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What Diablo III's Interface Got From World Of Warcraft

kotaku.com — In the latest episode of the Blizzard podcast, Diablo III senior artist Mike Nicholson discusses organizing the inventory system by size and giving skill buttons a World of Warcraft makeover. The Diablo series has always had inventory issues. I'd say 90% of "Town Portal" scrolls are used to head back to town and offload your inventory with a...

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 31, 2009

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  • esc27, on 03/31/2009, -0/+62I don't have too much of a problem with it because much of what is being "borrowed" from WOW was in turn borrowed and refined from Diablo I and II.
  • agentsrecord, on 03/30/2009, -0/+43Hopefully they don't do away with character build concepts when re-writing the skill tree. That was one of the better parts of Diablo 2. Other then that I'm all for revamping the inventory system.
  • Rivfader, on 03/31/2009, -1/+39Diablo 3 will be awesome.
  • reyoo30309, on 03/31/2009, -1/+29I know there are a lot of other diablo 2 players who hate wow but there is a lot that can be taken from wow to make d3 better.

    That being said I hope that they don't "borrow" so much from WoW that d2 loses its identity, I have become a little worried ever since they decided to remove the hostile system.


  • FearFactory, on 03/31/2009, -1/+28The Mice, Shall Click
  • staffell, on 03/31/2009, -3/+26Bring back spell books!
  • JLSigman, on 03/31/2009, -0/+21D3 isn't a MMORPG
  • bob_the_alien, on 03/31/2009, -1/+16I agree Diablo's inventory system sucks, they are completely correct about the town portals.
    I've actually been playing D2 online again for the past month, and I'm constantly going back and forth to town.
    I also hope they do away with your personal storage only being able to hold so much money. Which isn't a problem in single player, because you can just drop it on the ground, but in Online it just sucks.

    As for the inventory system itself, I've always liked the inventory systems where they grow as you strength increases, I just think that makes common since, you are stronger so you can carry more. They said they are going on a bag system to increase inventory size, so it might be based on your strength, but I guess we will just have to wait and see.
  • rwallen, on 03/31/2009, -2/+15Blizzard wins at everything.
  • FredFredrickson, on 03/31/2009, -1/+13Man, I can't wait for this game.

    Funny thing is, WoW is essentially Diablo but with a non-fixed camera angle, a little bit less serious atmosphere, and of course, more players.
  • sodade, on 03/31/2009, -1/+12ROTFL - saying that WOW is repetitive in the same breath that you praise D2? That's ***** hilarious.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -0/+11I agree about the skill tree. I realize it was easy to just level up a new character, but if you screwed up your build somehow you were out of luck. Granted, the smart thing to do would double check your decision before you put points into something.

    But I get the feeling there is going to be more of an attachment to your characters this time around, say compared to Diablo 1 and 2. Being able to pick male or female for instance is automatically going to let people have more of an attachment, because you aren't just stuck with a cookie cutter character like you're playing Gauntlet or something.
  • fury420, on 03/31/2009, -0/+11lets get it straight here, you never had inventory issues because you CHEATED, not because of your expertise, or anything you did/did not do.
    Your failure to play within the rules invalidates everything else you say, considering you are a perfect example of what was wrong with D2, and why open battlenet was such a cesspool

    leaving a bot doing MF runs of meph & pindle all damn night and using a hack to loot only the specific items you are after?
    carrying duped gear?
    pathetic
  • PhoenixAvatar2, on 03/31/2009, -0/+11It also puts a damper on experimenting for those who don't want to go online and copy the popular build of the day.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -0/+10made by: Blizzard
  • Slym, on 03/31/2009, -1/+11I'd love to see the Diablo 3 UI gain a customisable component similar to the WoW UI. Lots of the better parts of the WoW UI were initially created by the fans.
  • Harabeck, on 03/31/2009, -1/+11Hey now, speaking against Diablo is blasphemy. Even if it is a simplistic, repetitive game.
  • statdat, on 03/31/2009, -3/+12Soccer: a game where two teams try to gain possession of a ball in order to try to accumulate points against the other team by scoring on their side of the field as a crowd of onlookers cheer them on.

    I can't see how this could ever be mixed up with basketball.
  • JKount, on 03/31/2009, -8/+17The only thing I'd like to see from WoW in Diablo 3 is the ability to redistribute skills. I really hated having to relevel characters to revise the skill trees. It always prevented me from trying out new things...

    Also it'd be nice if Blizzard somehow kept online currency as gold, rather then having the SOJ thing happen all over again.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -0/+9Wizard needs food, badly.
  • Grazfather, on 03/31/2009, -0/+8That ui looks great. Diablo never made sense that a 1 pound robe took as much inventory as a 60 pound piece of armor.
  • AZExile, on 03/31/2009, -1/+9It also takes much of the fun out of the full game - making you uncompetitive at earlier levels because you have to "save" your points, or makes you uncompetitive at later levels because you chose to invest your points early.

    Golem Necro ftw
  • xxsk8rguyxx, on 03/31/2009, -1/+9You must mean respec.

    Before, you had to reroll, and that was the problem (according to JKount).
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -1/+9Except when the game first comes out and nobody really knows what they are doing. Then you just put points into what sounds good and not necessarily what works best, then you level up your character, find out that sucked, and start over.

