Diablo III’s New Artisan System Is Unveiled At Gamescom
At a new presentation during Gamescom 2010, Diablo III’s game director, Jay Wilson, gave some insight into a brand new feature to the game. Introducing the artisan system – a brand new system in which players can upgrade, buy, sell, and craft items in the Diablo world. Essentially, the artisan system is a group of NPC’s that craft and manipulate items for the player. Wilson mainly focused on the blacksmith’s role in this new feature, but also explained that there are roles such as the mystic, and the jeweler.
At the beginning of the game, the player won’t start out questing with these artisans, but eventually they will be gained and able to be maintained all at once. When the player first meets the artisans, they will need to do quests for them to gain the artisan’s trust and loyalty. Once the artisan’s trust is gained they will follow the player through towns and Sanctuary. A big element of focus on the game was the crafting system, but Blizzard did not want to have players investing so much time into this feature while in towns and eventually slowing down the tempo of the game.
Once the blacksmith is recruited, he will set up shop in town, surrounded by item racks, carts, and anvils. He will stake ground and act as a vendor to buy and sell items, as well as crafting items for the player to use. Mainly it seems that his work is geared more towards the melee fighter, or tank, although each class will have its own crafting options. More importantly, he can socket items. Even if the item the player has includes no sockets, the artisan can add sockets to make the item able to slot gems and other items. He will also repair equipment as well.
As the game continues the player can upgrade all three artisans, increasing their crafting skillset. As each artisan is improved, their area will be as well. The blacksmith, for example, will have more ornate racks and carts, with armor hanging on the sides of the carts, as well as more anvils showing. One thing Blizzard wants to do is to make the items provided by the artisan to be unpredictable.
When the player orders the crafting from an artisan, there will be predictable and unpredictable outcomes. A specific recipe for an item can show a certain damage rating, but it may also come with two special properties. Of course some items are set to have more predictable combinations than others, but Blizzard wants to have some sort of randomness with each item, as to create the sense of unfamiliarity between items. In order to get crafting materials the player needs to salvage existing items. The player can choose to drop the salvageable items in a cube-like device (no, not the Horadric Cube, sorry fans), and break down the items, which can be done anywhere, and this will produce crafting materials. Higher quality items usually produce the best material, but they also can also provide special drops for the player.
As for the other items, the mystic can enchant items for the player, (there are some who would call him…Tim?) identify items, and craft magic wands, staves, and armor like bracers. The jeweler can pull gems out of socketed items without destroying the item, or the gem, and can craft amulets. The jeweler can also combine items, replacing the Horadric Cube for this function, and in all there exists fourteen levels of gem quality. Of course, after and above level five the requirements for gem levels are increasingly more steep. Perhaps the greatest aspect of the artisans is the fact that all three can follow the player and be fully upgraded, so there is no fighting over which one needs to come and which ones need to stay.
While we are still awaiting more announcements from Blizzard on Diablo III, we can look at this new feature and only imagine what is in store for this long awaited title. We can only hope there will be even more new features that will make this title a well awaited title.
