Diablo III Kore

Diablofans exclusive interview with Jay Wilson...

We have summarized the most interesting information:

• new skill system is still in development
• on class specific items is still being debated
• depending on the class to the game experience differ in some quests
• Status Points will be adjusted as far as possible on subjects such as elixirs for Diablo 1 are not planned
  
• throughhigher levels of difficulty was not discussed much, but it should bechallenging and make better items available - not only on theproperties here, but also by the appearance
• there are enemies with a single damage type immunity in order to make interesting characters with alternative ways to attack
  
• rare and high-level objects should "look fantastic", but without being excessive or disproportionate
  
• not an object type (legendary, rare, ...) should always be the best, but for example, a helmet and armor to another NPC
• NPC merchant to fill gaps in the equipment, just in case for a while, nothing clever is found Ureh,
• Ureh, a great city, which was already look at artwork, will not be integrated into Diablo 3, so that it will be completed faster
• "Chat Gem" is working properly and has more than fulfilled expectations Blizzard

DiabloFans: On the topic of the Monk,can you tell us if the skill trees have been named yet? So far they'relisted as "Unnamed Skill Tree 1 - 3". Can we expect to see any more ofhis skills unveiled soon along with his female counterpart? Also, cantell me a little bit more about the new skill system?

Jay Wilson: In regards to thefemale counterpart, she'll be released soon. As far as exact dates go,I really can't talk much about them. A little news about the Skill Treesystem should actually go up on our Twitterpage pretty soon. About that, we've decided to remove the tree-typearchitecture and we are moving into a purely skill-based system. Thisnew system is still in the development stages and if it does not work,we still have plenty of options to fall back on. Right now, we're justtrying different things and getting a feel for the few ideas in regardsto the skill system that we have going on right now. It differs fromthe World of Warcraft/Diablo II type hierarchical styles and is more ofa skill pool/path than a tree per se.

DiabloFans: Will there be class specific quests in the game? If so, can you explain how they would work?

Jay Wilson: We are still discussingwhether or not we would like to include class-specific quests in thegame mainly because of the simple fact that it may not really fit inwith the fast-paced play-style known to the Diablo series. While thisis definitely something we would like to consider, we just haven'tagreed on how just yet. However, we would like to do something inregards to character specificity. We are looking into having differentdialogues and experiences for the same quest or interaction for each ofthe classes. Each character will react differently and have differentresponses for different scenarios. For example, the Barbarian may do or say one thing in response to what an NPC has to say, whereas a Witch Doctor will treat the encounter in a complete opposite manner.

DiabloFans: Back in Diablo I a player could find Elixirs.If you drank one it gave you 1 stat point (ie: drink elixir ofstrength, you gain 1 strength point). Seeing how Diablo III's statpoints are non-customizable, by a leveling standpoint, could elixirs bean option to give stat points some player customization?

Jay Wilson: Well, if we didsomething like that, we would fall right back where we were in DiabloII. As far as stat point expenditure, we don't consider it to be a verystrong customization system. Now, there are ways within the game tocustomize stat points mainly through items. However, there are still alot of things and systems that we haven't even shown yet that are goingto be new ways to approach your items that will allow for new"customizations."

DiabloFans: What are the differences inthe difficulty levels in Diablo III other than just monsters doing moredamage? ie: What reason will people have to play through these modesafter having already beaten the main story of the game on an easierdifficulty setting?

Jay Wilson: We haven't reallygotten into the difficulty settings a lot; we're still just working onthe core content for the game at this point. The primary reason as towhy a player would want to progress through the game, through theseveral difficulties would be for more of a challenge. There will bealso better item customization, for example a Level 100 character in ahigher difficulty would see and wear items that a Level 30 characterwould not have a chance at seeing in the lower difficulty. Said itemswill also look and feel completely different whereas in Diablo II a lotof times you just had a remodel of the same old items with differentnames.

DiabloFans: Resistancesplayed a huge part in Diablo II, but if you were not lucky with geardrops you would get very quickly overwhelmed in Nightmare/Helldifficulties. Can you give us any details on how the system will bechanging? Will it replace the immunity system or will they go hand inhand, once again?

