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Post by tainted on Aug 4, 2011 17:43:10 GMT -5
Jay Wilson, Diablo III Game Director, was interviewed during the recent Blizzard press event. I've taken the Questions & Answers from that interview that relate to PvP and posted them here. Credit goes to diablofans.com for taking part in the event and transcribing the details! |
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Post by tainted on Aug 4, 2011 18:01:25 GMT -5
Q: Do you feel that since people are going to be able to buy items, and therefore essentially power, it will polarize the community based on the top elite, especially in PvP, versus the casual player and what repercussions might there be if that is the case?
A: I think if you look at a lot of games where power gets sold, you run into a lot of different types of games. Take a game like WoW: if we started selling items there, it would pretty much destroy the game. The core of the game is guild/raid progression; that is your top tier and that’s where everyone is focusing on. If you now give me the ability to circumvent that using money, you’ve kind of destroyed the need for having guilds in the first place. Microtransaction games tend to be very successful, but have very short lives because people tend to buy out everything. Essentially, it’s like “What if the government started printing money?” It’d be really awesome for a short time, and then we’d all be screwed. That’s kind of what a microtransaction game is; the key difference between them and this system is that it’s player-driven so we’re not generating items, players are. We’re not doing anything different than what D2 already did. Players could trade items in D2 and buy them using real money. All we’re doing is facilitating it so that it’s a good experience for everyone. We don’t expect that it’s going to feel very different from D2 at all, and to kind of separately address the PvP issue: Will people buy power to be more successful in PvP? Yes they will, that’s why our PvP system is very casual and not an eSport. It’s meant to be a “I wanna go in and see what this build can do against people who are of equivalent power.” The nice thing is with a really good matchmaking system, you’re going to have a good game regardless because you’re going to get matched with someone who’s roughly equivalent to you and gear’s a part of that.
Q: In the past, you’ve mentioned that you might entertain the idea of some sort of competition or tournament. Maybe not on a regular basis, you said you kind of liked the idea. Have you guys put any thought into adding a replay or observation mode? Is that way too off-keel since it’s not an eSport? Way too much investment, basically, to be worth it?
A: I don’t remember specifically talking about competitions; we were probably in a different head space when I said that because really at this point we’re not focused on that at all. So features like replay, etc.… it’s one of those things where it’s a cool feature and there’s no reason not to add it, but it’s not like in SC where it’s really necessary. As a result, it’s not high on the list of things we’d do. It is actually on a list, but it’s pretty low down on the list because there are a lot of things that would be cooler to do and without it being an eSport…replay’s kind of an eSport feature.
Q: Did the attitude kind of change then since Blizzcon? Because when I played at Blizzcon, it seemed like there was definitely some PvP arena-style focus…
A: Well, we definitely want a PvP mode, we want people to be able to play against and kill one another and that’s a big part of the game, it’s just how eSport-oriented we want it to be. When people ask me “How balanced is this going to be? Is it going to be balanced for…is it going to be SC-level balanced and perfect?” No, it’s going to be horrifically imbalanced, and that’s part of the fun, to find crazy builds that are all over the place. So we have changed the arena mode a bit to feel more casual than the mode that was at Blizzcon, which was very last-man-standing, high-pressure, because if you died, you were done for that round. Now, granted, the rounds were fast, but still…we’ve actually switched to more of a team deathmatch. Still same arena environment, still kind of feels the same, but when you die, you stay out for a few seconds and then you come back. It bases more on time limit and kill count, which we actually found was a lot more approachable and a lot more fun.
Q: If a lot of players want to turn it into a big, competitive eSport kind of thing…you wouldn’t stop them, would you?
A: No. But when people say “BARB IS TOTALLY OP!!!” we’re going to be like “Yeah…he probably is.” We’re not going to be looking at a lot of percentages or really even tracking it. If players want to turn it into an eSport, more power to them, but we want to set their expectations about what level we’re going to support that. We never want PvP to drive PvE game balance, and that is the reason why in WoW (to a lesser degree than SC2) they both let the PvP game drive the PvE game...
Q: Before he asked about the maximum party size, you said it’s going to be 4…If we can have a total of 3v3 in arena and PvP, why would max party size not be 6?
