Blizz "3rd Team" title upcoming..

[D3V]

Credited: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14691

This is pretty awesome news. The Diablo 3 rumor has been growing rapidly, and now possibly, it may be closer than ever to being revealed. I would definately hop on the bandwagon as soon as it's announced, unknowing even how the game would play out. But if you all remember back a while (a year or so) when Blizzard had announced that all of their new titles are going to be on the same platform as WoW (MMORPG and 3d gameplay) .. with the announcement of SC2, and WoW already being worked on and running, those being rules out this HAS to be Diablo 3. C'mon Blizzard!


E3 Exclusive: Blizzard Establishes Third Team, New Game Expected


Talking to Gamasutra, Frank Pearce, founding member and senior vice president of product development for Blizzard revealed that the company has a third team hard at work on a new title, separate from World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.

The comment came amid discussion of the company's current workforce. "Our global headcount is 2,700," said Pearce, "And most of that is customer service for World of Warcraft! In terms of development staff it’s probably around 350. World of Warcraft is about 135 people, 40 for Starcraft II, 40 for team 3, our cinematics team is about 85 guys. Then there’s sound and Q/A and that sort of thing."

When pressed for details regarding the new project, Pearce was cagey. "Team 3 is working on something really awesome. I can’t give you any hints, but it’s totally awesome."

All attempts to extract additional information were understandably met with looks of shock and horror from Blizzard's director of global public relations, who also attended the meeting.

Gamasutra was able to confirm that, in spite of Rob Pardo's comments at Hollywood and Games that they weren't giving up on StarCraft Ghost, this Blizzard project remains something different. With Blizzcon coming up in mere weeks, it's possible that additional information could be revealed at that time.

[Vollstrecker]

They've already confirmed they were announcing it at Blizzcon, I'm pretty sure. I think they even said there will be a playable Starcraft II demo at Blizzcon this year, I was almost tempted to go since it's an hour away max.

[D3V]

Yeah but they've called it Team3 and threw out the options of it being SC:Ghost or even WoW:Expansion II .. which is nice. Just being a Longtime Diablo fan, I can only hope that they throw out another isntallment while i'm living out the last years of my gaming life :(

[Vollstrecker]

Well, we already know another WoW expansion is coming, Blizzard stated that they're looking to put one out a year now.

Since this team is reportedly seperate from the WoW team, I hope it means Diablo 3 as well.

[HandOfHeaven]

How long has everyone been waiting? Over 5 years...?

[D3V]

Well, I'm pretty sure Diablo II came out in 2000, and the Expansion in 2001, or something like that. So yeah roughly 5-6 years or so.. :( But hopefully it's worth the effing wait.

[Vollstrecker]

If it isn't Diablo III, I'm pretty sure Diablo III will be groomed to replace WoW as Blizzard's main MMO when competition has started to take more customers.

[D3V]

Definately, there are STILL 2 million current player on Diablo 2, which is fucking amazing, about 5 Million have converted to WoW, plus any other MMO players that aren't convinced would definately go to D3.

[Sovereign]

As much as I want a new diablo, I don't want a new diablo full of the crybaby faghats that are on wow. I dont want to be banned for making a rape joke, making fun of someones dead mom, or threatening to go over to someones house to beat the shit out of them.


That is what made d2 fun for me. If they are going to pull of this (relativly speaking) kiddy shit with language filters and whatnot, I don't want it.

[Vollstrecker]

Exactly, I'm not too fond of the idea of another MMO, especially since the Diablo series have been largely PvE oriented in design (rather than practice).

If the next installment is another raid-type MMO, I'm going to be angry.

Also, the crybaby rules on WoW are a definite turn-off for a new game as well, but I imagine there's no escape from it now...

[D3V]

Exactly, I'm not too fond of the idea of another MMO, especially since the Diablo series have been largely PvE oriented in design (rather than practice).

If the next installment is another raid-type MMO, I'm going to be angry.

Also, the crybaby rules on WoW are a definite turn-off for a new game as well, but I imagine there's no escape from it now...

I could've sworn that Diablo was rated "Mature" but I can't recall, and I know that WoW is rated Teen.. not sure if that has to play into anything at all, but Diablo DOES have a different team running them, WoW has always been more younger age group based.

And yes, i'd be mad about the MMO raid type of Diablo as well, it would be fun, but I really do just want an upgraded story of Diablo 2 with newer gen models.

[!King_Amazon!]

I could've sworn that Diablo was rated "Mature" but I can't recall, and I know that WoW is rated Teen.. not sure if that has to play into anything at all, but Diablo DOES have a different team running them, WoW has always been more younger age group based.

And yes, i'd be mad about the MMO raid type of Diablo as well, it would be fun, but I really do just want an upgraded story of Diablo 2 with newer gen models.
Agreed, I'd definately play an MMO raid type diablo, but I'd much rather prefer a game like Diablo 2 but better. I really don't want to have to raid to beat Diablo.

I mean, it would make more sense than one mortal person taking on Diablo himself, but it just wouldn't be the same to me.

[HandOfHeaven]

Diablo 3: Wars in Heaven? I think some of the angels should (esp. Tyrael) should become corrupt. But then again, this isn't the 'think up your D3 storyline' thread.

I agree with the non-raid format, although I have never played a raiding game. Too me it just seems like too much time that you can't control. In D2 you can bounce around from game to game in a matter of seconds, and not being able to leave a raid for hours seems ludicrous.

[!King_Amazon!]

