This evening Game director Joe Shely and associate game director Joseph Piepiora took part in a Diablo 4 developer live stream. These live streams will be replacing the developer update blogs we have seen in the past moving forwards.
Much of what has been discussed was already know following the press event gameplay but it’s a good recap if you missed anything over the past couple of weeks.
- Joe Kicks things off with a recap of events over the past couple of weeks climaxing with The Game Awards.
- Recap over the pre-orders and their bonuses.
- Battle Pass will be $10.
- Regarding Early access to game, the game will not launch in Season 1 when it launches weeks after the game launches. No benefit to early access for Seasons.
- Season’s Journey is the same as Diablo 3. You will gain Favour by progressing your Battle Pass. You will gain some Battle Pass benefits without buying the Battle Pass.
- CE box will be priced at $96.66 available on Blizzard Gear Store today. Box and items are shown on the stream.
- Viewing of the Game Awards Trailer (again).
- Joe covers the lore and the relationship between Lilith and Inarius. Expect to explore this relationship during Diablo 4 and how that relationship has got to where it is now. Joe is loving the angel wings of the Diablo franchise.
- Codex of Power is effectively a new crafting feature. Discover Codex of Power Aspects in the dungeons. Aspects are Legendary Powers. Players can target specific dungeons to get their hands on a specific power. Gives players a way to control their build.
- Head to the Occultist and imbue an aspect into an item. Can override an existing Legendary power on an item. Not all legendary powers can be found as Aspects.
- Your Codex runs character-wide so when you start a new character you have access to the Aspect powers you have collected right from level 1. Players will find legendary powers for all the classes.
- Over 120 dungeons.
- A big change for Diablo 4 was allowing legendary powers to roll on different item slots. Gives players the opportunity to decide where they want to place certain powers to make max use of them for their builds. Codex Aspects always roll on the lower roll possible.
Diablo 4 Developer Live Stream Q&A
Q: What learning did you apply from other Diablo Games?
A: When you think about the history of Diablo, we wanted to capture everything people loved about the franchise. From Diablo 1 we wanted to capture the dark gothic tone which was different from other things you would see at the time. We wanted to recapture that in Diablo 4.
With Diablo 2 we wanted to capture the essence of having systems that unfold and have all of this depth and nuance. I’m really going to learn all the details and by having a deep understanding of this I am going to optimise my character in ways that people who don’t understand these nuances will miss
Diablo 3’s fluidity of combat and the action of Diablo 3. Diablo 3 added so much to the player cast interactions also the effects on the monsters and the various ways they can die.
Q: How does the battle pass work and how long does it go for.
A: The Battle Pass will last for the duration of a season, A season is 3 months. Active players will have plenty of time. You’ll be earning progress through the Season Journey toward your Battle Pass. It’s around 75 hours of play to progress through the Battle Pass.
Q: When does Season 1 start?
A: More details soon. Game will launch in a pre-season mode.
Q: If I want to play on PC and console do I need to purchase it on each platform?
A: Yes, but all progression is cross-platform
Q: Will familiar items be returning to Diablo 4?
A: Yes. Shako, Windforce, Grandfather, Magefist for example. These are unique items. These are rare and have been reinterpreted for Diablo 4.
Q: Favourite class?
Joe: Rogue
Joseph: Barbarian.
Q: Favourite enemy?
Joe: The blood casters.
Joseph: The Drowned.
Q: Fun fact I learned developing Diablo 4
Joseph: Important while we are allowing players to make a lot of choices, when they are making an interesting character for themselves, that we unveil that slowly initially otherwise we get people getting scared about making choices and they clam up.
Joe: Trouble with left click skills and containing the ability to explore the skill tree. So we added a basic attack you start with so you can choose which spec you want to start with.
Q: Team Inarius or Lilith?
Jospeh: Lilith
Joe: Inarius.
And so concluded this Diablo 4 Developer Live Stream with both Joe and Joseph thanking the community before taking a break for the holidays.
Details on the open beta will appear at the start of 2023.