Interview Topics

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[15:45]

Wyatt Cheng Chat #1

[15:45]

Self-Found Mode

What are the chances of us seeing a self-found mode sometime in the future?

[20:00]

Would a self-found ladder ever be an option?

[20:30]

A Day in the Life of a Developer

What is a day like, in the life of a developer?

[22:26]

Do you do much of the actual programming?

[24:00]

Future Plans

What are you most excited about with Diablo 3 right now, that you guys are working on or talking about?

[27:25]

Skill Changes

What class do you feel needs the most changes right now?

[34:22]

Balancing Overpowered Builds

Critical Mass or So when you're comparing potential builds to Whirlwind oror Archon or zero cooldown Summon Zombie Dogs -- it seems like some of those builds weren't intended in the original design. But players found ways, and they became "exploity" builds. Do you consider getting rid of those builds to balance other ones, or talk about making it just so there are multiple builds that are also that powerful?

[36:52]

Critical Mass? Do you lean more towards buffing other builds to the level of those builds, or more reducing the effectiveness of these "exploity" type builds like Whirlwind and

[38:33]

So maybe it's ok that some builds are more powerful, if they're hard to get the gear for?

[39:45]

Future Classes

We've been talking here about which classes we'd like to see in an expansion. We were trying to find which Diablo 2 class would make the best transition to Diablo 3, maybe the druid since we don't have a shapeshifter yet. I know you can't talk specifically about which classes will come out, but any thoughts about designing new classes?

[42:40]

Endless Dungeon

Travis mentioned recently the idea of an endless dungeon, or some kind of end-game content that is separate from the 4 Acts that are in the game. Any thoughts on your philosophy on end-game content like that?

[47:10]

Relying Less on the Auction House

It seems that recently you guys have put some focus on getting people to rely on the Auction House less. Would that be a correct assumption? There was a blue post about whether or not you guys would introduce an app so people could check out the AH on their phone, and the response was along the lines that: we don't want to encourage people to use the AH right now, we don't want people relying on it to get all their gear.

[50:35]

Ladders

What about ladders?

[54:05]

So I assume the ladder is something that you would be excited about, but something that also is a little loaded?

[55:25]

White Items

[From chat: White items]

[58:45]

Rewarding Self-Found Play

Any ideas for incentivizing people for finding gear that they use themselves?

[1:00:00]

[Discussion about other games, StarCraft II.]

[1:03:45]

Strength Quivers

[From chat: Why have Strength on quivers, why not just change the code?]

[1:06:20]

One with Everything

[From chat: One with Everything]

[1:08:50]

Reforging and Transmogrification

[From chat: Reforging and Transmogrification]

[1:09:10]

Open World Mode

[From chat: Open World Mode]

[1:10:45]

2 Billion Gold Cap on Auction House

Why a 2 billion gold cap on the Auction House, why not raise the cap?

[1:11:50]

Wyatt Playing Diablo 3

[From chat: Are you bored with the game?]

[1:12:55]

Waypoints Across All Acts

Will you ever be able to Waypoint across all the different Acts?

[1:14:15] Wyatt leaves, Travis is stepping in.



[1:18:55] Travis Day joins.



Travis Day Chat

[1:20:55]

Playing Hardcore

[Talk about the streamer playing in hardcore mode]. Seems like Barb and Witch Doctor is the way to go, if you're going hardcore.

[1:22:20]

Elemental Effects on Weapons

[From chat: Elemental effects on weapons]

[1:23:00]

Item Design Philosophy

Are there things that have been talked about recently regarding itemization that you're excited about, or anything about the design philosophy, the process you go through?

[1:28:05]

Legendaries for Specific Builds

I like the idea of there being builds that are overpowered, but it's really hard to get the gear for.

[1:30:22]

PVP

Is there any discussion right now about PVP?

[1:31:20]

Itemization Timeline

If you have more stuff to say about itemization, feel free.

[1:33:00]

Legendary Power

Is your end goal to have it so that all legendaries are good? Or will there still be legendaries that get unlucky rolls and just turned into brimstones?

[1:36:40]

Item Power

So if someone inspected your character and saw that you had X number of legendaries, that would be impressive amongst itself?

[1:37:35]

Thorns

What about changes to Thorns, or other affixes that aren't widely used right now?

[1:38:50]

Health Globe Bonus

[From chat: Health Globe Bonus is a bad stat.]

[1:39:35]

Is part of the issue the fact that players stack so much Life on Hit and Lifesteal at end game?

