January´s News

  • GameLinks.Net Preview... (1/31)

Another preview has appeared at Gamelinks.Net, although this one is devoid of new information it does have a healthy dose of screenshots (most of them rather dated, none of them new).  But if you´re new to Diablo II then click here to learn more. 

  • Korean Preview and Translation. (1/30)

A Korean Preview appeared, but it offered no new screenshots and little new information.  The Korean text of the preview is available here, but for those of us restricted to English a translation is gratefully available here.  The veracity of the presented information has been called into doubt, as this is a sample of what it presents:

    "Q: How many characters can be made in one account.
    A: It depends on free space in shard.

    Q: How can we trade items on B.net?
    A: Player can trade & exchange items with other player in B.net chatting room."

    "It says that Blizzard will support Korean in all games. Warcraft III, Bill Roper said, will be available in the end of this year and a new game will be introduced in 'ECTS', London, Fall 2000."

Although the part about the next unannounced project being announced at this year´s ECTS may be correct, the other information seems doubtful for technical reasons.  We shall learn more soon. 

  • Interview Continued. (1/30)

The interview at CGO with Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham, Frank Pierce, and Pat Wyatt has just had its next part posted, you can begin your read here. 

  • Interview with Blizzard. (1/29)

There is an interview at CGO with Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham, Frank Pierce, and Pat Wyatt.  While not completely about Diablo II it touches on it, as well as several other Blizzard games and their overall philosophy, you can read it here. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Diablo II T-Shirt Contest. (1/26)

Want to own a Diablo II T-Shirt?  Well, sign up to win one at DiabloII.com, because they´re are giving away the ones that they won in the monthly drawings for the Official Fansites.  Just click here to learn more. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • A Firestorm of Activity... (1/26)

The Battle.net Forums have been alive with activity from Blizzard represenatives for the past couple of days, perhaps signaling the closeness of the Beta Test.  The first post by Erich Schaefer deals with the labelling of ears, but it is recanted in another post in the same thread, so we won´t list it here.  In the next post Mr. Schaefer replies to a question about Diablo II suppliments, a topic on which he says they are still undecided.

This next post gives some insight into the characters as Mr. Schaefer goes over the Paladin´s and Barbarian´s attack ability in comparison to the spellcaster characters:

    Paladin has decent area/group attack abilities, but you are right, we tried to make the gameplay different this way. They are both strong characters, probably the most popular around the office. The Barbarian is an incredible Badass.

In the next post Erich Schaefer goes over the cost of Bash:

    Bash skill costs mana for each swing, and works in conjunction with masteries.

Proving to be quite the answer man, Mr. Schaefer also answers a question about the Necromancer in this next post.  Quite simply put the Necromancer can summon his level in Skeletons and Skeletal Mages, only Golems have a one at a time limit.  There´s more on this in his follow-up post as well.  Lastly he goes over the limits of Cold-based magic in this post: 

    Ice magic has been the most powerful, particularly in pre-2000 builds, due to the fact that it slows, freezes and also destroys corpses (so they can't be resurrected). However, I have been toning down its damage in comparison to fire and lightning, and it is not as good at killing multiple targets (until Ice Orb that is).

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Another Blizzard Post. (1/25)

This time Mike Huang jumps in with some info on the Amazon´s cold-related skills: 

    Yes, Freezing Arrow has the same effect as a Cold or Ice arrow (slows player down, but not completely). The duration and damage of the skills will differ depending on which skill is used. You will also find that certain monsters cannot be frozen by Freeze-effect spells as well.

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Accompanying Render. (1/25)

And of course the new SSOTW is accompanyed by another beautiful Rendered Shot, this one featuring Marius as he walks behind another individual. 

The latest Screenshot of the Week has been released, this featuting the Amazon using Multiple Shot to take out several blue-tinged Fetish: 

Peter Hu has had a busy time on the Battle.net forums as he took to answering questions all the day.  This first post deals with Quests and rewards:

    As much as possible we will be giving useful quest rewards for quests completed at higher difficulty levels. Pretty much the quests should work the way you described in (a), except for instances where the quest reward is an item which is explicitly need to advance the plot (which, as it turns out, is relatively rare).

