Omnicide
07-27-2008, 05:07 PM
Courtesy of the Bnet D3 forums (http://www.battle.net/forums/thread-search.aspx?ForumName=d3-general&Author=Bashiok&Cluster=Lordaeron).
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/1478/jumping1653kl5.jpg
16:53 of Gameplay - During the end of gameplay, the Siegebreaker Assault Beast boss makes his entrance by slamming through the wall, charging against the players. They all jumped. Either its automatic jump reflexes, which seems kind of weird, or theres a jumping button.
Another part when the jumping is really seen as, what's really going on?
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/8464/dodgeagain1738rc5.jpg
The Siegebreaker charges at the Witch Doctor at 17:38 of gameplay. The Witch Doctor cleary dodges the attack somehow. I would assume, this cannot be automatic reflexes because that would make no sense. Just let him stomp on the damn player, or are the players really dodging somehow?
This is a knock back effect when the Siegebreaker would use its "charge" type ability. It effectively damages your character and pushes them away from the charging path.
Leader doesn't die until new spawns come?
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/2990/leaderdoesntdie1525jy4.jpg
15:25 of Gameplay - That same leader of the post above this one, leads the Witch Doctor and Barbarian to the hill where it was the supposedly "nasty trap" they got caught into. But this leader was not able to get hit or damaged in any way until after the new enemy spawns came.
Frozen
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4686/frozen1530nx5.jpg
15:30 of Gameplay - The Witch Doctor and Barbarian are frozen by the same group leader. It shows 2 red effects on the bottom left of the screen, one looking image looking like a time thing (forgot what its called lol) which may show how long the effect lasts or just slows target down, and second being ice image, which is for the completely frozen effect. Also when frozen, your whole skill bar goes red. (Frozen effect seems dangerous for Hardcore players !)
It was a scripted event to pretty much have a cool way to introduce the female Witch Doctor and Barbarian, so yeah, it wasn't necessarily indicative of something that would show up in the actual game.
Critters
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5757/critters1409zl6.jpg
14:09 of Gameplay - Besides from there being cute bunnies in Diablo 3, critters don't die. Man, I always liked killing critters in starcraft. This image is the Witch Doctor throwing a random fire ball which directly hits a critter, but the critter recieves no effect.
This was unfortunately a bug that existed in the build that was being used to record the gameplay video. Those critters die, and there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a bunny corpse flung across the screen. It just wasn't working for the demo, which stinks.
-Whether all classes will have an ability to traverse obstacles like the Barbarian did, or if they will have to use alternate routes.
While the crumbling bridge could be taken quite literally, it was intended to get the idea across that Diablo III will have more interactive and responsive environmental hazards. Of course if such obstacles existed in the way they were displayed every class would need some way to proceed. At this time we aren't announcing any additional class abilities though.
-Is the demo dungeon really Tristram Cathedral? The screenshots are under the Tristram entry on the website, but it's got a different name in the demo. Is it really a test dungeon all around, including the name? Is is it akin to the mini dungeons of Diablo 2, same texture set, randomly generated and individually named.
It used the same "tile set" as the Tristram Cathedral dungeon including a specially made entry room. It was a static and specifically crafted dungeon especially for the demo, so yes it includes the look for Tristram Cathedral, but it's not a true piece of the game as you would play through it.
-Characters can use any and all types of items, barring class specific ones (if I remember an early post you made correctly.) Yet no requirements are listed on the items in the demo. Too early to see the complete package, or change in item requirements?
What I said was: "... we don't plan nor have any armor items at the moment that are class specific - although the bonuses and stats may be better suited to a certain class - anyone can pick up any chest/shoulder/leg/etc item and wear it. However, there are some weapons/off-hand items that are class specific."
No changes to this yet, there just weren't any drops that were class specific. We essentially "hand placed" every drop that happened in the video. We knew people were going to dissect and scrutinize every detail, and everything that drops in that video was purposefully and specifically chosen to be dropped... everything.
Fun fact: I played as the female barbarian for the recording.
-The awesome biting off of heads and such...does it relate to game play in some way, or is it a visual effect?
Well the way we imagined the final fight going down when thinking about the flow of the presentation was to have a few heroes killed off, and thought it would be cooler to see someone get ripped in half by a giant demon than just fall down. While it was an event made for the presentation it could definitely be worked in to the actual end-product. We try not to spend time on anything that can't be incorporated in some way. If there's a mockup or some cool flavor added in somewhere to show something off, we want to build it so that it can actually be used.
-Outdoor environments. Are they for the most part randomly generated like the dungeons? I've been getting the impression there are more static areas , excluding cities, in the outdoors as opposed to the dungeons.
They're for the most part static. With the outdoor environments we felt we could get a lot more out of them by crafting large and visually impressive scenes, which random map generation really just doesn't allow for all that well. By that same token one of the main goals with Diablo III is to flesh out Sanctuary, to make it feel more like you're in this living and breathing world. With towns shifting around everywhere you do sort of lose a sense of cohesion, and an attachment to the places you're visiting.
On a very slight technical note - for random map generation you're essentially creating a bunch of rooms that can all fit together in various ways. It works quite well for a dungeon which is essentially a series of rooms any way. For an outdoor environment though it tends to make it either fairly bland, or fairly linear just by how the edges have to line up. You're either running zig-zag patterns to find the map edges, or you're running down a narrow pathway. Neither are extremely compelling, and at the same time you're losing the visual grandness that could come from a fully hand-crafted and artistically realized environment.