A: Because the party size isn’t based on technical limits; our team would be quite happy if the numbers were higher because we could get more players per game and that’s actually good for our client server architecture. It’s based on what we feel is a fun experience. More than 4 is very chaotic. People will say “Well in D2 you had 8 and it was fine” except, I can’t really remember the last time I was in an 8-player game in D2 where everybody was on screen. It’s not really very viable and their effects weren’t nearly as loud as ours (both monsters and players). We’ve tried 5-6 player games and we want to push the numbers up, but every time we do, it feels really chaotic.
Q: Because in a PvP game, the maximum is 6 players, correct?
A: We’re actually playing around with the max being 4 per team, which is 8 players total, but that’s still 4 per party. By the way, that’s not confirmed, we’re just playing around with it. Ideally, we’d love for parties in PvP to be 4 players.
Q: Well that makes a lot more sense because previously if it was a max of 3v3, then if I’m playing with 5 of my friends, 2 people kind of get shafted.
A: It came down to…can we have a game where you can tell everything that’s going on with 8 players in the game? That’s what we’ve been playing around with. We’ve also been playing around with a lot of sliders on how the effects work and how we show one team vs. the other and 4v4 is looking very promising and if we can get it to work, that’s what we’ll do.
Q: Are there different brackets or will it just be one static way of playing?
A: Right now we’re just looking for one mode. Part of that is PvP isn’t our primary focus, so we want to keep it simple. Also, we don’t really want to segment the population…we know we are going to have some balance issues, and it’s a lot easier to control if we’re not balancing for different kinds of modes, so right now we’re just focused on the one.
Q: I know you mentioned that in the PvP arena there will be a matchmaking system that will pit you against players of your equal skill or gear level and that there will not be a "#1 team." Does that mean there is no ranking whatsoever? There are no points attached to you PvP teams? And with the said, if there are points attached to PvP teams, can we have multiple teams so I can play with my friends who are terrible but I can have my hardcore team? Can I do both?
A: There is no ranking. There is an invisible ranking that we use for matchmaking but it’s a per player basis. When you are on a team, we kind of combine the rank together in a super smart way. The guy who does that is wicked smart. He works all of that out. But we don’t have a “I’m a 2200 rated player and therefore I am better than you as a 2100 rated player”. What we are focusing on is a more of a progression based system which is “I am a level 20 PvPer” which means I have played a lot of PvP.
Q: Can we expect a win/loss ratio?
A: Currently, we don’t even do a win/loss ratio. We might do a number of wins but not a number of losses. Even in SC, we found that the number of wins actually feels a lot better than showing a win/loss ratio. That’s why people recycle accounts because people don’t want those losses shown. So, the solution was to not show them. We want to keep it more casual. With the leveling system, you’re always winning slightly faster than losing. Even if you go on and lose it up for a hundred hours, you will be able to get just as far as someone who always wins.
Q: Is there anything you can reveal as far as rewards for the system like vanity items?
A: Right now it is focused primarily on achievements. Right now there is a whole array of PvP oriented achievements and titles and part of the banner is dedicated just for PvP. So as you get to higher and higher ranks, it levels that up.
Q: You had mentioned that you changed it to a deathmatch where you respawn and do total kills. Is this still when you die that first time you are dead forever?
A: That’s what I want to do. There is a lot of pushback on the team. I announced that at Blizzcon and the community were all for it. We have gotten a bit of mixed results outside of Blizzcon. It’s easy for me to get a crowd worked up so… The PvP strike team that focuses on that area, they are pretty nervous about it. Their basic feeling is that if that is what happens, then hardcore characters just won’t PvP. But then there was hardcore dueling in D2 so we may change that. We may allow hardcore PvP players to play without dying. That being said, I still want a way for hardcore players to duel even if not at ship. I am going to push for a way. Even if it's basically just a place where you can go in the world where you are flagged for PvP. Even if it is that simple, there is a community, even if it’s a small community that I want to support. Those fuckers are crazy. Part of me it like "Aww you crazy bastards."
Q: In team deathmatch, you can spawn as many time and then the winning team gets their characters.
A: Yeah, we’ve talked about that too. We’ll see. Feel free to hold polls and see how the community feels.