    That would not be fun to me.
  • soogy, on 03/31/2009, -2/+10I wouldn't like skill redistributing. Without it, you think more carefully about where you're going to put those points. Like when most of us started, we'd just put points into everything that sounded cool, not paying attention to synergies and full trees.
  • MemoryDump, on 03/31/2009, -0/+7these guys really need to make animated/cgi movies.. just watching the cinematics for any of their games leaves me speechless! Truly amazing.
  • greevar, on 03/31/2009, -0/+7I'd love to see a construction set where you can make your own dungeons. I know that doesn't work so well for online multiplayer, but I love games that can use community generated content like The Elder Scrolls series.
  • UselessTrivia, on 03/31/2009, -1/+8Re-spec is a must-have feature for semi-solo players like myself. The people on Battle.NET are way too crazy for my liking, so I really only intend to play Solo or on a LAN. As such I will never get to see all the cool powers if I can't respec my character to experiment with them.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -1/+8As a casual player, I don't even know what a SOJ is.
  • xxsk8rguyxx, on 03/31/2009, -3/+10You want a citation? Here's a citation!

    ..|.,
  • mooninite, on 03/31/2009, -2/+8Hopefully D3 will work under Wine, and since it is a Blizzard game I suspect it will.
  • Achaean, on 03/31/2009, -0/+6The old inventory system was a bit of pain, glad to hear they are revamping it. I dont mind them "borrowing" ideas from WoW, just as long as Diablo III doesnt become a WoW clone or something like that.
  • VinnieDaMac, on 03/31/2009, -0/+6I can't wait. I have no problem with them borrowing "good" features from WoW.
  • reyoo30309, on 03/31/2009, -2/+8Having to start a new character in d2 was not a problem because it was so easy to lvl but I have a feeling it will be harder to level in d3 so I understand why they would allow us to now re-roll
  • cmaxster, on 03/31/2009, -1/+7I tend to agree, however, my concern is that most of the people who are working on the Diablo team come directly from the WoW team and I can clearly see the similarities between the artwork and character models of the two games. The environments, colour choices, and UI all look heavily influenced by WoW.

    This is not terrible (in most cases I just find it compelling and interesting), but I am concerned a little because while I think their stance on colour is an interesting choice, I'm still concerned that the game will end up being slightly too reminiscent of WoW by becoming too cartoony and exaggerated like the environments and characters in WoW. Diablo needs to carve out it's own feel and universe seperate from WoW.

    That being said, I'm also getting this weird vibe that this is also somewhat deliberate as if Diablo 3 is just a stepping stone towards the Diablo universe and lore being moulded and groomed and heavily expanded for a future project like WoW. I'm guessing a "World of Diablo" is right around the corner after the release of D3. It seems to be following the same pattern that the Warcraft universe followed around when Warcraft 3 was released. I mean at the time, Warcraft made the jump to 3D, the universe and lore was heavily expanded upon, and then shortly after we got World of Warcraft. Warcraft 3, to me, was just a stepping stone towards something greater and grander. It only makes sense to me with their heavy development of online multiplayer technologies (Battle Net) and Diablo's similarities to WoW (WoW being derivative of), for this to inevitably occur for the Diablo IP.
  • nerdherder, on 04/01/2009, -0/+6I really hope your kidding.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -0/+5Diablo II was like crack to me for years, but I'm no dummy. Even with rose tinted goggles on, I have no desire to play a Diablo dungeon again.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -0/+5I don't know about you, but my Oblivion character is an avid collector of Silver Plates. Too bad there's no auction house to skin the noobs.
  • EASwanson, on 03/31/2009, -1/+6Yea but what does the gem do???
  • bakatrinh, on 03/31/2009, -1/+6People never even bother to use the hostile system. PvP in D2 was also broken when all it took was 1-2 shot from the other player to die. What's the point of having over 20 spells, if you'll die before you have a chance to use them. From what I read, PvP in D3 will be similar to WoW's arena system, which I am all for.
  • Frozenfuryblade, on 03/31/2009, -0/+5Well, Diablo also has a lot bigger hordes compared to WoW, at earlier stages. I'd also say that the gameplay is a bit more exciting. At least you get to hold the mouse button in Diablo =p
  • statdat, on 03/31/2009, -1/+6You missed the point, I was saying that they might sound similar if you look at the most basic parts, but that really they are quite different.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -0/+5Perhaps a bit off topic, but it would be nice if WoW borrowed a few things from d2.

    For instance, the ability to drop stuff as opposed to deleting it. It would be so cool if when you're overloaded with semi-useful junk that isn't worth much on the AH, you could just throw it down in the middle of town or wherever for anyone to pick up, like in d2. Objects could have maybe a 5 minute decay time before they disappear, to prevent clutter. Of course they'd need to render a lot of new models for stuff, but it's not like they can't afford to hire some 3D noobs to do all that.
  • reyoo30309, on 03/31/2009, -0/+5I would like to see them come back but only as a rare drop.
  • inactive, on 03/31/2009, -1/+5WTF? Your comment contradicts itself several times.
  • bob_the_alien, on 03/31/2009, -1/+5actually I can agree with this,
    I enjoyed buying and finding spell books to increase my spells.
    But I really don't see us seeing spell books again.
  • failtrain, on 03/31/2009, -3/+7Needs citation.
  • VinnieDaMac, on 03/31/2009, -0/+4I agree on the SOJ thing. As a casual player even with a lot of MF, I don't think I've ever got a single SOJ.
  • FredFredrickson, on 03/31/2009, -0/+4But most people who played Morrowind / Oblivion a lot ended up doing town runs now and then - it's a good way to make money. That's why you pick up the "useless" crap. Maybe not all the forks and spoons, but a lot of the junk you're not going to use, but which still nets a good sell price.
  • zaferk, on 04/01/2009, -0/+4but just as many hours wasted
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