Diablo II: Resurrected Console Lobbies, TCP/IP, & UW Updates

Hi all,

When making games, there are certain realities development teams need to face when confronted with dilemmas that impose on the gameplay experience. For this remaster, two of our core principles are protecting the authenticity of the original Diablo II experience and making it more accessible in this modern age. Our goal is to honor this timeless classic while also opening it to a new generation of players. So, keeping that in mind, as we approach the launch of Diablo II: Resurrected, we wanted to take this opportunity to share some insight on a handful of in-game features we revisited following the Technical Alpha and Beta events.

Console Lobbies / Chat Update

During the Early Access Beta, we identified and fixed a bug preventing console players from grouping up in multiplayer. As we progressed, this system was working as intended for the Open Beta during our testing; and when we modernized the Diablo II experience for the console, we designed the game so players didn’t have to rely on lobbies to play with others. Instead, players can invite their friends into their game directly or utilize the Party Finder to join up alongside other players with similar objectives. With that said, over the past couple of weeks, we have seen many discussions and expressed concern over the difficulty of joining the appropriate games based on a player’s current activities. In Beta, finding other parties on console was confined to a few conditions. For example, if the player was on an identical quest as you, with a similar character level and the same difficulty, you could join into that other player’s multiplayer session.

For modes such as PvP or the Cow Level, console lobbies don’t propagate until you hit a few minimum requirements. For PvP, players need to reach level 9. For the Cow Level, players need to complete that challenge on their own front first. For these two modes, once those conditions have been met, console lobbies of those activities will become visible for those players. There is also a Free Roam option players can opt into if no quest is selected. There is no quest restriction, but players that share similar levels and identical difficulty will be able to share a multiplayer session. A lobby is automatically converted to Free Roam once a player’s character completes the initial quest that a lobby started as in that multiplayer session.

Following our Beta, we’ve seen many console players requesting more options to better navigate activities in multiplayer. We’ve added Bosses and Zones tabs to the Party Finder, so players can better coordinate on that front, alongside the Pandemonium event, Uber Diablo event, and PvP/Dueling. Some console players have also requested the option to create custom lobbies. That is not a feature we’re supporting at launch, but as we progress, we’ll continue to monitor feedback on this topic after the launch of Diablo II: Resurrected.

Shown below is a breakdown of additional parameters players will be able to sort by in the Party Finder at launch beyond the quest options that were present during Beta:

Boss Kills

  • Andariel: Requires Act 1 completion

  • Duriel: Requires Act 2 completion

  • Mephisto: Requires Act 3 completion

  • Diablo: Requires Act 4 completion

  • Baal: Requires Act 5 completion

  • Cow King: Act 4 or Act 5 completion depending on Classic or Expansion character

Zones

  • Free Roam: No requirement

  • Tristram: Requires nothing

  • Canyon of the Magi Tombs: Requires Act 1 completion

  • Chaos Sanctuary: Requires Act 2 completion

  • Pindleskin: Requires Act 4 completion

  • Maggot Lair: Requires Act 1 completion

Other

  • Pandemonium Event: Act 5 completion

  • Uber Diablo: Act 5 completion

  • PVP/Dueling: Requires level 9

Lastly, we’ve seen a lot of discussion surrounding the Chat functionality on console. We designed the game to be the best experience on each platform you play, for console, the primary way for players to communicate is through native voice chat on their platform. So, we’re not making any changes on that front, but we’ll continue to monitor that feedback to see if it remains a prevalent area of concern for our players. If so, we’ll explore making changes or adding more functionality to the in-game chat system post-launch.

TCP / IP Support

We initially announced the removal of TCP / IP support in our Beta blog, noting that this functionality would not be present in the Beta or in the final game. We want to take this time to share our insight on why we removed this feature. Following the Technical Alpha, we learned that this functionality was enabling significant security-related issues to our game. We’re aware that removing this feature adds a large hurdle for talented multiplayer modders in our community. Still, our priority is to keep this game’s ecosystem as secure as possible for all of our players.

Despite this change, a form of modding will still be possible. Players will have the ability to modify specific files which include adjusting values of skills, items, and more. However, keep in mind the Classic client of Diablo II will still exist and that is not going away. Multiplayer mods will still be able to exist and thrive on that platform by our community there.

