xkcd

by **WarDaft** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 9:18 pm UTC

Duel welded, obviously.

by **Izawwlgood** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:02 pm UTC

Evidently beta invites went out today, so check Bnet!

by **Intrigued** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:23 pm UTC

Hope you're not messing with us. I'm getting a site down for maintenance message.

Gah! I want to kill demons. Why did I subscribe to this thread?!? I had almost forgotten how much I wanted d3 to be out.

by **Izawwlgood** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:49 pm UTC

Torchlight is holding me off for now.

by **Vaniver** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:48 pm UTC

Played the beta. It reminded me strongly of Torchlight. I played through as a wizard, and found myself kiting things a lot with the original wand- but then about two thirds of the way through, I found an awesome wand that allowed me to kill everything with one hit, which made the game much more enjoyable. I enjoy the new mechanics- the wizard's takes a while to become interesting, as until you get arcane orb, the limiting factors are cooldowns (which seem rather long), but then once you get arcane orb things seem normal. It takes about 10 seconds to go from no arcane power to full arcane power, but the cooldown on wave of force is 15 seconds.

I enjoyed the conversations you would have with your follower, as it gives your character and the follower quite a bit more personality, and makes trudging through the dungeons and hellscapes seem that much more welcoming. It looks like they might always say the same line when you come across a named monster, though, which seems like it'll get aggravating.

by **Izawwlgood** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:50 pm UTC

GIVE US YOUR KEY NAOW

by **Intrigued** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:01 pm UTC

Izawwlgood wrote:GIVE US YOUR KEY NAOW

qft

by **Obby** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:14 pm UTC

Vaniver wrote:Played the beta.

I hate/envy you.

by **Spambot5546** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:03 pm UTC

Vaniver wrote:Played the beta. It reminded me strongly of Torchlight.

A diablo game reminds you of Torchlight!? Would you also describe the works of J.R.R. Tolkien as reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons?

by **rigwarl** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:33 pm UTC

Vaniver wrote:Played the beta.

I'm jelly.

by **Izawwlgood** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:00 pm UTC

Spambot5546 wrote:
Vaniver wrote:Played the beta. It reminded me strongly of Torchlight.

A diablo game reminds you of Torchlight!? Would you also describe the works of J.R.R. Tolkien as reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons?

Super Mario Bros 3 had a similar theme to Super Mario Bros 1.

I think Vanivers point though might have something to do with the change of D3's mechanic. You aren't only slotting M1 and M2 and spamming an attack, or occasionally swapping attacks, you're using all/most your abilities and managing CDs....

If anything it's reminiscent of BLC.

by **Vaniver** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:19 pm UTC

Spambot5546 wrote:
Vaniver wrote:Played the beta. It reminded me strongly of Torchlight.

A diablo game reminds you of Torchlight!? Would you also describe the works of J.R.R. Tolkien as reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons?

And Bram Stoker's Dracula was unoriginal? Sure.* More seriously, though, what I have played of the game so far reminds me more of Torchlight than of D2. Some of that is undoubtedly recency in my memory- it's been a few years since I played D2, and probably one year since I played Torchlight.

The visual resemblance was probably more significant in forming my opinion, though. D2's graphics were gritty; Torchlight's were crisp. D3's graphics are crisp.

The 'managing multiple skills' thing didn't come up much. By the end of the beta you're at level ~10, with three active skill slots and one passive slot. That's a left click, right click, and a hotkey; for my wizard loadout, at least, the hotkey was just a panic button for when I was surrounded by more monsters than I wanted to be surrounded by. (It saw heavy use when I had a crappy wand, and no use once I had my great wand.)

*Someone I knew in high school complained about this. I wasn't sure how to respond.

by **big boss** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 12:50 am UTC

Vaniver wrote: D2's graphics were gritty; Torchlight's were crisp. D3's graphics are crisp.

Thats my one complaint about recent blizzard games, Blizz's older games looked gritty (maybe that was just because of the graphical capability back then but the end result is all that matters). I don't like the new "crisp", as you call it, visual look of SC2 and D3, I wished the games (at least D3 because Diablo is about hell after all) looked more gritty, eerie, or scary then they currently do.

by **WarDaft** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 2:18 am UTC

Run em at 640x480 then. That's why most people remember them as gritty. They were also 256 colour. Yes, you heard me. They used secret evil magic to make it look even as good as it did.

by **big boss** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 3:39 am UTC

WarDaft wrote:Run em at 640x480 then. That's why most people remember them as gritty. They were also 256 colour. Yes, you heard me. They used secret evil magic to make it look even as good as it did.

You can make a game look gritty without having to play with shitty resolution.

by **WarDaft** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:42 am UTC

Okay, sure.

But, you missed my point a bit. I'm saying they only looked gritty because of technical limitations, the art itself doesn't actually support anything else and...

No, not getting into this argument again.

by **big boss** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 10:17 am UTC

WarDaft wrote:Okay, sure.

But, you missed my point a bit. I'm saying they only looked gritty because of technical limitations, the art itself doesn't actually support anything else and...