Like 4 years ago I was talking about how Diablo 3 would go, and it was the angels going bad. I'll try to find that.

[!King_Amazon!]

Here we go.

i got this from this one webpage..forgot name...that doesnt me iam saying there is a diablo 3 iam just posting wat the guy said:

Diablo III Article by Zed - Not Modified



Diablo III has been announced by blizzard, but yet its not officially confirmed, though i know the storyline, the new act and everything its still merely an idea, anything can change at a moments notice, right now its being debated should it be a sequal to d2 or its own independant storyline.

If it is a sequel to diablo II, I already have FULL information on that storyline and will give you that whenever Razor wants it(Whether its here, or in an email to him or what not)

Anyways, the debate is still on, but ill give you some hints, if its a d2 sequel, its gonna have 2 new classes or one (unsure but its said to be 2), a new act, and a VERY surprising boss (if you really care to know ill release everything)

Anyways its still being debated on, but i hope it becomes a d2:LOD sequel for one reason, diablo I you supposivly killed D but yet he came back in d2 cuz his "soul stone" wasnt destroied, well after you kill Meph, Him, and Baal you destory the worldstone meaning THEY CANT COME BACK, so if they cant come back then the d3 story will be meaningless, nothing familiar, nothing fun, just a shot out old repetitive storyline where you go to kill diablo who somehow managed to rise from the dead once again... i hope d3 becomes a sequel to d2:lod but d3 is still merely an idea, and will not be worked on until the completion and release of WoW and Wc3, so basically we have a long wait to go, but all the information i have should be pretty accurate (around 75%, it may get higher over time but my sources [direct inside blizzard] have told me mostly all of this and what and what not to believe)

Act 6: The merging of heaven and Hell

The story continues after Tyreal destroyes the worldstone, and some of tyreals last words were how he does not know how destroying the worldstone will affect the world, but thats a damned lie. After the worldstone is destroied, the heavens and hell collides forming more of a weird ass realm, and tyreal is the bad guy, the whole time. Apparently it wasnt diablo, baal or meph who you were really after, tyreal was manipulating you to do his dirty work for him, destroying the only forces that can stop him from taking over the world.

So Your in act 6, new monsters, new people and what not, anyways you arrive at tyreals castle (name is going to be changed later) and you must battle your way through to tyreal. Tyreal, Hadriel, and Izual are the true three prime evils, you must battle them all in like a super death match to defeat them.

Anyways this information is somewhat new and mostly just an idea come up by some creaters/designers, most of this will probably be changed, or some may not be

as for the new classes, im usure, i heard rumors of an angelic and devil classes, where the angel class uses paladian like skills such as holy bolt and even stronger white magic, while the "devil" class uses assasin like skills and a class of its own "dark magic" where it can cast and do its own things, this is VERY unconfirmed and just a rumor/idea from the creaters and programmers :)

Below is a little history:

History of the angles:
Tyreal is an arch angel who supposivly sealed up the tomb of Baal along with Tal Rasha He also can go to hell for some reason (angels in hell, just doesnt seem right) and Destroys the worldstone After the worldstone is destroied he disappears without a trace (Supposivly)

Izual was supposivly corrupt and working for diablo, his body was encased in that of a demon and so your job in act 4 was to release him and set him free --
My Theory on Izual - IZual tried to attack and or defeat diablo but diablos power managed to imprision Izual in the body you fight (that dragon thing), As i had stated above the angels are the prime evils and that Izual was trying to kill diablo using his own power, but diablo managed to stop him and encase him in that form you see, anyways tyreal assigns you to release izual so the REAL prime evils can unite (basically tyreal uses you to release your enemy even though you dont know it)

Hadriel is different, he shows no signs of being evil, except for the fact that hes the ONLY angel who can walk past the Act 4 city (The name escapes me) without being destroied by the forces of hell. AND he is waiting infront of Diablos Fortress...

Eh this information will probably change after more facts are realeased on d3 (will be a LONG while before we see alot of those)
so till then use this information freely, just dont start making all these huge rumors saying "well Zed said this", this is pretty much more or less an edcuation article to teach what I know about the game and What may or may not happen, though most of this did come from writers/game designers from blizzard, none of this can be confirmed until the WoW and Wc3 projects are complete


--Zed

And it all somewhat makes sense too, especially since Tyrael himself said he went against Heaven.

[HandOfHeaven]

I wonder how Decard Cain will play into this. I'm surprised they didn't bring back Lazarus from Diablo 1, but then again he did die. Ugh, now I have the urge to play the game that has no running, takes forever, and has no WPs.

[!King_Amazon!]

Diablo died too. He came back because his SOUL wasn't destroyed.

I doubt the same thing could happen to Lazarus though.

[D3V]

I remember reading that text, a long time ago too, K_A. I just really, hope, that they will officially announce something, i'm tired of waiting.. ....

[!King_Amazon!]

I was looking through old posts recently, and I made a post in like 2002 saying that we probably wouldn't see D3 until late 2005. lol

[Vollstrecker]

Hmmm, most speculation points to D3 using the Sin Wars as a story backdrop, but I never really got that much into the story of D2 to formulate a progressional storyline past D2.

If D3 is going to be a raid MMO, I'm going to try very hard to stay away from it, because I'm too competitive to simply play a game like that casually. It would drive me insane.

[D3V]

I was looking through old posts recently, and I made a post in like 2002 saying that we probably wouldn't see D3 until late 2005. lol

Damn, back then im sure you thought it was hella away, and now we still don't have a damn announcement :(

[!King_Amazon!]

