That why i said that the developers should tell us their goal/vision or plan about D4 partying in this blog instead of “player hub”.
And I assume that you guys also have problem with D2 party system then since it did the same thing incentive (more exp) as D3 party system.
You have got to make an entirely open item economy part of this game. I’ve watched with horror as Bliz has drawn all the wrong conclusions about the success of D2 and the hints we’re getting is that this will be just another glorified D3.
The real money AH in D3 had the potential to revolutionize the entire gaming industry and you let it fizzle and die on the vine. The first company to get it right will make billions and you blew it by absolutely astoundingly high transaction fees and a $1 minimum.
I hope this gets rescued in time. I really do and I’ve been playing since 1999.
“One of my favorite things about mounts was customizing it by attaching a trophy to the saddle…”
Geralt of Rivia says hi 
If all of the items end up being the same size for slots it will be terrible. Items should have their own sizes to fill in certain slots and to better see and find the image of what you are looking for.
Glad the team seems to be having fun playtesting, I can only imagine what that is like! The map with the peak number of player traffic was super interesting to see, as well as the Blockout explanation and images, it is fascinating to me anyways.
Excited to see the zooming in for some storytelling elements, I feel Diablo 3 missed some of those marks quite a bit and while some might think its a minor thing to talk about right now, I think its something to know ahead of time. The cinematic stills are amazing too, very non spoilery !
The open world and multiplayer looks like it will be extremely fun to engage in, I know some people are worried and seem confused though that its too mmo-lite but I think what we’re seeing here is exactly as it needs to be. It isn’t an mmo and the story is pretty blunt: Most heroes and nephalem are gone, heavens shut their doors so… to me it all works out if not too many people show up or I don’t see the same face again. Also LOVED the section on the Camps, I hope we get more of that soon.
Can’t say much on the itemization right now, that topic and project is on going obviously, I will say it is a bit confusing between the angelic, and demonic powers and I believe the third one was ancestral or nephalem? It seems weird probably need to explain it a bit more in the future which I know was stated.
Thank you Diablo IV team for giving us so much information, I know more about your game than Overwatch 2 which is a bit saddening in some ways. I fully agree that a year with no BlizzCon means we do need more information, now more than ever being communicative and honest is crucial. Thank you again for the update!
I really don’t like the aspect of this being an MMO, Semi or otherwise. this is not going to be something like WoW classic . at least from the dev block it looks less interactive than destiny and d3 . This is aboslutely the wrong path in my opinion. When i play Diablo, I don’t play it for random people . I play solo or with friends . If this is forced to be an online game with just who ever is there . I won’t buy the game . Yes there are those hardcore fans who just see the title and say they can do nothing wrong. If they want to do a Diablo MMO then they need to do an MMO. If they want to do a Diablo game then they need to drop the MMO part. I really don’t want D4 to fail. after the … lack luster attempt at D3 and its failures . the Diablo franchise needs a win, not a gamble. Now Do i like the idea of special Events/ zones /and dungeons having the option to have people join in because you must have a party. but at the same time it should not be tied to progression or forced in anyway. it needs to be 100% optional content. With the current design or at least how i take it … it will just be like D3 high end torment runs with random people in the world. that will lose player interest really quickly
still, there should be an option to see NO other player at all, if you dont want to
items are…ok? i guess? ADA will turn farming into a giant RNGesus pray fest^^
also i didnt see a single item with more than 1 socket
are runes still a thing? will more sockets only appear on lower tier items?
or was that just random?
Talking about real-time cutscenes. May I suggest a small idea?
Alot of the times when you see these kinds of stuff, you tend to see your party members become completely irrelevant for the duration, making it quite boring and unimmersive at times.
But since we’re trying to push the envelope, why not have some real-time cut-scenes show interactions between the characters within you’re party?
We’ve been shown how well a few lines of interactions between characters can define their characteristics and make them see so much more alive. Why not bring this?
If you finished a certain side quest solo that involves a cutscene. You get the standard “You’re the only hero” cutscene.
But if you’re a party, we can have so much more depth by just adding a few remarks between character on the situation.
For example, Lets say you met the Ghost of Deckard Cain.
Solo quest
Cain: Come! Stay awhile and listen!
Barbarian Player 1: It is time for shedding our enemies blood. Not idle talk.
Cain: (sigh) No one ever listens these days.
Party Quest
Cain: Come! Stay awhile and listen!
Barbarian Player 1: It is time for shedding our enemies blood. Not idle…
Sorceress Player 2: You shan’t ignore the power of knowledge Barbarian. It is the mightiest power of all. How fascinating to meet you in person Cain. Did Leah…
Barbarian Player 1: NOT NOW.
Cain: (sigh) No one ever listens.
A few interactions like these would give another depth with just a few more lines.
As someone who connects from China, I really wish there was an offline option. I can no longer play D3 or WoW because even using Asian servers I get around 1000 latency, even though my local connection here is very fast. If it’s not possible to provide an offline mode, please do whatever Overwatch does with their servers, because it’s the only Blizzard game that gives me a decent latency (when using asian servers).
People complaining about mounts obviously haven’t seen any recent isometric games like Lost Ark.
Previous diablo games have a goal, kill diablo and the generals of hell. Those games have a beginning and an end. D4 isn’t like that because world bosses respawn and it’s confirmed there will be weekly/daily quests in a never-ending end-game.
The point of mounts is to skip the mobs you don’t have active “quests” for while you make your way to a specific area of the map, or even just to change maps. They’re trying hard to remove loading screens so zone changing is going to be done via mounts unless you are way-pointing into major quest hubs.
