Diablo 4 PC, PS5, XBOX

[Dominix1910 668]

DIABLO IV QUARTERLY UPDATE – FEBRUARY 2020 UI/CONTROLLER SUPPORT/NEW MONSTER FAMILY

by dredscythe - 55 minutes ago

 

The promised Q1 update has finally arrived and there is a lot there. Read all the information below:

 

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)

 

Table of Contents

 

Introduction to Quarterly Updates Luis Barriga, Game Director

 

UI Design, Controller Support, and Co-Op Angela Del Priore, Lead UI Designer

 

Monster Family & Design Highlight: Cannibal Tribes Candace Thomas, Senior Encounter Designer

 

Hello, and welcome to the new blog section of the Diablo IV website!

 

The Diablo IV development team has been hard at work since BlizzCon and we are all still incredibly energized by the response to our announcement and follow-up blog posts. We can tell you are all excited to see more info coming from the team and about how the game is coming together.

 

Well, we have some great news for you today. We are stoked to deliver the first of our quarterly blog updates with you, and this one happens to be a doubleheader.

 

First, we have a word from our Lead UI Designer, Angela Del Priore, with some super cool updates on post-BlizzCon feedback, controller support on PC, and a deep dive into couch co-op. If you’d like to jump to her update right now, click here.

 

Our second update is by our Senior Encounter Designer, Candace Thomas. She shares a first look at a new set of enemies: the cannibal tribes of the Dry Steppes. You’ll see some amazing new art by Igor Sidorenko, read some of our in-world lore, and even watch video of these flesh-eaters in action. To check out Candace’s update, click here.

 

We hope you enjoy both of these updates. We’re looking forward to your thoughts and comments on them, and please also let us know the sorts of things you’d like to hear about next. We realize many of you are curious about different aspects of the development process—some of you love reading and re-reading lore, while others of you may geek out over item tooltips or want to hear some early music tracks. So be sure to tell us what excites you most! Our goal for these updates is to cover a wide variety of subjects and, over the course of development, share something exciting for everyone.

 

Once again, we want to thank you all for sharing in this journey with us.

 

See you in Hell.

 

-Luis Barriga-Game Director, Diablo IV Team

 

Back to Top

 

 

UI DESIGN, CONTROLLER SUPPORT, AND CO-OP

Angela Del Priore, Lead UI Designer

 

For anyone who isn’t familiar with user interface (UI) design, our team is responsible for communicating game systems to the player and providing players with the inputs they need to engage with those systems. So while we are focused on helping the player achieve what they want to do, we also need to balance that goal against the vision for the game while maintaining the clarity of what our interface is trying to communicate.

 

As you might imagine, this means that we iterate on our UI regularly. As systems change, the UI changes with it, which can in turn cause player goals to change. The UI then needs to adapt while keeping our visual language consistent across the entire game. Visual polish is one of the last things we focus on for this reason. Please keep that in mind as we talk through and show some of our in-progress work, but feel free to let us know your thoughts!

 

 

BlizzCon Demo Feedback

It’s been a few months since BlizzCon, but we still wanted to take a moment to address some of the UI-specific feedback we received from the demo and announcement videos.

 

Inventory

 

We saw a lot of feedback around the inventory, either regarding its coloring, the style/size of the item icons, or overall aesthetic. To avoid interrupting gameplay with pockets of inventory management, we’re not planning on bringing back different-sized items. However, we’ve been tackling the other points from a variety of directions.

 

With item icons, we’d initially pursued a painterly style to stay in line with the overall art direction of the game, and we’re finding that it doesn’t come across as well when we’re talking about small elements in the UI. We’re now exploring another approach more directly based off the 3D models to give them natural texture and realism.

 

We’ve also toned down the brightness and saturation of the icon backgrounds, as well as added secondary visual cues for indicating rarity via the border decoration. This way, we’ve made rarity indicators visually more subtle but hopefully with a wider range in accessibility.

 

We received some non-specific feedback about the inventory, but we had guesses as to what people were reacting to based on our own observations. We’ve reorganized the layout of the inventory to what is hopefully a more balanced composition, and across the board we’re looking at the color spread and contrast levels of individual UI pieces.

 

We hope to both home in on our goal of a gritty, realistic UI, while balancing ease of use. As the inventory screen is something our players will probably interact with the most, we really appreciate your feedback in this area.

 

Rebinding Left-Click

 

A surprising number of players asked for the option to rebind their primary skill to anything but the left mouse button so that they could separate moving from attacking. Adding more flexibility to our binding options had already been on our radar for a while, and the demo feedback helped confirm that this was a customization feature that players really wanted.

