Interview Blizzard still working on Diablo 3 trading, death mechanics

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Diablo III

<a href="http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Hellforge/GC-2008-inDiablo-Interviews-Jay-Wilson">Hellforge have a video interview with some guy from Blizzard</a>. You can <a href="http://diablo3.ingame.de/szene/interviews/interview_jaywilson/index_engl.php">read the transcript over here</a>:
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<blockquote><b>In a previous interview you mentioned that you are planning that items could be interchanged between two characters via streamline. With the trade window we know from Diablo 2, will this be an alternative trade method or will it even replace the trade window?</b>
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<br>
Right now, we use a "trade window" kind of interface, like in Diablo 2, as a secure trade interface. We might explore some other way to make things easier for the player to trade. I think, when looking at Diablo 2, in just the general way - kind of stepping one step back from the question - and saying "How did players trade with one another in diablo 2?", that it was not the most convenient of methods. There was no kind of easy way to find other players and to trade with them, you had to create specific games for things like that and we definitely would like to solve this problem and make it more convenient. But we have not decided exactly on how we want to to this, yet.
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<b>When a character dies, will it lose gold and experience like in Diablo 2?</b>
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<br>
We have not actually decided on the final death mechanic. I can guarantee that you will not lose experience. We are not urging to big penaltys for death. But we want enough of a penalty to be there, so that death has meaning! Like to lose a little bit time, some kind of decrement... We do not currently have a durability, but some kind of ... a gold cost is actually not so bad. And having the player to waste some time, that is certainly an element. Generally we kind of rely on the effect that players do not want to die. You know, you just do not want to. So there is no real reason to add a further "ding" to them for something happening that was already unfavorable to them. But we have not got our final mechanics on that, yet.</blockquote>
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Jay also says you'll be able to hire mercenaries.
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">Gamebanshee</a>

 

[FeelTheRads]

Like to lose a little bit time

What? Time is a resource now?

 

[Kingston]

I can guarantee that you will not lose experience.

Why the fuck are they pussying Diablo so much?

Dying became a much bigger hazard the higher up you got. I liked it, it was "ok, you know how to play the game now, so if you die you damn well deserve to lose exp". It added a lot more tension in the higher levels.

Goddamit.

There was no kind of easy way to find other players and to trade with them, you had to create specific games for things like that and we definitely would like to solve this problem and make it more convenient. But we have not decided exactly on how we want to to this, yet.

There was a nice element to it though, like trying to find a specific item required you to go through many trade games, you didn't just look it up in a catalogue. It was a nice form of player interaction.

 

[Korgan]

Um... you could lose XP in D2?

 

[Kingston]

I see you never beat Normal mode.

 

[hpmons]

Like to lose a little bit time

What? Time is a resource now?

Effectively losing xp is like loosing time (a significant amount at high levels). Which is why I dont understand why they keep it the way it is - to lose xp is the best way to handle death in my opinion. They really shouldnt rely solely on a gold cost unless they have many significant ways to spend gold and its harder to earn. In D2 it was almost useless, except for gambling.

 

[AzraelCC]

I agree that the XP penalty should stay. In hell difficulty, particularly, you really feel the pressure to do well against enemies, or choose when to fight and to flee. The hell difficulty for me was an experience much like rogue-likes without the puzzle solving and archaic knowledge of Nethack. In fact, it was reminiscent of TOME or Angband, but a bit more immersive because of the production values (graphics, sound).

 

[Korgan]

I see you never beat Normal mode.

I got halfway into Nightmare, didn't die a lot. Every year Dad sees me playing, tells me to GTFO the computer, makes a Pal or Barb, plays all night for a week or so until he beats Normal, then loses interest and I get his char with a retarded build.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Your dad sounds EXTREME

 

[Castanova]

All these Blizzard interviews boil down to "we still haven't nailed that down yet." It's pretty clear that this game won't be released until 2010 at this point.

 

[MetalCraze]

I think they are considering whether it is a good idea to dumb down Diablo 3 (further) or not at this point.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Effectively losing xp is like loosing time (a significant amount at high levels). Which is why I dont understand why they keep it the way it is - to lose xp is the best way to handle death in my opinion. They really shouldnt rely solely on a gold cost unless they have many significant ways to spend gold and its harder to earn. In D2 it was almost useless, except for gambling.

I still don't get it... if there won't be an XP penalty what is this lost time they talk about?

 

[inwoker]

Effectively losing xp is like loosing time (a significant amount at high levels). Which is why I dont understand why they keep it the way it is - to lose xp is the best way to handle death in my opinion. They really shouldnt rely solely on a gold cost unless they have many significant ways to spend gold and its harder to earn. In D2 it was almost useless, except for gambling.

I still don't get it... if there won't be an XP penalty what is this lost time they talk about?

That's simple. You would respawn in town and need to run to your corpse to loot the body. The process is very time consuming.

 

[Suicidal]

Don't care about death penalties as long as there is a hardcore mode, because you know, on hardcore the punishment for death is... well... death.

 

[Korgan]

Your dad sounds EXTREME

Nope. He's nice enough but boring, works 24/7 and hates games in general. Blizzard just rocks at getting normal people addicted. Have you ever seen all those housewives in WoW?

 

[MetalCraze]

Housewives play Sims.

 

[Korgan]

Blizz can make them play their games too. Srsly.

 

[kingcomrade]

Also the game has rainbows in it, can't be good

 

[deuxhero]

Like to lose a little bit time

What? Time is a resource now?

Effectively losing xp is like loosing time (a significant amount at high levels). Which is why I dont understand why they keep it the way it is - to lose xp is the best way to handle death in my opinion. They really shouldnt rely solely on a gold cost unless they have many significant ways to spend gold and its harder to earn. In D2 it was almost useless, except for gambling.

don't forget reviviveing your merc (speaking of such, really hope they aren't as suicideal this time around, and they don't cost so god damn much to revive) but they were only important for sumnmoners (auras, and killing the first monster for Necromancer summoners )

 

[Higher Game]

Real men would play Diablo II hardcore, where all deaths were permanent. And this was when AOL was the internet king, and most people used that service with 56k modems that crashed randomly every day. I still regularly made it to Hell difficulty, and not always with necromancers, either! This was when I wore an onion on my belt, too, the fashion of the times.

:twisted:

 

[Redeye]

Real men would play Diablo II hardcore, where all deaths were permanent. And this was when AOL was the internet king, and most people used that service with 56k modems that crashed randomly every day. I still regularly made it to Hell difficulty, and not always with necromancers, either! This was when I wore an onion on my belt, too, the fashion of the times.

:twisted:

...Yep, it's a Simpsons reference. It's one of Grampa's wandering stories. The whole story is that Mr. Burns, who owns the local nuke plant, wanted some old-fashioned strike breakers to...err...break a strike. He got Grampa and his old buddies. To explain that he know how to break a strike, Grampa told this story:

We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I took the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now to ride the ferry cost a nickel, but in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. 'Gimme 5 bees for a quarter,' you'd say. Now, where were we? Oh, yes.The important thing was, I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.


Then, as I recall, he immediately fell asleep standing up....