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Blizzard Reveals Diablo IV: Season of the Construct

T0@st

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Ancient forces threaten Sanctuary. Aided by your Seneschal Companion, hazard the many traps and devastating Constructs beneath the deserts of Kehjistan. Deep beneath the swirling sands, elemental forces are amassing for malicious whims of the demon Malphas. Only by descending far below the surface will you be able to cull this cursed threat from its root. Season of the Construct begins on January 23 at 10 a.m. PST. Prepare to uncover the powerful secrets of Zoltun Kulle's Loom with a new Dungeon type called Vaults, a seasonal robotic Seneschal Companion, and Weekly Leaderboards in The Gauntlet. Several key quality-of-life features—including almost constant Helltide events—arrive to help aid your conquests while fighting in the Vaults.

UNEARTH ZOLTUN KULLE'S LEGACY IN A NEW QUESTLINE
A new threat lurks deep beneath the sands of Kehjistan, where the Loom, an ancient technology—designed by Zoltun Kulle and Ayuzhan of Caldeum—has been usurped by the forces of evil. The Demon Malphas is responsible for twisting the Loom for his cruel whims. Zoltun's former companion Ayuzhan leads you through the treacherous Vaults, desperate to stop the formidable Malphas and his deadly constructs from overtaking Sanctuary. Travel to the Gatehall, a town center underneath Kehjistan that serves as your base of operations in the fight against the Constructs. The Gatehall is your conduit to access the deadly Vaults—riddled with elemental Hazards and Constructs, these Vaults are the key to harnessing the true potential of the Loom. Travel to the Loom to stop the threat at its source and defeat Malphas in a new Boss fight. To play the Season of the Construct Seasonal Questline, you must create a new character on the Seasonal Realm and have completed the Main Campaign. Take advantage of the Skip Main Campaign feature once you've completed the prologue if you want to jump right in!




BATTLE SIDE BY SIDE WITH YOUR SENESCHAL COMPANION
Wield the power of the Loom by acquiring your very own Seneschal Companion, which becomes available during the Seasonal Questline. In Zoltun's vision the Seneschal compliments your adventures by engaging directly in the fight or aiding you dutifully on the sidelines.


Using magical Governing and Tuning Stones recovered from the Vaults and elsewhere in Sanctuary, augment your Seneschal to best suit your targeted build for Season of the Construct. Governing Stones determine which attacks your Seneschal can perform, while Tuning Stones will augment those skills and provide greater utility. You can equip your Seneschal with 2 Governing Stones and 6 Tuning Stones, one Governing stone for each attack and three Tuning Stones to augment the ability. There are 12 Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones of different rarities to seek out in the Vaults to unlock the full power of the Seneschal construct.



Tuning and Governing Stones can be acquired in a few different ways. Complete Vaults to earn one random Tuning Stone and seek out Wardwoven Chests to earn additional Tuning Stones-- both of which can be earned through various levels of the Season Journey. Both types also have a low chance to appear as drops when playing Vaults and Arcane Tremors. Defeating enemy Constructs within the Vaults will also grant Shattered Stone, which can be crafted into Governing and Tuning Stones at Jewelers found throughout Sanctuary.

To unlock the full power of the Stones, you will need to increase their raw power by levelling them. Collect or craft duplicates of the same Stones, fuse them together to grant experience and eventually level up your currently held Stones. Increasing the level of these stones increases the potency and ability of these attacks. Increasing the level of your Tuning Stones can add additional projectiles or augment the damage type they perform.

Once you've acquired your Seneschal, they'll follow you everywhere in Sanctuary until Season of the Construct ends. Further reading on this subject can be found here.

STAY UP TO DATE WITH DIABLO IV NEWS
On January 18 at 9 a.m. PST, there will be a Developer Update Livestream, which will take a deep dive into everything coming with Season of the Construct. Join community director Adam Fletcher and members of the Development team as they discuss the all-new Seneschal companion, Vaults, the Seasonal Questline, and more. Watch the Diablo IV Developer Update Livestream on our Twitch or YouTube Channels on January 18.



Fight back the devilish machinations that threaten all we hold dear in Season of the Construct!
  • The Diablo IV Team

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Quick! Come play a new addition to the game.....but only if you've beaten the game and then you make a new character on the Seasonal Realm....



Are people actual putting more money into this game for these DLCs?
 
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Once your first character has completed a certain part of the main campaign, you can go off and get involved in the "Seasons" if you want. Every subsequent seasonal character you create can skip the campaign entirely. The seasons and their in-game rewards don't cost money to play or receive, but access to the seasonal cosmetics do, via the so-called 'Battle Pass'. For your money, the Battle Pass mostly just unlocks access to cosmetics which you have to level up for during the season anyway (of course you can fast track that too with mo money). Time and time again, players prove they're willing to pay through the nose for sweet sweet cosmetics.

Of course, for each new season you need to create a new character and grind all over again.

Robots and 'constructs' in Diablo though? Meh. I got the game was because I weakened when reading that the aesthetic was far more like Diablo 2 rather than the comparatively bright and cheery Diablo 3. I want more blood, guts, terror and pain in my Diablo, not robots FFS. The current Season of Blood with all the Vampyric murder and destruction was fun, but I don't think I'll bother with this.
 

bug

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Once your first character has completed a certain part of the main campaign, you can go off and get involved in the "Seasons" if you want. Every subsequent seasonal character you create can skip the campaign entirely. The seasons and their in-game rewards don't cost money to play or receive, but access to the seasonal cosmetics do, via the so-called 'Battle Pass'. For your money, the Battle Pass mostly just unlocks access to cosmetics which you have to level up for during the season anyway (of course you can fast track that too with mo money). Time and time again, players prove they're willing to pay through the nose for sweet sweet cosmetics.

