Diablo III Boss Teases Ladder Mode

[Steven Bogos]

Diablo III Boss Teases Ladder Mode

"Systems designers researching ladders," Tweeted Diablo III lead designer Josh Mosqueria.

Ladder mode was a hugely popular Diablo II mode in which players started from scratch and attempted to level a new character the fastest, in search of bragging rights (and occasionally prizes from Blizzard). It's been one of the most-requested features for Diablo III since its release, and it now looks like we may actually be getting it.

"Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Systems designers researching ladders..." Tweeted [https://twitter.com/joshmosq/status/444646853083004928/photo/1] lead designer Josh Mosqueria, alongside the picture you'll see to the right. "Yup, fun to climb!" He dropped another hint when a fan asked him about a specific legendary item, the "Wall of Man," quizzically responding "We only speak of it in hushed tones... we didn't just build walls out of bones, but also ladders to climb over them..."

Sure, these are very cryptic hints, but Mosqueria seems like a pretty cool guy, and this would be a pretty bad troll if it didn't end up in the announcement of ladder mode. Mosqueria took the reigns from previous Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson Loot 2.0 patch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124667-Diablo-IIIs-New-Game-Director-Addresses-The-Minions].

Reaper of Souls is only a few weeks away now - it launches on March 25 - so we shouldn't have to wait long to see if Blizzard have managed to sneak in any extra features like ladders that we haven't heard about. Or, perhaps they will add it in a future update. It might even come alongside that PvP mode we've been waiting for since launch...

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/joshmosq]

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[seditary]

The difference between Josh Mosqueria and Jay Wilson is like night and day.

I'm fairly confident the game will keep improving while he's the lead.

 

[Breywood]

I can't help but think that they realize that this installment of the Diablo franchise is nowhere near as popular as they'd wanted it to be and they're turning to more features they hoped they wouldn't have to implement. Some of the features they've implemented/changed make it look like several mechanics were just plain broken, and this after five years in development.

While it's not a bad game, it's still not a great one.

 

[TallanKhan]

I can't help but think that they realize that this installment of the Diablo franchise is nowhere near as popular as they'd wanted it to be

You?re not wrong there. I was a huge fan of Diablo 2 and if you had asked me a few years ago I would have told you the only way I wouldn't be playing a future instalment of the series would be if I was six feet under. How little I knew. I think Diablo 3 looks like a passable game, not the necessarily a sequel worthy of its predecessor but certainly a game I would have enjoyed. But I will not buy a game that uses an always online model.

Now if they managed to put off a hardened fan of the series such as myself, how many other sales did they deny themselves?

 

[Vegosiux]

No, that's simply unacceptable. Obviously that's not a ladder, but a "step-ladder". Your honor, I demand that due to this discrepancy between statements and evidence, I get to interrogate Blizzard again!

 

[Tahaneira]

No, that's simply unacceptable. Obviously that's not a ladder, but a "step-ladder". Your honor, I demand that due to this discrepancy between statements and evidence, I get to interrogate Blizzard again!

Objection, your honor! While there are step-ladders in the evidence provided, clearly the rightmost object being examined is a standard extension ladder. I move that further cross-examination be denied.

(Yeah, I got nothing. I don't even play Diablo, I just saw this and felt a need to continue the silliness.)

 

[james.sponge]

Good news, two more years and the game will be finally on par with D2, can't wait to finally play it.

 

[Ferisar]

Now if they managed to put off a hardened fan of the series such as myself, how many other sales did they deny themselves?

I'm just going to go ahead and say, based on the sales figures, not many "Hardened fans" are uh... an "interesting" demographic to try and grab. They're probably also the easiest one to lose.

OT:
Friend linked me this about two days ago, thought it was funny. Also means that whoever has been buying gold off of the RMAH in the light of it shutting down is getting royally screwed. Not sure if I should be laughing or laughing and crying at the same time.

 

[Zipa]

The difference between Josh Mosqueria and Jay Wilson is like night and day.

I'm fairly confident the game will keep improving while he's the lead.

True enough, Reaper of Souls seems to be addressing most of the major issues and at least they did admit they were wrong with the auction house thing and are ditching it, another company wouldn't of done that. It is just the same that they can't retcon the story in ROS so it is not so god awful. Though I suspect most people will be going the route of adventure mode to avoid it.