No, not getting into this argument again.

I see what your saying, maybe gritty is the wrong term for what I am imagining. The art style just seem too clean (cartoony maybe?), and when I see the game footage I am not reminded of hell. I want a look that is darker in nature.

Lets not harp on the subject anymore. The game still looks awesome.

by **WarDaft** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 2:25 pm UTC

That's certainly understandable. I think what you're looking for is more grim than gritty. I haven't seen enough of the footage to comment on that though.

And... nope, still not in the beta. =/

by **Vaniver** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 2:29 pm UTC

I prefer crisp.

As for whether or not things are hellish- I'll hold off judgment on that until I see hell. But the undead-filled cathedral is certainly foreboding.

Although that reminds me of two things that strengthened the torchlight resemblance. A star has fallen in the cathedral, which is why you're there (at least, for the wizard), and is foreshadowed by a glowing pit on several levels- large glowing stones are much more common in Torchlight than D2. As well, for several of the cathedral levels the places you can't go, rather than being black and obscured by walls, are visible and just inaccessible- like in Torchlight.

by **Izawwlgood** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:42 pm UTC

I'd personally use the word 'vibrant' to describe the graphics I've seen. Diablo 3 looks pretty gritty, but the effects look brighter and more dramatic.

by **big boss** » Sat Nov 19, 2011 10:38 am UTC

WarDaft wrote:That's certainly understandable. I think what you're looking for is more grim than gritty. I haven't seen enough of the footage to comment on that though.

And... nope, still not in the beta. =/

yes grim might be the adjective i was looking for.

by **Chen** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:17 pm UTC

Just got into the beta. Was a bit laggy but thats apparently because they sent out a TON of invites this last pass. Once the lag went away the game played smoothly enough to finish it with my Wizard.

It definitely has the Diablo feel to it. It makes you want to kill things and get loot. You see that experience bar almost complete and figure "hey why not I'll get this level and THEN stop". The crafting mechanic seems well thought out too. The difficulty is very easy except for some random elites with overpowered abilities, just like in Diablo 2, which is fine for me. There does seem to be less loot dropping but I haven't played Diablo 2 in a while so that might just be bad memory. Regardless it seems like it will be good game.

by **mike-l** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:34 pm UTC

/jealous

by **mfb** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:48 pm UTC

Looks like the login is extremely slow at the moment. I can confirm a larger number of active players (~factor 2-3).
And now, creating/joining games is impossible.

The total number of drops is lower than in D2, but as you can use every single drop to get crafting materials or gold, I think that is fine. With an item from every second monster, you would be busy with salvaging/selling all the time.

by **Carlomagno** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:43 am UTC

I'm definitely jealous of the people who are in the beta. As much as I hear "It's crap, nobody likes it," I know I'd enjoy fooling around with the sort of limited metagame that has come up. I especially love the folks who managed to one-shot the only boss currently available. Oh well, I guess if I must wait I will.

by **Decker** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:18 pm UTC

Oh hello there beta invite. What are you doing in my Junkmail box?

by **Gelsamel** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:24 pm UTC

Decker wrote:Oh hello there beta invite. What are you doing in my Junkmail box?

Uh, if it's in the junkmail box... that could very well simply be a phish attempt.

by **Carlomagno** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:24 pm UTC

I just figured I'd post this info here to inform folks.

Tonight is Spike's Video Game Awards show, in which it is confirmed here that Blizzard will unveil the Diablo III opening cinematic. This not the full version of the video we saw at Blizzcon (that is believed to be between Acts II and III), but the opening video seen before we get to New Tristram the first time. It is also rumored that we will get the real release date at the same time. This is based on the idea that Blizzard puts out release dates about two months before the release itself, which puts the date itself in mid-February, about center of the Q1 release we've been told to expect.

Aside from the rumor, I've kept everything here cited by Blizzard's community manager's posts. I can provide links on request.

EDIT: The cinematic happened (and is awesome), but no release date. In my humble opinion, January and up to mid February are now completely off the board for a Diablo 3 release date. I'm minimizing speculation here, and going with patterns and facts.

by **Decker** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:25 am UTC

Gelsamel wrote:
Decker wrote:Oh hello there beta invite. What are you doing in my Junkmail box?

Uh, if it's in the junkmail box... that could very well simply be a phish attempt.

Nope. I didn't see a link in the e-mail. It just said "Go to battle.net" and I did and I am in the beta.

by **Chen** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:52 pm UTC

Tried the Witch Doctor class and really, its not for me. Even looking at its future skills none of them appealed to me at all.

Also I need to wonder how close to finished this game actually is. There's a massive bug with the disintegrate spell. I hotkeyed it to 1. Pressing it once has the beam shoot out for a little bit of time and then stop. Hitting it a second time causes the beam to stay out indefinitely until arcane power is used up and then no other interactions in the game are possible. The only way out was to alt-f4. I'm wondering if the whole "early 2012" thing is not going to pan out.

by **Decker** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 7:13 pm UTC

Chen wrote:Tried the Witch Doctor class and really, its not for me. Even looking at its future skills none of them appealed to me at all.

