Diablo 4 Gamescom Interviews - Endgame, Battle Pass, Season Learnings

Geposted 29.08.2023 um 18:18 von Jezartroz

Two teams at Blizzard are working simultaneously on Seasons, one team for the odd-numbered Seasons, the other for the even-numbered Seasons. This way they can develop continously, because a Season might take longer to develop than expected.

They will keep building on the foundation of the game and their Seasons when it comes to developing future Seasons.

4Fansites (German)

Blizzard is aware of the feedback regarding being able to respec the Paragon Board with one click. It's on their list.

Blizzard will think about the idea of loot filters and will take it back home.

Blizzard is aware of the feedback regarding an overlay map. It's on their list.

Unique item drop rates will be increased across the board.

Blizzard acknowledged the feedback regarding an Armory/Loadout system similar to Diablo 3 and they added it to their list.

No PTR for Diablo 4 planned.

Gamezoom (German)

Nothing to announce regarding future crossover events between Diablo 4 and other Blizzard titles. Keep your eyes peeled for October.

There are no plans to implement the Blood Knight from Diablo Immortal into Diablo 4, both games are unique in their own ways.

Nothing to announce regarding future expansions for Diablo 4. The focus is on Season 2 at the moment.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Rod Fergusson: "As part of listening to players wanting to carry over their renown, we had to put the patch out a couple of days before the season. The intention is that a season and a patch would go the same day, so at the time we make a balance change and you start a level one character, it feels differently to go through the progression with the new balance."

Rod Fergusson: "I've been using the spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down analogy, and so I think when we were trying to be so quick in our responsiveness and trying to be so pure with the balance, that I think we reacted really quickly to getting in the balance right, but we didn't take the time to bring all the sugar. It was more medicine and less sugar and we're not doing that anymore."

Blizzard will refrain from nerfing something in the future if it is slightly out of balance, but players are having fun with it. The aim is to strike a better balance between buffs and nerfs, and not to be ruled by outliers.

Chris Wilson: "As we start to better understand the different types of players, we want to make sure we're servicing all of them, season after season. It may not all happen in Season 2, but in time we're going to find ways to make sure that the completionist, or the explorer, or the competitive players are all being fed, essentially, and getting what excites them as a player."

GameSpot

If there are significant balance changes in the future Blizzard wants to make sure that there are things, that the community will like, to go with it.

Social media, data, metrics, etc. are all great tools to show the full picture if something really is a problem or if it is just the vocal minority voicing their concerns. That does not mean that everything coming from the vocal minority shouldn't be taken into account, you want to take that feedback in as well. There is a balance between what Blizzard is hearing, what they are seeing (from their data), and what they are feeling when they play.

Helltide, NMD, Tree of Whispers, and PvP felt like a great starting place for Diablo 4's endgame. "This is the beginning and not the ending. This is the foundation we are building upon."

Diablo 4's endgame will evolve over time, starting with the 5 bosses in Season 2, and leaderboards in Season 3.

"It is a balancing act, depending on what it is we are trying to address. It can obviously take development time to get it right. You don't want to be too hasty to rush change, because you may end up imbalancing the game in a different way that you maybe didn't foresee. You have to take your time to think it through. How do we want to address the problem that has been flagged? Look at it in terms of priority as well. There are often times competing priorities. Making sure that you are targeting the things that can have the biggest impact for the player first and foremost, and then finding the right time to release those things."

There are four teams working on Diablo 4. Two teams for Seasons, one for the odd and one for the even-numbered Seasons. One team focusing on the live game. One team for expansions.

Blizzard is learning if the Battle Pass and the Shop work for a game like Diablo 4, they are gathering information as the game goes on.

When it comes to the mentality "You are Blizzard, you shouldn't make mistakes" Rod explains that it is a new development team, for some it's their first live service game, for some it's their first shipped game ever. There is experience but they will also need to learn as they go. "The industry is always changing. The games are always changing. The players are always changing. It is going to be learning as we go. What I love about a live service is, we can evolve over time, it's not a fixed state. We can evolve and learn as we go."

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