Interview with Bill Roper Q: First and foremost, I would like to thank you for this opportunity. It's a great honor to conduct this month's fansite interview with Blizzard Entertainment. So without further ado, here's the first question: In the GameSpot France interview recently it was mentioned that you can no longer automatically target another character. You have to do it manually. Now I'd like to know how this new manual targeting system is going to work. Please explain it to us. A: The basic idea behind removing the ability for characters to target other players with harmful spells is to make it more challenging for players who want to compete in duels. Many spells will automatically find a target, but this target won't be a neutral or friendly player or hireling.You will be able to target characters with helpful spells, such as Healing or Cure Poison, however. Q: Blizzard hasn't expanded much on the aspect of being able to play as monsters in multi-player.. how will that work? Will you be able to roam around a dungeon and follow the characters around, or will you be restricted to one area of the map? Can you just respawn when you die? Some more information on this would be nice. A: This was an idea that we had very early in the development of Diablo II that we implemented in a different way than first envisioned. We realized that while the idea sounded great, it was potentially very unbalancing in multiplayer. If I could take control of a monster and then sit him harmlessly in front of you while you slashed away without fear of reprisal and then collected the experience, that would lead to a way to get your characters up in levels that was beyond the spirit or intent of the game. What the team did implement, however, were certain spells that the Necromancer could cast that would give him limited control over monsters, causing them to turn on their fellow minions of evil. Mind Control, for example, will allow the Necromancer to take over and play as a monster for a short period. Q: It was said during your interviews in Europe that you will be adding new servers in Europe, Korea, and perhaps Australia. All of us know of problems with Battle.net in rush hours.. will Diablo II's Battle.net be processed through the same overwhelmed computers? Or will it be seperate with completely new servers? A: Battle.net is currently being augmented and re-engineered to not only handle the tremendous influx of gamers that we have experienced in the last few months, but also to handle the new demands that will placed upon it. Although we will be adding new servers, we have no plans to throw out what we have in place -- just to make it better. Battle.net is a huge endeavor that I sometimes feel people take for granted, but we here at Blizzard do take the maintenance and evolution of the world's largest on-line gaming service very seriously. We have dedicated more programmers than ever to working through the problems that have recently crept into the system and we have recently seen increased stability and better service that will only continue to grow. Q: As we all know, the Necromancer has the ability to control monsters, and is able to create Golems. I was wondering how Golems worked in the sequel. In Diablo I, when facing creatures with immense magic resistance and/or immunity, it was almost impossible to operate without some decent melee. Now, although the golem worked in some cases, it was easily destroyed because it was 1 on 500. I was wondering how many Golems a Necromancer could make and how a control of more than one Golem at once would be possible. A: Golems will work very much as they did in Diablo. Not all of them will go on their own "search and destroy" missions as the original creations did, preferring to stay near the side of their masters and act as defenders instead. Additionally, each Golem is created in a slightly different way. While the Clay Golem is created solely through the expenditure of Mana, the Blood Golem will require the caster to offer his life force to create the simulacrum. Q: Little is known about the quests you have to solve in the second Act. Can you please tell us more about them? A: We are purposely not giving out the details to the quests at this time because, well, we want to keep SOMETHING new and fresh for you todiscover when you get the game. A pair of tidbits that I can throw out, however are: There is a quest in act one that, once completed, allows you to hire Rogue mercenaries to fight with you. There is a quest in the second act in which you must find a secret sanctuary amongst seven forgotten tombs. Every time you play the game, the location of this special area is randomly selected. Q: Can you give us a few 'new' spell names and descriptions for the Sorceress? A: Doesn't anyone want to have the thrill of opening up the game and discovering something for the first time? We will be showing off a lot of new stuff at E3 next week, so we really can't tip our hand before then. Q: In the Sorceress's skill tree there is an icon that resembled the invisibility icon in the original Diablo that never got into the game. Is this invisibility? If it is, please explain it, if it isn't, what is it? ;) A: The Sorceress does not have an invisibility spell. The icon you are probably referring to is for her Teleport spell. Q: Will elevation effect your damage/range up hill/downhill? (with ranged weapons). A: Elevation will affect line of sight and whether or not your weapon/spell can hit the intended target. Q: So far most of the Amazon's skill abilities have been made known to us, however the Sorceress's ice skill tree we know nothing of except ice storm. Can you please elaborate on some of the skills and descriptions of the Sorceress's ice skill tree? A: Again, we are trying not to give everything away before the game ships. We will be delving more in to the characters in the coming months, so although we can't tell you right now, you will be learning more over time. The question is a good one, but it is still just a little too soon... Q: 10. Now, please tell us whether there are more features planned, like the monthly interviews, the screenshots of the week, the fansite chats, or the character avis. Will there be something similar to the "Map of the Week" like there is for StarCraft, only for Diablo II? A: We haven't talked about exact ideas in regards to augmenting the gameplay experience after Diablo II has been in gamer's hands for a while, but we do have the desire to provide some type of on-going support as we have been able to do for Starcraft. As we do not have a map editor shipping with Diablo II, we won't really be able to put out weekly quests or anything like that, but we will think of something.