Damn, back then im sure you thought it was hella away, and now we still don't have a damn announcement :(
Yep, I didn't expect it to be this long.

[Vollstrecker]

How many years did we wait from WC2 to WC3? Then for SC1 to SC2?

Blizzard is decidedly slow on releasing games, although they've all been very good releases.

[D3V]

I'm supposing either they're really slow at developing games/or they might be trying to bring in some next generation gamers, the little kid gamers and a whole new group/community to buy their products, because after all, they have most of us origional players still on board, why waste precious material when you can spread it out, and sell even more.


You've gotta figure, they're up to 8 Million subscribers now.. which is horribly large.

8,000,000 * $15 a month = $120,000,000 a month.. Yeah, their electic bill is geting paid...

[timmay1113]

I read something a while ago about Richard A Knaak saying that blizzard is using the Sin War trilogy as a storyline for something. He wouldn't say what but at the time the site was speculating about a possible movie. I think it is very possible that the story line for D3 will be in the past rather than a sequel to D2 LOD. I can't remember but are there actually more than 3 prime evils or is it just diablo, baal, and mephisto. I'm probably confusing something else I read about 7 prime evils but I can't remember honestly.

I suppose we will just have to wait for blizz con like we had to wait for the Korea Announcement for SC2. In the mean time I will dwell on Warhammer... lol.

[Vollstrecker]

There are 3 Prime Evils, and 3 Lesser Evils.
Primes were:
Diablo
Baal
Mephisto

Lessers were:
Andariel
Duriel
Belial
some other dude

I wouldn't be opposed to D3 being in the past, but it doesn't really feel like a progressive series that way.

[D3V]

The past of the Diablo story was in.... Diablo 1, and before that there wasn't any problems until the 'Evils' started to emerge, that's where the rest of the stories came from... So I really don't see how the story could go into prequel mode, i'd much rather have it progress, like you mentioned vollvs.

[!King_Amazon!]

There are stories from before Diablo 1.

If anyone has Diablo 1 for playstation(I do), you can listen to a bunch of stories on there. There's a whole section on the CD that has stories about the prime evils and hell and etc. Even though the game sucks, there's a LOT of information there.

[timmay1113]

Ive only read the first sin war book but demons like lilith are around at that point so I guess we could be fighting the sons/daughters of the prime evils. I can't remember the demon that got wtf pwnt at the end of the first book though... I think it might of been meph's son. I believe lilith is his daughter.

[HandOfHeaven]

Diablo:Hellfire is the tits!

[D3V]

There are stories from before Diablo 1.

If anyone has Diablo 1 for playstation(I do), you can listen to a bunch of stories on there. There's a whole section on the CD that has stories about the prime evils and hell and etc. Even though the game sucks, there's a LOT of information there.

I doubt they'd use that material though to make another game, but who knows, blizzard loves suprising their customers. I mean hell, Blizzcon is only a week away, so i'm sure we will find out soon enough :D

[timmay1113]

If they have a cool cinematic trailer and 15 mins of gameplay like they did for SC2 I will probably be cleaning up a mess on saturday.

[D3V]

If they have a cool cinematic trailer and 15 mins of gameplay like they did for SC2 I will probably be cleaning up a mess on saturday.

There's a new quote on the Blizzcon site about the BETA signups and playing from "underneath" or something, hold on i'll go look it up.


Edit: It's on this page
http://www.blizzard.com/blizzcon07/goodiebag.shtml

Beta Key

In addition to giving you the opportunity to become a terror from the deep, the goody bag you receive will also contain an access code for an upcoming Blizzard beta test. Enter the code on our website and sign up to be contacted when the upcoming beta test is ready for you to join. While beta tests give us a chance to fine-tune our work, they also allow participants to try out and give feedback on a Blizzard title before it becomes available to the general public.



Could be interesting, just gotta wait til the 3rd, oh wait. That's in 2 days o_O

[timmay1113]

I would think that that would be the beta for SC2, there is no way they could be anywhere close to beta stage for a Diablo 3. I highly doubt it will even be beta testing before next years Blizzcon. This year is probably beta keys for SC2 and perhaps next year will be d3 (hopefully not some WoW ex pak ).

[Vollstrecker]

WoW Expansion is coming, Blizzard has made it clear that they're attempting yearly expansions. If they all change the game as much as TBC did, I imagine their playerbase will shrink appreciably.

[timmay1113]

TBC took out a lot of casual gamers. I played original a lot but the time consumption for TBC was just too much for me with school. TBC = Endless farming and it lost its sparkle pretty quick after the raids became the same old shit. The next Ex pak will just be more time consumption with more of the same old raids. I would think the lore to be getting pretty thin at this point unless they whip out northrend/deathwing/kiljaeden or something. I suppose they can always make stuff up. I would say WoW has one more expansion left in it but after that I think that the player population will dramatically decrease due to the time consumption raise and other MMOs being released. It would wiser to focus purely on a new diablo game if they are interested in fat cash. If any game could break WoW's MMO record for numbers.... D3 would be the one.

[D3V]

yeah, TBC is what broke the game for me, I was FINALLY fucking catching up on gear etc etc, trying to make as many raids as I could etc etc, then I waited like 2 weeks got the BC, and everyone was already like 65+ so basically, I said fuck it afterwards, and haven't played since.

I can only hopy for D3

[Willkillforfood]

I really think they focus too much on 25 man raids imo.

[Vollstrecker]

I really think they focus too much on ~1% of their playerbase.

