Bashiok on Class-Specific Drops - Hellforge

I was disappointed to not see this mentioned anywhere! Mostly because I wanted to talk about it


We don’t want to bias the drop system into only giving you items you want or can use, it would be a trading and economic killer. We want to encourage trading and encourage people to see worth in items even if they can’t use them - give them to friends, use them for other characters, sell them, trade them, etc.

Along those lines but somewhat off-topic we do now have some restrictions on weapon types usable by each class. It’s been part of the game for a while now. Allowing every class to use every weapon type was actually going to require a huge amount of time and effort and it would have meant cutting out or cutting into other features. We evaluated really how often people would want to have their class holding a weapon type that (traditionally) contradicted their class-style versus that work going in to other features - specifically having a lot more skills and a lot more skill-rune effects. We made the obvious choice which is making sure there are a ton of awesome skills and rune effects to choose from.

Because I can see the conclusions being jumped to RIGHT NOW in my old cranium - let me state that weapon types do not dictate stats. At least not wholly (barbarians can’t use staves so there’s no point in allowing fury related stats on them). We understand that the game is about variation, customization, and experimentation in class builds. We’re not World of Warcraft, we’re not looking to make weapon stats “optimal” for the types and classes that will use them. Which is to say, we’re not going to put specific stats in specific amounts on each weapon of a specific type because we’re making assumptions about what each class wants out of their stats. We want variation, and experimentation, and all that good stuff. These restrictions don’t affect those goals, it really just means you probably won’t see a wizard lugging around a two-handed axe. Kind of a bummer, but then think about what it affords us to work on with more and better looking skills, a more robust rune-skill system, etc. We want to spend our time and effort on what makes sense to making the game better.

I'm going to be blunt here, I'm really not a fan of how some of these changes are shaping up. D2X Class specific items were one thing, they were fairly limited and more of a flavor addition than a restriction.This just seems like an unnecessary restriction based on the fact that, according to Bashiok, it would've "required a huge amount of time and effort".

For me, the main thing that made D2 one of my favorite games of all time was the character building. Getting that stat allocation just right. Finding that perfect weapon to support an off-the-wall build (bear sorc, shout barb). Well, now that stat allocation is gone completely, and classes are flat out restricted out of using items 'not made for their style of play'.. where is the flavor? The disparity between builds, the unique characters? According to Bashiok it is going to come through the trees and skill runes, which to me sounds an awful lot like the talent trees and glyph system in World of Warcraft. And we all know how much creativity that brought to the table.

Diablo III Quickies: Weapon Switching, Ambient Creatures and Gold - Hellforge

Blizzard's community manager for Diablo III, Bashiok, posted a few quick replies over the past week, addressing little concerns voiced by the community.

When asked whether Diablo III planned to include weapon switching, which was initially unavailable in Diablo II but later added into its Lord of Destruction expansion pack, Bashiok replied:

Just like Diablo II we’re saving secondary weapon/shield slot and hot key for the expansion.

Kidding! ... probably. We don’t have it now, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be one. I don’t think it’s an irrelevant question, maybe just not the most pressing one.

I don’t think it NEEDS to be there. It’s not really an iconic part of the game. The gameplay dictates its necessity, and if there’s no reason to hot swap weapons mid-fight, then having it there just clutters the UI.

Personally I just used it in Diablo II for extra item storage.

Players of the previous game may recall the presence of little snakes, grubs and other squishy critters that populate the world's vast dungeons and caverns When asked whether there would be any helpless animals to crush underfoot, Bashiok responded:

There are a lot of squishy critters, more of them and more types, and it’s still just as fun to run them over.

Adventurers are certainly a depraved lot.

Last, but not least, a question was asked of Blizzard on how gold would be handled in the upcoming game with the new loot system that allows players to only see the loot that belongs to them, and whether the same would be applied to gold.

Bashiok wrote: Yup, gold is also an item drop.

