The latest Diablo 4 gold developer stream digs into Blizzard's post-launch plans for that upcoming action RPG.
With Diablo 4(opens in new tab) now just one month away—June 6 may be the big day—Blizzard has unveiled the facts on its post-launch plans(opens in new tab), including its seasonal structure, cosmetic microtransactions, and also the "completely optional" battle pass.
Diablo 4 may have four seasons each year, each running roughly 3 months and featuring its very own unique "season journey." Seasons won't expand upon the storyline of the campaign—that may happen in future expansions, so I guess you can look at Diablo 4 expansion plans confirmed—but will instead offer standalone seasonal questlines using their own "self-contained stories" featuring new characters and narratives.
"Ideas around the seasons aren't bound through the campaign," Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson said during today's developer stream.
Along with using the new story content, seasons will even feature "fresh gameplay," associate game director Joe Piepiora said.
"We wish to introduce new mechanics and gameplay for players to interact with over the course of that season. This is dependant on things like a new power for players to earn, or methods to experience the development of their character," Piepiora explained. "this goes past meta changes or balance and tuning and such things as that. It really is dependant on wholesale additional features and stuff that are going to be available for that duration of that season for players to see."
When each ongoing season ends, those new gameplay features are going to be "retired," Piepiora said but might be brought back, later on, depending on how well they're going over with players. Seasonal characters are going to be merged into the "Eternal Realm" after each season, where they'll remain playable but outside of the seasonal structure. The first season, which will apparently not at all be about zombies, is anticipated to begin in mid to late July, and players have to have completed the campaign with a minimum of one character to be able to access the seasonal content.
The Diablo 4 battle pass will feature three tracks: free, premium, and "accelerated," which is basically the just like the premium track however with a 20-tier jump. The free battle pass track has 27 reward tiers and it is mainly comprised of "Smouldering Ashes," which is essentially an in-game currency accustomed to unlocking various seasonal buffs: Boosts to XP, gold, rare salvage, which sort of thing.
The premium track, however, has 63 tiers and it is all about cosmetics: It will include two full teams of armor for each class, each set themed to the present season, along with a seasonal mount and mount armor, "roleplaying clothing," along with other cosmetic items. Importantly, the premium track doesn't include any Smouldering Ashes.
"All the stuff that affect gameplay are just in the free track," product management director Kegan Clark said. The premium track will sell for $10, as the accelerated track using the 20-tier unlocks goes for $25.
The Diablo 4 shop will offer you a range of rotating cosmetics that will enable players to outfit their characters in a variety of "class fantasies," for example "a thunder goddess like a sorceress, or if you wish to be a big barbarian that rips the tongues from your enemies and puts them in your armor," Clark said.
"The shop will help to provide a large amount of this diversity within the types of fantasies. And then you may take all those pieces and combine them using the cool items that you find within the game to convey yourself in a myriad of ways."
Interestingly, Diablo 4 won't have leaderboards for season 1, and perhaps not for season 2 either. Blizzard knows players want leaderboards and "it's definitely on our backlog," Fergusson said throughout the livestream. "But it isn't something you are going to see in season 1, and potentially not in season 2."
Client downloads for that upcoming Diablo 4 buy gold beta(opens in new tab) "server slam" are live: If you missed the prior playtests you can begin downloading the customer now, and when you still have it installed from any of these past tests, it'll automatically update. The server slam will have a reduced legendary item drop rate along with other gameplay and balance changes that Fergusson said will give you "a more accurate representation" of the full game experience.
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