The next post deals with character starting levels in the game:

    Characters have always started at level 1, both in Diablo and Diablo 2. Most people (except programmers!) are used to counting starting from one, and it is conventional for games that use "levels" to begin numbering from one as well. An initial skill requirement of one is actually useful, as it is theoretically possible to complete a quest which rewards the character with a skill point before reaching level 2. Since we are very happy with the current balance in terms of experience gain vs. character power, if we were to start numbering our levels differently the only result would be completely cosmetic... your character would not have any extra skill or attribute points per time spent playing. On a cosmetic level, we prefer that your character starts at level one, which denotes that they have had the basic training necessary to be considered a member of their class, versus level zero which implies that they do not possess even the basic proficiencies of their chosen class.

Following this is an informative post about monsters increasing in difficulty with the number of players in a game:

    Monsters get harder as the number of players increase. This applies on an area by area basis, so someone playing in act 1 will not be affected by other players in act 2.

That wraps it up for Mr. Hu´s day on the boards, hopefully we can get more information from him in the future. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Diablo II Winning the Polls. (1/23)

Another of many polls is up at Gamesweekly.org, this asking "Which of the following titles do you want most in 2000?"  Presently Diablo II has the lead at 61%, while WarCraft III is strong at 25%. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • New PVP Strip... (1/23)

What does psychic predictions, a spring-loaded Bill Roper, and Diablo II all have in common?  Find out in today´s PVP strip. 

  • New Magazine Spread. (1/22)

A new spread from Computer Games Magazine has become available.  Similar to the other spreads that have been released thus far, this one features the Necromancer as well as a pieced-together scene of the Act I graveyard.  See it below: 

The older news for this month has been sent to the ShadowSpiral Archive.  If you feel you´ve missed something for the month you can go to the Archive, or access it directly here. 

  • Working on Weekends... (1/22)

A rather funny post by Peter Hu in response to T´kron telling another gamer that Blizzard didn´t usually work on weekends: 

    "I think that what t'kron probably meant to say is that we would not be putting up any official announcments on the weekends, not that we do not work on the weekends :-)."
  • Sorceress Gameplay Movie... (1/22)

Well, no, unfortunately it hasn´t been released quite yet.  There is news however, from Geoff Frazier about it.  This post was made in reply to someone asking if there would be a Sorceress Gameplay Movie:

    "It's on my list and I've brought it up. Any work on that will have to wait until at least February because of the KBK Tourny a Press tour in Korea.

Hopefully we will all be busy playing the Beta Test when this happens.  But it is good to hear there will be one. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • More From Blizzard... (1/22)

More posts have appeared from Blizzard represenatives Mike Huang and Erich Schaefer.  This first post by Mike Huang deals with the possiblility of a single-player Beta Test:

    "Single player testing of our games is always done in-house. Since the focus of the Second Phase of the Beta Program is to stress test our servers, having a "single-player-only" edition wouldn't really help us very much. Mike Huang, Blizzard North"

Another post by Erich Schaefer again goes over the release date for the Beta and for the official release of the game in stores.  These are Mr. Schaefer´s words: 

    "Sorry, but we do not have a set release date, and are very unlikely to make any more guesses, because we are always wrong.

    Don't believe any dates anyone else gives either. They can't know more than I do.

    Thank you all for your patience. I know its been a long wait, but I'm sure it will be worth it. If we were overly ambitious in the scope of our game, at least it will pay off in terms of variety, scale and replayablity. Things are going very well though; Diablo II will be great. Erich Schaefer"
  • Myriad Blizzard Posts. (1/21)

The forums were buzzing today with several posts by Blizzard represenatives.  The first post was by Erich Schaefer and dealt with a gamer´s complaint about the lack of weapon hotkeys.  The following was said:

    "The problem with this method (and others as well) is that very often there will not be room in your inventory to unequip your current weapons. This is compounded when you have a Long War Bow (4X2 inv) and a quiver of arrows (3X1 inv) and try to swap this out for, say, a dagger (2X1). It is very likely that you would have picked up some loot since the last time you had the dagger equipped, and so, too often there will be no place to put your currently equipped weapons (in this case the bow and arrows)."