Ultrawide Support Changes

Ultrawide monitor support being modified was a subject we saw heavily discussed across our channels following the Beta. In the Technical Alpha, players with Ultrawide hardware saw their full 21:9 screens utilized during that test. However, during that test we identified limitations affecting those players and others. For example, the AI failed to sense the player and trigger attacks. Furthermore, players with 21:9 monitors were able to pull many more monsters into battle at a range limit beyond the original game’s intention. In a scenario where players (for example: playing a ranged class) were attacking monsters, players with 21:9 monitors could hit enemies with that extra screen space, but the monsters would not pull or react, but could still be defeated. Ultimately, the AI doesn’t register getting hit from that additional distance a 21:9 monitor provides. That’s not intended, especially if you’re sharing a game with a 16:9 user. To protect the integrity of everyone’s experience and promote an equal playing field for all, those with Ultrawide monitors will be able to have their game screen purview extended to 19:9 (the maximum length of the in-game limitation zones) with a vignette on the sides of the game screen. We recognize that players have spent a lot of money to assemble their 21:9 hardware setups and seeing black bars may be frustrating for their experience. So, we’ll continue to watch these discussions and explore possible solutions that don’t change how the game is played.

To those of you who participated in the Beta event, we appreciate your time and feedback in making Diablo II: Resurrected a better experience for those at launch. Please stay tuned, as we will be standing up new dedicated forums for the Diablo II: Resurrected community to continue discussing the game and sharing their experiences. We are diligently working on getting everything ready for the September 23 release. We can’t wait for everyone to get back to the Rogue Encampment to begin their quest east. Always to the east.

Thanks
Diablo Community Team

92 Likes

Classic shared stash please

44 Likes

I really wish you guys would just add in game text chat to the console versions. Not everybody wants to invite 7 random players into a voice chat group. I guess the new game system will suffice for now on consoles, but you still won’t be able to follow one specific run that has good players. Lobbies are still the way to go. It feels like the “modernized” version is a step backward and makes it more difficult to accomplish specific tasks in game. Naming games should be the go to.

I do agree with the ultrawide support though. You guys made the right call.

Give classic mode the shared stash also. There’s no reason it shouldn’t have the QoL features that D2LoD will in D2R.

Also, boo to no multiplayer mods.

93 Likes

No real mod support hurts

79 Likes

Any word on adding actionbar support for KB+M in the near future?

Devs should consider adding a form of multiplayer modding on official bnet servers similar to how PoE offers people private leagues.

26 Likes

Still smells like a decision driven by money to get more people on battle.net, and prevent piracy

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@PezRadar

Thank you.

2 Likes

Nice changes. Also thanks for confirming you will protect the authenticity of the game. QOL changes are great. Core mechanics changes are not.

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Thanks PezRadar.

Can you expand a little on this comment especially in relation to how Blizzard envisions D2R mods working in multiplayer? Will modding be largely restricted to single player in D2R?

Will a separate non-Blizzard server be allowed for multiplayer D2R mods that would seem to create issues with verifying that the players own a legitimate copy of D2R? Alternatively, will these D2R multiplayer mods exists on Blizzard servers where authentication is normal?

18 Likes

Typical blizzard, not even the guts or even logic to announce 2 different Bnet realms… 1.14 remaster and 2.x Remake

8 Likes

Rod has already stated that they will be providing information after D2R launch on additional updates. This is more about the beta. As you may know, Rod promised an update on ultrawide issues on twitter:

Rod Fergusson on Twitter: “Appreciate everyone’s feedback on D2R Ultrawide support, we’ll put together a response post soon. Just know that we’re running on top of the original game that was 800x600 and full ultrawide resolutions breaks the original game logic, so we pushed it as much as we could to 19x9.” / Twitter

4 Likes

Damn, I thought there would be interesting information

11 Likes

:point_up: I’m sure this will not please a lot of folks.

But, the old game will stay running, so at least there is still a way to continue enjoying those mods.

13 Likes

Have to agree

Like good old starcraft 1 where you tried custom games on the official servers and it downloaded the game modifications for you

Blizzard could easily have a top 5 curated mods they hosted on their servers

16 Likes

Great information. Bravo

No TCP/IP is still outrageous

44 Likes

Not gonna lie, I got my hopes up for a second when I saw the TCP/IP section. I thought maybe Blizz was adding it back after consideration. :frowning:

Oh well. At least they basically said they will leave modding alone in legacy D2 which is good.

19 Likes

Not going to bother anymore microna. Ploot isn’t authentic sorry my friend.

13 Likes

Not having this is enough for me not to purchase a console version again.

When they have the chat working so that whoever’s in game and has mic’s can talk to each other without having to send invites ext I’ll buy a console version

Nvm I missed you put TEXT chat and not mic’s chat….don’t care about text chat, do about mic chat

15 Likes

What are you guys doing with ladder? Now would be a good time to address what direction you guys are going with it. Are you changing the duration? Doesn’t make much sense to do that unless you intend to focus more on the race aspect of it.

3 Likes