Q: Do we currently have any systems in place besides a deathmatch for the PvP arena? Like a horde mode with constant streams of enemies or enemies in the arena with the players.
A: We have definitely talked about some other modes. Not at ship but who knows about the future. I really like the idea of a mode that involves monsters and players of some kind. We have played around with modes like that but the biggest issue was that they didn’t feel like Diablo. I think that was just the design we had, but there is a way to do it that feels like Diablo.
As long as we are talking about PvP, it’s worth noting how we have changed the PvP a little bit. We went away from the last-man-standing approach. As we have said frequently, the point of the PvP system is that it is supposed to be casual and fun. We felt that the “I died and I have to wait for the next round now” was much more of an eSport feel to it. And now, the team deathmatch model where you die but then you respawn within a few seconds and you are back in the battle is what we have. We found that it is much more approachable so we get people in who don’t even like PvP or who are not very good and they have a great time. They feel like they have a chance to stay in a fight, that death isn’t as big of a penalty, and they can learn what the other team is doing and what they are using and see how they can figure them out. We have these big swings in the fight where one side will start off really strong but then the other side will figure them out and come back and then the other side will come back. It feels very similar because it is still an arena and team placed game but it feels more casual.
Q: What’s the average timer on that?
A: I think it is 10 mins. We are hoping that this Blizzcon that we will be able to have people play that again to see how it’s different. I think ultimately that the reaction will be pretty positive. One of the things we also noticed is that you don’t get quite the shut outs you did in the arena version. You can still get them and that’s something we are talking about. Do we want to do any kind of rubberbanding for that? Mostly for starter players because once you get good skill matching, it’s not needed. But with this big diversity, ehh… rubberbanding can be awesome because it can make the match more fair but it can make the winners feel like they didn’t earn it. But hopefully we will be able to show PvP again this year at Blizzcon so people can try it out.
Q: Any thoughts about a wagering system for PvP?
Micah: (Side stage)Yes
A: Apparently Micah is all for it. If there was ever a way we could make it into an eSport, which is exactly what we don’t want to do, no not really. And that is the reason why. We know people are going to want to turn it into an eSport but it won’t be from any encouragement from us. The big reason being is that we are never going to allow, or at least over my dead body, the PvP game to wag the tail on game balance. We want the PvE game to rule it. Even the amount that PvP can alter the PvE game in WoW is unacceptable to us. Whenever we run into a case where “This would be really awesome for PvE” and the PvP guys says “ That kind of screw PvP” the answer is always “Shut up PvP guy, it’s awesome in PvE”.
Q: Why can’t you just add features that are cool and if it helps eSports, then it helps eSports? Why would you go out of your way to not make the game an eSport?
A: Because when you make the game an eSport, it has to be balanced like an eSport.
Q: Why can’t you just say “Sorry, we’re not balancing it”?
A: Because then you confuse the audience. You can’t give the people an eSport setup and then say it’s not an eSport. If you are going to commit to that, then you have to commit to it. It’s not an eSport, we are not going to do that high of level of feature set. It’s also one of those things where, from the outside it looks like we have endless time and budget but the truth is we don’t. The truth is we work our butts off to get the game out and we make choices and adding features like that to make it an e-sport when it’s not a goal for us, when we could be spending those dollars making the PvP game better or the PvE game better, we are going to spend the money there.
Q: Since we are on PvP, I know you guys had mentioned that some skills will be retooled for PvP, will that be like diminishing returns or will the skill look entirely different at all?
A: What we have is within the data of the skill, we have these things called snows that are little containments of data. You can open up the magic missile snow and see everything that magic missile does. We have this other column that is PvP and it can take any of the attributes for the regular skill and change it. We primarily use it to change how long a stun lasts or… We don’t have any diminishing returns and we are hoping not to. Cooldowns, damage could change but we try not to mess with those because they are really tricky. Crowd control durations. Those are the big things that tend to change that are game breaking."
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Post by papaz on Aug 13, 2011 8:23:50 GMT -5
So basically there is no what so ever competition in diablo 3. Great...  |
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Post by greenheat on Aug 13, 2011 12:38:31 GMT -5
So basically there is no what so ever competition in diablo 3. Great... thus, d3combat.com |
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