Ore. If you watched the debut trailer for Diablo IV‘s rogue class, it was your main take-away if you’re something like me. The crook arrived with a large oil bag ‘confession’. The priest had a whole cross of the trophy. It might have struck you as strange – most ordinary people have only one or two disembodied ears at hand at any given moment – but if you played Diablo II back in the day you probably felt at home.
In Diablo II, ears were signs that dropped other players in PVP battles. If you killed someone, you have an ear with their name on it, which you could sell for one gold really hurt for money. It was one of those gloomy oddities Diablo II special. According to Blizzard, the system will make a return Diablo IV, in one form or another.
‘We are very excited to bring the idea back Diablo IV, ”Said chief system designer Joe Piepiora Kotaku in an interview on Zoom, pointing out that the development team is still figuring out the details of exactly how the system will be implemented. ‘What we do not want to do with this is that you earn the money you spend on cosmetics. That’s not the focus. ”
The purpose, Piepiora explained, is to emphasize the appeal of the system Diablo II, as opposed to converting ears into another coin, you can place it in the game’s endless bouncing outdoor machine.
“We think the thing that’s exciting about ears and what’s interesting about ears was the fact that you basically had this permanent sign of conquest over another character you killed as part of a fight,” Piepiora said. . ‘We are excited about finding a way to integrate it tightly with the PVP experience we have, without making it part of any kind of PVP progress. We want to leave it in the trophy room where it’s exciting to collect these things and look back at things you did without feeling like you’re grinding as much of these things as you can get around an ax or to get breast. piece. ”
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So, to sum up: there will be ears, but there will be no over-economy. The fact that some players would even expect something like this is an illustration of the awkward space in which Diablo IV find himself. In spite of Diablo IIIdisastrous “always online” launch, Diablo IV will not have a single player mode. But Blizzard is not trying a Neither does MMO. While titans like Destiny and Path of exile—With outdoor tables and other playing field leveling systems – rule now Diablo once appointed (of destruction), the Piepiora characterized Diablo as a series in which even a random barrel can contain a unique weapon.
Blizzard aims for a middle ground between single player and MMO, where encounters with other players will not occur frequently, and when they do, no one will feel blinded. There will be designated PVP areas in the open world of the game – called Fields of Hatred, presumably because this is where your bodies are going to be planted – and you can achieve different goals in it to earn money that you can exchange for special, mostly cosmetic booty. This loot will not be intrinsically better than weapons and armor that you earn elsewhere in the game, but it will be unique. These areas also contain many NPC enemies, which means you can farm in Fields of Hatred for legendary weapons that you can also find elsewhere.
Because of systems like these, Blizzard is staring at itself in the wake of a philosophical rift in its community. Some players want a Diablo II-like multiplayer experience where chaos reigns and anyone can trade any item – no matter how they earn it – with any other player. Others want something more structured. Other-Others want the option to play completely solo. Blizzard tries to accommodate everyone with a single shared experience. There will be some chaos in multiplayer; The fields of hate are designed to facilitate moments of asymmetry, for example: one player placing a trap in another while struggling with an NPC boss, and a mechanic placing particularly successful PVPs on other players’ cards. indicate so that they can pick up and they can hunt. But it’s not going to be Diablo II-2. In spite of controversy within the community, Blizzard is going to limit systems like trading at least to some extent.
‘There are going to be some very special or specific types of articles [that won’t be tradeable], ”Says Piepiora. ‘You can imagine if you are going to do the PVP content, for example, and you get a special PVP mount. We will not allow it to be tradable because we want it to be a prestige item that players have collected. But when it comes to a legendary item that has a power that is pretty good, but maybe not for you, we like the idea of trying to find ways to make it tradable for players. ‘
Players have concern expressed that such limits may adversely affect Diablo IVend game, to engage players in a small handful of activities such as in Diablo III, where many items could only be obtained by Blizzard-prescribed means and then tied to players’ accounts. Meanwhile, it Diablo II did not have an endgame in the modern sense, but many players consider PVP to be the endgame – something Diablo III‘s limited systems did not make it possible. But Piepiora said in Diablo IV, high level players will still have something to strive for.
‘There will be some specific types of articles – many things from the highest level – that will not make us tradable, but we want to make sure that players who are in the final still have things that are tradable, that are valuable to them, ”he said.
It’s very clear that Blizzard is running a fine line and trying to make a game that caters to all the different types of players. Diablo series over the course of decades. But Piepiora thinks Blizzard learned his lessons from it Diablo III. It’s not to shoe in an auction house or MMO elements that do not fit. The purpose, he suggests, is to Diablo game that both looks back and looks forward.
“As far as I am concerned, Diablo ‘is a singles game you can play with friends and a party game you can play singles,’ ‘Piepiora said. ‘It’s therefore compatible to go either way. We’re not trying to create content that says, ‘You need to get a four-player party to do this pit.’ This is not the Diablo experience … We do not want to take away from players who want to play the game on their own. Likewise, players who want to play it with their partner or a friend on the bench – we want to make sure it never feels like you have to go further than you do not want to. But if you like, it’s great, right? ‘
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