This is still a very active topic, so you can post your followups here.  Another post dealt with the ability to overlap items in the inventory until a check was made, possibly a remedy for the problems listed above.  To this Mr. Schaefer made the following post:

    "I think overlapping items would be too risky of an engine change at this point, but I'll check. Which items would overlap? Two weapons in your hand slot? That might work. However, this would effectively give players more inventory space... I'll think about it."

In other news a post by Mike Huang sent both negative and positives ripples through the community, here that post:

    "Yes, this is true, which is why we will probably be stopping the Screenshot of the Week Feature soon."

While this may sound bad , it actually points at the soon arrival of the Beta Test (we all hope).  Since pictures of it aren´t prohibited the various Diablo II Fansites will be littered with them. 

  • Beta News from Bill Roper... (1/20)

An e-mail dispatch called the Blizzard Insider gave the details of a small interview with Bill Roper.  This interview covered several aspects of the Beta Test, which you can read here. 

  • Icewind Dale Antics. (1/20)

This hilarious turn of events happened at the Icewind Dale Suggestions Board, and concerns a post by one of the Icewind Dale creators known as Jason.  Jason´s post makes the claim that Diablo II will prove to be an insipid, colorless game, clearly inferior to Icewind Dale. This comment drew flak from many other games, including Diablo II loyalists and even Interplay staff.  You can also read the official apology on the Icewind Dale main site.

Jason´s post also drew a sarcastic post from Blizzard´s own Erich Schaefer, who delivers a biting commentary without a single accusation.  That post is here, and can be seen below: 

    As Art Director for Diablo 2, its good to hear some critisism of our graphic quality from others in the business; better to hear it now than in reviews later on. So I thank Jason for taking the time to point out our flaws.

    We are working to make our graphics less sterile, trying to add a lot of motion on the screen and more cool fantasy elements. I'll try to use your post to coax some more memory from the programmers :)

    I'll do a pass to see if there is a quick fix for all the "pure brown" elements, but its a little late in the process.

    If our graphics are very simple, unrefined and weak I ask for some understanding. This is only our second PC game (at Blizzard North) and we are learning as we go.

    I must confess that I am also responsible for the blatant lack of content, as I am one of the lead designers. As you point out, we are trying to mask this failing with lots of fast paced action and variety. Unfortunately it seems this transparent effort won't fool anyone.

    While Diablo II might not do as well as Icewind Dale, perhaps our next game will - we will keep trying! You guys set a high standard to match, which is great for the industry.

    Anyway, good luck with your project, we are all looking forward to playing it. It looks impressive so far.
  • Mac Diablo II Info. (1/19)

Brian Love, in charge of the Macintosh development of Diablo II, has taken the time to answer some questions from Mac3D.  You can read this interview here, which explores the possibility of a simultaneous release among other things. 

  • Peter Hu on Potions. (1/18)

Peter Hu has made it a point to clear up some of the confusion surrounding mana and health potions in Diablo II.  Here are the main points:

  1. Mana potions cannot be bought from NPC´s, they can only be found in battle.
  2. Health potions can be bought from NPC´s, but they are at a much less powerful than those found in battle.
  3. Although not mentioned, health potions now do not instantly fill up the health sphere.  Now they create a translucent red meter inside the sphere which then slowly regenerates to a particular point.
    4.
  4. IGN´s "Game of the Millenium." (1/18)

PC.IGN.COM has released their list for their "Games of the Millenium", with neither Diablo nor Diablo II anywhere in sight.  StarCraft did however take home the title for RTS game, and it is well deserved.  The overall game was Sierra´s Half-Life.  See them all here. 

  • New Screenshot of the Week... (1/18)

A new Screenshot of the Week has been released by Blizzard, this one featuring the Barbarian about to wade into combat with a few Thorned Hulks.  See it below:

Also, a new Diablo II-based image appeared on Blizzard´s main site as well as the Official Diablo II Site.  See them below: 

Scorch of the Diablo II Darkness has prepared a report of the monsters seen in Diablo II thus far, with some amazing results (as we all expect of him by now).  The report covers everythng you need to know, from Minions to Quest Bosses. 

