Diablo 4 Launch Won't Surprise With Big Changes; Devs Declare
Contrary to earlier assurances by Joseph Piepiora, assistant director of Diablo 4, Blizzard won't improve much in the gameplay. All changes are expected to be cosmetic.
Assistant Director for Diablo 4, Joseph Piepiora, corrected his earlier post on Twitter, in which he mentioned the changes that will be included upon the game's release. Piepiora now claims that the settings from the Server Slam - the held more than two weeks ago - will be the foundation of the full version of the game.
Server Slam was version 1.0 of Diablo 4
In a May 30 post, Piepiora wrote that the open beta referred to as Server Slam was version 0.9 of the game. By the time of Diablo 4's release the gameplay balance was still to be improved. The developers were also supposed to fix any detected bugs. A day later, the assistant director corrected himself however, and mentioned that the team will make only "a few" changes before June 6, the debut date of the highly anticipated installment of the popular hack'n'slash series.
Piepiora also assured that the developers will continuously improve the game from the day of release, to guarantee us the best possible gameplay. Let's just hope it won't be needed too much....
Developers know that gamers will mess things up
Despite the fact that Blizzard and Diablo 4's director Rod Fergusson, assure of a smooth launch, employees are talking about possible problems. Class designer Adam Z. Jackson recently said in an interview for PCGames about the (un)expected impact of some players on the game. Diablo 4 will offer a plethora of settings and, according to Jackson, users may apply "strange combinations" and end up "spoiling the game.". Probably he meant their unforeseen impact on gameplay.
"[...] Diablo 4 is in good condition, but I'm also 100% sure that players will find strange combinations that we didn't know about, which are just insanely powerful and will ultimately ruin the game," informed Jackson.
At the same time, Jackson believes that the team has done a good job and is prepared for the launch. The designer is particularly pleased with the gameplay balance. However, he stressed that it will never be perfect.
"As for why I'm happy: the team and I are very happy with our achievements in terms of balance and the direction we are consistently going. (...) However, the balance will never be completely perfect. From the very beginning we planned Diablo 4 as a long-developed live-service game and we intend to keep updating it. We're looking forward to that," Jackson said.
Early access for players who bought the Digital Deluxe or Ultimate versions will start at 1 a.m. CET tomorrow.. Some are probably also preparing their wallets, as the sight of the prices in the microtransaction store is painful.