Also I need to wonder how close to finished this game actually is. There's a massive bug with the disintegrate spell. I hotkeyed it to 1. Pressing it once has the beam shoot out for a little bit of time and then stop. Hitting it a second time causes the beam to stay out indefinitely until arcane power is used up and then no other interactions in the game are possible. The only way out was to alt-f4. I'm wondering if the whole "early 2012" thing is not going to pan out.

Game crippling bugs can sometimes be quick fixes. It might just be a parenthesis in the wrong place.
Three classes I've played with so far are Monk, Barbarian, and Demon Hunter. I think I'll give wizard a shot next.

by **WarDaft** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:04 am UTC

It really shouldn't affect only one beam spell, unless their implementation of skills is incredibly barbaric. When possible, try it with Ray of Frost as well and see if that has the same bug.

by **Chen** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:37 pm UTC

WarDaft wrote:It really shouldn't affect only one beam spell, unless their implementation of skills is incredibly barbaric. When possible, try it with Ray of Frost as well and see if that has the same bug.

I've seen posts where it affects electrocute and rapid fire as well. I've specifically used rapid fire and haven't seen the problem. Now that I think about it, I always had rapid fire on the right mouse button whereas the disintegrate thing happened when it was on hotkey 1. I should do some more tests when I get home today.

by **Decker** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:01 pm UTC

Chen wrote:I've seen posts where it affects electrocute and rapid fire as well. I've specifically used rapid fire and haven't seen the problem. Now that I think about it, I always had rapid fire on the right mouse button whereas the disintegrate thing happened when it was on hotkey 1. I should do some more tests when I get home today.

That's what they let you play the beta for!

by **Chen** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:38 pm UTC

Decker wrote:
Chen wrote:I've seen posts where it affects electrocute and rapid fire as well. I've specifically used rapid fire and haven't seen the problem. Now that I think about it, I always had rapid fire on the right mouse button whereas the disintegrate thing happened when it was on hotkey 1. I should do some more tests when I get home today.

That's what they let you play the beta for!

Turns out the bug doesn't occur if the spell is on the right or left mouse button. Only if its on a keybind. I'm curious as to how the code for those two things is different.

by **Intrigued** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:24 pm UTC

Sounds like an issue with the keyup event, aka when you release the key, whereas mouseup is properly clearing everything. You would hope that maybe they released a quick fix for the mouse to get it tested asap.

Question: when the bug happens, is it only when you hit 1 and release immediately, or does it happen even if you hold it down for a couple seconds? Your original report sounded like the former to me, but it didn't say it directly.

by **Chen** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:27 pm UTC

Intrigued wrote:Sounds like an issue with the keyup event, aka when you release the key, whereas mouseup is properly clearing everything. You would hope that maybe they released a quick fix for the mouse to get it tested asap.

Question: when the bug happens, is it only when you hit 1 and release immediately, or does it happen even if you hold it down for a couple seconds? Your original report sounded like the former to me, but it didn't say it directly.

Actually if you press it quickly it doesn't always happen. Pressing and holding it for a little bit almost ALWAYS reproduces it though. I couldn't seem to get it reproduced with Rapid Fire though. I did find a post on B.net that has a Blizz employee asking for people's reports about this issue along with the diagnostics file you have so it does seem they're aware of it.

by **Vaniver** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 8:06 pm UTC

So, started up the beta again. I'm gratified to see wizards get Arcane Orb at level 3 now (well, as of two patches ago). Feels epic much earlier.

by **Izawwlgood** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:56 am UTC

Wooooooo beta! I may have just burnt myself out on the 8th run through with a second character.
My sentiment about the 'click to move and attack' thing still bothers me. Switching to a different keybind for 'stand in place' might make it easier, but I find it very awkward trying to run into a mob to fire off an AoE, and instead just casting my left click ability.

In anycase, Wizard is pretty neat, but pretty OP by 8th or so, and the Witch Doctor (Warlock light) is also pretty neat. I've experimented a bit with different skill combinations, and honestly, I feel there isn't a lot of wiggle room with what's present in the beta. Wizard seems to run best with Electrocute, Arcane Orb, Wave of Force and Disintegrate, as Shock Pulse and Spectral Blade seem pretty lackluster, Energy Twister too slow and random, and the Utility Spells being to cumbersome in the face of the other abilities.

For the Witch Doctor, I went with Haunt, Zombie Dogs, Firebomb and Grasp of the Dead. Was very disappointed with the other abilities that were available; Plague of Toads is slow, close range, and random, Zombie Charger damage, speed and range is too low, Corpse Spiders don't last long enough to impress.

Out of curiosity, is 30 the proposed level cap? That seems... Low.

by **Chen** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:51 pm UTC

Izawwlgood wrote:Out of curiosity, is 30 the proposed level cap? That seems... Low.

Cap is 60 I believe. 30 is the level where you get your last ability to use.

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