  • PC Gamepro Preview... (1/15)

The February issue of PC Gamepro magazine has a feature on Diablo II, with some older info, a number of old screenshots, and details of an item set called the Civel Set that consists of a scepter, amulet, and shield.  Infoceptor has the page from the magazine scanned and posted here, showing an impressive and total disregard for copyright laws, which I can certainly appreciate. 

  • Fansite Chat... (1/15)

A new Blizzard Fansite Chat will be up and running around 8:00pm EST in about two weeks.  It will be the first chat solely devoted to WarCraft III, so fans of the game should be in for a load of new information. 

  • New Info Updates. (1/13)

We have updated both the Dueling Grounds and the Compendium with new information gleaned from the Macintosh Expo and its many reviews.  You can see all of these additions at those two sections. 

  • New Screenshots... (1/12)

Gamespot has released five new screenshots with their newest Designer Diary, all of which can be seen below.  Unfortunately they are a little smaller than usual, but still new: 

With no warning comes the next Designer Diary with Producer Matt Householder and QA Manager Chris Sigaty from Gamespot, this one covering the QAprocess and giving some insight into what is going on in the final stages of Diablo II´s development. 

  • RealPlayer Footage Converted... (1/12)

Minister has kindly taken the Korean Gameplay footage that was broadcast earlier this month can converted it to a downloadable video format.  You can find it archived in our Downloads section. 

  • Blizzard Monthly Winners. (1/12)

The monthly winners for the Blizzard contests have been announced by Tony Gervase.  The Diablo II interview was given to D2Labyrinth, the Diablo II prizes went to DiabloII.com,. and the StarCraft prizes went to SCNation.  Congradulations, everyone! 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • New Cinematic Shot... (1/12)

A small delay for the Rendered Shot that usually accompanies the SSOTW, it appeared this morning instead of last night.  Still, it is an excellent shot giving us another look at Marius, see it below: 

The newest screenshot of the week has been released, this one featuring a PvP matchup between the Paladin and the Sorceress.  See it below: 

A few people had some questions about the skill requirements in Diablo II, some were of the understanding that you did not have to have requirements that were not on the same "branch" as a particular skill on a skill tree.  Matt Householder replies:

    "You need a point in all its prerequisites to enable a skill, not just one path through the tree."

Which means that if you wish to use the Barbarian´s Whirlwind skill you´ll also need Bash, Stun, and Concentrate (from the adjacent "branch") as well as Leap and Leap Attack. 

Gamespot has supplied some pictures from the Macintosh pre-alpha version of Diablo II that was at the Mac Expo.  The shots are sideview and with some of the background, but still give a good look at what Diablo II for the Mac is shaping up to be.  See them below: 

There is a streaming RealPlayer feed from Korea featuring some new Diablo II footage including a new Sorceress spell known as Ice Orb (a Clvl 30 spell?!?) as well a seemingly new level for the game, perhaps a glimpse of the mysterious Finale Act.  You can get the feed from here, but be warned you´ll need some serious bandwidth to actually watch it. 

  • Contest at Lounge Blizzard... (1/7)

There is a contest at Lounge Blizzard where you could win a copy of Diablo II (or another game if you are too impatient), all you need to do is submit another original character that could have been in Diablo II.  Suggestions will also be forwarded to Blizzard so you may influence future products.  Click here for more details. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • GFrazier on Next Project. (1/7)

GFrazier made an appearance on the  Diablo II Suggestions Forum to raise speculation as to the next Blizzard unannounced project.  The posr was in response to a request for a 3D StarCraft II:

    "We have one more unannounced project in addition to Warcraft III and Diablo II. There has been no announcement about a sequel to Starcraft."

Well, it could be StarCraft II, then again it may not be.  I believe they may trying doing to StarCraft what they are doing with WarCraft III, though maybe with a different twsit.  It could be anything. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Mike Huang on Betas... (1/6)

Mike Huang has responded to a demand for a Diablo II Beta on the Diablo II Suggestions Forum.  The post is a defense of both the wait for Diablo II and of Blizzard´s game-designing philosophy, and as suck makes for an excellent read.  You can read it here. 