Edit: Seriously, let me copy over something posted on our guildsite.

http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t13331-casual_progression/p5/#post421777

Well, there have been interminable threads about "casual" and/or "average" progression on this board. It strikes me that in Wowjutsu we actually have a correct answer to this question, for some value of "correct".

As of the latest update (16th July 2007), the stats are as follows:

# Total Guilds: 15349 (median of all raiding guilds is #7675)
# Ranked Guilds: 12191 (median of all progressing 10-man groups is #6096)

Percentage of guilds with at least one kill in Gruul's lair = 58.88%. This is the percentage of ranked guilds, thus we deduce:

# Guilds with at least 1 25-man kill: 7178 (median of all 25-man groups is #3589-3590)

Percentage of guilds moving into the T5 instances is harder to estimate. Void Reaver skews the numbers considerably, so let's leave him out, and define a semi-serious guild as one with at least one kill in SSC. That's 13.42%, thus we deduce:

# Guilds entering T5 instances: 1636 (median of all T5-capable groups is #818-819)


The beauty of Wowjutsu is that we can now go and look up these exact guilds. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

THE GLORIOUS AVERAGE GUILDS OF TBC RAIDING

1) The average raiding guild (#7675)
Wicked Legion - Llane.
Has cleared up to Prince, but not Nightbane.

2) The average ranked guild (#6096)
Bloodline - Arthas.
Has cleared Karazhan (excluding Nightbane), but also has loot from 3 Maulgar kills.

3) The average 25-man group (#3589-3590)
Illuminati - Stormscale.
Greymane - Corruption.
Both have cleared Karazhan including Nightbane, and have killed Maulgar and Gruul.

4) The average Tier 5 capable group (#818-819)
The Fallen - Burning Blade.
Ðark Moon Templars - Crushridge.
Both have cleared Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon, and both have killed Hydross, Lurker, Morogrim and Void Reaver.



Conclusions:

"The average raider", whether you look at all guilds or only the ranked guilds, has just about completed Karazhan, but has not been able to make the transition to 25-man raiding, apart from occasional Maulgar kills. They are stonewalled at the logistical hurdle of growing in size enough to do 25-man raids.

"The average 25-man group" has killed Maulgar, Gruul and nothing else. It has not killed Magtheridon, and has not entered any of the major 25-man instances. They are stonewalled either at the logistical hurdle of attunements (now lifted, so may change in subsequent weeks), or the encounter complexity. The lack of Magtheridon kills would suggest the latter rather than the former, since Magtheridon never needed attunement. And it most certainly is a stonewall rather than simple progression effects. Note that moving up almost two and a half thousand places in the ranking (from 6096 to 3589) nets you one more boss: Gruul.

"The average Tier 5 capable group" has killed the easiest 3 bosses in SSC, and the easy boss from TK. That is, they have not killed anything much beyond the so-called "loot pinata" bosses.

Hyjal and BT are a niche market and don't have any bearing on this post.


http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t13331-casual_progression/p5/#post421777

Repeating the exercise a week and a half later...

Bracket Number
0 - 25 0
25 - 50 8
50 - 75 5
75 - 100 15
100 - 125 21
125 - 150 12
150 - 175 19
175 - 200 27
200 - 225 27
225 - 250 24
250 - 275 24
275 - 300 15
300 - 325 9
325 - 350 2
350 - 375 3
375 - 400 3
400 - 425 4
425 - 450 2
450 - 475 0
475 - 500 0
500 - 525 0
525 - 550 2

Comparing this to the previous curve, what do we see? Well, the front runners have moved on by around 50 points. In BT, the top end bosses are worth about 35 points each for a first kill. This would seem to indiate that on the front-ranking realms, each of the top 10 guilds has killed about 1.5 new bosses.

The main peak is now at 200, up from ~185. At that level, first kills look to be worth about 20 - take that with a pinch of salt as that's only a guesstimate. Even so, it looks as though the rate of progression here may well be less than 1 boss per week.

We still have the big subsidiary peak at 100-125, corresponding to realms where guilds are struggling to get beyond Gruul/Magtheridon. If anything, this peak is getting more pronounced as the absolute tail-enders catch up to the "wall" around 125.

What conclusions can we draw? At this point, nothing much beyond the obvious.

1) On some servers, it's hell on a stick just getting into raiding at all.
2) The majority of servers are progressing through SSC/TK at less than one boss per week.
3) Progress in BT appears to be considerably faster.

Now, there's two possible explanations for (3). It may be that BT is flat out easier than SSC and TK. Or it may be due to guild stratification. The better guilds (and by extension the better servers) progress faster because duh, they're better.

My feeling is that there's evidence for both. If you look at the top tail, you can see there's evidence of bimodality. There's *more* servers at a 412 average than at a 340 average. That's what you'd expect from a very rapid dash through BT after getting past Kael. However it still is only the very tail end of the server distribution that's pushing through, which is what you expect from the "server stratification" scenario.

It would be a lot more informative to run this kind of analysis on the raw guild distribution, rather than just the average of the top 10 guilds on each server - however as I said, I'm not cutting and pasting 127 pages of lists unless I get very bored at work some day.

With regard to that point though, I'd say that the image of the "average" progression as SSC/TK is falsely rosy, since this is the average of the top few guilds on each server. We're only looking at 2220 guilds out of 12762 ranked guilds. Eyeballing the main lists, it looks to me like the absolutely dominant story is the block in the early hundreds, in moving past Maulgar/Gruul. It's large enough to show up as a subsidiary peak in the above analysis precisely because on some servers even the top 10 guilds are blocked right at the start of 25-man content.


