BlizzCon 09: Diablo III Q&A panel

Blizzard held a Q&A panel with the developers for Diablo III at BlizzCon, and BigDownload has the highlights for you, which we have posted below.

• While the team is not talking about Player Vs Player gameplay in Diablo III at the moment they did say they want to avoid the "go hostile at any time" type of gameplay that was a part of the first two games in the series. The feeling is that kind of gameplay ruins the co-op modes.
• The new Battle.net system will allow for a more sophisticated matchmaking system for Diablo III.
• The designers do have plans for more variety in quests in the new game.
• The dev team have some long term plans for the Diablo universe's Paladins but they would not go into details (sorry, no word if it will be a playable character)
• They also want to support players who play the game "hardcore"
• There are no plans to support user interface add-ons.
• The gold system in Diablo III is planned to be improved and changed compared to Diablo III in terms of their use to buy items.
• Randomly generated items are at the heart of the Diablo universe, according to the dev team. Unique items may have some different properties in Diablo III but will still be prominent.
• Waypoints are returning and will be similar to Diablo II. However, teleporters may not be coming back. However the designers are looking for other ways to reduce travel time. For example dungeons now have exits rather than having parties go all the way down and then be forced to go all the way back up the way they came.
• There isn't any technology to support things like changing the environments in Diablo III but they might put it in if it benefits the game.
• All monsters have a chance to drop items for any player in the game.
• Even though the game is fairly easy to play already, Blizzard does plan to make Diablo III easy to get into for any all new players.
• Blizzard is still not commenting if crafting of items will be in Diablo III
• Since environments in the game are randomly generated there will not be a map editor released for third party mod makers.
• Blizzard is still not commenting on whether Diablo himself will appear in Diablo III (but come on; his name is in the title).
• Some of the classic sound effects from previous Diablo games will appear in the third title.

Nathan is at the event now. Be sure to check in periodically to see what he has found out.