Although Diablo 4 may not be released in 2021, we still learned more about the game at BlizzCon 2021.
Diablo 4 developers hosted a press conference on Friday. Among other things, they revealed extensive details about how the Diablo 4 player versus player (PVP) system will work. The new system emphasizes organic fighting experiences over a sense of pure fairness, a point that the developers made very clear at the press conference.
All of Diablo’s open world PVP opportunities exist in hate fields. Hate fields are areas of the fish world that have been cursed by Lillith. In these areas, you can kill enemies and open chests that will throw unpurified pieces of hate. You can purify those hate fragments in the purification areas that are inside the hate fields.
“As Diablo 4 is our first open-ended diablo game, we’re trying to really embrace what that can mean,” said Joe Piepiora, Diablo 4’s system designer. which are PVP areas in the open world. But they are full of monsters, events, chests to find, rare elites to kill, and all the common pitfalls you expect to find in the world beyond Diablo 4. ”
When in the field of hatred, players can choose to mark themselves as hostile. When you are hostile, you can attack other players, but you will also be marked as dangerous to all the players you meet. There is no way for players to force other players to become hostile by mistake, so becoming hostile will always be a decision that players make.
“If I become hostile when I wander around the fields of hatred, any other hero will see me as an enemy,” Piopiora said. “Everyone can connect and attack me. I take a risk, it’s the kind of high-risk game we’re looking for as part of the PVP around the world. ”
Once purified, you can use hate shards to buy special PVP items from in-game sellers. Although the items will not improve player statistics in any way, they will function as a form of praise and prestige rights. To maintain its significance, items cannot be traded, so if someone has a specific PVP item, they have won it.
However, purging the shards is not an easy task, as many players will look for targets to kill.
“While you are [purifying your shards of hatred] other players can come at you, creating that anxiety when you are in PVP overworld, where you don’t know if another player will help you or hurt you, ”said Piopiora. “You could easily work with the players you meet in the field of hatred or they could come back hostile and come to attack you. If they manage to kill you, all the unpurified pieces of hatred you carried will be abandoned and they will be able to take them from you and go on their happy path ”.
The developers were delighted to share that this PVP system is not designed for fairness. Instead, the goal of the Diablo overworld PVP system is to introduce a sense of risk and an extra layer of challenge into the game for players who want it.
“One of the first accents of PVP in Diablo 4 was trying to erase the idea that PVP must be correct,” Piopiora explained. “I know it can be scary to tell people. When you think of PVP in the open world, you don’t always end up in front of an enemy in an ideal circumstance, with the cooling time available, and you are in full health, with potions and everything. Sometimes you may even be fighting another creature. We think that the ebb and flow of this type of PVP combat actually feels great in Diablo 4 right now. ”
The environment will also have an impact on PVP situations. Based on the class, construction and type of terrain, players will experience a dynamic form of combat in which no two situations are identical. Or at least, this is the goal of the developer with the new system.
“We are not trying to suggest that each class should be exactly parallel when we start from a fixed position with each other,” Piopiora said. “It is never clear who will win in a fight. We want to make sure that there are a lot of circumstances in the environment that allow players to feel that they can succeed in some situations and fail in others and always feel that there is an opportunity the next time they return to play. ”
With a greater focus on the world itself, your class comes to play a significant role in determining your odds of winning a particular PVP fight.
“Another big difference between Diablo 4 and previous titles is the verticality we’ve added,” said Careena Kingdom, lead animator for Diablo IV. “A barbarian can jump off a cliff, unlike someone who has to climb a cliff. It offers a very interesting variety of methods that you can hunt in those PVP areas. ”
While the developers have revealed a significant amount of information about their asymmetric PVP system, there is still much to learn about the full details. We can expect more information about the Diablo 4 PVP system in the near future.