Diablo Immortal has been somewhat incognito for the past few months. However, game director Wyatt Cheng recently talked about the feedback gained on the closed beta, what they learned and what they hope to improve upon.
Diablo Immortal Director Talks Closed Beta Feedback, Group Play Improvements, Controller Support and More
Wyatt Cheng and his team over at Blizzard have been quiet onDiablo Immortalfor the past weeks. The team recently held an extremely limited Closed Beta Test. This test was only available for select Japanese, Korean, Canadian and Australian users back in October. The almightyNecromanceralso arrived as a newclassin this closed test.
On February 23rd, the Twitter account published a new article that outlined some of the major points of feedback from the player base. The main focuses were on Group-Play improvements, Controller Support, Endgame system updates, among others. Let’s check them out!
Diablo Immortal’s Bounty System
First off, the team definitely considers theiraction-RPGas an MMO. So this means that having good social systems built-in is of utmost priority for them. Parties and grouping up should be easy and seamless for this to succeed.
One system that has been in the game was the Bounty System. This allowed players to complete randomly generated mini-challenges quickly and granted bonus loot every few successful runs. Some players felt that they needed to group up for efficient Bounties, and some groups received players that would quit after just one bounty. This made it so that the group would become disjointed.
As a result, Bounties are now exclusively solo content. They will be tweaking other activities to be more group-oriented.
The Helliquary
The Helliquary is one ofDiabloImmortal’s endgame systems. It is an 8-player cooperative raid dungeon that would feature a challengingboss. Blizzard intends to release a new Helliquary raid every month to keep things fresh. To be able to ease progression, however, they will be making multiple difficulty levels for each boss. The team will also be tweaking the difficulty of existing bosses, as they have identified that some bosses have extremely massive difficulty spikes.
Lastly, the matchmaking UI and group tools for the Helliquary are being adjusted to become more streamlined and user-friendly.
The Diablo Immortal Battle Pass
Since the mobile game is Free-to-Play, we can expect that there will be some sort of monetization in it. The game will have aBattle Passsystem that will offer both free and paid reward tracks. Players will be able to claim upgrade materials such asReforge StonesorCrestsfrom the free tiers. Cosmetics and other rewards will likely be coming from the paid tracks.
The current implementation of Diablo Immortal’s Battle Pass has received a rather favourable response from players. Purchases in-game should be completely optional and will not make players feel like they need to pay to be able to keep up.
However, there will always be more room for improvement. Some aspects of the Battle Pass, such asLegendaryGems discouraged the creation of alt characters. The team will be tweaking that, as well as other elements of the pass that are not player-friendly.
Controlled Chaos
As mobile gaming has become quite popular over the years, games have evolved from simple touch controls and swiping to things that need more precision. Controller support in mobile games has been gaining traction with things likeDead Cellsor Rocket League.
The Diablo Immortal team has implemented support for specific controllers back in the Closed Beta. They will continue to add more support for more devices in the coming months. Having the game fully playable via controller is one of their priorities.
Updated Set Items
The discussion was then picked up by game designer Kris Zierhut. He discussed the current implementation of Set Items. The team is constantly at work adding more sets to the game, tweaking current ones, and ensuring that they are useful all throughout the various stages of the game.
Paragon Levels and Improvements
One major annoyance in most free-to-play mobile games is the existence of an “energy” system. This is usually set in place to limit the number of playtime players can accumulate. Players can then purchase microtransactions to skip the wait or otherwise replenish their energy.
Diablo is never going to be about limiting your playtime. The essence of the ever-popular hack and slash action RPG will always be slaying monsters quickly, and farming over and over. Adding an energy system would utterly destroy that flow.
However, the team is also creating systems that will ensure that players do not progress too quickly to leave their other friends behind. What sometimes happens is one friend will grind like there’s no tomorrow and end up “carrying” the rest of his friends through the game.
EnterParagon Levels, the system in place to keep improving your character past max level. The team is also introducing a World Paragon Level that increases daily. If a player is lower than the World Level, they gain increased experience. If their Paragon Level is relatively higher than the World Level, they will have decreased experience gain. Hardcore players will still be ahead, but the disparity will not be too huge.
UpgradingWeaponsandArmorwill also be a bit more difficult to do once you reach higher Paragon Levels. The most active players will still have the most powerful equipment.
Diablo Immortal Release Date
That’s about it! While the team did not specify an exact release date, they did mention they still plan for it in 2022. Check back here for more news when it arrives!
Diablo Immortal wasannounced back in Blizzcon 2018. Players will take up various classes, such as theBarbarian,CrusaderorWizard. They will then roam variousmapsand slaymonstersand otherbosses. Be sure to check ourDiablo Immortal Wikifor more information on the game.
For more news, check outThe Ascent Will Be Released on PS4 & PS5 in March; CyberWarrior DLC Released for PCandDragon Age 4 Small Update Shares in “Middle of Production”; Executive Producer Leaves Development Team.