Blizzard Explains Map Randomization in Diablo III - Hellforge

Randomized levels are the epitome of good dungeon crawls. With the element of unpredictability, adventuring becomes a risky and capricious prospect for any would-be hero; one will never know whether a treasure chest or a giant behemoth may lie beyond the corridor ahead.

The implementation of randomized levels in a game is often a tricky thing to accomplish. With too much randomization, most levels end up looking like British hedgerow mazes, each one indistinguishable from any other. Few people spend any time exploring the entirety of each randomized map and seek only a way to discover the exit at the other end of the map. While randomization may be good in theory, the execution of this feature has been far from satisfactory in the numerous games which have attempted it; including Hellgate: London and even certain parts of Diablo II, like the Jungles and the Durance of Pain in Act 3.

A gamer, whose views very much reflect that of my own put the question to Blizzard. Blizzard's community manager, Bashiok, responded:

We definitely agree randomized levels have some key issues with them, but they are a big part of what makes a Diablo game, and how could we not have them? The Diablo franchise is built on randomization in all forms.

You bring up some good points though, but I don't think they're issues that are insurmountable.

Randomized levels can indeed create a very generic feeling if not done well. We're working really hard to ensure that doesn't happen though. It's actually one of the reasons why our exterior layouts aren't randomized. It's extremely difficult to have wide open areas be randomized as well as interesting. Instead we have static exterior zones where the roads, towns, and edges are always in the same place. To keep some bits of random in there though we have a bunch of small, medium, and large pieces cut out of them. In those cut out pieces the game can then place the randomized "adventure" sets. They could be artistic in nature (a fountain, an abandoned cart), they could spawn extra enemies, or they could spawn quests.

Our interiors are randomized, but we do some things differently that help make them more interesting. I think we accomplish this mostly by using our interior jigsaw pieces more intelligently, building more and different types of jigsaw pieces, and also because our artists are amazing. I don't think anywhere in Diablo III are you going to think "This place is not visually interesting". The types of interior pieces do make an enormous difference, and I think we're pretty good at it now. In Diablo II for example you pretty much had a few standard square set pieces, and then a bunch of hallways. We still have those in Diablo III but we're mixing it up a lot more with more intricate and interesting 'showcase' pieces that make it seem like they're not even randomized levels.

Anyway, that's all just something you have to see to believe.

Your other point was that randomization doesn't really matter because you're just essentially rushing from the start to the end. I think you're mixing in some specific Diablo II issues with randomization issues. Without hacks (like maphack) and some unhindered mobility skills (teleport), being able to just rush through the dungeons would be considerably hindered. So I think those are really non-issues when we're talking about a different game. They're things we have to be prepared for of course, but they don't mean that randomization is a waste of effort.

All that said there are a lot of things that you can do to entice a player to be invested in each and every trip into a dungeon. Rewarding them for exploration and perseverance. It could be something as simple as having chests spawn that the player actually cares about finding! (gasp) or something as complex as an entire game-wide system based around dungeon exploration. Either way or somewhere in between, we aren't looking to create a game where rushing from entrance to exit is the most rewarding way to play.

Bags! Blizzard Discusses Inventory in Diablo III - Hellforge

You may have understood the reference in the title, but the Sword of Truth is a terrible series.

Diablo III's new bag system has a number of players up in arms over the lack of the 'tetris inventory' that graced previous Diablo games, Titan Quest and Hellgate: London. Far from being regarded as a pain in the ass, these players see it as a 'minigame' of sorts, as if the game itself didn't have enough to offer.

As you may or may not know already, Diablo III features not a Tetris inventory like the previous games but an inventory identical to World of Warcraft's bag system. Every item takes up a single space, while certain items (such as potions and gems) may be stacked to specific limits.

Blizzard's community manager for the game, Bashiok, recently chimed in on the usage of bags in the upcoming game and explains how, like in World of Warcraft, players will start off with a small bag that they can gradually upgrade and fill more bag slots with by finding new bags that drop from monsters as loot.

He begins with an explanation on the importance of creating a user interface an accessible learning curve.

