DiabloFans

They're going to announce the beta start well before blizzcon, Q3 ends on sept 30, and blizzcon is in october, and they've confirmed a Q3 beta.

Oct 31st is a Monday, so they might release the game at midnight then just to have a halloween=scary=diablo kind of correlation. (no, i'm not scared of halloween you trolls, but if there's any day that's a good day to release a diablo game, its halloween).


edit: I would also be surprised if a "friend invite" thing like they did with sc2 was not used.

Quote from blaqstomp

Quote from Akuma Seijin

I probably won't really buy things from the RMAH....But I will definitely sell my ass off.

So will you and everyone else. Haha

The interesting thing is that most of the buyers are likely to be people who wouldn't be coming to a fansite of a game well before its release. Even if everyone who said they plan to only, or mostly, sell were being truthful (or at least accurate), there is still a massive pool of buyers to be had.

edit: grama ez da beist

Quote from Lorgarn

I'm definately planning on using both as often as I can.

Also, I like that idea of your first rune being this sort of questitem that engages you in a minor series of quests to discover all these different runes.

I liked that general idea as well, with a slight modification. I think the "Encyclopedia" or whatever should allow you to look at ability descriptions and then from there see what runes do to it.

So like:

Bash: hits a dude
indigo rune: bash now does...
obsidian rune: bash now does...
crimson rune: bash now does...
alabaster rune: bash now does...
golden rune: bash now does...


Re: taxation. For the USA it will probably be reported as either non-employee income on a 1099-misc, or perhaps a capital gain/loss on a 1099-b. And to all those planning to not claim it: Blizzard will be reporting all of these amounts to the IRS. If you don't make enough money to have to file a return, you'll be fine. If you already have income, you'd better report this too (blizz will undoubtably send out end-of-year-income statements, or post them on your paypal (or whoever) account or somewhere else).

Quote from Auluaden

I think your information on how drop rate percentages actually work is extremely flawed.

/snip

It's kinda the same mentality as someone who wrestles alligators, who says "yeah, there's a 60% chance he could bite me arm off, but don't worry, I'm hardcore, I'll be fine.", then they get stung in the heart by a stingray somewhere in the pacific.

I am aware that drop rates (say 1 in 10) don't guarantee that an item will drop in that given frame (you won't automatically get the drop on the 10th kill if you haven't gotten it yet). But in an average case, with a sufficiently large sample size, the ratio will be extremely close to the expected drop rate.

I see both sides of the chosen/random effect debate. Both sides have pros, both sides have cons, which weighs heavier for you will vary on a person-by-person basis. I like the random effect because it brings more of a focus to the AH/trading, which I really enjoyed playing around with in WoW. I like the chosen/predetermined effect because it means quicker satisfaction with regard to getting your skills exactly where you want them.

The gambler in me is a little louder on this than the lazy bastard, so I lean towards the randomization side. I would not be unhappy with either.

Also: too soon! :-p

Quote from Auluaden

I most definitely have, I also can spell "you". It does not change the fact that, as he said, high level runes will be rare drops, and this system is one that would make it frustrating for the player to try to get the customization he promised in skills via runes.

/snip

As I said, it's unlikely to ship with Jay's proposed system, as it's detrimental to what the team has stated they wish for diablo 3.

I think there is some confusion over need vs want in your argument.

Before continuing, I will say that maybe we WILL need lvl 7 runes to farm endgame stuff. I think that unlikely, and think that lower levels of the same runes will be good enough to get by. They may not be. We won't be able to say until the game is out and we're 60.

Additionally, I think that there will be a way outside of actually putting the rune in the skill to pick the skill for the rune if they go with JW's idea, simply because requiring someone to pay to unsocket a rune just to ID a new rune seems excessive. I wouldn't be surpirsed if runes could be "set" by the mystic (either you get to choose its effect like you'd like, or she could reveal what effect the rune is going to be).

The 7-level gradient is actually fantastic for allowing customizability and viability without making optimum builds common. Think of a lvl 7 rune as a zod. How many people ACTUALLY saw one drop? In my view, and this is certainly contestable, lvl 7 runes are not meant to be acquired by everyone. Now, you may argue "if the chance is so low, why even bother?" but the fact of the matter is that most of the great drops in diablo also had absolutely miniscule chance to drop. That doesn't mean its not worth putting in. lets say that 10 million people buy the game the day/weekend it comes out. lets say everyone who is going to hit 60 is about 1/10 that. So now we've got 1 million people in endgame. If something has a 1 in a million drop chance (.000001) will happen as many times in as that many characters kill a single monster (guess: probably about every 1 second) which comes out to 3600 times an hour.

The market will be flooded. The drop chance is probably lower than that, or maybe the kill speed, but I think it illustrates the point. In fact, I think i've convinced myself that everyone will have lvl 7 runes without much wait.

Quote from dramora2205

There is a key difference between charms and runes though. Runes define how you play your character. An example I could take out of the press conferance is the battle mage. A rune for arcane orb, a spell you generally wouldn't use as a battle mage, made it swirl protectively around you (mario kart?). My point is that you would never replace your level 6 indigo (just a guess, I don't know what color it is) for a level 7 crimson if you're trying to build a battle mage. I should know what I'm socketing, and I shouldn't have to spend tons of gold if I'm unlucky, since it's a playstyle change, not just a stat change.

This is why I think that unattuned runes should still have a color. The random affixes is what should be random. You would still use a level 7 indigo rune if it had slightly optimal stats over a level 6 indigo rune that has more optimal stats (but less of them). I would feel a lot better about min/maxing by rerolling repeatedly on something that isn't a playstyle choice. Even though I would almost advocate for a complete removal of the affix if you unlock a rune through the mystic, to give your runes more of a sense of investment when you use them. Just my thought though.

