Diablo 3 Web

Diablo 3 skills are capped at 5, so no more Blizzards at skill level 25. Or is it?

In Diablo 2, you could have skills as high as 20 and additionally augment them with items that boost skill levels. In Diablo 3, all screenshots and videos show a cap of 5. Which raises the question is this cap permanent?

Official Blizzard Quote:

Did we not already talk about that? Think we did. Like the cap raises another five every difficulty level? So when you reach hell difficulty the caps would be at 15? No? Did we not say that at the last BlizzCon? Think we did.

So the skill cap will be 15 at Hell difficulty. I think that makes perfect sense, you need more damage per skill depending on the difficulty level. Unless there’s a fourth difficulty introduced. Then it will be EXACTLY like Diablo 2 with skills capped at 20!

I hope there’s a bit more Diablo 3 info and gameplay videos at Blizzcon come October.

Diablo 3’s official site has been updated with new screenshots. As always this triggers the discussion, if Diablo 3’s art has taken a new direction, after the previous Art Director was sacked.

I think the new screenshots speak for themselves. They’re definitely more contrasty and have plenty of dark areas. The outside areas (Act II?) are looking similar to Luth Golein, so Blizzard seems to have taken to heart the pleas of their fan base.

Blizzard’s GFX team has been hard at work re-doing the effects: from the humble magic missile to more serious stuff like the Slow Time skill (Wizard).

It does look very much like the same skill in Starcraft II – the one that the Protoss mothership had. Anyway, it’s a fine animation, hopefully the finished game isn’t too heavy… I don’t want to upgrade my hardware so I can stop time.

Blizzard have just updated the Diablo 3 site with new screenshots and a new beast: The Unburied.

“Being born out of pits of human misery, these beings feed on human suffering. Wherever bodies are dumped together unceremoniously, the unburied may rise.”

That’s neat. I wonder if my Barbarian should pack a shovel to dispose of bodies in individual graves now. Or God forbid, the unburied will arise again.

Anyway, check out the updated media section.

Blizzard has just announced a theme park contest. If you’ve ever imagined taking a Diablo ride, this is your chance to get acknowledgment for your imagination.

Here’s the theme park contest rules:

What thrills would you seek in the Blizzard Entertainment theme park of your dreams? This is your chance to show us.

We’re challenging you to design and illustrate your own Blizzard Entertainment Theme Park, including roller coasters, water rides, shows, shopping areas, food courts, game areas, patrons, and whatever fantastic attractions you desire.

Submit your original park design by March 30, 2009, and we’ll choose our favorites based on the creativity of the design, artistic technique (including the medium and style), and how your park reflects the lore and spirit of Blizzard Entertainment’s games.

In case you’re wondering, there is a prize: Wacom Cintiq 12WX Digitizing Tablet, a pair of StarCraft II beta keys, and more.

The runes (thought not runewords) make a return to Diablo 3. They’ll still drop from monsters, however, they will be used in a way that is VERY different from Diablo 2.

OK, let’s go over how runes worked in Diablo 2. There are 33 runes that drop from monsters. Note that some runes drop often while others drop extremely (e.g. Zod rune). Also, there are items with sockets that are able to take runes (or jewels). Some rune combinations (called runewords) create Runic Items, which are among the most powerful items in the game.

For example, socketing the runes Hel + Ohm + Um + Lo + Cham gives your axe or hammer a whole bunch of additional stats and it also adds the label “Doom”.

OK, so what are the changes to the runes in Diablo 3? Runes will still be used to CUSTOMIZE your character, however, runes no longer modify ITEMS. Instead they’ll be added to skills (each skill has a single rune slot).

Also, to make runes easier to use, rune names will be changed to reflect their effect, e.g. Rune of Multistriking. How does this affect gameplay?

For example, a Minor Multistrike Rune attached to the Skull of Flame will make projectile skip along the ground once , but higher quality Runes like the Major Multistrike Rune may raise the amount of bounces and the distance traveled by the projectile.

Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Lead designer, expressed his strong desire to make each skill customizable while at the same time retaining the uniqueness of each class. In other words, he doesn’t want the Barbarian to be able to mimic the Wizard by adding certain runes to skills.

Blizzard has uploaded some new art and a couple of screenshots. I must confess I’m a little underwhelmed.

The barbarian character looks fine when reduced several times but zoom in and you see brush strokes – it looks like the artist had an hour or less.

It does carry the message that barbarian armor is crude and rugged but I’d love to see a bit more details. Other AAA titles have MUCH, MUCH superior art.

Update: I see a few Blizzard fanboys commenting how I don’t appreciate Blizzard brushstroke genius. I simply said “I’d love to see a bit more details“. Here’s what I mean – compare Warhammer concept art to Diablo 3 concept art. Now, tell me Blizzard are not taking shortcuts when it comes to concept art. They do and you’ll be blind as a bat if you don’t see a difference in the level of “finish”.

The new BlizzCast (#6) is out and there’s plenty of interesting info, especially about Starcraft 2. There’s also an interview with Anthony Rivero, Senior Character Artist on Diablo 3.

Most of the questions deal with his work on Diablo 2 and the Lord of Destruction expansion. His claim to fame is Mephisto (Act III). Since doing Mephisto runs is how I spend my time in D2, you could say he’s my favorite artist. After all, I’ve seen Mephisto’s dying animation THOUSANDS of time.

So what is he doing in Diablo 3?

Bashiok: Are there any creatures that are announced that we can talk about that you’ve provided some modeling for or have contributed to?
Anthony: The female witch doctor’s heavy armor set, her look is my design and work.
Bashiok: That was seen at WWI, the large feather headdress look.
Anthony: Yes, yes. And the scavenger monster.

Hmm, I must confess his drawing sucks (see right). I like how the Witch Doctor as a 3D model though, so let’s say Tony is primarily a 3D artist.

If you’re the kind of guy who always goes for a macho character, you might ignore the screenshot below.

It’s not Bruce Dickinson fighting Eddie, it’s a female barbarian fighting a Siege Breaker. If you ask me, she’s pretty cool. I’m partial though – my favorite Diablo 2 character was an Ice Sorceress (before they nerfed Blizzard it kicked butt).

Jay Wilson stated in an interview that dungeons will be randomly generated – in true Diablo tradition. Btw, Jay is Diablo 3 lead designer.

Outdoors will be persistent, however, and will not change from game to game. In other words, you can use landmarks in multiplayer as meeting places. I.e. Meet me by the river ford.

CG: Are the dungeons still going to be randomly generated?

JW: All the dungeons’ layouts are randomly generated. The exteriors are not. We have a new system of adventures that allows us to cut sections out of the terrain to put random — whatever — in there. We can put random terrain, we can put in scripted events — we wanted to add a lot more scripted events into the game.

So expect that outdoor monsters could be heavily scripted (as the terrain stays constant). They could run to a chest, get a bigger axe and come back.

The other thing I’d like to see in Diablo 3 is getting better, bigger “rogue camps”. Come on, Jay, you can make a city that’s more than 3 houses. Let’s hope that Caldium (picture right) is that city.