1.11 Release Notes

[Plutoxin]

jj,

I'm right with you as far as how the future looks. And it's not just D3, but a lot of games that are getting a little too online/multiplayer centered for me.

If I had to use a metaphor, I'd say Blizzard feeds both of it's kids (mp & sp) but spoils one a bit more than the other. They're not bad parents, they've actually given sp a nice home and food... they just buy mp more toys :lol:

Joe

[duranduran]

I think it's terribly misleading to call this marketing scam a "patch". It's a big hurrah to get everyone on b.net before they hit us with the big MMORPG Online-only D3 at Blizzcon. I agree that I've gotten far more than I've ever paid for in this game. Sadly, that doesn't change the fact that they've still chosen to give SP'ers the collective Finger and told us what we can go do with ourselves.

[Thrugg]

I think I'll switch to 1.11 as soon as the tourneys I'm currently in got either finished or accept the new patch, and we have an ATMA that doesn't crash on the new items. Perhaps ATMA could even convert stashes from 1.10 to 1.11 since the format of the item data seems unchanged.

There is not much to convert. The save file format is unchanged. To illustrate, I just made a new char in 1.11, copied it back to my 1.10 folder, opened it in 1.10 perfectly OK, copied it back to 1.11, opened it again (which simulatres "upgrading" a char), copied it back to 1.10, opened it again successfully.

So there is nothing stopping chars from swapping back and forth between the two, nor from Atma muling between the two. Atma will not recognise the keys (who cares) nor will it know the names of the new runewords (although this can be easiyl fixed by copying the new runes.txt into the ATMA_CONFIG\1.10 directory). The Doc may eventually patch Atma to do this for you but you are pretty OK to just use it as is in the meantime.

THis patch should definitely not have been called 1.11. It is 1.10c - the difference between it and 1.10 is barely more than between 1.09b and 1.09d. Something I have no doubt the software guys at Bliz tried to explain to the marketing guys, to no avail. "No", they would have replied, "we need a bigger number because it sounds cooler!"
That's the kind of retardedness that gave us Windows 3.1->95->2000.

Hey dd, I'm sure I've seen that 'tar before.

[Nightfish]

The problem is the future. Blizzard is sending a clear message that SP'ers belong in a dark, damp, bare walled caves while online players get castles. Blizzard's been great but if you want to play SP in the future, expect damp, dark caves from blizzard, not spacious palaces.

I think you're being overly dramatic. We'll deal with the future when it's here. And one thing you might want to keep in mind that blizzard needs to make money. They aren't doing this for charity any more than everybody else who's got to sell stuff. If they want to survive they need to focus on selling, and not just to a few but to many. I remember a lot of great games that focused on smaller crowds. Planescape Torment, Fallout 1 & 2, just to name a few. They were all comercially unsuccessful and the company that made them is out of buisness. Idealism doesn't pay any bills.

Let's say you were going to make a game, what would you rather do. Focus on MP and sell one copy to everyone playing B.net D2 or keep things balanced, selling one copy to everyone in SP but maybe 1% less to people on b.net? I don't really know how many of "us" there are but I'm almost sure that we don't matter buinesswise.

[duranduran]

Hey dd, I'm sure I've seen that 'tar before.

:lol: You have, have you?

[DurfBarian]

Oh well... thanks a lot Durf!

Hey, at least you still know who to blame.

[Cattleya]

Let's say you were going to make a game, what would you rather do. Focus on MP and sell one copy to everyone playing B.net D2 or keep things balanced, selling one copy to everyone in SP but maybe 1% less to people on b.net? I don't really know how many of "us" there are but I'm almost sure that we don't matter buinesswise.

However, they don't lose any B.net audience by releasing the same patch to both groups. They just get two happy groups. (Well, okay, maybe not... there are some unhappy campers on B.net about the synergy bug fix. ) I really don't imagine it would have cost Blizzard all that much to release similar patches. They even did extra work (adding the server flag) to keep some of the runewords off SP. I'm not saying that they don't have a right to make those decisions, but I don't have to give them any more money.

[Nightfish]

However, they don't lose any B.net audience by releasing the same patch to both groups. They just get two happy groups. (Well, okay, maybe not... there are some unhappy campers on B.net about the synergy bug fix. ) I really don't imagine it would have cost Blizzard all that much to release similar patches. They even did extra work (adding the server flag) to keep some of the runewords off SP. I'm not saying that they don't have a right to make those decisions, but I don't have to give them any more money.

I wasn't talking about this patch but a new game.

[Thrugg]

Fishy, you're suffering from the same twisted value system that most people our age (brought up in the 80s) do - pure uncut greed as primary motivation is somehow OK. The hell it is.

Idealism doesn't pay any bills.

Idealism doesn't care about paying bills. Idealistic game companies make games because [drumroll] they like making games. Like the first 500 game companies did, until Atari or whoever came along and started making it an industry.

The day WoW hit the shelves Blizzard became the second highest money making computer gaming company in the world, behind the evil that is EA. They may even have passed them by now, I dunno. They can afford to run some PR things at a loss. Even soulless law firms do pro bono cases every now and then.

It's indicative of the way the world is going, and it pisses me off. And people have every right to be pissed off by it. If you want to lie back and let greed-driven corporations tell you what you want to buy, you go ahead, but don't tell us we're wrong for not wanting that.

[Cormallon]

There is not much to convert. The save file format is unchanged. To illustrate, I just made a new char in 1.11, copied it back to my 1.10 folder, opened it in 1.10 perfectly OK, copied it back to 1.11, opened it again (which simulatres "upgrading" a char), copied it back to 1.10, opened it again successfully.

So there is nothing stopping chars from swapping back and forth between the two, nor from Atma muling between the two.

That's what I mean... but usually ATMA prevents you from moving stuff between different versions. I suggest that this restriction is removed between 1.10 and 1.11 stashes (if we get an ATMA with a special version selection of 1.11).