Diablo 4 BlizzCon Interview Roundup - ActuallyArcane & Kayleigh Calder, Wudijo & Adam Jackson

Diablo IV Posted 2023/11/23 at 1:00 PM by Jezartroz

ActuallyArcane with Kayleigh Calder

The developers are likely pivoting from the "View Points" style of showcasing landscapes and scenes. They want to portray the game at it's best and give players a better sense of scale and gravity of the scenes and they're working towards finding the best way to present that in a way that doesn't also affect players with motion sickness issues

In Vessel of Hatred, the new areas will still be drenched in blood, dark and foreboding even inside a lush jungle

The developers are making sure they focus on scale in the new region with things such as the jungle absorbing the buildings within it and giant tree roots

The choice for Lilith being the antagonist was decided right from the start of development and the developers were very interested in telling a different kind of story than before. They wanted to take a part of the lore that hadn't really been portayed and explore it to expand upon the world

A big part of Lilith's design was that the devs wanted players to really feel like she had deep motivations and that at times the players themselves might become conflicted with some of your actions involving Lilith's story

They will be taking the opportunity to introduce new characters as the story unfolds

They're aware that some players are asking for choices that influence the story, but the developers wanted to take players on a specific journey and tell as specific story. They wanted players to never really feel completely comfortable with their actions

There will be more side quests and content that show the smaller scale events and the horrible and depressing things that affect everyday people in the world

With the expansion, we'll be revisiting places we've been before

The new class is brand new to sanctuary and it's never been seen in a diablo game.

The Diablo team wanted to give players a different way to play with the new class

"Diablo 4 is a journey, it's not a destination." The developers will continue to change and adapt the game based on player feedback. If there's strong sentiment for something in particular, they will work with the idea

The devs are making sure they deliver particular changes at the right time in a way that fits with the patch cadence

The campfire chats were done because they wanted to engage with players more and show that the devs themselves are players of the game, instead of just being faceless and dropping patch notes

To watch ActuallyArcane's interview in full, check out her YouTube video!Wudijo with Adam Jackson

The developers are open to bringing more new gameplay styles to skills that have already received gameplay-changing items (e.g. Dolmen Stone for Boulder) instead of limiting a skill to a maximum of two variations

Nothing to officially announce, but the devs have thought about adding further upgrades to skills in the Skill Tree and expanding the Skill Tree

Season 2 had the goal to make the game more accessible which comes with the flip side that players will ask for more to do that players can challenge themselves with after obtaining all their optimal gear. That is where systems like the Abattoir of Zir come into play

Blizzard is working on more systems like Abattoir of Zir for the future

Key Passives are good at giving players direction. The downside of giving more direction is that the players get funneled into a specific choice for their build

Blizzard's goals for Key Passives are to keep them as open-ended as possible. There is a balance between them being too targeted or too powerful

Jackson is a fan of adding more vectors of damage delivery, instead of everything being a circular AoE or a skillshot line, so that things don't feel the same

Uniques having limitations, like fixed stats and only existing for a specific item slot, opens up design space and creativity for the devs because they know that it doesn't interfere with certain other powers

When Uniques were originally designed for Diablo 4, they weren't designed with the goal to be stronger than Legendary powers

"We were afraid that if we make Uniques way more strong then everyone is only going to want Uniques now and Legendaries are going to fall off. And then every build is going to all slots Uniques and everyone looks the same."

This is not a problem with the limited amount of Uniques right now but the devs also have to think ahead when it comes to the future of the game

There is nothing to announce regarding additional equipment slots for characters

Blizzard has considered support for builds that want to play with multiple Core skills. Motivating players to have more Core skills would be an interesting puzzle to solve

The devs use the Seasons to experiment with systems and they are aware that certain things might be hit or miss. That is why certain aspects from Seasons might be brought back into the game (with adjustments/changes if needed) and others will leave after the Season ends

Bringing back certain things from Seasons has to be done in a way that is healthy in the evergreen version of the game going forward, which is why they can't always come back exactly like they were before

"You can expect some version of the stuff that people loved to come back . When or how is up for debate. There are a lot of back end things we have to figure out."

Class fantasy is important so that classes feel different from each other. Despite that, every class has to perform at a minimum level of every category of the game to be effective

The devs think they went too far when it comes to restricting the Necromancer's mobility

The original version of the Druid's Shred ability used to be purely single target which was changed during development

Blizzard is very open to the idea of making skill customization that is more modular, e.g. "Your projectiles return to you.", but these things are hard to implement due to bugs, performance issues, and balancing

Blizzard is asking for feedback whether or not additional support effects (like the Barb's Shouts), that affect the whole group, should be added to the game

From the devs' perspective: On one end, it feels good to contribute to the group by supporting them with abilities. On the other end, it tells players that the optimal way to play is in a group, which has a negative impact on players that like to play solo

To watch Wudijo's interview in full, check out his Twitch VOD!

Comment by apedosmilThe Diablo team wanted to give players a different way to play with the new classComment by DeezersThey need to start adding classes to the game, playing the same 5 ones over a 1-1.5 year period is going to be boring as hell.

They've got classes from past expansions and one of their devs even said that porting the Blood Knight from Immortal wouldn't be too big of a commitment.