Edit: Further eyeballing again shows a "No shit, Sherlock" scenario. The three big blocks are:

1) Getting into SSC and TK
2) Killing Kael
3) Essence / Mother Shahraz

The list of upcoming nerfs looks like it's addressing 2 and 3 - Blizzard presumably intend for a large proportion of the people that got into SSC to progress into BT.

From my perspective, I'm much more worried about (1), since it's by far the biggest block. Blizzard presumably believe that the majority of this is people that don't actually want to raid 25-man. Hence ZA coming out as 10-man and being an alternative progression. And to be fair, ~40% of rated guilds (i.e. well progressed in Kara) haven't killed Maulgar, and might conceivably prefer to stay as 10-man groups.

However, I think the fact that the clear majority of ranked guilds (almost 60%) have killed Maulgar, and at least 50% have killed Gruul, is ample evidence that there's a large population who want to progress into 25-man content and (for whatever reason) are unable to get properly stuck into SSC and TK. Early days since the attunement lift, of course, so that may be part of it. But I think that unless we start to see *many* more people in SSC and TK soon, there will be another round of nerfs incoming to these instances. Perhaps even to MC levels, where you can actually enter before you hit the level cap and still kill things.

[!King_Amazon!]

It's good that someone proved something that I already knew.

[Willkillforfood]

My guild has HK, Gruul, Void Reaver, Lurker, Fathom Lord, and Tidewalker down. Skipped hydross and mag so far. So many people get random disconnects which makes mag a bitch.

My server has two guilds in it that've cleared Hyjal and BT. It sucks seeing them running around with all that pretty loot =P.

[Vollstrecker]

It's good that someone proved something that I already knew.

I didn't originally think it was quite that bad, but the evidence is pretty much dead on...

[timmay1113]

Looks like over half the player base probably wont ever see black temple... probably only a quarter if that.

[HandOfHeaven]

I hate blizzard for putting off Diablo 3...

[timmay1113]

ehh it has to happen eventually if they want to stay in business. Maybe not for 10 years... but eventually.

[D3V]

I hate blizzard for putting off Diablo 3...


Same with me, i've never like the Warcraft storyline, i've only played wow because a couple of friends got into it when it came out, but even still Diablo was always so much better. Oh well, fuck Blizzard.

[!King_Amazon!]

I had more fun playing WoW than Diablo 2, but WoW got old whereas I still play Diablo 2 from time to time, even the original Diablo.

The Diablo series are classics, I don't think WoW will ever be considered a classic.

[timmay1113]

Diablo2 is out dated so WoW probably seemed more fun. Seeing as I played WoW for two years, and I've gone back and forth to diablo for like 8 years. I would consider diablo 2 funner in my eyes just because it still SOMEHOW seems fun to me even after all this time. I think I would rather drink turpentine than go back to WoW.

[Vollstrecker]

I had a lot more fun with WoW when I could afford to play it as often as I needed to stay on top (read: unemployed). Diablo II was the far better game in general, I even played it twice as long as I did WoW.

[HandOfHeaven]

I'm playing Diablo: Hellfire and D2:LoD right now, and I'm content even playing the single player.

[!King_Amazon!]

I don't personally like Hellfire, I mean it's alright, but it isn't by Blizzard and it just seems like a hacked version of diablo.

I'm playing Diablo 1 right now, sorcerer, I played through normal and killed diablo, I'm doing nightmare now.

Normally you can't even play nightmare/hell in single player in Diablo 1, unless you have Hellfire installed. But I found a difficulty editor hack that I'm using to change it to nightmare difficulty. Gonna play through Nightmare and Hell.

[HandOfHeaven]

Nice. What is your favorite spell? Mine is Golem for Diablo 1, and Jester is my favorite in Hellfire.

[!King_Amazon!]

Probably chain lightning.

Flame wave isn't too bad either. And elemental can be entertaining and useful.

[HandOfHeaven]

I haven't used elemental too much in the past. I think I'll use it with my sorcerer. Chainlighting is pretty bombass. I wish they had flamewave in Diablo II; it was my brother's favorite spell. I have never actually played Diablo in nightmare or hell, but I'm interested now and will do it since I have Hellfire.

[!King_Amazon!]

It's pretty cool. Stuff is harder, obviously, but you get better drops too, especially gold. I've got more gold than I know what to do with right now(I actually have 85,000 now because I just bought a book of bone spirit, but I've had over 100,000 recently.)

[HandOfHeaven]

Buy Elixirs!

[!King_Amazon!]

Buy Elixirs!
I have been. I buy every elixir(except strength) and book I see.

I'm already maxed out on strength (which isn't hard for a sorcerer, you max out at like 45-50, can't remember.) I've got pretty high levels in most spells save a few. My Magic is almost at 255 with gear, I think I'm like 10 shy but a few elixirs and levels will remedy that, as I'm not maxed out on magic yet.

I've gotten really lucky with drops and such. I've got all kinds of "of brilliance" stuff, like my staff of brilliance, +30 magic, ring of brilliance, +27~ magic. Ever since I got Mana Shield, I own so much face(Mana shield might arguably be my favorite spell, because once you get it the game gets so incredibly easy for you).

I'd just like to add, sorcerers are by far the strongest characters in Diablo 1 once you get them started out. In the beginning, it really sucks, but once you get through that, you kick so much ass. It's probably around the time you get mana shield that you start actually kicking ass.

