2:00
Diablo 3 Heroes & Monster Panel about to begin!2:01
Leonard Boyarski, Wyatt Ching, Jay Wilson and others are there
2:02
"Why Monk as our next class?"
2:02
"Inspired by pen and paper RPG characters"
2:02
"Fragile, fast, melee is good gameplay" - very good contrast from the Barbarian - polar opposite of him.
2:03
"We like fighting games (like SF2)"
2:03
so that's what inspired him
2:03
"The Monk's Kit (aka: what he can do)"
2:03
Combo Moves
2:03
Holy Magic
2:03
Character focus is more on Speed over Toughness
2:04
Complimentary Skills - combo moves can blend in to one another
2:04
Monk's History2:05
"wanted something to combine an eastern european feel with the asian monk archetype"
2:06
"Religious, Spiritual Warrior on the side of Good"
2:06
"raised to be pure reflections of their dieties through their fighting techniques"
2:06
very different from Witch Doctor & Barbarian
2:07
Part of a Highly Structured Theocratic Society
2:07
"The Monks spend their time in intense meditation to cleanse themselves of their sins when they're not fighting"
2:07
Wyatt Cheng now speaking
2:07
Monk Skills - Combo Moves 2:08
Fighting game reference, Add depth to melee moves
2:08
-Referenced other games, (Diablo II assassin and WoW Rogue for example)
2:09
FIRST SKILL
2:09
Way of The Hundred Fists
2:09
Feels a bit like console brawlers
2:09
has visually distinct stages
2:09
stage 1 dash, stage 2 multiple strikes, etc
2:09
next skill Crippling Wave
2:10
1 movement slow, 2 reduce damage, 3 refresh both debuffs on all enemies.
2:10
next skill, Exploding Palm
2:11
steps 1 & 2: Damage
step 3: apply a moderate bleed that deals more damage to moving targets
target dies with bleed spectacular explosion
2:11
Veterans can combine combo moves
2:12
talking Monk Skill FX now
2:12
Julian Love speaking
2:12
Lots of Martial Arts Action
2:13
Holy Color Pallette for all of his skills (lotta golden & silvery stuff)
2:13
Runic Knowledge
2:14
Seven Sided Strike: talking about this skill idea
2:14
a lot like chain lightning from diablo 2 with one big difference - YOU ARE THE LIGHTNING
2:16
They're showing how they blended the Seven Sided Strike with lightning effects and runes 'n all. Looks fantastic
2:16
Now talking about how they've done some make-overs on the other Heroes
2:16
Witch Doctor Spider Totem issues2:16
they thought it had a noisy look, and they weren't crazy about totem thematic
2:17
renamed to "Carrion Spiders"
2:17
fewer spiders, but huge spiders
2:17
Spiders are now emitted from a zombie corpse
2:17
now talking about the Wizard2:18
the old wizard didn't support their goal of makin the wizard like a light show
2:18
Bright crystalline look, easy to read, and they say it might need a new name!
2:19
Talking about the Barbarian now 2:19
Saying the Dune Dervish and Barbarian have same whirlwind moves and people liked how the Dune Dervish looked better
2:19
so they've gone back to the drawing board with the Barbarian whirlwind
2:20
Barbarian's new whirlwind is MUCH more powerful. blood everywhere
2:20
he's showing the barbarian killing cows haha
2:20
"THERE'S YOUR COW LEVEL"
2:20
!!
2:21
talking about
Hero Systems now - Fury
2:22
The more fury you have, the more damage you did... but didn't change the way Barbarian played. so they wanted to fix this
2:22
going back to the idea of a resource system, but tuning it for Diablo
2:22
the idea of "Endless Fury"
2:23
If he hits a lot of targets, he generates a lot of fury, so he can do it again. But if he wastes it on one enemy, he wastes a lot of his fury and has to wait to build it up again
2:24
talkin about Runes
2:24
Where are they? Runes are very important to us. They are a key element to our customization goals. They aren't going anywhere.
