Jay Wilson, the leading man behind the Diablo III design team put up a post today to explain what the team was working on. According to Wilson, the game is arguably ready to ship, but that the team would much rather put out a great game than simply release it as it is.
"Our job isn't just to put out a game, it's to release the next Diablo game," wrote Wilson. "No one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great. We trust in our ability to put out a great game, but we're not quite there yet. In addition to finishing and polishing the content of the game we're continuing to iterate on some of the core game systems."
Wilson says that the team is currently changing some of the systems they've received feedback on in the beta test, including crafting, items, core attributes, and inventory. One of the biggest changes being made into the game is the removal of Scrolls of Identification.
"Unidentified items and the act of identifying them is still very much part of the game, but now when obtaining an unidentified item you'll simply right click it, a short cast timer will occur as your character examines the item, and it will become identified," writes Wilson.
"We love the double-discovery of finding a present and then unwrapping it, but we don't think it requires a physical item you have to find and keep in your bags to get the same effect. From now on you'll just be able to inherently identify all your items, no need to carry scrolls. Your character in Diablo III is just that badass now."
Furthermore, the fifth quick slot button is becoming a dedicated potion button for ease of use. While potions can't be chugged in quick succession as they previously were in Diablo 2, the fifth quick slot will allow players to drink their potions in emergency situations.
The Mystic Artisan is being removed because the Mystic, argues Wilson "simply wasn’t adding anything to our customization system." That said, they plan on adding the Mystic back into the game once they redefine how it works.
"Enhancement was really just the socket and gem system with a different name, and it would prolong the release of the game even further to go back to the drawing board and differentiate it, so we’ll revisit the Mystic and enhancements at a later time. Removing her from the game took some time, but it’s nowhere near the efforts that would be required to flesh out a better customization system. We hope she’ll be able to join your caravan in the future, but for now we’re going to focus on the extensive customization options the game already offers."
The newly implemented Stone of Recall now integrated directly into the user interface, allows players to create a Town Portal. Its implementation comes with the removal of the Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube, which previously allowed players to salvage their equipment into parts. As these items are no longer available, these actions can only be performed in town with select vendors, giving players a reason to travel back to town to sell items, salvage, craft, and interact with the townsfolk. The Barbarian will now salvage items.
"It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out," says Wilson.
In addition to these changes, common (white) named items will no longer be salvageable, as it caused a number of itemization issues with the game. This change makes crafting items a lot more valuable.
"Previously, our thinking was that when an item dropped it should always be useful to you in some way, either the stats could be an improvement for you, or in the case of white items you could break it down and craft something better. Through a lot of play testing we have come full circle to the Diablo II methodology — a lot of stuff that drops just isn’t worth picking up. Diablo II captured the loot piñata feel by dropping a lot of crap, mostly arrows and bolts, and we of course still very much want that feeling of item-explosions. To do that we need to be able to balance the value of items to how many we’re throwing at you."
Lastly, the game's entire attribute system is getting a complete overhaul. Blizzard is dropping the Defense, Attack, and Precision attributes. The game's basic stats will consist of Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality.
"We're dropping Defense, Attack, and Precision as attributes, Armor is taking over for what Defense used to provide, +Physical Resist will take over for Armor, and +Chance to Crit will fill in for Precision. Obviously these stat changes are one of the bigger systems changes we're currently working on as they have far reaching requirements to re-itemize and balance the game.
"This change makes the stats more intuitive and fixes some of the itemization issues we were running into. We want to make it clear that junk items aren’t worth picking up, and make it easy to identify other items as not for your character. We want to drop a ton of items, but to really pull off a sense of excitement when finding a great item, there needs to be non-optimal items, both for your class, and in general. By specifically targeting stats at classes, we can reduce the amount of item overlap, diversify our item pool, and create a cleaner, more exciting itemization system."
Additionally, all character stats will not be hidden to the player. Character stats will be visible through the Inventory UI.