 

[DanielBrown]

TIL Nine days = a few weeks ;D
Personally I was hyped as fuck for Diablo III during all the years it took to make it. When I finally got my hands on it took me less than a week before I became too crushed to play over how their ruined one of my favorite game series.
Tried it again a couple of days ago after a friend talked about the patch and the expansion and fuck has it improved. It's actually fun now and somewhat rewarding to play. They still gotta do something about BoA legendaries and the rates however. I'm sure 8/10 legendaries I've found has been 2H weapons and they're worthless atm due to a bug that gives them the same dps as a 1H weapon.

Still not sure I'll buy the expansion since I've kind of been boycotting ActiBlizzard since D3 released. Sacking that fucker Wilson earned them huge points with my though, so odds are I'll do it. However, I would prefer if they just made Diablo IV instead so we can forget all about this game and it's cartoony villains and horrible story.

 

[TallanKhan]

Now if they managed to put off a hardened fan of the series such as myself, how many other sales did they deny themselves?

I'm just going to go ahead and say, based on the sales figures, not many "Hardened fans" are uh... an "interesting" demographic to try and grab. They're probably also the easiest one to lose.

OT:
Friend linked me this about two days ago, thought it was funny. Also means that whoever has been buying gold off of the RMAH in the light of it shutting down is getting royally screwed. Not sure if I should be laughing or laughing and crying at the same time.

You might think that looking at the headline sales figures but lets examine what actually lies beneath those figures. As of today the game has sold in the region of 15 million copies, cross platform, about 10 million of which have come from PC. Now for a AAA release 15 million copies is a very respectable but not phenomenal figure. Yes they broke PC gaming sales records but remember the game was a PC exclusive for the first portion of its existence which means its sales were concentrated on that format. To see what I mean just look at Skyrim, 20 million sales but no records broken because these sales were distributed across PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Furthermore that figure isn't quite what it seems, included in "sales" figures are the figures for everyone who received a free digital download of Diablo 3 when purchasing a 12 month WoW subscription (estimated between 1.2 and 1.4 million)

Finally you have to take into account the monumental amount of money Blizzard threw at marketing this thing. Diablo 3 received three full multi-channel marketing campaigns in all it's major target territories. A full pre-launch campaign with the title and launch date plastered everywhere, followed by a second campaign kicking off in time with the product launch with game play trailers and sponsorship of primetime TV shows, then a third campaign 3 months down the line they threw at it to try and maintain sales momentum. To put this in perspective Activision-Blizzard is estimated to have spent more money marketing Diablo 3 than they did marketing Call of Duty: Ghosts.

So yes, while the sales figures are impressive, they aren't quite as impressive as they might first appear, they certainly aren't as impressive as they could have been, and Activision-Blizzard paid one hell of a premium to achieve them.

 

[Ferisar]

You might think that looking at the headline sales figures but lets examine what actually lies beneath those figures. As of today the game has sold in the region of 15 million copies, cross platform, about 10 million of which have come from PC. Now for a AAA release 15 million copies is a very respectable but not phenomenal figure. Yes they broke PC gaming sales records but remember the game was a PC exclusive for the first portion of its existence which means its sales were concentrated on that format. To see what I mean just look at Skyrim, 20 million sales but no records broken because these sales were distributed across PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Furthermore that figure isn't quite what it seems, included in "sales" figures are the figures for everyone who received a free digital download of Diablo 3 when purchasing a 12 month WoW subscription (estimated between 1.2 and 1.4 million)

Finally you have to take into account the monumental amount of money Blizzard threw at marketing this thing. Diablo 3 received three full multi-channel marketing campaigns in all it's major target territories. A full pre-launch campaign with the title and launch date plastered everywhere, followed by a second campaign kicking off in time with the product launch with game play trailers and sponsorship of primetime TV shows, then a third campaign 3 months down the line they threw at it to try and maintain sales momentum. To put this in perspective Activision-Blizzard is estimated to have spent more money marketing Diablo 3 than they did marketing Call of Duty: Ghosts.

So yes, while the sales figures are impressive, they aren't quite as impressive as they might first appear, they certainly aren't as impressive as they could have been, and Activision-Blizzard paid one hell of a premium to achieve them.