 

In addition to giving players the freedom to assign any skill to any slot from the get-go, all skill slots can now have their keys rebound. We’re committed to supporting skill rebinding for controllers as well.

 

The Left-Corner Action Bar

 

We went through a lot of iteration on this piece of UI. The left-corner configuration came about because we wanted to try clearing the central combat area and freeing up the bottom of the screen where the isometric camera already sees less. However, based on usability test results, the team’s feedback, and the feedback we received from the demo, we’re going to move the default position of the action bar back to the bottom center for PC players.

 

That’s not all, though! The preferred position changes to the left-corner when people play further away from the screen. This doesn’t come as a surprise given the shift in viewing angle (illustrative diagram below not to scale), but it does mean that the center configuration isn’t a majority winner on PC since we’re supporting controller input. So, while we will only stick to the corner configuration on consoles, we will offer both left and center positions as options on PC.

 

 

Supporting controllers on PC

This is the first time a Diablo game is being developed simultaneously for both PC and consoles, but the decision to support controller input on PC is what caused the greater paradigm shift for us. We wanted to give players the ability to switch between the two options freely, so our UI needed to be unified enough that swapping hardware inputs on the fly wouldn’t throw people completely off kilter. A unified UI means our layouts are more grid-based for ease of navigation, but it doesn’t necessarily mean an identical interaction flow.

 

We try to maintain this sort of approach, of keeping established keyboard and mouse conventions while creating controller-friendly shortcuts or alternate flows, throughout the game. Controller support shouldn’t be a limiter on how complex our game can be; it just means we have more paths that we need to consider. It’s not a simple undertaking, but we’re really striving for a native feel for both types of inputs.

 

 

Couch Co-Op UI

We know many players enjoyed couch co-op in Reaper of Souls, and that the biggest complaint was the inability to do anything while one local player had a UI screen open. When the topic of couch co-op came up early on in development, we looked at the number of people who utilized this feature in Diablo III and found that the 2-player setup accounted for an overwhelming majority. For Diablo IV, we decided to focus on improving the favored 2-player co-op experience and set up our core progression UI screens such that they can be opened independently or at the same time.

 

We iterate on this interface regularly and ease of interaction comes before visual polish, but we still welcome impressions at any stage. Everyone approaches the game with a different set of experiences and, consequently, different expectations for how things should look or work and it’s always interesting to hear these perspectives.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Back to Top

 

 

MONSTER FAMILY & DESIGN HIGHLIGHT: CANNIBALS

Candace Thomas, Senior Encounter Designer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZl1p7ZYRuM

 

If you had the chance to watch our World and Lore Panel during BlizzCon, you learned that monsters in Diablo IV are classified into “families.” In our various panels we covered different monster families such as the Fallen, who are returning to once again terrorize Sanctuary, and the Drowned, who are a brand new threat plaguing the shores of this world. We touched on their story, combat abilities, the regions they inhabit, and how they interact with one another in a meaningful way. Now, we would like to give you a look into another new family: The Cannibals.

 

 

What is a Monster Family and Why Does it Matter?

Cultist Family—Diablo IV

 

Before we dive into the specific mechanics of the Cannibal family, let’s take a moment to talk about our design philosophy when it comes to monsters.

 

In the bestiary of Diablo III, we classified monsters into broad categories like demon, unholy, undead, humanoid, or wildlife. These monsters served as an anchor to the story by adding to the overall setting and tone, which made the whole game feel complete.

 

In Diablo IV, the vast and seamless world we created necessitates a slightly different approach to worldbuilding and storytelling. It requires building Sanctuary as a living, breathing character—especially through its creatures. Since we have everything from serene ocean cliffsides to the gaping maw of Hell itself, what does that mean for the bestiary? Well, to fill those areas and make them feel real, we definitely needed to have more non-aggressive wildlife than in Diablo III. But never fear, we still have plenty of monsters to fight.

 

Every monster has been reimagined, but in a darker, more gritty art style. We have lovingly handcrafted every creature you’ll encounter from the ground up: that includes demons, NPCs, Act Bosses, and even the skittering critters you can crush underfoot. Though we still pay tribute to some hallmark gameplay—such as Fallen Shamans resurrecting other Fallen—we have completely reimagined things in other places.

 

To have these creatures feel more sophisticated and robust, we designed them in what we call “monster families” and archetypes. Each family has a different combat style and feel. For example, the Drowned family has five members in various archetypes: bruiser, ranged combat, melee combat, swarmer, and dungeon boss.