I understand the attachment to wanting the effect to remain the same. When I first heard what JW had said I was very much "i'd better be able to keep the effect!" but upon further consideration decided that was less of an issure than i thought.

While I hope that a "perfect" affixed 6 is as or even less powerful total (account for both effect and stats) than a "mediocre" 7, I don't think that the difference between a bad lvl 5 and a perfect 7 will stop you from being able to play the game.

A 2 part re-roll where you can choose to not reroll either the affix or the effect would be a perfectly fine middle ground in my mind. i would like it if there was a flat cost to re-roll, but you could choose to re-roll the effect, affix, or both for that price.

edit: cybercheese, it looks like you're quoting the html rather than the standard text, dunno why.

As a point of comparison, saying that you should know what type of rune it is sounds awfully similar to saying "i should know if that small charm gives life before i pick it up."

I don't think that's a valid complaint.

Try viewing the "socketing" process as simply using a scroll of identify on the item. Lets go with unique rings as another example, if a unique ring drops and it doesn't turn out to be an SoJ, you don't complain "goddamnit! WHY DIDN'T THEY LET ME KNOW IT WASN'T AN SOJ AHEAD OF TIME!!!1!`" You have a moment of anticipation when you pick it up and right before you identify it, then its "goddamned nagelring" or "oh nice, its a 'ravenfrost,' i needed one for this char" or hell, it might be a BK ring. YOU DON'T KNOW. and when you find out its either trash, useful, trade fodder, or amazing. The same will apply to runes. Except now they can also be cash-money.

getting a (lets say) lvl 5 rune of the type you want would be similar to getting a skiller with a not-great affix attached, lets say like mana (did gc's give mana? i haven't played d2 in a whiiiiile). It gets the job done, but there are upgrades that you will continue looking for (and playing the game for).

lvl 6 and 7 runes will of course be harder to find, but who's to say that they even give THAT much more power. Maybe a lvl 5 magic missile rune lets you hit 6 targets and a lvl 7 lets you hit 8. I think you can get by without those extra 2 hits, but they would certainly help out. it gives you something to play for while not being completely absolutely necessary (opinions will differ on that).

And I hope that runes are re-blank-able. That will be a fantastic gold sink, which will be good for the game's economy.

And you don't just need 1 lvl 7 rune, you'd need anywhere from 6-100, depending on how flexible you plan to be with your character. That makes MASSIVE demand, which makes for healthy trading.

Some people seem to be arguing that there will be no gradient between lvl 1 and 7 rune drops. You'll get a taste of what a run does real early via candy-runes, and then you'll get hell-functional runes probably by the time you get to hell difficulty, with the absolutely best runes being an item hunt similar to an anni charm or hellfire torch or a windforce or whatever.

I don't see how any of that is bad.

Quote from Yinmaren

This entire thing is getting out of hand.

/snip

ETA: In the search for simplicity they've made something completely foreign and alien.

Whoa dude. Go have a beer, sit down, close your eyes for a few mins, and then get back to thinking about diablo or whatever.

The descriptions given weren't crystal clear, but I think the system JW was hoping would get in would be a good one.

Think of runes as acting like charms in d2, except you've got a 6 slot box that can only hold charms. Ok, so that covers the stat bonuses.

From what JW said, it sounded like the stat bonuses applied to your character, rather than the spell. I could have misinterpretted that. Either way it doesn't really matter. Either you or that skill have a bonus just for having ANY rune in that skill.

Ok, so now we go for the rune effect. It seemed to me like JW never said that the effect was randomized and that sixen (was it sixen? i'm terrible with voice recognition without a face to put to it) thought the effect of the rune was randomized while it SEEMED like JW was only referring to the bonuses being randomized. I think they were talking passed each other a bit.

Even if the particular effect is randomized, you'll have about a 20% chance of getting the right effect (there are about 5 different rune effects right?) and then you can worry about stats after that.

I'm assuming that's the perspective most players will take as it would seem the effect has a bigger impact than however many point bonus the rune would give.

With a high level rune (lets say lvl 7 is the highest, i dunno where i'm getting that from) all i'll REALLY be looking for is the right effect until i have all my skills with a lvl 7 rune with the right effect. Once i have that i'll start worrying about stats.

Really, runes are just small charms+. they're not foreign or alien, but another mechanic to allow for character and playstyle customization.

Reverse classic! Why wouldn't I want to see what loot drops? If for some reason I feel like I'm seeing too many items on the ground I'd switch to toggle.

I plan to pick up and salvage everything if it can be done relatively on the fly.

Edit: Typos.

Quote from "RAGGNAROKH" »

I think the question was about this

-> Zod drop rate is 0.000012%(taken from diablo wiki) X 16 = 0.000192%

, etc.

Or may be I'm just too sleepy cuz it's 5:40am :confused:

This is exactly what I was talking about.

Quote from "Stefke-HC" »

Just take this:

• Mal/Ist: 5.8x
• Gul/Vex: 7.12x
• Ohm/Lo: 9.2x
• Sur/Ber: 11.92x
• Jah/Cham/Zod: 16.0x

Then take the old results and multiply them by these results I think this should do the trick. Or am I wrong?

yeah, i don't know the original droprates and figured someone who did know them would get the results quicker than me searching for the droprate on each then doing the math. the math isnt the hard part, the finding the droprates is what would take some time.

Can someone do the math on what the current droprate for the high runes is with these changes?