Now that a bevy of Diablo III follower assets have reached the web, it’s time to follow them up with a rash of interviews that have surfaced around the world.
Gameplanet chats with lead world designer Leonard Boyarsky:
Gameplanet: Can you tell us about each follower’s background?
Boyarsky: The scoundrel, Lyndon, is a member of the Thieves’ Guild and he’s fallen into disgrace. He’s charming and cynical in equal parts, and always looking for his next bit of treasure.
Kormac, the Templar, is a member of the Order, and they’re searching for Tomes and Archbishop Lazarus stole before the events of the original Diablo.
Eirena the enchantress, her background is really shrouded in mystery. She follows this guy named The Prophet who you really don’t know much about and she really doesn’t tell you at the beginning where she’s from or what she’s doing. It’s a mystery that unfolds over the course of the game.
Gameplanet: How many skills do the followers have?
Boyarsky: They have at total of 12 skills, you get to pick at level five, level 10, level 15 and level 20, you get to pick a skill out of a set of three at each of those levels, so at the end you’ll end up having four skills.
AusGamers chats with Leon, too:
AusGamers: What was the decision behind only having three followers, because it seems like a small number. Given that you’re utilising them to flesh out the lore more, a higher number might have been helpful. Did you guys have a higher number to begin with?
Leonard: No we were always planning on three. The reason we went with three — at least from a story standpoint — is because we put so much into them. Each one has so much to bring to the game in terms of their personality and story. They’re fully voiced, we put a lot of work into casting, recording and developing them and making sure that they were really polished. So having three in there that not only have different stories but also focus on different aspects of gameplay, felt like a really good number to us.
One of the things with Diablo that you always have to try and balance is that you want to have a good selection of things to choose from but you don’t want to overwhelm the player. You can only use one follower at a time, so if you had too many followers to choose from, it could become overwhelming and you might not want to deal with it.
AusGamers: How do each of their skill-sets compliment the various character classes that you’ve already revealed for the game? And in terms of the AI, do they dynamically react to the way that you’re playing? Obviously it’s not an overtly deep game in terms of combat tactics or recourse, but how have you differentiated their play-styles to work with the different player character classes?
Leonard: Well that’s somewhat up to you by the way you spec them out. If you give the Enchantress a thing called energy bomb — which is one of my favourite things that she does — she’ll cease that when the player gets down to a certain percent of health because it’s this big bomb that goes off. She automatically does that when you get down to a certain amount of health.
If you’ve specced out the Templar to be somebody that does more healing type things — backing you up more than up-front fighting — that’s just how he reacts to the world.
FZ.se brings us one more with Mr. Boyarsky:
FZ.se: How exactly will we be able to explore these companion stories?
Boyarsky: The first thing that happens when you meet them is that you can play through a short sequence that sort of explains their roles in the world. Then it’s up to you whether you want to dig deeper into their stories by completing side missions and such. They’ll also make small talk while you run around in the world and you get to know them that way, too.
FZ.se: The so-called hirelings filled a somewhat similar role in Diablo II. There doesn’t seem to be that much of a difference between how you handled things a decade ago and now, really?
Boyarsky: I think it’s a twofold thing. First, I think they [the followers] are much more distinct characters now than they ever were before. As I’ve already pointed out we’ve put much effort into developing your companion’s personalities. We want the players to use them as much for their personalities as for their abilities. So there’s that aspect of it all something that didn’t exist in Diablo II but there is also an entirely different dimension of you being able to choose how to play them something which wasn’t there in Diablo II either.
NowGamer talks with lead designer Jay Wilson:
How will Followers affect things like loot and items?
Followers don’t have a ton of different items. One of the reasons for that is we didn’t want them to feel like too much of a drain on the player, like you have to keep the Follower equipped. The most important thing is their weapon. Followers tend to use fairly unique weapons; they’re not exclusive to them, but they tend to use stuff that’s not commonly used. It’s pretty easy to choose a follower who just doesn’t conflict with you on that front.
You could say ‘˜well, I’m a Barbarian, I’m never going to use a crossbow, so I’ll choose Lyndon as my Follower.’ They also use rings and amulets but it’s not such a significant contributor of power to them that you will give them a ring or an amulet before you give it to yourself. You generally give them your hand-me-downs. They also have items that are unique to them, for example the Templar has a holy tome that only he can use because of that, when you find it, it’s a no-brainer to give it to him.
Items that you give a follower are based upon what you want that Follower to do. We’ve overhauled our attributes system to make them really straightforward. The attack attribute increases all damage, so if you want more damage out of your follower you give him items that have a high attack attribute. If you’re making a more tank-oriented Follower, then you raise his defence to make him tougher.
Do Followers tie-in with Artisans that you revealed last year?
Yeah they do. They tie-in to a kind of high-level philosophy of this idea of an entourage, a caravan that follows you throughout the world. We really like the idea that the player moves through the world and meets all these unique characters who become so impressed and enamoured with the valour and abilities of the player that they all dedicate themselves to helping the player in their cause. So by the end of the game you’ll have a whole entourage of guys who follow you around – your artisans who will craft and improve your weapons, your Followers who will follow you into combat and support you and all the quest givers who will also sometimes go out into the world and do different things for you.
And then GameStar.de offers another conversation with Jay, courtesy of Google Translate:
As in the previous gather the crew and experience to rise to the level, which affects even visually. New: Upon reaching the levels 5, 10, 15 and 20 on the game three talents free for the companion from whom they learn, but only one, and then gradually allowed to expand. The choice we make. We wish to contribute specific Kormac sword attacks or rather passive combat bonuses? Practical: If the combination does not fit the chosen skills, they can reset for a small fee and reorganize them.
Even more customization bring exclusive items that can support only use the particular companion and. For example, the villainous Lyndon ensures that we find more gems. And Kormac can study books of his order to improve existing weapons values’‹’‹.
What sounds like tactics and complexity should be played according to Jay Wilson Diablo typically more intuitive and straightforward. So straightforward that we our AI colleagues, I must give orders. “We’ve experimented, ” Jay tells us. “However, we found that would have added in terms of control, a high degree of complexity. One of our key aims in Diablo 3 is to keep the operation as simple as possible. ”
As long as the companion act similar to the previous independent and smart, probably the lack of tactical element to the gameplay not hurt. Interestingly Kormac and Co. can not die. Reduces the life bar to zero, the only companion is in a coma from which he wakes up again automatically after a few minutes. Target’s go faster, we need to sprint to him and wake him up. This in turn requires several seconds concentration, we should avoid the middle of a battle that is more likely.