 

Drowned Family Lineup in Diablo IV

Each archetype plays a different role in combat. Swarmers strike in groups, making AoE attacks feel satisfying. Bruisers are larger monsters with high health values, which will make damage over time abilities feel good. Melee combat units act as shields by standing in the way of projectiles for their ranged counterparts. Situations like this provide the player with interesting positional dilemmas if they want to focus fire on ranged units. When adding all of this together, each encounter with the Drowned will be slightly different with regards to player positioning and choice of attack. These rich and varied combat experiences are the power of a monster family.

 

 

Who Are the Cannibals?

Cannibal Family Lineup in Diablo IV

 

“Corpses riddled with bite marks. Splintered bones scraped clean of marrow. Tongues sawed off and eyes gouged out of their skulls. These are the bloody fingerprints the Cannibals leave behind—if they leave behind anything at all. No one is certain where they come from, but some legends claim they are a former tribe of barbarians, banished from Arreat years ago. Whether their cannibalism led to their exile or developed out of desperation afterward is unknown. The outcasts brought their endless hunger to the Dry Steppes, and from there spread to the far corners of the world to prey on lonesome caravans and unsuspecting villages.

 

The few who have survived encounters with these butchers share the same stories. They tell of the mad fire that burns in the eyes of all Cannibals, of how eating the flesh of their victims in battle only fuels their hunger for more. They whisper of the unlucky souls spared in the attacks, hauled off like livestock for the raiders to pick clean until their next hunt. And then, they say no more. The silence speaks for them: sometimes it is better to die than to live and remember.”

 

—Liya Khal’tib

 

A Battle for Survival

Now that we’ve introduced some new lore about this family, we can dive into how we try to use them to give a cohesive experience narratively, while also providing the peaks-and-valleys of combat expected in a hack-n-slash ARPG. So what does this mean for Cannibal combat design? How do we convey their story through combat? We took a couple of approaches:

 

Weaponry

 

The Cannibal family has four members. They each have their own unique weapon and a significantly different silhouette or stance to help differentiate them from one another. There are two standard melee combatants: one wielding a two-handed greatsword cleaver, which delivers a slow, sweeping frontal attack; and the other using a lightweight halberd which allows them to leap at players from a great distance and crash down with a devastating attack.

 

 

The bruiser uses a spiked club in each hand to deliver intense blows that will stun players if they aren’t paying attention. By contrast, the dual-axe-wielding swarmers can unleash a flurry of frontal attacks that will quickly kill if left unchecked. However, this is a less binary pass/fail than the bruiser’s stun attack. If the player finds themselves surrounded by flurrying swarmers, getting hit by the bruiser’s dazing blow would remove all possibility of escape. It’s combinations of attacks like these that make this family so deadly.

 

Archetype

 

Earlier, we explained how different monster archetypes play different roles in an encounter. For example, players who want to efficiently kill ranged monsters will need to learn how to reposition their accompanying melee attackers so that a cleverly dropped area of effect ability will target both clusters of enemies. This makes for interesting on-the-fly decision-making, and skilled players will be able to spot the optimal positions for these attacks very quickly.

 

 

By design, the Cannibal family has no ranged units. Instead, they spring at the player with supernatural swiftness. Some may close the gap by leaping over obstacles and would-be competitors, while others will swiftly and deftly maneuver through other monsters to get first blood. This provides a very different experience and gives the player less time to make thoughtful positioning decisions, thus making combat with these flesh-eaters feel frenetic.

 

That’s it for today. Thanks for staying a while and listening!

 

Back to Top

 

Note: Comments on all Diablo blog entries have been disabled. This is part of our website migration for GDPR compliance. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Have a question, comment, or feedback about the information we shared today? Join the conversation

here on our General Forum. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Edytowane 26 Lutego 2020 przez Dominix1910

[Jaycob 7968]

Pełne wsparcie dla pada dostosowane UI. W końcu! Tego brakowało mi na PC w D3.

[Dozorca 547]

Chłopie wystarczyło wrzucić sam link.

[Khold 404]

Odwołali Blizzcon 2020, więc premiera imo nie wcześniej jak 2022 ;/

[Dominix1910 668]

Ponieważ odwolali blizzcon to nie znaczy ze premiere przesuneli, jedno z drugim nie ma wpływu, ba nawet może być wcześniej niż myślimy.

[Stjepan 677]

20 minutowy gamepley barbarzyńcą.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KQgGAbWe6E

[Little Sun 208]

Nic nowego, taki mix D2 i D3 ale nic innego nie oczekuję byle endgame ogarneli i handel.

