1869 replies to this topic

[FoxBat]

Right there's 4 progressive "difficulty" modes. These are all unlocked by the same character. When a character beats normal mode, it unlocks nightmare. Beating nightmare unlocks hell, beating hell unlocks inferno. Normal, nightmare, and hell all feature gradually rising difficulty and rewards to match your character's level progression. In Inferno character progression stops at 60, and all areas are close to each other in difficulty and rewards. Imagine Inferno like Hard Mode in GW1, it's build for capped character and makes early areas near as challenging as end ones.

Hardcore and "Softcore" are rather choices you make when you create a new character. Once it's created in one mode it can't switch to the other. Items gold etc. cannot transfer between the two modes, they have seperate auction houses and so forth, nor can hardcore chars join softcore games and vice versa. So they are completely isolated from each other, almost like seperate servers.

Both of these "modes" have access to all four difficulty levels as they are unlocked normally. The only difference between the two is that once a hardcore character dies, you can't play it anymore, and any items that were equipped to them are lost forever.

On another note, I think there could be 9 classes and a western Paladin/Cleric archetype still would not be supported. Some people are disappointed by this but I believe Blizzard had internal reasons, mostly that they didn't want to reuse the exact same character concepts from the previous games, partly because the lore points to humans making a stand independent from both heaven and hell by the end.

An actual question I haven't seen covered anywhere; is there any kind of chat lobbies implemented in the beta? Can you chat with people before joining a game? Once in a game is there any way to join a chat channel/room and talk with people outside your game?

[Gyr]

Arngrim Einheri said:

But I think they said no real-life money.

Definitely real-life money. You can auction your items for real world human money.

[Arngrim Einheri]

Gyr said:

Definitely real-life money. You can auction your items for real world human money.

But do you get the benefits of the sell as real life money? Or do you get in-game currency?

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Shinri said:

I'm friends with a Blizzard employee so I got in at the current beta stage which is friends and family.

ohhh ok I see, lucky you :)

[FoxBat]

Arngrim Einheri said:

But do you get the benefits of the sell as real life money? Or do you get in-game currency?

You can withdraw it into your paypal account or whatever, but when doing this Blizzard takes a % fee (on top of whatever paypal takes.)

There is also "e-balance", which is money that can only be spent in the Blizzard store, as well as trading. So with e-balance you could buy the next D3 expansion, an SC2 copy, some WoW subscription, trade with players for D3 items, etc. E-balance is not subject to % fees, just the flat transaction fees.

[Arngrim Einheri]

FoxBat said:

You can withdraw it into your paypal account or whatever, but when doing this Blizzard takes a % fee (on top of whatever paypal takes.)

There is also "e-balance", which is money that can only be spent in the Blizzard store, as well as trading. So with e-balance you could buy the next D3 expansion, an SC2 copy, some WoW subscription, trade with players for D3 items, etc. E-balance is not subject to % fees, just the flat transaction fees.

Hmmm! ok ok I get it now. Wow I was so confused with all the D3 auction house thing, thank you for claryfying it. Now then, I don't know if I like it or not. Able to gain real money by grinding items... don't know, seems very bizarre.

[batman]

Shinri said:

I'm friends with a Blizzard employee so I got in at the current beta stage which is friends and family.

I don't believe you.
You must prove it by sending me a beta key via PM.

Worth a shot... ;) :D

[bhima]

I still don't know why people are so angry about the real money AH for this game. The only imbalance I could actually see would be in PvP but Blizzard already stated that PvP was NOT going to be balanced so D3 is obviously not going to be PVP focused. All you have left is a small party, multi-player dungeon crawler... who cares if the guy next to you bought the 2-handed ******* sword of Monster Rape with real money. Just don't participate in the real money AH it is really no big deal.

People talk about D2 like it is somehow better than the features of D3. I was terribly addicted to D2 back in the day but it had serious issues that you would really notice today if you played it now compared to D3.

[Di-Dorval]

^
It's more about the fear to see all the trades turn into real money thing. If you played D2 you know how player trading was important.

[bhima]

Di-Dorval said:

^
It's more about the fear to see all the trades turn into real money thing. If you played D2 you know how player trading was important.

That is true. Trading became a game within a game though it was plagued with scamming bugs and creating too many dang games just to try and trade off yet another piece of the necro's green set. I'm not familiar with Blizz's strategy to make gold valuable in the game. I would assume gold has some useful purpose other than just trading the AH or else noone will use the gold AH.