Upgrading storage size is a great reward, and can be much better than any incremental weapon/armor upgrade. (Kills/min could easily calculate out to be much greater without having to stop to clear inventory as much with a bag upgrade as compared to a damage increase from a weapon upgrade.)

Building off the last point, it helps add the sense of your character becoming more powerful and gaining more from the time spent playing.

Increasing the storage size over time/play experience is a great way to scale the player's sense of the game's complexity.

Beginning with a small and limited amount of space teaches the player early on that inventory management is an important part of playing the game - and sometimes generating income.

Making and keeping the player aware of their limitations can also help keep a better sense of structure and focus. Being overwhelmed is sometimes as detrimental to a play experience as being bored.

Also keep in mind that while we're obviously dropping bag upgrades off of monsters now, we could choose any number of alternative ways to get them to the player. Or maybe a combination of different ways. Whatever, I just wouldn't focus on the 'how' of them being delivered right now.

Some people have jumped to the conclusion that the "alternative ways" to which Bashiok refers can only mean acquisition through real money transaction-based system. This is highly amusing because Blizzard has mentioned nothing of the sort.

Blizzard Spouts Common Sense About Sales Statistics - Hellforge

Video game publishers and members of the media alike love to talk about sales statistics. Cited as the only dependable way of gauging a game's success, statistics are often touted in weekly sales charts released by the NPD and mentioned in press releases. One of Hellgate: London's chief selling points, at least in Asia, was that Diablo II had “served 10 million fans” based on certain sales statistics and “countless more” who had probably pirated the game.

Responding to a question from a fan about whether Diablo III might end up as the best selling video game of all time, Blizzard's community manager, Bashiok imparted a few words of wisdom regarding the reality of these figures.

I know that comparing one number to another seems to be a good idea for how to gauge popularity or success of something, but statistics can be shaped and formed to fit any outcome desired. It sometimes takes a lot of research and information to find an actual common ground to compare one number to another.

A lot of these lists do their best to post numbers released by the different companies, but if you look at what the numbers are actually saying you couldn’t accurately compare all of them. In our case not every region that plays World of Warcraft purchases a boxed product, so that coupled with the nature of the game, possibly the “best” number for us to gauge worldwide popularity is through active subscription numbers. For every release we also include a piece of text that explains exactly what we count as an active subscriber, and it’s a very logical, no-pulled-punches way of describing them.

To take that number of subscribers though and compare it to total boxes sold of other games would be inaccurate. These types of lists just don’t wholly exist with an actual baseline to compare them accurately, and that’s not the list maker’s fault, it’s just the nature of business to release a statistic that is favorable to your product.

He also added an additional response to a player who cited the impossibility of Wrath of the Lich King outselling the original World of Warcraft as further proof of the unreliability of such statistics.

Exactly. Because those stats are copies sold within X amount of time, not total copies sold ever. See how these numbers can’t be compared? They’re pulled from press releases and laid out side-by-side with no logical way to compare them, except that they exist.

Blizzard On Encouraging Cooperative Gameplay in Diablo III - Hellforge

The cooperative aspect of Diablo II was ever the highlight of the multiplayer experience. Unfortunately, many players who joined 8-player games usually opted to go off on their own adventures without the companionship of the other players within the same session. They would often go off on their own, killing Mephisto, Pindleskin or some other boss. The simple presence of these other players within the same game session served only to bolster the XP and loot rewards from killing these tough bosses single-handedly, and did not encourage cooperative gameplay.

With the exception of a few tough bosses, a well equipped player would almost always be better off without the support of other players, even in an eight-player game.

As many players see this as a serious problem with the game, those concerned put forth a number of suggestions (such as a distance limitation) on how to remedy the issue, and directed the question to Blizzard, whose community manager, Bashiok, answered in depth:

The distance limitation you're speaking of in being considered an active participant already exists in the game.