 

Tylko ten ekwipunek i w sumie całe GUI brzydkie takie...

[Khold 404]

20 minutowy gamepley barbarzyńcą.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KQgGAbWe6E

 

Z tego co piszą ludzie to nie jest nowy gameplay a stary z okolic blizzconu. Zresztą to widać, jednakże nie widziałem tego wcześniej.

Dalej będę się trzymał zdania żee premiera okolice 2022 roku. Blizzconu w tym roku nie ma, więc zapowiedź za rok a premiera wiosna 2022. Tak to widzę. Fajnie jakbym się mylił

Edytowane 2 Czerwca 2020 przez Khold

[Stjepan 677]

Ja tylko go wrzuciłem do tematu, jakoś po tym co zrobili z W3 no i z D3, nie ma u mnie hajpu.

[Azgaroth 29]

No cóż, czekam na jakieś nowe materiały bo oglądając to, można by zaśpiewać "Ale to już było..." Taki D3 po aplikacji Reshade.

[Khold 404]

Blizzard ma co kwartał dawać nam większe info o postępach prac. Następna dawka informacji zanosi się na koniec czerwca, więc wtedy zobaczymy co ruszyli.

[SPYCHCIO 468]

Czytałem też, że zamiast BlizzConu w styczniu zrobią jakieś streamy odnośnie swoich gier.

[GTM 141]

Najbardziej smutne jest to, że po twórcach gatunku można by się spodziewać więcej nowości, wcześniej bywali bardziej odważni, teraz oglądając te filmiki wygląda to zupełnie jak Diablo 3 bez kolorów, a nawet trochę wygląda to jak PoE niestety, zupełnie brak tej grze efektu wow, kalkę to każdy potrafi klepnąć, ja nie wiem, może by się przydało w tej grze więcej interaktywnych elementów otoczenia, jakaś fajna destrukcja, lepsza fizyka, może zręcznościowe elementy typu linka z hakiem, efekty pogodowe? Dlaczego to musi wyglądać jak każdy następny H&S? W Diablo 3 już sobie pograłem, teraz chciałbym zagrać w Diablo 4 a nie 3,5

Pamiętajmy że ta gra musi wystarczyć na następne 10 lat, czy coś takiego przetrwa próbę czasu? Nie jestem pewien.

[Khold 404]

Diablo 3 mimo zapowiedzi w 2008 roku i premierze w 2012 było bardzo chaotyczną i nieprzemyślaną grą, której nie dało się już wtedy ratować, a żniwa tych decyzji zbieramy do dzisiaj. Widać że Blizz nie chce teraz popełnić tego błędu i nad każdą rzeczą będą się zastanawiać dwadzieścia razy i powoli stopniować jakiekolwiek informacje o grze.

[Dominix1910 668]

Ciężko powiedzieć, jedynie co widzimy to postacie na 20lev, tutaj liczy się end-game i jak to będzie wyglądało kiedy będziesz w pełni ubrany, bo to nie jest gra do przejścia na raz i koniec, to musi mieć dużo aktywności później a tego nie da się w tym momencie ocenić.

[azgan 8777]

Grałbym

[Stjepan 677]

Pewnie zrobią tak, w 2021 wydadzą Akt 1 za 250zł ,potem w 2022 Akt 2 za 250zł i w 2023 Akt 3 za 250 zł. Znając Activi$ion.

[Khold 404]

Jak nie chce jak to wygląda na dlc do 3?

 

Zdania że nowe diablo, które jest we wczesnej fazie produkcji i które prezentuje brudną, aczkolwiek surową grafikę, nad którą jeszcze sporo pracy jest podobne do diablo 3 to trzeba mieć naprawdę zaburzoną percepcję wzrokową

[Dominix1910 668]

Myślę że tak

[GTM 141]

Ciężko powiedzieć, jedynie co widzimy to postacie na 20lev, tutaj liczy się end-game i jak to będzie wyglądało kiedy będziesz w pełni ubrany, bo to nie jest gra do przejścia na raz i koniec, to musi mieć dużo aktywności później a tego nie da się w tym momencie ocenić.

Nie dla wszystkich liczy się end-game, większość graczy przejdzie grę raz czy dwa i odstawi, moim zdaniem przede wszystkim powinni postawić na fun z rozgrywki a dopiero później na end-game, tak jak w przypadku GTA 5, najpierw zrobili dobrą grę a dopiero później zaczęli szlifować online i robią to do dzisiaj.

