Diablo III: Launch and Beyond
Blizzard didn't announce a precise release date for Diablo III
at BlizzCon 2011, but was talking quite a bit about what's been going
on with the beta, some changes we might see prior to launch, and a few
hints at what could be coming post-launch.
The current beta, which includes roughly two hours of content that
culminates in a boss fight against a character known as the Skeleton
King, should be updated in a few weeks with tweaked systems. So what has
Blizzard been using the beta for so far?
The beta will not be updated with any content beyond the Skeleton King,
but according to senior producer Alex Mayberry, "we're still balancing
difficulty, regeneration rates, we're doing the fine tuning. You are
going to see changes from what's in there now. We're not going to be
doing any major changes right now, we're so close it's really just about
polish."
One of the big benefits for Blizzard with the beta is testing the game
with plenty of users concurrently online. "It's really helping us stress
test the servers and it's helping us identify areas we need to fix. On
the gameplay side we've gotten a lot of feedback from players. The big
thing we're looking at now is, we don't want players playing the game
with the skill window up and swapping in and out as fast as they can."
In case you're not aware, the skill system in Diablo III has been
dramatically changed since Diablo II. Instead of being locked into a
skill build, your active skills are entirely moddable. Skills unlock as
you level up, and you can eventually equip six active skills and three
passive ones. These aren't permanently equipped, but can be moved around
even while in the middle of a fight. It seems like if Blizzard were to
make a change to this system, they might make it so skills are locked
while in combat.
Diablo III Game Play
"We are making some changes to how [skills] are swapped in and out,"
said Mayberry. "I'm not going to reveal it, but it'll come out in the
beta. We haven't completely locked it down. We're going to make
incremental, minute changes and get player reaction."
Working on the project up to this point, Mayberry says the most challenging aspect of creating the game is ensuring the randomness doesn't seem too random. "I often compare DIII, it's like a LEGO model of the Death Star. It's just a sphere, it's pretty simple. But when it's broken apart, Diablo III is just thousands and thousands of little pieces that the game engine puts together. That creates a real difficulty in tracking and tuning and balancing and fixing. Players don't realize how much is going on under the hood. The reality is, when you play the game, every time you play, it's never going to be exactly the same."
Not everything is random, you'll still fight through similar dungeons in each playthrough, but their layouts will differ, enemy distribution and loot will differ, and various world events will pop up. Like, for instance, in the beta you'll randomly encounter a Jar of Souls, which when clicked on starts up a mini-game where you need to survive a wave of monsters. "It pulls from a pool of rooms and stitches them all together. It's not like WoW, it's not like you can ever memorize a dungeon, because the next time in, it's different. Or if you go through Tristram and you go into cellars, you'll notice there's always a different event in the cellar. If you play enough you'll see them recycled through, but even so, because it's random, you may play through 10 times and not see everything. You may play through 20 times and not see everything."
Working on the project up to this point, Mayberry says the most challenging aspect of creating the game is ensuring the randomness doesn't seem too random. "I often compare DIII, it's like a LEGO model of the Death Star. It's just a sphere, it's pretty simple. But when it's broken apart, Diablo III is just thousands and thousands of little pieces that the game engine puts together. That creates a real difficulty in tracking and tuning and balancing and fixing. Players don't realize how much is going on under the hood. The reality is, when you play the game, every time you play, it's never going to be exactly the same."
Not everything is random, you'll still fight through similar dungeons in each playthrough, but their layouts will differ, enemy distribution and loot will differ, and various world events will pop up. Like, for instance, in the beta you'll randomly encounter a Jar of Souls, which when clicked on starts up a mini-game where you need to survive a wave of monsters. "It pulls from a pool of rooms and stitches them all together. It's not like WoW, it's not like you can ever memorize a dungeon, because the next time in, it's different. Or if you go through Tristram and you go into cellars, you'll notice there's always a different event in the cellar. If you play enough you'll see them recycled through, but even so, because it's random, you may play through 10 times and not see everything. You may play through 20 times and not see everything."
Diablo III New Skills
These types of random events sound like they may continue to be rolled
out post-launch. "Even for future content updates we have the ability to
sprinkle more in anywhere we want. You won't necessarily as a player
know what's new. If you haven't played enough to see every permutation,
it really gives us the ability to have this ongoing new content roll in.
We're still formulating our post-launch plans. We have streaming in the
game so it's much easier for us to add new content. We'll also be
looking at expansions down the road. We have to formulate that plan."
Items will likely be added into the game outside of expansion content as
well as the time after launch stretches on.
Many, including myself, were expecting a final release date for Diablo III at BlizzCon. It was previously announced the game would be ready for some time in early 2012, and that still seems to be the case. "The game is complete from a content standpoint. We still have bugs to fix, not a lot, but we still have some. Really it's about if the Battle.net platform is stable, it's about making sure our servers are working well, we want to make sure that the online experience is solid. We could have probably made the year, but we all just felt it needed a little bit more. We've worked on it so long, we didn't want to rush it to end and put it out and have people be upset about it. We never look back and think wow, we really should have put that out a month sooner. We never say that. It's easy to find yourself in a position where you put it out and think wow, we should have held that."
"Everyone wants [Diablo III], we understand that. We want everyone to have it, but if we put out a solid game, nobody's going to remember whatever that extra amount of time was. But if we don't take it, they'll sure remember we put it out too soon."
Many, including myself, were expecting a final release date for Diablo III at BlizzCon. It was previously announced the game would be ready for some time in early 2012, and that still seems to be the case. "The game is complete from a content standpoint. We still have bugs to fix, not a lot, but we still have some. Really it's about if the Battle.net platform is stable, it's about making sure our servers are working well, we want to make sure that the online experience is solid. We could have probably made the year, but we all just felt it needed a little bit more. We've worked on it so long, we didn't want to rush it to end and put it out and have people be upset about it. We never look back and think wow, we really should have put that out a month sooner. We never say that. It's easy to find yourself in a position where you put it out and think wow, we should have held that."
"Everyone wants [Diablo III], we understand that. We want everyone to have it, but if we put out a solid game, nobody's going to remember whatever that extra amount of time was. But if we don't take it, they'll sure remember we put it out too soon."
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March 2012
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