  • Battle.Net Clans. (1/6)

A new addtition to the normal set of channels of Battle.net are the new Clan Channels, these channels are like private channels except they are moderated.  You can learn more about Clan Channels here. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • MacWorld Expo Thoughts... (1/6)

There´s a quick briefing of a pre-alpha build of Diablo II for the Macintosh over at PC.IGN.COM, although it doesn´t offer much it is a sneak peek into the future for Diablo II, you can read it here. 

  • Accompanying Rendered Shot. (1/4)

There was also a new Rendered Shot released with the SSOTW, this one featuring a strange skeletal creature suffused in lightning that might be boss of some sorts, possibly one of the Prime Evils.  See for yourself here: 

ShadowSpiral Diablo II was recently chosen to be a featured site on V-Game´s SpotLight Sites for January.  We are very proud to be chosen for their Diablo II SpotLight and extend our deepest thanks to V-Game. 

                - The ShadowSpiral Staff
                 

  • Hardware News... (1/4)

Until recently the only 5-button mouse that Diablo II supported was the IntellliMouse Explorer from Microsoft (which we covered in an article ourselves, click here), but now it is extending support to include the Razer Boomslang, a new high-DPI gaming mouse.  Thanks to Sir Kor for the tip. 

  • Accusations of Vaporware. (1/4)

WiredNews recently released a "Bottom 10" list for 1999´s "Vaporware" products.  Vaporware is a common slang term for software that had been promised and previewed but never shows up.  It´s understood that things can be delayed, but calling Diablo II vaporware is something akin to premature burial.  You can read this article here. 

  • Gamecenter "Spinnies" and Diablo II... (1/4)

Gamecenter has given Blizzard two of its "Spinnie" awards, humerous little accolades in the name of fun and some even for honor.  Here´s what they received.

    The Game We All Wanted to Be Playing By Now Spinnie goes to Diablo II. Damn, hurry up already, Blizzard!

    The Game Company of the Millennium Spinnie also goes to Blizzard. It doesn't put out a lot of games, but everything it does is awesome. No one ships a more polished product, and the games are always extremely fun to play.

Want to see who else won some "Spinnies?"  Click here.  Thanks to D2Realm for the info. 

  • Screenshot of the Week. (1/4)

The first SSOTW for 2000 has been released, and its quite lovely at that.  This one gives us the Paladin using his Sanctuary Aura to repel some Act II zombies and he finishes them off with Zeal.  See it below: 

An article appeared in Computer Games Magazine with Blizzard´s Bill Roper, Frank Pierce, and Mike Morhaime giving their thoughts on Diablo II.  Here´s a snippet:

    "Morhaime: "I think Diablo II will be to Diablo what Warcraft II was to Warcraft. Think Diablo with more character classes, better graphics, stronger story, persistent characters and a multiplayer economy where gold means something. We will have Battle.net throughout the world, with servers in North America, Europe, and Asia. It is our most ambitious title so far."

    Pearce: "Massive amounts of content. It will be great when it ships..."

    Wyatt: "We would all love to finish Diablo II and release it-for our sanity as much as that of our fans-but it's far better to suffer temporary howls of protest and release a complete game that to permanently disappoint by shipping an unfinished one."

Get the latest issue for the whole article. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • CRPG vs. RPG... (1/3)

A new article by CGO has surfaced comparing the classical "Pen & Paper" RPG (like AD&D or GURP´s) against the CRPG of today.  They detail how the single player aspects of most CRPG´s can be just as entertaining as the original RPG.  You can read about it here. 

  • We Have Archived News. (1/1)

The news for December 1999 has been archived in our ShadowSpiral Archive, so if you feel you´ve missed something from last year or from December you can always pay a visit there to catch up.  We´re glad to still be here in the Diablo II Community, and we are looking forward to Diablo II´s release this quarter of 2000. 

                - The ShadowSpiral Staff
                 

 

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Skill of the Week

Heal (old skill)
Once a part of the Amazon skill trees, any character´s skill-based healing has been completely removed now, replaced by other skills that bestow limited regeneration or indirect healing.

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