Exciting update! Always enjoy hearing when large sections of a game hit milestones in content flow and cohesion. Lots of great screenshots as well. I think it’s great that your team is playtesting in a more organic way (from home with different setups). That sounds like it’ll help tremendously with staying on top of bugs and compatibility issues.
Anyway, Dry Steppes looks incredible! The Art Team is doing phenomenal work! Props to each and every one of them. Also, I like the way the camera is pulled in closer during dialogue and story moments. I think that will go a long way with feeling immersed. So good call there.
I enjoy in-game cinematics, but nothing compares to Blizzard’s pre-rendered cinematics so I hope you have several of those planned as well. I always loved getting to the end of an Act in Diablo 2 and 3 because it meant getting to that sweet, sweet reward of a pre-rendered Blizzard cinematic and I was hugely disappointed when Reaper of Souls didn’t have a finale cinematic. But in-game cinematics/cutscenes can also mean more of them as a whole so I’m all for it!
LOVE the idea of finding places overrun by enemies and being able to clear them out to set up a waypoint/small town. Something that always bothers me in open world games is never feeling like you have any real effect/impact on the world as a whole because everything just respawns or stays static, so to have small sections you can change is wonderful to hear.
Also, as a solo-player I’m very happy to hear you’re still following the philosophy of not forcing grouping for any content. Thank you!! I don’t love having to share the world with other players but I understand the decision to do so and am at least pleased with how you’re handling it in terms of keeping it minimal most of the time and allowing dungeons and such to be remain private. I think it’s a fair compromise.
Itemization is looking great! Very curious to hear why the “Runeworker’s Conduit” legendary is specifically labeled as “Bludgeoning.” Especially since other weapons previewed don’t specify like that. Hopefully that’ll be in your future itemization update. But for now I’m excited to hear the next update will include info on the talent trees! Looking forward to it! Thank you!
Glad to hear the Diablo team is enjoying the playtesting and feels great about the direction things are going! Best of luck to you all and keep up the amazing work! Cannot wait for this game!
I liked everything in the blog update - writing/content approach, art, cinematic shots, philosophies, team stories, inside stuff on how things are done. The only thing I didn’t like is these are quarterly updates, not monthly haha.
Seeing you have heatmaps for the open world indicates you plan to fill every corner (eventually) with exciting stuff making the exploration much more enjoyable.
Some of the items for mounts (our new “followers” it seems) would be interesting to see in the future itemization update.
The camps are definitely something I look forward to (read more and eventually play) since they offer possibilities for finally giving the Diablo franchise that true RPG experience by allowing the player to make real choices and shape the world and the story by his own preference. Here are some ideas (brainstorming now) that could be incorporated through the camps mechanic:
Dialog choices influencing the story and shaping the surroundings (near zones, future to fight mobs etc)
Siding with different NPCs allowing for different future quests
Going hostile and fighting with other real players (in a PvP) depending on the made choices in the camp
Magic(Blue) and Rare(yellow) items need more Affixes. I dislike how blue items have only 2 affixes while Rare have 3-4 affixes and it’s even worse when you take into account that many of these affixes are either Angelic, Demonic or Ancestral… I believe that adding a couple more affixes to all the tiers(including 1 more for legendary items) will make the game that much more interesting and add another level of customization when we try to decide which item to equip. One of the MOST FUN aspects of the game is trying to decide which item to equip in a slot. It’s an easy fix, please do it!!
I love the rest.
Just a reminder that items you are seeing are still very much work-in-progress. The team will delve more into items/itemization in future blogs along with talents as noted by Luis.
How is this an update? You hardly explained anything. You mostly regurgitated information. The only news in this was camps (which seem cool), zooming in for interactions (lol why is this a focus right now?), and the fact that you tested as a team (wow! not important at all!).
