A few days ago, Blizzard presented us with the quarterly report of Diablo IV, let’s look at what we have new.
Team test of the game
To start this report, Blizzard explains to us that during this confinement period, they carried out internal tests to verify all the elements of a region called the Arid Steppes, this test lasted 2 full days. It also allowed them to test the game technologies since the team members were playing on their own PC. They were therefore able to test with different resolutions, different qualities as well as more or less good connections.
First drafts
Usually the drafts stay in-house and they prefer to reveal a more or less finalized concept. But this time, for the sake of transparency, Blizzard decided to show us some drafts as well as their progress towards a more or less final rendering this summer.
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Narration
For Diablo IV, Blizzard decided to review the way of staging the dialogues. In Diablo III it worked with panels where the dialogue and the character’s name were displayed. This time, they will use a mixture of choreographed camera and a catalog of animations for conversations with simple NPCs (note that the overall aspect of the isometric view is preserved). For what will be important and complex conversations, camera movements and animations will be handmade specifically for the dialogue in question.
For the second part of the narration, the game uses real-time cutscenes (CTR). This technology is used for key moments in history, to treat storytelling in the same way as a movie. But that also represents many advantages, like the possibility of seeing your character with his current equipment but also of taking again the resolution and the quality of the current graphic parameters to better blend in with the rest of the game. Here is an image of the kinematics during the passage to Arid Steppes.
Open world
The novelty in Diablo IV is the appearance of the open world of Sanctuary.
This open world will offer many activities such as crafts, events, PvP, side quests but especially camps.
The camps are places invaded by enemies which, once liberated, will become outposts with allied NPCs, merchants and who will serve as relays. The camps each have a story, even if it is rather visual, and the quests will not lead directly to it, which will require a little exploration to discover them.
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—Diablo IV will also host mounts that will allow you to move faster without minimizing the importance of travel or combat. There will of course be the possibility of customizing your mount and in particular hanging a trophy on the saddle to show other players your power and courage.
But currently there is still work of balancing because it is too simple to be blocked by an element of the decoration or to be knocked down by an enemy projectile.
Multiplayer
Finding the right balance between multiplayer and solo has not been easy Diablo without falling into the MMORPG.
To achieve this, the dungeons and key moments in the story will be reserved for the player and his group. But you can meet some players in the cities or from time to time on the roads. Conversely, during world events, you will come across a large number of players as during the BlizzCon 2019, with the attack of a horde of cannibals or the Boss Ashava.
Of course if you don’t want to, you can stay alone to face the boss, participate in the progression and also receive rewards. For players wishing to recruit allies new tools will be made available, allowing you to find a group by activity or by proximity in the game world.
Objects and progression
The 2 days of tests were very useful to allow us to see the progress, and the impact of the choice of equipment and skills from the first day on the second. The teams were able to see the new attribute systems and have also already started to think about the different equipment they could obtain to develop the character.
Finally Blizzard specifies that the game is not yet advanced enough to pass the alpha or beta stage, so the game is currently in pre-alpha which says a lot about its release date.
For now, that’s all Blizzard provided us for this quarterly report. So we are waiting for the next report or any other information related to Diablo IV.
Reread and corrected by Catsupilami
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