2:24
They're just not in the current build at BlizzCon apparently
2:25
SKILL & RUNE CRATION PROCESS: Skill idea, design on skill, skill storyboard, programming, design testing skill FX
2:25
once that's done
then they do rune design, programming and FX
2:26
so that's why they disabled them for now, because they want the entire system working so people can use it properly
2:26
now talkin about
Monster Design Philosophy2:26
Diablo monsters work best when simple
2:27
"Complexity and depth comes from combining different monster types together"
2:27
Identifying Monsters is Key
2:27
(ie: which one you want to kill first is very important)
2:28
Always be introducing new monsters in Diablo wherever you roam
2:28
Monster Shape & Color talk now
2:28
shape and colors that are very complimentary to one another so they're easily identifiable from one another
2:29
Now Monster Archetypes:
2:29
Swarmers - Weak, typically melee
2:29
Ranged - Projectile Speed. Arc, Direct
2:30
Lieutenant - Ressurrect, Buff, Spawners
2:30
Elite - Tough, Stronger Attacks, or Both
2:30
AOE - Point Blank, Line, Radial
2:30
Weakener - Debuff, Slow, Drainer
2:31
One Offs: Sleeper, Alarm, Bee Hive, Linked, Thief, etc
2:31
showing a monster progression spreadsheet now
2:31
talking about how they plan what monsters go in what areas, etc.
2:32
Wyatt Cheng talking about monster creation process
2:32
-Start with visual concept: environmental concept, behavioral concept, etc.
2:32
don't think so
2:33
step 2 paper design
2:33
step 3: art first pass
2:33
step 4: implementation (just a rough pass of basic powers, etc)
2:33
step 5: level placement (see how monster looks, behaves and interacts)
2:34
Step 6: implementation 2 (detailed tuning, all special abilities, rare/champion variants)
2:34
Step 7: Final Art (add new animation and tweak existing ones, final fx, texture variants, etc)
2:34
now talking about specific monsters
2:35
SANDWASP
2:35
Nature - Deadly
Support Role
Swarming Monster (not very tough on its own, but hurts in numbers)
2:35
Leonard Boyarsky talkin btw
2:36
Sandwasp has rapid fire attack, old-timey arcade action (sans quarters)
2:36
Julian now talking about the Sandwasp
2:37
Showing Sandwasp in a GALAGA screen hahaha
2:37
old school gaming gag
2:37
BLOOD EVERYWHERE
2:37
GIANT SANDWORM BOSS KILLED HIM IN GALAGE
2:37
ER GALAGA
2:38
Ok, now back to leonard talking about the FALLEN FAMILY
2:39
Classic diablo demon
Family relationships (creatures working together)
-Fallen Shaman
-Return of the classic
-shaman resurrect the imp
2:40
New Fallen guy makes imps braver when he shouts his battlecry
2:40
"Fallen Overseer"
2:40
He runs at you and stabs himself in the stomach until he explodes
2:41
now talking about Dune Thresher
2:41
Inspired by the movie Tremors originally
2:41
(awesome!)
2:41
Wanted to make the sand feel dangerous to the player
2:42
prime example of the difficulty of designing for Diablo
2:42
have him submerge only when he's on sand
2:42
not when he's on rock
2:42
when he's above ground he'd be attackable
2:42
but you can't hurt him when he's underground attacking you
2:44
Dune Thresher is like a hunter - think of a Shark. When he's underground, he makes a b-line right for you
2:44
you can apparently see one of his fins coming for you
2:44
but it's still a work in process
2:44
Now showin bloopers2:44
they're showing the character doing some grind dancing
2:45
showing one of blizzard's employees throwing up all over the place in character form
2:45
now they're doing
Q&A with the audience at blizzcon (and no, we can't send them your questions, so don't ask
)
2:46
"is it gonna be out before cataclysm?" "we don't discuss release dates EVER"
2:46
"Any chance that the Amazon class from Diablo 2 will return?"
2:46
"or rogue?"
2:46
"We're gonna have to keep that a secret 'til next year"
2:48
"Barbarian doesn't have any offense battle cries yet."
2:48
"Will monks be able to use swords, etc.?"
2:49
"was originally designed with NO weapons, but that changed later on obviously."
2:49
"he's much more defined by his weapons"
2:49
"he might not have a big array of weapons, but they will have a big effect on what he can do."
2:50
"will Diablo 3 be dark as the other games?"
2:50
"as in, scary, terrifying, etc."
2:51
"we do feel like we're going in that direction. seeing a whole cult destroying a town. town filled with sacrificed bodies. so tone-wise, yes."
2:51
"with art we are going with a more mature feel"
2:51
vibrant, but dark still
2:51
just depends where you are in the game
2:51
a desert won't look "dark" for example
2:52
"is boss farming still going to be huge?"
2:52
ie: kill baal over & over
2:53
"bosses are where the best items are. so our goal will be to diversify the way you play through. yes you will be doing runs, but you won't be doing runs over and over and over again until your eyes bleed. we can't talk too much about it right now."
2:54
crafting will return in D3
2:55
sounds like the panel is coming to a close
2:57
Monk's weapons will apparently be stronger than the weapons of other classes, there just won't be as much variety.
3:00
Jay won't talk about mercs but hinted they would be there in D3
