New mechanics and changes are coming to the dungeon crawling RPG

Mar 11, 2013 09:49 GMT  ·  By

Blizzard, the developer of Diablo 3, has shared some new details about the game's upcoming update 1.0.8, which is set to improve cooperative farming and encourage players to experience the game together and share the loot.

Diablo III came out back in May of last year and since then Blizzard has released a variety of updates that included new features, improved existing classes, and introduced fresh mechanics like the brawling one.

Now, Diablo 3 Senior Gameplay Designer Wyatt Cheng mentioned on the Battle.net forums that the upcoming patch 1.0.8 would focus on improving co-op farming in the game.

"We are looking to improve co-op farming efficiency in 1.0.8. Co-op play in general is a big focus of the 1.0.8 patch and efficiency is definitely one component of that. Co-op is already more efficient for some players, but this is the exception rather than the norm. The degree of co-op efficiency depends heavily on the co-ordination of the party, skill builds, and the relative gear level of the teammates," he said.

Even so, Cheng emphasizes that the team doesn't want to effectively make co-op a mandatory thing, but they do want to make it more attractive than playing solo.

"Since launch we've made some modest changes to encourage co-op play but there's still room to go farther. At the same time, we don't want to go so far as to make multiplayer feel 'mandatory' for those who prefer to play solo, but we still want to err on the side of being co-op favorable."

Besides better results, Blizzard also wants to bring small new features that streamline playing alongside another person.

"There's also a number of hurdles to co-op play beyond raw efficiency, so we'll be looking to alleviate/solve some of those hurdles too. The Identify All feature in 1.0.8 is an example of this. Sometimes the trip back to town to sort through a bag of gear is enough of a hurdle to make somebody feel playing co-op isn't worth it. Nobody wants to be in the dungeon fighting monsters while your teammate is off in town identifying a full inventory."

As of yet, however, Blizzard hasn't given an exact timeline of when update 1.0.8 will be available on the public test realm or when the final version of the patch will appear.