Warriors on the other hand are very easy to begin with, but once you get to hell/diablo, you just get owned most of the time. Warriors don't have enough ways to take out a lot of monsters at once, and often end up "locked up" from being surrounded by stuff hitting them.

Rogues can be decent enough, but they pretty much end up doing exactly what a sorcerer does, only not as well.

Don't get me wrong, I like Warriors, but really only to screw around with. I'd never be stupid enough to try to take a warrior through normal/nightmare/hell, because I'd probably never make it past nightmare. My name (!King_Amazon!) actually comes from my leetest warrior ever, who was like level 31, had a legit King's Axe, godly plate armor shit, pretty damn decent gear, and it was a chore to take him through hell in NORMAL difficulty.

[D3V]

Damn straight, skippy.


See, what I don't understand is how Blizzard CAN't be working on another title, I'm almost certain that they ARE, but why haven't/wouldn't they have announced it by now, it just doesn't make any sense,.. and if they're NOT working on it or don't plan too, wouldn't they have said that instead?

I don't understand.

[!King_Amazon!]

It's bound to come eventually, it's just a matter of waiting. We might all be dead before it comes.

A good way to look at it, though, is the longer they wait, the better the technology will be, so the game will most likely be better.

[HandOfHeaven]

Best item I got was from the Warlord of Blood, which was the Demonspike Coat. I'm going to try and get through 'the hive' and beat diablo today, which shouldn't be too hard. I'm on level 11.

[!King_Amazon!]

I've found some drop-uniques but none of them have been useful for me to use.

Are you playing a warrior? Demonspike Coat is good for them, but for anyone else it's pretty mediocre(it's not too bad for rogues.)

[HandOfHeaven]

Oh, I got that when I was 12 or 13. I thought it was THE SHIT! No, I am currently working on a sorcerer. I'm level 21 and have high level spells in Fireball, Lightning, and Guardian, but I really want to get Chain Lightning. (Still wearing Arcane's Valor)

[!King_Amazon!]

I was wearing Arkaine's Valor at 21.

Fireball is nice, though I don't really like Lightning and Guardian all that much. I really prefer chain lightning to fireball when I can help it, but sometimes stupid immunes prevent my chain lightning killingness.

I can't remember, but I think you can get books of nova in Diablo 1. But if I remember right, Nova isn't as good as it seems, as there's only 1 square of lightning that passes through the target, rather than tons with chain lightning.

[HandOfHeaven]

You can't get Nova in bookform in the original Diablo, but I think you can in Hellfire. I'm looking forward to finding a book of immolation (Nova, but with fireballs.

[!King_Amazon!]

Doh, that sucks. Oh well, I got bone spirit last night, which if I remember right owns some face. I am stacking magic/mana like a bitch, so golem is going to be awesome when I get it. Same with Blood Star.

[HandOfHeaven]

I'm looking forward to bumping up elemental. I have level 10 Firebolt...

[!King_Amazon!]

Once you get fireball there's no reason at all to use fire bolt unless you're fighting really easy shit and don't want to waste your mana. Even single target I use fireball over fire bolt.

I've got Holy Bolt at level 14, and 5 books of Holy Bolt sitting in town because they take 255 magic to read. Once I reach that point, I'm going to read them and see what happens. I can't remember if it stays at 14, goes up to 15 and maxes out, or if it keeps going up to ~20 or whatever.

[D3V]

I really miss playing diablo now.. bastards.

[HandOfHeaven]

YES! Just found a book of chain lightning. W00T W00T.

[!King_Amazon!]

Grats.

I just got Bloodstar and a Gotterdamerung. That helm brings my magic up to 267 :P.

Spells max out at level 15, but it looks like you have to have 255 magic to get from 14->15

[HandOfHeaven]

I see. Only problem I'm having trouble with is fire immunes/resistants. My lightning, chainlightning, and lightning walls are extremely weak compared to my guardian, fireball, and elemental. Almost done with Lachdanan quest.

[!King_Amazon!]

How did you kill the warlord of blood? I can't seem to even damage him with any of my spells, I think he's immune to all types of magic.

I've even tried holy bolt, blood star, and bone spirit. The only other thing I can think of using is golem.

[HandOfHeaven]

When I killed him I was a warrior and I had a life leeching sword of slaying. Have you tried Stone Curse? Or Flash?

[!King_Amazon!]

I very briefly attempted to use golem(playing for like 15 minutes this morning). I think with a combonation of stone curse and golem I can get him down, assuming he can be stone cursed. If not, I'll just have to get a bunch of scrolls of golem(I still don't have the spell, and I'm on level 13 in nightmare difficulty, level 29.)

I'm only lacking a few spells now. I'm missing one from page one right below Heal, which I think is Heal Other which you can't get in single player, and I'm missing one on either page 2 or 3, can't remember. And I've only got Blood Star and Bone Spirit on page 4, but I don't think there's much more that you get on page 4.

[!King_Amazon!]

I just looked it up, the only spells I don't have are golem and teleport. The other two I'm missing are Heal Other and Resurrect which are only in multiplayer.

Sounds like in hell difficulty there are a lot of "triple immune" monsters which means I'm going to have lots of fun. The two main ways to deal with this are using golem+stone curse and apocalypse because apocalypse is apparently physical damage.

[HandOfHeaven]

I'm pretty sure you can use Stone Curse on him. I just ran into Rustweaver (Doom Knight) and he was immune to Lightning and Fire, so I Stone Cursed him and just started wailing. I have 100% accuracy, I kind of wanted to be a fighter mage.

[!King_Amazon!]

