In addendum to our previous news, we need to mention that the newest PCGamer also contains the first release screenshots of the Paladin and Sorceress in action.  Totaled 5 in all, the screenshots will be posted on our site as soon as their released on the Internet. 

In a monstrous news break, here are some the things we thought were most interesting in the new PCGamer article:

Each act will have its own overall quest, and each in turn will have its own set of subquests. For example, the main quest of the first act is to clean out the monastery, but while doing so there will be plenty of smaller dungeons to explore and lots of errands to run. These quests will also have a larger impact on the game itself. For example, there's a point early in the game in which you'll need to rescue a particular individual from the ruins of Tristram, your old stomping ground. If you succeed in the quest, then you'll have someone back in town who can identify magical items for you.

Hmmm, could this be the legendary Deckard Cain?  Read on...

Each character will have their own items, weapons, and skills. Unlike Diablo, where a Warrior could cast fireballs just as well as a Sorcerer with a bit of patience and a lot of experience, the Barbarian will never have the ability to cast any Sorceress spells. Likewise, the Sorceress will never be able to handle the weapons the Barbarian can use at will. The division between the classes is absolute.

I really like the new division of classes, it creates a sort of "character economy" that will be interesting in multiplayer.

The variety of skills will also let multiplayer groups work better together against the monsters. For example, one of the Necromancer skills under discussion right now is the ability to take mind control over a monster and make it do whatever the player wants. So the Necromancer could cast that spell on a baddie, and then the Paladin can cast the Thorn Aura on it, and the group will have an enchanted monster doing their dirty work for them. The possibilities for combinations are endless.

This kind of tag team action would put a whole new angle in the game, where before in Diablo the only kind of group action spell was Heal Other.  I wonder if a very powerful Necromancer could control a boss-level creature?

Diablo 2 was rebuilt completely from the ground up. Although Blizzard North could have used the engine for Diablo as a foundation, the team decided against it. This has let them do many new things they hadn't previously considered - like adding 3Dfx support. According to David Brevik, President of Blizzard North, "with a 3Dfx card, we get free gourad shading and things like that. We had to spend a lot of time in DirectDraw to do the same thing to translate each pixel. With 3Dfx, it does it all for you. It's a lot faster. Because it's faster we can do a whole bunch of extra effects, like colored lighting, zoom in and zoom out, and there's a bump map on the floor... stuff like that." We watched the effects of the 3Dfx enchanced game, and were dumbfounded. Aside from the colored lighting, translucent spell effects, and improved frame rate, even simple additions like the bump-mapped floor made a big difference. You wouldn't normally tell the difference between a flat ground texture and one made up of many different bumps, but the changes are obvious when you compare them side by side. Although the version we saw only supported 3Dfx using Glide, Blizzard North plans on supporting other cards, although nothing is set in stone at the current time.

Along with the 3Dfx enhancements, there are plans to add lots of environmental affects, such as fog, rain, and smoke. The game will also have a time cycle - as the adventure continues, day will turn into night and back to day again. The time of day will effect the monsters you encounter in the countryside. Chances are, wandering around in the middle of the night will be a dangerous pastime. "There will be a lot more life to the game this time, and it will seem like a real place," says Brevik.

I, for one, can't wait to see the 3dfx enhancements to Diablo 2.  It should be adamantly restated that Diablo 2 will not require 3dfx to run at all, and not having it will not affect the overall value of the game.

"The biggest priority we have with multiplayer right now is just ensuring that the games are fair," says Householder. "That's pretty much the thrust of what we're trying to do with battle.net. Someone may try to kill you, but they'll have to do it the conventional way - with weapons and spells." The team plans on keeping player-killing to keep that kind of excitement and pressure in the game - you never know when someone's going to turn on you. However, at the same time they're going to give hosts more control over who enters their game. "We thought giving people the ability to create private games and giving them passwords would make the players as safe as they want to be. But people still get mad when they play Diablo and someone enters the game who they thought was a nice guy, and he kills them," says Schaefer.

Right now the number of players who can quest together is still up in the air. The current plan includes eight players total, but it all depends on how fun the game is with different numbers of people. "We had Diablo running with more than four players, but it wasn't really fun," says Brevik. Because of the size of the levels, people would break up into groups, and while one group would kill monsters the others would simply scavenge the leftovers. This caused quite a few arguments and anger on the part of players who weren't getting enough action. The areas in Diablo 2 are much larger, however, and so should be able to support more players.

Blizzard North's plans for multiplayer over battle.net go much deeper than just in-game changes. "We want to respect the fact that there are guilds a bit more," says Brevik. Guilds are groups of players who band together with a common theme - there are hundreds of guilds for Diablo, and some have already formed for Diablo 2. Brevik says, "You'll be able to set up a guild house, which is kind of like a sub-game - meeting place for your guild where you can store some items and start games." It will be an alternative to a private chat channel - a place actually using the game engine that could even have custom art for the buildings representing that guild. Although they're not sure of the numbers, these little "sub-games" could have as many as 16 players connected at once, socializing, trading, and launching quests. That sub-game flavor can also spill into non-guild meeting places. There might be a market where players can trade goods, or a battle arena where players can take out their aggressions on one another.

My interest was completely grabbed by this.  "Guildhall sub-games" and a battle arena, with over 16 players connected at once?  Bravo, Blizzard!  This game is shaping up to take the player in a firestorm!

The inventory system in Diablo 2 works very much like the original, but with some major changes. The screen for buying and selling items shows a view of all the items much like your inventory, so you can see what the items look like. The stats for each item will pop up with a mouse click. You can buy, sell, identify, and repair items from the same screen if the particular NPC you're dealing with can perform the appropriate actions. "We have plans to support trade on battle.net, and this type of interface could be adapted for more secure trading," says Householder. That means there won't be any more incidents of stragglers coming along and swiping merchandise when it's lying on the ground during a swap between players.

What you see on screen is what your character will wear. Unlike Diablo, where there was a single piece of art for a sword no matter that the sword looked like in inventory, everything will look as it should in Diablo 2. That means if you put on a helmet with large antlers, you'll see the antlers on your character as you wander through town. Not only will this let you see what exactly you're equipping, you can also make fashion statements.

Characters can also throw items. Each class will have its own throw, and you can use it with potions, throwing daggers, axes, and javelins. The potions will have different effects, like exploding on impact or emitting a poisonous cloud. Also, unlike the original Diablo, arrows are limited. Blizzard North promises they'll be abundant, but it will keep some players from just firing blindly and killing creatures off-screen. Also, turning the arrows into limited items will let the creators introduce arrows with different characteristics for more variety.

Over battle.net, all these items will be well tracked. If an item is unique, it will stay unique. A new pastime may form with some players - merchandising. Players might commission other players to find certain items, such as the final piece to their set. Rewards for items could become commonplace, and players could send other players on quests to find the particular items. There may even be a bulletin board for players to post their requests, but the details haven't been worked out as yet.

These new methods of controlling inventory and items seem like powerful additions to the overall quality of Diablo 2.  I especially like the concept of your character's appearance changing with every piece of equipment you change.  Diablo 2 is shaping up to by 1999's hands-down Game of the Year.

- The Realm of Terror (source)
- Darkk (WebMaster)
 

• Susan Wooley Interview. (10/3)