Blizzard Entertainment has recently Quartalsupdate about the development progress at Diablo 4 spoken. The story presentation and discussions with other characters were a topic. In normal interactions with non-player characters (NPC), the camera is brought closer to the characters from the usual isometric perspective and general character animations are intended to better capture the mood. Individualized animations are only used for more complex conversations. The developers aim to ensure that players are not taken out of the game world during NPC interactions. There are also elaborate real-time cutscenes that are used for the more important moments in history with changed camera settings. These cut scenes are also realized in the in-game engine and use the character model of the player with current equipment.
With normal interactions, the camera moves closer to the action.
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Even more complex cutscenes are realized in the in-game engine.
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The open game world (upper world) should provide variety with different activities. In general, in addition to the story content, there should be more “secondary content” that should make replaying “more entertaining” than in the predecessors. For this write the developer:
“We have a variety of activities in the open world such as handicrafts, events, world PvP and side quests, but our most popular feature was the camps. These are important locations that have been overrun by opponents. Once these opponents are out Getting there, they turn into outposts with NPCs and a waypoint. Each camp has its own backstory, but most of the narrative takes place on a visual level and you are not sent there directly through quests. (…) We really did liked to see how the world changes while you recapture a small part of sanctuary and give hope back to the population. (…) Finally, we were able to get mounts in this game test. We really liked how mounts with the interact in the open world – this way, destinations can be reached more quickly without making fights or traveling through the world trivial a new dimension for game progress. “
As is well known, you will meet other players in the upper world of Diablo 4, while dungeons and story elements in the campaign are always private or instantiated for the group. Getting this multiplayer aspect right was difficult for the developers, after all, the game world feels less dangerous if you run into other players too often or in large numbers. After all, Diablo is not an MMO, since “few heroes” fight against the diabolic threat.
Luis Barriga (Game Director): “Finding the right path for multiplayer gameplay in Diablo 4 was a bit of a challenge. It has always been our goal to bring elements from common game worlds into the game without feeling too much of an MMO. Of course, it’s more of a question of philosophy instead of purely technical possibilities. (…)
–Once the story elements are complete and cities turn into social hubs, you will encounter some other players in the city. Occasionally, on the way, you occasionally meet other players. If you then go to a place where a world event is taking place, you would find a large number of other players there who are trying to ward off the attack of a cannibal pack, or take on Ashava – the demonic world boss we brought you at BlizzCon imagined. While some degree of coordination is helpful in these events, you will never be forced to join a group. Single players can join the event, participate in it, and collect a reward upon completion. We think this seamless multiplayer model works well and look forward to sharing more with you. In our previous tests, the world feels lively and dynamic without changing Diablo’s mood. And for players who want to band together against the servants of Hell, we have new tools for group formation – whether by activity or distance within the game world. “
The game director wrote about the current status and the latest team test:
“Of course we still have a lot of work ahead of us and have not yet reached the alpha or beta phase. (…) The classes in particular are developing in a way that we find very exciting. We look us exactly what makes the barbarian arsenal system or the shape change of the druids so special, and are looking for similar innovations for all other classes (more on this in a future update). (…) Like many other game and technology companies works the Diablo IV team is currently completely at home, although this changeover has brought with it some challenges, but overall we are very happy that the development continues to progress well … (…) For our latest milestone, we have chosen that focused on roughly elaborating all elements of a region called Dry Steppes – including campaign content, open world elements, items, a PvP area, dungeons and a cutscene for Completion of the narrative within this region. Our goal was to let the team play this content from home over the next two days, then analyze the data and discuss our reactions. “
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Screenshot – Diablo 4 (PC)
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Screenshot – Diablo 4 (PC)
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