I knew I should have grabbed that King's staff of brilliance I saw. +30 magic on that thing too, but I didn't see a point in replacing my current staff of brilliance that has +30 magic on it.

[!King_Amazon!]

Just killed Diablo in Nightmare difficulty, time to tackle hell.

[HandOfHeaven]

Fun! I was just in Hell (gold running) for a little bit. I need to upgrade my lightning spells... Can you Stone Curse Diablo?

[!King_Amazon!]

Bah, the hack won't seem to work to change the difficulty to hell, I even attempted to make my own hack with the bit of game hacking knowledge that I have, but what I managed barely worked and was buggy. I ended up installing hellfire and transfering my character over, who is now naked.

I would almost prefer to transfer him to multiplayer and play him there, but I hate not having quests in the game other than the very basic ones.

[HandOfHeaven]

My computer won't let me connect to b.net, and I'm not sure why. :(

[!King_Amazon!]

I decided against playing hellfire. Having no equipment really sucked.

Instead, I transfered my character to multi-player in regular Diablo 1, so I can play in hell difficulty there.

BTW, I've got every spell in the game now.

[HandOfHeaven]

By the way, what do you do all day? It seems as if you're on most of the time.

[!King_Amazon!]

I pop in and out while I'm at work. You'll notice, during work hours I'm on more than I am after work.

[HandOfHeaven]

Oh, cool cool. I'm going to continue gathering gold and getting books (mainly chain lightning. Steel Lords still own me in normal....

[!King_Amazon!]

I haven't had to worry about money at all. Usually, I've got TOO MUCH. I've been keeping a nice steady 100k gold, and that's when I'm buying all of the elixirs and books Adria has, and any upgrades from Grizzy.

[The1]

I haven't had to worry about money at all. Usually, I've got TOO MUCH. I've been keeping a nice steady 100k gold, and that's when I'm buying all of the elixirs and books Adria has, and any upgrades from Grizzy.

wtf are u guys talking about diablo 1?

[!King_Amazon!]

Because this is a gaming forum and people generally talk about games at gaming forums.

At least that's how it's supposed to work.

[The1]

I understand that... but what game ?

[!King_Amazon!]

Diablo 1.

[HandOfHeaven]

I would be talking about my character more, but I haven't played it for a week. I got back into this game called Heroes of Might and Magic V. It's pretty entertaining. You go around with your knight on the main screen, and during the battle sequences you arrange your troops and battle. You can even make angels, which is hilarious.

K_A, did you beat hell yet?

[!King_Amazon!]

I got through the catacombs and got somewhat bored. Multiplayer just isn't as good as single. You don't get nearly as much money from selling items in Multiplayer as you do in single. You can't save your game before big fights in multiplayer. If you die in multiplayer, you HAVE to get your items back before leaving the game or else they're gone for good.

I just need to figure out a way to get hell in single player without hellfire.

[Vollstrecker]

I would be talking about my character more, but I haven't played it for a week. I got back into this game called Heroes of Might and Magic V. It's pretty entertaining. You go around with your knight on the main screen, and during the battle sequences you arrange your troops and battle. You can even make angels, which is hilarious.

K_A, did you beat hell yet?

The Might and Magic series tended to be pretty lackluster and repetitive, pretty similar to all the Command and Conquers that Westwood are churning out. The first few are good though.

[!King_Amazon!]

I would agree. I love playing the original heroes of might and magic. The newer ones are kinda dumb.

Now, are you talking about Heroes of Might and Magic, or Might and Magic? They're two different games. Might and Magic is an RPG game.

[Vollstrecker]

Oh, motherfucker. I missed the Heroes part. I loved the Heroes of Might and Magic series up to 3, although it got boring pretty quickly.

[HandOfHeaven]

It is a bit repetitive, but I was getting sick of some other games. Good for a change.

[Vollstrecker]

I been playing some old school Sega games recently. Been a while since I played Sonic. ;)

[HandOfHeaven]

Do you have one of those 'Mega-Collections?' I'm going to get one for my PS2, since my brother took the Gamecube. My favorite has always been Sonic 2. Used to have a Sega that worked, but it's long been broken, due to age I think.

[Vollstrecker]

No, I, uh, acquired a bunch of the games I used to have.

[!King_Amazon!]

Emulator.

[D3V]

Now that i've got my laptop all situated, I'm definately going to grab Chrono Trigger emulator/rom and play the shit out of it :)

[!King_Amazon!]

I was tempted to play Chrono Trigger recently, grabbed Sim City instead, that game is so awesome.

[D3V]

Yeah I hear yah on that.

[Vollstrecker]

I was tempted to play Chrono Trigger recently, grabbed Sim City instead, that game is so awesome.

I should try that one again, a long time ago my Emulator couldn't run it past a certain point.

[JoshTheftAuto]

I'm very skeptical of it being Diablo 3... From what I've been told. Hellgate: London is being made by the team who created Diablo 1 and 2, Hellgate is supposed to hold people over until they release Diablo 3.

[Vollstrecker]

It was the new WoW Expansion, heh. They ARE hiring for a 'Next-Gen MMO,' however.

[!King_Amazon!]

WoW 2.

[Vollstrecker]

I'm still holding out for Diablo as an MMO, it's the easiest one to adapt to that format. I don't think we'll see a Starcraft MMO as SC2 is already coming out (but War3 wasn't too long before WoW either).

I'm betting on Diablo III or a new franchise as their next MMO.

[!King_Amazon!]

Or WoW 2. They don't care about anything but their cash cow now.