[1:41:30]

Surviving Hardcore

I realize this Barbarian right now is not tanky enough for where I am, and I'm trying to decide if I want to go back and beef up more, or keep pushing.

Did you have the skill that brings you back when you die?

[1:43:25]

Self-Found Mode

Any thoughts on self-found mode?

I think you should try it.

[1:47:00]

Since I've tried it, it's pretty much the only way I play right now. For right now I think the game works better in self-found, but it sounds maybe like your theory is, we can address those issues and maybe not have the need for so many players to play self-found?

I agree with you, that it would be better if everyone got the reward that you get from playing self-found without having to add a new sector of the game so to speak. I would probably switch back to playing regularly if I did feel like I was earning most of my gear, and to improve most I would have to find it myself.

[1:50:00]

Class-Specific Items

[From chat: Primary stats on class-specific items]

[1:51:00]

[The streamer is farming in Leoric's Manor.]

[1:52:00]

Weapon Damage

[From chat: Weapon damage rolls]

[1:55:00]

Boring Legendaries

It's Dex/Vit, but it's better than what I have. It's pretty good overall. [A pair of Steady Strikers legendary bracers drop for the Barbarian being played.]

[1:56:45]

Ladders

[From chat: what about ladders?]

[1:57:10]

Content Choices

From a blue post you wrote, you said that when the player sits down to play Diablo, you want the first thing they say to be, "What do I feel like doing today?"

[2:00:30]

Endless Dungeon

Does something along the lines of endless dungeon come up much in those discussions?

[The streamer is still farming Leoric's Manner to safely level up in hardcore.]

Well I think I'm going to start progressing again, so you won't have to watch it anymore.

I now have Revenge and one of my viewers mentioned that I had forgotten to put in my passive slot. So I think I'm tanky enough to progress.

[2:02:30]

Paragon System

[From chat: increase the Paragon Levels?]

You had talked about character customization, and maybe tying that into Paragon somehow?

[2:04:25]

Diablo 2 Skill System

We went back and played D2 on this stream a few months ago, and I forgot how much I loved the skill trees. I know the skill tree isn't what you guys were thinking of, but yeah, you get a little more sense of ownership and pride in your character.

[2:07:05]

Loot Tables

What about loot tables: making it so that certain bosses drop specific legendaries, so you could farm an individual area for a specific drop.

Soulbound Items

[From chat: Soulbound / Bind on Pickup items, like the Account-Bound crafted items]

[2:09:50]

Do you think one of the bigger disadvantages is it eliminates trading, or at least diminishes it?

[2:13:20]

[From chat: Whimsyshire sucks!]

[2:13:48]

Game Economy & Bots

I love that idea of having ownership, we talk a lot about it on the stream, and a lot of people are like: no, we need to trade! I totally agree that what you lose isn't as much as what you gain.

[2:16:28]

It seems like the game economy might be one of the hardest things to make predictions about beforehand.

[2:17:45]

[From chat: Ban bots]

[2:18:10]

[From chat: Travis Day for president!]

[2:18:35]

[From chat: Read itemization thread]

[2:19:15]

New Item Affixes

[From chat: Can we expect new affixes that do novel stuff, not only numbers added to already big numbers?]

[2:23:55]

Demon Hunters

[From chat: Will Demon Hunters get a real buff?]

[2:27:07]

I play Demon Hunter as a main now, and I've said it a couple of times, I feel like the Demon Hunter is the most polished class right now. It's really rare that I'll play my Demon Hunter twice in a row with the same build, because I feel like I can put on almost any skill set and still be viable.

[2:28:55]

[From chat: Pick up health globes?]

[2:29:00]

Proc Coefficients

Critical Mass, or to make it more challenging to get the gear where you could play those builds? Is one of the solutions being tossed around to diminish the effectiveness of Whirlwind and, or to make it more challenging to get the gear where you could play those builds?

[2:32:40]

Act II Bees

[The streamer's Barbarian almost dies to the bees in act II.]

I know! Remember before you nerfed those.

They evade less than they used to as well, right?

[2:33:28]

Ladders and Diablo 4

[From chat: What about a ladder option?]

[2:35:58]

[2:35:50]

Porting Immunity

[From chat: When can we expect to see grace periods for teleporting to someone who is in combat and being one-shot?]

It's a lot easier now, right, with the multiplayer changes?

[2:37:05]

Attack Speed Nerf

[Why nerf Attack Speed, it was a fun aspect of Diablo 3.]