Only things you need to focus on in these updates:
Items
Skills
Progression
Trading
PVP
Artwork/Music
Anything else comes across as you attempting to avoid the crucial conversations. Focus on the fundamental mechanics. Still extremely skeptical this game will be anywhere close to as good as D2.
i would like the oportunity to ally with cities, declare wars against town in the open world, beside fighting against monster we can figth against other players, also the oportunity to capture a pack of monster and release them in the enemy city to cause damage, quest about inflitrating enemy cities, contract mercenaries for gold instead of finding them, black market features
where beside trade can kill others and steal their goods , the posibility to be the lord of the city you own, and diplomacy level where all menber of the city must vote for one person and where the human relationship across the players will eventually define if the city will survive, will grow, be betrayed. add the human behavior into the gameplay will make it more similar to real life, people plays now not to forget their problems , people plays now to discover how is real world now
Yes, there’s no need we go in-depth on the itemization topic here. Their overall direction is clear and discussing something we don’t have the full picture of won’t be much productive.
Great update. I think you have the right direction for the development.
In terms of delivering the story to the players. Please don’t have the villains talking to us throughout the game like they did in D3. Keep them hidden (excluding cutscenes, and actual boss encounters). There is no need to show or explain everything. The big demons should not care about the player. Some unexplained mysteries are absolutely fine.
Also, loving the concept of camps. Sounds like a great idea.
Thanks Pez! I’m looking forward to hearing more about this in the future!
I was going to point out that some of the verbiage on the items seemed inconsistent. Based on your comment, the team is likely aware, but I thought I’d point it out just in case.
For example, some modifiers use the ‘+’ prefix to denote an increase, whereas others leave it off.
Something like “4% Damage while Healthy” makes it sound like the item does only 4% of its damage when the player is healthy, instead of +4% like it probably means. The same thing with “25.4% Gem Strength in this Item”, it makes it sound like it’s only going to apply 25.4% of the gem’s effect instead of +25.4%, which is probably what it meant.
Other than that, the main thing that struck me as weird was no more damage ranges for weapons. This seems to imply that damage will be a static value, which I’m sure isn’t actually the case… surely there’s a hidden damage range and what we’re seeing is just an average.
However, damage range numbers are pretty important to see… I wonder if there’s anywhere we can see those ranges? For example, this is important to know for damage sources like lightning where it’s generally more random and bursts every so often on lucky rolls (i.e. 1-60 damage) as opposed to more consistent fire damage sources (15-20 damage).
Different weapons may have similar pros/cons, like in weapon speed statistics, which also seem to be hidden. Knowing whether you have a fast-attacking sword versus a slower one leads to different build decisions in cases. Maybe it’ll be possible to toggle a detailed view for item properties? It sure might be nice to see that information without having to equip everything and check your attack speed and stuff.
I’m really liking what I’ve seen of the atmosphere and interactive storytelling angle as well. I love the idea of camps or outposts that change once you do something in the game, even if not tied to a main quest line! That could really help to make it feel more alive and opens up a ton of avenues for secrets and optional quest chains down the line!
Totally. Unique items in D2 had a name you remembered because every iteration of the item was similar, if not exactly the same, to the next. Items with the same name are the same, which is fun! It’s fun to be able to be like… I want this item because It’s good for the build I’m going for. Give’s you a sense of purpose as you play the game, and a sense of accomplishment when you finally get to see the named item you were looking for.
Understandable, there is nothing to argue about since people have different preferences and playstyles.
From the information like: “you will meet other players rarely”, “you will be able to clear dungeons solo or with your friends and it will be enough” - they are kind of already appealing to an antisocial audience and you will probably be able to afford yourself being antisocial in Diablo 4.
The other side of the coin - will they be able to give a fair treatment to an opposite audience they are trying to attract with an mmo elements at the same time. For this players, the signs of an unhealthy mmo I described will lead to apathy or disgust.
I’ve played all of the Diablo games and in my opinion this is going in a great direction. Feels like how D&D went from a nitty gritty 3.5e to an overly casual 4e and then did a great job of synthesizing the strengths of those systems in 5e.