I'm at a loss how this downplays the success of its sales given that going above 10m in this industry on -all- platforms is considered pretty ridiculous. Most games can't even break that number, and this was true for a PC exclusive. What should they have been? 30 million? 40? What number are we reaching for here, because let me tell you, D2, despite being quite popular, didn't bring all of that in.
To say "well, it's not that big of a deal because money was spent on it" is a little silly. Of course money was spent on it; it was one of the most anticipated games in the last couple of years. Did it deliver completely? No, I don't think it did, but it didn't suffer so irreparably (or that much at all) that it crippled Acti-Blizz, because I doubt it would get as much support as it still gets.
Therein lies my point: the hardcore playerbase is important to retain in some respects, but to convert a previous playerbase to the newest installment at a near-100% rate is extremely hard to do, and isn't a huge handicap. Two different games, at the end of the day.
EDIT: Also, the yearly sub for free D3? I mean... Was D3 really free in that case?

 

[black_knight1337]

Yup, we're getting ladders/seasons. Known that for over a week now since Josh tweeted "Systems, UI and online designers having a very cool meeting in my office. Lots of pretty images on screens that will make people happy." Couldn't have been anything other than ladders/seasons.
They've really turned it around pr-wise since Josh has come in. Even when Jay was still in the game was constantly being improved but people were still responding poorly. I think at the end of it Jay had to go, even though he was little more than a scapegoat.

Path of exile feels like a mixture of diablo 1 and diablo 2. I heartily recommend it.

It's a shame they aren't bothering with the horrendous desync issues though.

I've found has been 2H weapons and they're worthless atm due to a bug that gives them the same dps as a 1H weapon.

That got fixed last week with patch 2.0.3.

 

[Supdupadog]

Nice to see Blizzard keeping light hearted. The Diablo scene could use that.

The difference between Josh Mosqueria and Jay Wilson is like night and day.

I'm fairly confident the game will keep improving while he's the lead.

I always felt Jay get's a lot of flack for getting stuck captaining a ship that we would all learn could never sail in the first place.

Blizzard still has him, he's still working, they just can't ever say where he is exactly or people freak out.

 

[DanielBrown]

I've found has been 2H weapons and they're worthless atm due to a bug that gives them the same dps as a 1H weapon.

That got fixed last week with patch 2.0.3.

So before I even started playing again then? My stash filled with 2H weapons having the same dps as my 1H makes that hard to believe.

 

[black_knight1337]

So before I even started playing again then? My stash filled with 2H weapons having the same dps as my 1H makes that hard to believe.

That's probably the other "bug" that has popped up. Only problem is, is that it isn't a bug at all. Pre-2.0.X most of the high end legendaries would be dropping at ilvl 63. However now, because ilvl = your level, those same legendaries are dropping with ilvls <=60. It's not specific to 2H weapons, it affects everything that drops, it's just that 2 handers take the biggest hit from it. Only way to get ilvl 61+ legendaries atm is through crafting.

Here's an example of how this ends up working. Let's say you had this [http://i.imgur.com/Q4QFi4i.jpg] Skorn drop, doing the math that would put the base damage at 285 - 341. That means that the current base item for a Skorn is the ilvl 58 Valaska [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/valaska]. Compare this to a pre-2.0.X Skorn like this [http://i.imgur.com/J9FmAY9.png] and you see that the base damage is 507 - 613 which makes the base item the ilvl 63 Decapitator [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/decapitator]. So while the damage rolls are much lower than they were, they are still rolling the correct values because of the change to the way that loot drops. Crafting works much better, eg. Fire Brand's base item is the ilvl 61 Ripper Axe. The same thing applies to all other items as well, it's just the easiest to see on weapons and off-hands and even more so on 2 handers because of the way they scale. Things *should* be much better in RoS because ilvls cap out at 70 but there may still be some disparity between where 2 handers are and where they should be.

 

[DanielBrown]

Snip!

Damn, you certainly seem to know what you're talking about. Thanks for clearing it up!
Hope you're right about things improving in RoS. I assume there would be a community outbreak otherwise. I've always prefered having a massive 2H weapon over two tiny ones, though the Thunderfury I got on my wizard is beyond awesome.

 

[black_knight1337]

Damn, you certainly seem to know what you're talking about. Thanks for clearing it up!
Hope you're right about things improving in RoS. I assume there would be a community outbreak otherwise. I've always prefered having a massive 2H weapon over two tiny ones, though the Thunderfury I got on my wizard is beyond awesome.

No probs. Yeah, they should be alright at 70 because ilvls are capping at 70. Same, love the feel of wielding a 2 hander. And O: I really want a Thunderfury, haven't managed to get one yet :/ Either that or a Fulminator [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/fulminator].