Jay Wilson: Well, the main reasonfor immunities in the game was to encourage party play. However, wehave seen that some players just want to play by themselves? And thatis fine, if a player wants to play single player, the player wants toplay single player, we're not going to strong arm them into playingwith others. Keeping this in mind, we aren't looking to have fullimmunities or anything of the sort; however we are considering keepingone-element immunities on enemies. Because of the way our skill systemworks it's almost impossible to build a character that won't have somealternate skill to attack an enemy. So then it becomes an interestinguse of a skill or skills that you may not be using all the time. Wethink that's interesting and fun gameplay, to have to adapt tosituations. The adaptation just shouldn't be realizing your characteror class is broken and you have to run away or you need to get in amultiplayer game. Those are things we intend to avoid forcing theplayer into.

DiabloFans: How will rare / high levelitems stand out when equipped on your character since you've statedthat you want all the items to have a more functional look rather thanbe too flashy or gaudy like they are in WoW?

Jay Wilson: There is a very fineline between the looks of WoW items and the looks of Diablo III items,and I'd like to call that Diablo II. Within Diablo II there were adecent amount of high-end items that were pretty fantastical looking.Obviously it's nowhere near what WoW does which works for WoW, theirstyle looks great and it works for that game but doesn't work forDiablo. So we're looking to make the armor and weapons very fantastic looking, but we're not going to have for instance a two handed swordthat's bigger than the character. We're keeping things proportional.One thing we do have that Diablo II didn't have is weapon effects,which was really more of a technical limitation back then.

DiabloFans: How will you balance the power of an item in comparison to its drop rate? In Diablo II runewords were extremely powerful, yet the required runeswere also extremely rare to come by, or at least were supposed to be.Will there be items as rare in Diablo III that are as powerful from thestart, or will players have to slowly improve the quality of theiritems, through crafting/runes/other systems?

Jay Wilson: Throughout the historyof patches on Diablo II, there were a lot of updates to runewords andthey really powerful from when they were introduced. At one time oranother though all of the different item types were the most powerful,like unique items were the best, or rare itemsat some point. Our general approach for Diablo III is to make sure thatevery type of item has a place to be useful. For example, maybe we'llhave a legendary item, which is the new name for our unique items, be the best helm, whereas rares will have the most powerful chest armor, and so on. Having a spread like that will allow for a more varied itemization system we hope.

DiabloFans: What types of items willmerchants sell in Diablo III? Are merchants going to play a bigger rollin leveling or are item drops going to be the major upgrades once again?

Jay Wilson: This kind of goes backto the luck factor with your drops. The cool thing was, in Diablo II,you may have found a powerful sash after killing some mobs, but had noluck finding a weapon. You run to town and talk to one of the vendorsand notice some items and a weapon that catches your eye, so you buy itand use that. So we want vendors to be there to assist in the gearingprocess, to fill in those gaps that may come just from playing with arandom loot drop system. You may play through an entire act and justnever find a great pair of boots, and so we want the vendor to be there to offer some ability to fill that gap.

DiabloFans: Can you tell us a bit more about how the PvP system will work?

Jay Wilson: I'm going to say no comment to save you some time.

DiabloFans: Will the published books be referenced during Diablo III's storyline? For example, will Zayl be an NPC? Will different places like Ureh be visited throughout the game?

Jay Wilson: We removed Urehfrom the game as a setting to try and get the game out sooner. However,we like including things from the books and from other sources. Nopromises, but it's definitely something we've discussed.

DiabloFans: The Veiled Prophet mentions beings similar to Trag'Oul who stop the dragon when he tries to enter Sanctuary. Will we see some development of them in Diablo III?

Jay Wilson: That's probably a better question for Leonard Boyarsky. I'm pretty familiar with lore, but you just hit my lore cap with that question.

DiabloFans: The games feature a very slim cast of angels considering the role the High Heavens plays in the story. Will Heaven be more prominent in Diablo III compared to previous installments?

Jay Wilson: I'm going to say... No comment.

DiabloFans: Can you tell me a little bit about the Chat Gem before we have to part ways?

Bashiok: The Chat Gem... It's working correctly and has more than exceeded our expectations. And nightmares.