[D3V]

That's how I feel, I just can't see why they CAN'T comprehend how much money Diablo 3 could make them in MMO format with the existing fanbase they have now, along with anyone from WoW that may make the jump and get both games.

[!King_Amazon!]

Well, it's easier for them to release one or two expansions for WoW than to make a completely new game(Diablo 3.) And the money made probably wouldn't differ much between the two.

[Willkillforfood]

Yea, I guess they're gonna be slow on releasing anything with WOW out ...why take potential WOW subscribers away? They're making a lot more off WOW than they would diablo 3.

I bet Diablo 3 will come out closer to their projected end for WOW's big lifecycle and maybe even a World of Diablocraft ;).

[!King_Amazon!]

I'm pretty sure they've said that there will be a WoW 2 eventually. It won't just be neverending expansions.

[HandOfHeaven]

They must have Diablo 3 coming before 2010.

[D3V]

I pretty much gave up on gaming after hearing D3 wasn't coming out. I don't have the patience anymore, I spend most of my free-time energy consumption on my car :)

[Vollstrecker]

Well, it's easier for them to release one or two expansions for WoW than to make a completely new game(Diablo 3.) And the money made probably wouldn't differ much between the two.

Sooner or later, they'll NEED a new game because the game engine will be so far behind newer MMOs that people will eventually be migrating to the newer, more colorful ones. Maybe not literally, but I think you know what I mean.

A WoW2 may be a possibility, as its universe does give a lot more diversity for MMO players (race-wise and faction-wise) where a Diablo MMO would have trouble with diversity as you can really only play as Human in a factional 1v1 (Humankind vs. Hell).

After thinking about it a bit more, I'm not so certain that the next MMO Blizzard puts out would be a part of the Diablo series. There are subfactions to the whole humankind thing, but so far those have been fairly straight-lined regarding class, so they'd have a lot more world development to go before this would be ready Lore-wise.

[D3V]

Well i'm always sure they can implement new factions, etc... But you do bring up a good point. Blah.

[Vollstrecker]

Well, they've got multiple human factions if I remember correctly. The Necromancers were from somewhere, the Sorceresses were from somewhere else, the Barbarians were from Mount Arreat and the surrounding plains, etc...

If it were me, I'd be more inclined to add additional class choices to those existing factions, like adding Shamanistic healers to Barbarians, Clerics of Trang'Oul for Necromancers, and other such nonsense. Diablo as an MMO is possible, but it'd take a considerable amount of work to make it very diverse, especially in the Race category, meaning it won't have as broad an appeal right off the bat. If they DID add in other Races, Lore-nerds would be outraged since that would be a fairly sizable deviation from the status-quo of the world (would probably be worse than the announcement of Death Knights for World of Warcraft).

It can be done, but the world may be too limiting to achieve a true "successor" to World of Warcraft once it starts dying, but it could still be an excellent game if done correctly.

[!King_Amazon!]

Or they could just not make Diablo 3 an MMO and make it not suck. There's a thought.

[Vollstrecker]

Or they could just not make Diablo 3 an MMO and make it not suck. There's a thought.

I can't tell if you misunderstood me or are paraphrasing me. :confused:

[Willkillforfood]

How the fuck would they make WOW 2? Kill everyone off or something? Bring out a new foe? All that seems expansionlike =x.

[Vollstrecker]

How the fuck would they make WOW 2? Kill everyone off or something? Bring out a new foe? All that seems expansionlike =x.

WoW won't end the Warcraft universe, and I believe it's been stated that most events in WoW aren't considered Canon changes to the plotline.

There are still several commanders in charge of the Burning Legion, Arthas is (for now) alive, and Deathwing is still unaccounted for. Those are all old villains that don't really even need a cheesy "return" to be a threat (like having a cult resurrect Sargeras or something stupid).

[HandOfHeaven]

Warcraft meets Diablo? The abomination!

[Vollstrecker]

Warcraft meets Diablo? The abomination!

?? I don't see where you got that.

[HandOfHeaven]

Honestly, I don't either. Last night must've been a fun time.

[Vollstrecker]

So, what changed in the 24 minutes between posts?

[HandOfHeaven]

I just wanted to see if an idea for a hybrid was possible, that's all.

[Vollstrecker]

I just wanted to see if an idea for a hybrid was possible, that's all.

I didn't get that from your response, but okay. It would take a serious Lore stretch for both universes as the origins of the Burning Legion are somewhat well explained, integration into Diablo's universe would be hideous.

However, Starcraft by it's very nature would be easily written into either storyline due to the whole space thing, but if any race found itself in conflict with the worlds of Diablo/Warcraft, the conflict would be over in such a one-sided manner that it wouldn't be worth writing about. Although it could be an interesting conjecture from the Low-Tech POV as to what might happen if the Earth were contacted by an advanced, spacefaring civilization, but I think an entirely seperate game would better suffice for that kind of exploration.

TLDR; Warcraft + Diablo = unlikely and Starcraft + Anything = easier in some respects, but strains your suspension of disbelief a lot.

[!King_Amazon!]

Draenei=Protoss.

[HandOfHeaven]

Sorry about that, I really should have put a lot more thought into that before posting it. I'm guessing it was one of those random one liners that I get in my head all the time, and they are more prevelant when I am burnt out, like tonite.

[Vollstrecker]

Draenei=Protoss.

Not quite in my eyes, although it could be inferred that the Naaru could be another moniker for the Xel'Naga, as I don't think either have had a whole lot of info released about 'em.