Of course, for each new season you need to create a new character and grind all over again.

Robots and 'constructs' in Diablo though? Meh. I got the game was because I weakened when reading that the aesthetic was far more like Diablo 2 rather than the comparatively bright and cheery Diablo 3. I want more blood, guts, terror and pain in my Diablo, not robots FFS. The current Season of Blood with all the Vampyric murder and destruction was fun, but I don't think I'll bother with this.
Paying for cosmetics isn't always bad. Look at PoE: paying for cosmetics was both a means to support the developers and to keep p2w away from PoE. A brilliant choice. Then again, GGG is very, very different from Blizzard. GGG may resemble the 90s Blizzard, idk.
 
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ExtremeDH

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Quick! Come play a new addition to the game.....but only if you've beaten the game and then you make a new character on the Seasonal Realm....



Are people actual putting more money into this game for these DLCs?
You will be surprised to see how many people throw money at these games
I know a few who pre-order all shitty games, even if broken and I'm like "what ?"
I'm glad to see Ubi is going down, really hope Blizz will be the same after the takeover
 
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Paying for cosmetics isn't always bad. Look at PoE: paying for cosmetics was both a means to support the developers and to keep p2w away from PoE. A brilliant choice. Then again, GGG is very, very different from Blizzard. GGG may resemble the 90s Blizzard, idk.
That's what always surprises me... Companies already know how to turn a profit.

But at the basis of any business plan is a solid game. Something PoE managed proper. And that's where lots of games went wrong, the monetization gets in the way of a solid base experience, can be through P2W or cosmetics. In lots of games, cosmetics transplant gameplay, its becoming a goal upon itself, because thats where the money is made.

If monetization feels logical in a game, its fine. I remember Dungeons and Dragons Online. It monetized parts of its content as the content itself, so in true D&D style you would really just be buying another adventure, much like you would a book for the tabletop. There was a lot alongside of it that was questionable in that game's monetization, but that idea on its own, that was fine, it never really impacted the gameplay badly, perhaps even added value.

Btw, I see Blizzard has stopped making proper teasers for their Diablo DLC now. They resort to indie-style, moving static pictures over a canvas to tell a story. Cheap and quick. I bet they have a team of 2-3 devs on a Season now. Can't be much more. One number cruncher, one artist, one guy to bring it all together and compile.
 
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Worst money ever spend on a game...
 
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Btw, I see Blizzard has stopped making proper teasers for their Diablo DLC now. They resort to indie-style, moving static pictures over a canvas to tell a story. Cheap and quick.
Without having any prior knowledge before this news on TPU, this was my first thought seeing the trailer. Motion-comic trailer....that's not the animated-epics they are famous for....quick and dirty this time.
 

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That's what always surprises me... Companies already know how to turn a profit.

But at the basis of any business plan is a solid game. Something PoE managed proper. And that's where lots of games went wrong, the monetization gets in the way of a solid base experience, can be through P2W or cosmetics. In lots of games, cosmetics transplant gameplay, its becoming a goal upon itself, because thats where the money is made.

If monetization feels logical in a game, its fine. I remember Dungeons and Dragons Online. It monetized parts of its content as the content itself, so in true D&D style you would really just be buying another adventure, much like you would a book for the tabletop. There was a lot alongside of it that was questionable in that game's monetization, but that idea on its own, that was fine, it never really impacted the gameplay badly, perhaps even added value.

Btw, I see Blizzard has stopped making proper teasers for their Diablo DLC now. They resort to indie-style, moving static pictures over a canvas to tell a story. Cheap and quick. I bet they have a team of 2-3 devs on a Season now. Can't be much more. One number cruncher, one artist, one guy to bring it all together and compile.
No, it isn't. Even for small developers, that's just the short-to-medium term plan. When you plan for long term, you have to account for flops (see what Cyberpunk did for CDPR, even if they turned that around for the most part).
And when big publishers get involved, it all turns into a big marketing campaign. As long as you care to pump articles in the press, you get users. And you rip them off as best as you can. If they start jumping ship, you shift focus to your new title or pour money into another marketing campaign for the current one.

To me, the "gaming industry" is an aberration. It could disappear tomorrow and I wouldn't care. Smaller studios is where it's at. The problem the gaming industry solves is the one I highlighted above: when a smaller dev flops, they usually go under. The gaming industry provides a safety net for that.
 
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Polish a turd, it's still a turd !

 
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D:IV was enjoyable on my first character from levels 1-70.

The rest has been a slog. I greatly dislike the seasonal setup, and there’s nothing to enjoy past the storyline that makes continuing beyond that fun. It’s possible that the planned DLC with Mephisto will add something enjoyable, but one just runs out of story too quickly.

Far better to purchase Diablo 2 Remastered and Diablo 3 if one wants more replay value, IMO.
 
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If that is everything in the season then I can easily say the goose is cooked and the horse is dead.
 

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If that is everything in the season then I can easily say the goose is cooked and the horse is dead.
Wait a minute, only the horse is dead? So the goose is cooked and alive? :twitch:
 
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I think ill play it for a couple days.
 
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I load up the Game, I am in the middle of a bunch of Demons and as I run it spawns more. This is not where I saved my Game but I was bored within 5 minutes. I went to TWWH3 and have not looked back since.
 
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