[2:40:00]

Runewords

[From chat: will runewords be added to the game?]

[From chat: Create a flexible item goal.]

[2:41:52]

Charges on Gear

[From chat: Skill charges on gear]

[2:43:25]

Make Farming More Fun

[From chat: Make farming more fun]

[2:45:18]

Game Design

[From chat: Why didn't the game include all of this from the start?]

When I was talking to you and Wyatt, I realized that a lot of the things I wanted, I had very specific ideas in mind. You guys made me realize what I was really looking for. I love it when Wyatt asks, "What's the fantasy?" and really tries to get to the core of what people are asking for. I think a lot of times, it's not the actual specific idea you want, it's a result of that idea, and a lot of times it can be done better than your version of it.

[2:50:15]

[From chat: Are you excited for the new Star Trek movie?]

[2:50:42]

[From chat: Account-bound items = nonsense]

[2:51:50]

WoW and Diablo 3 Design

What are the differences between working on World of Warcraft, and Diablo 3?

[2:56:00]

Training for Game Design

If someone was aspiring to do what you do, what advice would you give?

[2:59:00]

I already got the playing lots of video game and analyzing parts down, I think!

[3:00:35]

Education for Game Design

I was surprised to hear, when I was at Blizzard, people saying that not all of the developers had college degrees in game design.

[Tangent on reality TV, etc.]

[3:04:30]

Playing With People Nearby

[From chat: Location based features, to see people playing who are in the same state that you are in.]

[3:05:28]

What Other Games Do You Play?

What games do you play when you're not playing Diablo? [Also includes game suggestions from chat]

I've been trying to get ahold of the people at Carbine studios, I wanted to stream WildStar. So... I'm not saying, but I'm just saying.

[3:09:00]

Wyatt Cheng joins again, at [6:35:40].

Wyatt Cheng Chat #2

[6:36:30]

Demon Hunters in Hardcore

Yeah that's probably the character I've been playing the most, recently. I guess I like playing Demon Hunter in hardcore even though she's probably not the best class for hardcore.

Yeah, I think Demon Hunter is the most fun character for hardcore, but Barb and Witch Doctor I think have more survivability. But I enjoy playing Demon Hunter because I have less survivability, I think.

Yeah, I feel like a ninja on my Demon Hunter, because I have to avoid more attacks.

[6:37:42]

Skill Proc Coefficients

Critical Mass builds, and how it might make sense to lower those in the future becaues it would make more builds viable for those classes. Yeah we talked with Travis a little bit about the proc coefficients on Barbs and Wizards, specifically the Whirlwind andbuilds, and how it might make sense to lower those in the future becaues it would make more builds viable for those classes.

Companion - Bat Companion

Yeah I can say on my Demon Hunter, my viewers know too, I pretty much use a different build every time I play. I'm actually using

Entangling Shot

because it seems like it has a really high proc coefficient, and I wanted to try out this

Windforce

. I also got a

Dead Man's Legacy

with increased damage to Entangling Shot.

It works well, especially for solo, it knocks back almost half the time it seems. But yeah, leveling a Barb or leveling a Wizard, you have a ton of different builds. But once you get to max level if you want to be efficient it seems you have to go with one of the ones that take advantage of proc coefficients.

[6:43:13]

Would the Whirlwind Barb nerf be a good example of that?

[6:44:20]

Dual-Wielding Crossbows

Why do you think that the dual-wielding isn't as viable right now; do you think there's something that could maybe make it more viable in the future?

Or what if Archery gave 10% for each hand cross-bow that you were using?

[6:46:45]

Passives with Gameplay Decisions

[6:48:55]

Cold Weapons Damage

[From chat: Will you buff Cold damage on weapons, if elemental weapons end up doing more?]

[6:49:20]

Elemental Arrow

[From chat: Is there going to be a change to Elemental Arrow?]

Yeah, I was using Frost Arrow for a while, and trying Ball Lightning. Sometimes it was great, in groups of like 3 or 4, but then bigger than that it definitely fell short.

[6:50:50]

Secondary Damage Sources

[From chat: A question about build diversity.]

[From chat: Rapid Fire with rockets is the best single-target damage at the moment.]

[6:54:50]

[6:55:00]

So is that an idea that's being discussed right now, making it so that every elemental damage type would have some sort of effect associated with it?

[6:55:40]

Monster Affixes

[6:56:40]

Gems

Have you discussed maybe additional gems, different types of gems?

