Diablo III Kore

Inventory

Beneath the character viewer and gear slots can be seen the bag inventory—all in the same window.  There are 30 slots, but only a few are enabled. You can expand to the full 30 slots by adding bags into the bag slots.  On the bottom-right you can see four slots. There is where you drag the bags into. By dropping the bag item into that slot, you increase the amount of slots enabled.  Eventually your goal is to enable all 30 slots.  Each slot is thin and tall, and certain items can stack in the same slot. Doesn’t look like there is a special slot bar for potions, but mini-health potions have been seen, as well as elixir of dexterity and elixir of vitality which may have durations of up to 300 seconds (5 minutes).

Blizzard has stated that there will be no customization of characters outside of choosing your gender. However, the Diablo series is known more for its custom avatar looks through countless different pieces of armor. The first gameplay trailer has shown that they have kept all the old armor slots:

• Helmet
• Body Armor
• Gloves
• Boots
• Belts
• Amulet
• 2 Rings
• 2 Weapons

It also shows that they have added a slot for shoulder wear and for pants. It has also been stated that all of the parts will have an impact on the visuals of the character, meaning that not only armor, helmets and weapons will make up your character's appearance, an improvement from Diablo II.

 When selecting a weapon, to make it easier to choose whether one or the other is better for your current build, you will be able to see the weapon you're currently equipped, next to the weapon you are looking at. 

The slots in Diablo III bags work very differently from the inventory slots in Diablo II. Diablo III is moving away from the "Tetris-style" inventory of different sized items, in preference for a more World of Warcraft style storage system with items fitting into slots, and additional bags increasing the storage capacity of each character.

The inventory storage has changed numerous times during development, and will likely change again. The most recent information was released on March 30, 2009, with BlizzCast #8. As of that date, a character's storage space is divided into three separate tabs, opened by clicking them below the paper doll. Each tab has its own color scheme and art style (I.E Stitched Borders on Small Item Tab/Pouch), The Three Tabs are:

• Large Item Tab/Backpack - Used for large items such as weapons and armor. One large item goes into one large slot. There is space for 12 such spaces, at maximum (once larger bags are found).
• Small Item Tab/Pouch - Used for storing smaller things like Runes, Gems, Scrolls and Potions. There are 24 such spaces at maximum.
• Quest Tab/Quest chest - Used for storing Quest items. This tab has not been seen opened, so nothing is known about its maximum capacity.

Each Tab will have a bag assigned to it, each bag will have a predetermined number of slots. Players will start with standard bags in each tab, which will likely only hold a small % of the maximum possible. (In the BlizzCon build, October 2008, with a slightly different inventory system, new characters had 10 out of a maximum of 30 spaces available.) As players progress, they will find larger bags, which add more storage spaces to the inventory. It's not known if one type of bag will add spaces to each tab; for instance a bag might give 6 large slots and 12 small, or there might be different bags for each inventory tab

Checkpoints in Diablo 3 function similar to respawn points. Players who die appear back at the last checkpoint they reached, usually at the stairs that they took to reach the current level. It's not known how checkpoints will be structured on outdoor levels.

Checkpoints are not spots on the ground that must be clicked, like waypoints were in Diablo II. They aren't visible in the game at all, until your character passes through one, at which point a "checkpoint reached" title pops with flashing graphics. There was no mechanism in the BlizzCon 2008 demo build (October) to travel between checkpoints, (there were no waypoints in the build either), but the D3 Team has talked about allowing players to resume a new game at the last checkpoint reached.

Convenient Travel Options

Checkpoints are meant to save players time and effort when they respawn after death, and when they start a new game. Waypoints will function much as they did in Diablo II, but instead of making the levels smaller, the D3 Team have added checkpoints into the levels, cutting down the distance players will have to retrace after they die, or when they create a new game.

In addition to waypoints and checkpoints, the D3 Team has talked about adding some mechanism (such as a town portal-like scroll) that would enable players to instantly travel from town to the location of the other players in the game. It's not clear why players in the game couldn't just cast a town portal, but it seems that those will be limited in Diablo III (as a strategic element, to prevent players from escaping back to town any time they want), so the instant location scroll is meant to save battling players any delay or pause in the action.

The Diablo III class panel started off with a brief overview from Jay Wilson on the skill system, where it is, what they've considered, and also what they learned not only from Diablo and Diablo II, but also World of Warcraft.

