Jay Wilson, the game director for the highly anticipated Diablo III gave a presentation at Gamescom 2010 in which he detailed the new artisan system. It is crafting component that is meant not to encumber the player.
Wilson's talk took the blacksmith as an example of how the system works, but also mentioned the jeweler and the mystic.
Players will not have access to these characters at the beginning of the game and they will have to earn their loyalty through a few quests to convince them to come along for the fun ride that Diablo III is shaping up to be.
Each artisan has his own set of abilties and skills that are upgradable as the game progresses. The blacksmith, for example, can socket any items, even legendary ones, from the hero's inventory.
When a certain number of components have been gathered, the player can choose to upgrade an artisan. This is a very satisfying feature, as the shop of the selected artisan changes its look to reflect the better skill of the owner.
The crafting system will have an element of randomness, as Wilson declared that his company wanted that at least some of the items that are created by the artisans to be unpredictable.
The very familiar inventory problem that plagued the first two installments in the franchise has been partially solved by the developer, with the player being able to salvage in the field of battle some of the many weapons and armor they collect along the way.
They can be destroyed and turned into crafting components to be used later to create other items or upgrade the artisans.
Not many other details about Diablo have been revealed and the release date is still “when it's done.” The gameplay footage looked very nice indeed, once again showing off Blizzard's polishing skills.
Other Gamescom 2010 screenshots from Diablo III:
Diablo III Artisan System Trailer:
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