The art direction looks amazing, it seems obvious that the writing is a step above the very disappointing D3 plot, classes feel unique and interesting, and the transparency with the community is 100% the right move.
My biggest draw in any game is the ability to create my own builds. This is why I enjoy MtG, D&D, etc. There’s strategic depth available that makes the RPG experience personal and rewarding. There will always be min-maxers who just want a blog post to tell them what the numerically optimal build is, but as long as there is legitimate, viable variety I can have fun ignoring them and concocting my own demon-butchering synergies.
To that end I did feel like the builds in D3 were a bit on the limited side, as items tended to reinforce pre-conceived builds. I know that it can be tricky maintaining game balance when you’re giving players unlimited possibilities, but so far it looks like the itemization and character progression systems you guys are baking into D4 really lean into a deep level of customization and I love it.
The thing that keeps the gear grind alive for me isn’t finding a weapon with an additional 0.1% crit chance, it’s finding that one affix that I need to bring my strat to life, and then trying to push it as far as it can go. I want a game where people are making Youtube videos about a new build 5 or 10 years down the line just because a new legendary came out that has distinct implications for the meta of each class, rather than the release of a new class-restricted set with a pre-defined play style.
The classes each feel like they’re heading in a really good direction, the open world elements seem like they’re being constrained in smart ways, and all in all I’m just pumped that this game seems to be exactly what I hoped for after thousands of hours invested in the franchise. Hands down my most anticipated game alongside the PS5 God of War follow-up. Gonna be hard to wait a few months for the next update!
Edit: Forgot to mention this until I saw other comments talking about wanting death to feel impactful. It’s obvious from watching the Outriders PS5 dev update that they’re borrowing D3’s difficulty progression system, and I thought their implementation was really nice. Basically you have to earn your way into the next tier (which can be part of an end-game progression system after level cap like Paragon Levels) and every time you die at your highest unlocked tier you lose a bit of progress toward the next tier. So essentially you have to demonstrate that you can play comfortably at the current tier before they allow you into the next tier and I thought that was an elegant way to gate tougher content while also making death more impactful than just losing some gold or something. Food for thought!
Always great with more information. Thoguh this blog is slightly thin on information and reasoning about what is shown (both What and Why is needed). I hope the blogs on itemization and skills goes MUCH further into the details.
Camps sound nice. Always good when it feels like you can change the world around you. Now, what could be even more interesting is if you could choose who to side wity. Hell one group liberate the camp, which they take over and offer you some vendors. Or help the other group defend the camp,and gain access to their different vendors instead.
Grim Dawn does something like that with its different factions. It makes you able to shape the world for each of your characters, even if it does not matter that much overall.
Item pictures:
Only 3-4 affixes on the rare items? Not enough.
No attack speed on weapons? That is a baaad idea. Takes away most of what gives weapons their identity.
ADA powers:
Would still be nice to know for sure, if each power is linked to their own sub-set of affixes. Because that seems like it will be severely build-limiting (like if you want to ever use crushing blow, you must go Ancestral Power, and all the other affixes that comes with this choice, locking you into a specific set of affixes), even though the ADA powers themselves sounds like good idea. Maybe a bit more flexibility is better? Where you might be able to get a little more Crushing Blow if you have high Ancestral power, but you can also still get good amounts of Crushing Blow without it. This might already be exactly how it is, but some information on the system would be great (such as in that upcoming blog).
And you are now calling the ADA powers an attribute system? From what you have told us so far, it is not though? Has it changed? Attributes to me is something you can add points in. Not only gear affixes.
I’m not actually saying ADA should be an attribute system, since attribute systems in A-RPGs tend to be fairly bad (it certainly was bad in D2). But dont call it an attribute system if it isn’t
Single sockets on the items shown. That doesn’t seem to work well with the basic concept of the runes in D4?