[6:57:50]

Item Affixes

What about new affixes on items? Are there any of those that you've thrown around?

[7:01:24]

Weapon Damage for Skills

[From chat: Some things are low weapon damage]

[7:06:28]

Skill Popularity

Internally, you guys can see which skills are being used how much, and all those numbers, right?

[7:06:47]

Community Expectations

[From chat: are you a politician?]

No, I think a lot of people have unfair expectations. Maybe this is something worth talking about, I don't know. It seemed like a lot of people today were under the impression that devs might come on and be like, "This is all the new stuff we're introducing! We're going to announce a bunch of things, and tell you about the expansion." And maybe they don't understand why you can't just say everything you're going to be doing in the next few months, maybe they're just not familiar enough with the process or the reasoning behind it.

Yeah, and I'm not super familiar with the process, but I think I'm more familiar than some. They view these changes as something where you just make these changes, and you just throw them in with a day of programming, and so they get this misconception that nothing is getting done. Maybe they're not contemplating the time it takes to test, and how careful you guys have to be before you commit to one idea.

[7:09:40]

PVP

[From chat: Asking about PVP.]

I know there was a big update on PVP around the the end of last year. Maybe some people didn't understand the update or weren't able to read it. I guess what I took from it was you guys decided to kind of up your standard for PVP, and make it more robust than you originally planned; would that be accurate?

Potentially with some PVE elements as well, maybe?

Yeah, I had mentioned competetive PVE.

[7:13:00]

Rune Diversity

[From chat: Someone was asking about Grenades.]

[From chat: Rain of Vengeance]

[7:14:00]

Waypoints Across All Acts

[From chat: Waypoints everywhere?]

[7:14:20]

Rate of Damage and Healing

Feel free to ramble about anything. More than anything, we're just interested in hearing you talk about what you guys talk about at work.

[7:18:16]

I know on my Critical Mass Wizard right now, if I'm surrounded by a bunch of mobs, and I have Energy Twister out, then I feel totally safe, I know I'm getting my life back constantly. If I'm away from mobs for even a second, I become very vulnerable.

Like the way it would work while you're leveling, for the most part?

I'd definitely gotten to a few parts where I've had flesh wounds with my low level Barbarian today and had to run out to get my health back.

[7:22:10]

That makes perfect sense to me, I assume that it makes sense to the viewers. But it seems like you see that a lot less on hardcore, we can't really take that chance at all, so you can't really rely on getting health back.

[7:24:35]

Memorable Hardcore Deaths

I've only had one significant hardcore death. We were doing self-found hardcore MP10 only, and I made it to level 53, and then one morning I decided to go soloing, which is a bad idea, I always played with a Barb. I aggroed 2 elite packs and had them following me, so I decided to go back to the waypoint, and fight there. And it's on my highlights, so a lot of people have seen it. So I decided to fight next to the waypoint, but I get a little too close to the waypoint, because the enemies ended up crowding the waypoint. When I eventually realized I had to get out of there, because I wasn't going to make it, I couldn't click on the waypoint. I eventually had to run away and I died shortly afterwards to a face beast.

Yeah, I tried twice to click on it, but there must have been something in the way. I didn't make it, and then it was game over.

We had a similar situation to yours with one of the guys on the stream right now. Mikey, he was playing solo, and had to answer the door. He thought he'd paused the game, and came back to his Barb dead, I think he was Paragon 30, somewhere around there on self-found hardcore.

[7:27:35]

Disconnections in Diablo 3

[From chat: Why not handle disconnections better?]

[7:29:00]

Seasonal Ladders

[From chat: What about seasonal ladders?]

[From chat: New content?]

[7:31:10]

Monster Power

[From chat: MP Philosophy?]

[From chat: Monster Power is perfect as is.]

Relating to the same idea, I would love to see challenges that couldn't be outgeared, that would be challenging regardless of where your gear had gotten to. I think it's probably a lot easier in a game like World of Warcraft. It seems like, just turning up health and damage does increase the difficulty but you can still get enough gear where it would be really easy. But maybe some kind of challenge where you would be proud of defeating it regardless of how good your gear was.

Yeah I think about it a lot, different ways you could do it. One way maybe would be mechanics that if you failed what you needed to, then you're going to die regardless of how much health you have. Or maybe challenges that would still be hard even if you have the best gear.

[7:35:30]

Thanks so much for coming by. We really appreciate that, it was really awesome.