[Juanele]

I think another fear is that the system will be implemented into other games such as in WoW.

I'm sort of neutral on it. It doesn't really bother me as I could care less if someone wants to blow their cash on some virtual property. On the other hand, I'd hate to see a pay to win scenario. I don't think that applies to Diablo 3 so much as it would for an mmo though.

[Shriketalon]

The worry about live auction house also applies to what the game gave up in order to get it.

Consider, if you will; constant internet connection seems to serve no purpose other than to ensure the consistency of their auction house.  If the saves were stored offline, that would mean someone could devise a save game editor, and that means either the corruption of the system via item spam, or worse, the complete absence of anyone actually using the auction house since they just download editors to get the item instead (thus removing a revenue stream for blizzard).  Thus, no LAN play or offline gaming, because they need to keep the artificial rarity of the items maintained.

Likewise, it creates a very pessimistic view of updates and patches.  If stats get changed, and one popular item is nerfed, was that change necessary for the game or did the developers just shuffle things around to ensure that people need to change up their gear, many via the auction house, in order to remain at the top of their game?  It's hard to say, but the cut blizzard takes from all the items posted certainly provides a greedy incentive for them to keep the wheels greased.

[bhima]

Shriketalon said:

The worry about live auction house also applies to what the game gave up in order to get it.

Consider, if you will; constant internet connection seems to serve no purpose other than to ensure the consistency of their auction house.  

On this point I just flat out disagree with you. It is obvious that Blizzard wants the game to be much less corrupted by botters, dupers, hackers and the like that absolutely plagued Diablo 2... that is why you need an internet connection to play the game. Many vital game files that could easily be manipulated and were manipulated in Diablo 2 are now server-side in Diablo 3. This helps increase the integrity and stability of the economy while decreasing the number of cheaters.

Interestingly, Torchlight 2 is going in the opposite direction but that is because they want people to manipulate the game. I see merits to both ways I guess but a game like Diablo 3 is set up to live and die by its economy alone so I understand Blizzard's decision here.

[fenix]

PvP will be pointless because you can buy stuff for cash. Just sayin'.

[Symbiont]

i see it this way: you infest mostly time and for some sometimes cash to get a little bit of stats difference which every player has a chance of gaining spending zero cash on it.

The pvp will probably be a bit unbalanced, but still a lot of fun to play, comparable to unbalanced WvWvW in GW2.

Is WvWvW pointless because its unbalanced? To me its another dimension of chalange.
People who get discourage so quickly by the $AH idea or by unbalanced pvp before even trying probably suck in pvp or didn't like the game in the first place.

i think any top team in pvp will rely more on their tactics to win then their gear.
And as long as havin fun in a game its hardly pointless.

Edited by Symbiont, 14 September 2011 - 05:16 AM.

[Shriketalon]

bhima said:

On this point I just flat out disagree with you. It is obvious that Blizzard wants the game to be much less corrupted by botters, dupers, hackers and the like that absolutely plagued Diablo 2... that is why you need an internet connection to play the game.

Say what you will about hacking and cracking, but it was the only way to get a damn respec in that game.  ;)

I can agree with the principle of constraining abuse, but that nonetheless should only apply to the multiplayer side of the game.  A way for official servers to test the legitimacy of a character is good, but placing the burden upon the individual customer with no interest in gaming with others doesn't seem proper.

[Hillseeker]

bhima said:

I still don't know why people are so angry about the real money AH for this game. The only imbalance I could actually see would be in PvP but Blizzard already stated that PvP was NOT going to be balanced so D3 is obviously not going to be PVP focused. All you have left is a small party, multi-player dungeon crawler... who cares if the guy next to you bought the 2-handed ******* sword of Monster Rape with real money. Just don't participate in the real money AH it is really no big deal.

For me its not about that people pay for gear but that they can sell gear for real money. The drama that can (that will) happening when someone screw up and potential make another player lose money is not something that I want to be a part off. I play games for entertaining and relaxing and I wont playing with someone that does it for money...not that there is something wrong with it but our goal is so different from each other that we shouldn't be playing together.

[Shinri]

batman said:

I don't believe you.
You must prove it by sending me a beta key via PM.

Worth a shot... ;) :D

I would if I could, haha.

The only thing that bothers me about this real money auction house is that Blizzard takes a cut. Isn't it 100% unnecessary? It's an automated system, Blizzard puts no work into processing these transactions like a real auction house does - hence the cut in that situation, but here, it's just not needed. It's just money grubbing.

