Diablo 3 Developer Explains Health and Potion Changes

One of the new features in the upcoming Diablo 3 release is a change from the traditional potion-guzzling, inventory-clogging system of previous games to a new scheme in which monsters drop health orbs on the ground that refill your health when you touch them. Lead Designer Jay Wilson says the change makes for more varied gameplay and a more consistent way to scale difficulty. He told the Multiplayer blog: "When the player has similar downsides, it means we can make a lot more interesting monsters. We don't have to kill you to challenge you. We can make a monster that affects your mobility, we can make a monster that has different kinds of attacks that are dangerous to you and that you actually have to avoid. And so it makes the combat a lot more interesting."

My reponse

[Kingrames]

Git offa ma lawn - ooh, shiny! *begins furiously looting*

Damn you and your addictive games, Blizzard.

Re:Well...

[4D6963]

How is that going to affect boss matches? Unless the boss monster has a load of minions, that could be quite a challenge!

Indeed, I only hope the monsters drop these "health orbs" through specific orifices. Would give a new sense to beating the proverbial shit out of them. Mostly if that shit heals your wounds.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:"new" ???

[darkhitman]

I know this is /., but try and be less anal about vocabulary choice. If I say I'm switching to a 'new' email service, that doesn't mean that email service necessarily just popped into existence. It could just mean that I haven't used it before.

Re:games and "health"

[VeNoM0619]

So... what is your proposal then? A health and hunger bar?

Re:Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Speak for yourself. That is what made the Diablo games different. In fact, the many hours that I spent playing Diablo and Diablo 2 gave me the inventory management experience to land me my dream job. You are currently reading the post of the Senior Late Night Inventory Management Specialist at Safeway Food and Drug, Whitefish, Montana.

My mature, well thought out response

[Alzheimers]

click...click click click click click ooh shiney clickclick click click click click click click click click...

Re:What about bosses?

[tknd]

I propose a much better system where the player dies after one hit or tap from a monster. And if the player wishes to be able to survive a second hit, he must either find the nearest mushroom or orange flower hidden away in some box disguised like all the others.

Re:Metroidiablo

[Anonymous Coward]

If they were really clever, maybe they could make some item (like, say a belt) that let the player carry around extra orbs so they could use them later.

Re:Finally!

[Duradin]

I think there's a way for you to enjoy modern inventory systems.

Whenever you pick up an item, pause the game.
Then start up a game of tetris, easy for small items, increase difficulty as the item size increases.
Beat 99 levels in row. If you fail you do not have enough inventory space for the item.
Unpause the game. If you completed 99 levels, add the item to your inventory. Otherwise leave the item behind.

This way, the rest of us can actually play the game and you can still play inventory management.

PhysRx Engine

[argent]

It's about time games took health seriously. I guess the Nintendo Wii is starting to have an effect on PCs as well as consoles.

Re:What about bosses?

[Anonymous Coward]

One would think that a smart boss would then realize it is better to not spawn countless minions that just feed you health and mana.

"Oh, hey, I've got him on the ropes here, now I'll just spawn another 20 bats to go harass him and it should be done with...

Wait a tick, are my guys dropping health for him, wtf? No wonder he managed to get all the way down here."

Re:What about bosses?

[Bieeanda]

Maybe the boss can't help it.

"All right, I'm steamed now! I'll just rise up onto my hind legs and swing my elephant tenderizer up over my head, so I can spl--"

"Aw, shit! I just ruptured the squishy minion pipe! It's fuckin' raining health in here now!"

Re:Finally!

[Guruthegreat]

Everyone knows you don't carry 14 different massive hammers at once, you carry 12 massive hammers and a magic box with 2 massive hammers inside it

Re:I Call Shennanigans!

[Chris Burke]

In D2 you could create some pretty ridiculous builds (Like a dagger paladin) and actually have them be relatively successful as long as you were willing to suck

I'll just cut off the quote there and say that as long as there are a wide variety of builds that are viable (which there were in D2 not counting absurdities), then I don't think this is a big problem.