Remember the tomes of knowledge that were found sitting on book stands in Diablo I? Those books told the backstory of the Sin War, and expanded the plot of the game, telling of Lazarus’ betrayal. (Transcripts can be read in the Diablo I wiki.) The concept returned in Diablo II, for instance there was the Moldy Tome, the book that gives the Forgotten Tower (you know, that place where you go to farm runes from the Countess), for one example.
A fan wants to know if we’ll see books like that in Diablo 3. Bashiok says yes.
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| I wonder if those books that were present in Diablo 1 in a great number will make a return to tell the story, and expand our knowledge of the mythical story of the Sanctuary. Although it’s been more than 10 years I still remember some of the most memorable texts from those books, like the one about the “halls of the blind”. These tomes were f$%^ing awesome, and they made a chill go through my spine back then.
Bashiok: It’s already in. There were three or so tomes you could pick up in the BlizzCon demo. You could keep fighting while lore was delivered audio-book style, with a nice little interface to go with it. If they do return, I want that same guy to read them. His voice was awesome for narrating them. If the Leoric journals are any indication, they may each be read by the character that wrote them. A generic narrator may not be necessary if that’s the case. |
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See the D3 quests page for much more info on these books, which we got to experiment with in the Blizzcon build last year.
Another fan asks why there isn’t (more?) dynamic lightning in D3, based on what’s seen in the gameplay movies thus far released. Bashiok begs to differ.
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| Bashiok: There’s a ton of dynamic lighting going on…
I noticed that most environment objects do not even cast shadows where as the characters and monsters do. Bashiok: Those are destructible objects, and you’re right they don’t usually seem to cast shadows. It’s really not noticeable while you play, especially since they blow up fairly quickly. But I haven’t asked about why they don’t or if they ever will. You can tell because it is casting real time shadows from the unburied. Bashiok: Actually I think that shadow is from the player light, even though the player is hidden. |
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