One element of Diablo 4's new item system was thought up at the last minute. „Literally, we had 2 weeks left”
Refreshing the item system in Diablo 4, Blizzard added one of its items at the last minute. This happened two weeks before the final deadline.
The Loot Reborn update, released in April last year, introduced major changes to the item acquisition system in Diablo 4. What's interesting, one of its components - stronger Affixes - was included nearly at the last minute.
If you don't know, more powerful Affixes are nothing more than improved versions of regular bonuses found on items. They guarantee the maximum value of a given attribute, additionally multiplied by 1.5. So, they are highly sought after by players aiming to buff their character's performance.
During this year's Game Developers Conference, a speech on Diablo 4 was given by a software engineer at Blizzard Entertainment, Patrick Ferland (via GamesRadar+). He talked about more powerful affixes, which surprisingly came into the game quite late, but it wasn't a problem thanks to well-written code.
Our idea of Greater Affixes itself was a very late-breaking idea. Literally, we had two weeks left in the development schedule when someone even proposed it. But because we had hardened our data reconstruction to changes, we were able to proceed with a big change like that with much higher confidence that we weren't going to destabilize the build and cause problems.
The overhaul of the item system is one of the most important points of Diablo 4's development, and more powerful Affixes constitute its key aspect. Intriguingly, they were created so late, prompting the question of what other elements were added at the last moment, of which we are unaware.
Diablo 4 along with the Vessel of Hatred expansion is available on PC, PS4, PS5, XOne, and XSX/S. The base game is available in the Game Pass subscription.
