Diablo 3 Implementing Major System Changes, Most Likely Won't Be Out In Q1 2012

Diablo 3 Games Director Jay Wilson has just posted a very long blog post on the official Diablo 3 website detailing a few major system changes to the game and hinting that the highly anticipated action rpg  still has a long way to go and most likely won't be out in Q1 like we (and they) initially thought. The changes are coming because the Diablo 3 developers don't want to just create a game, they want to create an amazing game that lives up to the Diablo franchise. According to Wilson, "No one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great. We trust in our ability to put out a great game, but we're not quite there yet."

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Basically Wilson goes on to say in the blog post that they're changing a ton of systems in the game including crafting, items, core attributes, inventory. Additionally they're making major changes to the skill and rune systems but they're not ready to talk about those quite yet.

After the break you'll find about everything that Jay Wilson went in to detail about like the removal of Scrolls of Identification and the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube  some huge stat changes, and more.

First off, Scrolls of Identification are no longer in the game. "We love the double-discovery of finding a present and then unwrapping it, but we don't think it requires a physical item you have to find and keep in your bags to get the same effect." According to Wilson, unidentified items will still be a part of the game, but now you'll just be able to right click on them in order to identify them without the need of a scroll.

They're also making the fifth quick slot button a dedicated potion button. "Recently it became apparent that players need to be aware of their potions for emergency situations," Wilson said.

Next up, it's been decided that there won't be a Mystic artisan after all. "As we look at the big picture, the Mystic simply wasn’t adding anything to our customization system," Wilson said. He went on to add, "Enhancement was really just the socket and gem system with a different name, and it would prolong the release of the game even further to go back to the drawing board and differentiate it, so we’ll revisit the Mystic and enhancements at a later time."

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They've also decided to remove the Cauldron of Jordan and the Nephalem Cube as these items were originally implemented to allow for saving time, but now that the developers have decided to keep the Stone of Recall (now called Town Portal) in the game there's really no reason to have these (rather interesting) items in the game anymore. "We found that keeping the Cauldron and Cube in the game detracted from the benefits of returning to town to sell items, salvage, craft, and interact with the townsfolk," Wilson said. With the removal of the Nephalem Cube the Blacksmith artisan will now salvage items.



"With the removal of the Cauldron of Jordan, Nephalem Cube, and by moving Town Portal to the skill panel, we're now displaying character stats directly on the inventory UI," said Wilson. "Now you can see your stats go up and down as you try on different items. All the same info is available; we’re just streamlining the UI, making it more useful. It might seem insignificant but we're pleased with the results."

Probably the biggest update is that they're changing the core character attributes and dropping the Defense, Attack, and Precision as attributes in favor of just Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality. Luckily for us, Wilson detailed all the changes for each stat:

Strength
+Barbarian damage

+Armor
Dexterity
+Demon Hunter damage

+Monk damage

+Dodge
Intellect
+Wizard damage

+Witch Doctor damage

+Health from globes
Vitality
+Health

"This change makes the stats more intuitive and fixes some of the itemization issues we were running into," said Wilson. "We want to make it clear that junk items aren’t worth picking up, and make it easy to identify other items as not for your character."

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He ended his blog post by saying, "We want Diablo III to be the best game it can be when it launches. To get there, we're going to be iterating on designs we've had in place for a long time, making changes to systems you've spent a lot of time theorycrafting, and removing features you may have come to associate with the core of the experience. Our hope is that by embracing our iterative design process in which we question ourselves and our decisions, Diablo III won't just live up to our expectations, but will continue to do so a decade after it's released."

After reading this post I had to take a deep breath and remember that Blizzard is truly making Diablo 3 the best game it can possibly be and that we, as Diablo fans, are just going to have to deal with delays if we want to see it live up to its maximum potential.

What do you think about these Diablo 3 system changes? Do you think they add or take away from the experience?

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Source: Official Diablo 3 Website