 needs it (let's face it, not everyone will care), so the item goes to waste and disappears into the void of forgotten items with my old nerf guns and batman action figures.

Could there be some sort of in-game message that is displayed for everyone in the chat pane when Legendary/Uniques and Set Items drop:
"Player 1 has uncovered a Legendary Bow."

I'm no game designer, and I trust the D3 dev team, but I think that this would encourage player interaction and cooperation.
It also would wipe away the constant feeling that that shiny new item that you really need right now just dropped for someone else, but you'll never know.

I think that if you include a feature like that, there would be NO downside to the new loot system. Anyone else feel strongly about this?

I've got to be honest, I think this is all good news:

-scrolls for ID and TP are pointless. They're monetary value is negligible and now we don't have to waste inventory space carrying tomes and time going back to town to find out if an item is even worth keeping or not. Hope the door doesn't wrinkle their pages on the way out.

-Thank you for making normal items non-salvagable. Now when I'm feeling OCD I won't have to pick up EVERYTHING to salvage for scraps and hunks of metal. Also, I don't see a problem with crappy items dropping. If you remember back to D2, normal items weren't always worthless due to runewords and "cruel" attributes and stuff. You never know how mechanics like that will play into this game.

-Mystic.... wtf did the mystic even do? I don't remember. Peace, bitch.

-good ole attributes. Welcome home. I agree that it caters to there being "1 right mathematical formula" for each class, but the Blizzard guys have all acknowledged that issue before and I'm SURE they will do something to add depth to the system in that regard.

-Cauldron gone, no sweat. Especially with TPs back in order. Don't under-estimate the need to break up gameplay. This game looks really action-packed, so it will be nice to regroup and sell items in town every once and awhile.

Good job Blizzard. Take as much time as you need and make this game F'ing glorious. We've waited this long, what's another few months. I also agree with people saying these changes are a sign of PROGRESS, not DELAY.

Let's not