Also tbh, maybe dont make sockets an item affix that takes up one of the affix slots on an item. Let sockets be something you add to items in a different way, independent of the current affixes (somewhat like Ramaladnis gift). The sockets and runewords is its own system tbh, no reason to make it part of the normal itemization. Like with sockets and legendary gems in D3, you just make it so all the relevant item slots need to roll with a socket affix to be useful. Instead, if sockets is something you can add to all relevant items over time/effort, you avoid that (other than Ramaladnis Gift, also see how Wolcen handles sockets).
Btw, the legendary affixes so far seem much better than the D3 ones, so congrats on that.
We’re taking cues from what makes the Barbarian’s Arsenal system or the Druid’s shapeshifting feel special and looking for ways to apply similar innovations to all classes (more on this in a future update).
Sounds good. All classes having some special thing about them adds flavor and identity. Just remember, even with that flavor, the focus should be on builds, not classes. When playing, I might be using a WW Barb, or a Shout Barb. Not merely a Barb. And that build difference should be the main aspect of our characters. Not the Arsenal system. The Arsenal system is “merely” what should make a WW barb different from a tempest rush monk or whatever (two somewhat similar AoE abilities, just an example). Which is also important. There is just a substantial difference between class flavor and class-defining abilities. Let the player define their characters.
Also see WoW in this regard, where classes has been changed into sub-classes (like fire mage, frost mage etc.), that is more or less pre-defined. In Shadowlands, it luckily looks like WoW is trying to reverse this, by giving back all mage sub-classes some of the same skills, so even frost mage might use fire mage skills, just less efficiently. Not exactly the same as Diablo. Just trying to say; remember not to limit classes too much, in the very noble attempt of creating class flavor/identity. It is how the players use the class that should, in the end, create the identity.
Also, for the love of all that is unholy, remember to allow the druids shapeshifting to be more than just a cool animation that you switch into during an attack. It should be viable to go full/long-term wolf, bear etc. OR go for a build that quickly switches between the forms, buffing each form that way.
Based on your response so far, we think talent trees are by far what you’re the most eager to discuss, so we’ll make sure to queue that up for our very next blog
Yes, both skills and talents. That and itemization. Unsurprising as they are arguably the main pillars of an A-RPG!
Would be great so see what you are planning, but more importantly why. Give us the reasoning behind the plans you are showing. That will make it easier to understand why you are doing what you do (no matter if one agrees with it), and give feedback based on it.
Speaking of skills, are there going to be any kind of skill customization? Like the runes in D3, or skill mods in Wolcen etc.
I hope it is BOTH. Legendaries should be static when they drop. But rares + legendary consumable can offer the alternative of random affixes plus the desired legendary affix.
One thing I am not fond of is Magic abilities don’t visually feel “impactful” in early Diablo games it was a technical limitation but with modern day hardware it lacks the visual flare. Take Blizzard for example ( the Spell not the Company ) it just looks like tiny rain drops hitting the ground in a small area.
I think Adapting a better “Visual” flare of magic from games like Torchlight 2 where you see the mage rotating staff animation to cast, or the amazing vFX of Lost Ark, would make mage have the style she currently lacked for generations.
I think a proper Diablo game should appeal to MMO players as well. Not because it has MMO elements, but because it is a great Diablo game. Many MMO players are also fans of Diablo 1 and/or Diablo 2, as those games have sold millions.
Trying to introduce mechanics from different types of games can also backfire. Relic (the game developer) tried to increase the appeal of Dawn of War 3 by adding MOBA style elements to it, and they ended up with most of the community disliking the game. Ultimately the players abandoned DoW 3 which should have been a massive hit.
While I like flashy visuals as much as the next guy, There is such a thing as too much. Games like Path of Exile (which I like and is a great game) can be too flashy and hectic to the point that it just feels like a disco and you cannot tell anything that is going on. I am not concerned with Diablo IV having enough visual flair, and so far it looks like they are keeping it and the art at a level that makes for enjoyable but playable battles.
I really don’t like 2-3 stats items just looks sad , at least make it 4-5… I mean i so gramas play games like skyrim and witcher if they call handle stats so can we.