Also, for any Barbarian fans/general D3 fans, I just uploaded the second part of my Let's Play - http://www.youtube.c...?v=_UUwkZo1VFI. There's some (apparently) rare footage of what happens when you die in there, because I'm stupid and don't know how to avoid standing in puddles of eel things and stuff.

[FoxBat]

Shriketalon said:

I can agree with the principle of constraining abuse, but that nonetheless should only apply to the multiplayer side of the game.  A way for official servers to test the legitimacy of a character is good, but placing the burden upon the individual customer with no interest in gaming with others doesn't seem proper.

I feel doubly insulted considering the inexcusible lack of basic online features like guild/clan support. I can choose between suffering random strangers, or else sticking to however many people I can fit on my friends list. So I'm likely to end up playing alone most of the time, yet need a good internet connection to do this, and give up any modding abilities...

Edited by FoxBat, 14 September 2011 - 11:53 PM.

[Arngrim Einheri]

Now that I think about it... Are you allowed to talk about anything about the game right now? I mean, you are in closed beta so maybe there is some NDA disclosure or something?

[Symbiont]

Arngrim Einheri said:

Now that I think about it... Are you allowed to talk about anything about the game right now? I mean, you are in closed beta so maybe there is some NDA disclosure or something?

Quote

FYI, we’re getting very close to starting the closed public beta test for Diablo III. You might start seeing some new reports about the beta client as we’ve begun limited external testing with employees and their families, and there is no non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for that. -snip-

http://eu.battle.net...opic/2624975307

[Arngrim Einheri]

Symbiont said:

http://eu.battle.net...opic/2624975307

so long story short, no. Thx symbiont.

[wilebill]

Diablo 3 beta is now out. Going out in waves the way SC2 beta did.

Log into Battle.Net, figure out how to opt in. You need to run the little gadget to send your system info to Blizzard. Once opted in, you got a chance.

Witch doctors can summon frogs at very low level. I want to be a gal witch doctor. Guy witch doctors are max ugly.

starts a good commented coop walk through with HuskyStarCraft. Wowsers. Should you happen not to know who HuskyStarCraft is, please leave the class room at once and here is a hall pass to the principal's office!

Bet the GW2 devs are watching their email too! They need to be as exciting or GW2 is going to be road kill. Oooooo! Wow! Look at that. An undead whose attack is throwing up on you!

Also check out TotalHalibut, aka TotalBiscuit, dba The Cynical Brit. He is going to be doing a D3 beastiary.

Forgive the frothy post. I am foaming at the mouth a bit. To my surprise, D3 is looking very good!

[Symbiont]

male witch doctor is to cool for you, his shaky hand is totally badass.
i'm definitely gonna roll a male WD as my main.

also so this is open beta? still waiting for an email confirmation on battle.net ^^

[Vexander]

Closed beta. Check your account, it should show up if you got invited in the first wave.

I intend to play a male Wizard myself, eventually =)

[Robsy128]

I literally just added my beta settings to my account. Guess I missed the boat this time around :/ Oh well, maybe next time :p

[The End]

Definitely gonna roll WD as well. Are you sure its totally out? From my understanding it is only the press that got their invite.

[wilebill]

The witch doctor can summon a Shaman who turns enemies into chickens. You then blast the chickens! D3 is a riot!



TotalHalibut at link above. Yes, this is closed beta, invitation only. Luck of the draw.

[Mr. Mango]

D3 looks boring. I did submit my info for the beta though.

[HawkofStorms]

FoxBat said:

I feel doubly insulted considering the inexcusible lack of basic online features like guild/clan support. I can choose between suffering random strangers, or else sticking to however many people I can fit on my friends list. So I'm likely to end up playing alone most of the time, yet need a good internet connection to do this, and give up any modding abilities...

Considering StarCraft 2 didn't even launch with chat channels, consider yourself lucky.

Seriously, Blizzard has gone down hill a lot lately in terms of basic features as well as making random bonehead decisions to make stuff less transparent (StarCraft 2 examples: hidden MMR value, changes the the calculation of APM, only showing player's total number of wins but not their total number of losses unless you are in the top 10% of the player base).  It's not like I would have ever bought StarCraft 2 just for the single player storyline.  It is the community that makes their games great, not them.  So I'm sticking this one out.

Edited by HawkofStorms, 21 September 2011 - 04:23 AM.

[Kamatsu]

I've been following Yogscast as they run through the beta.. I find Simon & Lewis quite entertaining. Even if their video's don't really go in-depth into gameplay, questing, skills, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/show/diablo