That said, the outdoor areas aren't completely static.
Discuss!
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/1478/jumping1653kl5.jpg
16:53 of Gameplay - During the end of gameplay, the Siegebreaker Assault Beast boss makes his entrance by slamming through the wall, charging against the players. They all jumped. Either its automatic jump reflexes, which seems kind of weird, or theres a jumping button.
Another part when the jumping is really seen as, what's really going on?
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/8464/dodgeagain1738rc5.jpg
The Siegebreaker charges at the Witch Doctor at 17:38 of gameplay. The Witch Doctor cleary dodges the attack somehow. I would assume, this cannot be automatic reflexes because that would make no sense. Just let him stomp on the damn player, or are the players really dodging somehow?
This is a knock back effect when the Siegebreaker would use its "charge" type ability. It effectively damages your character and pushes them away from the charging path.
Leader doesn't die until new spawns come?
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/2990/leaderdoesntdie1525jy4.jpg
15:25 of Gameplay - That same leader of the post above this one, leads the Witch Doctor and Barbarian to the hill where it was the supposedly "nasty trap" they got caught into. But this leader was not able to get hit or damaged in any way until after the new enemy spawns came.
Frozen
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4686/frozen1530nx5.jpg
15:30 of Gameplay - The Witch Doctor and Barbarian are frozen by the same group leader. It shows 2 red effects on the bottom left of the screen, one looking image looking like a time thing (forgot what its called lol) which may show how long the effect lasts or just slows target down, and second being ice image, which is for the completely frozen effect. Also when frozen, your whole skill bar goes red. (Frozen effect seems dangerous for Hardcore players !)
It was a scripted event to pretty much have a cool way to introduce the female Witch Doctor and Barbarian, so yeah, it wasn't necessarily indicative of something that would show up in the actual game.
Critters
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5757/critters1409zl6.jpg
14:09 of Gameplay - Besides from there being cute bunnies in Diablo 3, critters don't die. Man, I always liked killing critters in starcraft. This image is the Witch Doctor throwing a random fire ball which directly hits a critter, but the critter recieves no effect.
This was unfortunately a bug that existed in the build that was being used to record the gameplay video. Those critters die, and there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a bunny corpse flung across the screen. It just wasn't working for the demo, which stinks.
-Whether all classes will have an ability to traverse obstacles like the Barbarian did, or if they will have to use alternate routes.
While the crumbling bridge could be taken quite literally, it was intended to get the idea across that Diablo III will have more interactive and responsive environmental hazards. Of course if such obstacles existed in the way they were displayed every class would need some way to proceed. At this time we aren't announcing any additional class abilities though.
-Is the demo dungeon really Tristram Cathedral? The screenshots are under the Tristram entry on the website, but it's got a different name in the demo. Is it really a test dungeon all around, including the name? Is is it akin to the mini dungeons of Diablo 2, same texture set, randomly generated and individually named.
It used the same "tile set" as the Tristram Cathedral dungeon including a specially made entry room. It was a static and specifically crafted dungeon especially for the demo, so yes it includes the look for Tristram Cathedral, but it's not a true piece of the game as you would play through it.
-Characters can use any and all types of items, barring class specific ones (if I remember an early post you made correctly.) Yet no requirements are listed on the items in the demo. Too early to see the complete package, or change in item requirements?
What I said was: "... we don't plan nor have any armor items at the moment that are class specific - although the bonuses and stats may be better suited to a certain class - anyone can pick up any chest/shoulder/leg/etc item and wear it. However, there are some weapons/off-hand items that are class specific."
No changes to this yet, there just weren't any drops that were class specific. We essentially "hand placed" every drop that happened in the video. We knew people were going to dissect and scrutinize every detail, and everything that drops in that video was purposefully and specifically chosen to be dropped... everything.
Fun fact: I played as the female barbarian for the recording.
-The awesome biting off of heads and such...does it relate to game play in some way, or is it a visual effect?
Well the way we imagined the final fight going down when thinking about the flow of the presentation was to have a few heroes killed off, and thought it would be cooler to see someone get ripped in half by a giant demon than just fall down. While it was an event made for the presentation it could definitely be worked in to the actual end-product. We try not to spend time on anything that can't be incorporated in some way. If there's a mockup or some cool flavor added in somewhere to show something off, we want to build it so that it can actually be used.
-Outdoor environments. Are they for the most part randomly generated like the dungeons? I've been getting the impression there are more static areas , excluding cities, in the outdoors as opposed to the dungeons.
They're for the most part static. With the outdoor environments we felt we could get a lot more out of them by crafting large and visually impressive scenes, which random map generation really just doesn't allow for all that well. By that same token one of the main goals with Diablo III is to flesh out Sanctuary, to make it feel more like you're in this living and breathing world. With towns shifting around everywhere you do sort of lose a sense of cohesion, and an attachment to the places you're visiting.
On a very slight technical note - for random map generation you're essentially creating a bunch of rooms that can all fit together in various ways. It works quite well for a dungeon which is essentially a series of rooms any way. For an outdoor environment though it tends to make it either fairly bland, or fairly linear just by how the edges have to line up. You're either running zig-zag patterns to find the map edges, or you're running down a narrow pathway. Neither are extremely compelling, and at the same time you're losing the visual grandness that could come from a fully hand-crafted and artistically realized environment.
That said, the outdoor areas aren't completely static.
Discuss!