 Skill System and what was learned

• Diablo
  • Skills obtained from books
  • Pros
    • Simple
    • Getting a random book drop was exciting
  • Cons
    • Low class differentiation
    • Lack of character customization
    • Random nature hard on game balance
• Diablo II
  • Skill Tree
  • Pros
    • Strong class differentiation
    • Many different possible builds
  • Cons
    • Encouraged players to focus on only a few skills
    • Tree had Unwanted skills
    • Many skills didn't need 20 points
    • No Respec
  • Patch 1.10 - Synergies
    • Allowed additional strategy in customizing your character build
    • Lessened point saving, but didn't eliminate
    • Added additional complexity and confusion
• World of Warcraft
  • Talent system evolved from Diablo II
  • Separated skill acquisition from customization
  • Works for Diablo
    • Point hoarding not valid
    • More options as you build
    • Respec
  • Doesn't work for Diablo
    • Fewer builds less customization
    • Low impact on character
    • High number of skills

"The skill system has to seamlessly transition from normal to hell and nightmare," said Jay Wilson.  With that in mind, the team had to weigh in on ideas based on past experiences as well as what they've learned from World of Warcraft's talent system.  They tried many types of various skills, some which didn't really make sense and were similar to other ideas, such as a Radial Skill System, Radial Beads, Skill Wheel, Skill Cards, Skill Rings, Hex Advancement, and more.

In the end, the team decided to simply evolve the Diablo II skill system.  Synergies will be integrated as new skills, a new Rune System will be introduced to further enhance skills -- making them truly unique based on rune choices -- and of course the most important:  Diablo III will have respecs for the skill system.

The skill system is not final, and Wilson even made sure to point out some of the flaws in it, but Blizzard feels they're on the right track with it now and it should be something fairly impactful to take advantage of as you level up.

A rundown of the new toolbar, a mere copy of World of Warcraft; the mana and health spheres located on both sides. The quick potion menu bar is replaced with the skill/spell selection. The orange line near the bottom is the experience bar.

There is no more stamina bar; makes me wonder if we're able to toggle run or walk. 

Mana Bar

In Diablo III, instead of every character having a mana bar; the melee classes, for right now, the barbarian will use a different bar than the caster classes. Without a doubt, the Witch Doctor will be using this mana bar.

Frenzy Bar

The melee classes, ex. Barbarian, will use this new bar, called a Frenzy Bar. It will involve in a different mechanics of regenerating than the Mana Bar.

Like WoW, Diablo III buffs will appear on the screen, in this picture, it's located on the bottom left side. The currently activated buff is the (Barbarian's Battle Cry)

The three buttons to the right of the main UI correspond to the Left Mouse button, Right Mouse button and an alternate Right button that switches those last two by pressing TAB button.

• Click the left mouse button to move and attack enemies.
• Click right mouse button to use the assigned skill
• Press the alt key to show all dropped items
• Use the 1-4 keys to activate assigned hot bar skills
• Right-click on a hot bar, or mouse button slot to assign a new skill.
• Press TAB or scroll the mouse wheel to swap between right mouse and alternate right mouse skills.

You may toggle the mini-map by pressing (N).  It is more effective than the old Diablo II map overlay (tab). The mini-map is located on the upper-right corner.  It has no frame like the World of Warcraft circle framed mini-map.  It has an unframed tall rectangular area. By pressing the arrow keys you can move the mini-map in any direction. To reset simply press (N) twice, or escape.

How is this new mini-map more effective?  Diablo II’s overlay map would take the whole screen, and would interfere your line of sight affecting what you could see on-screen.  By placing the overlay map to the upper-right corner, your whole screen is visible for gameplay purposes.  Each NPC is displayed as a tiny yellow dot. Place your mouse cursor over the yellow dots, and automatically a window pops up above the dot displaying the name of the NPC.  You can see and identify NPCs ahead of you, not yet within visual range. Update: Monsters are not displayed by the mini-map. You will still have the element of surprise. The mini-map helps you locate NPCs that might have a quest for you, or some interaction options to learn some lore. 

The mini-map will be on the top right side of the screen, along with the name of the area that you are currently in right above it.               

Legend:

Yellow Dot : Hero

Purple Dot : Hero's Mercenary, Pet & Allies