Did a ton of research on D3 today and I thought it would be helpful to compile everything I learnt here. In summary this is the good old Diablo you are familiar with but with SC2 battle.net features, a shared stash for all your characters and a revamped character customization system having a heavy focus on runes now. There's also PvP and real money auction houses.
Quick Facts:
Diablo 3 Beta Release Date: Early September. Blizzard has officially confirmed the Beta will begin prior to September 30th Diablo 3 Release Date: The same date as for all Blizzard-developed titles: "When it's ready."
Game Modes:
Public Game Find
PvP Matchmaking System
Quick join friends
Dynamic Co-op play
Battle.net Features:
Chat Channels, Friends List, Cross-game chat.
Similar to SC2, Constant Online Internet Connection necessary to play, no offline Single player. If you wish to play single player you must do it online.
10 Character Account limit.
Server segmentation - Like SC2, SEA will have its own "minimum lag" server.
Gameplay Features:
4 levels of difficulty. Normal, Nightmare, hell and Inferno which is the hardest where the player cap is at level 60 and every single monster you fight will be at level 61.
No gear binding. No binds on pick up, etc unlike WoW. Salvaging will be the primary method the D3 world gets rid of items.
5 Character Classes - The Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Monk, Wizard
During questing map pings you next location. Thank god no more aimless wandering for 5 hours!
No attributes/skill points/traits - As you level new skills will unlock and your basic attributes automatically increase. Discussion here
Skills have two modes, active and passive.
Rune stones - 5 types (Crimson, Indigo, Obisidian, Golden, Alabaster). Can be used with skills to change the property of skills, this is the "customization" part. This is incredibly detailed - check out the the video in the media part.
Shared Stash - Super large and all your characters have access to a common shared stash on your account
PvP mode in addition to regular campaign
Followers like Warlock pets in WoW that help aid your character. The Templar, Enchantress and Scoundrel and their skills can be customised slightly and you can equip them with items as well. Like WoW they are on autopilot and you cant control them.
Crafting is done by the three Artisans who travel with you. The Blacksmith (weapons/armor), Jeweler (Gems/Enchantments) and Mystic (Potions/Runes/Charms/Scrolls). This is especially interesting because you can train them by allocating gold and materials to their practise so they become better which ultimately affects your build.
Banner System:
Banner is displayed when someone clicks on your character. It is fully customizable (Similar to sc2 portraits i guess) and will display the following depending on what you want to show:
Achievements
Hardcore player status
PvP Stats
Complete Level difficulty
Banner also used as a teleport system. When you're out exploring the world it will be in the town center and players who join your game can click on your banner to teleport directly to where you are.
Auction House:
Two forms of currency, Gold and "Real World Monies".
Player driven, Blizzard will not sell anything.
Flat fees for real world money trades - Listing fees and Sale Fees.
Set amount of "Free Listing" every week.
Hardcore characters cannot use it.
Known Items:
Stone of Recall - Basically a TP, no cooldown and 10 second channel time. Cauldron of Jordon - Allows you to sell items anywhere, i.e no need to go back to town to clear your inventory. You can also buyback last items sold to merchant.
August 2nd, 2011 - Gamespots Diablo 3 Preview "..has finally shown concrete signs of fruition that its most anticipated action role-playing game, Diablo III, is close to being finished."
mOOnGLaDe: "i played it at gamescom 5 days ago! loved the SHIT out of it" Maynarde: I love the shit out of YOU.
sc2sea's Involvement with Diablo 3:
This will mark our first expansion towards being a multi-game site. At this point of time, I do not wish for sc2sea to become a "multi-game" site, but rather a "Blizzard multi-game site" which I feel is only natural as Blizzard games share a common player database. Blizzard gamers tend to play and stick to mostly Blizzard games and with the D3 server being SEA as well, expanding to D3 is a good fit and makes perfect sense.
D3 sub forum (implemented already), basic tutorials, strategy, meeting points etc
D3 guild databases and a system to apply/join a guild easily
If D3 has a guild / clan section there will be a sc2sea guild created
Dedicated Battle.net Channel to find players "sc2sea"
D3 Beta Streams (If its allowed by Blizzard)
Item database System
And best of all - Limited D3 Beta keys give-aways during the 2nd wave of keys to sc2sea members ONLY!! This will be by random drawing on Stream and only members with X amount of posts and days as an sc2sea members will be eligible for the draw. The exact details and entry requirements will be out soon.
So if you have just been quiet at the back chilling and never posting, nows the time to get your post count up!
Even the smallest donations help keep sc2sea running! All donations go towards helping our site run including our monthly server hosting fees and sc2sea sponsored community tournaments we host. Find out more here.