D4 is not a “diablo” type single player game, it is a modern isometric rpg in the diablo IP.
They aren’t making D4 diablo 2 because they can just remaster it and they aren’t going to make it like diablo 3 because despite selling well it was a train wreck.
Hi!
I’m still a bit worried about the path that’s being taken here, regarding loots. I think many of us are unsure if the loot system will be like the legendary fest that is Diablo 3 and other similar games, without any sense of exclusiveness and fulfillment. Are you guys planning to have that feeling of, for example, finding a Vex rune in Diablo 2? And the world of possibilities that follows it? Or is everyone going to be the same after a month playing the game?
Diablo 2 has such a simple and well defined loot system and I really believe it should be taken as reference. Sometimes simplicity can be better.
The last image also worries me about the art direction as a whole. The bright red light takes us back to what Diablo 3 failed to portrait, fear and that unsettling feeling of doubt. A river of bright blood and shiny fire with skeletons swimming on it, is less unsettling/scary than a dark dusty room hard to understand such as the Durance of Hate, in D2’s third act. I believe the contrast should be always toned down unless there is an specific reason for it to be like that.
I love all Blizzard’s artists and, being a game artist myself, I know how tight deadlines are and how stressful everything gets. You got this! I hope you’re all doing great, staying healthy and washing your hands every 2 minutes. xD
Keep up the good work!
Cheers!
Decent update but was hoping for something a little more. The next one should delve more into the critical aspects like skill trees, talents and crafting.
Not yet sold on the itemization, nothing there grabs my attention or makes me think that item is messed up in a good way. The number of affixes per item looks rather stingy.
MrLlamaSC provides good insight that will help turn D4 into a worthy successor to D2.
my 2 cents,
reading this post seeing a lot of random items not having enough affixes and grinding them is a concern to many peeps… i agree, the never ending grind for a random item that is better than the 1 you have is insane…
the open world has many benefits … lots of natural resources … use them in recipes to upgrade your random junk or your legendaries … different regions or different mob types can drop items with specific affixes or raw mats
let us modify our gear somewhat according to what we can find in quests, rewards, kills, natural surroundings… etc…
finding recipes is good … now make us go get the materials required
MMO ? worst part is you need 20+ peeps to take down super boss to get the good stuff in game and now have 19 self rightous 12 yo who need that… if i can solo the entire game in an open world all the power to you
side note you should give us some character customization at creation… hate being in a party with 4 demon hunter clones
It all looks very promising, thank you for sharing it. I can’t wait to learn more about the world and story! (I’m a lore junky first and foremost, sorry 
)
Currently, I only have a single… I don’t know, wish? Hope? I would like to ask you, dear developers, with all due respect, that please please make Sanctuary a world worth fighting for! Please make it beautiful, please make it at least partially safe and liveable. A world that is always dangerous, where monsters hunt humans constantly, around every corner, everything is always terrible and humans barely hang on to survive… I think a world like that won’t be overly motivating to save. That was my favorite part in Diablo 3 (and the part most people hated, I know unfortunately) was that Sanctuary was an actual beautiful world which I actively wanted to protect at all costs. It had its bleak and dark places, which were also very welcomed, but at the end of the way, to quote Mei, it was a world worth fighting for. Exactly the thing Diablo 2 missed the most.
It is only my opinion, of course. I understand I am in the minority with my opinions about the series itself, and I won’t be deciding anything on the long run. I hope I did not come through as demanding, because that was not my intention at all. I wish you the very best during development and I will be here to follow the progress! Hail Inarius! I cannot wait to kill Lilith and save him!
They literally say they don’t want it to become an mmorpg in the quarterly update.
“Our goal has always been to incorporate elements from shared world games without the game ever feeling like it’s veering into massively multiplayer territory.”
Well after the events of Diablo 3 RoS such as the reapers attack on Sanctuary, the release of the Great Evils, Heaven closing it’s gates, Lilith’s return, a rise in cultist activities, and among other things; the world is probably at the most dangerous that it’s ever been. So there may not be as many safe havens or strongholds that would be beautiful and/or safe, and if there are, it probably won’t last for long.
Thank you for the update.
I think it would be very interesting to get more info on what feedback you liked from previous update. And maybe even show things that have changed bases on the feedback you get. Not only does that show that the community is actually properly involved but it also gives us feedback on what kind of discussions you like.
I’m looking forward to the next update. Keep up the good work.
I’m mostly liking what I’m seeing so far. Loving the overall art style and tone of the game. I’m a little worried about the MMO aspect: I hope you keep that on the DL as much as possible and show some more solo play love for D4 as compared to D3.
My biggest concern, and one that you may have already addressed internally but have yet to talk about publicly, concerns items and RNG. Considering that every Diablo game is a loot game, I think getting itemization correct is one of the most important aspects to how enjoyable the game can be. That said, there are 2 things about D3 items that I really don’t like: first, most items that drop are junk and unusable; and second, your constant rebalancing efforts each season make the great gear that I got in the past current junk and unusable.
Therefore, I hope you embrace the mechanic that I wrote about before, or at least something similar. The gist of it is to only store the random number rolled for each stat of an item. That way, upon rebalance, the new stat value will scale appropriately with the old one, and the previously looted item will remain relevant. If you do incorporate such a mechanic, I’m sure you’d agree that the earlier you do so, the better, and most definitely should be included before the first public release.
Finally, I’ll say that I think these ongoing developer blogs should happen for all games, at all stages of developemnt, regardless of seasonal conventions or world pandemics.
Agreed. The items, at least the rare and magic ones, seemed to be the old painterly icons rather than the new more realistic ones. I hope they update those and show more off, since those updated ones in the last update looked great.