Co z tego że gra będzie zbalansowana skoro jednocześnie będzie generyczna, drewniana i nie będzie dawać radości z rozgrywki, taki właśnie jest IMO PoE, tyyle możliwości, statystyk, drzewek, gra jest nawet za darmo, ale jakoś nikomu nie chce się w to grać.

[Dominix1910 668]

Ale w tej grze End-Game to jest najważniejszy, co z tego że będzie się tłukło przyjemnie moby jak nie będziesz miał co robić.

To tak jakby w Battlefieldzie postawili na kapanie single player a olali Multiplayer.

Ja wiem że są osoby co takie diablo przejdą kampanie i im starczy i na tym oceniają grę ale kampania to samouczek, wprowadzenie do gry.

Akurat PoE jest strasznie jak dla mnie drewniane i dlatego wole D3, do tego diablo bardziej przyjemnie się gra ale jest tez latwiejsze w opanowaniu w porownaniu do poe przez te drzewka itp, Mam nadzieje ze D4 będzie tak pomiedzy D3 a Poe, nie zbyt uproszczone ale i nie przesadnie rozbudowane.

Poczekamy zobaczymy

[Little Sun 208]

Nie dla wszystkich liczy się end-game, większość graczy przejdzie grę raz czy dwa i odstawi, moim zdaniem przede wszystkim powinni postawić na fun z rozgrywki a dopiero później na end-game, tak jak w przypadku GTA 5, najpierw zrobili dobrą grę a dopiero później zaczęli szlifować online i robią to do dzisiaj.

Co z tego że gra będzie zbalansowana skoro jednocześnie będzie generyczna, drewniana i nie będzie dawać radości z rozgrywki, taki właśnie jest IMO PoE, tyyle możliwości, statystyk, drzewek, gra jest nawet za darmo, ale jakoś nikomu nie chce się w to grać.

 

Więc jak obstawiam D3 musiało Ci się bardzo podobać ? poza pewnie kolorową stylistyką.

 

 

Ale w tej grze End-Game to jest najważniejszy, co z tego że będzie się tłukło przyjemnie moby jak nie będziesz miał co robić.

To tak jakby w Battlefieldzie postawili na kapanie single player a olali Multiplayer.

Ja wiem że są osoby co takie diablo przejdą kampanie i im starczy i na tym oceniają grę ale kampania to samouczek, wprowadzenie do gry.

Akurat PoE jest strasznie jak dla mnie drewniane i dlatego wole D3, do tego diablo bardziej przyjemnie się gra ale jest tez latwiejsze w opanowaniu w porownaniu do poe przez te drzewka itp, Mam nadzieje ze D4 będzie tak pomiedzy D3 a Poe, nie zbyt uproszczone ale i nie przesadnie rozbudowane.

Poczekamy zobaczymy

 

Każdy zawsze mówi o tych możliwościach, bulidach, kilometrowym drzewku z PoE a później wszystko się sprowadza do jednego jakiś ogarnięty typ robi bulid i wszyscy się na tym wzorują, nawet w D3 tak jest chociaż niby wszystko takie dla casuali. Ciekawe ile osób które tak narzekają a cisną mocnej leadera samo wymyśliło sobie bulid który dał radę wbić do np. do top1000.

Fakt że z setami przegięli mocno ale w D4 już jak zapowiedzieli nie będzie tego więc chyba nie ma co narzekać jak na razie.

 

Imo drop rate z D3, brak normalnego handlu + głupie paragony to jest to co zabiło mocno D3 a nie że gra była za prosta.

[SPYCHCIO 468]

Mam tylko nadzieję, że w Diablo 4 legendy nie będą wypadały tak jak w Diablo 3 co minutę i to w takich ilościach. Kiedyś człowiek się cieszył aż się zatrzymał z ekscytacji... a teraz Zieeew.

[Khold 404]

Mam tylko nadzieję, że w Diablo 4 legendy nie będą wypadały tak jak w Diablo 3 co minutę i to w takich ilościach. Kiedyś człowiek się cieszył aż się zatrzymał z ekscytacji... a teraz Zieeew.

 

Diablo 2 się kłania, kiedy wypadł jakiś item legendarny nawet na low lvl to się morda cieszyła Diablo 3 niestety wygląda jak wygląda, za bardzo się rozpędzili z tym wszystkim i już za późno na zmiany jakiekolwiek.

Zresztą 5 czerwca startuje nowy ladder w diablo 2, więc jaranko lvl 1000

Edytowane 3 Czerwca 2020 przez Khold

[Dominix1910 668]

Tylko problemem było taki żę jak ci wypadły to i tak żółte były lepsze

Mogą zrobić drop jak z vanila D3 ale żeby były one mocne.