The item benefit of playing together is due partly to the per-player item drops, but also increase in items-per-minute ratio due to groups killing faster than a single player. The amount of items dropping with each additional player is slightly higher than if those players were to just play in their own games. Now, that's slightly deceiving because we're talking about the entire pool of drops, but actually each player sees and receives an equal portion, so in this case we're looking at the drops as if they were shared completely freely within the group. This may not be the case for all items or groups.

Still, if you have three friends and you're all buddy-buddy with each other and sharing everything, the benefit of playing together for item drops is noticeable. If you're all being very stingy and not sharing anything, or just throwing out the crap, you'll still see a slight increase just from killing speed.

But anyway, with all that in mind, there is already of course a distance limit in which you'll be considered an active participant in a monster kill to be able to receive a drop from it. If you're out of range and someone in your party kills something, you don't get a drop from it. It's a very obvious solution to deal with a very obvious issue. The range is fairly forgiving.

So instead our focus turns to helping groups help themselves through various mechanics to keep everyone together. But those are specifics for another time though.

Forced Teamwork

When one player suggested that Blizzard ought to force teamwork and cooperation by making it so that players who don't deal damage don't get loot, Bashiok responded:

If you did need to damage every enemy in order to get a drop from it we would essentially be requiring all players who wanted to play in groups build their characters for AoE damage. It would then be enforcing the exact opposite of teamwork. Everyone would be going crazy trying to do as much damage to as much as possible so they could try to get a drop off of it. We could then rename the game to Antithesis of Fun.

Power Leveling

Some players also raised the issue of stronger players 'power leveling' their buddies. Bashiok responded:

There's nothing wrong with the idea of friends running other friends through the game. Have a friend with a higher level character? Cool, have him help you through the game if you want. That doesn't mean we won't have some limitations or slight impedances, for instance we probably wouldn't want it to figure out to be the best way to level, but the general idea of friends helping friends is a positive aspect and something we want to retain as best as possible.

Moderation Tools

Finally, when players asked if Blizzard had any plans to implement options to allow public game creators to moderate their sessions, Bashiok justified that such tools could in turn be used to cause grief to players, more so than anything else.

Players joining your games that do something to annoy you will always be a problem as long as you allow them to. So really the simple solution here is to not play in publicly open games.

But, from a game feature side, it sounds like what you're actually asking for are game moderation options. Such as the ability for the game creator or game participants to kick, ban, squelch, etc. And maybe those are some possibilities, maybe, but they themselves could easily be turned around and used as griefing tools themselves.

There are solutions. I don't think it's a problem that warrants a lot of time at the moment though.

It is the desire of most fans for Blizzard to make cooperative gameplay a cohesive, if not key element of the game. With good design, Diablo III's endgame will consist of more than monotonous loot and experience runs.

Blizzard Explains Diablo III's New Loot System - Hellforge

Players of the original Diablo II may recall the hassle and bother and the problems in general with the game's loot system. As a boss was killed and loot splayed about like the innards of an angry piñata, players would rush over to its corpse, like loot-hungry Greek warriors approaching the corpse of a slain enemy hero following some moment of Aristeia.

With certain players opting to use hacks like auto-loot, looting could become a downright hectic experience, especially in public games. The workaround to not having to deal with such situations was to play in closed, private games. Needless to say, Blizzard's Diablo III developers find this to be an unacceptable solution to a very real problem.

Blizzard's community manager for the game, Bashiok, chimes in on the game's new loot system:

Yeah, drops for everything, bosses, normal enemies, chests, etc. all drop items per player. If you see an item drop, it's for you. If you pick up an item and don't want it, when you drop it then everyone else can see it.
There are some questions the drop system raises of course about griefing or contribution, but those are really issues that are best and maybe even easier addressed when a more complete view of a final game comes into focus.

Somthing also that is very cool to know. If you are playing in a party and grab a "Health Orb" it will heal everyone in your group very cool

Health globes drop the same for everyone. I'm guessing mainly because snagging one heals your entire party. It would be kind of confusing if they weren't.